How to attain Bliss?

[thelerner]

I know bliss isn't an end game; maybe its a bad goal.  Still as a tool, a recreational one, it seems like a nice one to have in my pocket.  I'd like to hear more from those who've attained it.  What they did.  Is it replicable?   Easily turned on and off?  Are there downsides?

 

Personally I don't think I'll ever be the enlightened type.  Just being happy, having a bit of bliss now and then sounds pretty good to me.

[idiot_stimpy]

What type of bliss?

 

Like a feeling of completion, the feeling of your mothers embrace when you were a child, complete contentment in the moment not needing anything else?

 

Then there is the bliss of orgasm. Extreme sensory pleasure. 

[thelerner]

What type of bliss?

 

Like a feeling of completion, the feeling of your mothers embrace when you were a child, complete contentment in the moment not needing anything else?

 

Then there is the bliss of orgasm. Extreme sensory pleasure. 

I'm open minded.  What kind of bliss you got?  

[idiot_stimpy]

I believe complete contentment and at ease, is our natural state/supreme state of being.

 

I've only experienced the bliss of orgasm circulated in my head once or twice.

[Gerard]

I know bliss isn't an end game; maybe its a bad goal.  Still as a tool, a recreational one, it seems like a nice one to have in my pocket.

 

Don't seek this (like anything else in this game anyway) because the more you do the further it goes away from you. It's like a crayfish living in a hole. The more you tried to get it out the deeper it will go in till it becomes almost impossible to reach.

 

 

Personally I don't think I'll ever be the enlightened type.  Just being happy, having a bit of bliss now and then sounds pretty good to me.

 

That kind of thinking is one of the greatest allies of the EGO-MIND. Don't ever think like that, please.

 

Practices that work great: Walking meditation, Vipassana (prostration to subdue pride, the ego + seated + walking meditation according to the Thai Forest Tradition), Bagua (for me), practising in the natural environment (especially near water + trees)...

 

Good luck

[taoguy]

I believe that everything originally is in perfect harmony. When there is an imbalance, this results in movements struggling back to the balance. But sometimes... it's like how you want to go back into the flow of the river... you stop swimming against the current and go where it takes you.

 

I experience orgasms in my body, again and again - But it is not sexual nor is it "coarse". For me, it is like taking a bath in the clear spring waters of a deep forest, where you feel refreshed and alive. It feels like life. The bliss intensifies and the orgasms culminate to a point where it shifts away from the coarseness to just peace and equanimity.

 

The first step for me was to deal with my mind... What was I unsatisfied about? Why do I not feel content and happy? Why do I not feel peaceful? I asked myself that.

 

Then I realized my mind flickered to anxieties/worries (of the past), to fear/expectations (of the future) and cravings (of the present senses). So I gave up on them, surrendered and stilled my mind. My mind is the problem anyway, so why not just be content right now?

 

I felt that opening myself up and feeling deeply content allowed this happiness to rise, as if I was tucked into bed by my parents in my childhood and feeling loved. Then I opened myself more, and each time I did, I gave in more, I surrendered more, and the more I did, the fewer the thoughts.

 

Then there was the space between the thoughts. Pure bliss.

 

When I meditate, I let my body go, then it reaches a point where the breath becomes subtle and eventually stops. Then there is rising of energy from within, often joyous and vigorous in nature.

Edited September 15, 2015 by taoguy

[Silent Answers]

Bliss... I don't think I've ever felt it, besides from when I've consumed 'shrooms.

 

General everyday happiness is far more practical. To achieve that is quite simple..slap yourself awake with all the amazing things surrounding us that we take for granted. Our subconscious blocks so much from getting through, we hardly see the world. Not to mention the relative stability we're enjoying...I know there's a lot of suffering in the world today...but every morning that's not an ice age, not underground, and where I'm not in the foodchain is an awesome start to my day!

[Karl]

Easy. It's on Amazon.

 

 

http://www.amazon.com/They-Made-History-Bliss/dp/B006M6A9TI

 

 

Nice album for the spiritual. A friend of mine I bought a copy for said it saved her life. What could be a better recommendation than that ?

[hod]

Bliss is like a relationship / marriage. Sometimes it comes easy, sometimes not so much; but you just continue to work at it and never give it up.

