The Master Key

Buddha World

Awareness Is One

Consider the following scenario. It’s Saturday night and a young woman is sitting at the bar with some friends, chatting and sipping a glass of wine. As she glances across the room, she makes eye contact with an alluring pair of dark eyes. Their pupils lock. Awareness suddenly meets awareness, and for a brief moment, both are lost in dreamy, timeless space. Then a waiter walks across their line of sight and their eye contact is abruptly broken. Later the young woman tries to reestablish the connection. Both sets of eyes meet up again, but this time the glances are tentative and shallow. The two become self-conscious and look away uncomfortably.

Most of us can relate to some version of this scenario. At one time or another we too connected with a person and experienced a moment that bordered on a mystical union, and then later, instead of feeling that oneness again, we experienced a chasm as huge as the Grand Canyon.

This simple scenario represents a snapshot of two extremely different kinds of realities we can inhabit. In the first instance we encounter Buddha World, the reality that opens up to us when we are grounded in our true nature through our Awakened Awareness. In this state we experience the universe and everything in it as a singular, unified field that includes you as well as me.

In Buddha World me plus you equals one. And not just the two of us, but me plus you plus every other human being roaming the planet. From this perspective, all seven billion of us are like trees of different species and varying sizes in a vast forest, all rooted to the same common ground: the ground of awareness. And any time two or more people relate from that ground, they enter Buddha World and experience that mystical feeling of oneness arising effortlessly, even if they are strangers.

So the first time the two characters in our scenario made eye contact, they were standing in Buddha World. They shared an “enlightened” moment and experienced one awareness reflecting back on itself across their perspectives.

The other reality we can inhabit is a divided, polarized, and fragmented world where we run around as unawakened personalities constantly changing relative identities like carnival masks, unaware of the underlying aspect of our own being that wears each one of them. From this perspective we experience the world dualistically, and here, me plus you equals two. Add another person and we get a complicated threesome, and so on. When we relate as unawakened personalities, we lack a common existential ground and feel as inherently disconnected as two potted plants, even if we like each other.

The second time the two characters in our scenario connected, their minds were filled with anticipation, their personalities flared, and they lost the mutual awakened awareness that made their initial connection special. Consequently, when they made eye contact again, they felt cut off, became self-conscious, and uncomfortably looked away.

Individuals who have not cultivated their awareness often chance upon a delightful moment of unified awareness unintentionally but can’t replicate that experience again at will, though they might try. Fortunately, you now possess a tool—Exercise 10: Awakening Awareness—to help you develop and refine your awareness. It is your key to gaining access to Buddha World all the time.

As you become more proficient at Awakening Awareness, you will be able to integrate your Buddhahood and your personality, thereby allowing your Absolute Identity and multiple relative identities to coexist harmoniously and function seamlessly as a unit. Then that delightful sense of union will arise more often and remain more stable, even as you interact in diverse social contexts such as with family, in personal relationships, and at work. And if you someday become permanently enlightened, then you’ll become a citizen of Buddha World and experience oneness arising effortlessly and continually with everyone, everywhere, always.

Buddha World is a marvelous, magical place and I would like to offer you a sneak preview of it. Let’s imagine that I have a magic “enlightenment wand,” and if I wave it around in a circle three times, anyone holding this book will instantly become enlightened for a few minutes.

Poof!

Amazing—it worked! So now that you’re enlightened, let’s quietly tiptoe into Buddha World and explore it through your newfound Buddha eyes …

As you open your Buddha eyes, you realize that you are at home sitting comfortably on your couch with your cat lounging lazily next to you. You stroke its head and it looks up at you. Your pupils lock. There is no sense of separation between the two of you. You realize with vivid clarity that the same awareness that acts as the ground of your human consciousness also acts as the ground of your pet’s cat consciousness.

Beyond its “catness” and your “humanness” lies the same awareness. Ultimately, you and your cat are one. You pet him again lovingly, acknowledging his divinity with your gentle touch. Then a bird lands on the open windowsill, peeks in, chirps, then flies away. Your lips curl into a Buddha smile as you realize that every walking, creeping, swimming, buzzing, and flying creature is part of an invisible trail that leads to infinity, which is where you actually are right now.

