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How Do You Achieve Bliss?

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CartsBeforeHorses

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This post is all about the emotion of bliss. How is bliss different from happiness, how do you achieve and feel bliss? Below are my thoughts on the matter.

Bliss is a strong positive emotion, more intense than happiness but shorter in duration. Unlike happiness as the result of the achievement of man's values in his general life, bliss is an achievement of sustained mental concentration on the mind itself, from moment to moment. You can walk around happy all the time without even thinking about it, but you can't walk around in bliss all the time. Bliss requires a conscious focus on your internal mental state.

What does bliss feel like? It's a tranquil, unconditional feeling of selfish love. It's the kind that wraps you in a warm blanket and tells you that all is well, even if only because this one moment exists. People take drugs, join religions, and do all sorts of crazy or dangerous things to find bliss. Really, we all have the innate capacity to feel bliss just by willing ourselves to do so.

The initial experience of bliss results from the acceptance of, and the intense focus on just five simple premises. This requires sustained focus (at first), so I'd suggest sitting in a comfortable, quiet place and repeating the following to yourself. Since these are all either true premises or declarative statements of intent, your mind should have no trouble accepting them. If not then feel free to modify them to suit your needs.

1. This moment is all that matters to me right now
2. I let go of all of my cares and worries
3. I love myself, I am in awe at what a wonderful person I am 
4. I deserve to be as happy as I want right now
5. I have the capacity for as much happiness as I desire, and I'm using that ability now.

You can help this process along while repeating these premises by visualizing your positive qualities, or your past accomplishments, whatever gets you into the mindset of fully loving and embracing yourself. Also visualizing your cares and worries just floating away like clouds passing overhead... in this moment they do not matter. They cannot matter. The universe is benevolent and is allowing you this moment for you.

It takes time to train the "bliss circuits" in your brain to respond to your conscious directive, but respond they will if you are dedicated enough. Eventually--and I'm not sure how much mental conditioning that this takes as I've been practicing bliss for 10 years--but you might get to my level of skill. I am able to feel blissful just by telling myself "time to feel blissful" and focusing on letting the feeling flow. I don't really have to consciously repeat any of the premises I listed above anymore, but they are subconscious assumptions which enable this emotion in me. I've already described the emotional feeling of unconditional selfish love... but the physical, bodily sensations of bliss are also intense, and worth noting. It literally feels like every muscle throughout your body is having an orgasm, for as long as you want it to last, as long as you can sustain the concentration required. Ever get goosebumps, shivers down your spine at the thought of something pleasant? That will be magnified by about 10x as well.

Hopefully I'm not overselling this, but I truly do see bliss as one of life's most cherished experiences. We might have our disagreements but I share this with my fellow Objectivists in hope that you too will find the bliss that I have found. You all are truly amazing people and you deserve to feel amazing, too.

Or, maybe you've already found bliss. How have you found bliss in your life? What do the emotional and physical aspects feel like for you, and are they different from how I've described it? Far be it from me to claim that my own personal experiences are universal. Eager to hear your thoughts on the matter.

Edited by CartsBeforeHorses
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One time I had a bag of raw cacao nibs. I bought them thinking they would be a nice healthy snack, but they were way too bitter and didn't taste good at all. One day I was making a smoothie and I thought why not just dump them in this smoothie? I knew if I didn't use these nibs they would eventually go off, so I thought I may as well experiment. I dumped most of them in the smoothie and blended them in. The smoothie was very grainy with all these nib pieces and wasn't very nice at all so I just chugged the whole thing.

What followed was the closest thing to bliss I have ever experienced in my life. I experienced a sense of profound well being like I cannot describe. I was also very motivated to fix anything wrong in my life, and I was happy to accept the challenge. Nothing could bring me down in that state. The world seemed bright. Everything seemed right.

