The Secret of Life: Keep Moving

ELIZABETH DENLEY explores how joy supports our mental well-being in a troubled world, reshaping our response to pain and suffering.

- 

It seems to me that joy is the pure awareness and celebration of our human existence and purpose.

Joy brings with it an abundant heart that is light, moderate, balanced, and present in the moment. It is not loud, excitable, and attention-seeking; rather, it is a subtle current suffusing everything from within, flowing into everyday life from the depth of the heart. It is an expression of life force. My own personal experience of joy became more profound once I embarked on a conscious inner journey almost forty years ago. It was like rivulets joining to become a river, streaming toward a vast ocean with a natural, mighty flow.

The first book I read after embarking on that journey was Truth Eternal, written by Lalaji, a spiritual master born in nineteenth-century India. His words sang in my heart, creating new possibilities, despite the suffering and heartache of this world.

Lalaji exalted the soul and described it as “the instrument of joy. Nay! It is joy itself, and cannot exist without bliss and happiness.” He continued, “Happiness is not anywhere outside. It is in our fixing the attention, in the steadiness of disposition, and in the concentration of our mind. Those who know this secret need not search for happiness outside.” Lalaji saw spiritual happiness as “nothing but steadiness, settling, and peace.”

Did he mean that being joyful results in a life without challenge and pain? Not at all. They are necessary aspects of being in this world. Joy does not mean we always experience pleasure and are always happy; it is the undercurrent of soul in everything we do.

Many mystics, philosophers, and writers around the world have understood this. Here are just a few quotes—there are many more: