Mindfulness of breathing is a very blissful process: however this does not mean the bliss lasts. At deep levels of the practice, after states of mystic absorption call ‘jhana‘ the bliss can extend up to an hour or so after the state has ended, leaving one with a feeling of complete peace, afterwards. It might last even longer in a retreat setting. This bliss is qualitatively different from say, eating ice cream, though that is a pleasant experience. Enjoying something more pleasurable, is just that – pleasure. A more subtler form of enjoyment is rapture (piti) that arises from the inward seclusion and practice of mindfulness of breath, but not limited to that. An even more subtler form is bliss itself (sukha),. Its important to understand that all kinds of pleasure and bliss eventually come to an end. Having said that they all have their uses, like a plank of wood has in building a raft to go beyond ‘to the other shore’; to enlightenment. The wood has no further use upon reaching the other shore. The Seven factors of enlightenment (sapta bojjhanga) are filled with essentials like rapture, bliss, gladness, unification and equanimity.
