Joy!

"Pleasure is an attempt to fill yourself. Joy is what you are."

-- Byron Katie

I love pleasure! Especially when it arrives unexpectedly, serendipitously, gracefully. But I also know the difference about which Katie speaks. Pleasure is always associated with something external -- good food, fine wine, a beautiful sunset, great sex, etc. Joy, on the other hand, springs from within, irrespective of external conditions. Joy is our true nature, a nature which is too often covered over by our perceptions, thoughts, emotions.

Though joy can grab you when you least expect it, many times it helps to remove yourself, physically or mentally, from the hustle and bustle of life. When you do, it is amazing how quickly you will find joy blooming in the quiet spaces between activities, between thoughts. Like a patient and faithful lover, joy has been waiting for you to return home all the time you were out chasing that tramp pleasure!

So, today give joy her due. Be with her, hang with her, be her. Realize that you and joy are always one. Whether you're experiencing pleasure or pain, happiness or sadness, excitement or boredom, you can fall into the gap between emotions, between experiences, and be immediately immersed in joy. Today's a great day to tone your joy muscle, to practice one of the simplest of all spiritual disciplines -- to be joyful!