The Intuition of Paradise Lost

This text explores the universal intuition of an original spiritual dimension. The author analyzes the distinction between the mind and the soul, defined as the subtle identity of Man. He describes the process of incarnation and liberation (Moksha) aimed at perfect bliss (Satçitanand).

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Summary: This text explores the universal intuition of an original spiritual dimension, from the Sumerian myth of Dilmun to the notion of Paradise Lost. The author analyzes the distinction between the mind and the soul, defined as the subtle identity of Man. Through the concepts of Tao, Samsara, and Purusha (the essential soul), it describes the process of incarnation and liberation (Moksha) aimed at perfect bliss (Satçitanand). The text offers insight into human suffering linked to the thirst for the absolute, while repositioning romantic love as a joy useful to human happiness, provided one maintains self-awareness and inner peace.

Text

It is often a matter of Paradise Lost, a myth dating back to 3,000 BCE with the Myth of Enki and Ninhursag. Long before the writing of the Bible, this Sumerian text describes a place called Dilmun. It was a place of purity: the text specifies that in Dilmun, the lion does not kill, the wolf does not snatch the lamb, and disease does not exist. It is a garden where neither old age nor weeping is known.

This story is the oldest because it was written in cuneiform, and before that, there was no writing. The era before writing, when stories were passed down orally, is prehistory. Just because nothing was recorded in writing does not mean the idea of a paradise did not exist.

A Spiritual Intuition

This intuition of a dimension better than that of life on Earth was certainly not that of a paradise in the modern sense. For if Paradise Lost is a look toward the past (the nostalgia for a perfect origin), the idea of Paradise is generally a look toward the future (a promise after death). The hope that death is not the end likely dates back even further.

Why the persistence of this intuition? Setting aside the visceral fear of death, one must, to understand it, admit the existence of an identity of Man more subtle than simple thought and instincts. This subtle identity, I will designate by a word that is overused but speaks to everyone: the "soul."

I believe that the intuition of a life that would last longer than existence is not the work of the mind, but that it comes from the soul, whatever name you give to this fundamental principle of being. The concepts that clothe this intuition do come from the mind, but the intuition itself is deeper.

Reminiscences and Reincarnation

It is as if the soul had a memory, that of its origin. For the soul has an origin: it comes from the All, or Tao, as Lao-Tzu said, and it is destined to return there in full consciousness and freedom. This is even the goal of incarnation and reincarnation. The goal of the first incarnation is to give "raw matter" a consciousness.

This "raw matter," having gained an individual consciousness through the addition of the ego, is the incarnated soul. The goal of successive reincarnations (Samsara) is to "refine" this incarnated soul until it is capable of merging, in full consciousness, into this Tao, this All, or as Jesus called it, the Kingdom.

The incarnated soul, endowed with an ego (self-awareness) and the mind (Citta), must find itself in harmony with Purusha, the essential soul. Once this identity is acquired, Liberation from the chains of Samsara allows the soul to return to its origin. This is then Satçitanand: the perfect consciousness of bliss.

"Liberation is attained when there is identity of purity between Sattva and Purusha." (Yoga-Sutras, 3.55)

In truth, the incarnated soul has no memory in the usual sense. Even if modern theories speak of Akashic records, it has instead traces of its past lives: residues or Samskaras, which define its degree of evolution. But precise memories of its previous incarnations? I do not believe so.

At the moment of incarnation, the soul is bound to the ego so that it may be aware of itself and thus possess free will. It also receives the mental system so that it can learn, speak, and live in the material world. But the "original matter" of Purusha remains the essence of its constitution, and this is not without effect: the thirst for the absolute likely comes from there.

Misunderstood Suffering

As long as you do not identify the source of this thirst, it generates within you a suffering that is difficult to soothe. This is the latent, chronic suffering, the frustration that pushes you toward the unrestrained consumption of material goods and pleasures in the hope, constantly disappointed, of relieving it.

It is a lost cause, for pleasures and possessions cannot fill this lack of the perfect bliss of which you carry traces within you, and upon which your mind does not know what word to place.

Romantic Love and Human Happiness

In the West, the mind invented romanticism, sentiments, and courtly love. Educated "at the breast of these ideas," many seek the man or woman of their lives as if another person could give meaning to their existence! It is a display of morbid modesty to imagine they were born to love one person and be loved by them, that without someone else, they are incomplete! This idea, though beautiful, can blind if it becomes the sole purpose. Without self-awareness, they go from disappointment to disappointment, from suffering to suffering, letting their spirits sour as the years pass.

Through separations, painful divorces, and nervous breakdowns, from which they only recover after many years, they dwindle like a shrinking skin, withered, believing in nothing, embittered. Yet bliss is there, within us, and we can taste it at will. If, tasting this bliss, the desire comes to you to share it, and it happens that life with someone adds to the harmony a tenderness made of understanding and sharing, then all the better! Love for someone can be full of joy, complicity, and pleasure; it is useful to the happiness of human life. It is not forbidden to enjoy, to have pleasure, and to love living in this world; it is simply a pity to lose oneself in error and let time slip away in doubt and pain.

Starting from the Right Point

You can do everything: study, work, write, play music, play sports, live as a couple, start a family, buy a house, drive sports cars, engage in politics, etc. But you must start from the right point, in full consciousness. The consciousness of the soul is the right point to stand to exist and do all that one must, wants, and can, while remaining in inner peace. Here and now is the right place and the right time.

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