This is just an example of the possibilities but has anyone ever had a dream where they smoked, and felt high in the dream. With more control over our own mind, through meditation or something like that, could it be possible to conciously recreate that feeling while your awake? Could this be what Buddha refers to as nirvana?
Interesting posting. One of the reasons I wrote 'Headstuff' was to show other meditators and especially people who use weed how to do the same things without having to go through years of work. There are a lot of meditational methods that can give you a feeling very similar to being high (Bliss states), but with more 'breadth' than a high. A bliss tends to come on in a big rush that can stop you in your tracks, so it's not something you can do safely whilst driving. At first they're no more than a minute or so, but after a while they can last hours or months. It's with me automatically a lot of the time, and if I want to I can create it on cue when it stops. I meditated a couple of hours ago and the Bliss I created then is still with me now for example, but as I continue typing and getting involved here it'll fade away unless I give it another push. Eventually, if you practise the right things it doesn't need anything to enter into it and you can stay with it permanently. As for its link to enlightenment and nirvana, yes and no. Think of it more like an indicator that things are going well and that your mind is becoming pliant and open to the possibility of experiences of Enlightenment, it's not Enlightenment itself. Enlightenment is a state of knowledge, whether it brings on a bliss or not isn't relevant, although it tends to sporadically bring on random Blisses. But yes, long story short you're dead right, you can get something a lot like a weed high with meditation. MelT
MelT: Although I'm sure words probably aren't appropriate for describing what you get out of meditation, do you think you can talk about what you mean by bliss? Whenever I think of the word "bliss" I get an image of a kind of blurry disconnected contentment. How does the bliss you're refering to relate to your mental clarity. I'm always wary of trading alertness for comfort.
Very wise. As I tried to show in the above, Blisses are a complex subject. You can raise a Bliss by doing simple things with the body, or by thinking about particular ideas. There's a world of difference in the efficacy of the two, even though the results (in part, the Bliss) might seem the same. Bliss isn't the goal, it's a symptom of doing things properly, not something you go out of your way to seek. A mind in Bliss is much more pliant and sensitive, you're also more physically relaxed (the importance of deep relaxation is usually overlooked, but most will go nowhere without it), and it also contains an aspect of natural, focussed, alert non-conceptuality, which is what you're looking for. It's not a veg' out state like you might expect from certain kinds of drugs where you're just completely out of it in a little world of your own. If it were a veg out state then you wouldn't be able to function at all on the way to realisation, as it's present more and more as you progress until it fills your entire day. As you say, wakefulness has to remain, which it does in Bliss, but the point is that it promotes non-conceptual wakefulness, not ordinary mind. As for contentment, the danger in the early stages of practice where you're getting your first Blisses is to think that you've 'arrived' with them and that they're the sole aim. It's pleasing, joyful and content, but it's a side road that you have to avoid getting stuck down. During practise your mind may alternately be Blissful or completely non-feeling, but how a practitioners mind feels to him or herself is not the issue, as if you're aware of its true nature and its place within greater reality, it thus becomes inconsequential. The Bliss is seen as just another movement of mind, not something that needs to be sought or rejected. The more I type the more I realise that to do this all justice would take pages. I'm not being very clear on some things I know, if you have any questions then do ask. MelT
MelT: Could you just write a book for me on the subject please? Your explanations are great. Anyways, thanks for clearing that up. Any advice on some mind-clearing techniques? Whenever I try and cut out all the crap I'm thinking about, I end up just getting more muddled than I was before.
No problem. What are you aiming for with it all, is it for relaxation, exploration, or realisation? The approaches are each a little different. MelT
When I think of bliss, I think of either death, ignorance of intoxication. Truthfully... isn't that odd? I'm far too cynical for my own good.
QUOTE -When I think of bliss, I think of either death, ignorance of intoxication. Truthfully... isn't that odd? I'm far too cynical for my own good. LOL! MelT
It depends on the circumstances. It can happen just as a result of general meditation work and give you a perfect ground to meditate more deeply within, and if you were doing the right things you'd move fairly quickly to realisation because of it. It could also come as a result of realisation, and would mean (again if you were doing the right things) that you were resting in Buddhahood, where the path is the same as its fruition - ie, that your practices are realisation itself and realisation is the immediate result of your practices. MelT