the greatest joy

The greatest joy is felt in moments without words

Have you noticed this: when the mind is busy with words, with thoughts – they might be happy thoughts, they might be sad thoughts – their range of emotion though is somehow capped, it's limited. And if we really want to feel, feel the utmost, that can only happen in moments when the mind is silent.

These great depths of feeling go far beyond words. It's as if the world of words is a shallow place, a sort of paddling pool. And the emotions in that paddling pool are also rather shallow, when compared to the ocean. And perhaps one reason we avoid the ocean, one reason we spend so much time busying ourselves with thoughts, is that the depth of sorrow in the ocean is so difficult to bear.

It's only when we find the courage, though, to plunge into that ocean, it's only when we are brave enough to allow the thinking mind to fall silent, it's only then that there is the possibility of great joy: an unbounded joy, a joy free of concepts, not dependent on anything that our thinking mind concerns itself with. This greatest joy is the joy of being. It's the joy of existence.

This joy, this joy is life's greatest gift. If we wish to taste it, though, we need to make space for it. We need to make space between words. We need to make a silent space in our own mind. And in this silent space there is joy, the greatest joy.