The Zen Diarist

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Happiness or joy – which is better?

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Happiness or joy, which is better? Of course we all want to be happy but joy doesn’t get a mention quite so much. Rather like a pleasant tinkling bell, happiness can rise up quickly but can then fade almost as fast, so we have to keep renewing it. Joy is a much deeper affair, like a very large bell whose resonance continues for a long time.

Happiness and joy are both excellent medicines

Happiness is delicious and thoroughly recommended. It is light, tasty and easily digested. It comes in all sorts of flavours and is available right now in your local universe. All we have to do is select it. If we make the choice to be happy now, the delivery is automatic and completely free of charge. We just have to keep our head up and flick our happiness switch. As we smile, the energy channels in the body open more and allow our vital energy, qi, to flow more easily. The more we smile, the more our vitality improves, which is brilliant for health and our sense of wellbeing. The bonus is if another person sees us and smiles in return, their channels open a little too. When we smile with our face and with our heart, the effect can be quite profound.

Appreciation creates joy, and joy heals

Our world is a very beautiful place and if we choose to appreciate what we have and what is around us, we will see that. Even though we are deluged with messages telling us that everything is wrong, we should not rely on news and social media to create a world picture for us.

Balance is essential and each of us has the ability to choose to see what we have in a positive light. Nothing is what it seems and this world has many dimensions, as do we. If we appreciate and are grateful for everything, we will be a friend of the world. We will generate great joy, whose vibration, like the waves from a resounding bell, will travel far and wide. Everything in the universe is energy, and to love, to vibrate joy and happiness are the most wonderful things we can do.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. There are many short articles on this blog and some books available, too. Some guided meditations are still available – they were put together some time ago but they still work!

Related posts:

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  2. Something to smile about
  3. Thoughts: Why we need to think less
  4. Healing energy, the Universe and You

Finding happiness in 2021

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Gloria came across this article recently when she was clearing out a drawer and said, “This is just right for now – you should put it in your blog”. So here it is! It’s from one of our old newsletters that I used to put together – written in July 2004.

Happiness arises – or fades – in the mind

All happiness arises purely in the mind – nowhere else. All problems stem from the mind. Whether we are content, happy or miserable depends on the state of our mind. It is not the outer circumstances that govern how we think and feel, but how we view those circumstances.

Where we go wrong and cause ourselves much pain and grief is by seeking happiness through pleasurable things. As a result, desires and expectations arise like mushrooms, often to be replaced by disappointments when they are not met or do not last.

Good old days, or the best is yet to come?

The tendency of the mind is to look back at past pleasures and happiness and seek to repeat them in the future. It also looks back at past pain, and fears its repetition. So we remain on the treadmill creating a lifetime of highs and lows.

We cannot attain lasting happiness whilst the mind is looking forward or back, nor can we find it outside ourselves. That might seem a tall order but there is an easy solution: live fully aware in the present moment. If we do that, our mind is not imagining the future, nor is it looking back. What is past is past and the future is never certain. As the words of one incisive Buddhist sutra say: The past no longer is and the future has not yet come. Looking deeply at life in the here and now, the person who practises this dwells in stability and freedom.

Happiness could be in a sandwich

How do we live in the present moment? By being aware of what we are doing and not thinking of other things while we are doing it. For example, when eating, our awareness should be on eating what we are eating now, not on what we might be eating in a moment or how it compares to a meal we had last week. It means not having our attention on something else. That may sound difficult but it isn’t really. It takes a little effort to break our bad habits, but once we experience the joy of eating with full awareness, we will not want to do it any other way.

Exactly the same principle applies to all our activity – brushing teeth, walking, writing, driving, having a conversation (yes – listening with full awareness!) and so on. If we practise living in the present moment, we will find without fail that life becomes fuller and richer and our fears will have no fertile ground in which to grow.

Much has happened in the seventeen years since penning this, yet so much is the same. This article was the seed from which my first book The Great Little Book of Happiness grew. I take no credit – it is all based on very old truths, discovered by others much wiser and more eloquent, but if it helps anyone, that’s good.

Related posts:

  1. Criticism: 3 reasons it’s bad for your wellbeing
  2. Seeds of happiness – sowing the greatest investment
  3. Consciousness – your most important asset
  4. Being happy: why we should choose to flick the switch

Melting the ice: eliminating indifference

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melting iceThanks in part to pandemic restrictions, a source of enjoyment for me is going for walks in our local area. There is much rural beauty nearby and there is delight to be found, too, in the surrounding streets. I feel happy when I am walking because the world magically opens up when we look more closely at things.

