The deep end of the pool
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John Aufenanger
 May 23 2023
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    Great band name of the day: Samsara Happiness. Needless to say, it's a Death Metal band.


    "That's suffering," says the Buddha.


    "So you've heard our music," says lead screamer, Johnny "Skankypants" Bloodbottle.


    I'm reminded of my older son - I have two - who got into Death Metal in a large way when he was a teenager. Of course, he rolled his eyes heavenwards whenever he rode in my car and was thereby forced to endure his old Dad's musical selections. Until one day, the 70's pop classic "Livin' Thing" by ELO came up on my car stereo's random MP3 player, and I happened to notice tears were streaming down my son's face. "What's the matter?" I asked him. "It's so... beautiful," he whimpered through his tears in amazement.


    Happiness of the sort we usually mean when we use the word is conditional - it depends on circumstances, or whatever seems to be happening in the "outside world" of our day-to-day experience. This apparent "outside world" is called Samsara. It's a little more complicated than that, if you feel like complicating it, but that's the gist of it. Samsara is our everyday life experience when we believe that we are separate entities who reside in bodies that are born and will one day die. 


    You probably recall the adage "This too shall pass." We often invoke this when conditional experience doesn't seem to be going too well, when we are sad or frustrated, or in physical discomfort. And it's true: this too shall pass. The pain will end when conditions change, and conditions, or circumstances, will change. They always do. That's what conditions ARE, essentially: changeable. This thought had occurred to me quite a lot in the last few weeks, what with the health problems I recently experienced. But the important point to remember is that "This too shall pass" is a perennial statement; it's true at all times. Whenever we are feeling happy, for whatever reason, we can also say "This too shall pass." It's just as true.


    When we're feeling happy, our happiness is always tinged with the understanding that it is temporary. It will end. The conditions that caused the apparent happiness will change just as soon as conditions arise that will cause us to forget that happiness - conditions that may cause sadness, grief, sorrow, pain. In life, we are swept by circumstances into many conflicting emotional states: happy, sad, grumpy, glad, (as Dr. Seuss would have it), or whatever the case may be. In life, we are in death. Happiness in Samsara is ultimately just another flavor of suffering.


    "Compared to what?" we might ask. Great question.


    Is there such a thing as true Happiness - lasting Happiness - Happiness that doesn't depend on conditions, circumstances, and the daily parade of cause and effect? Yes. Happiness is just a word, of course. It means different things to different people. Some say it's not something to strive for, and others might say it's the only thing of any importance to strive for. One very well known Nondual spiritual teacher quite correctly points out that most of us don't really care about "Enlightenment." Heck, most of us have no idea what that is. I don't really know what that is. But Happiness? That sounds good. Love? That sounds good. Peace? That sounds good. Yes - "Enlightenment" be damned - we want those things.


    Call it what you like - Happiness, Peace, Love, Joy, Bliss, God Consciousness. You're right. There's no way to be "wrong" about your own heart's desire and whatever word you want to use to express it. Whether we think of it this way or not, it's all about freedom from the conditional, the circumstantial, the daily play of cause and effect. Freedom, in a word, from Samsara.


    Many of us say that this is impossible while we are living, and we should instead look forward to an Afterlife in which this freedom will be given to us by a just and loving Creator God. That's not "wrong" either. You might say that's "mainstream" Christianity, or the sort that most of us are familiar with for a variety of historic reasons. It's based on an interpretation of the teachings of Christ - certainly not the only interpretation but the one that most of us are taught by religious authorities. But this may also bring us to the Pauline teachings about "dying before dying," or to be "born again" in the Spirit. What does that mean, ultimately?


    From Buddhism to esoteric Christianity in a single paragraph. Why not? Is there not one God over All? Many ideas, many philosophies, many cultures, including those of us who see God not as one but many, including those of us who see God as Nil, or non-existent - One God who is Love, expressed so beautifully in such a variety of mental ways, imaginary ways, conceptual ways, cultural ways? Can we deny this? We are not "wrong." We are not "right." Our experience is what it is.


    I invite you to consider the possibility that the promised Afterlife of Happiness, Joy, Bliss, Peace, or whatever we are calling it, may certainly commence while the physical body is still living. Some people are what we may call Saints. Some of us have met a Saint in our lives. I have. What does this mean? Does this mean someone who is not a sinner? Of course not, for there is no one who is not a sinner - apart from Christ himself, and his mother, Mary, or so Christians believe. "Saint" and "sinner" are not opposites - not unless we're we're talking about the name of a tavern. 


    A Saint is one who has died before dying. It will probably be required that he or she believe certain things, in order to qualify for "official" sainthood in some or other religion, but let's put human institutions and their ideas aside for now. For such a one, conditions and circumstances, cause and effect - Samsara, in a word - no longer determine Happiness, Peace, Love, God Consciousness. The Saint is free while living. 


    But something has died. What has died?


    The "person" has died. The Ego has died. Let us pray to God - right now, this minute - "Relieve me of the bondage of self, so that I may better do Thy will..." That's an AA prayer, by the way. Or, let us pray - right now, this minute - "God, diminish Me, so that I may be filled by You." This is what is meant by being "Born Again." It's very true: we must die - the person must die - but the person is not what we truly are. The person is just a thought. Or a system of thoughts, a bundle of beliefs. These beliefs are not true, and they may been seen through as the illusions they are. And this seeing-through is called spiritual enlightenment. 


    I understand this kind of talk makes many of us uncomfortable because conditioned beliefs, inherited beliefs, or borrowed beliefs, are very strong. Very often the only connection we have with God is no more than a belief we have been taught and now try to believe "really hard" - eyes squinted with the effort, clenching fists and stomping feet, and fighting with anyone who has a different interpretation - even if it's Christ himself, even if it's St. Paul. So, I invite you to consider this. I don't demand; I don't insist that this is "right." I invite you to consider. If you're Christian - so am I - I invite you to read the Gospels and the Epistles in this light, and see for yourself if there's something in this.


    Run it by your priest or pastor and you may catch some flack. Or, perhaps not. Christianity is HUGE. It comes in many forms, many yogas, or practices, in every human culture in the world. It is not really divided. Division is only on the thin surface of the conceptual, the historical, the political, the social, the cultural - shallow shallow shallow indeed. Join me in the deep end of the pool. We share our Being. There is but One Being. We are One in Christ. That's deep.


    Peace, friends. 


    philosophy spirituality christianity religion buddhism samsara happiness enlightenment identity experience saints
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