Table of Contents
I. A
New Beginning
Begin
With The Small Things
Finding
Real Food
Desires,
No Desires, Beyond Desires
Finding Our Security
What Happens to Joy when There is Difficulty
No
to Self Sacrifice, Suffering, & Guilt
Joy & Discipline
II. The
Daily Life
Joy in Relationship
Joy in Work
Our
Soul Mate, Work, & Destiny
Spirituality, Religion, and Joy
III. Inner Steps
Remembering
Offering & Receiving
Our Nakedness, Our Vulnerability
The Five Inner Steps:
Heartfulness,
Understanding
Compassion
Forgiveness
Wisdom
IV. Life For The Soul
Our Personal Story
Letting Go Of Our Pictures
The Gifts of Emptiness
Our Ground of Being
The Unfolding
To Love The Small Self
The True Self
The No Self
V. New
Paradigm
Meditation
Having Intentions
The
Extraordinary Becomes the Ordinary
We Are A Soul
Human Versus Divine, Good Versus Evil
Death, No Death
Becoming An Instrument
Silence
The Gift of the Little Flowers
Beginner’s
Mind
Appendixes:
Practical Spirituality
1. Ten Simple Steps to Joy
2. Meditations for Joy
3. Joy Support Groups
4. Make A Retreat
A Reading:
Finding Real Food
Joy calls us to search for and enjoy real food. More then our body
needs nourishment, our hearts and souls hunger to be touched, to be fed. Where
is there food for our soul in our lives? Often we are so busy with the
details of life that we nearly forget about enjoying life itself. Life
is more then daily survival. The daily schedule can quickly have time for
everything and everyone else but no time for our self. It can become
routine to be preoccupied with the chores of life with hardly a moment
to enjoy life.
Life is more than collecting comforts, more than battling
stress. Joy calls. Everyday must have some time for real
food. The day is not complete unless it includes food that feeds
us deeply, food that nourishes the soul. Our thoughts are separated from
our feelings and our feelings are separated from our soul, our essence. Real
food, joy, heals this separation. Real food helps us feel our hearts, our
core being once again. From our hearts, our feelings and thoughts, relationships
and activities become connected again. We feel as one person, whole,
and true.
Real
food is life! Where do we feel most alive? With whom
do we feel fully embraced? What are we doing when life is at its
best? When are we really enjoying life? Real food is found
in a safe place in our lives where we can let go of our struggles and
enjoy the heart and beauty of the moment. Yes, real food is found in
a safe place where we can relax, let go of everything we are carrying
inside, and enjoy life. This maybe a walk through an old neighborhood
or singing out our heart to the entire universe.
Enjoying real
food maybe sitting with last night’s dream, feeling again and again
what opens inside of us. Real food may be standing a minute or
two longer with a stranger in the street or canceling everything and
spending a whole day with our children. Real food can be listening
to our inner child and having fun. Communion in Church or taking
the time to simply sit quietly in one’s own heart, are all sources
of real food. Real food, joy, is the embrace of life, God,
the cosmic intimacy. Each day is incomplete without joy.
There
is no motivation for joy other than joy itself. We do not
seek real food because it will improve our careers, further our education,
find new friends, or necessarily find solutions to our difficulties. We
seek real food because it is true. Some find real food practicing
yoga or Tai Chi. They practice not only for physical fitness. They
practice for the simple joys of being alive in their body. Others
find real food sitting with a Holy Book or picture. They feel the
presence from the words or picture in their hearts and all around them. Their
joy is to sit on the lap of God. Real food in any form is this love,
this intimacy. Real food can be dancing until two in the morning. Then
instead of joining friends for drinking and small talk, real food may
be going outside and standing under the stars in the silence. As
the others go home tired with a feeling of alcohol, it is joy to go home
with the stars still dancing inside of us. The path of real food is not
always what is easiest or what is comfortable. It is listening
to another voice inside of us. Our souls are yearning, calling
out.
Real
food can be making a journal of life’s golden moments. People
easily remember past negative experiences. Recalling memories of
deepest joy, writing them down in exquisite detail, reading and rereading
them again is to remember the moments of our soul alive in the world. In
modern culture we think we need a new experience again and again to feel
alive. In other cultures, people often remember great stories,
past dreams, miraculous events to remind them of God’s presence
and the power of creation in their lives. We can remember
our personal moments of pure joy as the path of affirming real food in
the life of our soul. Memories recalled are no longer in the past
but is food now once again feeding our hearts and well of being.
