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Joy as Part of Practice

Introduction & Guided Meditation

Welcome, welcome everybody. It's nice to see you all, to be practicing together. We'll start just with a silent sit, and Nancy will ring the bell for us at 8:15. You're welcome to come on in, no problem. And also, a welcome to our friends from the other side of this camera on YouTube. Welcome.

Part of the beauty of this practice is that we don't have to do anything special. We just show up the way that we are and we notice: how are we? What's happening this moment? There's a trust. For this moment, it's sufficient just to pay attention. We don't have to do anything different. We don't have to breathe differently. Often we sit in this way just to support the posture, but we don't have to sit in this way. We're just noticing and letting the body breathe itself, and letting the mind notice.

We can be mindful of whatever is arising. It might be sounds, it might be experiences in the body. Maybe there are some sensations where we're sitting on the cushion. And we can notice our relationship to those experiences: is there ease? Is there aversion?

No matter what you find, can you just hold it without a sense that it has to be different? We're just noticing. With mindfulness practice, we're not breathing in any particular way. We're not doing any particular thing. We're just noticing. It can be sounds, sensations, the breath.

And when you find yourself lost in thought, it doesn't have to be a problem. Just begin again.

Talk

So maybe I'll let those of you that are leaving pick your exit if you'd like, or you can stay.

Tonight I'd like to continue my exploration and discussion about the Seven Factors of Awakening^[1]. They sound so lofty, right, these factors of awakening. It sounds a little formulaic too: "As long as I just get these factors right, then I'll be awake and easy peasy." [Laughter]

So tonight I'd like to talk about the fourth factor of awakening, which is joy. I know I was surprised to learn that joy is part of this awakening schema. Just quickly, I'll say that it first starts with mindfulness, and then investigation, then energy, then joy, then tranquility, concentration, and equanimity. Seven factors of awakening.

In some ways, we can think about this path towards awakening as related to the Four Noble Truths. It's kind of the quintessential Buddhist teaching: the truth that there is suffering (dukkha^[2]), the arising of suffering, the ending of suffering (the cessation of suffering), and there's a way leading to this cessation of suffering. We could consider the seven factors as part of the way, cultivating them. But this one, joy, in particular, is related with the Third Noble Truth, the ending of suffering. When there's joy present, there's not a lot of suffering.

I appreciate this very much because often it's easy to fall into this idea that at the end there's going to be some "shazam" kind of moment and there'll be no suffering, but we have to wait until completely the end. But it's not like that. The means and the end are related. There are all these little "letting goes" of suffering that are happening with our practice. There's all this joy. Not all of it is joy, but some of it is joy that's just part of the practice. So I'm going to talk a little bit about that tonight.

Before I talk a little bit about joy, I want to talk about how we don't talk about joy very often. There aren't that many dharma talks about this. There aren't so many Buddhist books on this—I guess maybe there are some—but when we think about Buddhist practice, we think about it as grim: very often focused on suffering. But I will say as a society in general, we don't really appreciate joy as much as we appreciate productivity or efficiency. This idea of cultivating joy maybe doesn't even enter our minds, or it's a really low priority. So it might even just be a new idea that we can cultivate it, and that it's encouraged to cultivate it. Because in some ways, joy can be really restorative. In the same way that a beautiful, delicious meal can be nourishment and provide some uplift or energy, there's maybe some inner or spiritual hunger that joy can help address, heal, or alleviate.

Another reason why we might not hold cultivating joy in such high esteem is we might have this idea that joy and happiness are luxuries. We might think, "Oh yeah, they're very important, but I'll get around to them after I solve this giant problem, or after my life is just right and everything is in place, and then I'll look at some joy." It's easy to fall into that type of thinking. But I'd like to encourage us that no, this is an integral part of our practice, without feeling oppressed that we have to feel happy and joyful all the time. That has its own tyranny.

Another reason why some people might have hesitation around joy is maybe they want to just stay in the middle of the emotional range. Not too many highs, not too many lows. If they could have this really narrow range for their emotional life, then maybe they won't suffer some of the really deep lows that are possible as humans. If we dampen any highs, maybe we won't feel any lows. There's a way in which we might have this unspoken idea in the back of our minds: "I'm just going to keep all my emotions in this narrow range, and joy sounds like it's a little too much."