A layer of ice

Many of the people who are also out walking seem very friendly and respond warmly to a smile and a wave or a hello. On the other hand, quite a few pass by without acknowledging anyone else. Instead of warmth, it is as though there is a glaze of ice, a certain aloofness. There are many reasons why that may be and, after all, any of us can be a little withdrawn or grumpy sometimes.

More important than the response of passers-by to each other, though, is the general human trait of indifference towards those we don’t know, whether individuals or a group. We can often fail to see the light in another person and miss so much. And the reason isn’t somewhere out there; it’s inside, in our own minds.

If it’s in the mind, fix the mind

Indifference is something we urgently need to fix because it results in an absence of joy, of love and a lack of positive action. It is the cause of all apathy. I was once given a piece of advice that, when you see a stranger, to imagine you once knew him or her very well. Imagine that some time in the past, you had a very close connection, now forgotten, when they showed you great kindness. This simple mental adjustment can begin to expand the mind and tickle the heart, melting any ice that may be lingering.

It’s wise not to speak of it because it is an inner practice but, make no mistake, this little technique is very profound if we make it a habit.

Thank you for reading this. Sadly, no courses will be running until circumstances permit. May you have a joyful Christmas season and a happy and healthy new year. Andrew

Related posts:

  1. Something to smile about
  2. Looking for light is vital for our future
  3. Love: why cosmic glue stops us falling apart
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Looking for light is vital for our future

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looking for lightIs there light in a cup of tea, a blade of grass or a butterfly? There is, of course, and it is in everything if we choose to look, even in what we regard as unpleasant. Looking for light, particularly when it seems to be absent, can be very therapeutic. Nature tends to draw us out of darkness. Evolution is concerned with just that – the process of enlightenment.

Everything vibrates, and what we describe as light simply has a faster rate of vibration than darkness. Someone once said that all on our planet, and indeed the planet itself, is solidified sunlight. Between light and dark is where we may think we find ourselves now, in innumerable shades of grey – but, if we look, there is also an incredible spectrum of colour.

Recognising light

Looking for light has to do with recognition. In the human being, light is akin to our higher nature – our better, finer qualities. How we perceive the world around us, from our immediate environment to all that we see or hear, depends on our inner state. If our heart is heavy, everything we see or hear seems miserable, but if we see the good in the world and in other people, a magical change occurs.

Our world may seem to have been turned upside down but there appears to be a shift in the way many people are starting to think. Instead of a desire simply to return to life as it was, there is evidence of a growing desire for change, for goodness to emerge.

Increasing our inner light

Our own inner light, which has its source in our spirit or soul, is always ready to grow. We just need to give it some encouragement. When the world seems a little dark, which it can at times, recognising the inherent goodness in people and in things is vital for our emotional, mental and spiritual wellbeing. As we all contribute to the collective consciousness of humanity, that’s good not just for us but for the whole planet.

Awakening Heart – The Blissful Path to Self Realisation

Related posts:

  1. Something to smile about
  2. How to live softly with ease and help the planet
  3. Love: why cosmic glue stops us falling apart
  4. Clarity: why it’s a vital antidote to this mad world

Habits – when and how to manage them

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Forming habits, now there’s a thing. Someone told me once that it takes three weeks to form or break a habit. I’m not sure where that came from or whether there is any evidence to support it. Nevertheless, the turn of each new year has features editors of newspapers and magazines publishing articles on the new habits we urgently need to acquire or lose. Is that a habit of theirs they could safely shed, I wonder?

Habits don’t like awareness

We all know that new year resolutions generally fail before the end of January. Except the one not to make any, which I find works well and lasts all year! Old habits die hard, so the adage runs, and in any event it would be silly to suggest that we should have no habits all. Many are very useful, like washing our hands after we have been to the bathroom. If only everyone did. The problem comes when our repetitive thinking and behaviour (which is what habits are) have a negative impact on ourselves and on others. Then there is something we can, and should, do.

Just observe and break the chain

The key to change for the better is not self-flagellation, dieting, running up mountains or taking ice baths, interesting and challenging though such activities may be. Rather it is to become aware of what we are doing and why we are doing it. Simple awareness can work wonders because it is the portal for our innate intelligence. Try it sometimes; better still, often. Before doing anything, pause and observe. Break the chain of one automatic response after another. Starve the habit of oxygen. Those few moments of comparative silence allow something rather good to happen. What it is, though, you must discover for yourself.

Do less to accomplish more – read my book The Art of Not Doing – How to Achieve Inner Peace and a Clear Mind

Free guided meditations

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