Monday 13 January 2014

Perfectly Speechless: Describing the Indescribable


Perfectly Speechless: Describing the Indescribable

Consider for a moment a time before the invention of dreams.  And the first person who ever experienced a dream - of course, the word 'dream' would not have existed yet - would then try to explain his experience to someone else.  It might sound something like this:

'I was in a place, which at the time seemed familiar, but now I can't understand why it was familiar.  I was talking to familiar people, but I couldn't tell you why they were familiar or what their names were, and then I remembered I had to be on the other side of town at that very moment.  I panicked, I started running, but I couldn't get though the crowds.  And then I was lying in bed.  It's as if the whole situation didn't really exist - that place didn't exist, those people didn't really exist, and I didn't really have to be somewhere else.  My mind thought it was real, but it was all imagined.'

Now, for a bit of fun, let's imagine that the person dreaming came out of his dream, briefly, and then went back into his dream and went to tell someone IN THE DREAM about the experience!  'Why would someone do that?'  you ask.  I don't know, but let's see where it leads us.  The explanation might sound like this:

'I was talking with some friends when I realized I had to be on the other side of town that very minute.  I started running, but I couldn't get through the crowds.'  The listeners nod - they've all been there before.  'Next thing I knew I was lying in a bed.  I had the strangest feeling, it was as if I was somewhere familiar - my bed, my house - but not my bed and house as I know it here.  It was beyond this world, it was from another place.  And this whole life - this here, this now - appeared strange, unreal, as if none of you really existed.  And I thought perhaps you didn't exist except as a distant memory.  But then, somehow I came back, and here you all are.  Here you are, the same, but different.  Different, because I think of you now as part of this world, this world which is fleeting, temporary.  But the world beyond, well I don't know much about it yet.'

I expect that those enlightened spiritual leaders might sound something like this when they speak about transformation or enlightenment.  It's not something easy to explain to someone who has not yet had the experience.  A new jargon is created to define new experiences.  Then those following try to get the same experience, they try to learn from the 'enlightened one'.  They try to achieve what he has achieved - that waking up into a new world.

We have dreams, we know about dreams and so we use dreams as an analogy.  I suppose analogies is all we have in trying to describe those 'a-ha' moments.  But analogies don't take the listener to the enlightened stage.  How do teachers describe the indescribable?  How do they take the students to that stage of enlightenment?  Is it even possible?  Or does the student have to find their own way there?

Om Shanti

Thank you for reading. For more information on Raja Yoga philosophy see www.bkwsu.org.

Tuesday 7 January 2014

The Quest


The Quest

In my search for spiritual/philosophical enlightenment, I was hungry for discourse.  I enjoyed those brief moments where I had opportunity to discuss a probing question and maybe get a little closer to those hidden truths.  But I also found that when I had opportunity to bring questions to the table, I was completely dry and void of any.  Somehow I knew that dialogue will bring us closer to our spiritual aims, but I didn't know how to start, I didn't know how to seek.  I was content with the answers I had and so poor on the question front.  

Richard Rohr, a Franciscan friar, reminds us in his daily meditation the value of 'quest'.  That is, the process of asking questions, seeking deeper insights and understandings, engaging in discourse to emerge the truth.  He points out that this tradition of discourse has been replaced by the ego's need to have all the answers and therefore we have lost that powerful tradition.  

I appreciate his reminder and understand better why I lack that questioning spirit - I just wasn't taught that way, I was taught to have all the answers!  So Fr. Richard gives me something to think about - what are the big questions, the important questions, the questions that are going to lead to spiritual insights.  And with these questions I can keep the mind busy on spiritual attainments rather than waste thoughts.

Om Shanti.

Thank you for reading. For more information on Raja Yoga philosophy see www.brahmakumaris.org.