Aug 10 2008
On joy
Go to the most beautiful natural place you know. It needs to contain plants and animals. You will need to concentrate, so sit or stand or walk, whatever helps you to concentrate. You will also need to be able to empty your mind, so if you find this hard to do while walking, stop.
Next, empty your mind. There are a lot of techniques out there for doing this, but what’s important it the end result. Be receptive, empty: a vessel waiting to be filled.
Look at the leaf on the tree. See how the light falls through it, how the wind moves it. Feel that the same wind pushing the leaf is pushing you. Feel how hard that leaf is trying to live, how the tree strives for the light, digs into the earth. Feel it drinking deep from the water beneath you, so thirsty. Feel how much passion this tree has for life, to grow, to be. Feel it’s yearning.
Sink your consciousness down beneath you, into the soil. Feel the dense living mass that exists in the earth: the worms, the fungi, the bacteria, all thriving and living. Feel the ancient power of the land itself pulse and flow just below you, let it fill you, let yourself be nourished and replenished by the land. Feel yourself at one with all that life: it strives as you strive, it breathes as you breathe.
See the bird soaring overhead. Feel the wind rushing under it’s wings, the exhilaration and freedom of flight. Watch it’s muscles and wings flex expertly to catch the breeze. Hear it’s call: what is it saying, what it is teaching you? Let yourself be drawn along by the bird’s serene glide, let the flaps of it’s wings enter you, feel yourself fascinated by it’s motion. So alien, yet so very familiar.
If there are other animals around, watch them, feel them, let yourself be drawn into them, hear their message, be their essence.
Close your eyes and feel your own heartbeat. Feel how good it is to breathe in, and the release that comes with breathing out. Feel the earth strong and hard beneath you, feel the wind flow around you. If you are under the sun let that bathe you, drink up it’s warmth and it’s energy. Forget everything you know and learn it anew: be astonished by the thrill of sunlight on skin; feel the force and urgency in your heart – that drive to live, to continue to be. Let your consciousness flow around your body, say hello to your legs, your feet, your belly, your chest, your arms, you hands, your shoulders, your face, your skull. Again, let it all be new, don’t let familiarity tell you that this is mundane or normal.
Every moment can feel like this. Every moment does feel like this, if you can let it. Life is joy. Life is exciting, the highs, the lows, the pleasures and the pains. All of it is so beautiful that your heart will almost burst from it. Let that be your guide. Joy, and love. Be the human animal that you are: run, sit, dance, fight, make love, do all that you can do. Even as you learn, even as you seek to make sense of the horrors and blessings of the world, do it all with joy.
When we lose joy, we have lost perspective. Question the judgement of those without joy.
