I had two separate instances of what I would classify as transcendental experiences. In both occasions there was nothing particularly different or special about the days that led up to what transpired. It was an ordinary day that turned magical for a moment in time.
Perhaps I should have used the word spiritual instead of magical. Personally for me, the words are interchangeable.
There is about an eight year gap between the two events. The first experience happened in 2012 before purchasing a small café business and the other in 2020 after being hospitalized in the ICU.
… I had left the house that morning eager to read a book that my daughter gave me for Christmas. I had already planned to go downtown to spend the day and later found myself at a popular park sitting on an outdoor bench overlooking the water. The book is titled “The Untethered Soul” written by Michael Singer. Only a few chapters into the book, I found myself immersed with its ideas and messages.
I decided to get up and take a break and reflect on what I had just read.
As I walked among a small crowd along the boardwalk, thinking about the book, from out of nowhere a wave of immense joy and peace welled up from within me. I was instantly transported to a borderless space of pure joy.
The emotion was not euphoria. It was a feeling that I cannot describe since it can only be experienced. But I was in a different place filled with nothing but radiant love energy. I’m not able to tell how long the experience lasted but it lasted long enough for me to live in joy and capture the moment.
When the experience ended, I remember thinking to myself. After all my time spent in the quiet space of meditation looking to capture a transcendent moment, it finally happened while in the midst of the hustle and bustle of people.
How ironic and poignant at the same time?
The second experience happened while I was sitting on the front porch of my house enjoying a morning cup of coffee. It’s been a couple of months of rest and recovery coming home from ICU and feeling grateful for life. The sun was beaming on a lovely early spring time when the trees were starting to bud their leaves.
Coincidentally, I also happened to be reading another book called “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff.”
As before, I stopped to pause and reflect on a beautiful passage on a particular topic of the book.
Then it happened. This time around I wasn’t transported to a different place. Instead, I was enveloped in the radiant energy of love. To say it was the most beautiful feeling I’ve ever felt does not do it justice.
This experience lasted long enough for me to think and ask myself a question while being in such a state. The question that came to me: How can I capture this state of being to last forever?
… In thinking about these experiences, the one thing both days have in common is how I was feeling in the partaking of the day ahead of me. There was a sense of joy, excitement and anticipation in what I was about to embark on.
Oddly enough, I was only going to read a book. Perhaps that’s the key to life; finding that sense of joy and excitement that sparks life in us no matter what that may be.