Part of that is that if we keep our emotions in this narrow range, then maybe we also have this idea we are protecting ourselves from any sense of disappointment. Like, "If I'm always assuming the worst, then I won't feel so bad when the worst actually happens. I can say, 'See, I was right.'" But this comes at a cost that sometimes we don't even recognize: not availing ourselves of the delights, the joys, and the happinesses that are possible. I know that I've found myself doing this. Whenever a project is going to take three to four days, I naturally assumed, "Okay, it's going to take five days." "We'll deliver that in four to six weeks." "Okay, it'll take seven weeks." I just don't want to be disappointed, so I'm assuming the worst. But I'm noticing I don't have to do that. It can be three to four weeks, and if it turns out to be five weeks, I can just deal with it then without having to preemptively try to make sure that I never feel disappointed.

Another reason why we might feel hesitant to cultivate joy... Oh, I forgot to turn on the recorder. [Laughter] So I'm going to turn on the recording and I'm just going to repeat about one minute just to introduce what I'm talking about. Okay, so for the purpose of the recording, I have been talking for a little bit, but I'm just going to say that I'm talking about joy. And I've listed a number of reasons why we might be hesitant to cultivate joy, and I'm just going to continue on this list for the benefit of those of you who have been here the whole time.

One reason why we might feel hesitant or uncomfortable cultivating joy is because there are so many sorrows in this world. There's suffering everywhere and somehow maybe we just don't feel right. Like, "Who am I to do this?" or "Is it okay?" I appreciate very much Jill Shepherd, a wonderful dharma teacher. She says it is precisely because there's so much suffering in the world that she's needed to make the effort to turn towards non-suffering, towards gladness, and towards joy in order to restore herself so that she can face life's challenges.

It's a way of taking care of ourselves and staying balanced in the midst of it all. We're not trying to be a Pollyanna, we're not trying to turn away from all the difficulties. We're just opening up to the fact that yes, there is suffering and difficulty, but that's not the only thing in the world. There are also beautiful things happening. Babies are being born, which is so beautiful. People are getting married, people are getting dream jobs, they're getting good news from the doctor's office. These things are happening too.

This poem by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer^[3] points to how just a little bit of joy can restore or support us in the midst of difficulties. It's called Strange Balance:

When the boy is sneering or the glass is breaking or the woman is weeping or the streets are crowded with anger and rage, it is hard to believe a small joy has any real value; hard to believe a single red gerbera daisy or a cup of grapefruit-scented tea might have any relevance, could bear any weight on the scale that measures what it is to be alive.

But last night while I was steeping in worry, aching with injustice, my daughter created a stage between the threadbare couches and hummed herself a soundtrack as she leaped and spun and shuffled and flapped. And oh, how her brief flare of joy changed the flavor of the night— an improbable balance— the way even the smallest amount of sugar transforms the bitter sauce, the way just one note resolves a minor chord, the way the barest hint of rain makes the whole desert erupt into bloom.

Sometimes we forget this. Sometimes we forget that we don't need an equal amount of sweetness to balance the bitterness; just a little bit of sugar can shift it. We don't have to change all the notes in the chord, just one. There doesn't have to be this equal balance. Sometimes it's easy to be dismissive of joy, happiness, or well-being when it arises. We think it doesn't matter, it's not going to make a difference. But it can and it does. This is why it's a factor of awakening. It does make a difference.

And the last reason on this list of why we might have hesitation to cultivate joy—or even to think about joy as part of our spiritual practice as a support for awakening—is we have this idea that we're not supposed to cling to pleasure. Right, sense pleasures. That's not the way to awakening. If it were, all of us in the Western world would be awakened by now. [Laughter] Kind of after how we're chasing pleasant experience after pleasant experience.

We might have this idea that sense pleasures are not the way to awakening and are not a source of lasting happiness. But there might be a way in which we're conflating joy and sense pleasure. It makes sense, they're in the same neighborhood. But I'd like to unpack it a little bit and talk about how joy is different. There are all kinds of skillful, beautiful inner experiences that are wise to cultivate and experience as part of our lives: generosity, gratitude, contentment, equanimity, happiness. Joy is in this list too. They are different than sense pleasures; they really serve to sustain and nourish us on this path in this life.

So maybe I'll just add this: when you feel like you're stuck in your practice or you've lost momentum and are wondering, "What am I doing here?", you can ask yourself, "How am I relating to the pleasant experiences that are arising as part of my meditation practice?" Might there be a secret ascetic streak saying, "I can't have anything enjoyable or pleasant. No pain, no gain. If it doesn't hurt, it's not going anywhere"? You can just check to see if there's a quiet little belief like that operating for you. I'm not saying that meditation will be fun and delightful all the time—any of you who have meditated before know this is not true! But check to see if it feels dry, and if there's no enjoyment, happiness, or juiciness to it. Just check what your relationship is to any pleasant experiences that are arising.