I tried to recreate this feeling with another smoothie but  I felt nothing the second time... much to my chagrin

Edited by Nerian
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On 10/29/2017 at 3:16 PM, Nerian said:

One time I had a bag of raw cacao nibs. I bought them thinking they would be a nice healthy snack, but they were way too bitter and didn't taste good at all. One day I was making a smoothie and I thought why not just dump them in this smoothie? I knew if I didn't use these nibs they would eventually go off, so I thought I may as well experiment. I dumped most of them in the smoothie and blended them in. The smoothie was very grainy with all these nib pieces and wasn't very nice at all so I just chugged the whole thing.

What followed was the closest thing to bliss I have ever experienced in my life. I experienced a sense of profound well being like I cannot describe. I was also very motivated to fix anything wrong in my life, and I was happy to accept the challenge. Nothing could bring me down in that state. The world seemed bright. Everything seemed right.

I tried to recreate this feeling with another smoothie but  I felt nothing the second time... much to my chagrin

That's a very interesting experience... I have always seen bliss as an emotion which you must actively pursue, but perhaps mine is the wrong way to go about it. It sounds like you didn't pursue bliss at all, that it simply happened to you.

Objectivism holds that emotions are the result of our premises, whether conscious or subconscious. Have you examined what premises that you held at the time, that you were focused on? Have you tried meditating upon those premises again? I think that might help you more than another smoothie would ;)

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13 hours ago, CartsBeforeHorses said:

That's a very interesting experience... I have always seen bliss as an emotion which you must actively pursue, but perhaps mine is the wrong way to go about it. It sounds like you didn't pursue bliss at all, that it simply happened to you.

Objectivism holds that emotions are the result of our premises, whether conscious or subconscious. Have you examined what premises that you held at the time, that you were focused on? Have you tried meditating upon those premises again? I think that might help you more than another smoothie would ;)

Trust me. It was the smoothie. :D

I know you're looking for a psychological method... but chemistry is the only way I've ever experienced bliss. :P 

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5 hours ago, Nerian said:

I know you're looking for a psychological method...

I have achieved bliss voluntarily through psychological methods, whenever I desire it, so I know that it's at least possible for one person--me. I don't know if it's my particular brain chemistry which enables me to do this. That is why I am curious to hear others' methods. Also if others have achieved this through purely psychological means such as meditation.

Ayn Rand wrote about the "inexplicable personal alchemy"... she believed the universe to be benevolent, and that certain people had an unknown force of goodness inside of them. It is certainly her most interesting piece of writing as she leaves this question unanswered.

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There is a fundamental conviction which some people never acquire, some hold only in their youth, and a few hold to the end of their days—the conviction that ideas matter . . . . That ideas matter means that knowledge matters, that truth matters, that one’s mind matters . . . .

Its consequence is the inability to believe in the power or the triumph of evil. No matter what corruption one observes in one’s immediate background, one is unable to accept it as normal, permanent or metaphysically right. One feels: “This injustice (or terror or falsehood or frustration or pain or agony) is the exception in life, not the rule.” One feels certain that somewhere on earth—even if not anywhere in one’s surroundings or within one’s reach—a proper, human way of life is possible to human beings, and justice matters.

 

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38 minutes ago, CartsBeforeHorses said:

I have achieved bliss voluntarily through psychological methods, whenever I desire it, so I know that it's at least possible for one person--me. I don't know if it's my particular brain chemistry which enables me to do this. That is why I am curious to hear others' methods. Also if others have achieved this through purely psychological means such as meditation.

Ayn Rand wrote about the "inexplicable personal alchemy"... she believed the universe to be benevolent, and that certain people had an unknown force of goodness inside of them. It is certainly her most interesting piece of writing as she leaves this question unanswered.

From my research, raw cacao contains anandamide, also known as the 'bliss molecule'. I suspect that I got a mild anandamide high.

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3 hours ago, CartsBeforeHorses said:

It is certainly her most interesting piece of writing as she leaves this question unanswered.

