What’s the difference between happiness and bliss? Happiness is the mind’s experience of bliss. Bliss is deeper and more expansive. When it arises from its source within, which is your own Self, it can fill your mind. That’s happiness. When you let the bliss arise from deep within, and you let it come up inside, come all the way up, literally through your neck and.... – Gurudevi Nirmalananda

Watch Gurudevi’s full discourse here

It's not about learning, as important as that is.  It's not about becoming, for you already are the Self.  It's just that you don't yet live in the Knowingness of your own Beingness, not all the time.  Not yet.  The One who gives you your own Self — more than this, the One who opens up the power of Consciousness to arise within you, Kundalini — such a one is worthy of this revered title, Guru.

Watch Gurudevi's full discourse "Honoring the Guru" here.

Bliss is what fuels your life. When you abide in turiya, even while waking, then the bliss is always arising. But, if you’re not abiding in turiya, you don’t have enough fuel to get through the day. So you have to fill your tank. If you don’t have enough bliss in your tank, you sputter, and die out. You can’t keep going. You gotta get your bliss. Why? Because bliss is… – Gurudevi Nirmalananda

Watch Gurudevi’s full discourse here

Pain and pleasure are two of what yoga describes as the Pair of Opposites, dvandva, the pairs of opposites.  Yoga acknowledges that most people bounce back and forth between the opposites like a tennis ball.  People pursue pleasure to escape pain.  The end of pain is a goal unto itself, yet a pain-free life is not a goal.  No one wants merely freedom from pain. People want happiness, not mere pleasure, not merely freedom from pain.  Yet, you can be happy when you’re in pain.  Confused yet?  The key to understanding this is to recognize that pleasure and happiness are not the same thing.

Watch Gurudevi’s full discourse "Beyond Pain" here.

When you do something pleasurable you get happy for a short while. The happy feeling comes from a momentary experience of supreme bliss. When you know your own Self as Consciousness-Itself, you live in a steady state of contagious bliss. It uplifts those around you as well as yourself. Instead of pursuing pleasure, follow the bliss!

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