Joyful Path

[thaddeus]

Following your path should be joyful. Who here honestly feels joyful?

What does it take to become joyful?

T

[Ian]

Following your path should be joyful. Who here honestly feels joyful?

What does it take to become joyful?

T

 

I think the word joy can be misleading. I believe a succesful path involves digging up all one's troublesome stuff, and can feel superficially quite troubling. Only when you tune in to the much subtler sensation of peace which runs through the process, do you get a more positive understanding.

 

And I think that this peace, while eventually joyful, can be very subtle and elusive for quite a while, particularly as we are brought up to appreciate powerful sensations, whether positive or negative.

 

I feel joyful for maybe an average of two of my waking hours per day. More if outdoors and not working at a computer. I'm pretty happy with that.

 

I think that to become joyful one simply needs to come home to the body. Home sweet home. But I think most of us delude ourselves as to how far from that we are, imagining a level of presence far superior to the truth.

 

All just my opinion, as ever.

[Neijia]

I certinaly feel joyful... but not dissruptively so.

I think it takes balance that is arrived at through dedicated practice, and the eventual absence of self-centered/narcistic ego based fear. Of course that requires more self-study and facing of hard facts than many people are willing to devote.

 

Then again, some people are just born uncomplicated and never strive to be.

[Corey]

Is this feeling of "Joyfulness" discriminatory against "Happiness"? Because on an overall daily basis I am happy with what I do and what I am doing.

 

I feel that my choices, while ultimately bettering myself, aren't neccesarily selfish or narcicistic. I've often read that you need to in one way or another kill your ego and I'm definitely still working at it as I believe most of us are. But ever since I made the change [to Taoism and Vegetarianism] I am ultimately happy.

 

If this happiness is also a part of joyfulness, am I still following the same path? Or have I strayed? I hope i'm still following the Tao and I believe that I am.

 

But despite my ranting my original question still stands. Is Joyfulness seperate from Happiness?

 

-Admiral Buttercrust

[Wayfarer64]

What are the levels we feel?

 

Contented,Happy, Joyous, exstatic,transcendant, at peace...These are each conditions that offer us energy and hopefulness and help us to look forward and advance our questing...

 

Apathy, dullness, sadness, sorrowfulness, grief, and anger distract and impead our way forward.

 

These are many ways to feel and some lead to others, or even the shedding of them leads to the opposite sense of being...

 

The way of Moksha has only joy and the shared sense of well-being. Connecting with the oneness of all life within ourselves offers the way out and up from our sorrows...Our deepest most profound selves know only joyfull oneness with the cosmic spirit of life. When we keep our minds on that prize we can remain in a state of grace as it were.

 

My own Consciousness is a pretty flexable ride that often seems like a freaking roller-coaster. My inner self has found a great fountain of peace that keeps getting dammed and diverted by the things in my life that I allow to disaffect me. It is indeed very difficult not to become angry and sad when things go wrong in our lives. These down-turns away from happiness can come from our own failings or when other people let us down.

 

Not many of us can limit all of our desires or keep our intentions pure. But we can try to be the best we can be. And that tenders a pretty good chance of inner peace amid the world's confabulations and tribulations.