Pleasure

After months of intense heat, we were blessed with rain this week. It is invigoratingly refreshing, in the midst of a drought to stand in the rain and let its precious drops soak you. At sunset, against a grey purple background, a rainbow appeared. The most perfect rainbow I have ever seen. Its arch stretched the sky clearly. The colours so intense that it was on the verge of being gaudy. So fleeting the pleasure of such perfect beauty, yet it penetrates my being and imprints forever my psyche.

"And now you ask in your heart,

'How shall we distinguish that which is good in pleasure from that which is not good?'

Go to your fields and your gardens, and you shall learn that it is the pleasure of the bee to gather honey of the flower,

But it is also the pleasure of the flower to yield Its honey to the bee.

For to the bee a flower is a fountain of life, And to the flower a bee is a messenger of love,

And to both, bee and flower, the giving and the Receiving of pleasure is a need and an ecstasy." Kahlil Gibran

Children learn to walk, talk and interact with the world by following their intent, which is in turn born out of following the scent of their pleasure. Then we start to receive conflicting messages. Everyone must have asked at one time; "Why is everything we like is bad for you and everything you don't like good for you." Soon you are imprinted with the message that pleasure is bad for you. "I must suppress my desires unquestioningly to the dark recesses of my being." As we all know, that which you suppress sooner or later rises from the dark murky waters and bites you when you least expect it. Then you are at risk to indulge your desires obsessively, trying to still the pain.

Most people savour pleasure in a very superficial manner. Instant gratification which does not satisfy the deep hunger. Just look at eating. We can gulp down food recognising our need, our hunger that must be satisfied, but it brings no relief to the deeper hunger and remains unsatisfied. Yearning always for more but feeling no satisfaction. In contrast eating a meal that has been prepared lovingly, with the aim of satisfying all of the senses, as well as the aesthetic taste, leaves you satisfied, the hunger appeased. Much less quantity is needed for the hunger to be appeased.

"When eating or drinking, become the taste of the food or drink, and be filled." Bhagwan Shree Rajineesh, in his discourses on Tantra, goes on to explain the sutra: " If the taste is not lived, you are just stuffing. Go slow, and be aware of the taste. And only when you go slow can you be aware. Do not just go on swallowing things. Taste them unhurriedly and become the taste. When you feel sweetness, become that sweetness. And then it can be felt all over the body - not just in the mouth, not just on the tongue: it can be felt all over the body!…It is beautiful to taste, it is beautiful to be sensitive. And if you are more sensitive you will be more alive, and if you are more alive, then more life will enter your inner being. You will be more open." The Book of the Secrets 3 .

The more sensitised you become the less likely you are to eat junk. Soon you find that instant gratification no longer appeals to you, for you know what is like to satisfy the deep hunger. And when you are open you are ready to receive…

tags: kahlil  gibran  pleasure  spiritual