Manufacturing Bliss
added by Packy McCormick and · updated 4mo ago
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
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Phil Nguyen added 6mo ago
On the fear of being too happy
- The jhanas, which derive from Buddhism, are eight states of consciousness that allegedly produce strong feelings in the body and mind. They can be accessed through a meditation technique that involves concentrating the mind on an object, then gradually deepening the sensation that arises.
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Phil Nguyen added 6mo ago
Does it matter what kind of sensation is being focused on or nah?
- 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.
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Phil Nguyen added 6mo ago
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.”
- 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
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Phil Nguyen added 6mo ago
- The San Francisco Bay Area has a long history as the playground of consciousness. For decades, many of its resident technologists have been both habitually curious about — and determined to master — the inside of their brains. This sort of cerebral hedonism is hardly visible to outsiders, in the way that visitors to Miami might be dazzled by the sp... See more
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Phil Nguyen added 6mo ago
“Cerebral hedonism”
- 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
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Phil Nguyen added 6mo ago
- Stephen Zerfas, cofounder of Jhourney, a company that aims to help more people experience jhanas, describes them as “the opposite of a panic attack.” Instead of an escalating anxiety loop, jhanas are an escalating pleasure loop, the intensity of which is comparable — depending on whom you ask — to an orgasm, an MDMA-induced cuddle puddle, or the th... See more
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Phil Nguyen added 6mo ago
Curious how eG thinks about jhanas, since they seem to involve focus-based methods.
- Tpot — sometimes used interchangeably with “postrationalism” — is a loose subculture, notorious for its love of introspection, that grew out of the tech-adjacent rationalist movement. Where rationalists emphasize the use of logic to govern their decision-making, tpot believes that “vibes” and feelings are unaccounted for by pure logic and advocate ... See more
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Phil Nguyen added 6mo ago
- 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
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Phil Nguyen added 6mo ago
Basic instruction for tapping into jhanic states.