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The bliss seemed like a side-effect; it was nice but I wasn't trying to elicit it as much as it was generated by the calm. Yeah, the forehead-flame was/is real
by duncancarroll 13y ago
The bliss seemed like a side-effect; it was nice but I wasn't trying to elicit it as much as it was generated by the calm.
Yeah, the forehead-flame was/is really bizarre. I did some Google searches for it and didn't find much of anything that didn't seem like pseudo-science (look up "Ajna chakra" and you'll see what I mean...)
It's always hard to convey to people that it was very different from a mental image / thought / feeling in that it actually feels tactile, in the same way that if you had a rock in your shoe, you wouldn't confuse it for anything else--I just don't know what this "rock" is made of; it could certainly be a creation of my mind, but it doesn't present itself that way. It's easy to ignore, so I ignore it.
- Estragon 13y agoIn certain forms of Theravadin practice, the bliss is the "engine" which motivates the concentration on the target object. Fostering the bliss does tend to make it much easier to settle down, particularly when the mind is disturbed. http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/painhelp.html http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/painhe...