In the Tantric texts on Spanda, the divine creative pulsation, it states that if we lose the essential delight which is our true nature, then we will experience a state of depression or melancholy. This is oft mentioned in Yogic texts that this feeling of separation is what leads us to Yoga. These writings therefore suggest that mental and emotional states such as depression can be alleviated by knowing your true self , and that the lifting of something such as this state of depression leads to the ending of all manner of ailments in the body and mind, which may have arisen from this.
Candace Perts research on psychoneuroimmonology has shown that mental and emotional states are produced all over the body, not just the brain, therefore the state of say melancholy, actually manifests in the body. For example she explains that nerve cells have long, finger like endings that reach out, sending neuropeptides to other cells. When we are sad the nerves produce these, which communicate sadness to all the cells in the body, so that our very skin, bones are sad, it is written upon us, as is often witnessed in our facial expression.
Yoga has indicated this for millennia, that what occurs in one part of ourselves occurs in the rest.
The state of Yoga is often described as Samadhi, one of the definition of which is bliss and delight, direct experience of ourselves and this moment s sacred and magical.
William Blake wrote in his poem ” Auguries of innocence, “To see a World in a Grain of Sand And a Heaven in a Wild Flower, Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand And Eternity in an hour”
From a piece of poetry like this, or our own recognition of this timeless beauty of life, in a moment, an interaction with another, a piece of art or music etc, we immediately feel uplifted, the effect of this filtering out into ourselves.
The term follow your bliss is quite liberally used, but it is perhaps worth considering. For when it’s this bliss that directs us towards choices, we are feeding ourselves with that quality, we are becoming bliss itself, we are becoming an emanation of it. As Pert suggests in her work, it then not only is communicated through our body, but also into our interaction with the world around us.