Perhaps if you articulated the unanswered question . . .

The only question that seems to be raised is along the lines of how others achieve bliss if the state is not simply willed into being.

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4 hours ago, dream_weaver said:

Perhaps if you articulated the unanswered question . . .

Ayn Rand's question is in the title of her piece... what is the source of certain people's seemingly inherent refusal to acknowledge evil's power or potency? What is the explanation for this goodness in certain people, what she called the "inexplicable personal alchemy?"

Certain people hold a fundamental conviction in the goodness of the universe. One which we see frequently displayed in children. I suspect that it is the same conviction which enables one to experience feelings of bliss.

4 hours ago, dream_weaver said:

The only question that seems to be raised is along the lines of how others achieve bliss if the state is not simply willed into being.

I don't think it necessarily must be willed into being, but that is the surest way to attain bliss because it is guaranteed. In my experience it is much like a muscle which must be conditioned and trained.

How do you personally experience bliss, dream_weaver?

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Rand does mention this type of comparison in children:

For him, the world has just begun. It is an intelligible world now; the chaos is in his mind, which he has not yet learned to organize—this is his next, conceptual task. His every experience is a discovery; every impression it leaves in his mind is new. But he is not able to think in such terms: to him, it is the world that's new. What Columbus felt when he landed in America, what the astronauts felt when they landed on the moon, is what a child feels when he discovers the earth, between the ages of two and seven.

I'm more inclined to think that the fundamental conviction she describes is held or lost on how he proceeds to organize his conceptual faculty.

As to personally experiencing bliss, it feels pretty damn good when I can waltz through a particular N. Rimsky-Korsakov's rendition of "Flight of the Bumblebee" on my keyboard error free as close to tempo as I can muster.

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On 11/1/2017 at 3:16 PM, dream_weaver said:

Rand does mention this type of comparison in children:

For him, the world has just begun. It is an intelligible world now; the chaos is in his mind, which he has not yet learned to organize—this is his next, conceptual task. His every experience is a discovery; every impression it leaves in his mind is new. But he is not able to think in such terms: to him, it is the world that's new. What Columbus felt when he landed in America, what the astronauts felt when they landed on the moon, is what a child feels when he discovers the earth, between the ages of two and seven.

I'm more inclined to think that the fundamental conviction she describes is held or lost on how he proceeds to organize his conceptual faculty.

And this is influenced by society. We live in a society which conducts a relentless assault on the individual imagination.

You want to be an atheist and think for yourself, experience the wonders of the universe through science? No, you should instead go to church and believe that god did it.

You want to play Dungeons and Dragons, a very imaginative game? That's for GEEKS! You should instead play candy crush on your phone, that's much more socially acceptable.

You want to be an astronomer someday? Sorry, robots will take all of your jobs. Better go out into the streets and join antifa and agitate for more socialist welfare programs.

I could go on.

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As to personally experiencing bliss, it feels pretty damn good when I can waltz through a particular N. Rimsky-Korsakov's rendition of "Flight of the Bumblebee" on my keyboard error free as close to tempo as I can muster.

I'm glad that you're able to experience bliss from life itself. I have had similar experiences to what you describe, but I would describe them as ecstasy, an excited enjoyment of my own creativity, rather than bliss which is far more tranquil for me. I am only able to experience bliss in its purest form via meditation.

I wonder, is there something different about what I'm doing, than what you are doing? Can our emotions both be the same emotion, but driven by different causes? Or are they different emotions that both of us call "bliss"?

Edited by CartsBeforeHorses
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Some of this is good. Your intent here is the value of meditation. It's not about feeling happy per se, but being content and focused.

On the other hand, points 3 to 4 are honestly a lot of vanity. One, telling yourself you're just wonderful because you're you is empty. Who says you deserve to be happy? Also, you will not be able to make yourself feel this way by saying so. I'd avoid all three - they're exercises in vanity.

