Just as there is a kind of ocean of sorrow, there is also an ocean of bliss. I have come upon this place and it is described by many. the experience of it is consistent from experiencer to experiencer. It has a vastness to it, and endless quality and it rests in a state of neutral potentiality. It is like a vast source that has feeling or presence as bliss but it does not contain the same sense of volition that you would normally associate with sentient life. And yet it is life. It is just a different form, a different level. It is more like a higher order presence that certainly is made up from the collective bliss of all. It is possible, although I cannot say with absolute certainty, that it might be a field of energy that has always been and is not dependent on what we do even when it is connected to us in higher awareness.
The Hindus have described this as a sea of milk which Shiva froths into ghee, which is refined butter. The imagery here is just that, a material way to relate what is not material. We mustn’t take the imagery as strict since the energy itself is without normal physical form. It is just a way to relate to it. As such, the milk is connected to the imagery developed to describe the bliss of awakening. If you read into this and tease out the details you will see that this sea of milk is in truth seminal fluid. Out of Shiva’s head you will notice that his hair swirls into a kind of funnel shape where a white discharge of liquid is always seen flowing. This flow is shown to flow from him and into the mountains and out into the ocean. It is seen as the bliss which he bestows upon all life. Shakti is often shown with her hands caressing this fluid in her hands as it flows out along its way to this ocean. This is at least a nod to how these two forces are related.
These are images and they tell the tale like poetry gives voice to the ineffable. But these images were created, and since the culture from whence it came was paternalistic, the bliss is seen from the vantage point of men who had experienced this bliss themselves. Certainly, for them, the bliss is very similar to orgasm except it is now loosened throughout their bodies so that the flow of this bliss moves up their whole being and out the top of their head. Thus the seminal discharge from the top of his head.
I point this out because these higher order experiences can be described in your own way. If you are a woman, how might you relate to this sea of bliss? What images might you prefer to connect to it? For a male there is an awareness of opening a door, entering into a vessel of great possibility and fertile power. This is related to our own sexual union and much of it is felt and seen in similar terms. A man opens a woman, a woman engulfs the man. they each draw and contribute in this singular act of creativity. And yet each will feel and respond differently to the same thing, just along different energetic polarities. One pulls in, the other plants or tills the soil. One sparks life, the other nurtures it. These qualities are very different, yet beautifully cooperative. One cannot exist creatively without the other. This is so in our physical world but also in our spiritual world, too. As above, so below.
It has been the journey of art to create new ways to see and relate to inner material and this journey has been about changing how we see and relate to all of this. So you have this great power for shifting your perceptions. Perhaps an old image is limiting what you are able to perceive. It is your choice to develop your own ways, your own images, for relating to this vast realm of non-material reality. This can give birth to new and vibrant forms, to new discourse, to new ways of relating. Awareness of the divine feminine as an equal partner in spirituality is coming to the fore in a way that has not happened in a long time. Old institutions are having to grapple with past efforts to repress feminine spiritual experience on its own terms and either stay current or risk becoming irrelevant.
As the feminine begins to express itself more and more in ALL of ourselves, it will help to balance the terms of engagement in the most wonderful of ways. The march of paternalism hasn’t worked as well as maybe we had thought it would, but has brought us separation, division, and endless war. We now need the feminine to step forward in each of us, even if its a small step, to soften the blows, to have the perspective to step back and see the forest and not just the tree, to see the long-term effects of our very manly actions.
The old way isn’t working and if we are to survive as a species, we need her breath filling every body on the planet. She will help to bring a humanizing effect. It is true that all renaissance periods have been marked by an ability to embrace both sides of human nature so these two elements can bring the best the two have to offer TOGETHER. But we need more voices, more dreamers, more thinkers and artists and goddesses and priestesses to be brave enough to speak their voice, convey their vision, and help to inspire others along the path. We do this through art, but we do it also in every creative effort which includes science and everything else that brings new ideas to the fore. This means ALL of life. You don’t have to be an artist to be creative You merely have to be human. A dancer, a musician, a physicist, an auto mechanic, a farmer, lawyer, florist, accountant, or caregiver, nurse, doctor, or book keeper. The more balanced you are with these two aspects of the universe, the more sanity arises and the more creative things can get inside of you. These two characters, presences, essences of our being are magic in what they do when brought together close. Mentally, emotionally, spiritually, tantricaly, and in every other way we can dream or think of!
I encourage everyone to seek deeply your own inner essence and learn to relate to it on your own terms. No one can tell you what you choose is not correct or worthy, for it is the most immediate thing that you have given birth to. Come up with new forms and ways to see things. Who is to say they are right or wrong? We are curious in our adherence to tradition. We think that just because its been tried on by so many that it MUST be worthy. And yet, look at our world! Do you really think that tradition has served us that well? I ask you, what do we need to heal and shift and toss out and adopt anew what is based on the ancient within us? How do we express this very ancient essence that IS us? We don’t need tradition, we need courage to dream up ways that match what we are NOW. Do you really feel like Eve got a bum wrap? Well let’s rewrite the story! Maybe it was Shiva who had to refine himself in order to be on par with Shakti, spending months and months alone refining himself in order to be worthy of her instead of the other way around. Or, we simply create NEW stories and forget the old forms. We can do this. It is in you and my power to do so. We need only to do so. This is the power and gift of creativity.