I'll point out that the Buddha got it wrong before he was awakened. We call him the Bodhisattva^[4] before he was a Buddha. His life story is that he had a life of incredible sensual pleasures. When that wasn't working, he went the other way to extreme asceticism with no sensual pleasures at all. It wasn't until he had some meditative ease, well-being, calm—this kind of inner joy—that he realized, "Oh, this is the way. This beautiful inner joy, this is the way." And that became part of the teaching.

Let me unpack a little bit what I'm talking about when I use the word joy. There's a joy that can arise from engaging with the practice—with meditation practice, with Buddhist practice—in a wholehearted way. Without straining, without a lot of ambition or a feeling of "I gotta make this work." Not clenching our teeth and holding on as tight as we can, but more of this uplifting, energetic feeling.

I'm using the word joy to translate the Pali word pīti^[5]. There are three related words in Pali, and different translators handle them in different ways. I'm going to use three different English words: gladness, joy, and happiness.

This is one way I like to describe them. Gladness is pamojja^[6] in Pali. Gladness is like when you've been busy for hours, and you realize, "Oh yeah, I was supposed to stay hydrated," and you go drink a glass of water. It just feels good. It's not anything you're going to write home about, but it feels good to do something good for yourself. You think, "Maybe I was a little bit thirsty, I didn't even recognize it." I would say that's gladness. This sense of, "Oh, that was nice."

Joy (pīti), I'm saying, is more like champagne. Wahoo! This is fantastic! We're celebrating, and there's a lot of energy and uplift. Drinking something carbonated and bubbly has that feeling. We have champagne at big celebrations.

Happiness (sukha), I'm saying, is more like hot chocolate. It's coziness, maybe sitting around a campfire with family members with marshmallows on top. This happiness, this feeling of love. So that's how I distinguish between gladness, joy, and happiness. It will become clear in a minute why I'm making this distinction.

I described joy as an energetic, bubbly experience, but it covers a wide spectrum. It can be just a little tingly. Like when it's your birthday, and somebody you haven't heard from in a long time sends you a message saying, "Happy birthday!" and it's just a little, "Oh, that was so nice." The spectrum goes all the way to feeling like you've stuck your finger in an electric socket—very powerful physical waves that can be overwhelming for some people. Maybe sometimes it feels like your hair is standing up, or just a bubbly uplift.

There's absolutely no requirement that it has to fall anywhere specific on the spectrum. Everybody is different. Some people naturally have the "knock your socks off" kind, and some have a more subtle, quiet kind. They are not different in terms of what's going to support your practice. It doesn't mean you're a better meditator or more spiritual if you have one or the other. There is no correlation whatsoever between the intensity of the joy and how your practice is unfolding.

It can also just be a brief moment, or it can last for a long time. Maybe it arises during meditation, and when you get up and leave the cushion, it's still with you in some way. It doesn't have to be any particular way.

But one thing that's really powerful about this joy is that when joy is there, for the most part, ill will is not. There is not this hostility or aversion. I talked about how the cessation of dukkha—the Third Noble Truth—is related to joy. Well, the cessation of dukkha, the cessation of suffering and difficulties, is linked to the ending of greed, hatred, and delusion. We can say that when joy is there, hatred is not there. And there's a softening of greed and a softening of delusion. This is one way in which it supports our practice.

I've mentioned that joy (pīti) shows up in the Seven Factors of Awakening, but I want to talk about how it shows up in a teaching that we don't discuss as often. We can call it the "gladness pentad." I just like that phrase—it's not an alliteration, it's a consonance. Gladness pentad. It goes: gladness, joy, tranquility, happiness, concentration.

What makes this pentad so special is that it's a cascade event. It's like dominoes. It's like water rolling downhill. Gladness creates the conditions for joy. Joy creates the conditions for tranquility. Tranquility creates the conditions for happiness. Happiness creates the conditions for concentration. It's when these wholesome qualities naturally lead one to the other.

The Buddha talked about this, and we might think, "Okay, Diana, maybe this sounds interesting, but I don't feel glad at this moment. How do we start with gladness? How do we allow this to unfold?" Here is an excerpt from a sutta^[7] where the Buddha says:

An ethical person need not make a wish, "May I have no regrets." It is only natural that an ethical person has no regrets.

When you have no regrets, you do not need to make a wish, "May I feel gladness." It is only natural that gladness arises when you have no regrets.

When you feel gladness, you need not make a wish, "May I experience joy." It is only natural that joy arises when you feel gladness.

When your mind is full of joy, you need not make a wish, "May my body become tranquil." It is only natural that your body becomes tranquil when your mind is full of joy.

When your body is tranquil, you need not make a wish, "May I feel happiness." It is only natural to feel happiness when your body is tranquil.

