Episode 079 - The Sea of Mirth Itself

Stop Making Yourself Miserable

In the last two episodes, I discussed the Higher Mind Training, which is a unique personal growth program that is being prepared for release by the Better Angels Publishing Company. I also mentioned that for the past six months I have been teaching some of its basic understandings and techniques to the counselors and residents of the James A. Casey House in Wilkes-Barre, PA, which is an innovative halfway house where about fifty men live, recovering from the effects of severe alcohol and substance abuse.

This effort has been kind of an experiment because although I have been speaking about and teaching the fundamentals of the training for many years, I have never exposed it to a population of this kind and had no idea what to expect. The results have been deeply inspiring.

It’s been obvious that these guys have never heard anything about their greater inner potential before. Neither well-educated nor well-funded, most of them have been beaten down by the external world for most of their existence. They’ve been told that they are losers, that they’ve basically ruined their lives and that the road ahead of them is a dangerous, thorny, uphill climb, with a high probability that they’ll fail in their efforts to recover.

Suddenly, they’re being given new information - that they were born geniuses and that they still have the genius potential inside of them. And most importantly, that they’re not their minds, Even though it may be filled with anger, fear and thousands of other forms of negativity, their finite mind with its vicious inner critic is not who they are. It’s just one part of a much larger intelligence that they have. And they don’t have to buy into the miserable story that it’s telling them all day long. They can let it go and move on, because there’s a bright road ahead of them if they choose to choose it.

We also show them a few simple inner exercises and even though they may get only a brief introduction to inner freedom, it’s clearly a liberating experience for them and it’s been an incredible phenomenon to watch. After one exercise, a resident smiled at me in disbelief and said, “I have never felt anything like this before in my life.”

During these months, as I began to prepare for the return of the podcast schedule, I decided to make some of the key points of the training available to all our podcast subscribers. There is still quite a lot of work to be done prior to the program’s release and I wanted to make this information available to you now. You may find it to be quite helpful and there’s no reason for you to have to wait.

Now although a lot of what I am going to present to you may seem basic at first, just take it in. I have found that most people have never had a clear introduction to these inner fundamentals and having a clear understanding of them can be critical to our long-term happiness. Afterall, they pertain to the achievement of our highest human potential, which will enhance every area of our lives.

So, let’s begin with a somewhat tricky problem that can be a real barrier to the growth of our inner awareness and that is – on a certain level, we’re know-it-alls. We think we already know everything. Now I’m only talking about a relatively small part of our mind, but it has a pretty loud voice.

And there is a companion trait that comes along with being a know-it-all and that is - we like to be right. Actually, we love to be right, but we make far too much out of it. And it’s not just an annoying trait, it can be downright dangerous. When it gets out of hand, wars can start with terrible catastrophes following.

Sometimes you have to wonder: why are we so proud about being right, anyway? Being right isn’t such a big accomplishment. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. This particular part of our mind isn’t really such a big deal. It’s bark is much worse than its bite, but if we want to grow, we really do need to grow beyond it.

It reminds me of a story from the old days, and I mean the thousands of years old days, when a student approached a master and asked to be taught knowledge of the inner self. “Let’s have some tea first,” the master said.

He then poured the student a cup of tea. When the cup was full, he stopped for a few seconds and said, “Here, let me give you a little more.” The master then poured more tea on top of the filled cup and the tea ran onto the saucer. The master kept pouring more tea onto the cup and it ran onto the table. He kept pouring and it ran over the table onto the ground. He kept pouring for a few more moments, then he looked at the would-be student.

“You see, all the tea that was poured into your filled cup just ran off and ended up on the ground. It was a complete waste and never did you or anybody else any good. Is that right?” he asked, and the student nodded.

“You see, you have to empty your cup before you can fill it.” So typical of Ancient Wisdom - an extremely simple statement with an extremely profound meaning.

By the way, this know-it-all, love-to-be-right trait isn’t bound to only individuals. Every culture throughout history seems to think that it’s completely advanced. Even the most appalling barbaric ones thought they were great. So, both as individuals and as societies we remain proud of our so-called knowledge.

And this always leads me to one of my favorite quotes, which comes from Thomas Edison, who is still considered to be one of the greatest inventors of all times. He is credited with over a thousand patented inventions including the light bulb, the phonograph, the motion picture, and the telegraph. Pretty impressive! Probably one of the smartest humans ever!

