Having an Epiphany

At a certain season we grow tired of legs walking, eyes seeing, mouth eating and , yes, of 'I being I'. We want to sleep, to dissolve, to dream of some sweet stream singing its peaceful song. As this is the season now, and the month is January, I connect this feeling strongly with the period which Christians refer to as Epiphany. We talk loosely about 'having an epiphany' or going through an epiphany experience. What does this mean? In essence, we're talking about an experience of enlargement; a kind of mathematical translation whereby our normal inner form is temporarily expanded into its cosmic counterpart: an all-seeing, all-understanding eye on the world. Conversely, one could say that the cosmic 'I' contracts into its physical self and confers infinite release. This was the situation with regard to the baptism in the Jordan. In fact this was the exact intention of baptism by total submersion: to effect this 'release' of self into cosmos and cosmos into self. Therefore we can relate the experience back to the mundane desire to dream of some sweet stream singing its peaceful song.

Ah, to give up the body and this dull, repetitive life on earth! A feeling so typical of the first month of the year. Unfortunately, what the body represents is far, far deeper than we normally realize. You could say that we are 'submerged' in our bodily nature just as in the baptism we are submerged in water. It is far more difficult to climb out of it than dreams and wishes suppose. Through meditation and, for example, mindfulness on the passage of the seasons, you can gain a foothold, build a shelter in the world beyond the body, to which you can return through effort when you need to. But another possibility opens up. The mouth, as well as taking in food, is there for speaking; the eyes, apart from dully seeing, are there to revere - for revering; the legs, routinely walking, can also ascend; and the 'I', so much accustomed to simply being, can radiate outwards through its own nature. In short, the cosmic self can live, awakened, in the small being we consider to be ourself.

This is the greater meaning of the epiphany experience and one which translates our mundane normality into something of far greater significance.

Jay

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