In the teaching of Self-Inquiry, a crucial distinction is drawn between realization and temporary states of bliss. Blissful states—peace, joy, expansion, subtle ecstasy—are experiences that arise in the mind and nervous system under certain conditions, such as meditation or concentrated practice. They have a beginning and an end, and they are known as objects: there is always an “experiencer” who says, “I am feeling bliss.” Because they come and go, they remain within the realm of mental modification and are subject to time, change, and circumstance. Even very refined samādhi, when treated as “my special experience,” still belongs to the domain of the ego and the mind.

Realization, by contrast, is described as the recognition of one’s true nature as pure Awareness or Consciousness, the ever-present Self. It is not a particular experience added to the mind, but the clear seeing that the Self is the unchanging witness in which all experiences—including bliss, dullness, restlessness, and pain—appear and disappear. In this recognition, the usual sense of being a separate experiencer is undermined; the duality of “experiencer” and “experienced state” is seen as an appearance within Awareness. Because realization is simply abiding as what is always already the case, it is not gained through conditions and cannot be lost when conditions change.

From this perspective, the practical test is straightforward: anything that comes and goes, however exalted, is not the Self. Temporary bliss may temporarily veil suffering, but when it passes, old patterns of fear, desire, and conflict reassert themselves with their former force. Realization, on the other hand, cuts suffering at its root by dissolving the mistaken identification with the limited “I” who supposedly owns and loses experiences. Even when pain or emotion arises, there is a stable background recognition that what one truly is remains untouched as formless Awareness. Thus, in Self-Inquiry, the instruction is not to cling even to bliss, but to trace the “I” that enjoys bliss back to its source and remain as that source itself.