(Concluded from Part 1.)
Bliss may always be there, but it takes our recognition of it to cause it to “unpack” and blossom. The image I gave to Don and Julien was as if a door is opened to another room and we see bliss in that other room. The minute we recognize it, instantaneously it’s in this room, that room, all over.
Any blissful moment can be a magic carpet into bliss. Think of a surfer catching a wave and having a superlative ride. We can catch a moment of bliss and ride it into the sea of bliss.
That’s what happened to me the first time I experienced substantial bliss on Sept. 27, 2015. I noticed it and by my noticing, it spread throughout me and I was immersed in it. (1)
Back in 2015, I listed all the ways I explored to re-ignite the blissful feeling each day during the four months that it resided with me. (See 2) It usually arose in me by 9 am and left me by around 7 PM. I never knew if it would return the next day.
Then after four months or so, the intervals between leaving and entering widened until finally it did not return, except occasionally.
In those days, the best magic carpet to transport me to bliss was transformative love, or yearning, for another. It was loving thoughts of the beloved that formed the backdrop to the first recognition of bliss. That is, I was already in transformative love, more than halfway there.
On that occasion, I saw that I felt blissful at some deep and unseen level. The recognition of it was enough to have bliss instantaneously fill me up.
I have to add that bliss is a jealous lover. If we insist on turning our attention from it and fixing it on a passing Lamborghini, bliss – without serving notice and in an almost-undetectable manner – disappears.
In the beginning, I was careless and lost bliss on a number of occasions. But seeing that losing bliss was possible, I became much more cautious. Who would want to have and then lose the treasure?
Footnotes
(1) This spiritual experience happened when I was on my way to a meeting at Starbucks. I was meeting a new arrival to Vancouver who wanted to hear about the blog, the Michaelangelo Fund, etc.
If I were not blissful, the meeting would have gone OK, but relatively uninspiring. Because I was blissful, the meeting went fantastically and both of us were hugely inspired.
At some level, people recognize when a person is blissful and respond. I’ve seen conference calls and meet-ups rise in energy when people recognize one person as being blissful. It’s like contagion happening. It seems to give others permission to relax and allow their own deeper feelings of happiness and satisfaction to rise to the surface.
(2) These aids either propelled me into bliss or contributed to my entry:
Laughing at myself
Remembering the beloved
Remembering bliss itself
Having a taste of transformative love
Listening to music
Reading the life of a sage or saint
Reading about sacred geometry
Taking a stand
Stating the truth
Having a committed conversation
Making a promise
Declaring myself unequivocally
Protecting someone
Making a difference in someone’s life
Taking a pleasurable thought or feeling and filling myself with the energy of it
Breathing bliss up from my heart and out into the world
(From “Bliss Methodology” at https://goldenageofgaia.com/2015/12/03/bliss-methodology/)