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Lakshmi Series

Spiritual Absorption

Lakshmi Series - Spiritual Absorption

Spiritual Absorption. The purpose of life is to be absorbed in spirit.

Spirit is an undefinable reality that exists within us, around us and beyond us. Spirit is the essence of all existence. When we see life or the world, time, matter and experience, we feel that life is solid, that it's visceral, that it has meaning. In the world of matter we're born, we grow, develop, decay, decline and die. In this world that's all there is - growth, maturation, decay and death. We are all on the wheel of time. Time gives us birth, time gives us death and time gives us rebirth.

One must accept the transitory nature of all things and what's more, absolutely delight in them.

There is a way beyond time, beyond birth, beyond death and rebirth. The way is not to avoid birth, death and rebirth. The way is not to avoid pleasure and pain, hope and sorrow, sadness and frustration. The way is not to accept nor is it to reject. The way is to become without becoming, to act without reason, without hope, without disbelief, without antagonism. The way is to be absorbed, to be absorbed in eternity itself. Not just to think of God or see God or feel God or even to be God, but to be absorbed, to enter into that endless ocean we call nirvana, to be absorbed, to return to the source, to become immortality itself.

Absorption always exists, always has existed and always will exist. Absorption is not so much a state of mind or being as it is a clear perception of reality. Reality comes in many forms: people, places, histories, pasts, presents, futures, civilizations, planets, universes, lokas, deities. Absorption does not negate any of these things. Spiritual absorption is not an ending nor is it exactly a beginning. It's simply the integration of that which is and that which is not. You are and at the same time you are not. You are this moment, but you're not the next. You are this week, but you're not next week. You are this life, this moment, yet you're trapped in time.

You think of the future. You live for the future, planning, thinking, evaluating, always hoping that if everything is properly aligned it will all work out. But you must understand, in this world, in this loka, in this physical dimension, on this earth, in this world of time and change, nothing lasts. Everything here is transitory. Your life will end; this world will end. Nothing lasts. The nature of this world is dissolution and transformation. To feel that you can accomplish something that will last is wrong. Nothing lasts. Nor is that wrong, it's not supposed to. This world is eternity as all worlds are eternity. Eternity takes many shapes and forms but ultimately eternity is formless, meaning it can adapt any form and yet at the same time its essence remains beyond form.

The truth of all ages is this: be absorbed. Don't think that spiritual realization, peace, joy, comfort, happiness will come to you because these things, like all things, are transitory illusions. If happiness comes today, tomorrow unhappiness will follow it. If peace comes today, the next day disruption will come. Just when your system is all worked out, something will upset it. That is the nature of this world, that is correct. To be upset about that is foolish.

Rama smiling with his arms crossed wearing a designer suit
Seeing is the ability to tell what really is.

The works of Rama – Dr. Frederick Lenz are reprinted or included here with permission from

The Frederick P. Lenz Foundation for American Buddhism.