Experience is not what happens

Aldous Huxley was a devoted spiritual seeker and explorer of consciousness. Perhaps most known in life for his experiences with mescaline as described in The Doors of Perception, and hardly known in death for having passed a few hours following the assassination of John F. Kennedy; Huxley understood the immanent nature of divinity within all things.

This eternal Reality, Huxley noted, could not be perceived from within the realm of worldly cause and effect. The belief that the sources of joy and suffering lie in the actions of others and the circumstances of life precludes apprehension of any sacred encounter. The affairs of the body must be transcended to touch God.

Yet it is through the body that such ascendance might occur. If we're willing to look.

Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him. —Aldous Huxley

Each incident provides us with an opportunity to deepen the dream or awaken in awe. If we think that happiness and sadness are functions of material or psychological constituency, then the further we descend into secular rationality. On the other hand, if the occurrence precipitates an introspective consideration of compassion, then we rise toward the sublime stillness of infinite Love.

As we read in A Course in Miracles:

When you meet anyone, remember it is a holy encounter. As you see him you will see yourself. As you treat him you will treat yourself. As you think of him you will think of yourself. Never forget this, for in him you will find yourself or lose yourself.

To which Huxley was alluding. What we do with what happens makes all the experience. Thus each instance offers true freedom. Finding our Self by losing our self.

Join me in Thursday's class where we'll discuss the nature of bodily identification and practices we can cultivate to shift perception from pain to peace. I look forward to seeing you then.