WPC: Joy

Red Lotus

This red lotus grows in our dam, right beside the house. Every year we watch it appear above the water in spring, unfurling great green leaves, revelling in the joy of warmth and light, gaining strength. Thick stalks carry the buds up high, fat and perfect, rolled together tightly as they rise, then slowly unfurling, until each bud bursts open in a crescendo of joy, celebrating life with an explosion of beauty and colour! No wonder the Buddha used lotus as a teaching tool. Ancient texts and poets speak of the lotus, the lotus of the heart being the Self within that gradually unfolds, revealing itself in glory and joy when time is right. Kahil Kibran says:

Say not, “I have found the truth,” but rather, ”I have found a truth.”
Say not, “I have found the path of the soul.”  Say rather, “I have met the soul walking upon my path.”
For the soul walks upon all paths… 
The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of countless petals.

Kahlil Gibran (1883 – 1931)

 

and  Rabindranath Tagore:

ALL THAT IS JOY

Let all the strains of joy mingle in my last song — 
the joy that makes the earth flow over in the riotous excess of grass, 
the joy that sets the twin brothers, life and death, 
dancing over the wide world, 
the joy that sweeps in with the tempest, shaking and waking, 
all life with laughter, 
the joy that sits still with its tears on the open red lotus of pain, and 
the joy that throws everything it has upon the dust, 
and knows not a word.

And one more thought on joy …. brain scientist Dr Jill Bolte Taylor had a devastating stroke that gave her a new outlook on life … so now she teaches that we can choose what circuitry to ‘run’ in our brain, and we can be happy if we choose to run the circuitry of joy! Just refuse to become engaged in the mean stuff, laugh at it, and look for the present moment. When asked why people don’t choose happiness Jill says I think a lot of them don’t know that they can. I think that they experience their emotions and experience their grief and sadness; they just don’t know that they can have a relationship with it. I don’t think they know the simplicity, that we are circuitry. We have a choice in what circuits we run. Does that mean avoid heavy emotions? Absolutely not. It means allow yourself to experience the emotion. The more you keep it at bay, the more it’s going to beckon. Allow yourself to welcome it, savor it, celebrate it — and let it go in 90 seconds.  Jill also tells us how to run joy through the body, something I do often, every time I practice yoga nidra. Find that feeling of joy in your heart, then let that delicious warm tingle spread out through the chest, imagining every cell in the body gradually thrilling to the joy generated by your heart … it feels wonderful and is so good for you!

 

See more of Dr Jill Bolte Taylor at: http://spiritualityhealth.com/articles/balancing-brain-toward-joy-0/page/0/1#sthash.Gk5U8iyz.dpuf