Inhale the Perfume of Being, Let the Scent Catch You
By shifting your focus from “doing” to “being,” you allow yourself to be enveloped by the perfume of being—a state that transcends mere action and engulfs you in a sacred sense of presence and awareness. This is not just another meditation guide; it’s an invitation to experience the profound richness life offers when you’re truly present.
If anyone wants to know what “spirit” is,
or what “God’s fragrance” means,
lean your head toward him or her.
Keep your face there close.
Like this
Rumi
This morning on the treadmill, I listened to Tim Ferriss’s podcast with meditation teacher and author Sharon Salzberg. Tim is an excellent interviewer as he asked Sharon many questions about meditation from the place where he is with meditation, which is a place most meditators are familiar with – a lot of orientation around doing.
- What can meditation do for me?
- What can I do with meditation to make my life better?
- How can I optimize meditation for me?
- What are some techniques for doing meditation better?
These aren’t the words right out of Tim’s mouth, but they reflect a common orientation of many approaching meditation for the first time. Tim is a self-identified type-A personality who makes no bones about his life of living to accomplish and enjoy.
One element I would have loved for Sharon to have touched upon was the orientation and activity of “doing.”
- Who is doing?
- What will the doing accomplish?
- Is doing important?
The podcast ended as I was in the steam room, and this thought immediately arose – the perfume of being.
The perfume of being changed my relationship, experience and orientation toward meditation. Some of you will relate.
I meditated for many years – doing, doing, doing – even trying to do “being.” When a subtle moment of experience arose, I was aware but not doing, alert but not thinking, curious but not questioning. The moment was a flash but noticeable – it arose and arose. A flash in a stream of doing.
Perhaps if you go deeper into the insight, into the satisfaction, and follow that aroma, you will come to the bottle with the perfume. If you have the bottle, you will have the aroma all the time. You can open it whenever you want to and enjoy the fragrance. You seek the truth to find the perfume. – A. H. Almaas, Diamond Heart Book One: Elements of the Real in Man
After many flashes, I found that I had a scent of those moments – not an idea, but something more whole mind/body, including my parts. In time, as I could taste those moments more, I found that I was naturally relaxing into the perfume of the experience – my breathing was naturally bringing it more into my body/mind. The perfume of being began to pervade and influence, and the more it did, the more dominant it became until there was just being. Meditation continued, and I continued sitting, but the forefront of the experience was of being immersed, surrounded, pervaded, bathed in a perfume of being.
Tim was heading off to his first 10-day silent retreat at Spirit Rock, which he was excited and anxious about. I wonder if he, too, caught the scent.
We are all Spiritual beings
having a physical experience.
We are rubies
in the midst of granite.
We are imbued with
resplendent majesty but
We insist on
remaining shriveled
and withered in our prison of dust.
Why not become fresh
from the gentleness of the heart-spring?
Why not laugh…
like a rose?
Why not spread
perfume?
~ Rumi