Real
food can be going to the parts of town no-one goes to and giving food
to the people who are living there, homeless. Their expressions
of gratitude are worth a hundred times more then our time spent preparing
the food for them. Real food may be telephoning an old friend we
have not spoken with because of a misunderstanding. Instead of
avoiding each other, one short call may be real food for both of us.
Many people are active in gardening, art, and music. But do we
take the time to enjoy and receive the beauty in the midst of our activity?
Beauty in any form is God’s
presence in our lives, feeding our soul.
In
many cultures there is a holiday of giving thanks. Real food
is in all the love preparing the meal, the joining of family and friends,
in the abundant feeling of love that is present. The anticipation,
the event, and memories are all part of the nurturing. Gratitude
can virtually turn any experience into real food by the opening of the
heart.
Slowing Down
What almost all experiences of real food have in common is the experience
of slowing down. We are often in a hurry to get somewhere or
are generally just in a hurry. We can be in a hurry by habit. We
rarely take the time to just be, to be soft, and open to this moment.
No matter what form, real food becomes more substantial the more present
we are. In this moment we remember joy’s abundance. Often
we do not take the time for anything that does not have practical value,
for anything outside of business or family. There is no time
for personal longings. But what is time for? What gives
life meaning if there is no time for us, our hearts, for joy?
Slowing down frees us from the busy, fearful energy of the
daily world to a fresh awareness. The moment we begin a life of real
food, our lives begin a new course. Real food demands we slow
down and receive the moment. Life’s essence cannot be
hurried. The moment we slow down, our awareness begins to find
something more. It spreads to a larger horizon then our normal
thoughts. Our awareness lands softly in the moment.
What is here? This
moment often escapes us because we are coming from or going to, planning,
or reacting to events around us.
When
we are with real food, we are landing in a new moment. No
matter where we are, no matter the circumstances around us, there is
something fresh and present that feeds us. It may be the birds
singing, the colors in the clouds, the gentle eyes of a friend, the soft
hand of our partner. Taking the time to receive this moment reminds
us, embraces us, renews us in a special way.
We
seek real food because our souls call us. When the soul is
fed, mind and body are well. When our soul is not fed, our whole
being suffers. Nothing less then joy feeds the longing, the hunger that
is deeper than material things. Joy is the pure food that speaks
to the pure place inside of us. Without joy, life is complicated,
confused, compromised. Our days are busy with obligations, chores,
surviving. Life’s pure presence, the simple beauty, is lost. With
joy, we find renewed clarity. We find renewal. Our health,
family, work, activities prosper. But if we tell others that we
are living for joy, usually we receive little support. Joy is something
selfish, a waste of time. Joy is something better not to speak
about but to a select few. And even he or she may not be very
supportive. There certainly must be others things more important for
us to do? If you say, “I spend time sitting at sunrise” or “I
often take a walk under the stars before going to sleep, listening to
the silence,” most people would understand but nevertheless not
take the time themselves for such pursuits. Those around us usually
are thinking, “What is important is what we are doing. It’s
nice you have time for such trivial things. I am much too busy.
It sounds too selfish.” And this is the problem. We
are all much too busy. Life is selfish or in other words full of self. But
what are we doing with ourselves? What do we have to give when
we are full of stress or constantly running around feeling empty inside? Perhaps
real selfishness is not receiving the gifts of life and sharing these
gifts with the world. Perhaps true selfishness is our lack of joy
and gratitude for all that is given.
Meanwhile,
real food, joy, calls into question, “What is our busy-ness
all about? What are we doing with our lives?” Real
food is to take a step out of the busy-ness of our daily life and into
the sanctuary of our heart. A life with no room for the soul is destined
for the myriad of problems of separation. We are separated from
each other, nature, our purpose, our selves, our soul. A life with
no space for the soul is without meaning just a road of unconnected events. The
calling of joy is to make time and space. Joy is the food that
gives us awareness that we are a soul. Slowly this awareness grows. Our
soul unfolds in our lives.