Again, meditation is good. But you don't need mantras to say you're purely amazing. Just focus on existence.

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17 hours ago, dream_weaver said:

Until you can concretize "bliss" in a way that delineates it more concisely, what I experience as described is objective enough for me.

Bliss and ecstasy are two specific forms of happiness.

Bliss is a serene, tranquil form of happiness, different from ecstasy which is an excited, invigorating form of happiness.
Bliss is a feeling of selfish love, while ecstasy needn't involve love at all (though it certainly can).
Bliss is a form of introspection, while ecstasy is outwardly focused.
Bliss is slow, it takes its time. Ecstasy is fast and energized.

When I feel ecstasy, I want to go out and do everything that I can to better my life circumstances. I want to excel at everything.
When I feel bliss, I want to just sit down and enjoy the experience purely for its own sake.

The difference, I think, is perfectly encapsulated in these two different versions of the same song.

This one I would call an ecstatic song. This later version, I would call blissful.

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I would still call it blissful when I feel in control of the keyboard's response to my touch. Being out of practice, it takes me a while to resummon that type of practiced performance.

I've seen others sit down after long intervals of abstinence and play like they've never missed a day of practice. Go figure.

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1 hour ago, Eiuol said:

On the other hand, points 3 to 4 are honestly a lot of vanity. One, telling yourself you're just wonderful because you're you is empty. Who says you deserve to be happy?

I say that I deserve to be happy, and mine is the only opinion which matters. Bliss is a very selfish experience. It's sufficient as itself.

In a moment, it could happen, we could forgive, and be happy.

People often run around from day to day with self-insecurities, or lists of things that we could do better. Lists of ways we're not living up to our potential. Regrets about past actions.

Objectivism says that we shouldn't beat ourselves up, that we should acknowledge our flaws but learn from them and move on.

Blissful meditation is an application of this principle. It's about letting all of those things go, forgiving yourself, and accepting that in that moment, you are sufficient as yourself to experience bliss in its purest form.

1 hour ago, Eiuol said:

Also, you will not be able to make yourself feel this way by saying so.

My direct experience contradicts what you're saying. Emotions are the result of our premises, either conscious or subconscious. If my conscious premise is that "I deserve to be happy" and I believe it, then I will feel happiness.

1 hour ago, Eiuol said:

Just focus on existence.

Focus on what part of existence? Existence includes everything we know, both good and evil. The crow epistemology would tell us that I can't focus on the entirety of existence all at once. So should I focus on the evil? Should I focus on the good? What parts of the good?

 

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Just now, dream_weaver said:

I would still call it blissful when I feel in control of the keyboard's response to my touch. Being out of practice, it takes me a while to resummon that type of practiced performance.

I've seen others sit down after long intervals of abstinence and play like they've never missed a day of practice. Go figure.

Fair enough. That is how you experience bliss.

I would ask you how you experience the emotion of ecstasy, and under what circumstances. And how is it different from your experience of bliss? Do you believe the distinction between the two emotions to be valid? Would you define the distinction differently than how I've defined it?

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Think about related terms, such as 'a couple', 'a few', 'some', 'a lot', 'several', 'many'. In a description of quantity, 'a couple' is two, while the rest generally indicate more than two, without specifying.

Terms distinguishing emotions have this in common. In terms of pain/pleasure, emotions trend off in two directions, toward happy in one direction and toward sad in the other. A few of the terms are specified well. Most of them, to me, are general indicators and I've not spent much time in life trying to go beyond "is what I am feeling appropriate?" more that "what specifically am I feeling?"

We can compare two lengths and discern if they are approximately the same or noticeably different.

We can list foods we like and rank the in a ordinal method, but you can't tell me my ordinal list is incorrect, only that it may differ from your ordinal list.

Emotions are much more complex than the objectivity of length and the objectivity of the subjective ranking of foods.

