Joy

"I slept and dreamt that life was Joy. I woke and found that life was service. I acted, and found that service was Joy." ~ Tagore

It is December and Christmas carols are everywhere. "Joy to the world" they sing! Yet in the yogic understanding of who we are, joy is always here, it is a part of the fabric of our being. That is, if we translate the word "ānanda" as joy ... it might also be bliss, or maybe rapture.

My parents gave me Joy as a middle name. As my meditative life has developed I find that central position of Joy in my name to be just how it is. Through meditation I find that Joy is at my centre. Even on a bad day I can stop a moment and reconnect to it.

Joy in the yogic traditions

Yoga philosophy is full of models of our nature to help us find our way to the truth about ourselves. These models can differ from one tradition to another and so it is with the concepts of the self as layers, the Vedic system differs from the Tantric system. But both have something to offer.
Ānandamāya is in the most subtle layer in the Vedic kosha system and in the iRest Protocol. 

My own drawing of the five koshas, modelled on numerous other sources

Tantric five layered self from https://hareesh.org/blog/2015/12/16/the-five-koshas-and-the-five-layered-self-a-comparison

 In some representations of the Vedic kosha system ānanda is the centre, seen as the goal, the ultimate, in others, such as the one top, above, it is still a layer, subtle but still a sheath or covering on true nature.

Ānanda, Joy, is not present in the Tantric five layered self, but that is not to say that Bliss, Joy, Ānanda is not very important in the Tantra. Ānanda is different from temporary joy that comes from sense pleasures, though such pleasures can help us glimpse it; ānanada is bliss that is an aspect of the completeness of pure Consciousness.

 It is therefore is not attained by any technique or study itself; ānanda is not something that is achieved. It is more something that is regained. All the yogic practices are working more to strip away what veiled ānanda not to create ānanda.

Life is joy

If there is a season that seems the most joyful it would have to be Spring, wouldn't it? That is because life is springing freshly all around in spring.  I imagine this must be amazing if winter is blanketed in snow and life goes into suspension, bursting forth as Spring thaws the frozen world, the grass grows, the birds and animals are busy mating and giving birth.  But even in Australia it is easy to feel that surge of joyful life in Spring.

When we think of what gives us joy, baby things just have to feature. Who doesn't love watching kitten and puppy videos on Facebook or YouTube ... why can we "waste"so much time on them? Because they bring us joy and we so long for that joy. Can you remember holding a newborn baby? Ah! the delicacy, the smell, the joy! It is not by accident that joy is so accessible through baby things, life is renewed in baby things, and life is joy.

I also find that birdsong, and the activities of birds, watching birds is also a call to joy. Do you?

Cultivating somatic awareness, as we do in yoga practice, helps us to connect with our innate joy. When we have developed an acute somatic awareness we can feel the pulse of life in the tissues. The feeling of being alive. And it is joyful. So to connect with joy nothing in particular needs to be happening, if you can feel life in the tissues you can feel joy.

Of course a few memories of kittens, puppies and babies are certainly helpful. They flood our brains with the chemicals that can counteract the woeful chemicals that sometimes block our somatic awareness and keep us locked in a sense of misery. 

The more we consciously connect with our joy, the more open our brains become to the presence of joy, and it becomes a positive feedback loop.

So stop, listen to the birds, watch them, watch those kitten videos, feel the joy, celebrate life. Joy is an aspect of the divine and a part of who you are.

By Tatiana Gerus - originally posted to Flickr as Lorikeet's wings, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6552046