There's a big difference between "peak experience" and "cosmic unity, god consciousness, nirvana, samadhi, heaven, et al" on many occasions over my life I have been "uplifted" "inspired" "felt the spirit of god" "had the holy ghost" or in other words had a spiritual experience due to something "I" was doing and experiencing. Usually I asked for help (prayed) it's a great, amazing feeling and I remember these experiences fondly, most notably the ones where I was struggling or in pain and "something" descended upon me and made it all better for a time.
These experiences I would call peak spiritual experiences, they are NOT cosmic unity, god consciousness, or nirvana. Peak spiritual experiences are like a bandaid, they fix you up in a moment or give you some clarity when you need or ask for it. You may feel "connected", have a sense of "camaraderie" but you are still you, still separate, still begging for crumbs and Hey! "You" got tossed a piece of stale bread, "You" won't starve, yay.
Cosmic consciousness or god mind is the above experience times Infinity. It's when "You" disappear and are, for a time, swept up and unified with the "Whole" the "Absolute" the "One". No longer dual, everything shifts and enemies are your dearest comrades, the lion does lay down with the lamb so to speak, NOTHING matters, NOTHING is wrong, every fiber of your being wants to explode love all over everyone and everything, simply perfection. People will think you are crazy, they'll call each other and say "Jesus! know1 is having a manic episode! We've got to get him on meds quick before he...
But you KNOW what you experienced, you now no longer wonder what the f*** is going on, you're clear about what it's about. Like near death experiences where the person comes back to life and says "Oh for the love of God NOOO! I don't want to be back here, kill me now so I can go back!" People who have had a God consciousness event spend their time trying to recreate it. Like Jed say's above, you can literally spend your life on this dead end search. In some ways this is what makes up a drug addict, the constant search for a tiny sliver of this feeling, nothing wrong with it, be my guest, but it ain't gonna give you what you're after, unless of course you overdose, boom! T/R'ed.
The challenge then is to live here, knowing it's bull**** not because you read it in some book but because you've EXPERIENCED the difference, yes Jed you are right, the feeling is not abiding, it fades but once you've known the Absolute, nothing is ever the same, yes you can and will fall back into Maya, because you find there is no path, no teaching, no help, if you don't shut up about it the help you get will be a straight jacket and the joy of being institutionalized.
In Damnedest you said you weren't sure if one needed an event like this to become T/R'ed, well, personally I don't think you can become T/R'ed without it, I think it takes the knowledge of the Absolute, that personal knowledge to get anywhere near enough steam for lift off.
Jed, you've certainly seen your fair share, what do you think separates the men from the boys? The dilettantes from the pros? It's pure desire based on knowledge of The One, The Absolute. Nothing else has the juice to pull free of Maya, the Matrix, whatever. H/A can be had without it but T/R? No way. So far for me it's all about non dual, that's how I make this work and at this point it's just like McDonalds... "I'm loving it!" But McDonalds is s*** and so is this life when given the comparison to the Absolute... It's a far far shore, God Consciousness, but visiting it changed everything for "me".
Feedback encouraged.
k1