Making Choices
Joy is not something we can catch one day, hold onto, and have ready
whenever we want. Real food is something special. There
are no guarantees. Joy comes from risking, opening and receiving. It
is a little like swimming. We can think about swimming. We
can read books and discuss swimming. We can walk around the pool
and imagine swimming. But only when we go swimming do we begin
to know the experience. Joy is getting wet, really wet. There
is a big difference between thinking about joy and living joy.
Real
food teaches us it is as important to create life’s precious
moments, as it is to surrender to each moment. Each day is full
of choices. What is our awareness pursuing? Fulfilling work
is found in the many moments when our hearts are present. Similarly,
true relationships are found in the many moments we are present and available
to one another. Are we occupied with only life’s struggle?
How do we think the struggle will end unless we make a new course? The
compromises continue until we find food that feeds our being. Most
people are waiting for some big event, vacation, retirement, or new position
in life. Others simply give up hope. Each moment of joy is what
is important. Each moment full of joy strengthens our heart, our
trust, our knowing.
With
real food our thoughts touch down in God’s vast garden. Joy
is creating and surrendering, reaching out to what is important and letting
go of what is not important. This is a daily practice. Beholding
what is important and letting go of what is not important. This
commitment leads to the perfect food. Joy in any form is joy. Are
we listening or have we turned off our passion? If there is no
real food in our life, it is better to be honest with our self, rather
than just living. It is better to be aware, that we are living
in a desert. The search for real food will point our heart again
in the right direction. Something substantial, something true will
come. The next step always comes! The answer lies not in
the big things in life, making new plans for careers, partnerships, or
family. The answer lies in the moment. The big decisions
will come naturally when we have real food, turning the moment into something
precious and sacred.
For
those who feel separate from their river, themselves, joy may begin
by knowing what is not joy! By choosing less what we do not enjoy,
we slowly make the effort to be more with ourselves again, life’s
river. We become available for what gives us joy. As we
begin to make choices between joy and compromises we normally live with,
we are practicing honesty with ourselves. We are following less
the excuses we have that keep us from joy. The path of letting
go of our fears and choosing joy may begin by looking at our calendar. We
begin making more appointments with joy and fewer compromises from fear. We
practice living from our river, our passion, and our truth.
Each
day, our inner hunger speaks to us. Maybe we will run in
the forest nearby. Maybe we will sit a half hour and feel everything
in our heart. Running or sitting, we can slowly let our worries
and concerns go and feel the soft presence of life. We can feel
our wild breath, free. We can feel ourselves. Real
food is an impulse to rediscovering our souls. This impulse may
come from an enlightening book or teaching, a sacred church or flower
garden nearby. Each joy is an impulse to open to our essence. In
these moments and the moments afterwards, we feel as if our soul is breathing. We
feel alive.
Real
food is embracing our inner being. The experience of what we call God,
our eternal self, or pure being begins in feeling our own presence. Taking
the time to feel our own presence apart from the demands and noise of
the world is the beginning of the exploration of life’s greatest
calling inside of us. Slowly, we experience our simple presence
deepening and expanding. There is something more. There is
a greater presence. Apart from the daily world, our awareness rests
and spreads in a vast space.
God
is not separate from us. Real food brings our attention to
something more, life’s perfect presence expanding inside of us
and in the world.
We
take a fresh look at what is important in our calendar. Where
is there real food? Making a schedule involves listening as well
as choosing. Real food is in not making plans as well as the planning. It
is not how much time is set aside for real food but that time exists
for real food. With real food, life becomes inspired. Real food
is passion. What gives us passion? While others are busy
with desires of having something more and something bigger, we are yearning
and reaching for the presence of life itself. We have a passion
for life! The path is joy. Real food awakens our sleeping soul.
Having
a path of nourishing our hearts keeps us in the river of our abundant
being. Here our awareness expands to new horizons and
new depths of life’s simple and rich presence. Here we discover
the relationships, work, activities, which are natural for us, which
are who we are. Real food is returning us to a passionate inner
life to once again find treasure in the world. Real food is also
reminding us of a place greater than anything in this world. This
place is overlooked and forgotten. Our soul is worlds of being, beyond
words, waiting inside of us to be received.
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