Ra Bliss? What is it?

Really good book called The Opening of The Lotus: Developing Clarity and Kindness by Lama Sherab Gyaltsen Amipa. He's got 33 stages of samatha, which is calming meditation. 29 is physical bliss. 31 is mental ecstasy.

I've had this book for ages. You're reading this and you're meditating as much as you can, and you're getting zip, or very little as far as the physical bliss and mental ecstasy is concerned. These 33 stages aren't doing much for you either. Then one day I was sitting in the wee room at the Samye and I'm in the physical bliss and mental ecstasy. It wasn't like catching a bus. I wasn't waiting for it like that. It happened. And the tears were running down my face. Tears of joy. Your really can get them.

The trouble with ra physical bliss and ra mental ecstasy is that it changes. It's as if it can always get better. It must be made of bits, or parts, or be composed of something. If it was simple, it wouldn't change. It's hard to see how there might be an end of the road with ra bliss. It's maybe like a bit of string. You can always add a bit.

I must say this is a bit disappointing in a way. Ending up sitting there in the Samye with the physical bliss and the mental ecstasy should have been the end of it. I wanted the tee shirt. That's it, I've done the bliss. Where's the emptiness?

Bliss is a feeling, so where are they from? Feelings maybe occur in your mind, but some must have a physical base. Is there something going on with the neurotransmitters? Is serotonin, or something like that, involved? Is the meditation rewiring your brain?

Fascinating speculations such as this can all be directed towards Captain Jambo who, whilst living amid a forest of nuclear weapons in Louisianna, is developing the Phantom Brain which will eventually be able to answer all questions under the sun.
So is it the neurotransmittery things, Capn? And why don't the flatheids get any?

The Buddha and the Big Bad Wolf on my website
is full of stuff like that. About ra bliss.

This other book said things that don't change are called absolutes. It said the Buddha didn't like absolutes. If the soul doesn't change, you can't have one. It's an absolute. So is God. No God, no soul (if you've got one of those that don't change). This did my head in when I first came across it. If everything is in flux, you might feel a bit anchorless at first.

I think absolutes might occur with mental things, like logic or things like numbers. The number two isn't subject to change, is it?

So having got used to the idea that absolutes ... well, you're not going to bump into one. Then this dharmakaya appears. This is described as the absolute body of the Buddha. Well, that sounds like a bit of an absolute to me. Absolutes don't change and, therefore, aren't interdependent. They don't affect other things.

This is the buddhist offside rule. Is the dharmakaya interfering with play or not?

You see, the problem is when you're doing the deity yoga, I think the dharmakaya is followed by, and leads onto, the shamboka.... something like the holy ghost.

I wish I'd never started this.

If I can get some of ra bliss, anybody can. I'm bad, I am. I'm really bad!