When you feel happiness, you need not make a wish, "May my mind be immersed in concentration." It is only natural for the mind to become immersed in concentration when you feel happiness.

This rhythm points to how this flows. The list actually continues past concentration, all the way to liberation.

It starts with the idea of not having regrets or remorse. Living our life in such a way that we have the least amount of regret possible. It doesn't mean that we can never do anything imperfectly. We don't have to wait for perfection. We can reflect on and remember the good things we've done. We don't have to wait until we've done absolutely everything perfectly all the time. Think of the times when you put the shopping cart back to the corral in the parking lot instead of leaving it next to your car. A time when you called a friend you knew was having a tough time. When you told the cashier at the store, "Oh wait, I think you gave me# Joy as Part of Practice - Diana Clark

Introduction

So welcome, welcome everybody. It's nice to see you all, to be practicing together. We'll start just with a silent sit, and Nancy will ring the bell for us at 8:15. You're welcome, come on in, no problem. And also a welcome to our friends from the other side of this camera on YouTube. Welcome.

Guided Meditation

Part of the beauty of this practice is that we don't have to do anything special. We just show up the way that we are, and we notice: how are we? What's happening this moment? There's a trust for this moment. It's sufficient just to pay attention.

We don't have to do anything different. We don't have to breathe different. Often we sit in this way just to support the posture, but we don't have to sit in this way. We're just noticing. Letting the body breathe itself, and letting the mind notice.

We can be mindful of whatever is arising. It might be sounds, it might be experiences in the body. Maybe there are some sensations where we're sitting on the cushion. And we can notice our relationship to those experiences. Is there ease? Is there aversion?

No matter what you find, can you just hold it without a sense that it has to be different? We're just noticing. With mindfulness practice, we're not breathing in any particular way, we're not doing any particular thing. We're just noticing. It can be sounds, sensations, the breath.

And when you find yourself lost in thought, it doesn't have to be a problem. Just begin again.

Joy as Part of Practice

So maybe I'll let those of you that are leaving pick your exit if you'd like, or you can stay.

Tonight I'd like to continue my exploration or discussion about the Seven Factors of Awakening^[1:1]. They sound so lofty, right? These factors of awakening. It sounds a little formulaic too—as long as I just get these factors right, then I'll be awake and easy peasy.

So tonight I'd like to talk about the fourth factor of awakening, which is joy. I know I was surprised to learn that joy is part of this awakening schema. Just quickly, I'll say that it starts with mindfulness, and then investigation, then energy, then joy, then tranquility, concentration, and equanimity. Seven factors of awakening.

In some ways we can think about this path towards awakening as related to the Four Noble Truths^[2:1]. It's kind of the quintessential Buddhist teaching: the truth that there is suffering, the arising of suffering, the ending of suffering (the cessation of suffering), and the way leading to this cessation of suffering. We could consider cultivating the seven factors as part of the way. But this one, joy in particular, relates to the third noble truth: the ending of suffering, right? When there's joy present, there's not a lot of suffering.

And I appreciate this very much, because it's easy to fall into this idea that at the end there's going to be some—whatever the end is, right?—but there'll be some shazam kind of moment, and there'll be no suffering, but we have to wait until completely the end. But it's not like that, right? The means and the end are related. There are all these little "letting goes" of suffering that happen with our practice. There's all this joy. Some of it is joy that's just part of the practice. So I'm going to talk a little bit about that tonight.

But before I talk about joy, I want to talk about how we don't talk about joy very often. There aren't that many dharma talks about this. There aren't so many Buddhist books on this—I guess maybe there are some—but when we think about Buddhist practice, we often think about it as grim or focused on suffering. In general as a society, we don't really appreciate joy as much as we appreciate productivity or efficiency. So this idea of cultivating joy maybe doesn't even enter our minds, or it's a really low priority. It might even just be a new idea that we can cultivate it, and that it's encouraged to cultivate it.

In some ways, joy can be really restorative in the same way that a beautiful, delicious meal can be. It can provide some nourishment, uplift, or energy. In the same way, there's maybe some inner hunger, some spiritual hunger, that joy can help address, heal, alleviate, or diminish.

Another reason why we might not hold cultivating joy in such high esteem is we might have the idea that joy and happiness are luxuries. We might think, "Oh yeah, they're very important, but I'll get around to them after I solve this big giant problem, or after my life is set and everything is in place, and then I'll go look at some joy." It's easy to fall into those types of thinking. But I'd like to encourage us that no, this is an integral part of our practice. And we can do this without feeling oppressed that we have to feel happy and joyful all the time, right? That has its own tyranny.

