JOY

Joy is felt in moments we’re too present to notice. But before we tackle joy, let’s take a breather to explore the nature of thought so we can think clearly. Clear thinking is to see without the filter of thought. This state of mind might seem elusive, but there’s proof it exists. It’s presence. When thought is absent, thoughts of the past and future dissolve, and even the act of naming what we experience in any given moment fades away. By labeling, we alter our experience with words inherited from those who could never truly capture the essence of what we feel. Why? Because they aren’t us.

Without these words, without the act of labeling, we are left without thought. Let’s call this state of mind stillness—a space where presence is born and life is timeless. Thought is the architect of psychological time, a force that carves our experience into “this” and “that,” “here” and “there.” As a movement itself, it thrives on comparison, creating a perpetual void in our minds that demands to be filled. Think about how we long to re-experience moments we were overcome with joy. Or how we imagine things we’ve never had or experienced will bring us joy and fill the void. These thoughts keep us in time, in our minds, and distorts the purity of our senses, creating a wall between us and joy and redirecting us towards the pursuit of fleeting pleasures. We spend a good chunk of our lives running this race, failing to see that joy exists only in the now, in the timelessness of pure presence.

So, how can we stop in our tracks and cultivate more joy in our lives?

The answer lies in recognizing that joy cannot be manufactured or replicated by thought. It is not a prize, but an experience that arises only when thought dissolves. This understanding provides a foundation not just for joy, but for thinking itself. By giving our full attention, we can observe the truth of each moment without the distortion of past experiences labeled by thought. Think about when someone is talking to you. Listening means you aren’t thinking while they’re talking. Your attention is undivided. You are present. Without thought, with complete perception, without the filters of memory or opinion, we encounter reality as it is.

Can this understanding of the structure of our minds and how we think bring us more joy? Can we see that joy is only felt in those moments when we are so present that we lose awareness of ourselves and time itself? And when we return from these moments, can we hold them without the need to label or recreate them? Can we live more of our lives in a state of pure awareness, fully attuned to the world around us, in every animate and inanimate thing? Can we let ourselves see more than our thoughts would allow us?

Imagine how much more we could know. Without the constant movement of thought, there is only presence, only stillness, and in that stillness, there is joy. So then, joy is always within reach, not as a product of circumstance, but as a reflection of our state of mind.