Joy

What is joy?

In a discussion about wellness with a friend, I asked him the goal of drug use by certain people. This friend said to me, "People want to be happy." Why, then, do human beings seek joy in various ways?

To answer this question, we must know what joy is.

To know why Africa seeks underdevelopment, it is necessary to define Africa: what is Africa? Africa is a continent rich in natural resources but very poor in intellectual and moral resources concerning its leaders.

To understand why humans want to be happy, let's first determine what joy is. According to the Larousse, "Joy is a feeling of intense pleasure and happiness experienced by someone whose aspiration or desire is satisfied or in the process of being satisfied."

Joy is a feeling that is experienced or felt by someone, by their soul, because the soul is the seat of our feelings (an important fact to mention at this stage because it is decisive for what follows). Man is entirely body, soul, and spirit; the Larousse goes on to say that this feeling of joy is a feeling of intense pleasure and happiness, that is, the soul is rejoiced and filled with pleasure and intense happiness; this is why any man who loves well-being must aspire to joy, because this intense pleasure and happiness that joy procures is gladness, exultation, and bliss. Then, the Larousse tells us that "joy is characterized by its plenitude and its limited duration." Imagine a fullness of intense pleasure and happiness; isn't that a great feeling? Joy is something wonderful and special that would be nice to have at any time, as it says, "Be joyful always." But, according to Larousse, the other aspect after plenitude is the "limited duration" of joy.

Why, then, does joy have a limited duration? Because it is felt by a human being, who, according to Larousse's definition, is "someone whose aspiration or desire is satisfied or in the process of being satisfied." This is why joy has a limited duration because it is felt by a man following the fulfillment or realization of his desire. Obtaining what you desire gives you joy, hence the conditioning of joy to the materialization of your aspiration, your desire, and therefore the cause of the limited duration of your joy. The materialization of our desire limits joy in its duration quite simply because, according to Larousse, if you don't have what you want, you won't have joy. Here is the conditioning of the human being brought to light.

In summary, to have joy, our desire must materialize (be realized); therefore, due to our human nature, this joy is of limited duration, which is perfectly understandable if we consider the following example: You want a bike, and the day this bike is offered to you, you are filled with great joy, if this bike was really your desire. Are you still as happy as the first day you received the bike? No, because the degree of joy decreases over time and you will appreciate the bicycle more for its usefulness than for its possession as an object; the joy of acquiring the bike is no longer the same after 6 months or 1 year. This brings us back to the time limit of joy over our materialized desire.

This is why, in the search for joy, the human being acts to obtain what he desires, but this joy that he receives is of limited duration, and we always continue to seek joy. This is one of the causes of all the evils suffered by humanity, characterized by the pursuit of joy. Everyone wants to be happy, and everyone has their own solution—for some, it's alcohol, sex, drugs, money, etc.; for others, it's meditation, travel, money, sport, etc. In short, we can say that the Larousse definition of joy shows us that in the world we live in, obtaining joy is the result of the fulfillment of our desire, but this joy has a short-lived duration because this conditioning deprives us of lasting joy.

So what about this joy of unlimited duration, of which the Larousse does not speak, or perhaps does not know?

This joy can be defined as "a feeling of intense pleasure and happiness, characterized by its fullness and unlimited duration, experienced by a soul." In this definition, it is necessary to consider the tripartite dimension of the human being (body, soul, and spirit) to arrive at a joy of unlimited duration. Joy can be of unlimited duration if it is felt by the soul, unlike the limited-duration joy defined by Larousse, which is felt by the (physical) body. It is the body that transmits joy to the soul (which should not be the case); it is not detailed in the Larousse definition "...experienced by someone...," this someone being body, soul, and spirit. The soul contains everything; the spirit does not need material things; only the body has material needs; therefore, the joy of the body arises when its desires are granted.

The Larousse definition of joy shows us that we live in a materialistic society where we are only happy in the short term, having temporary joy. To have unlimited joy, it is imperative that the soul take control of the body, "not walking according to the desires of the flesh," "for the desires of the flesh are contrary to those of the spirit." How then do we realize the desires of the spirit? passing through the soul, because in the soul resides the spirit, and the soul is the transmission belt between the body and the spirit. When the soul (of divine or celestial origin) controls your being, it instructs your body, imposes its desires, and gives instructions to the body. The consciousness of the higher self, which takes control of your being, gives you unlimited joy.

Why, then, does your soul have to take control of your being? to save you from suffering, which is the opposite of joy. For example, the use of drugs provides intense but short-lived pleasure and joy until the effect of the drug wears off, then you descend into a fullness of unhappiness, hence the need for consuming even more of it. Just like money, getting it will give you joy, but that joy will fade, and you will want more of it. That's the start of suffering by trying to be happy. That's an irony! To be joyful, you end up with suffering.

When the soul is in control of your being, it channels to the body pure desires. As feelings from the soul such as love, kindness, wisdom, truth, peace, abundance, etc. brighten your intellect, the body is educated for this purpose, resulting in marvelous actions for the welfare of mankind. All the exceptional virtues inherent to the soul can only be manifested by the will to give control of your being to your soul, and the body will prosper. The body will accept the orders from the soul because it trusts the soul, which wants its own good more than everything else (the soul manifests itself through the body on earth). Since the soul does not need material things, its love for the body leads to the manifestation of material things necessary for the well-being of the body, produced by the feelings prescribed above. A soul that manifests wisdom cannot lead the body to commit acts of madness.

It can therefore be said that the joy characterized by the fullness of a feeling of intense pleasure and happiness can be of unlimited duration if the soul controls the being—the realization and manifestation of the higher self. Your joy therefore must not depend on obtaining material things but be the product of feelings affected by the soul. To achieve this, we only need our will to be educated in this respect, which can only occur when you shift your aspirations to a higher purpose.

Marius C. Oula