Manufacturing Bliss

I had thought that attaining J1 would be the height of my experience. Within a few days, that “peak experience” had ceased to be all that interesting. At first I thought it was because my ability to access J1 had diminished, but then I noticed something strange. Even when I wasn’t in the jhanic states, my world had become noticeably ... boosted, so... See more

Jhanas were first described centuries ago, but they’ve only recently experienced a modern revival. According to the suttas, the Buddhist scriptures, the Buddha entered the first jhana spontaneously as a child, and later encouraged the pursuit of the jhanas as a “path to awakening.” But as Buddhism spread and became more formalized, jhanas were cord... See more

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

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

Jhanas are a technique for invoking altered states of consciousness through sustained concentration, which can then relax our brains to perceive the world more clearly — it could really be that simple.

If panic attacks are real, and people can be coached to not experience them, why is it so controversial to assert that people can learn to induce the opposite of a panic attack? Furthermore, why isn’t there a secular word for such a concept?

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

I later realized that was a mistake. The power of the jhanas was not that they offered a temporary escape from our otherwise pallid lives — as we typically think of pleasurable vices — but that, with repeated practice, they somehow elevated my everyday life to be more jhana-like.

I felt like a scientist, traipsing off to my cabin each morning to lie on my spare bed for 45-60-minute “sits,” walk around the grounds, then record my observations in a notebook, until it was time for dinner. In the evenings, we logged our experiences using presupplied Chromebooks. I had a daily “interview,” a one-on-one conversation with a Jhourn... See more