Be clear. We all experience moments of pleasure. What we think as pleasure is nothing but living through the present moment. We are in bliss when we continuously live in the present.

How to experience being in the present moment? Let us say that our mind continuously asks, craves, for a special sweet. When we put the sweet in our mouth, immediately the mind feels pleasure because it comes to the present moment. If we can continuously stay in the present, we will continuously experience the bliss.

In the present we feel a kind of relief, a sensation of peace but we think that the pleasure or peace has come from the sweet.

This is a common mistake for all of us. It is not the sweet that gave us the pleasure. It is the mind that did. It became a little calmer after having obtained what it asked for. The source of the experience of pleasure is from the being that has centered itself on the body.

Ramana Maharishi says: “When a dog bites a dry bone continuously, its mouth gets irritated and the blood from its mouth starts oozing. The dog thinks the blood is coming from the bone and it starts enjoying it.”

It works the same way with all the pleasures of the world. We think that our joy comes from the outer world, but it is our mind that becomes little calmer. When the pleasure arises from an external experience, the pleasure lasts only as long as the impression of that experience lasts. This is why all our joys eventually lead to suffering.

When the joy arises from an inner experience that is permanent, it becomes bliss. When we experience the present moment, without regrets of the past and fears of the future, we become centered on a blissful experience.

Moving into the present moment is blissful, nithyananda.