i guess the only thing i would add to this beautiful piece is do not fall into a spiritual bypassing trap, the joy can become addictive and it is important to keep a keen eye on reality, while cultivating a joyful understanding a.k.a the bigger picture..
Thank you for reading and for your kind compliment❤️🙏🏼🕊 and yes, I agree. I did think about re-iterating the spiritual bypassing trap which I have written about in a previous post:
"I was brought up with the idea that it’s not wise to wallow in pain, as you’ll just create more suffering for yourself. And I still agree with this. However, perhaps it’s also wise to remember the difference between wallowing and — at the other end of the spectrum — “spiritual bypassing,” which is defined as:
a tendency to use spiritual ideas and practices to sidestep or avoid facing unresolved emotional issues, psychological wounds, and unfinished developmental tasks. The term was introduced in the mid 1980s by John Welwood, a Buddhist teacher and psychotherapist."
I do know pain, and I love the Pema Chodron quote "Pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional." And I also believe in the importance of cultivating joy and of not being attached to suffering.
I appreciate your inclusion of the multiple translations of the Aramaic prayer. It really highlights all the possibilities for finding more meaning and possibility in our words. Quite a hopeful sentiment for the earth. Thank you!
Thanks so much Lori. After watching some of the US presidential debate this evening, I have a sense that things on a planetary scale may get worse before they get better, which for me, is all the more reason to make a conscious intention to cultivate joy wherever we can.
That's my fear, Camilla. I think you're right, choosing to cultivate joy and do good in our little corners of the world is essential medicine for the road ahead. 🩵
The piece resonated with me. Awe and joy have lots of power in human life, yet they are often over looked and under appreciated. And people still seem to have a lot to learn about emotions, how to recognize, accept and respond.
thank you for reading and responding Terje - I just read and loved your Substack piece on Silly Joy and Being Unapologetically happy - I think we're singing the same song, whistling the same tune, dancing the same dance, and isn't it fun?🤩✨🧚♀️🤸♀️🌼🌷🌈🌺🪷💕☀️ ✨🌟💖🙏🕊️
VERY UPLIFTING. Thank you for you unending joy I feel it though you interactions and writing. Such an energy. Yes. Let’s have a joy rebellion! Start with a working bee ….invite both joy and sorrow along! Get them working together. I reckon a lot will get done!
Your response made me smile Bernadette😁 And sharing joy is my absolute pleasure✨🧚♀️🤸♀️🌼🌷🌈🌺🪷💕☀️ and a whole hearted YES to a #JOYREBELLION🤩🥰
it also made me think of Kahil Gibran's The Prophet where he writes, "The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain."♥️🙏🕊️
Oh Yes that speaks to me. I wonder if joy is a sort of spectrum. Easy to mimic but the deep deal requires something more. Anyhow I’m in on that rebellion.
I remember reading that line from the Prophet when I was about 16 (lol, that's 41 years ago now, and yet it sometimes feels like yesterday!) and my parents were divorcing, and they were going to sell our idyllic home they'd built in Pittwater where we grew up, and I thought I would die of sorrow. When I read that line I remember thinking, 'Well I guess I will be able to contain a lot of joy.' So i guess yes, it matches the truth of my own experience too😁
A lovely piece, Camilla. I love the idea that it really is up to us to cultivate whatever we believe will serve us best. It’s very empowering. Thank you for the reminder :)
Hi Michael, thanks for reading and responding, and yes, when we choose to cultivate compassion, loving kindness, joy, equanimity, mudita, all of these energies do serve ourselves first, but this also then ripples out and serves others in our communities and those we come into contact with. I guess that’s one of the aspects of Buddhism I love best: working on ourselves for our own benefit and then it naturally benefits others too.♥️🙏🏼🕊
Thank you so much for sharing the chart with translation of the Lord's Prayer! That's amazing! I've never felt so lit up on the inside from that prayer before. ❤️✨❤️
That makes me so happy to hear Jenna❤️🙏🕊️ it was amazing the day we learned it - we kind of danced it - moved to it as we learned it - and it truly did feel like moments of mystical unity.
Great article, Camilla! I so agree, joy is in itself an act of rebellion. As is hope. It's a rejection of a nihilistic narrative, and it paints a much more beautiful vision for the future.
The expansion and expansiveness of the Lord's prayer spoke to me, as does the inclusion of the Divine feminine. When you share something that inspires, your words, your heart, or your attention, you lift up others. These are difficult times and the reminders of deep silence, of cultivating joy, of immersion in prayer, are the tools for healing. I'm grateful to have found you, Camilla, and appreciate getting to know you through your writing. Thank you for this beautiful post that evokes the questions of the soul yearning to connect with the something greater. Your words quench a dry mouth in need of drinking deeply.
Thank you so much Stephanie for your beautiful words and response. And yes, I agree, "reminders of deep silence, of cultivating joy, of immersion in prayer, are the tools for healing."
Also yes, "When you share something that inspires, your words, your heart, or your attention, you lift up others." and I also love how doing this brightens the connections between us as we move into inter-dependence. You may also enjoy this beautiful post I read about how July 4th needs to be a day of inter-dependence versus independence day: https://elizabethrossholmstrom.substack.com/p/declaration-of-interdependence ❤️🙏🕊️
Thanks for sharing Elizabeth's essay -- it's in alignment with so much that I've been thinking about and feeling about these past couple of weeks. Big hugs and write on . . .
Camilla, love this. And I love the Aramaic Lords Prayer. Holds much deeper meaning than the typical Greek, Latin translations. When I was in theological study we looked at this prayer in Aramaic. It is beautifully spoken too. I have a recording of it somewhere...prompting me to dig it up again. This version of this prayer sings joy to my heart.
Thank you for the differing versions of The Lord's Prayer. I was brought up on "Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway", so the notion of having fear 'taken away from me' feels like cheating. However, I think that cultivating joy (of which I've not had much success) may still be an authentic route to dealing with fear(s) -- as joy increases, so fear decreases -- through some mechanism I wouldn't pretend to even begin to understand.
However, my go-to for cultivating inner peace is creative work (weaving, making geodesic structures, piano, poetry, sculptures) and sometimes in the middle of that process I get an unsolicited moment of joy - and with that moment comes an experience of a reduction in fear.
Hi Joshua, Thanks for reading and responding. And I love those moments of unsolicited joy too✨🌟💖🙏🕊️
I also love the idea that fear and excitement are two sides of the same coin, which my father used to say when he took my sisters and me sailing when we were young. And it must have had an effect: I grew into loving to sail, especially Lasers and windsurfers, and when a gust of wind would blow into the sail and lift the boat or the windsurfer and push us even faster over the water, I experienced an absolute thrill.
And yes, as my body ages - and during this time in history - I'm more interested in cultivating inner peace too, and many different spiritual practices help me with this. Recently I've been enjoying planting the seed of a new thought pattern - if I notice any negative though chatter transpiring in my mind, I take a breath and say to myself, "I allow my mind to relax and be at peace. Clarity and harmony are within me and around me. All is well."❤️🙏🕊️
Thank you for an interesting reply. My brother & I used to sail a lot (in a Mirror dinghy), aged 8 & 10 upwards. Later as a teenager, I built a Fireball International from a kit - which I got to measure correctly too, and the deal was if I achieved it, dad would buy all the rigging (which he did, expensive !). I'm now 68 and feel an itch to get sailing again, so I can take the grand-children out - I think it'll be a Mirror again - safe, easy and light to transport.
Currently I feel 2024 is some kind of extended vision-quest for me, a re-orientation to accept my 'senior phase' in life, with certain limitations, yet with a new (and I hope calmer) approach to living life. I like the quote from the Brazilian philosopher (Fernando Sabino) "In the end everything will be O.K. If it's not O.K, it's not yet the end"
I love this so much! Lifting ourselves and each other up through joy and love by raising the collective vibration is so powerful especially during times of chaos and turmoil. They keep us grounded and centered so we can be intentional in our actions and not get sucked up into the whirlwind around us. ❤️
so much wisdom here to be grateful for 🙏 thank you from the heart
Thank you so much for reading and for your kind and generous support, Forrest❤️🙏🏼🕊
i guess the only thing i would add to this beautiful piece is do not fall into a spiritual bypassing trap, the joy can become addictive and it is important to keep a keen eye on reality, while cultivating a joyful understanding a.k.a the bigger picture..
