Manufacturing Bliss
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Manufacturing Bliss
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.
Manufacturing Bliss
This is probably the greatest appeal.
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
Manufacturing Bliss
I want to treat my meditations more like this, as experiments with feedback
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
Manufacturing Bliss
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
Manufacturing Bliss
Curious how eG thinks about jhanas, since they seem to involve focus-based methods.
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
Manufacturing Bliss
On the fear of being too happy
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?
Manufacturing Bliss
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
Manufacturing Bliss
Basic instruction for tapping into jhanic states.
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.
Manufacturing Bliss
Does it matter what kind of sensation is being focused on or nah?
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
Manufacturing Bliss
“Cerebral hedonism”