Conference on World Religions 1994 07 NY Queens

Author(s): Council for The Conference on World Religions
Publisher: USA Parliament of the Worlds Religions

Page 63

outward we tend to try to get that bliss by looking outside. However out imaginations can go either inward or outward, something we often forget as adults.
Children are actually very creative in finding ways to enjoy themselves and are not limited to the sense world. When I was a child my favorite pastime was to spend time in a world of fantasy that I found very sweet. I can no longer remember anything about that sweet world except my feelings about it. My parents and my teachers did their utmost to pull me out of that world into the everyday world of facts and more or less succeeded. It was a great sacrifice they were asking me to make, to give up that sweet world in exchange for the world of lessons and grades and chores. I remember that I was very halfhearted in my renunciation of that inner world. However, if I ever hoped to get and education and to make a living I had to learn to focus my attention outward. Well in the end I succeeded in focusing outward and now would like to be able to focus inward with the same relish that I could do it as a child.
I think what cemented my relationship to the outside world were the changes associated with puberty. I began to feel lust for woman and woman was very definitely a fact of the outside world. To get woman you had to be mindful of appearance and of success in various realms such as grades, athletics, and most important, the art of conversation. Oh Mahamaya, what a clever trick you played on me.
Once we've thrown our lot in with the outside world our ways of trying to get bliss fall into predictable categories. I became infatuated with love and thought that marriage might bring the kind of bliss I craved. But marriage is a very serious institution with heavy responsibilities. Even the sense pleasure fell far short of high hopes for infinite bliss. If we're lucky we are able to get enjoyment from our work.
People find a way back to a glimmer of that inner world of bliss through intoxicants. No work is required. It seems like a short cut to the kind of joy that we've been craving. As an aside, I find it interesting to try to understand how intoxicants give us pleasure. I have a theory that in many cases the chemical succeeds in temporarily breaking the spell that the world has over us and this is analogous to what happens in spiritual life. The only problem is that the bliss it gives is ephemeral and degrading. It makes you self-centered and selfish. Also it's like chasing a will o the wisp. The joy it gives becomes ever more elusive. It's interesting that AA prescribes a spiritual awakening as the antidote to addiction. People in recovery say that they are grateful to have suffered the degradation of addiction since through it they were forced to have a spiritual awakening as the only way to get out and now they treasure this awakening far more than they mourn what they have lost as a result of their addiction.
The relationship between the divine object and the little objects of the world is like the relationship between white light and light of various colors. Just as white light passing through a prism turns into red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet, so does the prism of Maya turn our pure yearning for God into all these various desires. The analogy is not perfect since white light is made up of different wavelengths, whereas it is a mystery how the pure urge for God is turned into worldly desire.
We have it on divine authority that there is no essential distinction between worldly pleasure and divine pleasure. Sri Ramakrishna says that in every worldly form of happiness there does exist a part of God's being. In fact Sri Ramakrishna says that the yearning for these things should not be eliminated but turned Godward. After all, if these urges all already divine we can use their energy rather than exhaust ourselves trying to suppress it. Thus we should seek intercourse with God; be greedy to possess Him the great treasure; be proud to be His child; want Him as a dear friend; want to have fun
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