Hello! You may recall that a few months ago, I went on a meditation retreat as part of research for an article I was writing about the jhanas, and came out of it with my mind blown. (Jhanas, to jog your memory, are altered states of consciousness that can be accessed through concentration alone.)
Tangentially, this is a nice perspective on the varieties of parental experience. I love my son extremely dearly and am very glad to be a parent and to be his parent specifically -- but at no point in his life would thinking about him have been a cheat code for sparking the kind of uncomplicated joy you seem to say leads to jhana entry.
In fact on reflection I am not sure what thought *would* spark that purity of joy, despite having a very satisfying, meaningful, loving and loved, and comfortable life. This kind of dispositional variation may be an underrated barrier for those who don't have as successful an experience as yours.
Yeah, it's interesting! I've heard this from a number of people now re: different ways of relating to joy, which I think is a useful insight in itself. I had kind of assumed joy is an "objective" emotion that's experienced universally, even if the actual source varies, which is how it's often depicted (e.g. dopamine or seratonin being released in the brain). But it turns out we all have wildly different baselines for "happy" or "sad," and one person's 10/10 happy moment is phenomenologically different from someone else's. My guess is it's possible for people to increase their baselines, if they want it - just not sure how yet.
Tangentially, this is a nice perspective on the varieties of parental experience. I love my son extremely dearly and am very glad to be a parent and to be his parent specifically -- but at no point in his life would thinking about him have been a cheat code for sparking the kind of uncomplicated joy you seem to say leads to jhana entry.
In fact on reflection I am not sure what thought *would* spark that purity of joy, despite having a very satisfying, meaningful, loving and loved, and comfortable life. This kind of dispositional variation may be an underrated barrier for those who don't have as successful an experience as yours.
Yeah, it's interesting! I've heard this from a number of people now re: different ways of relating to joy, which I think is a useful insight in itself. I had kind of assumed joy is an "objective" emotion that's experienced universally, even if the actual source varies, which is how it's often depicted (e.g. dopamine or seratonin being released in the brain). But it turns out we all have wildly different baselines for "happy" or "sad," and one person's 10/10 happy moment is phenomenologically different from someone else's. My guess is it's possible for people to increase their baselines, if they want it - just not sure how yet.
So what is meditation for?
> culminating in cessation, or loss of consciousness
For the loss of consciousness itis enough to open any social network in doomscrolling, or turn on TV.