The fire of life: Ecstasy as a default state of being
Channel: Quest for a Meaningful Life
Date: 2021-01-10

What is the fire of life, this feeling of being alive, this feeling of wonder and amazement, euphoria, ecstasy even, that we exist, and we have a chance to be alive and experience this universe?
Imagine actually having this feeling.
I'm sure almost all of us, we've had this feeling.
And some of us know it more than others.
And the more I think about it, the more this seems like a central thing in having a meaningful life.
Simply the feeling of being alive, feeling that feeling, feeling the mystery, the wonder, the amazement, of being alive.
Now, even as I say these words, it sounds almost like a kind of fantasy.
Like could you imagine going through life in sort of a state of ecstasy, that "Oh my God, I'm alive! It's amazing that I'm alive!"
It's hard to imagine going through life like that, because every day is full of all these mundane concerns.
And it's easy to say, of course, "Look beyond the mundane concerns, and see the basic wonder of life behind it."
But when those everyday concerns are in our face, it almost sounds ridiculous to say "Stop worrying about your financial issues, your health issues, your relationship issues. Those are all mundane. You should just be dancing in ecstasy that you are alive."
So it becomes hard to even take seriously.
But it seems to me that we have a lot more access to that feeling than we allow.
This cloud of mundane concerns just seems to so easily take over our minds.
And we think about these day-to-day issues, and they take up most of our day.
They take up most of our time and our attention.
And yet behind that, there's always this other way of looking at things, where we simply are open to experiencing the wonder of being alive.
And that's always there.
It's always there behind it.
And we may have moments when it comes out, such as nature can be one thing that brings it out.
Art, and especially music.
You may get it from comedy, when we're laughing.
Romance.
And friendship.
And anything that brings joy and brings a feeling of wonder and celebration.
I think it's so easy for us to say that "I can't have that feeling because of my problems.
My problems are requiring me to have this mundane outlook.
And then maybe once I solve my mundane problems, I will be able to have this ecstatic outlook."
But the mundane problems never go away.
We always have mundane problems.
And sometimes they're very big problems.
So it's so easy to just put off this ecstatic view and just sort of even just imagine that it's not even real.
It's not even realistic.
It's just a fantasy to even imagine that we can feel this way.
Or maybe try to obtain this ecstatic outlook through use of drugs and addictions.
That sometimes even unconsciously, it's like we go into these addictions because of that hunger for that ecstatic state.
And even if we don't even realize that it's connected to that, there's a part of us, I think, that wants to experience that ecstatic state, that joy of life.
And we're so blocked from experiencing it so often, and it seems to kind of leak out in unexpected ways, that we just sort of find ways to get that transcendent feeling one way or another.
So I don't have any way to make mundane concerns disappear.
They're always going to be there, and they will always interfere.
And I don't expect life to be a continuous ecstasy.
But I think that one way to look at this differently is, instead of seeing the fundamental, basic, default state of living is everyday concerns about small local problems - which may seem very big to us at the time, but local problems to ourselves - dealing with problems, dealing with mundane concerns: seeing that as the basic default state of life, which is occasionally broken by states of ecstasy, celebration, joy of being alive, as occasional vacations from our default state of mundanity.
Instead, we can simply flip that.
Imagine that what if the default state of living, the basic state, is to be in this kind of state of ecstasy and joy and wonder at the simple fact of existing?
And imagine that is the default state.
Which then is sort of clouded over and distracted by our everyday concerns are constantly popping up and distracting us away from that.
And yet that is the basic state to which we can always return.
So I would be curious to hear your feedback on this, as always.
Is this possible?
Or is it just a fantasy of how we can approach life?
And if it is possible, how can we encourage and help ourselves to have this more positive vision?

#ecstaticlife #fireoflife #joyofliving