[liminal_luke]

Bliss is great and all, but why not set your sights a little lower? May I suggest aiming for pleasure. Pleasure seeking, while arguably a lower calling, has it´s advantages. It doesn´t arouse the evil eye of spiritual purists who prefer to see bliss as on unsought for side effect. Because the high from pleasure is not so intense, you´re less likely to experience a "dark night" style rebound into depression and other hellish emotional states. Mostly though, pleasure is just plain easier to come by.

 

To experience pleasure just pay attention. No need to do anything different at all. Feel the sand squish between your toes. Savor the crunch of the garlic bread. Smell the morning coffee. And who knows, while your soaking in all the pleasure available in the course of a normal day you might just experience a moment or two of bliss as well. Hey, what can I say: Bliss happens.

 

Liminal

Edited September 15, 2015 by liminal_luke

[thelerner]

I wouldn't want bliss all the time, or even most of the time, but it'd be nice to be able to pull it out every now and then.  Rejuvenating as well as pleasurable.  Maybe 2 or 3 times a month, even once or twice. 

[Aetherous]

I think the bliss is your true nature. Another phrase for it is "inner peace". Your life can be full of ups and downs, but you have this positive feeling within you despite it all.

 

It also sort of feels like this:

 

As for how to attain it...keep practicing a spiritual method.

Edited September 15, 2015 by Aetherous

[Wayfarer]

To the Original Poster - actually you already have it.  To Awaken and experience this bliss (which becomes a very settled undisturbed feeling that resides with you all the time) is to realise that all things are the same Thing and you are already That - which Lao Tsu named Tao.

 

This One Thing is Unchanging (because there is nothing else that exists but it) and therefore always the same - and IT being all things, means you are also That - so something about you is totally unchanging - so where is it?  Well you have a choice of two places to look;

 

1) you can look to your day-to-day conscious living with all its distractions for something unchanging or

 

2) you can look to how you are while unconscious.  This state has no thought or emotion running through it and is not disturbed, it is unchanging.  Its qualities must also reside in what 'we' consider to be everything else - for we/they are the same That - so consequently if we want to understand the Presence of Tao there must be something expressed in all things equally, something of its quality that also is within you while unconscious...the qualities that are present while unconscious must also be present while conscious.  In other words, the One that does not change can only be As IT IS wherever you look, so if you look somewhere and see change in a sense you are overlooking the One.  It is discovering this that creates the bliss. Verse 16 of TTC explains what to look for and how to find the Constant in case you don't wish to look yourself.

 

So to find the Unchanging, do not look to what appears to change.  When you Awaken you realise that nothing changes, what we see as altering is the changing face of the Changeless.  This Presence lies within you (hence all the talk of Taoist Alchemy to become Immortal) and lies around you in the world you see.  You are also what is beyond your body.  Experiencing this as opposed to thinking it is what creates the state of bliss you mentioned.

 

You can also ignore your thoughts and see them as something that comes and goes against the backdrop of something always present i.e. where did that thought come to and then leave - what is there, what is the you when there are no thoughts?

 

Hope this helps. 

[thelerner]

Thanks for your posts. 

 

I was hoping to get something from Tibetan Ice who wrote some about bliss in his recent thread about Jhanas.   

 

 

I think inner peace is my true nature.  I can get there.  yay. 

Bliss, not so much. 

[manitou]

Thanks for your posts. 

 

I was hoping to get something from Tibetan Ice who wrote some about bliss in his recent thread about Jhanas.   

 

 

I think inner peace is my true nature.  I can get there.  yay. 

Bliss, not so much. 

 

 

Hi Lerner,

 

Your last post, you mentioned 'I can get there'.  In your Interests, under your avatar, it says 'Getting closer to Fine without going too Crazy'.  Can you see the relationship?

 

I just finished listening to a few Eckhart Tolle CD's.  He would tell you that there's no place to Get To.  That to just realize your true self Today (trying to remove yesterday and tomorrow from your field of thought) is all it takes.  To be very grounded in your body, in the sense of Who you Really Are.  You are Awareness.  Your Awareness is perfect, except for the interference of your thoughts and judgments.

 

To me, inner peace is bliss.  Just to have the 'landscape of our hearts flattened out', to not feel my heart grip in anxiety about tomorrow, to stop listening to stories about myself in my mind about yesterday.  What an incredible balancing act this is.  I'm not sure anyone gets it and gets to keep it 24/7.  I don't know.  Maybe we could ask the Dalai Lama.  Or maybe Donald Trump.

