I didn’t know I was working or concerned with bliss as far back as Aug. 2012, but apparently so. This discussion is so germane that, having come across it, I repost an excerpt of it, edited for relevance.
I was having a chat with a special friend a few days ago and I confessed that there was nothing I wanted from life any more.
That wasn’t quite true. It was one of those comments that can’t quite be squeezed into just one sentence, without a few threads sticking out. So please allow me to expand a bit.
As we progress along this journey, I think all of us will find our desires for material possessions and earthly experiences fall away. But our desire for what the Kingdom of Heaven offers will grow.
Nothing more valuable does it offer us than love and bliss.
And surely this must tell us something. That which we enjoy and seek above all else has no truck or trade with this material world. That which we prize above all cannot be held in the hand, seen with the eye, heard with the ear. We call it “spiritual” because we need a word for it. We can experience it but I doubt very much that we need any of our physical capacities to do that.
The more we’re filled with love and bliss, the quieter and stiller we become. Not even the prospect of fabulous wealth interests the person who’s been touched by love and bliss. I can say that with certainty.
Not romantic love or orgasmic bliss. Once we’ve tasted the deeper gift of the soul, we hanker after it all our lives.
God, the Upanishads say, “is pure bliss.” (1) “The Highest Reality,” the Buddha tells us, “is an exalted state of bliss.” (2) Sri Ramana Maharshi reassures us: “Your nature is Bliss.” (3)
When he realized God, Paramahansa Yogananda confided that “an oceanic joy broke upon the calm endless shores of my soul. The Spirit of God, I realized, is exhaustless Bliss.” (4)
It’s bliss that brings “all things to remembrance.” (5) During my vision in 1987, I was filled with bliss, which made my knowledge of what was being shown to me crystal clear. (6)
And we only come closer to profoundly experiencing that bliss as we ascend higher and higher and toss aside one body after another, as Shankara describes: “When all the five coverings are removed, the pure Atman [the Self or Christ] is revealed. It is revealed as God dwelling within; as unending, unalloyed bliss; as the supreme and self-luminous Being.” (7)
So having spent many lives gathering the most toys, expecting to win, we arrive at a point where all gathering becomes meaningless and ceases. And having dropped it all, we find the treasure we sought all the time and never had: “the all-coveted bliss of God.” (8)
On occasion I’ve described myself as an urban monk. “Urban” because, like you, I have work to do in this lifetime and can’t spend it in a cave. “Monk” because, in this lifetime and in others, I’ve known the all-coveted bliss of God and its value. And so have all Starseeds in other lifetimes.
Bliss is all I seek. Bliss is all I’ll accept at the end of this journey. And fortunately for us all, bliss is to be our reward. As we ponder that approaching culmination, our new teachers, some from off-planet like SaLuSa, tell us what awaits us:
“The most enjoyable part is to come when we can meet you and go the final stretch together, and do so as one family of Light. Your hardships will be over, and by then you will be fully aware of your true selves, your purpose and place in the Galaxy. At present you are but a shadow of who you really are, and have little idea of what it is like to be in the Oneness of All That Is. It is bliss and peace that you cannot imagine, but it is not that far away any more and awaits your presence.” (9)
Or from the spirit kingdom, like Saul:
“It is indeed a wonderful time to be on Earth, and that is why you chose to be here now. It is a time when misery, fear, anxiety, and doubt will be replaced with joyful confidence that God exists eternally, and you with Him, in the glory of His magnificent creation where ecstatic bliss is the ever-present ongoing experience.” (10)
Amid all the striving and excitement, perhaps don’t overlook the love and bliss. It doesn’t come wrapped in ribbons and bows. Its arrival isn’t trumpeted. No one hands it to us. Quietly, unnoticed, it makes itself known, subtler than anything hands can create and more fulfilling than anything previously felt.
Footnotes
(1) Swami Prabhavananda, Swami and Frederick Manchester, trans., The Upanishads. Breath of the Eternal. New York and Scarborough: New American Library, 1957; c1948, 52.
(2) The Buddha in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist Bible. Boston: Beacon Press, 1966; c1938., 287.
(3) Ramana Maharshi in Mungala Venkatramiah, Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi. Question 197. Downloaded from https://www.ramana-maharshi.org/books.htm, 31 August 2005.
(4) Paramahansa Yogananda in Autobiography of a Yogi. Bombay: Jaico, 1975 142.
(5) John 14:26.
(6) The Purpose of Life is Enlightenment. “Ch. 13 Epilogue,” at https://goldenageofgaia.com/spiritual-essays/16244-2/the-purpose-of-life-is-enlightenment/ch-13-epilogue/
(7) Shankara in Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher lsherwood, Shankara’s Crest-Jewel of Discrimination. Hollywood: Vedanta Press, 1975; c1947, 56.
(8) Paramahansa Yogananda, The Second Coming of Christ. Three vols. Dallas: Amrita Foundation, 1979-86, 1, 19.
(9) SaLuSa, Feb. 17, 2012, at https://www.treeofthegoldenlight.com/First_Contact/Channeled_Messages_by_Mike_Quinsey.htm
(10) Saul, Jan. 22, 2011, at https://johnsmallman.wordpress.com