Some initial comments were:
- Bliss just seems to happen suddenly and unexpectedly with no obvious cause - e.g. when I'm walking down the street. Walking seems to be a particularly good way of encouraging bliss.
- I see bliss as being different from happiness - it feels completely even and undifferentiated - not up and down. It seems to be very closely associated with the Observer. However, in the Record, both words are used apparently interchangeably.
- I have a very clear memory of experiencing bliss when I was very young, just watching the trees going past in the sky.
Several of us found the following ideas from the second quotation in the paper rather puzzling
...this experience of happiness is possible only when some activity has been performed. It is only by coming together that Anand is possible.
One suggestion was that it is about seeing ParamAtman in other people. Another suggestion (based on the 6 activities) was that if you perform activities that end in Sattva, and you make use of the gap between those activities to come to stillness, then quite often Anand arises in that stillness. Activity is a natural state for us - but we also need rest. If anyone reading this has any other ideas about what it means, please post them in a reply to this topic!
We also found the use of the word Anand (or happiness or bliss) confusing when sometimes it refers to something transient and sometimes to a permanent state. One person suggested this might be a question of levels. Perhaps different levels as the light of ParamAtman divides and subdivides down through the ray of creation?
There was general agreement with the idea that one should just be happy with "the glory that you can manifest". However, there was a difference of opinion about things that you can't do. One person thought that, although there are clearly some physical and mental limitations, a large amount of what we think we can't do is mainly a matter of lack of sufficient desire. Most of the rest of the group disagreed. One person said he would have liked to become a professional musician but did not have the ability to so - he could never play like Barenboim. He felt we should try to find out what we are naturally good at and not waste time trying to do things that we will never be able to do well. A further comment was that if it was just a case of desire we would all be fully realised by now. But perhaps this illustrates the original point ... A further comment was that perhaps we just need to consider what is possible now and that the situation may impose limitations. An example was given of a situation in which a strong predominance of tamas made it very hard for the person to perform an activity as quickly and efficiently as she would normally have done.
