16 Comments

A beautifully written piece.

Expand full comment

Thanks Sara!

Expand full comment

I realize "edibles" today are popular and easily obtained. Like many over prescribed depression medications, and to do more harm than good as they arguably dull the senses.

Your success, in my mind, was your ability to stop and smell roses. You sat and observed your surroundings which seemed to embrace you with it's beauty. Perhaps your unconscious experience with God. But that's only my take. It's your revelations that matter.

Expand full comment

Beautifully written!

Also: I love the Hirshorn!

Also: WHY in God's name did DC decide to paint its benches black? Summers are already so hot there! Is it some kind of campaign to fry the homeless, bus-riders, and enlightenment-seekers?

Expand full comment

I think you're onto something. It's a covert campaign to prevent an enlightened population.

Expand full comment

This brought me to tears of gratitude. Clearly the gift of a holy moment. Exquisitely written.

Expand full comment

Thanks Mom :)

Expand full comment

Man, this is a stunner. I love this so much: "I floated in the boundless womb of the universe and watched the eternal moment unfold: the runners and the tourists, the giant Amish families and the young couples, the pigeons and the squirrels. A light breeze blew the post-rain smell of petrichor in through the portal. I took a deep breath. I inhaled the fabric of spacetime and exhaled the suffering of all species. I smiled."

You've perfectly expressed this beautiful ordinariness that's right here all the time while we're all often looking for the extraordinary experience that's out there, somewhere else. It's one of the better descriptions I've read of this type of experiencing. Beautiful stuff.

Expand full comment

Thanks so much man!

Expand full comment

There’s something to be said about intentional space to step outside the world of business and routines and figuring stuff out to simply ~exist.

Wrote about this in a recent piece:

>And so the world needs more meditation gardens. I don’t just mean cute parks with pretty flowers to sit and watch your thoughts but the idea it represents–deliberate space to come in, leave your worries aside, connect to the present, and uplift your state. Maybe this is more gardens. Maybe we train our parrots to intermittently chirp “Here and Now” like the birds on Huxley’s Island.

Expand full comment

Well said Jack.

Expand full comment

Wowza. This was awesome: “It is unclear whether what we call enlightenment is an attainable state for mortal beings. What is clear, though, is that when we find these rare portals through which to immerse ourselves in the full sensory experience of what is currently happening in front of us, around us, and inside of us, we are rewarded with the distinct, visceral sense of a direct connection with God, a divine communion with the pure phenomenology of being”

Expand full comment

Thanks Tommy! Hope the farm is treating you wonderfully.

Expand full comment

What a fantastic way of de-sensationalizing the hype around enlightenment.

"It is unclear whether what we call enlightenment is an attainable state for mortal beings. What is clear, though, is that when we find these rare portals through which to immerse ourselves in the full sensory experience of what is currently happening in front of us, around us, and inside of us, we are rewarded with the distinct, visceral sense of a direct connection with God, a divine communion with the pure phenomenology of being. It sure feels like enlightenment."

Also - The interesting thing that most people, including Tolle himself, seem to gloss over is the state of abject despair that preceded his breakthrough state of consciousness. He talks about it briefly at the beginning of The Power of Now and then moves on to the simplicity of enlightenment. The point being, the "foreign" mood you describe might just be part of the entry fee to the effortless state, and given that we are culturally well-fortified to distract ourselves from feeling a little funky with 10,000 alternatives to just being with it, it's no wonder that the breakthrough you describe becomes rare and generally inaccessible. What a gift to others it is that you describe your process in full, including the discomfort and how choosing that bench helped you through the portal.

Expand full comment

Appreciate you Rick. As I mentioned somewhere else, this entry fee concept seems spot on to me.

Expand full comment

Please excuse my typos and mistakes above.

Expand full comment