In The Power of Myth, Joseph Campbell said “Follow you Bliss.” In more detail:
“Follow your bliss. If you do follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while waiting for you, and the life you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in the field of your bliss, and they open the doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be. If you follow your bliss, doors will open for you that wouldn’t have opened for anyone else.”
Why is this true? Why is bliss a good marker for the right choice?
“God is ananda (bliss). From bliss all beings are born, in bliss all beings are sustained, and into bliss all beings will merge at the time of complete dissolution of the universe.” (Taitariya Upanishad)
Why Bliss? Because bliss is the lively surface of self-aware consciousness. It is the beginning and end of all things. It is the first impulse of thought, the first vibration of particles. It is prana, the life force or energy. Life IS bliss, so follow bliss and you are following the flow of life itself.
Joseph Campbell also said this:
“I came to this idea of bliss because in Sanskirt, which is the great spiritual language of the world, there are three terms that represent the brink, the jumping-off place to the ocean of transcendence: Sat, Chit, Ananda. The word ‘Sat’ means being. ‘Chit’ means consciousness. ‘Ananda’ means bliss or rapture. I thought, ‘I don’t know whether my consciousness is proper consciousness or not; I don’t know whether what I know of being is my proper being or not; but I do know where my rapture is. So let me hang on to rapture, and that will bring me both my consciousness and my being.’ I think it worked.”
How to find bliss?
Joseph Campbell tells us: “The way to find out about your happiness is to keep your mind on those moments when you really are happy – not excited, not just thrilled, but deeply happy. This requires a little bit of self-analysis. What is it that makes you happy? Stay with it, no matter what people tell you. This is what I call, ‘following your bliss’.”
I can further note that those same texts tell us that samadhi brings us the experience of sat, chit, and ananda until we live them in daily life. This is why I recommend effortless meditation. Find it within, then you can find it in the world.
Enjoy!
Davidya