For each of us, our joy is made up of a multitude of subtle and sublime aspects of our being, unique to us, yet universal as well, for we all are capable of joy. Joy is transcendant, mysterious and powerful, running deep and reaching far. If you would like to tune your frequency to joy and know the magic of this tuning, you must explore the potential for joy that is within you. In the posts that follow, I will trace the contours of joy's form and feeling. Colour the space thus created with your own innate knowing and feel joy grow within you.
Let us begin with enjoyment.
My father's old Oxford Concise Dictionary gives one definition of joy as 'exultation of spirit' and that is the definition that comes closest to what I mean when I speak or write of joy. Joy is not happiness; it is deeper and richer in its meaning than that. But continued happiness and contentment often leads to a state of joy. I think of happiness as a response to some situation or circumstance and joy as a more permanent state of being. Happiness is a response to the world around us. Joy is a frequency state that informs the world around us.
Enjoyment is ongoing, through moments in time as we interact with the world around us in ways that fill us with enthusiasm. Think of something that you love to do, something that when you are doing it, makes time seem to disappear. Gardening is that for me. Cooking is sometimes that for me. Writing is always that for me. Always. And it doesn't matter whether it is 'going well' or not. It doesn't matter if it is easy or not. That is why it is not equated with happiness. I am happy when my writing is going well, but I am in the state of joy whenever I am writing, whether it is going well or not.
Think of something that, when you do it, you forget yourself, because you become so involved in what you are doing. So we say that we enjoy music, or baseball, or driving. Now recall the feeling that is in you when you are doing that. Recall the feeling. It will be in your body, in your consciousness, in your being. That is true enjoyment. It comes close to bliss, for me. Time has no meaning, except that it can press us out of that enjoyment and into doing something else, something that we feel we have to do. Self has no meaning - we forget ourselves. When we are doing that, we are totally in the Now, engrossed in our endeavour.
For me, gardening is not work, even though for some other people, it probably is work. You bend and pick up and carry and dig and cut and clean. That could easily seem like work. But to me, it is not work. Similarly, when I am clearing the forest of tripping hazards and dead wood that clutter my trails, it's very taxing physically, but to me it is not work; it is joy. Going to a party feels like work to me. All that standing around and making small talk with people feels like work. To many people, that probably feels like play, or even like joy. For each of us, our joy is our own.
It's not important for you to understand what other people enjoy; it's important for you to understand what you enjoy. What lights you up? What fills you with enthusiasm? My dad's dictionary gives this definition of enthusiasm: 'possession by a god,' or 'supernatural inspiration.' That's pretty close to the exultation of spirit that I mean when I use the word 'joy.' When we feel enthusiastic about something, we are literally enlightened, filled with light and love and joy to think of that wonderful thing. What is that thing for you?
What I love about being in the world, in a world with seven billion people, is that every single one of those people has something that they are enthusiastic about, something that lights them up and fills them with joy. Whatever that thing is for you, as long as it harms no other, nor takes from others what they believe to be their own, go and do that thing, pursue that thing, enjoy that thing. It might be stamp collecting, bug watching, gold-digging or diapering your infant child. Whatever it is, be it a life-long passion or a passing enthusiasm in the Now, fill your spirit with the exultation of immersion in that activity or pursuit.
It doesn't have to be something that you do for your whole life. I have loved plants and flowers always. That seems to be a life-long passion for me. But I used to create weavings to hang on the wall and I would gladly immerse myself in the creation of one of these weavings for hours and hours. I was very enthusiastic about this. After creating woven wall-hangings for a number of years, I moved on to other things. As a student, your enthusiasm might be to explore ideas and apply them to your own experience. As you move on into another phase of your life, your enthusiasm might come when you start your own business or develop some new program with the understanding and skills that you acquired as a student.
When you do this thing, this thing that you are so enthusiastic about doing that you completely forget about time when you are doing it, it doesn't matter what other people think about it or whether the world around you validates it or not. It is yours. Find this thing that fills your consciousness and allow yourself to enjoy it thoroughly. You don't have to be good at it, you just have to enjoy doing it, thinking about doing it and remembering doing it. Familiarize yourself with the feeling of it. That is the feeling of joy. It isn't love and it isn't ease. It isn't happiness, although it can easily bring happiness. It's deeper than that. It's enjoyment. Get to know it, so that you can recall it and use it whenever you decide to tune your frequency to joy.
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