Degrees of Pleasure or Happiness

[Guest guest]

Namaste,

 

Sri Sunder just gave us an interesting quote from Buddha saying that

there are 'higher' pleasures far surpassing those of the senses, to

be found in stillness of the mind and the cessation of perception or

thought.

 

Notice that these spiritual pleasures always seem to be 'lighter'

than those of the senses, in both senses of the word light: luminous

and not heavy. The senses, in comparison, seem dark, thick, heavy,

solid ... in a word, all the qualities we normally ascribe to matter.

This suggests that the Advaitic denial of the material world is more

than mere abstract philosophy. Rather, the disappearance of solid,

heavy matter into light, luminous consciousness is simply the

reflection of the purified consciousness.

 

We can see this gradation from dark and heavy to light and luminous

*within* the five senses. The darkest and heaviest would be touch,

followed by taste, smell, hearing and vision.

 

Notice which sense we get most addicted to: touch. This is the sense

we usually crave (at least when young) when it comes to the opposite

sex, and it is the sense we enjoy when lying lazily in bed, or in the

sun, or in a hot tub. This would be the least 'spiritual' sense, in

that it produces a tamasic and slothful state of consciousness, with

little inspiration or religious feelings. Religious people are

expected to avoid this sense and not even touch each other.

 

Only slightly higher on the ladder is taste. This produces the same

kind of dark, animal satisfaction as touch, but already I can detect

a slightly more luminous quality. There are an interesting variety

of tastes, not unlike colors. Taste seems, to me, to be a kind of

dark color. Religious people are also expected not to indulge this

sense too much.

 

Then comes smell. Clearly this is much lighter than touch or taste.

And it is the first sense to have some spiritual qualities, as we can

tell with incense, which both monks and I love. A whiff of beautiful

incense produces a state of mind which I am pleased to call

'spiritual' in some sense; same with flowers, etc. Religious people

are allowed to enjoy flowers and incense, but not too much.

 

Sound is clearly taking on spiritual and sattvic qualities. I don't

mean the noise of city life but the sound of good music or of a big

OM resonating throughout the cosmos, or of a beautiful Indian flute.

Lord Krishna played the flute, and this instrument can produce an

indescribable loveliness. OMs and music can produce a light,

delicate, luminous and expansive state of consciousness that is

starting to resemble what the Buddha described. However, sound is

still rather rajasic, in that it can stimulate strong and thick

emotions, as in music full of pathos.

 

The most 'spiritual' of the senses is clearly sight. Mystical

experiences are often described in terms of light. Light seems

insubstantial and barely distinguishable from consciousness itself,

or from space for that matter. It is weightless and all-pervading,

with no solid or tamasic qualities. That is why it is called

'light', showing that even the ancient English could dimly sense its

spiritual qualities.

 

So within the five senses we can see a gradation from dark and

tamasic to luminous and sattvic, which parallels in miniature the

progression from senses to the higher realms of consciousness.

 

And notice that it is the darker senses which we crave the most and

to which we are most likely to develop blind addictions. The very

word 'blind' shows how this is a dark and tamasic state of mind,

where our animal vasanas are stimulating a raw and stupid impulse

which enslaves our consciousness.

 

Now I am not saying that we should become ascetics. That is a whole

other topic. However, we should certainly try to sublimate our

darker impulses into a luminous state of consciousness, to the extent

that we can, by practicing detachment and moderation. We want a

state of consciousness that is light, spiritual and sattvic and not

dark, tamasic and animal. Perhaps to the realized person, even the

darkest senses are thus transmuted into pure consciousness!

 

Hari Om!

Benjamin