Thank you for reading and for your kind compliment❤️🙏🏼🕊 and yes, I agree. I did think about re-iterating the spiritual bypassing trap which I have written about in a previous post:
"I was brought up with the idea that it’s not wise to wallow in pain, as you’ll just create more suffering for yourself. And I still agree with this. However, perhaps it’s also wise to remember the difference between wallowing and — at the other end of the spectrum — “spiritual bypassing,” which is defined as:
a tendency to use spiritual ideas and practices to sidestep or avoid facing unresolved emotional issues, psychological wounds, and unfinished developmental tasks. The term was introduced in the mid 1980s by John Welwood, a Buddhist teacher and psychotherapist."
https://camillasanderson.substack.com/p/sharing-our-struggles-so-as-not-to
I do know pain, and I love the Pema Chodron quote "Pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional." And I also believe in the importance of cultivating joy and of not being attached to suffering.
I appreciate your inclusion of the multiple translations of the Aramaic prayer. It really highlights all the possibilities for finding more meaning and possibility in our words. Quite a hopeful sentiment for the earth. Thank you!
Thanks so much Lori. After watching some of the US presidential debate this evening, I have a sense that things on a planetary scale may get worse before they get better, which for me, is all the more reason to make a conscious intention to cultivate joy wherever we can.
That's my fear, Camilla. I think you're right, choosing to cultivate joy and do good in our little corners of the world is essential medicine for the road ahead. 🩵
Yes, perhaps this is a time of needing to continually remind each other of the power in the alchemical transformation of fear into love♥️🙏🕊
YES to every part if this!! 💜💚💙
Thanks so much for reading, and for your support Phoebe❤️🙏🏼🕊
The piece resonated with me. Awe and joy have lots of power in human life, yet they are often over looked and under appreciated. And people still seem to have a lot to learn about emotions, how to recognize, accept and respond.
thank you for reading and responding Terje - I just read and loved your Substack piece on Silly Joy and Being Unapologetically happy - I think we're singing the same song, whistling the same tune, dancing the same dance, and isn't it fun?🤩✨🧚♀️🤸♀️🌼🌷🌈🌺🪷💕☀️ ✨🌟💖🙏🕊️
I love this and share your focus on cultivating joy. Thank you for sharing the Aramaic prayer - so powerful! I've copied it to keep - many thanks.
Thanks Julie. Happy to hear the Lord's Prayer in Aramaic resonates. I find it so powerful too❤️🙏🕊️
VERY UPLIFTING. Thank you for you unending joy I feel it though you interactions and writing. Such an energy. Yes. Let’s have a joy rebellion! Start with a working bee ….invite both joy and sorrow along! Get them working together. I reckon a lot will get done!
Your response made me smile Bernadette😁 And sharing joy is my absolute pleasure✨🧚♀️🤸♀️🌼🌷🌈🌺🪷💕☀️ and a whole hearted YES to a #JOYREBELLION🤩🥰
it also made me think of Kahil Gibran's The Prophet where he writes, "The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain."♥️🙏🕊️
Oh Yes that speaks to me. I wonder if joy is a sort of spectrum. Easy to mimic but the deep deal requires something more. Anyhow I’m in on that rebellion.
I remember reading that line from the Prophet when I was about 16 (lol, that's 41 years ago now, and yet it sometimes feels like yesterday!) and my parents were divorcing, and they were going to sell our idyllic home they'd built in Pittwater where we grew up, and I thought I would die of sorrow. When I read that line I remember thinking, 'Well I guess I will be able to contain a lot of joy.' So i guess yes, it matches the truth of my own experience too😁
A lovely piece, Camilla. I love the idea that it really is up to us to cultivate whatever we believe will serve us best. It’s very empowering. Thank you for the reminder :)
Hi Michael, thanks for reading and responding, and yes, when we choose to cultivate compassion, loving kindness, joy, equanimity, mudita, all of these energies do serve ourselves first, but this also then ripples out and serves others in our communities and those we come into contact with. I guess that’s one of the aspects of Buddhism I love best: working on ourselves for our own benefit and then it naturally benefits others too.♥️🙏🏼🕊
Thanks so much for reading and commenting Ahmet❤️🙏🕊️
That’s a wonderful way to think about it and an awesome bonus to doing it!
Thanks Camilla :)
Thank you so much for sharing the chart with translation of the Lord's Prayer! That's amazing! I've never felt so lit up on the inside from that prayer before. ❤️✨❤️
That makes me so happy to hear Jenna❤️🙏🕊️ it was amazing the day we learned it - we kind of danced it - moved to it as we learned it - and it truly did feel like moments of mystical unity.
Great article, Camilla! I so agree, joy is in itself an act of rebellion. As is hope. It's a rejection of a nihilistic narrative, and it paints a much more beautiful vision for the future.
