Does the I am mantra produce bliss or does it just produce stilness? Or does the bliss only come after a while or does it only come after starting spinal breathing as well? The first few times I tried it it seemed to create blissfull feelings coming up from my root chakra but now it just seems to produce stilness + some good feelings I am not sure what to call but certianly wouldn`t call bliss.
The reason I ask is because I am a bit of a bliss sceptic. I definitely want bliss at a certain time but I need to feel ready for it. For me Vippasana style meditation seems to create a lot of awareness and stilness without giving much bliss untill one reaches fairly advanced stages. To me the stilness is very beneficial for living the life I live now and it benefits me psychologicaly. However, I sense that having a practice that creates lots of bliss in my everyday life would be problematic untill I have grown more psychologicaly and before I in a slow and steady way have grown accustomed to the effects of yoga and meditation in daily life. Part of this is just a strong gut feeling, but part of it is my impression that lots of people (especialy taoists) become bliss junkies and tend to become obsessed with managing their chi rather than becoming wise. Instead of using witness conciousness to investigate what needs to be done and let it happen thay just do a practice to remove the bad feeling and generate a good one. I don`t belive this is always a good thing. I also think it often leads people to disengage from life because life seems so much more problematic than their chi management. So my belief is that one needs enough stilness/witness conciousness, a mature and healthy enough psychology and a slow enough pace, to be able to manage bliss well. One needs to be able to handle extraordinarily good feelings in ones life without becoming addicted to it. One needs to be able to withstand the temptation to just create some bliss instead of addressing the situation in a meaningfull way.
I know that AYP prioritieses stilness over bliss but I am not sure if the balance is quite were I would like it to be for myself at this moment.
Stilness or bliss from I AM mantra?
Posted - Sep 09 2008 : 12:33:25 PM
