Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile,
but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.
Tag: Look for Happiness
Be happy
The third Sunday of Advent, is traditionally called Gaudete Sunday, or Be Happy Sunday. For those preparing for Christmas, this joy comes from knowing that the coming of Jesus is near. which puts the up’s and down’s of daily life be put into context. This exhortation is shared by most wisdom traditions. We are reminded of a fact, sometimes forgotten by earnest religious practioners, that at the heart of all inner practice is joy, which leads us to understand the true nature of happiness.
Joy does not come from having everything perfect as we want it, by having a preconceived perfect day, but by accepting how life actually is and not fighting against it. It is possible even in the midst of difficult moments. It comes from seeing deeper into the heart of things. understanding that it is born from within and not from the external conditions of our lives. It is based on choices we make. It has its roots in the security we find within ourselves and from love:
Joy is the experience of knowing that joy and freedom comes from knowing you are unconditionally loved and that nothing — sickness, failure, emotional distress, oppression, war, or even death — can take that love away.
Joy is not the same as happiness. We are inclined to think that when we are sad we cannot be glad, but ….. sorrow and joy can exist together. That isn’t easy to understand, but when we think about some of our deepest life experiences, such as being present at the birth of a child or the death of a friend, great sorrow and great joy are often seen to be parts of the same experience. Often we discover the joy in the midst of the sorrow. I remember the most painful times of my life as times in which I became aware of a spiritual reality much larger than myself, a reality that allowed me to live the pain with hope. I dare even to say: ‘My grief was a place where I found joy.’ Still, nothing happens automatically in the spiritual life. Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day.
Joy is what makes life worth living, but for many it seems hard to find. They complain that their lives are sorrowful and depressing. What then brings the joy we so much desire? Are some people just lucky, while others have run out of luck? Strange as it may sound, we can choose joy. Two people can be part of the same event, but one may choose to live it quite differently than the other. One may choose to trust that what happened, painful as it may be, holds a promise. The other may choose despair and be destroyed by it.
What makes us human is precisely this freedom of choice.
Henri Nouwen
Working with what is
So be reposed
and praise, praise, praise
The way it happened
and the way it was.
Patrick Kavanagh, Irish Poet, Question to Life
Welcoming each moment as something new
Gratefulness sprouts when we rise to the challenge of surprise. Gratefulness can be improved by practice. But where shall beginners begin? The obvious starting point is surprise. You will find that you can grow the seeds of gratefulness just by making room. If surprise happens when something unexpected shows up, let’s not expect anything at all. Let’s follow Alice Walker’s advice: “Expect nothing. Live frugally on surprise.”
To expect nothing may mean not taking for granted that your car will start when you turn the key. Try this and you will be surprised by a marvel of technology worthy of sincere gratitude. Or you may not be thrilled by your job, but if for a moment you can stop taking it for granted, you will taste the surprise of having a job at all, while millions are unemployed. If this makes you feel a flicker of gratefulness, you’ll be a little more joyful all day, a little more alive.
From there it is only a small step to seeing the whole universe and every smallest part of it as surprising. From the humble starting point of daily surprises, the practice of gratefulness leads to these transcendent heights. Thomas Carlyle pointed to these peaks of spiritual awareness when he wrote, “Worship is transcendent wonder” – transcendent surprise.
Brother David Steindl-Rast
Searching to be something
We practice in order t
o become more awake. This includes becoming more aware of the various strategies we use to avoid being with a basic fear. We have numerous ways to deflect any sense of insecurity, of not being in control, of not always being sure of where we are going. So we have a tendency to look to ourside sources or achievements for support, to define ourselves by what we do or by some labels or badges. We are often afraid of just being ourselves, because we have learnt to believe that it is not enough. And one of the preferred ways to deal with this today is that we try harder, we do more.
However, what we find when we practice is that there is nothing to do, and even less to hold on to. There is simply this moment, this breath. Nothing needs to be added to make it compete. We rest in it, and in some way we are complete in it too. We do not have to place more demands on it. We slow down the chatter in the mind. We do not have to search in order to be. And that is the greatest liberation.
The arrogant mind never stops looking for identity, and this identity always defines itself through atributes: “the beautiful one”, “the smart one”, “the creative one”, “the successful one”………. We are always searching for something to be.
Dzigar Kongtrul, Light Comes ThroughI have spoken at times of a light inside, a light that is uncreated and uncreatable to the extent that we can deny ourselves and turn away from things, we shall find our unity in that little spark inside, which neither space nor time touches.
Meister EckhartFears
Fears are educated into us,
and can, if we wish, be educated out.
Karl Menninger
The opportunity to experience yourself differently is always available.
Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche
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