It’s a beautiful, lush summer day, and you step out barefoot into your backyard. There’s a majestic, ancient, mossy oak tree on the grounds. You walk up to it and stroke its gnarly bark. The oak tree doesn’t have eyes that you can stare into like you could with your cat, yet you recognize that just as the cat possesses a cat consciousness, the tree has its own unique tree consciousness.

The “oakness” of the tree is further removed from your own “humanness” than the “catness” of your pet was, but that doesn’t matter. You tune in to the awareness of the tree that lies beyond its form and merge with it effortlessly. You stroke a leaf, feeling intimately connected to this special being, and lovingly acknowledge its divinity.

As you step out from under the shade of the tree into the light, you feel the warm glow of the sun stroking your face. You instinctively realize that the same awareness that underlies human, cat, and tree consciousness also underlies the sun. The father of the solar system is also rooted in infinity. You merge with the sun and honor its divinity with heartfelt gratitude for its life-giving power.

Then you scrunch the ground under your feet and realize that awareness also underlies the rocks and minerals that make up the Earth’s crust. You merge with the whole planet and bless it, along with every living being it carries on its surface, realizing that every speck of the entire universe is grounded in the same field of primordial awareness.

One day, around twenty-five hundred years ago, the Buddha was preparing to give a sermon. His many disciples were gathering and slowly settling in. As he waited for them, he noticed a golden lotus blooming in a muddy pond. He grasped the stem and lifted it up. The petals and roots dangled in the air. His disciples quieted down and stared for a long time, waiting for him to speak. But the Buddha didn’t say a word.

Finally one of the Buddha’s disciples, Mahakashyapa, smiled. He alone understood the meaning of the Buddha’s “flower sermon” and was acknowledged for that realization by being appointed his successor. Standing in your own backyard, surrounded by nature and enveloped in a vast, endless cosmos, you too now realize the meaning of the Buddha’s sermon: the universe is a flower growing out of the ground of awareness.

Now I’ll wave my magic wand again three times to reinstate your ordinary, everyday consciousness.

Poof!

From this more conventional perspective, I would like you to consider some practical questions about your enlightenment. Why should you care about your enlightenment at all? Ultimately what difference does it really make if you walk around experiencing the unity that underlies multiplicity? It won’t necessarily make you richer, healthier, or more attractive, so why even bother?

Until we become enlightened, our consciousness is like a strobe light constantly flickering on and off as our attention bounces around from one fractured moment to the next. Unenlightened consciousness has no solid ground on which it can rest. It’s like a bird lost at sea. But when we realize our true nature and permanently awaken awareness, solid, restful ground suddenly materializes under our feet that supports us and offers us the most precious gift of all: perfect peace.

A Buddha experiences supernal peace even in the midst of a whirling world that is spinning out of control. Peace follows an enlightened being around like the eye of a hurricane, even through the most harrowing darkness. Thirty miles away, furious winds and thunderous clouds may be battling in the sky, but the ground a Buddha stands on is anchored in stillness and illumined by the clearest light.

We live on a planet teeming with fear, disease, mistrust, social unrest, and conflict. These issues play out on a global scale as well as in our own personal lives. A Buddha abiding in unshakable serenity and centered in consummate tranquility is capable of expressing the finest acts of noble courage in the face of that existential suffering, as well as more effectively managing the simple challenges and opportunities that make daily life more meaningful.

Enlightenment is not an experience that carries you away from the responsibilities of this world to some other place where you can leave everything behind. On the contrary, Buddhahood will make you feel more intimately connected to this world and inspire you to make it a better place for yourself and for others.

You may be wondering, will I have to adopt a different lifestyle when I become enlightened? Not at all! You could remain exactly who you are, or you might change. That is entirely up to you. There is no specific job description that a Buddha needs to take on either. A truck driver, a homemaker, a criminal lawyer, an eye doctor, a Wall Street stockbroker, a state trooper, a pastry chef, the president, or even a football player can all be Buddhas. Enlightenment is like water that can be poured with equal ease into a small yellow pitcher or a big blue one. The crucial point to remember is this: enlightenment and your life are mutually inclusive.

