Questions and Replies

Question #18

Reader
I am happy to tell you that your enthusiasm is contagious and operates as a teaching vehicle in its own right.
It literally transmits expansive spiritual energy. I felt it immediately upon reading your message - and that
is not a common experience for me.

Reply
What a gift! I'm grateful for your kind words about my "enthusiasm." You know the root of the word?
      "To be inspired"
...which ultimately is based on the root of "inspire":
      "To infuse with the breath of life."

Needless to say, I take "enthusiasm" as a high compliment, and gratefully appreciate your generous acknowledgement.

Reader
On the Internet it has happened only once before: a couple of weeks ago when I was browsing the site of a teacher who mentioned an innate and conscious ability to channel and focus energy. He apparently focused it into some of his writings. That ability is a highly useful teaching and transforming tool that only some teachers seem to have;
I would probably not be aware of it at all except for the powerful influence of one of my own past teachers.

Reply
I'm very interested your reaction. Franklin Merrell-Wolff described this energetic phenomenon as a "Current of Bliss" -- which is both powerful and transmittable. I am keenly aware of it, especially when I write or reflect on this Awareness. I find it to be profoundly nourishing and it is,
I am sure, one of the reasons I have been attracted to the mentoring process....

(It has also, interestingly enough, significantly reduced my need for sleep!)

Reader's Reply
"Enthusiasm," by the way, was a carefully chosen word, based on its aptness for describing your manner of expression. That its root meaning and the energy experience dovetail so perfectly suggests, perhaps, that
I was "inspired" at some deeper level to choose it. An intriguing notion.

The "current of bliss," what I call shakti or just plain energy, is definitely transmissible. I describe some of my past experiences with it at:
      http://www.stas.net/tmg/journey3.html
      http://www.stas.net/tmg/journey4.html.

One of the oddest experiences happened many years ago when I was with some friends at a night club. A nicely dressed man walked in who somehow did not seem to belong there. He searched about for a bit and then came up to us to talk. After a brief, pleasant and superficial conversation, he shook our hands and said that he knew now why he had stopped in. With that, he turned and left. None of us could figure out what he meant.

But within minutes, I began to notice a warm feeling creeping up my arm and a general feeling of well-being spreading throughout my body. I asked the others if they were also noticing anything. Each, in turn, reported the same distinct feeling of pleasantness. There was no mistaking it for anything but spiritual energy; and being familiar with certain yogic traditions, I recognized it as "shaktipat," a blessing of spiritual energy granted freely and without any condition, often through touch.

All I could think was, "Who was that masked man?"