in Praise of joy

Way back in 2014 when I first met Sanjay Shah, who it transpired (though I did not know it at the time) would turn out to be my first spiritual teacher, pretty much the first thing he did was to draw, what I originally mistook for a larger pair of testicles, on a flip chart.

As it turned out, they were not in fact testicles but were meant to represent the balls at the end of a pendulum, with one representing “wanting” and the other  “having”.

Much of what Sanjay teaches is around the energy associated with different energetic states and the point he was making was that the energy of having is far greater than the energy of wanting and the corresponding emotional state is hugely more pleasant.

This simple and profound teaching was both demonstrated and amplified when, as directed to prepare for my first retreat with Sanjay, I was asked to write down a list twenty things that I was grateful for.

While considering and making this list, I discovered not only the high energy which manifests from the emotional state of gratitude, but that in fact what I felt welling up, as I focussed on the many things for which I was in fact profoundly grateful, was the even higher emotionally energic state of JOY.

On the retreat itself we were introduced to a larger scale of emotions and their corresponding energetic state.

Based on  the work of David Hawkins, the full list of emotions and their corresponding energetic state looks like this:

Thus, it can be seen that Joy is one of the highest energetic states available to us.

So What?

Crucially, the thing about this high energetic state is that it is not only (and obviously) immediately beneficial for the person experiencing the joy (there is tonnes of medical research graphically demonstrating the mental and physical benefits of happiness and joy) but that energy has the capacity to have a huge and positive impact on everyone you come into contact with.

By way of example and to borrow from another of my favourite teachers, Byron Katie, all you need to consider is how you treat yourself and others when for example you are in a low energetic state such as guilt or shame and compare that with how you treat yourself and others when you are in a state of joy or peace.

Like many spiritual teachings, not only is this profound and true, it is also remarkably simple. 

Ego does not do Joy.

Our egos spend much of their time occupied with moving away from that which is believed to be undesirable or unpleasant and moving towards that which is believed will be pleasant or pleasurable.

Not only does this take a huge amount of our valuable energy but also, at least in pursuit of pleasure, it is a waste of time.

Pleasure is not joy – pleasure is what the ego craves in the mistaken belief that this will make it feel better about itself.

With pleasure, there is an object or objective – if I have xxx the story goes, then this will give me pleasure and I will be happy.

Much of western culture (and almost all the advertising industry) is based on this principle.

The problem is, until obtained, one lives in the place of wanting or craving and the longer one goes without managing to obtain that which the ego desires, the stronger is the feeling of lack or incompleteness so that it can even come to dominate your experience at a huge cost.

And even worse, whatever you crave, once you get it, however great or small it might be, the pleasure or happiness may if you are incredibly lucky, last for a day but most of the time it is gone in minutes.

In Praise of Joy

Joy, by contrast, comes from a very different place and indeed can well up for no reason at all.

The smallest of things – a smile on a child’s face, the warm sun on a fresh spring morning, sharing the company of old friends can all be the source of great joy.

In fact, the list is infinite.

How can we be Joyful when there is so much suffering?

Heaven only knows, there is a huge amount of suffering in the world today and if you read the news, you might be forgiven for thinking that’s all there is.

But the news will not tell you of the millions of acts of kindness, of selfless service, of enormous courage and generosity which happen each day.

To quote yet another of my teachers, Eli Jaxon Bear, the answer to the question,

“How can you be happy in the midst of all of this suffering?” is:

“Your suffering will not make the world a better place – but your happiness, your joy absolutely will.”

And as you can see from the scale of emotions and energies, that is absolutely and completely true.

This is Rita - a source for me of enormous Joy

So I wonder?

So, I wonder what may happen if, instead of focussing on what we want and therefore do not have, or lack, what would happen if every day all of us focussed on what we have?

And even more, what would happen not only if we focussed on what we have but what we are in fact grateful for?

And even more, what would happen if we focussed not only on what we are grateful for, but what brings us joy?

It is for the is reason that on Tuesday 19th December at 800pm, Tangerine Sky will be hosting an event on Zoom focusing on one topic and one topic only – WHAT BRINGS YOU JOY?

For further information please to go the courses page at www.tangerinesky.org