Buddhahood is not a free pass that exempts you from experiencing the ups and downs of the roller coaster of life. A Buddha still has to pay the bills at the end of the month and get regular health checkups. A Buddha still has to rely on wisdom, love, and vitality to manage his or her daily affairs. And for this reason, it is essential that a Buddha continues to cultivate the Four Golden Wheels.

We have now reached the point in our discussion where we are ready to weave together the two independent threads that we have developed—spirituality, which refers to the cultivation of our Qi, and enlightenment, which refers to the cultivation of our awareness. The integration of both processes is essential to establishing a holistic Qigong practice. Let’s briefly describe each thread one more time before weaving them together.

Spirituality refers to the process of cultivating our Qi by empowering and refining the Four Golden Wheels and balancing the Three Treasures—Human Qi, Heaven Qi, and Earth Qi. The goal of spirituality is to achieve happiness in the relative world by integrating the Three Dantians and the Central Meridian. A spiritual master is someone who has developed wisdom, love, and vitality to a high degree, and can access these qualities at will in order to make his or her life more productive and meaningful.

Enlightenment, on the other hand, refers to the endgame of the process of Awakening Awareness. The goal of enlightenment is Absolute Happiness, which is achieved by realizing the Absolute Self. A Buddha is someone who has realized his or her true and eternal nature, abides continually in perfect peace, and recognizes the oneness underlying everything at all times.

With this distinction in mind, it’s possible for us to imagine a spiritual master who lacks enlightenment, or a Buddha who lacks balance and integration. In either case that individual’s happiness would be lopsided, partial, and incomplete.

For example, an energetically imbalanced Buddha might embody perfect peace but would lack happiness in the relative world. Such a person would be deficient in the ability to express wisdom, love, or vitality, and thereby unable to cope effectively with the messy complexities of life. We wouldn’t be surprised to see this Buddha develop a negative view of the relative world and then retreat from society in order to live a peaceful, reclusive, and uneventful life.

Alternatively, consider a spiritual master who possesses an abundance of wisdom, love, and vitality but lacks a deep awareness of the Absolute Self. This individual may well be a powerful human being who is able to achieve personal happiness and bring about great changes in the world, but he or she would lack the centering quality of unwavering peace and would be inwardly haunted by the terror of human impermanence.

The ideal, of course, is to become a spiritual master and a Buddha. Such a person would be an enlightened spiritual master who is both relatively and absolutely happy, radiating wisdom, love, and vitality along with a peaceful presence. He or she would be beautifully human and sublimely divine, laughing and crying as the world turned, while simultaneously dancing with infinity.

It turns out, however, that not all Buddhas are fully balanced and integrated. If we study the lives of enlightened teachers, leaders, social activists, and artists who have emerged over the course of human history, we observe that some were recognized for their wisdom, others for their love and compassion, and others for their endless vitality, which they often channeled into social service and charitable causes. And no doubt there were also many fully integrated Buddhas who flawlessly balanced all these qualities.

This pattern, of course, reflects the Four Golden Wheels. More specifically, we can classify the four different types of Buddhas as follows: the Wise Buddha whose awakened Upper Dantian is relatively more developed than the other two, the Loving Buddha who has a relatively more awakened Middle Dantian, the Vital Buddha who has a relatively more awakened Lower Dantian, and the Happy Buddha whose Four Golden Wheels are equally awakened, balanced, and integrated.

Let’s now survey these four types of Buddhas and consider the unique characteristics of each one, beginning with the Wise Buddha.

Wise Buddha

The Awakened Upper Dantian

A Catholic nun is awed by a vision of a shimmering Jesus and falls to her knees before the cross, while halfway across the world a Hindu monk has a flashing vision of a luminous Krishna and bows before a statue. How different are these two experiences, really? They are not. Cultural differences aside, both individuals envisioned “God”—the personification of the Absolute—in a form consistent with their cultural beliefs.

Seeing visions of holy beings is one type of expression of a Buddha with a highly developed Upper Dantian, but there are other head-centered ways God can be revealed. Some Buddhas hear the voice of God guiding them. Just as with visions, the content of prophetic messages will reflect deeply engrained cultural beliefs. But the voice itself, which is accessible to anyone with awakened ears, has the distinguishing characteristic of always being heard as the voice of Absolute Wisdom.

