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Word Gems exploring self-realization, sacred personhood, and full humanity
Joy
“We cannot forget joy. No matter how deep our rage and pain.” Nalini Singh
Eckhart Tolle: “All cravings are the mind seeking salvation or fulfillment in external things and in the future as a substitute for the joy of Being. As long as I am my mind, I am those cravings, those needs, wants, attachments, and aversions, and apart from them there is no ‘I’ except as a mere possibility, an unfulfilled potential, a seed that has not yet sprouted.” Rumi: “When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.”
Anaïs Nin: “Man can never know the loneliness a woman knows. Man lies in the woman's womb only to gather strength, he nourishes himself from this fusion, and then he rises and goes into the world, into his work, into battle, into art. He is not lonely. He is busy. The memory of the swim in amniotic fluid gives him energy, completion. Woman may be busy too, but she feels empty. Sensuality for her is not only a wave of pleasure in which she is bathed, and a charge of electric joy at contact with another. When man lies in her womb, she is fulfilled, each act of love a taking of man within her, an act of birth and rebirth, of child rearing and man bearing. Man lies in her womb and is reborn each time anew with a desire to act, to be. But for woman, the climax is not in the birth, but in the moment man rests inside of her.” Eckhart Tolle: “Joy does not come from what you do, it flows into what you do and thus into this world from deep within you.” Percy Bysshe Shelley: “I have drunken deep of joy, And I will taste no other wine tonight.”
Fred Rogers, The World According to Mister Rogers: “Part of the problem with the word 'disabilities' is that it immediately suggests an inability to see or hear or walk or do other things that many of us take for granted. But what of people who can't feel? Or talk about their feelings? Or manage their feelings in constructive ways? What of people who aren't able to form close and strong relationships? And people who cannot find fulfillment in their lives, or those who have lost hope, who live in disappointment and bitterness and find in life no joy, no love? These, it seems to me, are the real disabilities.” Charles Dickens: “The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again.” Eckhart Tolle: “Be the silent watcher of your thoughts and behavior. You are beneath the thinker. You are the stillness beneath the mental noise. You are the love and joy beneath the pain. Rumi: “Sorrow prepares you for joy. It violently sweeps everything out of your house, so that new joy can find space to enter. It shakes the yellow leaves from the bough of your heart, so that fresh, green leaves can grow in their place. It pulls up the rotten roots, so that new roots hidden beneath have room to grow. Whatever sorrow shakes from your heart, far better things will take their place.” Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: “Joy is the infallible sign of the presence of God.”
Eckhart Tolle: “Whenever you meet anybody, it is a holy encounter. The primary event is the energy field of presence between you and the other human being that arises. You enjoy it. There is deep joy in the meeting.” Aberjhani: “Dare to love yourself as if you were a rainbow with gold at both ends.” Nicholas Sparks, A Walk to Remember: “There are moments when I wish I could roll back the clock and take all the sadness away, but I have the feeling that if I did, the joy would be gone as well.”
Eckhart Tolle: “All cravings are the mind seeking salvation or fulfillment in external things and in the future as a substitute for the joy of Being.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer: “Music... will help dissolve your perplexities and purify your character and sensibilities, and in time of care and sorrow, will keep a fountain of joy alive in you.” Thich Nhat Hanh: “The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.” Elizabeth Berg: “There are random moments - tossing a salad, coming up the driveway to the house, ironing the seams flat on a quilt square, standing at the kitchen window and looking out at the delphiniums, hearing a burst of laughter from one of my children's rooms - when I feel a wavelike rush of joy. This is my true religion: arbitrary moments of of nearly painful happiness for a life I feel privileged to lead.”
Oscar Wilde: “A flower blossoms for its own joy.” Kahlil Gibran: “The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain. Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven? And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives? When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy. When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.” Eckhart Tolle: “To know yourself as the Being underneath the thinker, the stillness underneath the mental noise, the love and joy underneath the pain, is freedom, salvation, enlightenment.” Iris Murdoch: “People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us.” Anthon St. Maarten: “If we never experience the chill of a dark winter, it is very unlikely that we will ever cherish the warmth of a bright summer’s day. Nothing stimulates our appetite for the simple joys of life more than the starvation caused by sadness or desperation. In order to complete our amazing life journey successfully, it is vital that we turn each and every dark tear into a pearl of wisdom, and find the blessing in every curse.” Orhan Pamuk: “In fact no one recognizes the happiest moment of their lives as they are living it. It may well be that, in a moment of joy, one might sincerely believe that they are living that golden instant "now," even having lived such a moment before, but whatever they say, in one part of their hearts they still believe in the certainty of a happier moment to come. Because how could anyone, and particularly anyone who is still young, carry on with the belief that everything could only get worse: If a person is happy enough to think he has reached the happiest moment of his life, he will be hopeful enough to believe his future will be just as beautiful, more so.”
