Ah, to encounter and experience beauty and harmony, intimacy and ecstasy, with serenity, day after day after day, with just the right kind and amount of catalyst, which I can welcome into my life as I see fit, to stimulate the expansion of my soul and the expression of my spirit.
On the principle that energy flows where attention goes, I hereby attract into my life the circumstances necessary to enjoy this condition of mastery for the remainder of my life, for the remainder of my time here on earth, with those who feel likewise motivated and inspired to enjoy.
Be careful what you wish for, as mere wishing has immense power for attracting that which you do not like and that which you do not expect, all for the sake of completely and utterly removing that which makes it impossible for you to experience and enjoy all that you desire.
I hereby attract and manifest into my life the circumstances necessary to enjoy this condition of mastery for the remainder of my life, for the remainder of my time here on earth, for the highest good of all concerned, with those who feel likewise motivated and inspired to enjoy.
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In this post, I address living with beauty, harmony, serenity, intimacy, and ecstasy with the intention of illuminating these values soulfishly in light of the scenario depicted in The Future of the World.
These values, which I introduced on my blog in The Art of Surrender back in May 2011, are personal to me, but I also view their contemplation, cultivation, and culmination as a kind of litmus test for a culture that purports to be informed and inspired. As such, I will eventually place these five values in the light of a fourth density positive future, as relayed by Howard Storm, applying what I learn from this placement to the current homogenous global culture in which many if not most now live to show how this widely spread homogeneity measures up (or down, as the case may be).
At some future date, I also intend to draw on my findings here as a basis for constructing a narrative for what I see as happening now in the world at large as it approaches the fiery depths and heights of transformation in what I have called the Era of Golden Consciousness.
Four Dimensions of Fulfillment
Beauty, harmony, serenity, intimacy, ecstasy: how might I bring these values to life?
In this post I wrote, “where I lay the cornerstones to embody wisdom and freedom with integrity”, I touched on four dimensions of experience: impersonal, personal, interpersonal, and transpersonal. In this post, my aim is to draw on these four dimensions in a more general way, as a framework by which to bring love and light to the experience and enjoyment of beauty, harmony, serenity, intimacy, and ecstasy.
I now welcome this opportunity to appreciate and integrate beauty, harmony, serenity, intimacy, ecstasy on these four dimensions: impersonal, personal, interpersonal, and transpersonal – while holding the light, showing the way, and bringing love and light to these values.
Inside the Impersonal Dimension
The term “impersonal” sounds cold, distant, and off-putting, but let us reframe it for a moment – not as warm, close, and inviting (as this would be personal) – but as grand, majestic, and sublime.
When I do this reframe, I find myself standing calmly in the midst of a clearing in a forest, surrounded by majestic trees, in the deep of night, under a clear moonlit sky, eyes raised to the stars.
In this one grand gestalt of experience, I fall serenely into the depths of the sublime beauty that surrounds me, in harmony with the elements, buoyed by ecstasy at finding the deepest intimacy.
In this hallowed space, I inhale slowly, deeply,
resting in the moment of what is here and now,
even as I surrender – peacefully – to the depths
of the sublime beauty that is found in being alive
to this very moment of Creation, of my creation.
Falling back on this image and prose as my anchors, I remind myself that beauty and harmony, intimacy and ecstasy, can be experienced and enjoyed with serenity, inside the impersonal dimension.
Inside the Personal Dimension
The term “personal” is rich with complexity and ambiguity: “this is personal to me”, and yet … “I took that personally”, but then … “this is too personal for me to share with you in this moment”.
In bringing these personal distinctions to light, I find myself in wonder: what is it that allows me to keep the peace with myself? What is it that enables me to go about my day in relative peace? Is there not a spongy core of being in the depthless depths of me that I can insist, if only subtly, on holding sacrosanct, as being far too important and valuable to be messed with, to be trifled with, to be interfered with?
I also wonder: could I not make arrangements to find permanent residence inside this sponge, from which and with which and through which I am ready, willing, and able to welcome appearances of beauty and harmony serenely at any moment, to invite surrenders to intimacy and ecstasy with serenity at a moment’s notice, regardless of the conditions and circumstances in which I happen to find myself?