Developed Upper Dantian: intuitive, visionary, and insightful
Buddhahood: divine, peaceful, and infinite
Characteristics of a Wise Buddha: This person has divine visions, prophetic powers, and a mind that can perceive and communicate the “Absolute Truth.”

The shamans who heard that voice named it the Great Spirit. The ancient Greeks associated it with the voice of Zeus or another one of their many gods. The Judean prophets believed it was the voice of Jehovah, while Christians called it the Holy Spirit. And Chinese mystics called it Tian Yin, the voice of Heaven. A Buddha unaffiliated with any organized religion who heard that voice might attribute it to the Higher Self, or simply relate to it as the impersonal voice of the universe.

The Absolute can also arise through any of the other physical senses associated with the head. It is possible to “smell” God in the form of a divine fragrance and even “taste” God in the form of divine nectar.

But of all the functions associated with the head, one stands out—thinking—so we should also consider the wisdom produced by the Buddha Mind. Not surprisingly, the awakened mind delights in the expression of the Absolute Truth. An articulate, enlightened mind is especially adept at communicating the notion that a singular awareness pervades the entire universe. Again, due to cultural differences, the terms will usually vary between one mode of expression and another, but the underlying universal message of oneness will always be the same in each instance.

Here are a few examples of Buddha wisdom. The Rigveda, the oldest collection of religious Indian hymns that dates back to the second millennium BCE, proclaims, “Truth is one, but Sages call it by different names.” The Buddha described the Absolute Truth in this way: “When you experience the unity of life, you will see your own Self in all beings.” Jesus said, “I and my father are One,” while Plotinus, the Egyptian founder of Neoplatonist philosophy who lived in late antiquity, said, “God is not external to anyone or anything, but exists in everyone and is with all things even though many people are ignorant that this is so.”

Eleven centuries ago the Sufi master Al-Hallaj cried out, “I am God!” He was misinterpreted by the religious authorities of his time, who could not understand his “language” of enlightenment, so they sentenced him to death for blasphemy. According to eyewitness reports, he danced in divine ecstasy as they led him in chains to the gallows.

Three centuries ago the British Buddha William Blake described his vision of the Absolute Truth in this way: “To see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wildflower; hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour.” And sixty years ago the Indian sage Ramana Maharshi succinctly summed up the essential message of Buddha wisdom by declaring, “God, Guru, and the Self are one.”

One of the hallmarks of Buddha wisdom is the seemingly paradoxical statements it engenders, which paralyze the rational, logical mind. For example, the Heart Sutra, a sacred Buddhist text that dates back to antiquity, is best known for this core teaching: form is emptiness and emptiness is form.

What is the unawakened mind supposed to do with this bit of twisted logic? To the unenlightened mind these words are meaningless and nonsensical. But an enlightened mind would understand them perfectly as another expression of the fundamental idea that the One is found in the Many, while the Many simultaneously abide in the One.

The same kind of mind-twisting logic is also found in stories crafted by the Buddha Mind. Consider the parable of The Butterfly and the Dream as told by the Chinese sage Zhuangzi:

One day Zhuangzi was sleeping and dreamt that he was a butterfly fluttering around happily among the flowers in a beautiful field. Suddenly he woke up and then wondered: was I, Zhuangzi, dreaming that I was a butterfly, or am I a butterfly dreaming that I am Zhuangzi?

A Buddha hears the story and smiles, understanding that Zhuangzi and the butterfly are both impermanent phenomena being dreamt by eternal awareness. The same theme of awareness acting as the unmoving stage on which all change unfolds is echoed in the following story of two monks watching a flag wave around in the wind:

“Look,” the first monk says, “that flag is moving!”

“No,” the second one says, shaking his head, “the wind is moving the flag!”

An old, enlightened monk who overhears the discussion breaks in. “You are both wrong. You see, it is awareness that is moving both the flag and the wind.”

These types of stories are typical of Zen, the Japanese spiritual path that specializes in awakening the Buddha Mind by challenging its students with paradoxical riddles known as koans. Old-school Zen masters would smack a student who tried to answer a koan from the logical, unenlightened mind. The foolproof method to answer a koan successfully is to reply with an awakened Buddha Mind.