Another reason why some people might hesitate around joy is maybe they want to just stay in the middle of the emotional range. Not too many highs, not too many lows. If they could have this really narrow range that their emotional life is in, then maybe they won't suffer some of the really low lows that are possible as humans. If we dampen any highs, maybe we won't feel any lows. We might have this unspoken idea in the back of our mind somewhere: "Okay, I'm just going to keep all my emotions in this narrow range, and joy sounds like it's a little too much."

Part of that also is that if we keep our emotions in this narrow range, maybe we feel we are protecting ourselves from disappointment. Like, if I'm always assuming the worst, then I won't feel so bad when the worst actually happens. I can say, "Oh yeah, see, I was right." But you know, this comes at a cost that sometimes we don't even recognize: not availing ourselves of the delights, the joys, and the happinesses that are possible.

I know that I found myself doing this. Whenever a project came up, I'd think, "Oh yeah, it'll take three to four days." But I just naturally assumed, "Okay, it's going to take five days." Or, "We'll deliver that in four to six weeks." "Okay, it'll take seven weeks." I just didn't want to be disappointed, so I assumed the worst. But then I started noticing I don't have to do that. It can be three to four weeks, and if it turns out to be five weeks, I can just deal with it then, without having to preemptively try to ensure I never feel disappointed.

Another reason why we might feel hesitant to cultivate joy—oh, I forgot to turn on the recorder! So I'm going to turn on the recording and I'm just gonna repeat like one minute to introduce what I'm talking about. Okay, so for the purpose of the recording, I have been talking for a little bit, but I'm just gonna say that I'm talking about joy, and I've listed a number of reasons why we might be hesitant to cultivate joy. I'm just going to continue on this list for the benefit of those of you who have been here the whole time.

One reason why it might feel uncomfortable to cultivate joy is because there are so many sorrows in this world. There's suffering everywhere, and somehow maybe we just don't feel right. Like, "Well, who am I to feel joy? Is it okay?"

I appreciate very much Jill Shepherd, a wonderful dharma teacher. She says, "It is precisely because there's so much suffering in the world that I've needed to make the effort to turn toward non-suffering, towards gladness, towards joy, in order to restore myself so that I can face life's challenges." Just this way of taking care of ourselves and staying balanced in the midst of it all. We're not trying to be Pollyanna. We're not trying to turn away from all the difficulties. We're just opening it up. Yes, there is suffering and difficulties, but that's not the only thing in the world. There are also beautiful things happening. Babies are getting born. It's so beautiful. People are getting married. People are getting dream jobs. They're getting good news from the doctor's office. These things are happening too.

There is a poem by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer^[3:1] that I appreciate very much. She's pointing to how just a little bit of joy can restore us or support us in the midst of all the difficulties. This poem is called Strange Balance:

When the boy is sneering or the glass is breaking or the woman is weeping or the streets are crowded with anger and rage, it is hard to believe a small joy has any real value. Hard to believe a single red gerbera daisy or a cup of grapefruit-scented tea might have any relevance, could bear any weight on the scale that measures what it is to be alive.

But last night while I was steeping in worry, aching with injustice, my daughter created a stage between the threadbare couches and hummed herself a soundtrack as she leapt and spun and shuffled and flapped. And oh, how her brief flare of joy changed the flavor of the night.

An improbable balance. The way even the smallest amount of sugar transforms the bitter sauce. The way just one note resolves a minor chord. The way the barest hint of rain makes the whole desert erupt into bloom.

I'll read this last stanza again:

An improbable balance. The way even the smallest amount of sugar transforms the bitter sauce. The way just one note resolves a minor chord. The way the barest hint of rain makes the whole desert erupt into bloom.

Sometimes we forget this. Sometimes we forget that we don't need an equal amount of sweetness to combat the bitterness; just a little bit of sugar can shift it. We don't have to change all the notes in the chord, just one. It doesn't have to be this equal balance. Sometimes it's easy to be dismissive of joy, happiness, or well-being when it arises, thinking it doesn't matter or it's not going to make a difference. But it can, and it does. This is why it's a factor of awakening. It does make a difference.

And then maybe the last on this list of why we might have hesitation to cultivate joy as a support for awakening is the idea that we're not supposed to cling to pleasure, right? Sense pleasures. That's not the way to awakening. If it were, all of us in the Western world would be awakened by now after how we chase pleasant experience after pleasant experience!

So we might have this idea: "Okay, sense pleasures, that's not the way to awakening, and it's not a source of lasting happiness." But there might be a way in which we're conflating joy and sense pleasure. It makes sense, they're kind of in the same neighborhood. But I'd like to unpack it a little bit and talk about how joy is different.

