You Are a Raw Diamond of Bliss

By Sean Meshorer author of The Bliss Experiment

Have you ever seen a raw, uncut diamond? Their salient feature is that they look nothing at all like the highly coveted sparkly rocks that we set into our jewelry. Uncut diamonds are dark, dusty, and often encrusted with other minerals that obscure their true nature. They often appear rough and either blandly colorless or pale, without any noticeable luminosity or exuberance. In fact, they are so ordinary looking that, famously, Brazilian gold miners in the 18^th century threw away a vast fortune in unrecognized diamonds while they were panning for gold. To their ignorant, untrained eye, the raw diamonds looked like ordinary, valueless rocks.

Yet, as we know, raw diamonds are anything but ordinary. They are one of the most valuable substances on Earth. However, we can’t see this until we first dig them out of their surrounding rock environment, remove the excess dirt and debris, chisel away the outer layers of mineral encrustation, precisely trim the facets in just the right way, and then, finally, polish it to perfection. Only after all of these meticulous steps are taken does the most brilliant and enduring substance on Earth makes its appearance.

Inside each of us lies a reservoir of pure bliss which, much like rough diamonds often goes quietly unrecognized. We overlook it, even throw it away, as we mistakenly search for something else, of much lesser value.

Why is bliss so valuable to us? In short, it’s the answer to our hopes, dreams, and life quest. When we tap into bliss, we find happiness, peace, love, contentment, purpose, and deep, abiding truth. It answers our questions and fully satisfies us on every level. Even a small experience of it can instantaneously transform our lives forever.

If bliss is always with us, how come many of us don’t know it?

Because so much in this world conspires against us, tricking us into pursuing a false path. Our sense pleasures continually misdirect our attention. Desires for money, sex, fame, beauty, power – these are all elaborate, ultimately unsatisfying fantasies that prevent us from discovering what is truly valuable. So too are we are trapped by ruminating about our past or worrying about the future, both of which pull us out of experiencing this Now Moment, which is the doorway to bliss. As well, many of us are surrounded by emotionally toxic people and environments which undermine our best intentions and highest aspirations. Even our own minds often work against us: they distract us with an endless procession of fleeting and ultimately meaningless thoughts or emotions, and also distort ultimate reality beyond all recognition.

Actually, though, these false leads do more than merely distract us from noticing the raw bliss-diamond within. Every time we follow our sense pleasures or look for happiness outside ourselves, we actually further obscure our hidden treasure. Our external focus excretes a by-product of dirt and grime that slowly but surely adds even more layers of disguise around our bliss-diamond, pushing us that much further away from its discovery. By the time most of us figure out we’ve been looking for happiness, meaning, and truth in all the wrong places, we’ve created a monumental excavation project for ourselves—and that’s if we can even figure out where to start digging.

Bliss requires continually stripping away false layer after false layer until finally, the glorious, invaluable diamond inside us all is revealed. It’s not something we create. Instead, we simply realize that bliss is, eternally, our own highest and deepest nature. It simply is that which remains after everything external and fleeting disappears.

Connecting to bliss is surprisingly simple, we need only to choose to put our energy into doing so. In The Bliss Experiment, I outline 28 concrete steps and practices you can undertake to experience bliss within yourself. I’ve taught countless people over the years, always promising my students that if they applied themselves, they’d notice clear improvements in just one month of effort. And even that requires mere minutes per day of practice.

The 28 chapters take us on a complete journey: where to begin digging for our bliss-diamond, how to peel away the layers of useless dirt and rock, how to liberate our bliss-diamond in just the right way in harmony with its natural facets and fault lines, and finally, how to polish that bliss-diamond into a sparkling beacon that will not only glisten within us but also shine light into the world around us.

We begin by evaluating our life’s terrain, figuring out the most fruitful places to dig for diamonds. We begin by eliminating the least likely places to find bliss-diamonds and why even looking in these locations is a mistake. Once we’ve figured out the right place to explore, the second cluster of chapters is where we begin our excavation project in earnest. We begin stripping away the outer layers of Earth and rock. As we progress, we drill down more deeply, chipping away layer after layer of useless material, all of that which is not bliss and is keeping us separated from it. As our course progresses, we get closer and closer to seeing and feeling the bliss within until eventually, it reveals itself in all its glory.

In a practical sense, this means that as we go, we will discover more about our external world first, then the intermediate world of our minds, then finally peeking behind the mind itself until we discover the secret treasure lying quietly in wait for us. As each layer peels away, as we move further along our journey, ever-closer to our goal, we can expect to feel a little lighter, a little freer, a little more thrilled with calm joyousness.

The best news of all is that bliss can be ours, no matter our life experiences, traumas, religious beliefs, gender, age, socio-economic status or anything external. All that matters is your interest and willingness in connecting with a life-changing moment of bliss. So if you want to improve your life, transcend your circumstances, or expand your consciousness, the opportunity is yours.

What are you waiting for?

About the Author

Sean Meshorer is a spiritual teacher and New Thought minister based in Los Angeles, as well as Spiritual Director of a non-profit organization. He graduated from Stanford in 1993 with a degree in Philosophy and Religious Studies. He spent fifteen years meditating, studying, practicing, and living in an ashram and spiritual community in Northern California. He is the author of The Bliss Experiment: 28 Days to Personal Transformation (Atria Books). For more information about Sean and his book, please visit www.SeanMeshorer.com.  For more information about Sean, please visit www.TheBlissExperiment.com and www.SeanMeshorer.comand follow him on Facebook and Twitter.

 Buy the book here.