Try it.

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

What was your face before you were born?

When you approach an enlightened man on the road,

you don’t greet him with words and you don’t greet him

with silence, so how then should you still greet him?

Did you manage to answer these koans with a Buddha Mind, or did you backslide into logical thinking?

Smack!

The second type of Buddha is the Loving Buddha.

Loving Buddha

The Awakened Middle Dantian

A little boy falls down and scrapes his knee. He runs crying to his mother. She holds him tightly in her arms and the pain lessens instantly; love heals. A mother tends to love her child with complete devotion. But how does a mother feel about other children? She might feel some degree of love and compassion for them, but probably less than she would for her own child. And how would she feel about the schoolyard bully who taunted her own little boy? Wouldn’t her motherly feelings be likely to get in the way of what she could feel about that other child?

The heart of a mother is like a well. It runs deep, but it is narrow. But when the Middle Dantian awakens, our hearts become a boundless, fathomless ocean of love. The Divine Mother incarnates within us and we become an outpouring of infinite compassion that knows no limits.

Developed Middle Dantian: caring, sensitive, and generous
Buddhahood: divine, peaceful, and infinite
Characteristics of a Loving Buddha: This person embodies the “Divine Mother” archetype and possesses an awakened heart receptive to timeless beauty and disposed to universal prayer.

Divine Mother loves every human being as her own child. Her heart is universal. It does not discriminate. She can embrace a grimy, homeless woman on the street corner as lovingly as her own daughter, or behold a violent, drug-addicted murderer as her own son. The Buddha Heart of Divine Mother showers its love on all, especially those unsavory individuals who are in great pain and need to be nurtured the most.

The contemporary Indian saint known as Amma embodies a Buddha Heart. She teaches universal love, and she practices her creed by hugging anyone who comes to see her. Amma has blessed millions of people worldwide by cradling them in her arms and blessing them with her divine, motherly love. Since her love is grounded in infinity, it never tires.

You don’t have to be a woman to experience Divine Mother incarnating within you. Many male saints have embodied some version of this archetype and expressed her infinite love with unabashed enthusiasm. The nineteenth century saint Ramakrishna developed a devotional relationship with Divine Mother in the form of the goddess Kali. He was deeply in love with Kali and worshiped her statue daily in her temple shrine. For the first few years he would enter into an intoxicating, ecstatic trance in her presence and lose all awareness of the external world. But as the years passed, his love for Divine Mother ripened even more. Then she finally manifested and merged inside his being.

Another expression of an awakened Middle Dantian is our capacity to perceive divine beauty spread throughout the world. When our heart is open, even a smelly junkyard becomes lovely. Buddhas with a highly developed Middle Dantian have a special relationship to beauty, and often long to communicate their appreciation of the Absolute aesthetically through art and music.

What happens when a Loving Buddha grabs a paintbrush or composes a piece of music? Art that emanates from the awakened heart infuses its medium with a touch of divinity that can instantly awaken our own hearts and carry us off into infinity as well.

For example, the ceiling panels on the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel, painted by the Italian Buddha Michelangelo in the sixteenth century, portray sacred, uplifting images that fill us with the presence of God, and just a few notes from the German Buddha Beethoven’s inspired “Ode to Joy” fire up the heart with divine ecstasy.

Divinely inspired art transcends the classical genre. Contemporary rock artists like the Beatles have awakened universal love in millions with divinely inspired melodies and lyrics about peace, and more recently the popular Kirtan performer Krishna Das has awakened the timeless presence of God in the hearts of many nonreligious Western youths by using ancient Indian chants.

How can we tell whether a work of art originates from a Buddha Heart? The answer is simple: if it inspires universal love and peace, it qualifies.

Another form of expression closely associated with the awakened Middle Dantian is prayer. When our heart is open, prayer flows effortlessly from our lips. What does the awakened heart pray for? The essence of Buddha prayer is the same cross-culturally: the eradication of human suffering and the enlightenment of our entire species. In two words: universal peace.

Listen to the plea of the Native American Buddha Black Elk:

Hear me, four quarters of the world—a relative I am! Give me the strength to walk the soft earth. Give me the eyes to see and the strength to understand, that I may be like you. With your power only can I face the winds. Great Spirit … all over the earth the faces of living things are all alike. With tenderness have these come up out of the ground. Look upon these faces of children without number and with children in their arms, that they may face the winds and walk the good road to the day of quiet. This is my prayer, hear me!

And listen closely to St. Francis of Assisi’s humbling prayer, which could only have been created by a Buddha Heart immersed in the splendor of universal love:

Lord, make me a channel of your peace,

Where there is hatred, may I bring love,

Where there is wrong, may I forgive,

Where there is discord, may I bring harmony,

Where there is error, may I bring truth,

Where there is doubt, may I bring faith,

Where there is despair, may I bring hope,

Where there are shadows, may I bring light,

Where there is sadness, may I bring joy,

Lord, may I seek to comfort rather than to be comforted,

To understand rather than to be understood,

To love rather than to be loved,

For it is by self-forgetting that one finds,

It is by forgiving that one is forgiven,

And it is by dying that one awakens to eternal life.

The third type of Buddha is the Vital Buddha.

Vital Buddha

The Awakened Lower Dantian

A young woman comes home exhausted after a long, hard day. She plans on having an early dinner, watching a little television, and going to bed early. The phone rings. It’s her best friend calling to invite her to a dinner party. She turns down the invitation. But then her friend informs the young woman that the guy she really likes will be there. In the blink of an eye the young woman changes her mind. She rummages through her closet for a provocative dress, now delighted and recharged. Minutes ago she was a soggy vegetable, and now a swarm of butterflies is fluttering in the area of her lower abdomen. She feels alive.

Developed Lower Dantian: gutsy, dynamic, and charismatic
Buddhahood: divine, peaceful, and infinite
Characteristics of a Vital Buddha: This person’s sexual vitality embraces infinity and he or she experiences the universe as a wild lover who tingles with the blissful charge of divine eroticism.

The Lower Dantian stores our sexual essence, which fuels our vitality. Sexual energy doesn’t necessarily have to be channeled into sexual activity. That energy also regulates our vigor, passion, and zest for life and can be directed into a host of other activities. But the main characteristic of a highly developed Lower Dantian is a strong libido, so we will focus on this aspect for now.

What happens to an individual who is both enlightened and has a highly developed Lower Dantian? What is ignited when juicy passion meets infinity? What happens when a Vital Buddha gets turned on?

These questions steer us in a delicate direction. Normally in Western society, a mile-high partition separates sex and God. But that division is arbitrary and reveals the cultural barrier between mainstream notions of sacredness and sexuality. Is there some universal law that prohibits the fusion of those two forces in the form of sacred sexuality? Not at all!

Indeed, when a Buddha awakens his or her Lower Dantian, the whole universe is transformed into a boundless field of sexual charge and every object in it becomes eroticized. Once our vitality participates in our enlightenment, then even a trivial experience—like tying a shoelace or feeling moonbeams stroke our face—can send us into fits of divine, erotic rapture. No wonder, then, that some of the most powerful religious iconography is expressed through sexual symbols.

The Star of David, for instance, is an abstract image that depicts two intertwined triangles that represent the “union”—a highly suggestive sexual term commonly found in sacred traditions—of the Absolute and the relative world. That same symbol is also rendered figuratively in the Indian tantric image depicting the union of two of the gods, Shiva and Shakti.

Tantra is a spiritual path that is known for emphasizing the erotic face of the Absolute. The iconography of this system includes an image of the sexual union between the male god Shiva, who symbolizes the Absolute, and the female goddess Shakti, who symbolizes the relative world. In many instances, Shiva is depicted sitting cross-legged with Shakti straddling him. The sexual position insinuates Shakti’s “undulations,” which pleasures Shiva, and Shiva’s “stillness,” which acts as the ground for Shakti’s pleasure.

According to Tantric philosophy, the union of Shiva and Shakti—or the Absolute and the relative world—generates desire, the ubiquitous force that drives creation. For a Buddha with a highly developed Lower Dantian, this erotic desire is universal. It is literally found everywhere, in the roots of a tree trunk penetrating the soil, in the rolling rhythm of the waves at the seashore, and even in the play of white, billowy clouds in the sky. Can you imagine relating to the universe as an alluring, sexy partner and to your whole life as an ongoing, infatuating love affair with creation? When your Lower Dantian is awakened, that perspective arises naturally.

