The definition of "bliss" is "A state of supreme happiness". Such is, of course, very desirable. But is it always a practical thing? After all, who would want to be in a state of supreme happiness when his whole world is collapsing around him? Possibly only a madman would want that.

Yet, we block out unwanted news or circumstances that we need to heed closely, but ignore and later pay the price for.  One example that comes to mind is a person that piles up his bills un-opened, as he knows such are bills are really "bad news". A month or two down the road he may not have electricity in his house or worse yet discover that his car is being repossessed. These examples seem idiotic and yet such are much too common during our recent economic crisis.

You could call this mechanism "To turn a blind eye to things". Sometimes it's convenient but most of the times it's not.  A person in order to have some control of his environment needs to be aware of it. In order to have great control of it one needs to be very aware of it. Both awareness and control go hand in hand. Obviously try to tell this to an apathetic person and he won't listen. He's halfway there to insanity.

So how do we decide what things we need to pay attention to closely and what things we can ignore?  If you think of this in terms of survival you will be able to have good judgment about it. You can just pay attention to those things that do affect your survival and even then, by prioritizing. Those things that don't have an effect on your survival or that of your loved ones, one can safely assume that it is better to have some "bliss" of ignorance about it. Bad news from the media, sensationalist reports by the chaos merchants are safe to block out from your immediate focus. After all what can you really do about "The great Banker conspiracy on the economy" is such really exists? It's possibly nice trivia, but not something you need to delve into and try to fix in a hurry.

One needs to a great degree be able to become detached with things that are trivial, unimportant, of little consequence. In short one needs to be unconcerned about the things that one cannot or should not do something about. But, one better do something about the things that are of immediate and intimate concern. If one needs money to pay bills and the savings have dwindled, one had better figure out a way to pull in money with a job or self employment and pay them. If one needs the electric turned on, food to survive, no manner of mechanisms to ignore will get the lights turned back on or calm a hungry belly.

But these are basic needs. Such doesn't just apply to the basic. If you have money, for example, and would like to love better have more friends or more influence and you know that such is survival for you and your loved ones, it would be a great idea to pay more attention to that loved one, to get to know people better and eventually consider them friends. You may then be more willing to speak better and in a friendlier fashion in order to have more influence.

So there is"bliss of ignorance", but there is also bliss in paying attention to those things that you should pay attention to and misery and pain to those things you cannot afford to ignore.

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I hope this was helpful.

Carlos