By Rev. Nadene Rogers
“A happy person needs no religion, a happy person needs no temple, no church- because for a happy person the whole universe is a temple, the whole existence is a church.” OSHO
Personally, I feel happiness is fleeting. If I contemplate my past, most of the time I have been happy is when I have felt recognized and affirmed as useful, valuable, supportive, and inspirational. My happy moments have risen out of some form of relational connection, including the sharing of fun & adventure. All of these experiences have one thing in common; they have led me to present moment awareness of the discovery of myself. It took me many years to realize, however, that self-awareness and self-embracement, although not mutually exclusive, were two very individual steps on the road to the ‘magic merger’ of my humanity with divinity.
I cannot count how many times others have asked me if I am happy or what makes me happy, or my personal favorite, why do you do anything that doesn’t make you happy? Happiness is a concept that both motivates the achiever and repels the naysayer, into a life of seeking and constant reliance on anything and anyone in order to create this state of being. Therefore, to me, happiness is conditional and therefore a temporary experience, that often disappears far too quickly for most!
Now, Joy is a whole different state of being. It is a movement that rises from within, when I am present and accepting of what is, and feel no need to be anyone or anywhere else. It is a knowing that rises when I perceive myself as fine just the way I am and choose to walk through life making decisions that honor and celebrate this truth in myself. It is the awareness of the connection with the sacredness of all life, no matter what my conditional experience in the moment, knowing that Love is who I am, and the power to create my reality is at hand, always. I feel JOY when I fit with my life, when I fit so harmoniously that whatsoever I am doing becomes my joy. In this state of JOY, the entire spectrum of Life is welcomed and blessed for what it is, and the full spectrum of emotions will come and go in accordance to my thoughts about things, all the while JOY remains.
We all vibrate energetically at a particular frequency. The higher the frequency of our energy or vibration, the lighter we feel in our physical, emotional, and mental bodies. We experience greater personal power, clarity, peace, love, and joy. Being in a higher vibration is going to become more and more important to us and the rest of the world as we experience greater awareness of the polarities between the lower and higher vibrations. We begin to recognize greater separation between the "dark" and the "light" almost as if we live in two worlds at once, constantly choosing between the higher and the lower vibrations, until we hold them as sacred compliments to each other, equally a part of the whole.
Join us this month as we explore Radical JOY. Learn how to open to and express the allness of Life and find the presence of JOY right where you are. Let’s make the whole universe our temple. Radical, eh?
Comments