Source of Joy
My Source of Joy
“You …realize that all the things that truly matter—beauty, love, creativity, joy, and inner peace—arise from beyond the mind.” Echkart Tolle penned this in his wonderful book, “The Power of Now.” All the things that truly matter arise from beyond the mind. Isn’t that intriguing?
I re-read this quote from time to time, awed by the insight and simplicity of this powerful statement. We tend to worship great intelligence. We ascribe super-star status to brilliant thinkers such as Plato, Aristotle, and Einstein. We worship high IQ and perfect ACT/SAT scores. And we often overlook our most wonderful asset—soul, the source of every thing that truly matters.
It’s been said that invention (creativity) is 10% inspiration (soul) and 90% perspiration (mind). Where would we be without the inspiration that triggers us to bring a wonderful idea to conclusion? Obviously, we are blessed with both mind and soul, both are necessary to our ability to create.
My personal experiences are that creativity is more spiritual than mental, more visceral than iterative. Creative ideas seem to pop into my consciousness. Highly creative people confirm that their best ideas come in moments of inspiration, followed by long periods of perspiration to fully bring forth the creative result.
Is beauty a determination of the mind or the soul? If of the mind, someone would surely capture the necessary ingredients of beauty in a mathematical formula: beauty = A + B + X. Such a formula doesn’t exist. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder—a subjective determination different for each of us.
Something strikes me as beautiful when the sight, sound, feel, smell, or taste of it resonates with something deep within. My mind may acknowledge that the sun sinking through an orange-red sky is beautiful, but my sense of its beauty came well before my mind’s seconding vote.
Love and inner peace are first felt, and then acknowledged, as is joy. Who has ever thought their way to joy? I might think my way to happiness or contentment by appreciating what I have, but joy bursts upon me or it doesn’t. I can be open to joy by deciding to reside in a positive mental and physical place. The joy itself will come from my soul resonating with who I am being.
I wonder why popular writing focuses almost entirely on mind. I read lots of mystery novels, entertained by intricate plots and a hero/heroine’s intelligent and persistent pursuit of justice. I have read only one mystery novelist (Kay Hooper) whose central characters utilized soul as well as mind to solve a case.
Is soul too risky a topic? Doesn’t soul sell? Why do we shy away from even acknowledging our full humanity—mind, body, and soul? I don’t have the answer, but I do have an inkling that maybe we just aren’t as sure of our spirituality as we are of mind and body.
What then of the mind? If the joy for which we all search comes from soul, what is the role of mind? Perhaps mind is the “front end processor” for soul. Perhaps mind is the tool which soul requires in making inspiration real—the instrument of perspiration. Certainly, my mind is a wonderful tool, useful in all sorts of problem solving situations. Unfortunately, my mind can also keep me caught up in fear and bottled up in the past. My soul never does that.
Am I my mind, or am I more? Am I my soul, or am I less?