Welcome.
Today we will talk about joy,
The joy of practice,
Your practice,
Your spiritual practice,
Your meditation practice,
The disciplines and different things you do that allow you to find peace and happiness and contentment,
All of the things that bring you joy.
What is your practice?
If you're here today listening to this talk and meditation,
Most likely meditation is part of your practice.
When you meditate,
What type of practice do you use?
Do you focus on your breath?
Do you use mantras?
Open awareness?
Another style or type of meditation?
And most importantly,
When you practice,
Is there joy?
Do you enjoy your practice?
Do you enjoy focusing on your breath and finding a comfortable seat or posture and using a mantra or chanting?
One of the reasons we meditate is to find joy and cultivate joy and to share joy with the world.
But first it begins with you.
Do you realize that you get a chance to carve out time when you meditate?
You get to create a sacred or safe space to meditate.
That time is precious.
You can imagine you're making an appointment with God,
Your higher power,
Or someone you love,
Or your highest self.
You can make that a special time,
A joyful time to reconnect with something special.
And remember,
We get to do these things.
We get to create time and space to practice.
We get to have energy,
Physical endurance to practice.
We get to quiet the mind and deepen our spiritual awareness.
These are all causes for joy.
Another joyful aspect of practice is that we get to explore or discover new things about ourselves or look at things that we're already familiar with in a new way.
We develop a keen sense of awareness,
New perspective.
We get to find things like our life purpose.
Answers or solutions to problems or challenges come to us in meditation.
This is definitely a reason to be joyful.
When we quiet the mind,
When we relax the body,
Answers come.
Ideas come.
Intuitive thoughts come.
The voice of God,
Guardian angels whisper to us.
These are all reasons to be joyful.
Let's practice together in a joyful way.
We all have different styles of practicing,
But we can all agree on a couple of things.
We can all agree that the breath sustains our practice and our lives,
And that finding stillness or steadiness physically helps anchor our awareness in the here and now.
So let's meditate together by finding a comfortable posture or seat.
And once you settle in,
Close your eyes and begin to focus on your breath.
As you breathe with awareness,
Consider joy.
Remember this is a wonderful moment.
We get to practice together.
We get to breathe together.
We get to meditate together.
Keep breathing with awareness and continue to relax your body.
Relax the shoulders.
Relax the jaw.
Maybe smile as you think about joy,
Relaxing all the muscles around the mouth.
Let's take an inhale together,
And exhale,
Release the breath.
Inhale,
Think about cultivating joy,
And exhale,
Let the breath go.
Last time,
Inhale joy,
And exhale joy.
For the next few moments,
Continue to meditate on your own.
You can focus on your breath.
You can use a different style or method that you prefer.
And as you meditate,
Remember joy.
Joy for the practice,
Your practice.
Joy for your body,
Your breath,
Your mind,
Your spirit.
Joy.
Begin to bring awareness back to the present moment.
Remember where you are.
Remember who you are.
Remember we're here to celebrate joy.
Let's breathe together.
Inhale,
And exhale.
Again,
Inhale,
Joyful moment.
Exhale,
Joyful moment.
Last time,
Inhale,
Joy.
Exhale,
Joy.
Begin to open your eyes.
Within both the Buddhist traditions and yoga traditions,
The word mudita shows up quite often.
Mudita is joy,
Although specifically it is a form of sympathetic joy or symbiotic joy,
Which means we share joy.
We share our joy with others,
And when others are joyful,
That also makes us joyful.
We do things to allow others to feel joy.
Sometimes we sacrifice our own joy so that others can have joy.
Mudita is a very special form of joy.
So remembering your practice today,
Remembering the joy you might have felt today,
Consider sharing your joy with others today.
Share your enthusiasm for your practice,
Your gratitude,
Your resources,
Your energy.
Maybe share a smile or a hug or handshake.
Share joy today.
