Joy: The Surrender to the Body and to Life (Compass)
This state of relaxed openness to the cosmic flow of life is rare, as our usual condition is a contracted ego state of fear and refusal to surrender our pride and self-will. So we all live in various stages of numbness, unavailable to the full pulsation of our Life Force. And yet, since human beings cannot live without pleasure, we find our pleasur
... See moreEva Pierrakos • The Undefended Self: Living the Pathwork
“Joy remakes people through combat with forces of subjection [i.e., subjugation]. Joy is a desubjectifying process, an unfixing, an intensification of life itself. It is a process of coming alive and coming apart. Whereas happiness is used as a numbing anesthetic that induces dependence, joy is the growth of people’s capacity to do and feel new thi
... See moreRebecca Solnit • Orwell's Roses
After all, it is only in anticipation of sorrow that joy seems frivolous. We become so used to bracing for the next devastation, we don’t have time or emotional energy to rejoice. For some of us, this moves us to a permanent seriousness, always on guard against the evils of this world. Some of us even begin to believe we are not worthy of pleasure
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