Tantric Hermeneutics of Bliss
Excerpted from Metaphor, Rasa, and Dhvani: Suggested Meaning in Tantric Esotericism by Sthaneshwar Timalsina, pp. 154-155.
What is the Tantric hermeneutics of bliss? Tantras, specifically the text Mālinīvijayottara-tantra (MVT) and Abhinavagupta’s Vārttika upon MVT (MVV) categorize bliss in seven levels:
nijānanda (the bliss pertaining to the self (i.e., the body)): This is the first level of bliss. This bliss is experienced when the individual feels emotion in his own heart. (TĀ 5.44)
nirānanda (transcendental bliss): This bliss is experienced when there is an experience of the void. In other words, when the subjective experience rests on void and there is no object to be cognized, this state is considered nirānanda. (TĀ 5.44)
parānanda (supreme bliss): This bliss is described as arising when there is the rise of the cognition of objects along with the rise of prāṇa. (TĀ 5.45) In this state, one is engaged in filling infinite parts of cognized objects in the apāna breath, and one reaches to the bliss identified as parānanda endowed with the moon of apāna. (TĀ 5.45-46)
brahmānanda (the bliss of the absolute): This bliss occurs when one reaches to the ground of the pranic flow of samāna where all the manifesting objects of cognition are united while the subject is experiencing the awareness that is devoid of any content. (TĀ 5.46-47)
mahānanda (great bliss): After the rise of brahmānanda, one willing to burn down the limitations of the collection of the means of knowledge and the objects of cognition rests on the fire of udāna breath, experiences the bliss identified as mahānanda. (TĀ 5.47-48)
cidānanda (the bliss of awareness): Having achieved repose on mahānanda, when one pacifies the great fire, [there arises] the completeness that is free from all the conditions. Then there rises cidānanda, which is not occupied (upabrṃ ̣hita) by an unconscious object. (TĀ 5.48-49)
jagadānanda (the collective bliss): Supposedly the ultimate bliss that one can experience in the ecstatic state. In this state, there is no limitation; it is experienced as ‘surrounding’; it is endowed with the supreme nectar of the awareness of unstruck sound; in this state, there is no prominent sequence (saṃgati) of the meditation (bhāvanā) and so forth. (TĀ 5.50-51) In this supreme state of bliss, all other six states of bliss identified such as nijānanda are collectively found in the essential nature of the self of the form of awareness alone.