Throughout the ages, Buddhas with an awakened Lower Dantian have articulated visions of the Absolute that are overtly sexual. The Japanese Zen master Dogen noted that enlightenment was “intimacy with all things.” The Persian mystic Hafiz called God “the most intense lover!” And the celebrated German mystic Meister Eckhart said that after he was enlightened it became obvious to him that “all the objects in the world are madly in love.”

But by far the juiciest expression of sacred eroticism is found in the Bible. Credit goes to King Solomon’s “Song of Songs,” an explicitly sexual tribute addressed to God. It begins:

This is Solomon’s Song of Songs,

Let him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth,

For your love is better than wine,

Your name is like the fragrance of fine oils,

That’s why the virgins love you.

Draw me near, we will chase after you,

To the royal bedchamber,

Where we will rejoice in you.

We will remember your love,

Which is more fragrant than wine,

And love you sincerely.

We now return to our scenario of the young woman who was invited to the dinner party. We find her sitting next to the hot guy she really likes. He smiles at her and all her defenses melt away. They flirt. After dinner they go for a walk. He leans forward and touches her neck. Then he fondles her hair. The butterflies in her belly ignite like wildfire. Half an hour later they are back at her place, passionately coiled in bed.

Five centuries ago another young woman had a sexual escapade too—with God. She was a Catholic nun named Teresa of Avila, and in her autobiography she describes her encounter in graphic detail. It all began when a small angel with a fiery face swept down beside her holding a long spear of gold with a blazing tip, and then …

He appeared to thrust it into my heart and I felt it pierce my entrails. When he drew out the spear I felt that he was drawing them out as well and he left me all fired up in God’s love. The pain was so awesome that it made me moan. But the tenderness caused by that feeling exceeded the great pain and I didn’t want the pain to leave me. Only God can satisfy my soul now … The split between my soul and God is now so tender that I beg God to let those who think I am lying experience it for themselves.

The seventeenth-century Italian sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini was so moved by this account that it inspired his masterpiece, The Ecstasy of St. Teresa. The statue depicts Teresa in divine rapture as the angel stands beside her holding up his golden spear. Teresa is wearing a hooded cloak that covers the length of her entire body. Her neck follows the curve of her back, which arches backward suggestively. Her lips are parted and her half-opened eyelids reveal that she is in the throes of an unparalleled, divine orgasm.

The fourth, and last, type of Buddha to consider is the Happy Buddha.

Happy Buddha

The Awakened Central Meridian

It is midnight and an alchemist is blending a potion in his basement laboratory. He mixes the essences of wisdom, love, and vitality in a glass tube, and it begins to glow and gurgle. Then, very carefully, he adds a drop of divinity to the mixture and takes a sip. He feels the energetic core of his body expand quickly. It shoots up like a laser beam high above his head through the paint-cracked ceiling toward the sky and straight down through the tiled floor toward the center of the Earth. His Central Meridian gushes like a gigantic geyser of light.

Next, the room grows brighter and brighter until a tidal wave of intense light drowns out all the objects in it. An indescribably beautiful, dazzling, incandescent luminescence washes away the world like a sand castle, and the alchemist dissolves into it, merging into boundless, peaceful eternity.

After an unknown span of time, the alchemist opens his eyes and the ceiling gradually reappears. He is lying on the floor, staring up. He sits up slowly and glances over at the ticking wall clock. Three hours have passed. With some effort he regains control over his limbs, stands up, and surveys the scene. The laboratory is intact. The vials are stacked in their proper places, the voluminous books are tucked away on the bookshelf, and his notes are neatly stacked on the table.

The alchemist walks to a mirror and smiles at the radiant face staring back at him. His familiar features look somewhat different now; they are more lustrous. His eyes are beaming especially brightly. He walks up the stairs and across the living room. His cat is sleeping on the couch. He quietly opens the back door and steps outside into the backyard.

The summer night air is warm, crisp, and sweet, and he delights in breathing it in like a child playing with his favorite toy.

