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The theme and the idea of Joy seems to pervade our consciousness as the Holiday season comes upon us. There is something about the month of December that brings about a subtle transformation, a renewed focus on Joy. In their wonderful book, “The Book of Joy”, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and His Holiness the Dalai Lama focus on this subject in their week long conversations with each other. How do we sustainably create Joy for ourselves in troubled and challenging times – this is a question that occupies the heart and mind of these two luminaries…

We often hear the adage – ‘do whatever makes you happy’. At face value, this indeed seems like a reasonably simple attitude with which to live our lives. The implication seems to be that if we are happy within, then we have a good chance at creating happiness for others. The corollary is that the converse is also true. Unhappy people tend to make others around them unhappy.

There is a certain purity in the internal energy of happy people. This purity comes about because they have made a continuous effort to attain, maintain and remain connected to a reservoir of elevated, pure energy – no matter what.
For them, Joy is not merely a December thing. It cannot be. If it were, it would be transient, like the weather, and their reaction to it. It’s warm and sunny, they are happy. It’s cold and rainy, they are unhappy. Their drive through order or online order is messed up – they are unhappy. Their team wins – they are happy. The team that they don’t want to win, wins – they are unhappy. Surely, when it changes from moment to moment, it cannot be Joy, can it?

So, how does one attain the purity and permanence of Joy? One way to answer the question is to imagine a state of Joy. Have you ever experienced it? Or observed it in another person? A pianist or violinist in full flight, an opera singer immersed in their song, a painter or sculptor covered from head to toe with paint and plaster, a chef in the midst of conjuring up a new creation… Joy can indeed be that simple.

Joy can be that moment where we are where we truly want to be, doing what we want to be doing, with the people that we want to be doing it with. There is a certain purity about that moment, yes?

What if we were to string together a few moments of pure Joy every day? What would our string of pure Joy look like in a week, a month, a year from now? Maybe we will discover that the choice to experience a more permament Joy has to be made by us alone. May it will be revealed to us that Joy is a personal journey of the heart. Maybe we will rediscover the purity of purpose that we were all born with.

I invite you to experience Joy through purity with the #SpiritChat community – Sunday, December 11th at 9amET/2pmUTC in our weekly twitter chat. Bring your pearls. We will bring the thread. Together we shall string…

Namaste,

Kumud @AjmaniK