BEYOND ECSTASY

ECSTASY — A POTENTIAL TRAP

I recently wrote in praise of ecstatic experience and the spiritual connections. I retract none of that, but now add to it.

Due to the glorious impact of the ecstatic experience from sex to spiritual awakening, it can easily trap us in its embrace. When in the throws of estatic experience thinking stops. Interest in anything beyond the moment ceases. Only the moment exists. This is wonderful, but extraordinarily restricting.

When captured by the unspeakably wondrous experience of ecstasy, there can be no imagination of anything more, and one is more than content to continue in the experience in the eternal now.

The only way I know to explore beyond the moment of ecstasy is to prepare yourself ahead of the experience to be able to let it go for a time, to force ourselves to temporarily step away from it and consider “what next”, for there is something grand beyond words, beyond ecstatic experience.

To explore for what may lay beyond ecstasy requires a great leap supported by a rare discipline.

What could be worth the temporary relinquishment of the greatest experience one has ever encountered in order to merely explore on faith? That faith is supported by the testimony of many credible people.

I will clearly state now I have not had the experience waiting beyond ecstasy. I can only guess as to its nature. As Paul in his Corinthians letters beautifully listed out the fruits “of the Spirit”, including the…