Inhale; exhale.

“It feels so good!” he exclaims.

The tranquil heavens are beautifully illuminated by the constellations. He looks up at the regal sky. Jupiter hovers near a crescent moon, both of them looking like precious jewels mounted on the starry crown of night. He senses that God is wearing that crown, and he bows his head reverently.

Developed Central Meridian: wise, loving vital, and happy
Buddhahood: divine, peaceful, and infinite
Characteristics of a Happy Buddha: This person no longer experiences a distinction between “human” and “divine.” His or her immediate presence embodies infinity with natural grace and radiates the deepest peace through every expression of wisdom, love, and vitality.

The alchemist walks past the ancient oak tree into the forest and follows a soft, grassy path down to a meadow of wildflowers. He walks to the center of the meadow; the trees form a quiet circle around him.

As the alchemist looks all around, he notices that everything appears slightly different from before. The whole universe and all the objects within it have become subtly translucent. The clear, white light in which he was previously immersed has not disappeared. Oh no! The world has rematerialized within it and now everything is arising in that radiance—the sky, the stars, the moon, the trees, the rocks, and the flowers. He observes his hands and moves his fingers. Even they are gloved by a shimmering aura of pristine clarity.

A thought enters his mind—the first one that has formed since he drank the potion in his laboratory. It feels like a tiny firefly buzzing inside the fathomless cavern of his head. It takes him a while to grasp it, to comprehend it. Then, finally, he does: the universe is so beautiful!

Then he feels the area around his heart stir tenderly. The sensation amplifies and expands from a point of joy into an awesome outpouring of gratitude. His eyes moisten, and with tears rolling down his face, he lifts his arms up toward the sky.

“Thank you!” he cries out.

The gentle breeze replies by caressing his face like a kind, soft hand. The touch of the wind stirs in him a ripple of arousal that flares up in the area around his lower belly. He draws in a deep breath, and the jet of air rushing into his body heightens the delightful sensation. Each time he breathes in or out, that pleasure grows. The insides of his body are vibrating with bliss and that feeling rushes down throughout his arms and legs, spreading all the way out to his fingers and toes. His entire body is now pulsing with joyful pleasure.

A tall yellow wildflower catches the alchemist’s eye. Its petals are invitingly open. As he walks toward it, he can feel the mutual desire between them increasing. He reaches down and touches the petals with his intoxicated fingers.

“I love you,” he whispers.

The alchemist closes his eyes and kisses the flower softly. Then, inexplicably, the sky, the stars, the moon, the trees, and all the wild-flowers in the meadow materialize inside his head. The entire universe has been sucked up inside of him. He suddenly finds himself looking down on himself from high up in the sky like a cloud. As he revels in the mystery of the moment, a cricket chirps. He opens his eyes, now realizing that inside and outside are one. Then a prayer forms in his heart, and he blesses all the crickets that have ever chirped.

The darkness of night begins to fade and he leaves the meadow to return home. On the way back he sees the glowing, translucent figure of a Chinese sage with kind, intelligent eyes draped in a long, black robe standing on the path beside the ancient oak tree.

“Are you a ghost?” the alchemist asks.

“I am like you, a Buddha,” the sage replies.

“Am I dead?”

“No.”

“Am I dreaming?”

“No.”

“What has happened to me then?”

“You finally woke up.”

“Yes, I did,” the alchemist replies, adding, “it is all so simple.”

“Yes, it is,” the sage agrees. “There is no need to chase wildly after all the waves. They too are going to wither and die. But even when they break upon the shoreline, the ocean doesn’t disappear. Water flows in all directions, inside and outside. You are an ocean within an ocean and those two waters are one.”

“I understand,” the alchemist says.

“I know that you do,” the sage replies.

The two of them stand peacefully on the dewy ground for a while, and then, without saying a word, the sage vanishes like a wisp of vapor.

The alchemist walks back home as the first light of day breaks in the sky. He enters and sits down on his couch. The cat meanders over to him lazily and plops its head on his lap. The alchemist strokes its back.

“I am nothing, I am everything,” he tells the cat, adding, “I am happy.”

The cat purrs and the alchemist closes his eyes, dissolving into a peaceful, luminous sleep.