When I was a lad, the night before Christmas, or a trip to Cedar Point may have been "ecstatic", but riding the roller coasters was too much fun to be burdened with the trying to sort out which ride was best, especially if your goal is to hit all rides during the course of your stay.

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1 hour ago, CartsBeforeHorses said:

I say that I deserve to be happy, and mine is the only opinion which matters. Bliss is a very selfish experience. It's sufficient as itself.

Yeah, that's not a sensible view. You don't just deserve to be happy - what are the reasons you deserve it? In other words, mantras like the one you suggest only encourage yourself to see yourself as amazing without further thought. The point of any meditation is either in the sense of focusing on givens, or the other sense of the word as deep reflection. Your opinion is not the only one that matters.

I'm reminded of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ldAQ6Rh5ZI

1 hour ago, CartsBeforeHorses said:

My direct experience contradicts what you're saying.

I'll put it this way. Any emotion you can "will" into being is by definition not authentic. Authentic emotions arise automatically from habits.

1 hour ago, CartsBeforeHorses said:

Focus on what part of existence?

Focus on the chair in front of you. On the tree. On the backyard. On concretes. No abstractions. This type of focus orients your mind to existence as it is. You would then be better at making rational judgments when you are no longer meditating. Better yet, you wouldn't need platitudes like "I deserve to be happy" you use for your bliss meditation. Essentially, mindful meditation (your 1 and 2) is training in attention and the choice to focus. This will lead to happiness, as long as you apply your growing skill to rational judgment.

Edited by Eiuol
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21 minutes ago, dream_weaver said:

When I was a lad, the night before Christmas, or a trip to Cedar Point may have been "ecstatic", but riding the roller coasters was too much fun to be burdened with the trying to sort out which ride was best, especially if your goal is to hit all rides during the course of your stay.

Point taken, trying to distinguish between bliss and ecstasy isn't exactly fun, moreso than it is an exercise in philosophical pedantry. As I am someone who emphasizes fun in many of his posts, I do acknowledge this.

That being said, as Objectivists we have the entire universe to enjoy, including the universe of different emotions. We hold ourselves out as experts of happiness and how to attain it, yet as a philosophy we haven't clearly defined an agreed upon definition for the difference between bliss and ecstasy, two different forms of happiness. There IS a difference, and both concepts are valid in my opinion.

Acknowledging the difference between ecstasy and bliss is as important as acknowledging the difference between Italian and Chinese food. Both are good, both are food, but they are entirely different types of food with different spices, different presentation, different flavors. We would be remiss if we didn't know the difference but we still called ourselves experts on food.

I think that bliss and ecstasy as I have defined them are different enough sorts of emotions to where they can be as easily distinguished (for me) as rage and frustration can be distinguished from each other.

They also have different definitions in common parlance. From dictionary.com (Bold added by me)

Bliss: supreme happiness; utter joy or contentment
Ecstasy: an overpowering emotion or exaltation; a state of sudden, intense feeling.

Contentment doesn't describe ecstasy. It is a happy sort of drive towards self-improvement, an immediate call to action. A call to go out and do something.
Overpowering doesn't describe bliss. Bliss is exactly the right amount of happy that you want to feel. It feels serene, not overpowering. You really want to linger on bliss or things that make you blissful.

Maybe I'm splitting hairs here, but the difference to ME is as clear as the difference between the two songs that I linked. Both are happy songs, but they are happy in fundamentally different ways. They evoke different feelings, different senses of life. I'll give you a hint: one is an opening song that makes you want to play the game. The second appears later on in a different game, when you are already playing, and it makes you want to savor the moment you are already in.

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27 minutes ago, CartsBeforeHorses said:

Maybe I'm splitting hairs here, but the difference to ME is as clear as the difference between the two songs that I linked. Both are happy songs, but they are happy in fundamentally different ways. They evoke different feelings, different senses of life. I'll give you a hint: one is an opening song that makes you want to play the game. The second appears later on in a different game, when you are already playing, and it makes you want to savor the moment you are already in.

