“The Infinite is the source of joy!”
(Chandogya Upanishad 7.23)
There is a mighty rushing river of deep Joy at the center of all life. Oh yes, there is also a roller-coaster ride of pleasure and pain at the surface of human experience. Yet transcending this is a Joy that is the very effervescence of Life Itself. Deep Joy is an eternal quality of the Spirit. When we remember that Life is Consciousness, then it makes more sense that the pain or changes we endure at the material or worldly level of experience are just as temporary as everything else at that level. What endures – that which is ultimately real – is God, Spirit, the Infinite … and the nature of this all-originating One is Love, Light, Truth, Wholeness, Peace … and Joy!
To have lost track of the Joy of Spirit is a great tragedy, though a repairable one. This Joy is so much more that the fleeting pleasures most try to get by on their daily rounds of life. In this Joy is power, the power to endure, to continue on. In this Joy is creativity, for Joy is the mighty dance of possibility. In this Joy is aliveness that nothing has the power to dampen. In this Joy is vision, a vision of the greater magnificence of Life beyond the squalor created in human affairs. In this Joy is oneness and community, for Joy unites all in its commitment to exalting creation. In this Joy is the heart of prayer, for Joy is the peak realization that it is well with my soul,
no matter what.
Reconnecting with inner Joy doesn’t mean that your life experience will always be easy. It doesn’t mean that changes or hardships will pass you by, It doesn’t mean that there will be no more betrayal or loss. It doesn’t mean that you will cease feeling pain or grief. What it does mean is that beneath all of this – and whatever else occurs on your path – the healing balm of spiritual Joy will comfort you, the inner strength of spiritual Joy will uphold you, and the inner peace of spiritual Joy will inspire you.
How beautiful it is to know that there is a Joy that the changing tides of experience cannot squash!
Excerpt from This Life is Joy, by Roger Teel, 2014, Penguin Group
Dr. Teel is a speaker and spiritual leader who is in his third decade as senior minister of Mile Hi Church in Denver, CO. He has served as Chairman of the International Board of Trustees for Centers for Spiritual Living, and is Co-founder of the Association for Global New Thought.
