Image: Still Life
Golden Rule, 2024. Mylar Balloons.
PLEASE, 2016.
Sébastian De Ganay and John Baldessari Chair
Sail Cloth, 2002.
Woven Fiber Optics Collaboration with Harry Allen
Small copper basket from course with Gary Trentham
Plant from my drycleaners xoxo
Reflection of Noguchi lamp
Bliss is the other side of Grief
This week a student said she was experiencing
moments of bliss in her meditation
and outside of her meditation.
Last night on a mentoring session with my teacher,
Thom Knoles,
Shri 1008 Mahamandaleshwar Maharishi Vyasanand Giri,
he discussed the metaphysical description of Bliss,
as being Supreme inner contentedness.
The mind falls into a constant saturation of happiness.
And the mind can’t conceive of anything beyond that Beingness.
He then said, “Bliss is not Blissful. It’s not ecstatic happiness.”
We discussed…
when you experience Bliss, the product is Silence.
Bliss does not emerge from Silence.
Silence is a conscious mind, and it emerges from Bliss.
This is easier said than done.
When we sit in the Still Life of our space and meditate,
the vibrational quality of the mantra
takes us to the quiet part of our Being
and drops us off there.
The dedication to the twice-a-day practice
allows for transformation to occur,
that can then manifest into feelings of Bliss.
I inquired about Grief.
As I am experiencing my share of it,
along with many of my friends and students.
Grief, on the other hand, is caused by a missing,
a vacuum, an absence that nags at us.
The mind comes up with thought after thought
and answer after answer as to why
this happened or that happened.
Grief is a working attempt to gain supreme inner contentedness.
It creates much thinking, too much nagging.
Therapists give way to work through all manners
of the thinking process
that can bring some sense of solace.
Meditation can help by stilling our lives.
Grieving is like a turbulent river, looking to flow
into the ever-open ocean of awareness.
Where Meditation can take us to the deeper layers
in the ocean, to the stillness.
And once we feel that subtle layer of Bliss.
We know we are getting there.
06.01.2025 Deck Talk available upon request info@fifthfloormeditation.com