I don't think you're splitting hairs on this particular topic. Quite contraire. And perhaps someone else will pick up the gauntlet and dance more enthusiastically with you on the matter.

I think Rand made a tremendous discovery in her assessment of love. I think she set the bar for what constitutes an objective breakdown of this nature, and sets a precedent for what can be accomplished in so doing.

I've not gone searching for others who may have contributed objective breakdowns of different emotions. I would probably enjoy reading something that is done well, should I stumble across it.

 

With regard to the music, I think of the background of a movie. The music is generally supposed to set the ambiance for the film. If you find yourself focused on the music rather than the unfolding events, you might conceivably ask yourself why this is the case.

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1 hour ago, Eiuol said:

Yeah, that's not a sensible view. You don't just deserve to be happy - what are the reasons you deserve it?

What are the reasons that you deserve to know? I have my reasons, and they're my selfish, private reasons. Not yours to be told directly... but perhaps yours to discover if you look hard enough. I can acknowledge your goodness and the fact that you and others here deserve happiness, even if I disagree with you on immigration or whatever. My original post assumes the goodness in those reading it. Objectivists are good, moral people. Can you pay me the same courtesy and acknowledge the reason that I deserve happiness without having to ask me directly? That is basically you questioning my integrity as a person. Not too polite of you.

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In other words, mantras like the one you suggest only encourage yourself to see yourself as amazing without further thought.

The thought is in the inception of those mantras. They are a given, accepted in that moment. Just like we are accepting certain premises when we discuss objectivism. We all accept that the welfare state is evil. Why? Well, we could discuss the why, but it would detract from the discussion that results from a prior acceptance of those premises. Such as: how to dismantle it.

I could meditate on the "why" I deserve to feel bliss, and the "why" I am an amazing person. I already know that, though. That would not accomplish bliss. Bliss is about feeling content in the moment. Bliss is not about placing conditions on it which have already been answered before a person even sets out to achieve bliss. Bliss is "unconditional" by definition. That doesn't mean that said conditions don't exist at all; it means that they are not the conditions meditated upon.

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The point of any meditation is either in the sense of focusing on givens, or the other sense of the word as deep reflection. Your opinion is not the only one that matters.

My happiness is not conditioned upon your acceptance or endorsement. I am a selfish individual. I am not a churchgoer. You are not an ayatollah. You do not get to tell me how to experience happiness the "right" way. You have not earned that right. Particularly when you compare me to a reasonless putz:

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If that jab was just in good fun, then I apologize for not getting it. Playful jabs don't translate well over the internet... that's why emoticons were invented ;)

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I'll put it this way. Any emotion you can "will" into being is by definition not authentic. Authentic emotions arise automatically from habits.

We're all going to die. This planet will be destroyed someday. From that standpoint, nothing that we do is authentic, unless we decide that it is. But nothing is authentic from the standpoint of the universe. I choose not to be nihilistic because that does not serve me. I choose to accept my life as authentic even though the universe does not care one iota about me. I choose to accept my emotions as authentic even if I am able to snap my fingers and feel them. Life is a fingersnap. It's over so soon. It's too short to deny yourself pleasure, happiness, or fun based on some dogma that certain emotions aren't "real" unless you do some ritual to make them real. I'm not in church, and I'm not an altar boy lighting candles. I'm an individual with an individual technique for achieving bliss which works for me.

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Focus on the chair in front of you. On the tree. On the backyard. On concretes.

My chair has tears and rips. My backyard is full of cigarette butts and dead leaves. That is not a very blissful thing.

Bliss is about a state of mental self-actualization.

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No abstractions. This type of focus orients your mind to existence as it is. You would then be better at making rational judgments when you are no longer meditating. Better yet, you wouldn't need platitudes like "I deserve to be happy" you use for your bliss meditation.Essentially, mindful meditation (your 1 and 2) is training in attention and the choice to focus. This will lead to happiness, as long as you apply your growing skill to rational judgment.

