{"id":1799,"date":"2010-06-25T17:23:15","date_gmt":"2010-06-25T21:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tm.org\/blog\/?p=1799"},"modified":"2010-10-29T15:00:10","modified_gmt":"2010-10-29T19:00:10","slug":"alfred-lord-tennyson-transcendent-wonder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/enlightenment\/alfred-lord-tennyson-transcendent-wonder\/","title":{"rendered":"Alfred, Lord Tennyson – \u201cA state of transcendent wonder\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
\n1809\u20131892 \u2022 England<\/strong><\/p>\n

If 19th-century England had anything resembling a rock star, it was Alfred, Lord Tennyson<\/a>. He was one of the most popular and exciting poets of his era, with a riveting stage presence. He remains one of the English language\u2019s most popular poets to this day.<\/p>\n

Tennyson was descended from King Edward III, one of England\u2019s most successful medieval monarchs. He began writing and publishing poetry in his teens. In 1850, when he was 41, he succeeded Wordsworth as Poet Laureate of England<\/a>, and held this position for more than 50 years, until his own death \u2014 a term longer by far than any other laureate before or after.<\/p>\n

Tennyson was a huge and powerful figure. The Scottish historian and philosopher Thomas Carlyle described Tennyson as \u201cone of the finest-looking men in the world,\u201d with \u201cbright, laughing hazel eyes\u201d and a \u201cmost massive yet most delicate\u201d face. Later in his life, a photographer called him \u201cthe most beautiful old man on earth.\u201d His resonant, booming voice riveted listeners when he read his poetry.<\/p>\n

A highly popular poet in his own lifetime, Tennyson earned considerable money from his works. He was often referred to as \u201cthe Poet of the People,\u201d revered for reflecting the collective mind. Queen Victoria herself was a fan. In 1884 she made him Baron Tennyson, and Alfred Tennyson became Alfred, Lord Tennyson.<\/p>\n

Tennyson seemed to have had frequent experiences of transcending, starting from boyhood and lasting throughout his life. For example, he describes:<\/p>\n

. . . a kind of waking trance\u2002\u2014\u2002this for lack of a better word\u2002\u2014 I have frequently had, quite up from boyhood, when I have been all alone. . . . All at once, as it were out of the intensity of the consciousness of individuality, the individuality itself seemed to dissolve and fade away into boundless being, and this not a confused state but the clearest, the surest of the surest . . . utterly beyond words \u2014\u2002where death was an almost laughable impossibility, the loss of personality (if so it were) seeming no extinction, but the only true life. . . .<\/p>\n

I am ashamed of my feeble description. Have I not said the state is utterly beyond words?\u2002. . .<\/p>\n

There is no delusion in the matter! It is no nebulous ecstasy, but a state of transcendent wonder, associated with absolute clearness of mind.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Tennyson offers a clear description of transcendence. When the mind dives within during practice of the Transcendental Meditation technique<\/a>, mental activity settles down, like waves settling on the ocean. We experience finer and finer levels of the thinking process, until we transcend, or go beyond, thinking altogether.
\nWhat do we experience then? Consciousness itself \u2014 not consciousness of perceptions, thoughts, or feelings but pure consciousness, silent and unbounded. This is our innermost Self, the innermost reality of the universe. It is a field of pure Being, to use one of Maharishi\u2019s<\/a> early terms.<\/p>\n

\"Tennyson-Alfred-Lord\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So when Tennyson says, \u201cIndividuality itself seemed to dissolve and fade away into boundless being,\u201d he is accurately describing the experience of transcending. He no longer experiences himself as a limited ego \u2014 he now experiences his true Self, infinite and unbounded.<\/p>\n

Here, he tells us, \u201cdeath was an almost laughable impossibility.\u201d Quite right. Pure consciousness, Maharishi explains, is eternal, immortal. It lies beyond space, time, and causation.<\/p>\n

Tennyson describes his experiences again in a poem called \u201cThe Ancient Sage.\u201d On a number of occasions while sitting alone, he says,<\/p>\n