With one eye on allowing beauty and harmony to make an appearance inside this spongy core, whether or not it be in a tranquil setting, and with one eye on allowing intimacy and ecstasy to rise together as an experience, without condition and without expectation, might I not have a gauge by which to measure the extent to which I can align my encounters and experiences with my most cherished values?
I am a sponge of serenity
for encounters with beauty
and experiences of harmony,
for encounters with intimacy
and experiences of ecstasy
How might this declaration affect my relations with other sponges?
Inside the Interpersonal Dimension
The term “interpersonal” is a scientific one with clinical overtones. I mean, who among us use it in everyday conversation? Who among us can summon the energy to utter such a mouthful of syllables? Seriously, though, the term “interpersonal” does have its value in writing.
In serene relation to appearances of beauty and harmony, intimacy and ecstasy, a danger lurks: the danger of viewing and treating others as objects, as objects of love, pleasure, and desire.
In subjectivity, I can choose to be solipsistic by viewing and treating everyone as sacred and divine extensions and projections of my very own sponge, and in objectivity, I can choose to be relativistic by viewing and treating everyone as sacred and divine sponges in their own right.
Regardless of which lens I choose, subjective or objective, through which to view my encounters and experiences with others, no one is ever an object in relation to me if I continue to view the other as an extension or projection of my very own sacrosanct sponge; by the same token, no one is ever subject to my sponginess as and when I remember to view and treat the other as separate and sacrosanct.
In writing about beauty and harmony, but especially intimacy and ecstasy, the subjects of sexuality and spirituality naturally arise. In having just put these two subjects together, I can feel the burden of wanting to do them justice. By themselves, each of them are insanely rich with complexity, but taken together, their richness in quality and vitality goes beyond mere infinity in terms of their potential complexity.
We find harmony through beauty, even as we find beauty in harmony. We find intimacy expressed as ecstasy, even as we find ecstasy through intimacy, and our appreciation of these relations is all the more enhanced as and when we encounter, experience, and enjoy them serenely.
She is one of a kind,
a beautiful, powerful sponge
for my sacred intentions,
for my divine anticipations
She tells me: loving sex
is an energetic exchange –
so be mindful of your energy,
of your sacred sexuality
She so likes to tease me
with tip of tongue caressing
the surface of her upper lip,
with a wiggling for emphasis
She holds captive, her eyes
aflame, on fire with desire,
offering sponge as receptacle
to intent and approach both
She receives, yes, ready,
willing to accept the promise
of falling into embraceless
presence sacred and divine
She laughs easily, delightedly,
responsive to fantasy held dear
expressed lightly by yours truly,
whispering voice to eager ear
She pulls back, captures my gaze,
taking the caress down her back
with softening eyes grown moist
and a swift and shivering gratitude
She draws me, her sensual lips
hungering for a kiss deep and true
but I kiss her lips not; rather, we
touch tender, third eye to third eye
She cannot help herself, cannot
help but lure me into a space made
sacred by her intent to have me
and my desire meet her part way
She relents in her own good time
to having me move my lips swollen
by desire down into the offering
of succulent lips made ripe and juicy
She moans softly, appreciatively
the connection made, the bond begun
lips caressing lips, tongues darting
spiritual human animals loving, lusting
I could go on, and on, and on, and on, and on, … but I trust that this portrayal gives you a taste of the sheer power of spirituality meeting sexuality in a loving, trusting, forgiving, lusting light.
In the light of these impersonal, personal, and interpersonal dimensions of fulfillment, what promises and possibilities might the transpersonal dimension hold for us in terms of expanding and expressing our relationship with beauty, harmony, serenity, intimacy, and ecstasy?
Inside the Transpersonal Dimension
If Google Trends is anything to go by, and I trust that it is, then the use of the term “transpersonal” began to grow in its influence from the early 1960s, peaking at or near the turn of the millennium, with only a relatively slight decline in popular usage since about the year 2000.
Transpersonal matters, by definition, denote or deal with states or areas of consciousness that transcend the limits of personal identity. As such, the transpersonal dimension is (potentially) chock full of promise and possibility for an expansive, expressive consciousness.
