Manufacturing Bliss
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Manufacturing Bliss
Peer pressure can work in positive directions, but so too is there downward pressure to not be happy, to not seek the insights, to continue mimicking the pleasure-chasing activities so as not to disturb the (lack of) peace. Just as not everyone eats well and exercises, despite knowing they ought to, not everyone wants to reflect on their life and r... See more
Manufacturing Bliss
For some reason, the notion of others being happy seems to trigger a “tall poppy” syndrome among the unhappy, as if there were only so much happiness to go around. Even Zerfas, when he tried to explain his early experiences to friends, found that they were “either skeptical or concerned,” which made him not want to talk about it. I, too, avoided te... See more
Manufacturing Bliss
On the fear of being too happy
Jhanas are a technique for invoking altered states of consciousness through sustained concentration, which can then relax our brains to perceive the world more clearly — it could really be that simple.
Manufacturing Bliss
If panic attacks are real, and people can be coached to not experience them, why is it so controversial to assert that people can learn to induce the opposite of a panic attack? Furthermore, why isn’t there a secular word for such a concept?
Manufacturing Bliss
I wasn’t sure what sort of insights I wanted to explore. I had attended the Jhourney retreat primarily to satisfy my intellectual curiosity about a strange phenomenon. Still, I couldn’t help but notice ... things. Why, for example, had I been so quick to pick up the jhanas? I had thought of myself as a sort of lovably grumpy person, not particularl... See more
Manufacturing Bliss
I later realized that was a mistake. The power of the jhanas was not that they offered a temporary escape from our otherwise pallid lives — as we typically think of pleasurable vices — but that, with repeated practice, they somehow elevated my everyday life to be more jhana-like.
Manufacturing Bliss
This is probably the greatest appeal.
I felt like a scientist, traipsing off to my cabin each morning to lie on my spare bed for 45-60-minute “sits,” walk around the grounds, then record my observations in a notebook, until it was time for dinner. In the evenings, we logged our experiences using presupplied Chromebooks. I had a daily “interview,” a one-on-one conversation with a Jhourn... See more
Manufacturing Bliss
I want to treat my meditations more like this, as experiments with feedback
The basic technique was finding a “meditation object” — something or someone that sparked a pleasant sensation — then trying to intensify and heighten that sensation. But we were told to experiment, because certain techniques were likely to work better for some than others. This, too, was a marked departure from the typical dogma of meditation retr... See more
Manufacturing Bliss
Basic instruction for tapping into jhanic states.
After Zerfas persisted a third time, however, my curiosity got the best of me, and I relented. Like those I’d interviewed, I enjoyed thinking of my brain as a machine I could tinker with, and this was an experience I hadn’t tried yet. My goal was simple: I wanted to see what my brain could do.
Manufacturing Bliss
I love this. I love this sentiment, because I think it describes much of my curiosity perfectly. My spirituality curiosity with buddhist practice is analogous to “I wanted to see what my brain could do.”