Intimacy

In earlier blogs I have talked about intimacy as shared identity. It is precisely this expansion of self which is ecstatic. The move from I to We is the greatest joy of a human life.

The circle expands however beyond the We of intimate relationship, beyond even the we of community. Ecstasy is the erotic place where we touch most clearly what the Hindu Upanishads call tat tvam asi, “That art thou …and thou are that.”

Hebrew mystics called it Hitpaalut- radical amazement at wonder of being. In Hitpaalut you feel like you am enmeshed in the fabric of being — all loneliness and alienation are overcome — not the salve of relationship which can never fully ful-fill you, but a much more profound sense of being at home.

A beautiful quote from the Chandogya Upanishad:

“This my spirit within my heart
is greater than the earth, greater than the sky,
greater than the heavens, greater than all worlds.
The all-working, all-wishing, all-smelling, all-tasting one,
that embraces the universe, that is silent, untroubled —
that is the spirit within my heart, that is Brahman.
There unto, when I go hence, shall I attain.
Who knoweth this, he… ha”

marc gafni
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