{"id":2247,"date":"2010-08-24T17:31:42","date_gmt":"2010-08-24T21:31:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tm.org\/blog\/?p=2247"},"modified":"2010-10-29T15:00:47","modified_gmt":"2010-10-29T19:00:47","slug":"the-luminousness-real-vision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/meditation\/the-luminousness-real-vision\/","title":{"rendered":"Walt Whitman – \u201cThe luminousness of real vision\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Walt Whitman<\/strong><\/p>\n

1819\u20131892 \u2022 United States<\/strong><\/p>\n

Walt Whitman<\/a> left school at eleven and worked at a variety of trades \u2014 he was a printer, a teacher, a newspaper writer and editor, a stationer, and a real estate speculator. One never would have guessed he was destined to become America\u2019s seer.<\/p>\n

In his early thirties, he began to have experiences that transformed him. In 1855, when he was 36, he published his collection of poems Leaves of Grass<\/em>. The poems seemed so radical in form and content that he became a revolutionary figure in American literature. In fact, he was initially acclaimed more as a prophet of democracy and of the \u201ccommon man\u201d in the Western world than as a poet.<\/p>\n

His aim, he states in the book\u2019s preface, is to \u201cwellnigh express the inexpressible.\u201d \u201cI celebrate myself,\u201d he sings at the beginning of \u201cSong of Myself\u201d \u2014 but, as quickly becomes clear, the self he celebrates is not the ordinary self we usually experience. It is far more expanded.<\/p>\n

\"Walt-Whitman-young\"<\/a>In his prose work Democratic Vistas<\/em>, Whitman describes the kind of experience he enjoys:<\/p>\n

There is, in sanest hours, a consciousness, a thought that rises, independent, lifted out from all else, calm, like the stars, shining eternal. This is the thought of identity\u2002\u2014\u2002yours for you, whoever you are, as mine for me. Miracle of miracles, beyond statement, most spiritual and vaguest of earth\u2019s dreams, yet hardest basic fact, and only entrance to all facts. In such devout hours, in the midst of the significant wonders of heaven and earth, (significant only because of the Me in the centre), creeds, conventions, fall away and become of no account before this simple idea. Under the luminousness of real vision, it alone takes possession, takes value. Like the shadowy dwarf in the fable, once liberated and look\u2019d upon, it expands over the whole earth, and spreads to the roof of heaven.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Whitman is clearly describing an experience of transcendence. The experience, he tells us, is \u201cindependent, lifted out from all else.\u201d It is unbounded \u2014 \u201cit expands over the whole earth, and spreads to the roof of heaven.\u201d It is highly abstract, the \u201cmost spiritual and vaguest of earth\u2019s dreams.\u201d Yet it is the ultimate reality, Whitman asserts, the \u201chardest basic fact, and only entrance to all facts.\u201d<\/p>\n

What exactly is Whitman talking about? He is describing the experience of the fourth state of consciousness, beyond the familiar states of waking, dreaming, and sleeping \u2014 the state Maharishi calls Transcendental Consciousness. In this state, the mind has settled inward. Moving beyond all perceptions, thoughts, and feelings, one experiences consciousness by itself, consciousness knowing itself alone \u2014 pure consciousness, unbounded and fully awake within itself. This, Maharishi explains, is the true Self.<\/p>\n

Whitman goes on to describe the nature of this unique experience:<\/p>\n

Only in the perfect uncontamination and solitariness of individuality.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0Only here, and on such terms, the meditation, the devout ecstasy, the soaring flight. Only here, communion with the mysteries. .\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0 The soul emerges, and all statements, churches, sermons, melt away like vapors. Alone, and silent thought and awe, and aspiration\u2002\u2014\u2002and then the interior consciousness, like a hitherto unseen inscription, in magic ink, beams out its wondrous lines to the sense. Bibles may convey, and priests expound, but it is exclusively for the noiseless operation of one\u2019s isolated self, to enter the pure ether of veneration, reach the divine levels, and commune with the unutterable.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here again Whitman talks about the transcendental quality of this experience. When he says \u201cthe perfect uncontamination and solitariness of individuality,\u201d he means the mind is awake but unshadowed by thoughts or perceptions \u2014 the Self stands alone by itself. This, he tells us, is a state of \u201cdevout ecstasy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Walt-Whitman-Friend\"<\/a>Whitman makes clear that this \u201cinterior consciousness\u201d is the most important thing we can experience in life. In comparison, he says, all intellectual beliefs, all creeds and conventions, \u201cbecome of no account.\u201d \u201cAll statements\u201d about the nature of reality \u201cmelt away like vapors.\u201d Direct experience alone matters, he says \u2014 and full direct experience takes place exclusively through \u201cthe noiseless operation of one\u2019s isolated self.\u201d<\/p>\n