Eckhart Tolle: “When you say, 'I enjoy doing this or that', it is really a misperception. It makes it appear that the joy comes from what you do, but that is not the case. Joy does not come from what you do, it flows into what you do and thus into this world from deep within you.” Pearl S. Buck: “To serve is beautiful, but only if it is done with joy and a whole heart and a free mind.” John Calvin: “There is not one blade of grass, there is no color in this world that is not intended to make us rejoice.” Emily Dickinson: “Find ecstasy in life; the mere sense of living is joy enough.” Eckhart Tolle: “You don't have to wait for something 'meaningful' to come into your life so that you can finally enjoy what you do. There is more meaning in joy than you will ever need. The 'waiting to start living' syndrome is one of the most common delusions of the unconscious state.”
Charlotte Brontë: “God surely did not create us, and cause us to live, with the sole end of wishing always to die. I believe, in my heart, we were intended to prize life and enjoy it, so long as we retain it. Existence never was originally meant to be that useless, blank, pale, slow-trailing thing it often becomes to many, and is becoming to me, among the rest.” Henri J.M. Nouwen: “Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day.” Nicholas Sparks, Safe Haven: “...nothing wonderful lasted forever. Joy was as fleeting as a shooting star that crossed the evening sky, ready to blink out at any moment.” Eckhart Tolle: “Those who have not found their true wealth, which is the radiant joy of Being and the deep, unshakable peace that comes with it, are beggars, even if they have great material wealth. They are looking outside for scraps of pleasure or fulfillment, for validation, security, or love, while they have a treasure within that not only includes all those things but is infinitely greater than anything the world can offer.” Shannon L. Alder: “Feelings are something you have; not something you are.” Jiddu Krishnamurti: “Joy is something entirely different from pleasure.”
Clarence Darrow: “When we fully understand the brevity of life, its fleeting joys and unavoidable pains; when we accept the facts that all men and women are approaching an inevitable doom: the consciousness of it should make us more kindly and considerate of each other. This feeling should make men and women use their best efforts to help their fellow travelers on the road, to make the path brighter and easier as we journey on. It should bring a closer kinship, a better understanding, and a deeper sympathy for the wayfarers who must live a common life and die a common death.” Brother David Steindl-Rast: “The root of joy is gratefulness...It is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful.” Eckhart Tolle: “As soon as you honor the present moment, all unhappiness and struggle dissolve, and life begins to flow with joy and ease. When you act out the present-moment awareness, whatever you do becomes imbued with a sense of quality, care, and love - even the most simple action.” Amit Ray: “Suffering is due to our disconnection with the inner soul. Meditation is establishing that connection.” Eckhart Tolle: “You can still achieve certain things through effort, struggle, determination, and sheer hard work or cunning. But there is no joy in such endeavor, and it invariably ends in some form of suffering.” Matthew Buckley: “One of the secrets of life is to find joy in the journey … There are a lot of people in this life that will try to convince you that they're selling something that will bring you joy. The simple fact of the matter is that *things* don't bring you joy. You have to find joy in life experience. And if you take along somebody you love, then that journey is going to be all the more enjoyable.” Eckhart Tolle: “Ask yourself: Is there joy, ease and lightness in what I'm doing? If there isn't, then time is covering up the present moment, and life is perceived as a burden or a struggle.”
