The Ecstatic Bliss of Being

Introduction to the book

Herein awaits a collection of spiritual writings that spans fifty years. However, most of the entries are as new as daffodils in the spring. A few of them, maybe ten percent, were printed in your author’s previous books. It is your author’s wish that everyone be happy and that is the underpinning of this book. But what is ‘happy’ pray tell? Happy is simple but most of us have lost the path of ‘simple.’ It is simply the ecstatic bliss of being. When everything about the past and the future and the layers of the mind are peeled away, what remains is the ecstatic bliss of being.

An infant has this but the infant is not aware of it. To the infant, it’s just what is. As children we still had it. Everything was a trip. We were excited and motivated over the simplest of things. When we were toddlers, walking through a water puddle was the crème de la crème. There were no bad movies and no bad actors. There were no bad people. We accepted everyone and everything because there was no basis for judgment. Everything in this book is about our return to this glorious state of being. The ecstatic bliss of just being. This is the place of innocence – childlike innocence. It is still there deep within us but it has been covered up by the mind and its excursion into egoistic thinking. As Amma says, that childlike innocence deep within us is God.

Love is another word to describe the ecstatic bliss of being. Everything swims in a vast endless sea of love. Galaxies, stars, planets, living creatures and plants grow in the fertile soil of love. We are also love but we have lost sight of this truth. The sky is love, cats are love… well, you get the idea.

Love is the first insight to visit your author. It occurred at the age of 19 in 1967 while standing on the front porch of a small three-room house in Sierra Madre, California. I beheld a commanding view of the San Gabriel Mountains. We were right in the foot hills. As these eyes gazed in awe at the beauty of it, a realization came from nowhere. It landed with the ferocity of a piano that had been dropped from the 18th floor of an apartment building. It was spectacularly sudden and without any warning. But there it was, shining in that teenage mind which had struggled feverishly to make sense of anything. There it was as clear as the sun in a cloudless sky. Love is the only thing in all of existence that has any meaning. Love is the only thing truly solid and eternal.

And so, that’s where it all began and this profound experience has brought us to this book. Not that this book is the end of it all, but most certainly love is what it is. May we walk through this life with love in one hand and innocence in the other. In so doing we will glow with the ecstatic bliss of being

In this book, there are two characters who are presented with sayings. One is Narvis Peabody and the other is Ananda Devi (bliss of the Divine Mother). Both of these are pseudonyms used by your author primarily for posting quotes written by your author on social media.

Your author bows before his guru Amma a.k.a. Mata Amritanandamayi, who is the very incarnation of love and without whom this book never would have been written.

A Priceless Gem
Here is a suggestion for a very effective spiritual practice.
When you have the time and space for it, say the words The Ecstatic Bliss of Being. You can say this out loud if there is no one within earshot, otherwise say it mentally.

As you say these words reflect deeply on the meaning. Next look inside to the core of your being. Be aware of the ‘beingness’ that is right now buoying everything about you. Be astonished at the beingness that is right now.
Next try to feel the bliss that that radiates from this beingness. Reach deeply within yourself with your feeling nature. At first you may not feel anything but, if you persist with this, you will begin to feel the faint glow of bliss. Keep practicing and your awareness of being and your ability to feel bliss with grow and expand. Keep at it.

You will discover a wonderful place of refuge that you can go to at any time. It will color your mind and world with an eternal happiness that has always been there but was hidden. It was hidden because we had long since turned away from it. We were distracted by the things of the world.