One must go deep to know joy ( 02 july 2006)

Very few of us enjoy anything. We have very little joy in seeing the sunset, or thefull moon, or a beautiful person, or a lovely tree, or a bird in flight, or a dance.We do not really enjoy anything. We look at it, we are superficially amused orexcited by it, we have a sensation which we call joy. But enjoyment is something fardeeper, which must be understood and gone into....As we grow older, though we want to enjoy things, the best has gone out of us; wewant to enjoy other kinds of sensations—passions, lust, power, position. These areall the normal things of life, though they are superficial; they are not to becondemned, not to be justified, but to be understood and given their right place. Ifyou condemn them as being worthless, as being sensational, stupid or unspiritual,you destroy the whole process of living...To know joy one must go much deeper. Joy is not mere sensation. It requiresextraordinary refinement of the mind, but not the refinement of the self thatgathers more and more to itself. Such a self, such a man, can never understand thisstate of joy in which the enjoyer is not. One has to understand this extraordinarything; otherwise, life becomes very small, petty, superficial—being born, learninga few things, suffering, bearing children having responsibilities, earning money,having a little intellectual amusement and then to die.