Sunday, February 19, 2017
New Experiences
New Experiences
The fascinating thing about your own journey of transformation is that new experiences, new possibilities of knowing, are constantly arriving.
Here is what happened to me yesterday in a workshop with a lovely Swami from India who has taken up residence in our community. He is a very humble man who does not proselytize or seek adulation but imparts information in a very articulate and convincing way. He is full of love.
As he talked, I saw one and then another form appear beside him. The first resembled him but looked like a sadhu, a bit coarser and darker than he. The second was more modern and even had a mustache. My intuition was that they were speaking through him. Although I have often seen the faces of speakers morph into other countenances, this was the first time I have perceived actual figures manifest (as if in the astral plane, thus vague and fuzzy.)
Swami told me that I did not have to do any specific practices, since I was beyond that stage. I was happy to hear this, since that is how I operate anyway. (I sometimes do "practices" such as mantra or standing movement, but I do these spontaneously and not as part of a regular regimen.) He seemed to have read my thoughts since as he was announcing a meditation darshan for those able to meditate for three or more hours, I was thinking that I would not like to do this. But then when he led us on a short practice to shut out the senses, I went into a state of deep serenity and quiet (no energetic component) and loved it and wished for more. I think this may have been the state of pure consciousness, minus the kind of energetic bliss I usually experience, yet a state of sweet delight as if I and it were indeed one, or rather as if I had entered a state I have often heard described and have never experienced.
I am grateful that such novelty continues to arise, for, among other things, it keeps life interesting and tells us that we are continuing to progress on the path.