The central, inner reality of life, Maharishi observes, is pure consciousness, the Self. Throughout this passage, Whitman seeks to convey precisely this knowledge\u2002\u2014\u2002and the fact that one can experience it directly.<\/p>\n

In the following lines, from his poem \u201cPassage to India,\u201d Whitman eulogizes this transcendental field of life:<\/p>\n

O Thou transcendent, \u2028Nameless, the fibre and the breath,
\nLight of the light, shedding forth universes, thou center of them,
\nThou mightier center of the true, the good, the loving,
\nThou moral, spiritual fountain \u2014 affection\u2019s source \u2014 thou reservoir,
\n(O pensive soul of me \u2014 O thirst unsatisfied \u2014 waitest not there?<\/p>\n

Waitest not haply for us somewhere there the Comrade perfect?)
\nThou pulse \u2014 thou motive of the stars, suns, systems,
\nThat, circling, move in order, safe, harmonious,
\nAthwart the shapeless vastnesses of space,
\nHow should I think, how breathe a single breath, how speak, if, \u2028out of myself,
\nI could not launch, to those, superior universes?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

These beautiful words hardly need a comment. Whitman speaks directly to the transcendent, the source and center of universes, the center of truth, goodness, and love \u2014 and declares at the end that everything he does, everything he is, depends on his ability to transcend, to move \u201cout of myself\u201d to that superior state.<\/p>\n

Whitman\u2019s transcendental experiences enabled him to produce some of America\u2019s greatest poetry, expressing a vision of the inner glory of life and the invitation for everyone to join him there.<\/p>\n

Whitman never said anything about how he was able to have this experience. Like so many people through history, it seems to have been a matter of good luck. Maharishi\u2019s great work was to bring to light, from the world\u2019s most ancient continuous tradition of knowledge, a simple, natural, and effortless procedure \u2014 the Transcendental Meditation technique \u2014 for experiencing the fourth state of consciousness. Now this priceless experience is no longer a matter of good luck. Now anyone can, in Whitman\u2019s words, \u201creach the interior consciousness.\u201d Now anyone can \u201creach the divine levels, and commune with the unutterable.\u201d<\/p>\n

REFERENCES<\/strong><\/p>\n

Walt Whitman, \u201cDemocratic Vistas,\u201d Walt Whitman: Complete Poetry and Collected Prose, ed. Justin Kaplan (New York: J.S. Redfield, 1871), 41.<\/p>\n

\u201cDemocratic Vistas,\u201d in Walt Whitman, 47.<\/p>\n

Walt\u00a0Whitman, Leaves\u00a0of\u00a0Grass<\/em> (Philadelphia:\u00a0David\u00a0McKay,\u00a01891),\u00a0315.<\/p>\n

Whitman\u2019s works are available online at http:\/\/www.whitmanarchive.org\/<\/p>\n

PHOTO CREDITS<\/strong><\/p>\n

First \u2013 Probably 1854. Daguerreotype. Photographer unknown: probably Gabriel Harrison. Saunders #5. Courtesy of the Bayley Collection, Ohio Wesleyan University.<\/p>\n

Second \u2013 Steel engraving of Walt Whitman. Published in 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass<\/em>. Source: Bayley Collection, Ohio Wesleyan.<\/p>\n

Third \u2013 Photographer: Matthew Brady, ca. 1860 – ca. 1865.<\/p>\n

Fourth \u2013 Photographer unidentified.<\/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

Alfred, Lord Tennyson – \u201cA state of transcendent wonder\u201d<\/a><\/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

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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Walt Whitman left school at eleven and worked at a variety of trades \u2014 he was a printer, a teacher, a newspaper writer and editor, a stationer, and a real estate speculator. One never would have guessed he was destined to become America\u2019s seer. 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":[50,3,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-enlightenment","category-meditation","category-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2247","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=2247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2247\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}