Credit: relaxatie.blogspot.com
If my nature is bliss, then many things flow from that.
One is that I am the source of my own bliss and, by extension, we are all the source of our own bliss.
That doesn’t mean that bliss is not to be had from a myriad of circumstances seemingly “around” me, seemingly “external.” Bliss undoubtedly is the sea of consciousness we’re all swimming in.
It means that, in reality, there is no “external. “ Everything is happening inside me, inside you, inside us. In the final analysis, there is no me, no you, no us. At the ultimate level, this conversation would not take place: there’d be no need and no occasion for it.
In the final analysis, there’s only the subjective, not the objective. That there’s considered to be an “objective” is itself the crux of the matter, the root of the illusion. There’s nothing but God, and, since we’re a part of everything that is, we must also be God.
At the highest levels of consciousness, there’s no separation. And there’s no one to see there’s no separation.
As Rumi said:
“When I have sacrificed my angel soul,
I shall become what no mind e’er conceived.
Oh, let me not exist!
For Non-existence
Proclaims in organ tones,
‘To Him we shall return.’” (1)
No mind has ever conceived of non-existence. No one has ever known non-existence. When someone knows non-existence, that someone ceases to be.
Sri Ramakrishna offers the example of the salt doll that wanted to measure the depth of the ocean:
“Once a salt doll went to measure the depth of the ocean. (All laugh.)
“It wanted to tell others how deep the water was. But this it could never do, for no sooner did it get into the water than it melted. Now who was there to report the ocean’s depth?” (2)
SaLuSa described the ultimate in evolution just the other day: “Evolution is constantly taking place. The ultimate is to return to the Godhead but that is way ahead of you at present.” (3)
The “ultimate” is a “return” to the “Godhead.” But that is “way ahead of you” at present.
At the highest level of consciousness, at the “ultimate,” no other exists than the “Godhead.” The Godhead is a name for God at a level of consciousness beyond whatever thoughts we have about God at present.
It was originally intended to signify the Transcendental One beyond the Trinity of Heavenly Father, Divine Mother, and Child of God or Self. Hindus would recognise that Trinity as Brahman, Shakti, and Atman and the One as Parabrahman.
But I’m giving it a more flexible meaning here. I’m using it to refer to the ultimate and absolute level of consciousness, beyond anything we’ve plumbed in any of our human explorations.
Even if that highest level be a constantly-receding phenomenon, I’m using it to refer to what is beyond that. The Unqualified and Unqualifiable. The Unconditioned and Unconditionable.
But knowledge of that is “way ahead of you” at present. It’s ahead of any being that exists in form or formlessness. In fact “knowledge of it” is impossible because the mere phraseology points to an objective observer and a phenomenon objective to the objective observer.
And, since there’s no existence apart from God, there’s also no possibility of the rise of an objective observer at the highest level of existence. … Or non-existence.
All is subjective.
Franklin Merrell Woolf spoke of “consciousness without an object.” (4) All traces of separation there disappear: a separate form, a separation in consciousness, any trace of an existence separate from God, any trace of a separate “me” – all disappear, back into Oneness.
If “I” disappear, well, then….
I cannot say that I’d find myself in yet another, more umbrageous “I” because the “I” that would find that out would not exist.
There would be no one for whom or in whom such a question would arise. There would be an “I.” And that “I” would be All there is. Beyond That, there’d be nothing existent or non-existent.
Footnotes
(1) Anne Fremantle and Christopher. In Love with Love. 100 of the Greatest Mystical Poems. New York, etc.: Paulist Press, 1978, 58.
(2) Paramahansa Ramakrishna in Swami Nikhilananda, trans., The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. New York: Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, 1978; c1942, 102-3.
(3) SaLuSa, May 22, 2015, at https://goldenageofgaia.com/2015/05/23/salusa-via-mike-quinsey-may-22-2015/
(4) Franklin Merell-Wolff, Philosophy of Consciousness without an Object. Reflections on the Nature of Transcendental Consciousness. New York: Julian Press, 1973.