--- In [email protected], "BillyG." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In [email protected], "authfriend" <jstein@> wrote: > > > > --- In [email protected], "BillyG." <wgm4u@> wrote: > > > > > > Since it's 'really' the first limb of Yoga, and surely you've > > > experienced it, and clearly there are accounts of the essence of that > > > experience...so what's it like for you? > > > > It's like nothing, actually. > > If it's like nothing you haven't experienced it!! Pure bliss is not > *nothing*.....
We've already been through this, BillyG. I'm going to explain one more time how I understand MMY's teaching, and that'll be it; I'm not going to argue with you about it: If you're aware *of* bliss as a "something," as blissfulness, that isn't no thoughts/no mantra, by definition. You may recall that MMY has said, "Bliss is not blissFUL." To experience blissfulness, one must have awareness *of* it, as a "something." Transcendental consciousness-by-itself (samadhi) is *pure* bliss, as opposed to blissFULness. There is no subject/object distinction present in TC-by- itself, so no way to be aware *of* blissfulness. That doesn't mean one doesn't experience blissfulness before and/or after TC-by-itself. But in TC-by-itself, one *is* bliss. There is no "me" to say, "I am blissful." That happens only after TC-by-itself has ended and the subject/object distinction has returned. Pure bliss is utterly abstract, not something one is aware *of*. It is awareness itself, awareness without an object, pure Subject, pure Self, pure Being, no-*thingness*. Pure bliss is the absence of thingness, of distinctions, of awareness *of*. That's what I meant by "It's like nothing" (no-thing) above. If one experiences waking-state awareness along with pure consciousness, one may experience blissFULness, but that isn't TC-by-itself. Waking-state awareness is not present during TC-by-itself. The capacity to experience blissfulness is not operative in TC-by-itself. "(Pure) bliss is not blissFUL." BlissFULness occurs only when one is able to sustain some waking-state awareness *along with* pure consciousness, after repeated cycles of TC-by-itself alternating with waking state (the yellow cloth analogy). This is a more "advanced" state than TC-by-itself, i.e., cosmic consciousness, or "witnessing" if it's temporary. So if you're experiencing blissFULness, that's terrific. But it isn't samadhi (TC-by-itself), no thoughts/no mantra, as MMY defines it. You've gone *past* that stage and have begun to integrate pure Being with waking state. You may still experience samadhi (TC-by-itself) in meditation, but you experience blissFULness only after you come out of TC-by-itself, when you're experiencing waking-state and pure Being together. If you want to define samadhi differently than MMY does, fine, but you can't tell people who are going by MMY's definition that they aren't experiencing samadhi, as MMY defines it, on the basis that it doesn't involve blissfulness. That's just not how he uses the terms. "Bliss is not blissFUL."
