Cultivating the Ecstatic Life
Why do we never see butterflies carrying around their old cocoons?
Why do we never hear of snakes saving up their old sloughed-off skins?
Obviously, because the new replaces the old.
Yet, there is continuity between the old and the new: even under the extremes of metamorphosis, there is something unique that can be identified as having moved from the old condition to the new. In the human being, this unique element is called the identity.
It appears self-evident that my identity is determined by what I identify with—and although I certainly identify with my way of perceiving, I identify even more intimately with my ingrained character traits. Even after undergoing a transformative experience, therefore, it is nearly certain that my identity will carry some of its old traits forward into its new form. In this sense, the transformative experience impacts my awareness first and my character second. Like rain on a tree, it takes only a little to wet the branches—but it must rain really well to saturate the ground and reach the roots.
To transform awareness is easy, in other words, but to transform character is hard.
Yet the transformation of awareness is only half a transformation. If I do not undergo a metamorphosis of character, then my clarity of perception will forever be obscured by my old habits of thought, emotion, and reaction. If the rain does not eventually reach the roots, the branches will ultimately dry up and wither—if the transformative experience does not continue long enough to saturate my character and transmute my old traits, then my new perception will eventually be compromised by its need to accommodate the most stubborn qualities of my identity. For this reason, I need to prolong the transformative experience until my character is fully re-formed.
If I cannot relinquish my angers and resentments, for example, then even my transmuted perception will be forced to rationalize in myriad ways in order to justify my continuing to act and react as before. If I do not feel compassion for others, then, likewise, my clarity of perception must be deformed in order to place responsibility on others for my continuing to act and react as before. Similarly, if I hold on to old desires and aversions, then the purity of my perception will be contaminated by something as arbitrary as my personal tastes.
If I do not burn away all the dross from the gold of my character, in other words, not even the refinement of my awareness can disguise the impurities of my character. I become the butterfly who cannot leave behind its old cocoon, the snake guarding its shed skin.
I am able to awaken from my sleep.
But I am unable to awaken from my dreams.
The path of good fortune ultimately leads to a kind of vital happiness that can neither be decreased nor increased by external circumstances. Just as a reliable well produces cold clear water regardless of the political or social changes in the town around it, those who achieve the ecstatic life produce a kind of robust happiness that wells up from deep within them and overflows out into the lives of others. Such a life should not be pictured as an ideal of moment-to-moment uncontrollable bliss but, rather, an ideal of conducting oneself so that, from some point of transformation onward, one’s life as a whole is felt to be a state of sustained ecstasy.
This is to say that the result of personal transformation is joy. That the consequence of wisdom is laughter. That the upshot of awakening is exuberance. It is to say that a return to the natural state of communion with all is a return to the newborn’s state of open astonishment.
How can we say that all our knots are untied if we drag our past sorrows along with us? How can we say that we are wholly open to everything we encounter if we carry our past attitudes and behaviors along with us? How can we say that the light of the present has eclipsed the shadow of the past if the new has not yet replaced the old?
The transformation of the lower self into the higher self occurs when my character follows my awareness into the Current and is carried, along with my awareness, forever away from the past. Suddenly uprooted from all I ever identified with, I am forever part of the one unfolding moment that is the living edge of the breaking wave of the Current. This communion with all evokes the complete change of heart that crystalizes my transformed character into a perfect reflection of my transformed awareness.
The metamorphosis of the lower self into the higher self triggers repercussions in the field of spiritual cause-and-effect that can only be likened to the bursting forth of a new supernova in the nighttime skies. With the emergence of each new higher self from its cocoon, the light of the inner universe grows exponentially brighter, increasingly dispelling aloneness and revealing the universal communion inherent to creation. That the fullness of time’s potential should follow as the natural result of our personal evolution in this way is a bottomless mystery, the very source of all our longings, joys, and triumphs.
This is called following the inner path all the way to the end.
Drink in the rain of transformation until the roots of your dearest thirsts are fully quenched.
Trust that every turning point in your life is an opening through which inner power is accumulated.
Immerse yourself in the moment-to-moment ecstasy of this all-pervading creation.
Take pleasure in using your endeavors to further the success of others.
With every advance, allow the new to replace the old.
At the end of the inner path lies another path, for this is where the path of freedom begins. Where the path of personal transformation becomes the path of spontaneity. Where the path of wisdom turns into the path of ecstasy. It is the point where our transformation is complete and we move on to the next stage.
Personal transformation is not, after all, the goal of personal transformation—the actual goal is freedom, spontaneity, and ecstasy. It is the freedom to think, feel, and act according to our best intentions, without being compelled by any force within or without. It is the spontaneity to respond to everything we encounter without preconception, uneasiness, or artificiality. And it is the ecstasy that comes when we clearly perceive the miracle of being alive within matter. The path of the cocoon does not lead to the cocoon—it leads to the path of the butterfly.
The ecstatic life is the creative life, the productive life, the rewarding life.
For the butterfly, the ecstatic life is found flitting from one perfect blossom to the next, consuming only the nectar produced by perfect beauty and, in so doing, propagating the next generation of perfect beauty.
For us, the ecstatic life is no different.
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The above is an excerpt from The Spiritual Basis of Good Fortune by William Douglas Horden.
If you’d like to learn more, visit the website: http://spiritualbasisofgoodfortune.com/
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The Toltec I Ching, by Martha Ramirez-Oropeza and William Douglas Horden has just received a Silver Award in the 2010 Nautilus Awards. It recasts the I Ching in the symbology of the Native Americans of ancient Mexico and includes original illustrations interpreting each of the hexagrams. Its subtitle, 64 Keys to Inspired Action in the New World hints at its focus on the ethics of the emerging world culture.
Click here to go to the main site to see sample chapters, reviews and the link to Larson Publications for ordering the book.