Sonia Rumzi: “Suffering teaches joy.” David Hume: “No man ever threw away life while it was worth keeping.” Eckhart Tolle: “Things and conditions can give you pleasure but they cannot give you joy - joy arises from within.” David O. McKay: “Happiness consists not of having, but of being; not of possessing, but of enjoying. It is a warm glow of the heart at peace with itself. A martyr at the stake may have happiness that a king on his throne might envy. Man is the creator of his own happiness. It is the aroma of life, lived in harmony with high ideals. For what a man has he may be dependent upon others; what he is rests with him alone.” Megan Hart: “One must have sorrow to truly appreciate joy.” Goldy Moldavsky: “The joy you find as a teen, however frivolous and dumb, is pure and meaningful.” Helen Keller: “For one wild, glad moment we snapped the chain that binds us to earth, and joining hands with the winds we felt ourselves divine.” Michael Ventura: “Good is not the opposite of evil, joy is the opposite of evil.” Charles H. Spurgeon: “To rejoice in temporal comforts is dangerous, to rejoice in self is foolish, to rejoice in sin is fatal, but to rejoice in God is heavenly.” Eckhart Tolle: “Love, joy, and peace cannot flourish until you have freed yourself from mind dominance.” Theodore Roethke: “I trust all joy” Miriam Toews: “She was becoming sad. There is no joy involved in following others' expectations of yourself.” Eckhart Tolle: “When your fulfillment and sense of self are no longer dependent on the future outcome, joy flows into whatever you do. You do what you do because the action itself is fulfilling. Whatever you do or create in that state is of high quality. This is because it is not a means to an end, and so a loving care flows into your doing.” Marianne Williamson: “The highest prize we can receive for creative work is the joy of being creative. Creative effort spent for any other reason than the joy of being in that light filled space, love, god, whatever we want to call it, is lacking in integrity.” Samuel Gordon: “Joy is distinctly a Christian word and a Christian thing. It is the reverse of happiness. Happiness is the result of what happens of an agreeable sort. Joy has its spring deep down inside. And that spring never runs dry, no matter what happens. Only Jesus gives that joy.” Eckhart Tolle: “When you know who you truly are, there is an abiding alive sense of peace. You could call it joy because that's what joy is: vibrantly alive peace. It is the joy of knowing yourself as the very life essence before life takes on form. That is the joy of Being - of being who you truly are.”
Kelly Long, Lilly's Wedding Quilt: “Now some of you will say that the two are one and the same - happiness and joy - but this is not so. Happiness is a feeling. Happiness is fleeting, dependent on the moment, the circumstances, even the weather. Joy is transcendent, enduring, and, in the biblical context, is not an emotion. Joy is an attitude of the heart. Joy brings us peace, a refuge in the midst of troubles. God gives us joy through His Spirit. But the enemy tries to steal your joy and give you temporary happiness instead. Now, is there anything wrong with being happy? Nee, but it cannot last. So, you may wonder why I bring up the difference between these two - it is simple really. [...] marriage is sacred before the Lord, a decision for a lifetime, but too often I think young people look upon it as a source of happiness. Do not look at marriage this way. See it as a reservoir of joy, a deep, welling spring that endures the icy blast of temper, the bite of an angry word, the void of loneliness in a heart hungry for talk when there is no response. [...] Seek joy in each other, not happiness.” Eckhart Tolle: “In today's rush we all think too much, seek too much, want too much and forget about the joy of just Being.” Helen Keller: “Joy is the holy fire that keeps our purpose warm and our intelligence aglow.” Edward Dyer: “My mind to me a kingdom is, Such present joys therein I find, That it excels all other bliss That world affords or grows by kind. Though much I want which most would have, Yet still my mind forbids to crave.” Billy Graham: “Joy cannot be pursued. It comes from within. It is a state of being. It does not depend on circumstances, but triumphs over circumstances. It produces a gentleness of spirit and a magnetic personality.” Eckhart Tolle: “All the things that truly matter, beauty, love, creativity, joy and inner peace arise from beyond the mind.” C.S. Lewis: “All joy... emphasizes our pilgrim status; always reminds, beckons, awakens desire. Our best havings are wantings.” Susanna Tamaro: “... but happiness is to joy as an electric light bulb is to the sun. Happiness always has an object, you're happy because of something, it's a condition whose existence depends on external things. Joy, on the other hand, has no object. It seizes you for no apparent reason, it's like the sun, its burning is fueled by its own heart.” Eckhart Tolle: “The moment that judgment stops through acceptance of what it is, you are free of the mind. You have made room for love, for joy, for peace.” Gene Kelly: “You dance love, and you dance joy, and you dance dreams. And I know if I can make you smile by jumping over a couple of couches or running through a rainstorm, then I'll be very glad to be a song and dance man.” Louise Penny: “Joy doesn't ever leave, you know. It's always with you. And one day you'll find it again.” C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy: “Joy is not a substitute for sex; sex is very often a substitute for Joy. I sometimes wonder whether all pleasures are not substitutes for Joy.” Eckhart Tolle: “Joy is uncaused and arises from within as the joy of Being. It is an essential part of the inner state of peace, the state that has been called the peace of God. It is your natural state, not something that you need to work hard for or struggle to attain.” Sri Chinmoy: “True inner joy is self-created. It does not depend on outer circumstances. A river is flowing in and through you carrying the message of joy. This divine joy is the sole purpose of life.” Eckhart Tolle: “The voice in your head also creates a huge amount of problems that aren't really problems. They're just things that haven't happened yet, things that could happen tomorrow or next week. Listening to unreal problems has another name: worrying. That's what the voice in your head does. It what-ifs. It frets. It agonizes, and you can no longer sense the joy of life.” Marty Rubin: “We need places to scream and run wild as well as places to be quiet.”
