Wednesday, August 20
- Scripture: Galatians 5:22-23 – “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”
- Reflection: Allowing your spiritual connection to take root and grow is another aspect of your access to deep joy. This is an inner cultivation of a state of being that is not dependent on the outer world, even though you must live and experience the environment and world around you,
Spiritual teachers across many faiths can help us learn this intentional and Spirit-focused way of being. Leaders from Plum Village, founded by Thich Nhat Hanh, share some tips (full article):- Be more like children: Paying attention to how the children around us unknowingly practice being happy and joyful is a certain way to understand living deeply in the present moment. Children are much better than adults at enjoying the here and now:
- Look for happiness in the ordinary. We needn’t consume anything special in order to be happy … remain aware of the miracle of life, we can find happiness in the present moment … You don’t need to consume anything: no alcohol, no cigarette, no wine, no expensive car – and yet there’s a lot of pleasant wonderful joyful feelings nourishing us. …. Because there are lots of pain and sorrow and fear and anger in us, and when they manifest we should be able to recognise them, to embrace them, to take care of them. If we don’t practice being happy and joyful, then we are too weak to do the work of handling the suffering in us. … it can be … integrated into the most banal of daily activities. From brushing our teeth to putting on our shoes … every action and inaction can be a moment of peace or meditation on the miracles taken for granted .. If we are able to touch the Kingdom of God […] then we will no longer run after fame, wealth, power, and sex, because we already have happiness; we no longer want to run into that direction.
- Look at the practice of mindfulness as music … We have positive mental formations (like confidence, compassion, loving kindness, diligence, lightness, joy) and negative mental formations (like anger, despair, hate, jealousy)…. we mustn’t struggle to eliminate the negative formations; we must ‘dance’ with them, embrace them, turning them into positive mental formations … imagine a dialogue where we explain to our negative mental formations that they’ll have a chance to express themselves, but at this moment, “let’s listen to some music.” And the music we play is the music of mindful breathing: breathing in, breathing out.
- Perceive our mind as a garden. Like a garden, all our mental formations are organic. And like the gardener, we must be aware of the importance of compost (organic waste) to healthy crops – by turning negative formations into ‘compost’ can nurture positive ones. In other words: no mud, no lotus. … if there are flowers there must be garbage too. Flowers are to become garbage, but you don’t mind because you know that rubbish can be transformed back into flowers. Without garbage there is no flower. Without suffering there can be no happiness.
- Keep a list of your moments of mindfulness. … anyone who needs more discipline in their practice could try it.
- Spiritual Practice Prompt: Reflect on one fruit of the Spirit that you’d like to cultivate more in your life, and consider how it can or does bring joy to you and those around you.
Song:
- “Good Vibrations” by The Beach Boys: https://youtu.be/apBWI6xrbLY?si=r8AC4grNtA–OlCk
Joy is what happens to us when we allow ourselves to recognize how good things really are. ― Marianne Williamson
August 20 Daily Devotional