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to remind him of the unique quality of bliss.)
All that we know about pleasure and happiness is of no help in making us understand what bliss is, because the difference between pleasure and happiness is only of quantity but the difference between pleasure, happiness, and bliss is of quality. It is entering into a totally new unknown dimension.
So when we talk about bliss we naturally understand it in terms of pleasure. That is the lowest -- physiological, biological. Or at the most we think of happiness -- psychological. But neither pleasure nor happiness can give you any idea of bliss.
Once a blind man was brought to Buddha and he was a very great philosopher of immense logical acumen. The whole of his village had become exhausted and tired because nobody could convince him that light exists; he would refute everybody. And the problem for the villagers was that they know that light existed but they were incapable of convincing the blind philosopher. On the contrary he used to convince them that light does not exist and his fundamental argument was. 'I am ready, bring the light to me so I can touch and feel it just the way I feel things. Or if you say that it is not like a thing, then let me taste it; it must have some taste. If it has no taste it must have some smell. Even if that is not possible then you can do something so that some sound arises out of it. You can beat it like a drum so I can hear it.
'These are the four possibilities: touching, tasting, smelling, hearing; there is no other! And I am ready -- convince me.'
Now, you cannot touch light, you cannot taste light, you cannot smell light, you cannot hear light. So when they heard that Buddha was coming to their village they were very happy. They brought the blind man to Buddha and they said 'Only you can convince this fool. We are tired of him. He convinces us that there is no light, and he is really convincing. We are absolutely impotent, incapable of convincing him, although we know light exists and he does not know, he has no eyes. But how to convince him? He says on the contrary "Just to prove me blind you have invented this idea of light -- and you are all blind!"'
Buddha
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