{"id":1635,"date":"2010-01-01T05:12:12","date_gmt":"2010-01-01T04:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chaosnode.net\/blog\/?p=1635"},"modified":"2010-01-01T05:12:12","modified_gmt":"2010-01-01T04:12:12","slug":"50th-year-come-and-gone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chaosnode.net\/blog\/2010\/01\/01\/50th-year-come-and-gone\/","title":{"rendered":"50th year come and gone"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Illustration picture from the anime Kimi ni Todoke, which should mean “Reaching You”. \u00c2\u00a0One can only hope.<\/em><\/p>\n

So by “coincidence”, as some people believe in, I found this small poem by William Butler Yeats on a friend’s blog last night. \u00c2\u00a0He only uses a few words from it, but it struck me straight in the forehead, because it describes in condensed beauty something I have tried repeatedly to write about, but don’t seem to have uploaded anywhere on this site. So, take it away Yeats!<\/p>\n

My fiftieth year had come and gone.
\nI sat, a solitary man,
\nIn a crowded London shop,
\nAn open book and empty cup
\nOn the marble table-top.<\/em><\/p>\n

While on the shop and street I gazed
\nMy body for a moment blazed,
\nAnd twenty minutes, more or less
\nIt seemed, so great my happiness,
\nThat I was blessed, and could bless.<\/em><\/p>\n

Does this sound familiar? Apart from the fact that I turned 51 last week, I mean. What he describes is what I in my old journal entries called “pleasure attacks”, but which Ryuho Okawa more precisely calls “moments of bliss”. \u00c2\u00a0Okawa, author of The Science of Happiness<\/em> where he also writes about this and much more, has a theory that people start having more and more of these moments if they love knowledge for its own sake, not as a tool. \u00c2\u00a0He specifically mentions reading lots of books as a typical activity for this kind of people. \u00c2\u00a0So it is disturbingly spot on when you see the poem and its open book image.<\/p>\n

Of course Okawa may well have read Yeats, but I had not when I first started writing about this phenomenon. At the time I also had no idea about its connection to the love of knowledge and reading, but I have had several online friends verify this.<\/p>\n

It is interesting that the moment of bliss (or blaze, as Yeats dubs this barely containable surge of energy) is associated with being blessed and able to bless. It is in other words a deeply spiritual experience, and one aimed beyond the individual who receives it. \u00c2\u00a0This fits with Okawa’s theory that the bliss is an early stage of inspiration, caused by being close to High Spirits (angels, saints, saviors, or at a minimum the spirits of great artists or leaders that have gone before us). \u00c2\u00a0These spirits live in the Realm of Light and above, and this Light and life and joy radiates from them to people who come close to them. \u00c2\u00a0(Not geographically, but by alignment of the mind.)<\/p>\n

When inspiration breaks through in a clearer form, its purpose is always to create or bring into the world something of lasting value, some contribution to the beauty or knowledge or virtue that goes beyond the individual. \u00c2\u00a0It is indeed like a Light from above breaking through into this world.<\/p>\n

The purpose then is not my pleasure as an ego. \u00c2\u00a0It would anyway be meaningless for me to love knowledge for its own sake in order to experience this bliss, because then it would no longer be for its own sake. This paradox vanishes when I realize that I am not just blessed for my own sake, but on behalf of those around me.<\/p>\n

As for why most of us don’t really begin to see these things until we are past the midday of our lives… I guess it may be a natural cycle of life, but there are some few who arrive sooner (and many who die from old age having never reached it). So I just notice that this is how it was for Yeats and me, although Okawa seems to have passed this way before he was 30. \u00c2\u00a0Your mileage may vary. \u00c2\u00a0But as long as you live, it is not to late to be blessed and to bless. \u00c2\u00a0And perhaps even after this life, for some?<\/p>\n

In any case, my 50th year was one in which I learned a whole lot about the spiritual dimension of life. That won’t help me unless I actually become transformed, of course. But it is still quite interesting. \u00c2\u00a0It really is as if a new quality is opening to life. It reminds me of when I was in high school and for fun put on my cousin’s glasses. And suddenly realized that it was possible to see the world clearly at a distance. Until then I had thought that humans simply did not see individual leaves on a tree until coming quite close, and that things far away were inherently foggy. \u00c2\u00a0Suddenly everything came into focus, and when I got my own glasses shortly after, I spent weeks just staring at things, amazed at the rich details of the world.<\/p>\n

It’s happening again. \u00c2\u00a0I truly am blessed, but do I manage to share that blessing? I wonder. \u00c2\u00a0I should try harder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Illustration picture from the anime Kimi ni Todoke, which should mean “Reaching You”. \u00c2\u00a0One can only hope. So by “coincidence”, as some people believe in, I found this small poem by William Butler Yeats on a friend’s blog last night. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,19,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-human-mind","category-philosophy","category-religion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chaosnode.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chaosnode.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chaosnode.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chaosnode.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chaosnode.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1635"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.chaosnode.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1641,"href":"https:\/\/www.chaosnode.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1635\/revisions\/1641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chaosnode.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chaosnode.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chaosnode.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}