Bliss
by Brian Robertson
`Each man has his own vocation. The talent is the call. There is one direction in which all space
is open to him. He has faculties silently
inviting him thither to endless exertion. He is
like a ship in a river; he runs against
obstructions on every side but
one; on that side all obstruction is
taken away and he sweeps
serenely over God's depths into an infinite sea.'Emerson
When I ran across this quote by Emerson, I realized how I'd forgotten about him and his work. If you happen to find an inexpensive edition of Emerson in a used bookstore, pick it up and remind yourself of his insights and beliefs. A Unitarian (of the old school), Emerson has often taken his lumps for being the theorist while Thoreau was the activist. Not necessarily true.
Within this one quote is a world -- your world. Although he is frequently discounted (unfairly, I think), Joseph Campbell summed that up in his infamous, "Follow your bliss," philosophy.
For some people, that would mean running out to do whatever you want, to indulge the senses with the idea of finding pleasure as your sole principle. But what both Campbell and Emerson are saying have great power and depth, far more than merely doin' what you like.
The word bliss is the key, I think. It's a word that's really never used much in these times, but a powerful one. It's a spiritual term, part of what you find in the Hindu concept of "sat-chi-ananda," three Sanskrit words meaning Existence-Knowledge-Bliss. In fact, many of the gurus of the Vedanta movement have names that end in "ananda" or bliss.
Emerson's point is simple. When we're on the right track, doors open for us that wouldn't open for anybody else. We find, as in the example in his quote, that our ship encounters rough water and high winds that threaten to swamp us. There is, however, a path, perhaps a way of using the wind in the sails as an ally and not an enemy, a path of least resistance we can take.
The question, of course, is how do we find that path? How do we discover what our adventure is to be? The answer is as it has been throughout time -- you have to listen. You have to know what puts the lights in your eyes when you talk about it and you have to know what makes those lights grow dim. Haven't you seen that in other people, felt it in yourself? You're talking on some mundane subject and then, quite suddenly, the topic shifts and you're discussing something else and you feel that energy switch flip on.
The problem is that most of us find ourselves trapped in being inauthentic, as it were, in living a life that doesn't draw us out of our deepest and more real self. For some people, this is a kind of duty -- economic. That's a tough, tough situation to be in. At the same time, one finds over and over again that as one gets "on the beam" and follows that light, that bliss, the problems that we think we'll encounter are suddenly gone, they form the obstacles Emerson talks about that, in their own way, have guided us toward who we really are and what we really should be doing.
For the mystic, this process is what drives one. Often your approach will not be the approach of the crowd. It will not echo your parents or your friends' choices. It will be your way.
In moments of prayer, in moments of contemplation, we find the strength to move ahead, to allow ourselves permission to move into that area where all space is open to us.
Looking back in life, we see how the moments where we thought it would never work did indeed work. We see time and again that somehow the Universe came to our rescue, provided what was needed. The job we have is to learn to trust, to let go and let God, to allow ourselves to look forward with the same clarity of vision, the same knowledge that we will, in this authentic way, move forward in God's existence, that we will be who we are in the core of our being, and that the result will be bliss. That, I suspect, is the power behind Emerson's quote and behind the idea of the Sanskrit word, "satchidananda," which translates, roughly, as Being/Awareness/Bliss.