The mortal limit of the Self was loosed,
\nAnd passed into the Nameless, as a cloud
\nMelts into Heaven. I touch\u2019d my limbs, the limbs
\nWere strange, not mine\u2002\u2014\u2002and yet no shade of doubt,
\nBut utter clearness, and thro\u2019 loss of Self
\nThe gain of such large life as match\u2019d with ours
\nWere Sun to spark\u2002\u2014\u2002unshadowable in words,
\nThemselves but shadows of a shadow-world.
\n\u2014\u2002\u201cThe Ancient Sage\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here Tennyson describes experiences of his bounded self merging into \u201cthe Nameless, as a cloud\u2002\/\u2002Melts into Heaven.\u201d As in the first passage, he describes this as an experience of \u201cutter clearness.\u201d Unbounded awareness stands in the same relation to ordinary waking consciousness, Tennyson tells us, as a sun to a spark.<\/p>\n

Tennyson wrote the following passage in 1869, at age 60:<\/p>\n

Yes, it is true that there are moments when the flesh is nothing to me, when I feel and know the flesh to be the vision, God and the Spiritual the only real and true. Depend upon it, the Spiritual is the real: it belongs to one more than the hand and the foot. You may tell me that my hand and my foot are only imaginary symbols of my existence, I could believe you; but you never, never can convince me that the I is not an eternal Reality, and that the Spiritual is not the true and real part of me.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

No doubt Tennyson\u2019s ability to have this profound experience enhanced his creative abilities and helped make him the great poet he was (he continued writing into his 80s). Scientific research shows that regular experience of transcending through the Transcendental Meditation technique leads to rapid and measurable growth of creativity and intelligence, among many other benefits.<\/p>\n

Throughout history people such as Tennyson glimpsed the fourth state of consciousness, Transcendental Consciousness, and described it with great beauty and precision. We are fortunate to have a simple, natural, effortless procedure, the Transcendental Meditation technique, to have this experience on a regular basis.<\/p>\n

REFERENCES<\/strong>
\nTennyson, Hallam, Alfred Lord Tennyson: A Memoir by His Son, vol. 2 (London: Macmillan, 1899), 815-816.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Ancient Sage,\u201d in Poems of Tennyson, ed. Jerome Hamilton Buckley (Cambridge: The Riverside Press, 1958), 504.<\/p>\n

Tennyson, Alfred Lord, The Works of Tennyson, ed. Baron Hallam Tennyson (London: Macmillan, 1913), 940.<\/p>\n

PHOTO CREDITS<\/strong>
\nYoung Tennyson \u2013 Public domain painting by Samuel Laurence, Richgitz collection<\/p>\n

Older Tennyson \u2013 Project Gutenberg eText 17768, The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Hundred Best English Poems, by various authors, ed. Adam L. Gowans<\/p>\n

______________________________________________________<\/p>\n

Dr. Craig Pearson<\/strong><\/a> is Executive Vice-President of Maharishi University of Management<\/a> in Fairfield, Iowa. He has served the University in a variety of roles over the past 33 years, including Dean of Faculty, Dean of Students, Director of Maharishi University of Management Press, Director of Freshman Composition, and Professor of Professional Writing.<\/p>\n

He holds a PhD in Maharishi Vedic Science from MUM and is the author of two books on the development of full human potential, The Complete Book of Yogic Flying<\/em><\/a> and The Supreme Awakening: Developing the Infinite Potential Within (forthcoming). He is also a member of the Board of Directors of Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Other posts by Craig Pearson:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Helen Keller \u2013 \u201cI feel the flame of eternity in my soul\u201d<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Laozi – “His mind becomes as vast and immeasurable as the night sky”<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Walt Whitman \u2013 \u201cThe luminousness of real vision\u201d<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Ralph Waldo Emerson \u2013 \u201cWithin man is the soul of the whole; the wise silence; the universal beauty”<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Henry David Thoreau \u2013 \u201cWe become like a still lake of purest crystal\u201d<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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If 19th-century England had anything resembling a rock star, it was Alfred, Lord Tennyson. He was one of the most popular and exciting poets of his era, with a riveting stage presence. He remains one of the English language\u2019s most popular poets to this day. Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-enlightenment","category-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1799\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}