Dear Charlotte

Thank you very much for your profound question. I will enjoy answering this one!

Bliss (another name for what I would call happiness) is not 'neutral'. It is not on the pain / pleasure spectrum at all. Happiness is another dimension. It is beyond pain and pleasure.

The question that you are asking is like asking 'Is up left or is it right or is it in the middle?' Up is all of these and more. It could be left or right or in the middle, but its primary distinction is that it is above.

Bliss (or happiness) is a completely different dimension altogether.

We are very largely not in control of mind at all. Thoughts happen on their own. It is extremely difficult to consciously direct thought for any length of time. Try thinking exclusively of a penguin for 2 minutes and see how you get on. But we do have the ability (once realised) to either identify with and pay attention to thoughts or not. Choosing not to takes one beyond the pain / pleasure cycle into another dimension, one of happiness and Love.

The 50/50 idea probably comes about because the pain / pleasure cycle is like an energy wave, with peaks and troughs. With all such waves, the peaks and troughs cancel each other out. Think of the sea. The surface of the sea never gets higher and higher or lower and lower. It just has waves on it. Peaks and troughs which cancel one another out so that the surface always remains at the same level.

Now, it might be that a particular collection of thoughts decides to call everything above -5 on the wave form pleasure and everything below -5 pain. Another collection of thoughts might decide to call only things above +5 pleasure and everything below +5 pain. Neither is right or wrong. These are just different coloured spectacles, just different judgement paradigms.

In happiness as in love there are no judgements. They are beyond this duality. They are both unconditional. Some jolly poets like to say that what you have called bliss is like the unchanging deep of the ocean rather than the waves on its surface.

I hope this helps. Much love to you.

Happy Cow :-)

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Related articles: Coloured Spectacles, Ecstasy, The Fourth Dimension

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