Preside Open 16: What Does The Ocean Of Bliss Feel Like?

Once you get to the Ocean of Bliss in meditation, what does it feel like? This session will try to give you a flavor for it, as far as words can be used to describe it. The Ocean of Bliss experience is also what draws intermediate and advanced meditators into a lifelong practice of pleasurable meditation, which then becomes the platform from which one can reach even further levels of practice and experience.
Please note: This audio is ripped from a video.

Transcript

So,

In talking about the Ocean of Bliss,

A natural question is,

Well,

You know,

So what does the nature of intense pleasure actually feel like?

So I get this question a lot.

And the truly accurate,

Honest answer is that there really are no words to describe it.

But in the context of Preside and my working with you,

I'll give you the best I've come up with.

So I'd first point out the fact that you have somewhat similar mini experiences already in your everyday life.

So when you go for a long run or cycle,

If you rock climb,

If you swim or surf,

Or even on your daily commute,

The way you just drive your car without needing to stress out about it,

It almost drives itself.

Or running basic errands on the weekend,

Picking up mail,

Dry cleaning,

Getting milk and eggs.

So when your mind zones out in these instances,

And it's almost relaxing,

It's kind of like that,

Except in these situations,

You still need to stay alert and worried about,

You know,

Driving or cycling,

You know,

Not getting into an accident or tripping when you run,

Driving when you swim,

Etc.

So you can never have that same kind of deep dive.

But in these cases,

You can have moments when your monkey mind is fully engrossed,

And the rest of you can just catch a break,

Right?

It just leaves the rest of you alone.

And the intense pleasure of meditation is kind of in the same,

You know,

Genus or phylum as that kind of an experience.

So the other image I've used and my favorite example is when you're taking a shower.

So the shower is by pure accident,

An almost perfect storm for calming monkey mind.

So why is this?

Well,

Your monkey mind is totally off guard when you're in the shower,

Because a shower is functional.

You need to shower anyway,

So you're not wasting time,

Right?

And it's seen as good practice for business,

For professionalism,

For good hygiene.

So you know,

You have to do it,

Right?

So monkey mind does not protest when you shower.

It's short,

It's shorter than a bath.

So it's not wasteful,

Right?

So there's nothing for a monkey mind to complain about there.

But then as a byproduct,

It also feels good and relaxes you.

The hot water,

The privacy,

The ritual of purification.

And it's also routine,

Like driving your commute.

So everything's happening almost by itself.

And your mind is free to wander and monkey mind is happy.

So it just blanks out and takes a break too.

So the average American shower is about three and a half minutes.

But for those three and a half minutes,

You get to totally relax,

Totally guilt free and with no anxiety.

And as a result,

A shower is pleasurable.

And that's why we have the cliche and it's actually the reality that you get your best,

Most creative ideas,

Quote unquote,

In the shower.

Right?

I mean,

You always hear people say,

Well,

I was thinking about it in the shower today and I finally figured out blah,

Blah,

Blah.

So it's awesome.

But it's short and it's pretty shallow.

You don't get to go too deep.

And I don't think it would work for you to try taking a 45 minute shower either because if you took a long shower,

Your monkey mind would be going on alert again saying,

Oh,

What's wrong?

This is wasteful and start complaining.

But as it is just the regular three and a half minute shower,

It's just one of those happy little accidents of modern life.

So then the intense,

Profound pleasure of meditation diving into the ocean of bliss is basically like the relaxed,

Happy mental blank of the shower times 100.

And so the relaxed state you have post shower,

A good meditation is also about times 100 of that.

Now again,

It's not a perfect description because you take any experience and you times it by 100 and it changes,

Right?

It's almost a completely different experience.

If you take your tea and coffee and you times it by 100,

It's going to be a very different experience.

So like I said,

Words don't do it justice,

But that's about as close as I can get to it with words and using what you are already familiar with in normal modern life.

Now a following question some people ask is,

Is this pleasure kind of a sexual pleasure?

In other words,

Is it a naughty pleasure?

And the answer to that is no.

So it is as blissful and euphoric as anything else you've ever experienced,

Sex included.

But it is not based down at the base of the groin.

It's not a carnal pleasure.

It starts a bit higher in the space between your belly button and your groin,

Which is also by the way,

The physical center of gravity of your body.

And when it hits,

It rushes up firmly but gently through your torso like a gentle kind of cylindrical tidal wave.

It's like a gentle fire hose,

But it's thicker than that.

Sort of like when a fire hydrant gets knocked over and that plume of water goes up into the air and just washes over your head and comes over in front of you like a hoodie.

And then some people report that they feel like they're then pulled forward,

Sort of like when you're on a surfboard and the wave basically grips your board and lifts you along with it.

So hopefully that helps as well.

But basically,

The straight answer is you've just got to get there on your own to experience it firsthand.

And then people also ask,

Of course,

Is it addictive?

And I would say that at the highest levels,

Yes,

It is addictive.

And in my view,

That's a good thing,

Because it's good for you.

I mean,

All 30 years of research,

It makes your brain bigger and all the rest of it.

But then when you're addicted to it,

And you know what's going to happen,

And you go into it on a regular basis out of just something you're familiar with,

And you get back to that same point,

You never again have to quote unquote,

Try and meditate.

There's no more practice,

There's no more discipline,

There's no more schedule,

Morning or evening,

It doesn't matter.

And you become,

It's basically more like being a surf bum.

And you're addicted to surfing.

When the surf's up and you have some free time,

You just go.

So for me,

If I have a three hour block in the day,

If I have a seven hour block in the day,

I just go for three or seven hours.

If I only have 10 minutes in the day,

I just go for 10 minutes.

You basically take what you can get whenever you can get it.

And it is just awesome.

So I hope you found this helpful.

And please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have.