Ecstasy On Our Own Terms
Posted on January 27, 2016 by Nalin Kotari, One of Thousands of Spirituality Coaches on Noomii.
Our experiences here on Earth can be enraptured beyond our imaginations without pills, drinks, or hits.
ECSTASY ON OUR OWN TERMS
“I need coffee to wake up, a pill to poop, a drink to relax, a couple of hits to have fun, and another pill to go to sleep.” Living like this is so common that it is considered normal. Most of us believe it is the only way to get through our days and nights, so day after day, night after night, and year after year, on it goes. We do the best we can to put up with and get through the hardships of life and then give ourselves a break as often as possible. Over time, this kind of lifestyle wears us down quite a bit. Except for a few irritating fifty-year-olds bursting with joy and energy and still looking like they are thirty-five, everyone seems to get worn out the same way, so we attribute this fatigue to unavoidable expected aging. The truth is that we could all be like those annoying fifty-somethings if we were willing to listen — and I mean really listen — and yield to what each moment is trying to tell us. We have lost touch with the wonders of nature. Our bodies are amazing but fragile works of art, and when we take good care of ourselves physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually, our experiences here on Earth can be enraptured beyond our imaginations without pills, drinks, or hits.
If our bodies know how to wake up and go to sleep and our beings know how to relax and have fun all on their own, why do we still feel a need for drugs to make all this happen? As mentioned already, our reasons are generally the same: We want as much of life’s pleasures as possible (greed), so we postpone dealing with problems and unpleasant situations until they are unavoidable (laziness), and because we do not like the idea of unknown outcomes (fear), we try manipulating life to our preference (ignorance) by temporarily changing how we feel with a drink, pill, or hit, as we assume we know best what gives us the most amazing high (arrogance). We want to be high now, and hopefully before we come down the past will be gone and the future glorious. This cocktail made of denial and hope keeps us in an endless cycle of disappointments.
Ego’s insatiability turns us into experience addicts. We look to the exterior world to alter our restless or bored state of mind and enter another world by going on various forms of internal or external adventures. But achieving euphoria on our own terms is like eating junk food: It is neither nourishing nor filling for very long, ultimately leaving us malnourished and starving. Each time we come down, we are hungry for more. Although entering other worlds through adventures, stories, or chemicals can provide great relief, it is always transient and never replaces the real deal, the high of waking up to the Absolute. Sure, after you awaken, you still appreciate external adventures — even more so, as you no longer have an agenda for your experiences. You no longer expect or demand any particular outcome. You just enjoy anything you do for its own sake. You can play like a child again, but your appetite for entertainment slows way down. Will you ever experience the type of high that substances can elicit after you awaken? Yes, in the early stages of awakening, you might still enjoy using substances to achieve mind-altered states, but you are just as happy without, and when your awakening ripens, the desire to have those moments ceases, because they do not outshine the Natural State of Being.
Our angst about the current moment is at its core our innate drive to awaken and return to our Source. Trust that Truth will help you move beyond your own limitations. Only awakening can eliminate dissatisfaction, and the path there is the willingness to face life nakedly with enthusiastic curiosity and 100 percent honesty. And “life” means every situation that we find ourselves in internally! Each of us sees and interprets all that happens out there in the world differently. There are as many situations on Earth as there are minds to interpret them. When you go deeper into each circumstance, you see that the spiritual work is really about becoming aware of your personal interpretation or perspective. Waking up is all about waking up from this personal perspective and discovering that you are the Awareness watching it. When this recognition occurs, your personal perspective fades at the same rate that your identity shifts into the Invisible Presence. Eventually interpretations of the ordinary mind stop completely, and then there is nothing to block the Infinite Light from shining through you, and you see everything exactly for what it is. At this point, you feel life undiluted, without pushing any experience away or getting sucked in. In the absence of additions, subtractions, distortions, or preferences of the ordinary mind, a great sense of peace and freedom enters, even in the midst of chaos. Coming home is the only lasting satisfaction available to the human species, the only high that leaves you serene and not hungry for anything else. You stop wishing for more, less, or different. This is liberation.