There are all kinds of skillful, beautiful inner experiences that are wise to cultivate and experience as part of our lives: generosity, gratitude, contentment, equanimity, happiness. Joy is in this list too. But different than sense pleasures, they really serve to sustain us and nourish us on this path in this life.

So maybe I'll just add this: when you feel like you're stuck in your practice, or you've lost momentum and are wondering, "What am I doing here?", you can ask yourself, "What is the way that you're relating to the pleasant experiences that are arising as part of meditation practice?" Might there be a secret ascetic streak? Like, "I can't have anything that's enjoyable or pleasant. No pain, no gain. If it doesn't hurt, it's not going anywhere." You could just check to see if there's a quiet little belief like that operating for you. I'm not saying that meditation will be fun and delightful all the time. Any of you who have meditated before know this is not true. But we can just check. If it feels dry, and there's no enjoyment, no happiness, no juiciness to it, check to see what your relationship is to any pleasant experiences that are arising.

I'll just say even the Buddha got it wrong before he was awakened. We call him the Bodhisattva before he was a Buddha, right? His life story is that he had this life of incredible sensual pleasures. So that's not going to work. Then he went the other way to asceticism—no sensual pleasures at all. The story goes that it wasn't until he recalled some meditative ease, well-being, calm, and inner joy that he realized, "Oh, this is the way. This beautiful inner joy, this is the way." And that's part of the teaching.

So let me unpack a little bit what I'm talking about when I say this word "joy". There's a joy that can arise from engaging with meditation practice in a wholehearted way, without straining, without a lot of ambition or an "I gotta make this work" kind of feeling. Not clenching our teeth and holding on as tight as we can, but more of an uplifting feeling, a kind of energetic feeling.

I'm using the word "joy" to translate the Pali word pīti^[4:1]. There are three related words in Pali, and different translators handle them in different ways. I'm going to use three different words: gladness, joy, and happiness.

Here is one way I like to describe them. Gladness, or pāmojja^[5:1] in Pali, is like when you've been busy for hours, and you realize, "Oh yeah, I was supposed to stay hydrated," and you drink a glass of water, and it just feels good. It's not anything you're going to write home about, but it just feels good. You're like, "Oh, maybe I was a little bit thirsty, I didn't even recognize it." I would say that's gladness—this sense of, "Oh, that was nice."

Joy (pīti) is more like champagne. Wahoo! Fantastic! We're celebrating, and there's a lot of energy and uplift. Drinking something carbonated and bubbly, joy has a little bit of that feeling. We have champagne at big celebrations.

Happiness I'm saying is more like hot chocolate. It's more like coziness, maybe around a campfire with family members, maybe with marshmallows on top. This happiness, this feeling of love. So that's how I'm making a distinction between gladness, joy, and happiness. It will become clear in a minute why I'm making this distinction.

So joy, I described it as kind of this energetic, bubbly experience, but it's on a wide spectrum. It can just be a little tingly. This inner tingle, like when it's your birthday and somebody you hadn't heard from in a long time sends you a message saying "Happy birthday," and it's just a little, "Oh, that was so nice." And the spectrum goes all the way to sticking your finger in an electric socket. Real, very powerful physical waves. It can be overwhelming for some people. Maybe sometimes it feels like your hair standing up, or it feels like a bubbly uplift.

There's absolutely no requirement that it has to be anywhere on the spectrum. Everybody is different. Some people, I don't know why, have the "knock your socks off" kind, and some have a more subtle, quiet joy. They are not different in terms of what's going to support your practice. They are not different in what means you're a better meditator or more spiritual. There's no correlation whatsoever between the intensity and how your practice is unfolding.

And I'll also say it can just be a brief moment, or it can last for a long time. Maybe it arises during meditation, and when you get up and leave the meditation it is still with you in some kind of way. It doesn't have to be any specific way; it can be really short and really subtle.

But one thing that's really powerful about this joy is that when joy is there, for the most part, there's not ill will. There is not hostility or aversion. I talked about how the cessation of dukkha^[6:1]—the third noble truth—and joy are related. Well, here's one way it's related: the cessation of dukkha, the cessation of suffering and difficulties, is linked to the ending of greed, hatred, and delusion. And we can say that when joy is there, this hatred is not there. And there's a softening of the greed and a softening of the delusion. This is one way in which it's simply support for our practice.

I've mentioned that pīti shows up in the Seven Factors of Awakening, but I want to talk about how it shows up in a teaching that we don't talk about as often. One thing we can name this is the "gladness pentad." I just like that word. It goes: gladness, joy, tranquility, happiness, concentration. What makes this pentad so special is that it's a cascade event. It's like dominoes. It's like water rolling downhill. Gladness creates the conditions for joy. Joy creates the conditions for tranquility. Tranquility creates the conditions for happiness. Happiness creates the conditions for concentration. It's when these wholesome qualities just lead one to the other.