[Bud Jetsun]

I think inner peace is my true nature.  I can get there.  yay. 

Bliss, not so much. 

 

 

Complete Peace and bliss are indistinguishable. 

 

Conditional 'peace' is not bliss, conditional anything is the state of looking for cause to end.

 

One does not arrive here through some external condition criteria being met, it is a gift only you can give yourself through unburdening with forgiveness/universal compassion and mindful awareness to choose not to re-burden oneself pointlessly. 

 

There is no external condition worth surrendering your peace, and no external condition may take it from you with out you first making the choice to give it. 

 

With Unlimited Love,

-Bud

[thelerner]

I see bliss as different then inner peace.  Inner peace hums along happy, quiet, peaceful.  Bliss is active, ecstatic, full of wow and amazement.. orgasmically delightful. 

 

That's why a steady diet would be, bad.

[liminal_luke]

I don´t know, but some of my most powerful experiences have come from increasing the time I did something. If I do Kunlun for two hours, the second hour is way more powerful/interesting than the first. Ditto for just about any meditation I´ve tried this with. I think if you want extreme experience you´ve got to approach it in an extreme way.

 

Part of this, is about overcoming obstacles aka blocks. If you stop when you hit a block, you´ll never know what´s on the other side. Take anything and keep going past the point of comfort and things get a little wild.

 

Unlike you, I´ve never been to Burning Man, but I bet some people have blissful experiences there. (Along, of course, with a whole lot of distinctly less than blissful experiences.) I think this is because going to Burning Man is such an extreme thing to do. Just deciding to go burns through resistance and blocks. People challenge themselves and find out who they are way out of their comfort zone, an experience that is often blissful.

 

Just some thoughts....

 

Liminal

[manitou]

- so consequently if we want to understand the Presence of Tao there must be something expressed in all things equally, 

 

This sentence jumped out at me, Wayfarer.  To see life within the Dao, we must realize that this is merely a dance of forms.  All things are equal, in that they are all the same matter.  The matter in my hands is the same matter as the keyboard I'm typing on.

 

And to extend this sameness to all humanity - to realize that there is equality in all human beings, that they are all a walking, talking piece of the Dao, or God, or Great Spirit - that no one is more important than another, regardless of where we are living - what continent, what country, what creed, what race.

 

Yes, there is this silent Knowing that sits down deep, when my mind is still, when my muscles are relaxed, when my breathing is calm.  It doesn't change - it is that thing that you mentioned that is not changeable.

 

Very nice post...

[shanlung]

 Maybe we could ask the Dalai Lama.  Or maybe Donald Trump.

 

 

Failing that, can always ask Google

 

 

Taoistic Idiot gleefully aware that ignorance is bliss and wondering why people disdain that road

[sillybearhappyhoneyeater]

MDMA.

it has drawbacks though....

 

 

correct meditation practice can bring bliss, but you really have to be patient because it can also be really frustrating when you are making slow progress.

[de_paradise]

Tummo practice is quite blissfull.

Heart chakra type practices are blissfull. (love, gratitude, faith, etc)

I guess both take a certain amount of time to get these practices to the point where energetic bliss is obvious, lasting.

[thelerner]

Tummo practice is quite blissfull.

Interesting coincidence- I was just going through my Best of the Bums log, and I saw an old post of yours on Bliss and wanted to add it here.  No idea how old it is but probably quite a few years.-

 

From De Paradise

 

My unofficial method to get something going and some bliss:

 

Imagine that moment where a woman is about to orgasm, you when her back is arched back, eyes rolled back a little, and she's in this moment of blissful surrender and reception. If you can imagine that moment, whether you are a man or woman, and put yourself into that state, that feeling, and enjoy that moment yourself as a a woman about to orgasm, or well on the path of orgasming, and just letting go to that feeling.

 

Allow yourself to lose any inhibitions that keep your from that state, and just think of the times you have seen or felt this ecstasy. Keep the kunlun posture while you are doing this. Forget about being a guy or macho or whatever you are, and just enter the orgasmic sensation, of that letting go and reception. And you can feel the bliss rising from your lower chakras, and it may circulate around your body. Just allow the natural movements within the Kunlun posture flow with the whole orgasm symphony.

 

 

Me> this reminds me a bit, of the last part of Glenn Morris's Secret Smile.  Good stuff.

