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A Taproot to Joy
Joy isn’t an object or an achievement. It’s more like a gentle breeze that simply comes, on its own, when it’s allowed to do so. But if it is really natural, why doesn’t it come to us more often and more easily?
Usually, joy is not present because we haven’t allowed it to be. We block it chemically, with unbalanced biochemicals in our brain, with poor nutrition that depletes our bodies, or sleep patterns that disrupt our relationship to nature and our own cycles. We block it with our thoughts, when we strive to control the uncontrollable, to grasp after happiness, to push away love and connection, to blind ourselves to internal and external reality. We block it with our hearts, too, when we close down in fear or resentment or confusion. You cannot receive an object when your hand is clenched. You cannot receive food when you jaws are clenched. You cannot receive joy when you mind is clenched. And you cannot receive love when your heart is clenched.
We also block joy when we refuse to become aware. People who aren’t conscious don’t realize what they have, don’t feel the energies that flow continually in them and around them. They don’t know that they reside in a sea of plenty. Unconscious people may experience moments of happiness, when one of their wants is satisfied. But such temporary satisfaction can never lead to lasting joy.
People who are blocked, closed, or unaware are like people whose only source of water is the rain. The rain comes when it will, allowing them to quench their thirst and find happiness for a while. But the rain can’t fall forever, and eventually, thirst returns. If the rain stays away for weeks or months, then the earth dries, the crops wilt, and all the land is parched.
But people who are conscious don’t need to depend on the rain, though they, too, may enjoy it when it comes. It’s as though they’ve realized that the earth holds an unending supply of fresh water, just below the surface. Conscious, mindful people don’t have to search frantically for water to satisfy their thirst. They simply tap into that reservoir and draw from it freely, using it lavishly and with abandon.
Of course no one is mindful and awake all the time. Even when you know the secret of the endless reservoir, you might find a way to block its flow into your heart and soul, or you might fail to maintain your connection to this underground source. But so long as you remain conscious, you will know that joy is there. You will understand that a blocked flow is by definition a temporary problem that simply needs to be addressed.
So if you want to achieve “enlightenment,” wake up to this awareness that joy and love are all around you – but they’re only accessible if we send our taproot down. Send it deep enough, and you can strike the reservoir and drink from it daily. Each of us has such a taproot living within us. This is what I would call the soul.