Well, here’s his view about the state of our knowledge. “We don’t know one millionth of one percent about anything,” he said. Hearing that phrase and knowing that it comes from him always makes me humble. And when it comes to inner growth, humility is one of the most reliable allies we have.

With that, let’s quickly recall that famous study that was commissioned by NASA in which Dr. George Land found that 98% of us begin life as creative geniuses and remain that way though the age of five. Then it progressively diminishes until by our early twenties, only two percent of us are in the genius category. But according to Dr. Land, this remarkable level of intelligence remains within us and can be recovered relatively quickly.

Personally, the thought that there are advanced levels of consciousness within our intelligence that we have not yet discovered has always intrigued me and through research I have found that this concept has been expressed in every culture and religion throughout human history. I have mentioned in a previous episode that one of my favorite ideas about this is the inner state called Satchitanand, as expressed in Vedantic philosophy.

The term can be broken down into three components: Sat, which is truth. Chit, which is consciousness and Anand, which is bliss.

The ancient teaching is that although we may not be aware of it, there is a profound state within us which is connected to eternal truth, unending happiness, and immortal contentment. Together, they represent the ultimate reality or supreme principle, which exists both within and without. George Harrison expressed the concept in his classic song, “Within You Without You.”

Personally, I fell in love with the idea when I first heard the song on the Sergeant Pepper album. I was in college at the time, it was the late sixties and

chaos had become the societal norm. Things were falling apart as quickly as they were coming together, but as George put it, “When you see beyond yourself you may find that peace of mind is waiting there.”

Now, with the idea that there is a pristine state of peace, consciousness and bliss within our awareness, along with Dr. Land’s conclusion that we are in a genius state of consciousness from birth through age five, I started thinking about our early years, especially before the age of three. It seemed to me that if a toddler is not hungry, tired or in need of being changed, and nothing external is bothering them, they seem to exist in a most amazing state of being. They’re creative, expressive and completely aware. And they’re incredibly happy. Indeed, according to current research the average toddler laughs about 300 times a day.

Of course, we can blow right by that number but stop and think about it. That’s a lot of laughter. So, what are they laughing about? They don’t have much of an understanding about anything in the so-caller real world, so they’re not laughing at a good joke or because they just found out they unexpectedly came into a ton of money. No. The fact is they’re not laughing at anything at all. They don’t need a reason to be happy. They just exist in a state of consciousness that is inherently joyful. And a countless number of masters and teachers over thousands of years, have told us that this state of consciousness is within us now.

In that regard, I’m reminded of a poem called “Samadhi” that was written by the great teacher Paramhansa Yogananda. Samadhi is a term that refers to the highest meditative state where the individual achieves union with the Divine. He wrote it after he first experienced it as a yogi and this is the ending - “Spotless is my mental sky. Below, ahead, and high above - Eternity and I, one united ray. I, a tiny bubble of laughter, have become the Sea of Mirth Itself.”

Can you imagine that? Living in a state of inner consciousness where you have transcended the bonds of earth life and merged with the Divine. And what about that term - the Sea of Mirth itself? The dictionary defines “mirth” as abundant gladness expressed by laughter. I don’t know about you, but with all the ideas about God and heaven that I’ve been taught throughout my whole life, and believe me, that’s a lot of ideas – I never came across the idea of God being abundantly happy and expressing it with laughter. The big guy they taught me about seemed to be pretty pissed most of the time and was always ready to smite somebody. Well, so much for concepts.

But also, to appreciate the incredible state of being that we have within us, we don’t have to go looking for some arcane, yogic, meditative state. It’s much simpler than that. We can just look within our own heart, which is already filled with what Lincoln called “the better angels of our nature.” There are hundreds of average, everyday traits that we have within our awareness that are miraculous in their own way. Love, gratitude, kindness, generosity, integrity, and compassion are just a few.

So, if we start out life in this incredible state of consciousness and it is all within us right now, a most obvious question comes up: What happened to us? And more importantly, what can happen for us? Well, we’ve covered a lot of ground here and as you might guess, this will be the topic of the next episode. As always, keep your eyes, mind and heart open and let’s get together in the next one…