Commonly perceived definitions of beauty and harmony, intimacy and ecstasy, as well as serenity, can just as easily be sidestepped as satisfied, just as easily remade, remodelled, or redefined as removed, from any situation or relationship in which we find ourselves.
A serenely crafted transpersonal identity is a cosmic identity as a cosmic sovereign, a co-creative force with Creation, creating and admitting an infinite array of potent ways by which, with which, and from which to view and treat any and all encounters as potentially beautiful in their own way, to view and treat any and all experiences as potentially harmonious in their own way. With such an identity, I could, conceivably, find intimacy with anyone or anything at anytime for any reason, and grow increasingly ecstatic from the success of having found it so. In reading this, we need to exercise a bit of caution.
I am not suggesting that we rise to the challenge of finding everything beautiful and harmonious, only that we assume with serenity, and with intimacy as our guide and ecstasy as our proof, that beauty and harmony is everywhere present, but then be prepared to meet serenely, by way of intimacy, the challenge of finding snippets of beauty in apparent ugliness and finding slivers of harmony in apparent discord.
Just yesterday, my companion and I were walking along a sidewalk in a rough part of the city, when a young, robust, fresh-faced Aboriginal man approached us from in front of us, leaning forward aggressively, intent on confronting us. He ignored me, but he called out forcefully to my companion for a coin or two in a way that indicated in no uncertain terms that “no” in any form was unacceptable.
In a world where entitlement culture is unusually pervasive (and persistent), I’ve observed a hierarchy of entitlement, with challenged people feeling or being perceived as more entitled to having their needs met than elderly people, and elderly people feeling or being perceived as more entitled to having their needs met than gender benders, and gender benders feeling and being perceived as more entitled to having their needs met than people of color, and people of color feeling and being perceived as more entitled to having their needs met than people of the female gender, and people of the female gender feeling and being perceived as more entitled to having their needs met than people of the male gender. Where entitlement culture is concerned, the poor straight young able white man is at the bottom of the barrel.
Getting back to my tale …
While I kept my eyes on the Aboriginal man, I heard my companion respond politely that she had none to give him, to which he menaced her with a threatening movement, calling out loudly and malevolently, “so you’re a good little fucking pig”, before moving on. I looked at my companion with concern but she appeared calm, as if nothing had happened, finding the incident mildly amusing.
The reference to the pig was apparently triggered by the graphic of a white pig on the front of my companion’s brown Whole Foods “Raised with Care” t-shirt. The entitled Aboriginal man, in feeling deeply rejected, perhaps even abandoned, identified my companion with the pig, associated in popular Western culture with greed. I would suppose that where “a fucking pig” was a dismissive yet obscene objectification, “a little fucking pig” was an outraged belittlement uttered to restore racial pride. The qualification of good in “a good little fucking pig” was a sarcastic reaction to the little good that “good” people have done for the Aboriginal people. It was apparent to me that the Aboriginal man was not only lashing out at my companion for her apparently humiliating rejection, he was lashing out at all those perceived as “good” in having destroyed his culture.
Transpersonally speaking, there was beauty to be found in the man’s appearance, a peculiar harmony to be found in the way in which the entire scene played out from start to finish, with no one hurt or harmed. In being intimate with this strange encounter, I could nevertheless see justification for the Aboriginal man’s outrage, notwithstanding the ways in which he menaced my companion. In retrospect, I still feel deep sympathy for the Aboriginal cause, all the more so when I recall just how naturally attuned the Aboriginal people can be to the heart of soul in a world with little heart and soul.
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Although I’ve barely scratched the surface in giving voice to my values inside the four dimensions of fulfillment, I feel that I’ve made significant headway into being and feeling more able to embody and express, experience and enjoy, these uncommon values.
I look forward to drawing on the content in this post as a basis of comparison for my future posts.
This post has been filed under Integration in the Ultimate Outline.
Note: my evolving outline on approaching a realization of the ultimate in personal fulfillment can be found here, accessible from the nav menu under the page “Be Here Now”.
Note: this ever growing perspective began here: Ultimate Perspective