Theos-Talk Archives (January 1994 Message tl00134)

Hearing of Bakti Yoga, of union with a diety, of estatic bliss, we may
think that this would be the ultimate form of consciousness, the
most perfect, the most wonderful, the most fullfilling. But it is not.

There is a state that is higher than estatic bliss. And it is not a
sense of perfect peace, however wonderful that may be. It might come to
us in a quiet moment of emotional exhaustion after a devotion, perhaps
to beautiful music, or after a streneous mental probing of the High
Philosophy.

This experience has to do with healing the ultimate split, the ultimate
separation in life. It is not a duality in the usual sense, not a
split that arises, not the pair of opposites that come into being when
a qualitity manifests itself. Take Ethics, for instance. When it
comes into manifestation, it splits into the opposites of Good and
Evil, it has split.

The ultimate split is not a pair of opposites, but rather the duality
of the manifest and the unmanifest, of being and non-being, of
existence and non-existence. We experience this split throughout all
of eternity, and go through cyclic existences without end. But it is
possible to rise above it, to rise above the sense of being in
existence or not in existence.

We are not talking about a sense of wholeness, since it is neither
complete nor incomplete. It is not perfection, since it is not
dependent upon our state of evolution. And it is not bliss, since it
is neither fulfilled nor lacking in any manner.

There is not brillance of understanding in it, since it is not known
or knowable. It can neither be grasped nor let go of and ignored.
This experience is both a part of our nature, an aspect of our
consciousness, a view of ours in the experience of life, and also
nothing at all to do with us!

It has a name, and yet is nameless. It is clearly defined in our
Teachings, yet hidden behind the words. Beautiful and engaging, a
source of rapture, it is yet so common and unnoticable a part of our
existence that we go through life unaware.

We do not reach this experience by going to higher planes, by magic
or personal self-cultivation; we never reach it regardless of our place
in life or closeness to perfection. Yet we are already there; we
already have it.

If we look for this experience, we don't see it, because it is lost
behind the mask of words, the mental image we create when we search.
Yet it also does not come by waiting for it.

This thing is unmanifest, for no imperfect creature in the world could
represent nor give expression to it. It is unconditioned, since no
event in the world, at any time, can change it. It is beyond attribute,
since no virtue nor eternal ideal can qualify it. And yet, it is
behind and throughout everything.

We achieve this experience, this insight, this appreciation of life
by not reaching out to it. We become aware by not giving our attention
to *what we thing it might be.* It always exists in the periphery of
our awareness. And we just *know it* and can only smile. There is no
other way to express it.
--
                                  Eldon Tucker (eldon@netcom.com)