JOY AS AN ACT OF REBELLION

I’m good at that
— rebellion —
but I’m also good at joy.

Maybe because I know pain too.

I read a lot of climate change blogs and many of them are so heavy and depressing. I guess the subject of the end of life on planet earth can be a bit heavy and depressing😁

But I’ve learned from spiritual studies, from Eckhart Tolle, and from our Buddhist monk neighbors, that it’s possible to not identify with emotions.

It’s possible to simply notice any emotion arise, to feel it, to create space for it, and to observe it arise and pass. Not to cling to it.

And it’s possible to cultivate joy.

I sense joy arising in me when I’m home alone and I cannot resist dancing.
Dancing seems to magnify my joy.

Or when I’m in the shower and the water feels heavenly cascading over my physical form.

When I sit in spiritual practice. After chanting, the silence allows the mantra to have its way with me, and I sense into the joy in my heart.

Alternative translations of the Lord’s Prayer from its original language of Aramaic tell us to create heaven on earth.

My heart still overflows with joy and gratitude for having met Rev. Dr. Stephanie Rutt, from whom I learned this beautiful prayer in Aramaic, along with alternative translations, while studying world religions with her for two years at the Tree of Life Interfaith Temple. (Our study included experiential learning, such as experiencing mystical unity through sacred sound currents, which I wrote about in the book I serialized on this Substack, in Chapter 7. Sadhana, New Hampshire, October 2012 and in Chapter 9. Courage.)

you may hear the pronunciation of the Aramaic in the audio recording

Create Heaven on Earth! Have we done that?

Who or what is served by human anxiety? Yes there is anger and necessary sacred activism in the world. But why does it feel dangerous to claim one’s joy right now?

Don’t you think manifesting more joy to be experienced all over our planet will help to heal the wound?
The wound our human species has created by losing connection with the magic and the mystery of our beautiful Mother Earth.
With all of her seasonal cycles.
With her enchantment, wonder and awe, that are so inherent in the natural world.
With her beauty and her majesty.
The wound created by not respecting and honoring our beautiful Mother Earth.

It’s possible to choose to cultivate joy.
Joy in the simple pleasures.

“Joy is the mother of resilience, courage, fortitude, sacred energy, passion for life, committing yourself to honor the truth of your own experience,” says the sacred activist and spiritual teacher Andrew Harvey.

“From the Upanishads in the Hindu sacred texts:

From the great bliss, everything is created.
In the great bliss, everything is sustained.
To the great bliss, everything returns.

The nature of the divine itself is the great bliss, the great joy.

In a great evolutionary culture when everything is at risk, joy is fuel for our personal journey and for the collective journey.

Cultivate the heaven out of your relationships.

So much death all over the world, the meaning behind it all, to make us love life with a passion, a vulnerability, a passion we’ve never felt before.”

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I also think of Cristina Moon, whose new book I’m now reading: Three Years on the Great Mountain: A Memoir of Zen and Fearlessness, and her Zen priest’s vow:

MY MAIN VOW AS A ZEN PRIEST IS TO TAKE AWAY FEAR,
MOST OF ALL THROUGH THE QUALITY OF MY PRESENCE AND WHO I AM

To take away fear.

Ultimately, perhaps it may simply be a choice between choosing to cultivate the seeds of LOVE or the seeds of FEAR♥️🙏🕊️

And what will you choose?