 

Another post that was in the Best of.. about bliss: (I think it was from Karen and/or AYP(?))

 

The yoga practice of Shambhavi Mudra 

Or, maybe we should call it amrita, the nectar of immortality. Before you conclude that I’m selling you some new MLM wonderdrink, let me begin by saying that you produce this magickal elixir inside your own head. You can’t buy it. Although, if I could bottle it, I would definitely try to sell it.

 

At the back of your head, just around the occipital ridge, south of Sahasrara chakra, you will find the Bindu chakra. From what I have read and can sense, this chakra releases a kind of mystical substance that flows down the back of the throat to be stored at the Vishuddha chakra (which was the focus of the last post), where it is stored before taking it’s final journey to it’s demise at the fire of the navel.

 

What is it exactly? Well, Wikipedia says it quite well, “In yogic philosophy amrita is a fluid that can flow from the pineal gland down the throat in deep states of meditation. It is considered quite a boon: some yogic texts say that one drop is enough to conquer death and achieve immortality. Modern neurochemistry holds that the pineal gland produces Dimethyltryptamine, a psychedelic tryptamine, which is probably responsible for our REM-dreams.“

 

Cool huh?  Now I’m gonna tell you how to access it…

 

I always teach my students when doing yoga to smile, but I rarely have the opportunity to say why.  Although this technique is more sophisticated than simply smiling, that is where it begins.

At the roof of the mouth is a point, that when you concentrate upon, gives you a kind of pratyahara, or freedom from input through the five senses.

 

That spot, which acts as a trigger for the bindu chakra (Dr, David Frawley calls it a “watery third eye”) is the meeting point of the five senses. By relaxing it, the mind ceases analysis of the objects in the five senses and the objects are free from mental definition, or grasping. At this point, a kind of compassion come over the spirit and it’s said that amrit drips down, releasing cosmic bliss.

 

Was that a mouthful?

It’s easy, try it:

Edited September 20, 2015 by thelerner

[Taoway]

Ive experienced that no mind state between thoughts in meditation. It was a really beautiful experience. I wasnt looking for any sort of cosmic experience in that moment like I was when I first started meditating.

 

I felt my breath get very subtle as you said. My mind didnt have anything to think of! And my body was still. Oh so still. And since I experienced it once before, nothing is stopping me or anyone else from experiencing it by choice at anytime of the day!

 

 

I believe that everything originally is in perfect harmony. When there is an imbalance, this results in movements struggling back to the balance. But sometimes... it's like how you want to go back into the flow of the river... you stop swimming against the current and go where it takes you.

 

I experience orgasms in my body, again and again - But it is not sexual nor is it "coarse". For me, it is like taking a bath in the clear spring waters of a deep forest, where you feel refreshed and alive. It feels like life. The bliss intensifies and the orgasms culminate to a point where it shifts away from the coarseness to just peace and equanimity.

 

The first step for me was to deal with my mind... What was I unsatisfied about? Why do I not feel content and happy? Why do I not feel peaceful? I asked myself that.

 

Then I realized my mind flickered to anxieties/worries (of the past), to fear/expectations (of the future) and cravings (of the present senses). So I gave up on them, surrendered and stilled my mind. My mind is the problem anyway, so why not just be content right now?

 

I felt that opening myself up and feeling deeply content allowed this happiness to rise, as if I was tucked into bed by my parents in my childhood and feeling loved. Then I opened myself more, and each time I did, I gave in more, I surrendered more, and the more I did, the fewer the thoughts.

 

Then there was the space between the thoughts. Pure bliss.

 

When I meditate, I let my body go, then it reaches a point where the breath becomes subtle and eventually stops. Then there is rising of energy from within, often joyous and vigorous in nature.

[Sebastian]

As some have mentionned, don't get attached to states in your practice.

 

There are practices that can lead you to bliss, however one day you will do the same practice and not achieve the same result, so you will feel cheated and lacking something.

 

Hence the cheese you were eating has somehow become venom.

 

But you need to ask yourself what you gain by pursuing bliss.

 

Because one day you will loose bliss... so what will you do ? Double the dosage of whatever you were doing ?

 

Solid bliss is being unmoved by outer circumstances and inner feelings to me.

 

It is of a more subtle yin and inner aspect.

 

Anything gross and reproducible is fleeting and will be ultimately unreliable.

Edited September 21, 2015 by Sebastian