“Now, while the birds thus sing a joyous song,
And while the young lambs bound
As to the tabor’s sound, . . .
No more shall grief of mine the season wrong.”
Were you to stop your thought for a moment, before the next one appeared, you would experience the gap between thoughts, the gap of “no-thought” or “no-mind.” If you were intentionally to prolong that gap, allowing your mind to stay spacious and empty, you might notice that there in the gap, underneath the usual mental activity, a certain stillness and peace appear.
In this gap, were you to sink even deeper into it, into this “now,” you might discover that there is a yet deeper awareness under your everyday mind. This deeper awareness perceives more, knows more, than the everyday mind.
With practice, the sense of stillness and peace and even joy deepens. Those who have practiced spending time in the gap report that there is, in fact, no end to its sparkling, rich depths. They speak of a subtle emanation of joy arising from deep within – the joy of being. This deeper awareness becomes a refuge from the distress that the mind so easily generates.
This love/joy/peace comes from beyond the ordinary mind and the ordinary world and is inseparable from our eternal spirit – but is covered up by the relentless activity of our mind. Because we are not used to the depths of the still mind, we at first think it is a waste to spend much time there. But as we deepen our experience in this gap, we are led to conclude that love, joy, and peace are deep, eternal states of our being, or, rather, are three aspects of our true and eternal nature.
We see this native joy in the young child to whom the clouds of glory still cling, for whom the earth appears “appareled in celestial light,” with “the glory and freshness of a dream”; “he beholds the heavenly light, “He sees it in his joy.” But then, the “shades of the prison-house begin to close upon the growing boy” and “at length the Man perceives it die away, and fade into the light of common day.” The poet falls into a pensive mood as he thinks upon the fading of the vision.
Nevertheless, he discovers, in a quiet hour, that even though seemingly concealed by the experience of the mortal probation, the heavenly light can still be sensed as: “the fountain light of all our day,” “a master light of all our seeing,” which has “power to make our noisy years seem moments in the being of the eternal Silence: truths that wake, to perish never,” because, “Though inland far we be, Our Souls have sight of that immortal sea which brought us hither.”
And so we, like the poet, can begin to perceive that our everyday mind is a small and fallible part of our awareness. We can become aware of what one spiritual teacher calls a silent but powerful sense of presence, “taking you beyond what you previously thought of as your self.’ That presence is essentially you and at the same time inconceivably greater than you.” Thus we discover our felt connection to our Father, the great consolation of feeling that we are part of Him.
But we are an odd species in that we cannot feel good for very long before we try to cut it off with some negative thought to bring us down. Two therapists, a married couple, describe the human tendency to feel bad as the “Upper Limits Problem.” They suggest that really the only problem we have to solve, whether by ourselves or in a relationship, is to learn how to let our self expand continuously into more positive energy. Due to our past conditioning, they say, we all have a lid on how much positive energy we can tolerate. Go past this limit and an alarm goes off in our unconscious mind.
Their observation on an upper limit evokes Ammon’s inability to remain conscious in the presence of that overwhelming joy that comes only from Heaven: “Now the joy of Ammon was so great even that he was full; yea, he was swallowed up in the joy of his God, even to the exhausting of his strength; and he fell again to the earth” (Alma 27:17; also 19:14). Mormon adds, “Now the joy of Alma in meeting his brethren was truly great, and also the joy of [three others]; but behold their joy was not that to exceed their strength” (Alma 27:19).
We each have different capacities to experience and process joy, perhaps a neurological as well as a spiritual issue. That is, as our spiritually increases, so does our capacity to experience and contain joy – something we get to work at. But as the Gods are full of joy, we can see the value of practice.
This therapist couple report the experience of a man who had used drinking to blot out troublesome worry thoughts. He wrote: “When I quit drinking, all the worry thoughts came back in spades. Then I saw that my worrying was a way I had developed to block my positive feelings toward myself and the people around me. I had never realized why I worried. I saw that I worried to stay in control. If I figured out all the possibilities, I could control myself and everybody around me. My big lightning bolt of learning was that all my worrying and controlling was actually about keeping myself from feeling good. Why? Because I’m worthless and don’t deserve it.”
The authors comment that this man’s statement is an eloquent example of an upper-limit problem that nearly all of us share, but we can install a better program in our mind and body that consists of expanding our positive energy, and then resting, and then expanding, and resting. “To accomplish this you will have to become extremely vigilant in noticing how you bring yourself down.”
They list several ways we keep ourselves from feeling that little flame of inner joy:
1) we deflect it, even on an hourly basis;
2) we entertain worry thoughts – because they make us feel righteous (“Well, I should worry about those things.”);
3) we criticize to slow the flow of positive energy;
4) we pick fights;
5) we go unconscious and run our old programs instead of waking up from the slumber of past programming and learning how to be present and get the good we really want;
6) fearful, we shut good feelings off as our upper limit is approached in order to bring the energy back down to familiar, more comfortable levels – with its resulting deadness;
7) we indulge in lies and broken agreements.
They teach that positive energy is all about expansion. Our tendency is, when our positive-energy limit is about to be exceeded, to contract into negativity. “Pay close attention to your body and its sensations,” they say. “By holding muscles of the body in a state of chronic tightness, we block the flow of information that we could be getting from deeper inside ourselves.”
When the upper limit is exceeded there can be an “ashy” feeling inside. Breath and movement help. Even a few minutes of deep breathing or fast physical activity can move the toxic sensation out of the body. Since 70% of the toxins in the body are released through breathing, toxins are most effectively dispersed through activities that stimulate the breath.
Spiritual development is a holistic venture, employing all aspects of our self.
The therapists suggest acting on the following intention: “I am willing to expand continuously in positive energy with totally positive consequences for myself and others.” Of course, this cannot be forced or faked but must be drawn from inside the well of one’s deeper awareness and “out of the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3). These are spiritual exercises, preparing us to receive that fullness of joy that only the Lord can give.
Using our mind and body to sustain a sense of wellbeing for greater periods of time lays the foundation for drawing out greater draughts of joy.
And so our poet, having travelled far from his heavenly origins, surfaces from his somber feelings to become aware of a gorgeous spring day in May: birds sing a joyous song; rainbow, rose, and moon shed their delights; cataracts blow their trumpets, echoes through the mountains throng, all the earth full of joy. He sees a frolicking child and exclaims: “Thou Child of Joy, Shout round me, let me hear thy shouts, thou happy Shepherd-boy!” His inner spirit answers the call, and yielding to beauty within and without, he allows his joy to rise again.
Rapture is our birthright.
Notes.-
1. Wordsworth, Intimations Ode, lines 19-21, 26.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid., lines 152-165.
4. Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now, 20.
5. Gay and Kathlyn Hendricks, Conscious Loving, 125.
6. Ibid., 126-12.
7. Ibid., 127-134.
8. Ibid., 137.
9. Ibid., 142.
10. Ibid., 148.
11. Wordsworth, Ode.
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Catherine Thomas would like to alert readers to a 2-day workshop on Meditation for Mormons which will be held June 18-19 in Salt Lake City under the direction of John Kesler. She will be speaking there the evening of June 18 on: “In the Image of the Son: The Path of Human Spiritual Development.” Those interested in details may contact John at j_******@wo**********.com.
