Nirvana in the Garden of Eden

You cannot simply be told you are an extension of “God” or the universe. You must come to realize and understand this truth on your own from somewhere deep within. To be told you are “God/universe” is perceived at a hollow level with no true awareness or comprehension. If you are not prepared for this truth, it sounds like senseless babble. Once understood, it is a tsunami of emotions and realizations that washes over you and then lifts you to its pinnacle. You feel at once humbled by the awesome responsibility of having such power and the shock that human beings had never realized this before. You are overcome with unconditional love for all nature and humanity and it is accompanied by a deep, profound sadness, acknowledging thousands of years of human suffering.

Trying to rise to a state of Nirvana must be accompanied by the ability to erase and surrender every belief and conviction you hold dear. You must make room in the organic computer of your brain to download more sophisticated and complex files. Once you have a clean slate, you practice rising above ego so that you immediately recognize every negative thought that comes into your mind, constantly. If you add the energy of loving the species of humanity unconditionally, with genuine forgiveness for our flawed, non-evolved ego (we “know” not what we do) you are on your way. You cannot seek or desire nirvana or it will elude the chase. It must come to you on its own terms, compliments of the universe. It is an agreement between the “little you” encapsulated in form and the “bigger you” in a state of being space.

Those philosophers who have had the sacred privilege of feeling “God’s” presence or experiencing Nirvana have described it in many different ways. Martin Buber described his God like this: “The Thou meets me through grace-it is not found by seeking… The Thou meets me. But I step into direct relation with it…

Ram Dass has said that it is simply pure awareness of anything and everything. He went on to say …..There are no words in the English language-or in any language-that can adequately describe it. The best I can do is to say that it is simultaneously everything …; it is nowhere and it is everywhere; it has no form, yet it contains all forms.

Reading this excerpt from a favorite book “The Seekers Guide” gives me the strength to overcome my childish embarrassment to confess my Nirvana experience. It lured me out of my most private place to share an experience I had with the universe. It happened during the winter of my soul searching. How do I know it was not my mind playing tricks on me, or the manifestations of all the events swirling around my life at the time? You cannot mistake, on any level, the experience of The Divine, which is not of this earth. Your soul (subconscious?) is the meeting place or Holy ground. It is not in the conscious mind and it is not with words. There is no human language used, yet since the dawn of time, people have tried recording their experience with words. It is impossible to relay a sacred connection with words. It is too abstract. It is everything unearthly. It is not something the human mind can possibly comprehend..…yet.

The author Elizabeth Lessor has said, “All religion has roots in the soil of sacred experience.” “Yet once it is processed through the human mind, it takes the form of all things human and earthly, like desire; desire for power and desire to have knowledge about God, life, heaven and the universe; desire to crush fear and unhappiness in the human mind.” It is impossible for any religion to be transposed directly from God because the taint of human ego/psyche will always be infused into it.

The most distinct feeling I can remember is no longer being burdened with anything earthly. I had no desire at all. I had no desire to be with my beloved husband or children, nor did I have the desire for my own life. I did not miss anyone in my life that had died. Only people on earth cannot let go of their loved one’s spirit. The being and spirit itself does not miss anything on earth once they discard their physical vessel.

I “sensed” timelessness and the feeling of being on a different plane. To use the words bliss or paradise are laughably inadequate. To describe it as your inner spirit completely and eternally free floating within the universe also pales in comparison to what my soul felt.

My only consolation of feeling so solitary in my new life as an “immortal” is that I know many others out there, around the world, have had this sacred experience. It cannot be sought after like a prize, but rather it just comes one day and sits softly on your shoulder as effortlessly as a butterfly. It comes to you in response to the thoughts and emotions being emitted by your subconscious (soul). It comes to you of its own volition.

Relaying the experience is like translating something from one language into another that does not yet exist. Were I to use dreaded words to stain the experience, it would go something like this:

Your body is the vehicle that is used by your soul. It is a shell that houses your spirit. Once your body is used up, your being is the grain of sand under foot and the pulse of the ocean waves. The essence of you is the pale and bright moon and the glittering stars hanging in the inked night. I am the air you breathe with every breath you take. I am the warmth of the sun on your skin. I melt instantly on your face and stick to your eyelashes when I come down as snow. I simply am.