What is bliss, nirvana | the meaning of inner peace

After a fair amount of searching on-line, we could not find a suitable picture to define what is bliss, and which was symbolic of Nirvana (or the meaning of inner peace), mostly images of a rock band or objects come up.

The reason we couldn’t find anything is simple; Nirvana, Bliss or inner-peace is a state of being. Some people call Nirvana a place, the level of the lord of our universe – the bodhi level (where the intellect is fully developed and where beings decide to incarnate into the material world to experience suffering).

The Buddhists have another meaning for Nirvana which is the highest Heaven, or the kingdom of God; where God resides. They use small and big to differentiate the two types. These words we use suggest a home or a place we go to after death. But at that level there is no form, so it’s a state of being. Not a state of mind. What are we be-ing in the state of Nirvana?

If a cup is full of water but we want to add Juice, we must empty the water. Divine power is like the juice, it can only fill an empty vessel; that is, no mind. If our vessel is full with complicated thinking and desires, not much room for the divine; so not much bliss, nirvana or inner peace.

Bliss is similar to the state of nirvana, except we can have it before we reach nirvana. Imagine the ocean, it has many waves and tides. Sometimes there are storms and tsunamis but the ocean never changes. The current or main body of water under the surface is the same.

We when reach a certain calmness within our mind then we have achieved some inner peace, some bliss. The steady part of the ocean is known as bliss. It’s our original nature. Sure we have emotions, some days happy and some days sad; these are the waves stemming from the ocean. We are not the waves, they are temporary just like our emotions; up and down based on who or what we are dealing with – our karma. When we practice spiritually, or even mature with life, we become more stable and at peace with whatever happens; this is a state of bliss, or acceptance and gratitude. Enlightenment gives us bliss, and different degrees of enlightenment will give a different degree of bliss.

If we read about the lives of past masters, we will note they were very human. They had emotions, they got angry. But they never lost sight of who they really were; love personified. We mere mortals, when we do lose it, we tend to forget who we are and are too absorbed in the emotion. It may take us a long time to get over it, and in-between we are full of judgement even blaming God or complaining. Masters do not do this; they use emotions and the mind as tools, human tools to experience humanity. Mostly, we allow our tools to dominate our lives. With spiritual practice, we start to regain control. Bliss is about being in control of ourselves, being the master of ourselves. That is the meaning of inner peace.