"Don't Think All Ecstasies Are the Same!"

Our incarnations are those of a Wine-Taster. Each life the Wine-Taster raises a world-in-a-glass to the lips. The Wine-Taster sips and tastes each world for a time. And with every taste, a new and different life is lived, each with its own bouquet.

One sip may have a rich or earthy taste, the next fruity, sickly-sweet or oaken. Only the glass that is left aside and forgotten will turn to vinegar. It depends.

Rumi tells us there are "thousands of wines that can take over our minds." "Be a connoisseur, and taste with caution," he says.

"Judge like a king, and choose the purest, the ones unadulterated with fear, or some urgency about, 'what's needed'."

"Don't think all ecstasies are the same!," he warns.

 In one sip the life will have a masculine or feminine sense. It may be fresh-pressed, aged, or so distilled it will taste like poison to the connoisseur. One sip may be an elixir, another God's own ambrosia.

Each sip will leave its aftertaste. It will cleanse the palate in one case, another sip may linger through the night and the imbiber will wake up sour-mouthed and thirsty. But unlike in a formal tasting, here the Wine-Taster does not spit and rinse, but drinks fully, casting off only the dregs.

And when having tasted the fullness of all the Estates in all the many Realms, and reeling in intoxication, laughing from the effects of his debauchery, he sleeps at last in drunken Bliss.

Raise your cup, Wine-Taster! Sat-chit-ananda . . . . .