Download PDF - Stillness Speaks

This verse is not to be taken as a factual statement about bliss but as anattempt by the author (who was also a poet) to provide a positive motivationfor seeking the Self. As mentioned in footnote one hundred above, bliss isbliss, neither great or small. However it may seem greater or lesser withreference to time, determined by the intervals between blissful episodes. Inan ordinary person bliss may, contrary to the statement in this verse, seemmore intense the more infrequently it is experienced, in so far as the intervalbetween episodes is non-blissful or miserable.Enlightenment is the continual experience of the Self - which is thenature of bliss. And to someone who experiences bliss all the time blisseffectively stops being obviously blissful and becomes a continual naturalfeeling of wholeness.The argument that continuous bliss is inferior to the intense blisses andthe miseries of samsaric life, which is seen by its apologists as moreinteresting and exciting than enlightenment, is contradicted by the fact thatwhen worldly people 116 experience the miseries that define samsarichappiness they immediately strive to be rid of them. One would suppose thatbelief in this argument might lead a person to court intense miseries in so faras the bliss of their absence might be ever more blissful. Or that the joy ofattaining the objects of one’s desire might be experienced as transcendentalecstasy in contrast to previous sorrow."The Self pervades all objects.Action is impossible without the Self.The Self permeates everythingas butter permeates milk."(58)Just as butter lies unseen and unmanifest in milk, so the Self is hiddenin all things and beings. To bring it out, churn the inner self with meditativediscrimination."Realize that to be the Self which is neithersubtle nor gross, short nor long.Realize that to be the Self which is changeless,qualityless, colorless nameless and formless."(59)116 Samsaris or people who believe happiness is in objects and activities.89