Published on February 24, 2025 1:05 PM GMT
Picture the following situation:
You're in bed with a hot woman. Your clothes are off and so are hers. You (consentually) tie her wrists and ankles to the bed so you can have your way with here. She tells you to do whatever you want with her. And you think to yourself…
This is exactly like what happens at my Buddhist meditation center.
I'm not part of a sex cult. I just noticed that subspace, the altered state of consciousness induced by BDSM is very similar to jhanas. I think the only reason they're called different words is a historical accident. If Buddhist monks and yogis were into BDSM, then subspace would be a jhana.
Buddhism uses altered states of consciousness to explore the mind. Most of these altered states of consciousness are jhanas. A jhana is what happens when you focus your attention on a stable target for a period of time. Jhanas feel great.
Subspace feels great too. They feel so good they usually turn pain into pleasure. You know what else can blur the line between pain and pleasure? Jhanas.
That's not the only similarity. Jhanas and subspace are both characterized by a lack of willful volition. With Jhanas, this is because you stop doing anything except breathing (and sometimes walking). In subspace, this is because you don't do anything except what your Dominant tells you to. The effect is like Tantra, except instead of moving your locus of volition into an imagined deity, you transfer it into another person.
The final clue that made me realize that subspace and jhanas these are independent discoveries of the same altered states of consciousness has to do with the "B" part of BDSM: Bondage.
I once gave meditation instructions to a friend. My instructions were brief, and included the line "sit in full lotus, if you can". Full lotus is the cross-legged sitting position where your ankles are on top of your thighs.
My friend was flexible enough to sit in the full lotus position, but he ignored that instruction for a long time, assuming it was arbitrary superstition. He recently switched to mediting full lotus and reported that the full lotus position has improved his meditation. The full lotus makes it easier to achieve jhana because it comfortably locks your legs in place.
You know what else comfortably locks your legs in place so they can't move? Rope.
Please don't start a sex cult. But if you do, I recommend you teach your disciples that BDSM is a road to achieving jhana that's like traditional Buddhism except it requires no internal source of discipline.
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