Ecstasy Changes Everything

The present moment is really an opening, so it has no duration–you are in the now when time ceases to exist. Perhaps the best way to gain such an experience is to realize that the word present is linked to the word presence. When the present moment becomes filled with a presence that is all-absorbing, completely at peace, and totally satisfying, you are in the now.

Presence isn’t an experience. Presence is felt whenever awareness is open enough. The situation at hand doesn’t have to bear any responsibility. Paradoxically, someone can be in intense pain, only to find that in the middle of his suffering, the mind – unable to tolerate the body’s torment – suddenly decides to abandon it. This is particularly true of psychological pain – soldiers caught in the terror of battle report a moment of liberation when intense stress is replaced by a rush of ecstatic release.

Ecstasy changes everything. The body is no longer heavy and slow; the mind stops experiencing its background music of sadness and fear. There is a dropping away of personality, replaced by the sweetness of nectar. This sweetness can linger a long time in the heart – some people say it can be tasted like honey in the mouth – but when it leaves, you know beyond doubt that you have lost the now.

In the mind’s scrapbook, you can insert a picture of perfect bliss, and that becomes like the first taste of ice cream, an unattainable goal you keep running after, only to find that ecstasy remains out of reach.

The secret of ecstasy is that you have to throw it away once you’ve found it.

If we take away the vocabulary of sweetness and bliss and nectar, the quality that is missing in most people’s lives, the biggest thing that keeps them from being present, is sobriety. You have to be sober before you can be ecstatic. This isn’t a paradox. What you’re hunting for – call it presence, the now, or ecstasy – is totally out of reach.

Adapted from The Book of Secrets, by Deepak Chopra (Harmony Books, 2004).

Read more: Deepak Chopra's Tips, Spirit, ecstasy, presence, sobriety

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Jake C.

4:05PM PST on Dec 12, 2011

I love this abstract stuff.

send a green star

Jewels S.

4:00PM PST on Dec 12, 2011

It is very abstract. This doesn't seem to help when you are in misery. I understand this info more when I am enjoying the good feelings. I am not there but am trying and trying to keep faith I will get back there again.

Belinda M.

8:38PM PST on Dec 11, 2011

Deepak, Deepak, Deepak! How do you get away with this drivel?

Ecstasy is knowing you've got the market cornered on pre-packaged, dumbed-down spiritual-sounding claptrap.

Judith V.

8:54PM PST on Dec 9, 2011

My idea of ecstasy is found in simple things. The excitement of waiting for someone you miss to arrive. Finding a unique snowflake, pebble, or designs in nature that stun and mystify. Also, listening or being involved in something that stimulates the neurons in the brain, like well-composed music, art, or other invention. Now THAT is ecstasy!

Sunida K.

1:30AM PST on Dec 8, 2011

The present moment brings ecstasy.

Jane B.

10:56PM PST on Dec 7, 2011

Let me clarify, a good orgasm cures stupifying boredom and bitterness. ;) Putting yourself in a
trance, not as much.

Wild T.

5:55PM PST on Dec 7, 2011

Except when we are in the present tense and turning into a military police state with multiple blacklisting databases and becoming a bandana republic too then the ecstacy is more tense rather than intense...

Jennifer C.

4:18PM PST on Dec 7, 2011

Great article. Thanks.

Sharon S.

2:00PM PST on Dec 7, 2011

Yes, indeed it does.... many Blissings to all :)

Brian M.

1:00PM PST on Dec 7, 2011

I experienced satori once decades ago. Sadly, I have never reached it again. Life without bliss is just stupefying work and bitterness.