| | As the Zen master said when asked about what happens to Zen masters when they die, "I don't know. I may be a Zen master, but I am not a dead one."
In that same vein, I may be an arahat, but I am not a dead one, and all I can speak of with any authority is what is happening now and what I know, so here's my take on it:
If you have to do this, you should, as it helps with that. It rights some perspective problem at the core of perception itself and that feels better and helps a lot with many things. Everyone I know who has done this, after some period of stabilization and disappointment, has told me they think it was worth it, and most rank it among their most important accomplishments.
Bliss is great, obviously. However, I personally have a very hard time getting myself to really stay with it for too long, as it rapidly satisfies the desire for it, and then the desire fades, and then the attention to the bliss fades, which, being the condition upon which the bliss depends, causes the bliss to fade rapidly, meaning: I think that bliss for thousands of years would be strangely dull and quite rapidly so, but that is just me.
Oh, and I should mention the Bodhisattva Paradox. This one is always a source of fun and discussion, particularly between Theravada and Mahayana types. As we balance emptiness and compassion, to verge into Mahayana terminology, we find that, while empty, the system wants things to be well, and the more individuals realize they are part of the system, the more there is a natural welling up of the compassionate wish to make the system better, meaning to help the beings that makeup the living part of that system. Given that, emptiness itself generates compassion, and curiously the more awareness there is of emptiness, the more compassion functions better, and thus, this generates intentions to make things good, to help, and these resonate through time and space out into the rest of the system.
This is not eternal life, really, nor it is it anything other than what it is, but the effect remains, and is the compassionate side of the parinibbana coin and should be considered when entertaining notions about what all this leads to and what is good and the best outcome of insight. |