Can You Withstand The Paradox of the Eternal Sublime?

Have you ever in your life had such an experience as to have the entirety of your body overwhelmed
An experience perfectly summed up by the French term jouissance: an essentially untranslatable term
It indicates a pleasure the exigency of which is so intense as to all but fall into the pure manifestation of its opposite: pain
Such an encounter with the perfection of the cosmos is generally a singular event
It is an occurrence the very intensity of which discourages the anticipation of its return

Nonetheless, the human mind is not equipped to protect itself from such essentially transformative desires
If one is not careful, if one does not  master one’s conscious affects regarding this particular intensity of what must be the apotheosis of the sublime,
There can be no doubt that the unconscious will take the driver’s seat, as it is always want to do
It will drive one into a perpetual jouissance, a state that simply cannot be sustained without the very real possibility of crossing the line between quotidian hysteria to full blown psychotic ecstasy
One risks encountering the possibility of  the impossible in his world only in measured doses
Or, is it possible to have such faith in contingency as to be able to sustain the paradox of the eternal sublime without at the same time departing forevermore with reason, desire fallen into the abyss of madness.
© 5/25/2012