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| (photocredit Joe Dsilva) |
Searching for something called Bliss, which is also a Creative Joy, among other names...
And it's up to you to find it yourself.
There are many routes up this mountain. Of course, at the top is your own bliss.
If you haven't seen or read Joseph Campbell, particularly the PBS "Power of Myth" book/video - then now is a good time.
"If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a land of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. Wherever you are - -"
That's from a key chapter (they're all key chapters) called "Sacrifice and Bliss."
While wikipedia says that the quote "follow your bliss" has been often misunderstood to lead you to simply gratifying any pleasure you can find, Campbell was pretty explicit in that posthumous book:
CAMPBELL: Now, I came to this idea of bliss because in Sanskrit, which is the great spiritual language of the world, there are three terms that represent the brink, the jumping-off place to the ocean of transcendence: Sat, Chit, Ananda. The word "Sat" means being. "Chit" means consciousness. "Ananda" means bliss or rapture. I thought, "I don't know whether my consciousness is proper consciousness or not; I don't know whether what I know of my being is my proper being or not; but I do know where my rapture is. So let me hang on to rapture, and that will bring me both my consciousness and my being." I think it worked.Of course, you may need to read that book and all the others he wrote (as well as the many ones written about him, interpreting his works) before you can "grok" this completely - internalize it, all those concepts.
MOYERS: Do we ever know the truth? Do we ever find it?
CAMPBELL: Each person can have his own depth, experience,and some conviction of being in touch with his own sat-chit-ananda, his own being through consciousness and bliss. The religious people tell us we really won't experience bliss until we die and go to heaven. But I believe in having as much as you can of this experience while you are still alive.
MOYERS: Bliss is now.
CAMPBELL: In heaven you will be having such a marvelous time looking at God that you won't get your own experience at all. That is not the place to have the experience -- here is the place to have it.
MOYERS: Do you ever have this sense when you are following your bliss, as I have at moments, of being helped by hidden hands?
CAMPBELL: All the time. It is miraculous. I even have a superstition that has grown on me as the result of invisible hands coming all the time -- namely, that if you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in the field of your bliss, and they open the doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be.
MOYERS: Have you ever had sympathy for the man who has no invisible means of support?
CAMPBELL: Who has no invisible means? Yes, he is the one that evokes compassion, the poor chap. To see him stumbling around when all the waters of life are right there really evokes one's pity.
MOYERS: The waters of eternal life are right there? Where?
CAMPBELL: Wherever you are -- if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time.
Mine is to say that this word should have been a verb - or is, actually.
To Bliss, then is an action in your life, as well as a goal and an accomplishment or destination. You end up with "Just Be." And your life is Bliss.
This is probably then another synonym for "The Peace that Passes All Understanding."
Life becomes extraordinarily simple.
The point is to actively work at things which help you create that "feel good" feeling.
Note I said "work at things." Not the four-letter word which comes with a J.O.B. - but just being active in a certain direction that you chose for yourself. Life isn't seeking pleasure, but seeking a comprehensive understanding of everything - perfection. Again, that peace-that-passes-understanding sort of thing.
As you are creative in your life, you'll find more of this happening to you. And you can simply let the critical aspects (and people) simply fall away.
Try it. Let me know how it works for you, what you find on your own journey...
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