“Now, I came to this idea of bliss because in Sanskrit, which is the great spiritual language of the world, there are three terms that represent the brink, the jumping-off place to the ocean of transcendence: Sat, Chit, Ananda. The word “Sat” means being. “Chit” means consciousness. “Ananda” means bliss or rapture. I thought, “I don’t know whether my consciousness is proper consciousness or not; I don’t know whether what I know of my being is my proper being or not; but I do know where my rapture is. So let me hang on to rapture, and that will bring me both my consciousness and my being.” I think it worked.” ~ Joseph Campbell from
The Power of MythnnI don’t about you, but, like Campbell, I can get confused about what proper “consciousness” or proper “beingness” is all about. What feels good? MUCH easier to follow.nnOf course, even that can be challenging as we’ve been so conditioned to simply do what we’re told when/how/where/why someone else decides; but deep down, we KNOW what makes us feel good. Now, we may or may not have the courage to actually LISTEN to what our heart’s are telling us, but we know. :)nnAyn Rand says this about it in her classic The Fountainhead (see
Notes):
“Why do they always teach us that it is easy and evil to do what we want and that we need discipline to restrain ourselves. It’s the hardest thing in the world--to do what we want. And it takes the greatest kind of courage.”nnAnd Carlos Castaneda (see
Notes) shares ancient Toltec wisdom as he tells us that we must follow a path only if it has heart. He says:
“But how will I know for sure whether a path has a heart or not?’ ‘Anybody would know that. The trouble is nobody asks the question; and when a man finally realizes that he has taken a path without a heart, the path is ready to kill him. At that point very few men can stop to deliberate, and leave the path.”nnLove that. So, how about you? Are you on your path with heart? Are you doing what you want? Are you following your bliss?nnSometimes we don’t know *exactly* what we want (and, in fact, our vision of our ideals is ALWAYS beautifully evolving as we outgrow some past ideals and generally evolve). At those times, it’s often best to simply get clear on what you know you DON’T want! How ‘bout a quick check-in:nnThese are things that make me feel giddy/blissful (!) to be alive: ___________________nn___________________________________________________________________________nn___________________________________________________________________________nnnThese are things that, well, don’t make me feel quite so blissful! ___________________nn___________________________________________________________________________nn___________________________________________________________________________nnNow, what can you do to create a life in which you’re spending more and more time in your bliss zone and less time in your “don’t need to spend my precious hours on this spinning green ball doing THAT” stuff?nnWhat SPECIFIC steps can you take to follow your bliss more? Starting today?!? I can (and WILL! :) do these 3 things:nn1. ____________________________________________________________________nn_________________________________________________________________________nn2. ____________________________________________________________________nn_________________________________________________________________________nn3. ____________________________________________________________________nn_________________________________________________________________________