It is like how paper money is made. At some point it [money] does not exist and then someone comes along and PRINTS it. Then we all agree that it is real. Or some authority SAYS its real and everyone follows lock step and they lend their belief in these pieces of paper actually MEANING something. It is the SAME thing. It is an idea. YOU are the voice. YOU are the authority. YOU are the captain of your soul and YOU are the divine sovereignty within. No institution, church, club, monarchy, government, bureaucracy, or worldly authority, has any say so over that unless you cede this power TO them. Time to take it back. Not in anger or retribution, but in the simple affirmation that we ARE THAT. And let the past slip away as we face a new NOW and new tomorrow. It is after all a creative act at its core.
We are printing our own spiritual currency.
We actually can heal ourselves of past issues through this kind of work and it was Carl Jung who realized this early on. Images so often tap the subconscious self and help to stir up old latent material. New images and new ways of seeing help to lead to broader perception. This is the march of evolution.
How we choose to describe it will also be a force for helping us to understand things in new ways. Just as an image can liberate it can also limit, so how we fashion these makes a difference. Drawing our intuition and both left and right sided thinking will result in a more complete fusion of possibilities. You are the crafter of reality! Take hold of your power!
One flows into the other, and the other returns to the first a new energy. This builds on itself as the masculine and feminine blend and merge in energetic union. One is not above the other but both are equal partners. The seeming opposites of the universe merge and unite. Unity, not fragmentation, is what we seek to become and be. The left brain connects and cooperates with the right brain. The masculine linear helps to give voice to the miraculous right brain, yet without the linearity, she would have a limited voice. Without her, he would only be a pinpoint of linear awareness. They need both within the body. What is within you is within the universe. It all fits together like this giant holographic puzzle that will become increasingly amazing, miraculous and fulfilling. It is like watching some new creation unfold. There is nothing else quite like it in anything I have experienced in this or any other life. It has been my journey, and perhaps it is also yours. We all yearn to know this, to feel this, to express and create and learn and work through what is ours to clear so we can see ever more clearly the marvel of creation shining within us and in all of life.
Out of my conception of this ocean as something new, I cast aside the milk for a moment and saw it less as an image as a force. Masculine and feminine, were in truth existing like drops in an ocean completely merged. This created the very explosion that gave birth to worlds. Above the sea of milk is the explosive reality of what these two universal forces do when merged in this way. Pour the waters of yin into the waters of yang and there is this frothing that occurs, a moment of silence and stillness and in a hyperdimensional level, an explosion spreads out of unimaginable force. Like a big bang. Except this effect is not time based. Somehow, at every point in its unfolding, this explosion is taking place outside of time. Every single nanosecond can be felt. In duality, perhaps it is a star exploding or the universe exploding. In other realms, it could be something similar yet different, but built upon the same explosive quality as seen in its primal state. This primal state is reflected down through countless worlds, lives, experiences. It is like an explosion frozen yet not frozen. Pure potential force which is itself not expressed in the terms we usually understand it here and yet, it feeds into our world its infinite potential. It is an explosion that is not spending itself but constantly recreating itself. In a sense, it is beyond any normal way to describe it or explain it except that it does manifest in myriad ways in our world and our own beings. When you feel it inside of you, it is like a gentle understated rippling of energy that fuels a constant flow of bliss that has limitless potential. Just like the ocean. Mix one with the other and it explodes into worlds of new possibilities that would surprise even the most adept creator.
This is how I have been relating to it, and while it may seem a bit abstract, the feeling is entirely present and powerful, vivid and real. It just seems to have needed to go beyond mere seminal fluid to include a more balanced sense of energetic ( consciousness) engagement.
Even the sea of bliss is itself a kind of trap, though. Becoming too enthralled in it has lead to being strung out. It is not in our nature to just drink from its waters only, but for me at least, it always feels best when using its inspiring force to lead to new creations, new ideas, new things. Some, having drunk from it, do not wish to leave, and so feel that to do anything WITH it beside abiding with it, is maya or illusion. The thing, though, is that we ARE here to create our lives. And when we leave this world, we will go on to create in other ways. We will always be creating, expressing, and bringing new things forward. This expresses the primal urge that the Prime Creator initiated in bringing all worlds into being. So yes, we will continue to have maya clinging to what we create, but so too will our creations refine as we refine. As we do, what we create will mirror the changes within and what we create will be ever clearer and more potent because they will simply be less encumbered by the dross of what came before. We will go from making objects to kill each other with to making objects to liberate the heart and mind in soulful healing and celebration. At the foundation of all of this is choice. And we each have it.
What shall you choose today?
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