I have tried this technique and while it does center my mind, it does not achieve bliss as I would like to experience it.

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3 hours ago, Eiuol said:

You don't just deserve to be happy - what are the reasons you deserve it?

There's a lot of conversation in this thread, and I might not have time for it all, at present, but I wanted to pull this out for response. I find it fascinating.

The question of desert, I think, can be evaluated in two different ways:

1) Relating to cause and effect. We may say of a person that, if he has not done the things which in reality will lead to happiness, he does not "deserve" to be happy. And this sense is true enough; a person who does not "deserve happiness," because he has not done the things which his nature requires to achieve happiness, will not experience it (even if he has convinced himself that some other, ersatz emotion is "happiness").

2) The second is something else. It is ostensibly an appeal to morality -- but which morality, and according to whose standard? If a man has done the things which his nature requires to achieve happiness, in reality, and thus experiences happiness... on what grounds could we say that he does not "deserve" it? Because perhaps he has done something bad in his past? Perhaps. But then, how could a man redeem himself sufficiently to be able to experience happiness thereafter; to what possible standard and judge could he appeal, apart from himself and his own natural capacity for happiness?

Should a man, in any event, be capable of experiencing happiness... but tell himself, "I don't deserve this"? On what grounds? And what would that serve?

I would say, rather, that every person in the world "deserves happiness," of their nature, of their capacity for happiness. And then it remains to discover the requirements of our nature, and to understand our context, such that we can achieve happiness for ourselves (in the "cause and effect" sense of desert described above). We require no further sanction than this, that we are ends in ourselves, and that our highest purpose is our own happiness.

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17 hours ago, CartsBeforeHorses said:

What are the reasons that you deserve to know?

I wasn't asking for you to answer. My point is that anyone deserving to be happy is not a given. Your bliss technique relies on assuming you or anyone else is good as undeniably true and true because you are alive. If you want to  just feel good, fine, but doesn't mean all methods to get there are good. That is, telling yourself no one's opinion matters and you are of course wonderful is not a path to honesty or authenticity. I know you mean in the moment, but that's why I'm saying you or anyone else doesn't need the reassurance of a mantra.

17 hours ago, CartsBeforeHorses said:

It's over so soon. It's too short to deny yourself pleasure, happiness, or fun based on some dogma that certain emotions aren't "real" unless you do some ritual to make them real.

I didn't say that there is a single ritual. I'm saying this ritual of yours seems half good and half not so good. Authenticity means a sort of effortless honesty I'd say, where not even bliss needs to be willed. It's mind-body unity.

17 hours ago, CartsBeforeHorses said:

I have tried this technique and while it does center my mind, it does not achieve bliss as I would like to experience it.

It's not supposed to get you there on its own. There is no fast-track to feeling bliss, it takes time. What it gets you is centeredness so that you are able to stay in a happy state. Monks who do it smile and laugh a lot. Not that I endorse a Buddhist monk's lifestyle, but their meditation methods work well with the nature of the mind. I'm glad you're striving for bliss, so I'm offering ways to help get you there by improving what you start with.

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On 01.11.2017 at 3:37 AM, CartsBeforeHorses said:

Я достиг блаженства добровольно с помощью психологических методов, когда захочу, поэтому я знаю, что это, по крайней мере, возможно для одного человека - меня. Я не знаю, могу ли я это сделать. Вот почему мне любопытно слышать чужие методы. Также, если другие достигли этого с помощью чисто психологических средств, таких как медитация.

Айн Рэнд писала о «необъяснимой личной алхимии» ... она считала вселенную доброжелательной и что у некоторых людей была неведомая сила добра внутри них. Это, безусловно, ее самое интересное сочинение, поскольку она оставляет этот вопрос без ответа.

 

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