Thanks Louise! Yes, we get to dream our world into being❤️🙏🏼🕊
Yes!
The expansion and expansiveness of the Lord's prayer spoke to me, as does the inclusion of the Divine feminine. When you share something that inspires, your words, your heart, or your attention, you lift up others. These are difficult times and the reminders of deep silence, of cultivating joy, of immersion in prayer, are the tools for healing. I'm grateful to have found you, Camilla, and appreciate getting to know you through your writing. Thank you for this beautiful post that evokes the questions of the soul yearning to connect with the something greater. Your words quench a dry mouth in need of drinking deeply.
Thank you so much Stephanie for your beautiful words and response. And yes, I agree, "reminders of deep silence, of cultivating joy, of immersion in prayer, are the tools for healing."
Also yes, "When you share something that inspires, your words, your heart, or your attention, you lift up others." and I also love how doing this brightens the connections between us as we move into inter-dependence. You may also enjoy this beautiful post I read about how July 4th needs to be a day of inter-dependence versus independence day: https://elizabethrossholmstrom.substack.com/p/declaration-of-interdependence ❤️🙏🕊️
Thanks for sharing Elizabeth's essay -- it's in alignment with so much that I've been thinking about and feeling about these past couple of weeks. Big hugs and write on . . .
Camilla, love this. And I love the Aramaic Lords Prayer. Holds much deeper meaning than the typical Greek, Latin translations. When I was in theological study we looked at this prayer in Aramaic. It is beautifully spoken too. I have a recording of it somewhere...prompting me to dig it up again. This version of this prayer sings joy to my heart.
Happy to hear you love the Lord's Prayer in Aramaic too, Julie. I love Substack as a place we can remind each other of these things🥰🙏🕊️
💎❤️🙏🏻
Thank you for the differing versions of The Lord's Prayer. I was brought up on "Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway", so the notion of having fear 'taken away from me' feels like cheating. However, I think that cultivating joy (of which I've not had much success) may still be an authentic route to dealing with fear(s) -- as joy increases, so fear decreases -- through some mechanism I wouldn't pretend to even begin to understand.
However, my go-to for cultivating inner peace is creative work (weaving, making geodesic structures, piano, poetry, sculptures) and sometimes in the middle of that process I get an unsolicited moment of joy - and with that moment comes an experience of a reduction in fear.
Hi Joshua, Thanks for reading and responding. And I love those moments of unsolicited joy too✨🌟💖🙏🕊️
I also love the idea that fear and excitement are two sides of the same coin, which my father used to say when he took my sisters and me sailing when we were young. And it must have had an effect: I grew into loving to sail, especially Lasers and windsurfers, and when a gust of wind would blow into the sail and lift the boat or the windsurfer and push us even faster over the water, I experienced an absolute thrill.
And yes, as my body ages - and during this time in history - I'm more interested in cultivating inner peace too, and many different spiritual practices help me with this. Recently I've been enjoying planting the seed of a new thought pattern - if I notice any negative though chatter transpiring in my mind, I take a breath and say to myself, "I allow my mind to relax and be at peace. Clarity and harmony are within me and around me. All is well."❤️🙏🕊️
Thank you for an interesting reply. My brother & I used to sail a lot (in a Mirror dinghy), aged 8 & 10 upwards. Later as a teenager, I built a Fireball International from a kit - which I got to measure correctly too, and the deal was if I achieved it, dad would buy all the rigging (which he did, expensive !). I'm now 68 and feel an itch to get sailing again, so I can take the grand-children out - I think it'll be a Mirror again - safe, easy and light to transport.
Currently I feel 2024 is some kind of extended vision-quest for me, a re-orientation to accept my 'senior phase' in life, with certain limitations, yet with a new (and I hope calmer) approach to living life. I like the quote from the Brazilian philosopher (Fernando Sabino) "In the end everything will be O.K. If it's not O.K, it's not yet the end"
Fabulous read..Love the various translations. ❤️
Thanks so much for reading and letting me know, Elaine❤️🙏🕊️
I love this so much! Lifting ourselves and each other up through joy and love by raising the collective vibration is so powerful especially during times of chaos and turmoil. They keep us grounded and centered so we can be intentional in our actions and not get sucked up into the whirlwind around us. ❤️
Yes! Thanks for reading and commenting Bridget♥️🙏🕊️