What veils my joy?

Joy is an essential subject. The question about it is whether it is inherent or not. This article advocates that joy is inherent, even at the heart of our being, at the very core of our existence, an inseparable part of us, one of the key qualities like love and peace that constitute our true nature.

In its newsletter titled “How to Cultivate an Unshakable Joy for Living” and dated June 26, 2021, the Tricycle Community mentions joy under the heading of “Choosing Joy” and asks a question: “What is it that brings you joy? 

It mentions also our mistake of hoping that joy will come when we buy or start new things etc. saying, “…—and we imagine that joy isn’t available to us in times of difficulty or loss.” 

Then it goes: 

“But in reality joy is something far more inclusive and life-affirming than this narrow view would have us believe. As meditation teacher Amanda Gilbert explains, joy is an intentional practice and a daily choice. That practice begins with attuning ourselves to the “boundless joy” that is available to us in every moment, whether from a good cup of coffee, a beautiful flower, a song that lifts our spirits, or a smile on the face of a loved one.” 

In an excerpt from her new book, Kindness Now: A 28-Day Guide to Living with Authenticity, Intention, and Compassion, Gilbert explores the many unique flavors of joy and offers a short meditation using the powerful mantra “What brings me joy?””

Gilbert is right. We keep seeking joy and it may be a practice for us modern humans.

Compassion is needed here for ourselves. Do we have to seek joy? Do we have to look for joy here and there? Do we have to practice it intentionally, as if we do to learn about and even master it? Is there a possibility to become a joy consumer if we seek it again and again here and there?

Imagine a child, who is born to a relatively normal family and environment and who will, for the purposes of this article, have a male gender. He is born into this world by crying as if he has just left a place with enormously beautiful energies. He gradually gets accustomed to the world, starting from his mother who has just experienced an awakening. Some say a mother’s pain in delivering a child is six times higher than the fracturing of all bones in the body.

Under normal circumstances, he develops well and starts schooling, finds himself etc. in the course of time, the regular things. As this is the case, what is his prevalent emotional mood? It is just joy. He reads stories with great curiosity, watches things in excitement, not afraid to delve into mysteries and divinity. He is never prejudiced in terms of the appearance, ideas, or anything of others. By default, he loves them all. Please read this article 5 Ways to Have a Childlike Spirit

From the age of around seven, he starts being affected by the mass and his natural and inherent joy starts to get veiled. You know the rest of his story. Maybe, he will be a physician saving lives or a successful and brilliant scientist who invents bombs that kill others massively under that veil.

So, joy is our natural, purified state. One of the ways that may lead us to our enlightenment. When we clear our existence off the dust and dirt that keep accumulating under that veil, joy will naturally appear as it is always there as one of core parts of you and all humans.

Then we may take another look at Gilbert’s beautiful mantra “What brings me joy?”” and convert it into our perspective: “What veils my joy?”