My Sunset Experience - Spiritual versus Religious

I stood on the banked shoreline, silently gazing across the sea at the evening sky. The sun was still well above the horizon. The clouds around it were beginning to darken with their edges highlighted by the sunlight. In the foreground, seagulls and pelicans sat quietly on the fishing boats anchored close to the shoreline. It was very peaceful and serene.

As I watched, the sun edged closer to the horizon and the sky around it started to take on a faint pinkish glow. As the sun sank deeper, the pinkish tint turned to orange. This acted as backlighting for the clouds, darkening them to a shade of blue. By then, the sun was sitting just above the horizon, creating a magnificent sunset.

It painted a wide straight band of reddish orange, from where it was setting, on the surface of the water right to the water's edge at the banked shoreline where I was standing. The water's surface, painted by the setting sun, seemed to come alive. The sky surrounding the setting sun was filled with infinite shades of red and orange merging into each other. The setting sun backlighting the clouds from underneath highlighted their edges with a glowing reddish orange tint, imbuing them with a life of their own.

I was caught up in the glory and majesty of the spectacle playing out before me. It was a direct realization of some unique and unusual dimension of consciousness that transcended the ordinary day-to-day reality; it was so beautiful that I cannot find words to describe it. It was a sheer feeling of ecstasy - a state of pure feeling and joyous emotion. I felt as if I was transported to another world where Time appeared to stand still. My thought activity was suspended and the feeling of ecstasy reigned supreme. At that moment, there was no awareness of any connection with the idea of God as espoused by religion.

After a while, I cannot say for how long, whether moments or minutes, due to timeless nature of the experience, I wilfully and consciously began to think of the idea of God as espoused by Christianity It is important to note that this did not emanate form the mystical nature of the experience itself but it was something that I deliberately and wilfully imposed on the situation. In particular, I began to think one-third of this experience was linked with Jesus in keeping with the idea of the Trinity in Christianity. In so doing, I became disconnected from the mystery and ecstasy of the experience but the general feeling evoked in me from the experience persisted for quite some time afterwards.

The most amazing and enjoyable part of the experience was the deep feeling of ecstasy that I felt.


I view this experience as my personal insight into the difference between spirituality and religion.