I came across this article from 2013 in the process of compiling a book on vasanas (or core issues).
It’s so germane to what we’re going through right now that I wanted to repost it.
I was listening to music that my friend Ed sent along, which I’ll append here, and the bliss started to rise.
And I amplified the bliss by heading for the keyboard and sharing myself online.
And revealing myself so deeply brought to remembrance things I’d learned long ago. For instance, I remembered that sharing deeply and bliss have the same effect.
I also remembered a technology I’d learned a long time ago that may now come into relevance again, as we begin what’s being described as a slow climb out of Third Dimensionality into the higher realms.
This technology really does provide us with tools to uncover, tap into, or amplify the bliss. It derives in the main from Werner Erhard.
I’ve discussed it, though not as a means of amplifying the bliss, in my articles on emergence. (1) But let me give a more general gloss here.
It’s known by various names: emerging, presencing the Self, standing forth as the Self, etc. So many of us report feeling deeper these days, it might be an article whose time has come.
The Self IS bliss. Bliss and the Self are the same, just as milk and its whiteness are the same. But many things, like our muscular tension in the body, the perpetrations we’re guilty of, and the things we keep secret, tie up our experience of bliss.
We experience more bliss as we relax, as our awareness increases, etc. Here are some of the other steps we can take that increase our experience of bliss.
Tell the Truth Deeply, Share a Withhold
Telling the truth and telling it deeply are equally important to tapping into our bliss. It has to be the truth and the deeper the truth we can access, the closer we come to the wellspring of bliss.
I see this when I sit down to write some articles – not all. I resolve to tell the truth at a deep level and almost immediately the bliss begins to rise.
Why would we expect that? Because the purpose of life is to know as deeply as we can the truth of our being and the truth of our being (though the right answer doesn’t win the prize) is God. Life is designed in such a way that the truth does set us free from the conditions of our suffering. As we dig deeper down into the truth for us, we soon hit the bliss, which is an attribute of God and which is released by the depth of our inquiry and expression.
Our withholds or secrets are what often tie up our power. So much of our awareness becomes focused on maintaining our secrets that we no longer flow with life. When we share our withholds, we release our power from those knots. Bliss can again flow in the open channel.
Raise Something to Awareness
Many of our vasanas hide matters from us. The purpose of a vasana is almost always to say “don’t take me there.” We may not be aware that we’re not aware of something. Awareness varies inversely with muscular tension in the body. When tension goes up, awareness goes down, and vice versa.
Some people refuse to look at certain things, to try them on or test them out. When we actually do try something on and it comes into our field of awareness and fits, we can experience tremendous release and relief and, in that dawning awareness, tap into our native bliss.
Don’t forget that bliss is who we are. It isn’t something we have to manufacture. It’s us. Awareness has the impact of removing the veils that cover over our bliss and releasing it for us to experience.
Be With and Observe a Barrier or Vasana
God is beingness. God is awareness. God is the eternal witness of all thoughts, feelings and deeds. So if we paint our barriers or vasanas with awareness, if we be with and observe them, we experience them through to completion and (miracle of miracles) they leave us.
Perhaps not right away. Perhaps not completely if we only cycle them once. We may have to do it several times. But this is the way to have the knots in our personality undo themselves and have us be restored to peacefulness. And peacefulness, being a divine quality, is friendly to bliss.
Take a Stand, Emerge
Many people almost never take a stand in their lives. Sometimes taking a stand can lead to, or promise to lead to, injury or even death so most people shy away from it.
But there are also times when we’re willing to put ourselves at risk to take a stand, whether for something or against it. The stronger the stand, the more the chance of connecting with ourselves at a deep level. And when we connect that way, we often experience bliss.
Taking a stand requires us to emerge from our shell and stand forth as our native Self. It requires us to cast off the bonds of suppression, release our expression, and break through the conclusions and decisions that held us back. This release can be accompanied by bliss.
Commit Yourself, Make a Promise.
So many of us like to be free and uncommitted. But some of the really big and important things in life actually cannot be done except from the space of commitment and by the practice of making promises.
Teams cannot do their work without commitments and promises. And even if we make a commitment or promise and don’t keep it, or keep it only haphazardly or weakly, again it isn’t airtight. The Self leaks out through the holes, so to speak. If our word is not airtight, again no bliss.
Take Responsibility or Ownership for Something
Most people are very willing to take responsibility for their successes, victories and gains, but few take responsibility for their failures, defeats and losses. But those times when taking responsibility can be a breakthrough and liberate us from our mundane reality are exactly those times when it’s tough to be responsible.
When it’s tough, we run up against what keeps us confined – our fear, our greed, our vanity. These have their correlates in holding patterns of muscular tension which Wilhelm Reich called “character armoring” and Eckhart Tolle called the “pain body.”
These are what keep our awareness low and obscure the Self. So taking responsibility or ownership for something when it’s tough to do so again breaks through the shell that we’ve formed to keep ourselves safe, the shell that appears as the muscular tension in our bodies. It releases our awareness and can cause bliss to arise.
Serve, Make a Difference, Be Compassionate
The Divine is bliss and when we behave like the Divine, we liberate our bliss. Those who serve, make a difference or be compassionate, whether they know it or not, are imitating the Divine and invite the experience of bliss. The smaller self, the separate self is exactly what separates us from the Divine, the One in all. Service erases the self. For most who serve, the experience of bliss is the only reward they want or seek.
Restore Integrity, Apologize, Forgive.
The Divine is love and wholeness and when we perpetrate, hide our responsibility, or resent, we lose our wholeness. We cause skews to form in our personality, knots to form around our heart, keeping it closed. We crumple up and become partial and dysfunctional. We lose contact with our divine natures.
When we apologize, we restore that integrity. When we forgive, we loosen the bonds of resentment around our bodies and minds. We restore our integrity thereby too, re-experiencing our wholeness, and, if our apology or forgiveness is of a significant character, we may also experience bliss. If not, at least we open up the channel that bliss can flow through and one of the other steps may start the bliss flowing again.
These then are ways to presence the Self, stand forth as our basic nature, or emerge from our shells. All of them are ways to free up or amplify our bliss.
Footnotes
(1) “Emergence” at https://goldenageofgaia.com/spiritual-essays/emergence-2/