The Buddha talked about this, and you might think, "Okay Diana, maybe this sounds interesting, this gladness pentad, but I don't feel glad at this moment. If this is true, these dominoes naturally flowing, how do we start with gladness? How do we allow this to unfold?" Here is an excerpt from a sutta^[7:1]. The Buddha says:

"An ethical person need not make a wish, 'May I have no regrets.' It's only natural that an ethical person has no regrets. When you have no regrets, you do not need to make a wish, 'May I feel gladness.' It's only natural that gladness arises when you have no regrets. When you feel gladness, you need not make a wish, 'May I experience joy.' It's only natural that joy arises when you feel gladness. When your mind is full of joy, you need not make a wish, 'May my body become tranquil.' It's only natural that your body becomes tranquil when your mind is full of joy. When your body is tranquil, you need not make a wish, 'May I feel happiness.' It's only natural to feel happiness when your body is tranquil. When you feel happiness, you need not make a wish, 'May my mind be immersed in concentration.' It's only natural for the mind to become immersed in concentration when you feel happiness."

This rhythm points to how this flows. And this list continues past concentration; it goes to liberation.

It starts just with this idea of not having regrets, not having remorse. Living our life in such a way that we have the least amount of regrets and remorse possible. And it doesn't mean that we never do anything that isn't perfect, right? We don't have to wait for that. We can reflect on and remember some of the good things that we're doing or have done. We don't have to wait until we've done absolutely everything perfectly all the time. Those times when we put the shopping cart back to the place where you put them in the parking lot instead of just leaving it next to your car. A time when you called your friend that you knew was having a tough time. When you told the teller at the store, "Oh wait, I think you gave me a ten back, but I only needed a five." We can recognize this in ourselves: "Yes, I am doing some of these good things in the world," without waiting until we're absolutely perfect.

Then allow ourselves to feel the gladness of that, and feel the appreciation for this recognition that our life is going in a direction we would want it to go. I have to say this every time: without demanding. We may not be there yet, but we're going this direction.

And so it turns out there are actually quite a few things that can start this gladness pentad. It's not only the absence of regret or remorse. It's not only ethical conduct. There's this movement of the heart that starts gladness: faith. This confidence in this practice. Sometimes we only have that after we've been practicing for a while, and we have this confidence that, "Okay, yeah, this is tough, but I know that with my mindfulness practice I can hold it."

There's also this expression, an unwavering confidence in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. There comes a time in practice when we feel like, "This is for me. I'm going to take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. I'm going to make this the orientation of my life." It doesn't have to be for everybody. I'm not here to convert anyone. But when you have this clarity about what direction your life is going, there can be some gladness about that.

Gladness also arises when there's an untroubled mind. I could point to non-regret, but also this idea of guarding the sense doors. Not going down the cookie aisle when we're trying not to eat cookies or lessen our cookie intake. Not spending all the time on the internet just doom-scrolling if we feel like it's not good for our mental health, or finding ourselves in a bad mood, fearful and angry. Going outside or moving our bodies in ways that are healthy and supportive. Guarding the sense doors can be a way in which we are taking care of what we know to be helpful and supportive. We don't have to eliminate everything; we don't have to live in some pristine bubble. It's just a recognition of what is supportive and what isn't, and putting our energy and our attention there.

And lastly, in this list of things that can allow gladness to arise is to work with, or have some awareness of, the Five Hindrances^[8]. I appreciate very much that thousands of years ago they were talking about this! They were talking about how sometimes when you're meditating, you just feel like you want something. Sometimes you want to jump up and run out. Or sometimes you feel like, "No, I don't want something," and we just feel unsettled. Or we feel like we have too much energy and are restless and fidgety and can't sit still. Or we feel like we're falling asleep. Or maybe we have hesitation and uncertainty: "Should I do mindfulness of breathing? Should I do mindfulness of sounds? Should I do mindful body? Should I do loving-kindness?"

So maybe I'll end there with this idea of joy as an awakening factor. It's an integral part of our practice to not dismiss it. We can really notice it when it arises. And a support for joy is gladness, something that's a little bit more mundane. Maybe it's more just a general sense of well-being, and we can tune into this well-being and allow it to expand or grow. And then it can shift into joy.

But often, joy initially arises in a meditative context when there's a certain amount of stability and not a lot going on. Once the mind and the body have a sense of, "Oh wow, okay, I didn't even know that kind of joy was possible," then the body and the mind have access to that outside of the meditative experience. It can be subtle, it can be quiet, it can be really powerful. Just an opportunity for us to think about the role it has in our practice, as well as our relationship to joy in our practice.

