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Who We Are What We Are

Joy To The World – 3

Joy To The World – 3
For the past several postings we’ve been looking for joy in all the wrong places, finding it sadly lacking in the things we buy, the things we own, the things we do, and even the people we love.  So does true joy even exist?  And if it does, is there any way we can experience it and make it our own?  The answer to both of these questions is… Yes.
Five thousand years ago, the ancient people of the Indus Valley believed that true joy was the nature of their God and the Ultimate Source of all that is.  Not only was Joy the absolute ground of being and everything that exists in the universe, it was the deepest purest part of our very nature as human beings.  They called it Satchitananda, a term that combined three Sanskrit words; Sat – existence; Chit – consciousness; and Ananda – bliss.    Existence/Consciousness/Bliss.  To make it a little easier to understand for the modern mind, I think of it as “I am; I know I am; Wow!”
In their simpler lives that followed more closely the rhythmic seasonal cycles, the light of day, the dark of night, the ebb and flow of warm and cold and rainy and dry, it was easy to feel the larger patterns of Nature.  Even though these early people did not know what we know about the universe in any scientific provable sort of way, they could look up into the clear heavens and panoply of stars, unhidden by smog and neon lights, and feel the joy of simply being connected to what they saw.  And when they did they knew this Joy at the heart of the Universe was at the very heart of themselves as well.
It’s much harder for modern man to experience such simplistic lives of joy.  All the advances in technology and pressures of day to day living that have occurred since the Indus Valley was mankind’s most advanced civilization have put barriers between ourselves and the source of the Universe that exists at our core.  And you’d be hard pressed to find any devout believer in God who would rate Joy among his chosen deity’s main attributes.
So many levels exist these days between ourselves and the source of our being.  Ask someone who they are and they’ll give you a long list of descriptors they use to define themselves… man, woman, mother, father, this religion, that nationality, this occupation, that organization, the list goes on and on.  But the truth of the matter is, when we say “I am”, that is the only fact.  Everything else after that is just an adjective that may separate us from everybody else but doesn’t define us as who we are, and most certainly, does not give us true lasting and comforting Joy.
So take some time this holiday season and give yourself a special treat.  After the parties and the dinners and the gifts and the relatives. Sit quietly in some corner with the TV and your cell phone turned off.  Don’t think of it as meditating, that sounds too daunting.  Think of it simply as taking a break from the daily pressures of the world.  Go inside, deep inside the adjectives to the place within where you can feel the “I am”.  Don’t think about it.  Feel it.  The pure joy of just plain being, of just plain existing.  What were the chances.  And yet you made it.  Way to go.  Feel the Joy.  You are.  You know that you are. Wow!!!
peace……………………..ag
* * *

For the past several postings we’ve been looking for joy in all the wrong places, finding it sadly lacking in the things we buy, the things we own, the things we do, and even the people we love. So does true joy even exist?  And if it does, is there any way we can experience it and make it our own?  The answer to both of these questions is… Yes.

Five thousand years ago, the ancient people of the Indus Valley believed that true joy was the nature of their God and the Ultimate Source of all that is.  Not only was Joy the absolute ground of being and everything that exists in the universe, it was the deepest purest part of our very nature as human beings.  They called it Satchitananda, a term that combined three Sanskrit words; Sat – existence; Chit – consciousness; and Ananda – bliss.    Existence/Consciousness/Bliss.  To make it a little easier to understand for the modern mind, I think of it as “I am; I know I am; Wow!”

In their simpler lives that followed more closely the rhythmic seasonal cycles, the light of day, the dark of night, the ebb and flow of warm and cold and rainy and dry, it was easy to feel the larger patterns of Nature.  Even though these early people did not know what we know about the universe in any scientific provable sort of way, they could look up into the clear heavens and panoply of stars, unhidden by smog and neon lights, and feel the joy of simply being connected to what they saw.  And when they did they knew this Joy at the heart of the Universe was at the very heart of themselves as well.

It’s much harder for modern man to experience such simplistic lives of joy.  All the advances in technology and pressures of day to day living that have occurred since the Indus Valley was mankind’s most advanced civilization have put barriers between ourselves and the source of the Universe that exists at our core.  And you’d be hard pressed to find any devout believer in God who would rate Joy among his chosen deity’s main attributes.

So many levels exist these days between ourselves and the source of our being.  Ask someone who they are and they’ll give you a long list of descriptors they use to define themselves… man, woman, mother, father, this religion, that nationality, this occupation, that organization, the list goes on and on.  But the truth of the matter is, when we say “I am”, that is the only fact. Everything else after that is just an adjective that may separate us from everybody else but doesn’t define us as who we are, and most certainly, does not give us true lasting and comforting Joy.

So take some time this holiday season and give yourself a special treat.  After the parties and the dinners and the gifts and the relatives. Sit quietly in some corner with the TV and your cell phone turned off.  Don’t think of it as meditating, that sounds too daunting.  Think of it simply as taking a break from the daily pressures of the world.  Go inside, deep inside the adjectives to the place within where you can feel the “I am”.  Don’t think about it.  Feel it.  The pure joy of just plain being, of just plain existing.  What were the chances.  And yet you made it.  Way to go.  Feel the Joy. You are.  You know you are. Wow!!!

peace……………………..ag

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Experience the new consciousness for yourself at GamesofConsciousness.com