Jiddu Krishnamurti: “Observe your own emotional states and you will see that the moments of great joy, great ecstasy, are unpremeditated; they happen, mysteriously, darkly, unknowingly.” Eckhart Tolle: “The joy of Being, which is the only true happiness, cannot come to you through any form, possession, achievement, person, or event - through anything that happens. That joy cannot come to you - ever. It emanates from the formless dimension within you, from consciousness itself and thus is one with who you are. Abhijit Naskar: “Joy not shared is joy wasted.” Marty Rubin:“Live for nothing but the joy of being alive.” Jiddu Krishnamurti: “To know joy one must go much deeper. Joy is not mere sensation. It requires extraordinary refinement of the mind, but not the refinement of the self that gathers more and more to itself. Such a self, such a man, can never understand this state of joy in which the enjoyer is not.” Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet: “Then a woman said, Speak to us of Joy and Sorrow. And he answered: Your joy is your sorrow unmasked. And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears. And how else can it be? The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain. Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter’s oven? And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives? When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy. When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight. Some of you say, ‘Joy is greater than sorrow,’ and others say, ‘Nay, sorrow is the greater.’ But I say unto you, they are inseparable. Together they come, and when one sits alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed. Verily you are suspended like scales between your sorrow and your joy. Only when you are empty are you at standstill and balanced. When the reassure-keeper lifts you to weigh his gold and his silver, needs must your joy or your sorrow rise or fall.” Marty Rubin: “Of all the so-called sexual perversions, joyless sex is the most perverse.” Eckhart Tolle: “If there isn't an emanation of love and joy, complete presence and openness toward all beings, then it is not enlightenment.” Charmaine J. Forde: Pen and paper brings me complete joy.” Antonio Iturbe: “Adults wear themselves out pointlessly searching for a joy they never find. But in children, it bursts out of every pore.” Eckhart Tolle: “The beginning of freedom is the realization that you are not “the thinker.” The moment you start watching the thinker, a higher level of consciousness becomes activated. You then begin to realize that there is a vast realm of intelligence beyond thought, that thought is only a tiny aspect of that intelligence. You also realize that all the things that truly matter – beauty, love, creativity, joy, inner peace – arise from beyond the mind. You begin to awaken.”
Nalini Singh: “We cannot forget joy. No matter how deep our rage and pain.” Gift Gugu Mona: “Allow God to be your source of joy. When you do that, you will have joy even in the midst of sorrow.” C.S. Lewis: “All Joy reminds. It is never a possession, always a desire for something longer ago or further away or still about to be.” Jiddu Krishnamurti: “Surely education has no meaning unless it helps you understand the vast experience of life with all its subtleties, with its extraordinary beauty, its sorrows and joys. You may earn degrees, you may have a series of letters after your name and land a good job, but then what? What is the point of it all if in the process your mind becomes dull, weary, stupid? Eckhart Tolle: “When I'm with people, I'm a spiritual teacher. That's the function, but it's not my identity. The moment I'm alone, my deepest joy is to be nobody, to relinquish the function of a teacher. It's a temporary function.” C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy: “The first lifelong friend I made at Oxford was A. K. Hamilton Jenkin, since known for his books on Cornwall. He continued (what Arthur had begun) my education as a seeing, listening, smelling, receptive creature. Arthur had had his preference for the Homely. But Jenkin seemed able to enjoy everything; even ugliness. I learned from him that we should attempt a total surrender to whatever atmosphere was offering itself at the moment; in a squalid town to seek out those very places where its squalor rose to grimness and almost grandeur, on a dismal day to find the most dismal and dripping wood, on a windy day to seek the windiest ridge… to rejoice in its being (so magnificently) what it was.” Wyatt B. Pringle, Jr.: “A laugh is a smile out of control.” Eckhart Tolle: “Pleasure is always derived from something outside you, whereas joy arises from within.” C. Hinkle: “Books. Just the word brings me joy!”
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