So with that, I wish you all lots of gladness and joy in your life. While meditating, while not meditating, on the cushion, off a cushion, everywhere. Thank you.

Q&A

Diana Clark: And so if you'd like to ask some questions, we can maybe pass the mic around if there are some questions. There might not be, that's okay.

Questioner 1: Hi, good morning. Good evening. Thank you. I have a question regarding how to remind myself about joy. Like, if I'm feeling really overwhelmed with something, and I know you had mentioned just a single drop, it doesn't have to be super big. Like, I received this morning a birthday card that my mentor sent to me, and that was a moment of joy that I had before I was rushing off to work. But is it just being mindful and present, is that one of the ways?

Diana Clark: Yeah, yeah, that's one of the ways that we can be with joy, right? It's just noticing when they naturally arise, like you just described. Maybe you've heard this from Rick Hanson^[9]. He says that the uncomfortable experiences are like Velcro—really sticky—and the pleasant experiences are like Teflon—they just slide right off. We need to spend a little bit of effort when they do arise to stop and go back: "Wait, wait, wait, let's feel: how does this feel in the body? How does this feel in the moment?" So that's one: to savor it when it does arise.

But you started by asking, "When can I remember?" And you said when something is overwhelming. This of course is a great question. We want to be experiencing joy rather than any overwhelming experience. I'll just say briefly there's a few things.

One is finding a way to put the brakes on the overwhelm. We might still have to be having some difficulties, but to get so it's not overwhelming is the first step, I would say. There's a few ways we can do that. When we're in overwhelm, or when we're right on the brink, we don't have access to our wisdom. We're not going to remember joy. We might have this wish that we could, but here's something that can be really helpful: just simply feel your feet on the ground. It's very simple, and it's literally grounding. It kind of interrupts what the mind is doing. The mind is often like, "Oh my gosh, what am I going to do about this? And this means that, and I better get around to this, and I can't believe this happened." Often when we're in overwhelm, the mind is going fast, or it's going really slow and can't land on anything. Feeling the feet on the ground is one way to just stop the overwhelm.

And then often there are a number of things. I'll just say this one other thing. I could give a whole talk on this, and I have, and other people have too. One thing that can be helpful is to find anything neutral to look at. And what I mean by neutral, I mean boring. Just look at the corner of the door, where the door meets the corner there. Or the corner here where two walls meet. Here's a corner on this chair. There's a corner on this step here. There's a corner on my little podium thing. And it's helpful to actually move your head. There's a physiological reason for this. So just looking at things that are boring and neutral, like corners where two things are meeting, will help us get out of overwhelm. It just slows everything down, brings a little bit of boring, and then you might have access to your wisdom and memories of joy. So that was maybe more than you asked!

Questioner 1: No, it's great. Thank you so much, Diana.

Diana Clark: Yeah, those are some practical things on what we can do when we are feeling overwhelmed.

Questioner 2: Thank you. I think I can relate, especially in retreats, right? Once you've been practicing by the second or third day, at least for me, I allow myself these experiences that certainly go even from joy to euphoria. And I worry sometimes, because the other side of that is you can become clingy to that, you know? And say, "Oh boy, that didn't happen again." So it's obviously wonderful when it happens, but the oscillation of the emotions is itself kind of a part of the reason I meditate, right? Because it helps me stay with equanimity. So equanimity and joy seem to almost be kind of opposites in some sense. But anyway, I'm curious because I feel like euphoria is very sort of outside the spectrum of where you'd want to go. So how do you sort of manage that?

Diana Clark: Yeah, thank you, that's a good question. Sometimes euphoria is a good thing. It arises usually in a meditative context, often on retreat when you've been in there for a while. And enjoy it! Roll around in it, drink it up, you know, just hang out in it. I don't know a single person that cannot cling to that. You'll cling to it. This is what will happen. And you'll try to recreate it. Like, "Wait, I was wearing these socks and sitting in this place," exactly trying to get it again. Everybody will do this. This is just how it happens. And then, I don't know, then it will arise again when the conditions are right, often when we're not grasping, and then we'll cling to it again. It's only after it starts to arise a little bit more regularly that we can let go of the clinging.

But what sometimes we do is we beat ourselves up: "Oh, I'm clinging for this nice experience, and I shouldn't." But give yourself a break! And also, so many of us are kind of hungry for this good feeling. So why not allow it to support us and nourish us? It does support us and nourish us. So I just offer that.

Okay, so here we are at the top of the hour. So thank you, thank you for your kind attention.