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Things we create, things we find. Share it all!
lobster
Crusty Veteran
Joy.
Does it make the Heart sing? Where is it? Is it a bird? Is it a plain poem?
All too often we look for complex joy. Really it is the celebration of the good found internally expressed and shared.
I am hoping for a 'meditation in the mist'. One day all bus stops will be like this ... might just enjoy the ride ...
http://www.nineelmslondon.com/events/london-festival-of-architecture-2015-nine-elms-on-the-south-bank/chelsea-fringe-lfa-2015-the-nine-elms-horticultural-spa-apothecary-experience-by-loop-ph-until-7th-june
Where is Joy? Anyone saying 'within' I shall joyfully ignore as obvious. 
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"knowing"...And where is knowing ? ....Well that's where the Joy is....
Oi loike waves and hills and suchloike...
Oh, the sheer luxury...
(beat you to it, @SpinyNorman !)
Joking aside, I'm amazed at how often I find joy in the beauty of nature. A rushing mountain stream often wells up joy inside me.
I often think people are foolish to seek miracles, when if they could but see through themselves, they would rapidly realise their entire body is a miracle in motion.
I created 3 children, does that count? Nothing else in my life has caused so many differing and conflicting emotions and experiences, but rolling it all up, it equals out as joy. It is indeed a complex thing.
What would you create and find if you lived in the 12th century - in the Middle Ages? What would you create and find if you would live in the year 2525? Are you a real individual in this flow of time?
Of course you are.
Of course you're not.
I'm not sure, but some part of me looks forward to finding out, even though that part of me that looks forward won't ever know I was doing so when I live those lives, lol.
I think all of us understand on some level that "we" aren't really ourselves and we aren't REALLY real. But in another other aspect, we are, and we have lives to live. I appreciate all the input from people, even (especially) from those I don't agree with. But sometimes it gets tiresome when it's repeatedly brought up "you aren't real" in every type of discussion that happens. Perhaps it is because I am a person that is more logical than abstract, but posts that seem to be intended to always mystify and never connect lack realness or humanness or something. Why posit questions you don't bother to share your thoughts on? It comes across as wanting to "school" someone and make them think about some amazing topic that only you grasp. We may all be teachers and students, but some come across as believing they have more to teach than to learn and that's never (IMO) a good view to hold.
@karasti this down to earth approach is something we can ground ourself in. In other words something worth learning.
In some ways the external, interior and companion self is where we find joy and the transition away from attachment to Dukkha. Aversion to joy or Dukkha is part of our karma.
Creating three children does count. The complexity of emotions counts too. All too often we feel joy should be singularly euphoric.
I recently went to see a piece of art that I hate. That gives me joy. In fact the artist is to be congratulated and I have requested more of her work maybe to be bought rather than the loaned piece I saw ...
You have brought up an idea of great complexity. If joy is 'empty' so is 'hate' or rather they have dependent origination and therefore no real being ... do you hate that or love it?
You were lucky! But yes, the natural world is amazing and inspiring, even when the weather is bad. And observing wild animals is a real treat.
Anna 18
She was standing at my bedroom window with a smile on her face, wiping the sleep from her eyes with one hand and waving to me with the other.
I had stopped my car at the foot of the driveway, waiting for her. I just knew she’d pop into view, like she always does…
And then there she was, my most Darling Daughter, the center of my being, with her long, golden hair and beautiful smile, waving good-bye for the day, to her father…
And now, this morning, years and years and yet still more years later, I stopped at the foot of that same driveway. I got out of my car and stared at the dark, silent window.
The shades were drawn and there were leaves on the ground crunching underfoot, and the autumn smell of my daughter’s birthday was in the air.
I waited for a moment more, but she didn’t appear. So I summoned her from my memory and there she was at the window, and I waved, and my world was right again, if only for a little while…
That's a WOW,,,, @Will_Baker thank you.......
OM MANI PEME HUM OM MANI PEME HUM OM MANI PEME HUM
Nope not strong enough!
Bring out the secondary wrathful Buddhas ...
Holy Mother of Tara and all the Saints and Boddhisattvas, Save us from the well meaning
I think some of the Mahayana will be taught Buddha hugging and kissing from an early age and as the Hinayana know so well, this leads to disrespect and the end of civilised dharma as we know it ...
-Welcome...