Ecstatic Intimacy

Ecstatic Intimacy Q uestion Why would one choose to come to­gether ­with other people in spiritual com­munity rather than try to reach Enlightenment on one’s own through meditation or contemplation? Answer Unbearable intimacy. Can you imagine that? Unbearable ecstatic intimacy. You see, without realizing it people tenaciously cling to an idea of being unique or special, which in this case means separate. In fact, most human beings suffer from this compulsive need to see themselves as being separate. What I’m speaking about is an aggressive psychological habit that makes it possible for the individual to always see themselves as standing outside of and away from the whole. This habit is called self- consciousness. If one is very invested in seeing oneself as being unique or special, coming together in ecstatic intimacy with others would not seem like an attractive idea but in fact would appear as a threat. Indeed, the idea itself would make one feel that one couldn’t breathe because in that intimacy there would be no room left for oneself. But that’s the whole point. The whole point is to die to that need to see oneself as being separate in any way. Dying to that need to see oneself as being separate reveals a completely new experience which is intimacy, ecstatic intimacy. This discovery, the discovery of the ecstasy­ that comes from the experiential recognition of the nondifference between self and other, does not only arise from the experience of internal revelation. Miraculously, it can be experienced simply through being together with another. What would it be like to feel no gap of time, no gap of space, no gap of doubt with another? It’s very difficult to imagine because the experience of perfect trust hardly exists in the world that we live in. What would it be like if one person could truly come together with another? What would it be like if a handful of people could come together in such a way that there was no gap whatsoever, where one was able to trust implicitly the good intentions of the other? If that was possible one would find oneself in a completely different world. One’s experience of what it would mean to be a human being would be very, very different. When one is psychologically and emotionally freed from the relentless burden of always needing to see oneself as being separate, one discovers the true Self—the Self we all are when we are undistracted by the need to see ourselves as being separate in any way. That discovery is ecstasy­ itself. In that discovery we come to rest. In that discovery there is no fear and no wanting—only love, freedom and joy. Why? Because one is resting in one’s true nature. Now if that experience could become manifest in a way that was collective, then in that event all that is false, wrong and untrue in this world would be defeated. In that event, the very essence of the problem with the world in which we live, which is the need to remain separate, would be destroyed. Then our true Self that is transcendent and completely impersonal can express itself as ourselves. That’s when the miracle of unity becomes manifest in a way that is self-evident. In that unity everything is revealed. Instantly one understands not only why things are the way they are, but even more importantly how things can be. Suddenly everything begins to make sense in the recognition of why we are here—to prove that it is possible. You have to understand, what I’m pointing to far transcends in significance the Liberation of the individual alone. One individual’s success in and of itself is not enough. For evolution to occur in a way that is truly signifi­cant there must be a collective victory. A collective victory in which many individuals are simultaneously consciously living in the knowledge of their true Self. Only then have we succeeded.