Depression vs. Bliss, was: Digest Number 146

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On Mon, 3 May 1999 15:31:25 Druout wrote:

><< Regarding the second, as in nature everything is balanced, one will

> experience an alternation of periods of ecstasy and depression (when ecstasy

> and visions are absent). Depression will feed the desire for ecstasy so the

> circle is closed. The longer this situation continues, the less likely one's

> escape from it.

 

Kind of having a writer's block or any kind of block.

 

And like being unemployed for a long time.

 

The more you try the harder it gets to attain it.

>"The final obstacle in meditation is ecstasy; you feel great bliss and

>happiness and want to stay in that ecstasy.

 

Hasn't this problem been asked in many Buddist

texts as well, that the striving for enlightenment

in the end becomes another obstacle for enlightenment ?

>Do not yield to it but pass on

>to the next stage which is great calm. The calm is higher than ecstasy and

>it merges into samadhi. Successful samadhi causes a waking sleep state to

>supervene.

 

Is this what has been called the state of detachment

in some Buddhist teachings ?

 

What is the answer to the related philosophical

question that viewing everything as attachments

may ultimately be an attachment in itself ?

 

 

Is the solution to wander the Path instead of

striving and seeking it ???

 

>In that state you know that you are always consciousness, for

>consciousness is your nature. Actually, one is always in samadhi but one

>does not know it.

 

What a nice koan.

 

>To know it all one has to do is to remove the >obstacles."

 

"Am I a man dreaming I am a butterfly or am I

butterfly dreaming I am a man ?"

 

"Or am I woman talking about things I have no

knowledge about ?"

>But because I don't meditate, am not "religious" and the states come to me

>spontaneously

 

How do you attain those states without meditating ?

 

(Just curious)

>I wonder what, then, should I do. I wonder if there is a point

>in trying to "escape from it" or to attempt to stay in "that quiet place,"

>or simply trust in the "process" and let it take me >where it will.

 

What do you say list ?

 

I'd trust the process.

 

 

Best regards,

 

Amanda.

 

 

 

 

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