This Joy Is Not Yours

"Out of Joy all beings are born; in Joy they live and grow; to Joy they return. Who could live or breathe if there were not this Joy in which we dwell?" (Taittiriya Upanishad)

Joy is the spontaneous liberation of awareness in the present moment, unstained and uncaused by the past. No matter how much we have achieved, our achievement cannot create joy. Joy is uncreated. No matter how much we have suffered, our suffering cannot discredit joy. Joy is unconditioned. Joy has nothing to do with our resume, success or failure.

Let us rejoice, for joy cannot be ours! We may call it God's joy, or nature's joy, but not ours. Perfect joy envelopes creation as sunlight bathes a mountain, as mother holds the infant at her breast, as a radiant cloud of energy enfolds the electron. Happiness vibrates in every twig and bud, every sparrow's song. Happiness saturates each cell of the human body. But when we claim this happiness as "my" happiness, it vanishes. Joy can never belong to you or me. For joy is given prior to anything we do, poured out as Grace upon all creatures. This universe is a song of joy. The dumb crustacean has as much happiness as I. And I am happy as a leaf. The only difference is the degree to which each creature is aware of the joy that is already here.

Unhappy people believe that they must do something to deserve happiness. But real happiness can never be a personal achievement. Happiness is not a reward: it is there before you lift a finger. It arises like the dawn, poured out freely by the heart of Being.

You were not born with the inalienable right to pursue happiness, but to be happiness. You are immersed in joy as a fish in the sea. Does the fish seek water? Joy is your element, your birthright, the prior condition of Being before you came to be.

Drop every strategy for making yourself happy and surrender to that Joy which you can never possess.