You won't find bogha mentioned much in spiritual circles. It means "fun" or "pleasure" in Sanskrit, and is/was the name of a whole school of yoga
that recognizes the experience of pleasures as a path to the divine. http://www.yogabhoga.com/ is the site for one of the few resources of information one will find on the internet, and the home of Yogha Bogha in Portland.
This brings up several lines of inquiry:
Is the spiritual journey and or life supposed to be enjoyable? Is the austerity of certain paths an attempt to oppose the path of pleasure to avoid falling off the path from distraction/addiction? When does pleasure become "unspiritual" or become addiction? When does an addiction become unspiritual? and so on. Adyashanti had a discourse on addiction a couple of times in what I've heard. The core idea seems to be that something is missing and one cannot get "enough" or there is some level of unacceptance that is being avoided. He also says that everyone has some form of addiction, some several, watching tv, the Internet, etc etc. The question remains: when does pleasure become addiction and when do they become obstacles or detours away from spiritual deepening?
I deconstruct addiction as a creation in the Big-Me that bigger than the smaller persona-me. The addiction is "greater than myself".
ReplyDeleteThat this is pleasure seeking and where pleasure and fun fits in i would say:-
I know I Am Aready That! whether self realised or not. I feel I am doing all i can to drive the small self towards enlightenement yet I feel I need to be called by Grace - I feel like I am in the holding pattern circling the airport waiting for clearance to land. I have all the boxes checked!: plenty of suffering,plenty of meditating,plenty of reincarnations yet Godhead is semi occluded by a torrent of thought and associated occasional suffering.
I feel the next best think is to tell my mind -everything is okay and that suffering is only an idea -any reality is the same as another - so I should just have FUN...which is what I am doing more and more of!
The Meaning of Life seems to be Lila:-
"Brahman is full of all perfections. And to say that Brahman has some purpose in creating the world will mean that it wants to attain through the process of creation something which it has not. And that is impossible. Hence, there can be no purpose of Brahman in creating the world. The world is a mere spontaneous creation of Brahman. It is a Lila, or sport, of Brahman. It is created out of Bliss, by Bliss and for Bliss. Lila indicates a spontaneous sportive activity of Brahman as distinguished from a self-conscious volitional effort. The concept of Lila signifies freedom as distinguished from necessity."
—Ram Shanker Misra, The Integral Advaitism of Sri Aurobindo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lila_%28Hinduism%29
In which case,(Let there be Sport-from the above quote),fun enjoyment,sensual pleasure, good food and plenty of booze seems the way to go!!!
The only advantage of pain and austerity in ones life is that thinking stops with pain and here are realisations - but it seems a silly way to proceed when I can stop thought at will (anyone can -don't beleive anything different!).
Taoism - might advocate this lifestyle -
But this may be my path only. One must go with the flow without feeling one is swimming upstream or 'forcing it' and this feels like the 'Divine Direction' to me. Working and living without desire of results in the mini self yet not seeking an absense of desire.
To screw up is Divine -everything is Divine - there are no mistakes -It's all win-win even when it looks like it isn't.
To conclude I hope to follow the Divine Direction and currently that propels me to have fun.