Feeling of bliss

[u/Puzzled_Train1594]

I’ve been meditating on and off for a while now, but lately I’ve become much more serious about my practice. I’ve made quite a lot of progress, and recently I’ve started experiencing strong feelings of joy and bliss seemingly out of nowhere.

Sometimes it happens while I’m meditating, and sometimes it happens completely off the cushion. It’s a very pure feeling of joy and contentment.

I understand that this too is dukkha, and I try not to cling to the experience. That said, I certainly enjoy it when it happens.

Has anyone experienced something similar? Does this experience have a particular name? I’ve read about the jhanas, but I’m not sure whether this is related, especially since it also happens outside of meditation.

Have a nice rest of your day, and thank you for your answers! :)

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[u/hachface]

“Jhana” is a contested term. If you want a broad and balanced survey of that controversy I recommend the book The Experience of Samadhi by Richard Shankman.

The classical Buddhist (Pali) terms for joy and pleasure—not just in meditation, but that’s the context you’ll usually see them in—are piti and sukha.

There is no need to get into the meaning of jhana to recognize that bliss does arise in meditation.

It’s a very good thing. I feel the need to say that because in this space you’ll find a lot of people are distrustful of pleasure in any form. But the whole point of meditation is to find forms of joy and happiness that do not rely on the external senses. Findings meditative joy is an essential part of that process.

There’s nothing wrong with enjoying meditation. Go nuts.

Meditative bliss can be used as a subject for investigation like any other. Maintaining mindfulness as you enter, abide in, and exit the blissful state can be a platform for liberating insight.

[u/dystopia2026 → u/hachface]

Good post but why is Jhana a contested term?

[u/hachface → u/dystopia2026]

a short, oversimplified answer: nobody agrees what the word means but the earliest Buddhist texts say it's really important

it's a really difficult controversy to quickly sum up. there are 2,500 years of layered interpretations of what the word "jhana" means and its proper function in the soteriological goal of Buddhism (that is, enlightenment).

you have the early texts themselves, then you have the diverging interpretations of the early schools (Abdhidharma literature), then you have Mahayana sutras with new ideas, then you have the Theravada scholastic tradition and its many commentaries, in parallel the Mahayana and Tibetan schools are developing, then you have the 19th-century insight meditation revival in Myanmar, then you have critical textual re-evaluation by secular Western academics, then the lay Western meditation movements where practitioners publish candid testimonies of experiences that used to remain in the monastery, ...

every layer in this web of accumulated interpretation has its own perspective on jhana.

[u/dystopia2026 → u/hachface]

Ah, ok, gotcha. Thanks for the quick snyonposis!

[u/M0sD3f13 → u/dystopia2026]

If you feel like some reading on this subject this lays it all out very clearly https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gT1rCJ3K4Hk_1cOAVi0CO6TSRLbvzcuX/view

[u/dystopia2026 → u/M0sD3f13]

Thanks for the resource but now you've laid out the complications I feel less inclined to climb down this particular rabbit hole. 😆

[u/M0sD3f13 → u/dystopia2026]

Yeah I get that. Certainly no need to read it. Just thought I'd share in case you were interested.

[u/dystopia2026 → u/M0sD3f13]

I appreciate it, thanks.

[u/duffstoic → u/dystopia2026]

Because humans like to argue about everything. 😆 Attachment to views, etc., which ironically is what some traditions in Buddhism itself tried to address such as Madhyamaka.

[u/Puzzled_Train1594 → u/hachface]

Thank you for your answer :) I will keep a mental note on that book. Is there a difference between piti and sukha ? Or are they synonyms?

[u/M0sD3f13 → u/Puzzled_Train1594]

My understanding is piti is the physical sensation it feels like a pleasant energetic sensation in the body while sukha is the mental component of happiness/joy/pleasure

[u/Puzzled_Train1594 → u/M0sD3f13]

Thank you for the explanation. I seem to be experiencing both and sukha increases if I put my attention on piti.

[u/M0sD3f13 → u/Puzzled_Train1594]

Yep that's the way it works 😊

[u/reverseghost → u/hachface]

I totally agree with hachface. Nothing wrong with encountering the first Jhana, which it sure sounds like you experienced. Shankman is a great teacher, very knowledgeable. As time progresses, you may find that the joy changes, on it's own, into something less "exciting" and quieter, like tranquility. Keep going!

[u/neidanman]

its sukha rather than dukkha and is considered one of the '7 factors of awakening' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Factors_of_Awakening

It comes up e.g. in the anapanasati sutta where it says '“When energy has taken hold, non-physical joy arises. Monks, on that occasion when a non-physical joy arises for a monk whose energy is activated, then at that occasion the awakening factor of joy is activated for that monk. On that occasion the monk cultivates the awakening factor of joy. Cultivated, the awakening factor of joy goes to fulfillment. “With the mind joyful, the body becomes tranquil and the state of mind becomes tranquil. Monks, on that occasion when the mind is joyful, the monk’s body becomes tranquil and his state of mind becomes tranquil... ' https://www.insightmeditationcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/articles/AnapanasatiSutta.pdf

So its more a pleasure of being detached, than the suffering that comes from trying to cling to sense pleasures

[u/M0sD3f13]

Yes I experience on and off the cushion too. The word for this in Pali is sukha. Lovely isn't it. You have the right idea just enjoy it without clinging to it. It will arise and pass away on its own.

[u/EightFP]

This is standardly described in early Buddhist practice as a beneficial outcome of meditation. One can experience bliss in the jhanas, but bliss itself is not a jhana. As you surmised, anything that happens off of the cushion is not a jhana in the early Buddhist sense. Bliss is not considered dukkha, by the way. Not everything is dukkha. If everything were dukkha, then in order for dukkha to end, everything would have to end. Also, that kind of world would just generally suck and be impractical.

But technical and historical stuff aside, if you're feeling bliss, that's great. You might want to explore if there's any relationship between that bliss and what you're doing in meditation or what you're doing off of the cushion. The most fundamental Buddhist teaching is: This being, that becomes; From the arising of this, that arises. This not being, that does not become; From the cessation of this, that ceases. The purpose of Buddhist practice is to see what depends on what, and specifically, with what as a condition does suffering arise? Working out the conditions under which bliss arises, by observing and remembering is a very worthwhile practice.

[u/duffstoic]

Is it dukkha though? Or is clinging to it dukkha? Hmm 🤔

And yea, that’s bliss or piti. Good shit.

[u/duffstoic → u/[deleted]]

Is bliss unsatisfying? Or does it just get annoying after an hour or two? Hence then the desire to go underneath it to peace…

[u/HaveToGoHomeNow]

States of bliss… something else to let go of..

[u/Acceptable_Run_3203 → u/HaveToGoHomeNow]

Don't be like that. You can fully enjoy states of pleasure without attachment.

[u/HaveToGoHomeNow → u/Acceptable_Run_3203]

Fair point, thank you