On Aug 31, 2008, at 8:15 AM, TurquoiseB wrote:
I've always thought that the name 'Cosmic Consciousness,'
proposed as a synonym for the first stage of enlightenment,
kinda misses the point. 'Cosmic' is just too damned serious.
Well I don't think it was meant to be serious, it was meant to "hook"
a certain market segment. It's Sanskrit names are much better and are
less prone to the 'rename and dumb down' marketing slant of most TM
org buzz-names and TM-based techniques.
I don't know about the rest of you out there in FFL-land
who have had extended periods of realization or enlighten-
ment, but my second reaction to it happening (my first was
thinking "Wow, this is odd.") was thinking "Wow, this is
funny."
I mean, I stood there in my hotel room in Fiuggi Fonte and
looked around at the world as it now was, the thing I had
been seeking for so many years, and realized that it had
always already been like that, and I began to laugh. I may
have laughed continuously for fifteen minutes. My neighbors
in the hotel must have thought that I'd lost it. Some of
them were probably angry that the sound of my laughter
coming through the walls was getting in the way of being
all SERIOUS about their quest for enlightenment. Whereas
what I was laughing at was the realization that all my
years of questing after enlightenment had been getting in
the way of realizing that enlightenment had always already
been present.
They eventually did introduce Vedic enemas but unfortunately is was
too late for those compatriots on those early courses!
A few off-the-program renegades did experiment with high colonics
though. :-)
The power of laughter is one that can never be lost if one is truly
wired for awakening.
So, based on my first (and temporary) experience of CC, I'm
going to propose a new definition for that creaky old TM
acronym CC. I think that 'Cosmic Consciousness' is just too
damned serious, and that CC should really stand for 'Comedy
Consciousness.'
Well lets stop right there: your "experience off CC"?
Was it a real experience of CC or was it--what Mahesh mostly seemed to
talk of--the signs of CC dawning?
Witnessing?
Zzzzzz.
The people on this planet who have most convinced me that
they are experiencing Enlightenment Or Something Like It have
all been, more than anything else, funny. If you ask their
long-time students or people who have met them only in passing
to describe them, the first words out of their mouths are often
"He was funny."
And I don't think that this description trivializes or demeans
them in any way. I think it's one of the best things that any
human being can say about another human being. It's certainly
the thing I would hope someone would remember first and say
about me when I am dead and gone.
We're all a bunch of spiritual groupies on this forum. We've
paid our dues hangin' out in rooms with a lot of spiritual
teachers. Being as different as we all are, however, I'm sure
that we all had different things that we were looking for IN
those spiritual teachers. Some were looking for flash (shakti),
others for wisdom (an intellectual facility with words), and
others for silence (stillness, samadhi, the transcendent). And
all of these things are important, I guess, but that's not what
I look for in a spiritual teacher that makes him or her inter-
esting enough for me to drive across town to see them.
I'm looking for funny.
I'm comfortable with describing enlightenment as Comedy Consc-
iousness because I consider being a real-deal, no bullshit,
honest and spontaneous spiritual teacher to be only the second
most noble profession on the planet. The first is being a real-
deal, no bullshit, honest and spontaneous comedian.
Well, call me guilty then. I've split ribs and had friends spew
various liquids (across tables) from my comedic darshan. It's a cross
I've learned to bear.
Both professions involve helping others to take themselves (and
life) a little less seriously, and helping them to laugh more.
On the whole, comedians are better at their jobs than spiritual
teachers.
One of them, a little chap by the name of Charlie Chaplin, said,
"Life is a tragedy in close-up, but a comedy in long shot."
That's it. That's it exactly. That's the thing that all of
these spiritual teachers have been trying to convey to all of
us spiritual groupies for all of these centuries. They've been
telling us, essentially, to Lighten The Fuck Up. The "long shot"
on the quest for enlightenment is that it's a joke.
Enlightenment has always already been there. ALL of your oh-so-
serious attempts to achieve it have been and will always be a
joke, because you are trying to achieve something you already are.
That's funny, right?
Almost all of the teachers I've been lucky enuff to connect with had
those comedic darshanic powers. I'm pretty sure that's a requirement.
If you can make others laugh, the chances are you have some inner
smile that's always 'lighting up' and allowing you to share that inner
smile. It the natural lubricant of consciousness. And life was meant
to be lubed.
