Tantra offers us a “user manual” to expand our consciousness with the help of any available energy. Although purifying and transmuting through the crucible of suffering is generally known and accepted as a virtuous ordeal of a spiritual aspirant, it is just as important to explore our joy. Joy, too, has a valuable lesson.
The State of Joy in Hatha Yoga Practice
It’s so wonderful to feel a state of joy! If you find yourself feeling a state of joy on the second chakra, on swadistana, that is very good. Feel joy over there. If it’s a joy on manipura (the navel chakra) or anahata (the heart chakra), very good. Feel the joy over there. It’s excellent. When you feel the joy, go to the depth of it. Go to the cause of the joy.
Which School do we Enrol in: The School of Suffering or the School of Happiness?
It’s very good to contemplate your happiness and to extract the lesson from it. It’s less spoken of. Most people say, “Yeah, just study your sadness.” But there are two schools available on the spiritual path: the school of suffering and the school of happiness. If you study in the school of happiness, then less and less suffering is needed in your life.
We are like salmon on the spiritual path. We always go to the essence: I feel joy. What’s the essence of this joy? What is it that is so fulfilling for me? Go to the essence of the joy and see. Joy and happiness have a lesson for us. Go to the essence of this happiness and catch the lesson of the happiness.
If you often study through happiness, suffering becomes useless. Let’s say that you need to study a certain number of life lessons this year. If you become unconscious, even though you are happy, you will only study through suffering. So you will need 50 occasions of suffering this year to complete the required number of lessons.
Harvesting the Spiritual Benefits of Happiness
Every time you are happy, contemplate the happiness and get to the essence of it. You will learn to transform through happiness… then life doesn’t need to give you suffering. You can take your spiritual steps before you are plunged into suffering.
We can imagine our energetic states as a tall building: suffering is on level three, and you’re already on level five. From level five, it’s happiness. From there, you can go to level six, and then even if the suffering moves to level four, it never catches you.
For more information and practical exercises on how to work with emotions, check out our Emotional Healing Course.
This article was transcribed and edited by Adriana from the following video:
