Bliss

by Paul Smetana
(Wollongong - Australia)

What do we know about Bliss?

Well, the bit I want to focus on today, is the unusual problem of being Intoxicated by Bliss.
This all started the other day when I was surprisingly, unexpectedly and Remarkably “Intoxicated by Bliss”, for most of the day, and I was making mistake after mistake at work. I just couldn’t keep my mind on the job. Luckily nothing terribly wrong happened, just little things I could fix later. And it got me thinking about Bliss. I know I want it more and more, but this side effect was puzzling!
So here is what I have thought about so far. Also you should know that when I try to bring this subject up, I get a lot of negative reactions, which I also don’t understand. Maybe you have some ideas.
So, we all know about ordinary drunkenness and how it interrupts and disrupts our mental capacities. We are responsibly asked, not to drink and drive, handle heavy machinery and so forth. So while drinking does lower stress a bit, it also lowers cognitive function. Commonly, you become a little brain dead, but happier.
What isn’t common are Big Gobs of Bliss. People can be happy, they can feel good, but bliss seems to be reserved for those extra special moments.
Getting married, the birth of your first child, winning the lottery, finding the person you have been looking for your whole life, … These are big bliss moments.
The Indian Yogi’s also know about bliss. Their methods of meditation to attain Nirvana are structured and organised, and take students along the spiritual path.
Along this wondrous path, they meet Bliss. It’s a sign of advancing spiritual success, but there’s a problem with it.
Bliss makes the students drunk! It makes them so enamored with the joy of existence, that they forget themselves and their reasons for meditating in the first place.They are blinded to their goal of Knowing God, and would rather just stay drunkenly blissed out.
The Yogi’s know this spiritual trap, and it’s at this point that the greatest care and instruction is needed to strengthen the students will, to focus heavily on their original desire to met God, their most desired quest.
For those mere mortals, who are finding that life is simply getting better all the time, being drunk on bliss, is an experience they weren’t expecting.
The Yogi’s answer to bliss drunkenness, is the mindfulness habit. The persistent habit of focusing on the details of the moment. In fact, much training for the spiritual Devotee, is on carrying out the mundane duties of life.
Cooking, cleaning, washing, sweeping, housekeeping are actually Tools to strength minds from becoming drunk and therefore weakened.
In a story from “An Autobiography of a Yogi” Paramahansa Yogananda’s great book, he tells of a young postman devotee of his with the bliss problem so severe, that the young postman complains of not being able to do his job.
This would be truly terrible thing, because without a job, life for an Indian boy could mean abject poverty and starvation. He had to keep that job!
Yogananda had to help the young postman maintain his mental capacities, despite being in an almost constant state of bliss.
We don’t have the details of how the Great Yogi helped, but aside from the amazing powers a Yogi has at his disposal, he (I think) urged his student to not give up, and to keep focusing on the little things.
In our daily lives, having to stay alert and attentive is usually only a problem when the big bad things happen. When there are calamities in our lives, we often collapse for a bit and then by some strange undiscovered miracle, we pull ourselves back up from the cesspit, and get on with it.
It’s amazing that some people’s lives, seem filled to overflowing with disasters of every kind, yet you wouldn’t know anything about it. These people have found The secret to being able to work and live under the most trying conditions, and do so sometimes brilliantly!
So I believe, that if it’s possible to live a normal life under deeply negative conditions, then it should be possible to be as blissful as you’d like, without falling prey to it’s drunken aspects, and “live a Wonderful Life!”
ps: The painting of the blissful boy comes from http://pamfoxpaintings.weebly.com. Pam paints with Bliss!
Happy reading,
Paul
About the Author: Paul Smetana writes about Being Touched by Life.
He Feels that, Feeling Good does you and others, a wonderful good!
He has spent most of his life believing that we can have a Life worth Living,
Brimming with vitality and Joy.
For Instant Access to Articles, e-books, and Resources on how to “Live Blissfully,” Visit www.betouchedbylife.com