Joy in Spiritual Practice

　　by Ajahn Tiradhammo

　　The following teaching has been adapted from a talk given by Venerable Tiradhammo on the seventh day of a ten day retreat in Switzerland, in May 1988. The ”Seven Factors of Enlightenment” referred to in the talk are mindfulness, investigation, energy, joy, relaxation, concentration and equanimity.

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　　When there is joy, we are ready to discover new things. ...If we have already decided ”Life is suffering,” then we won”t look any further.

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　　We can sometimes make the mistake in practice of thinking that the religious life means some sort of self-flagellation. Or, we tend to believe that spiritual practice should result in some special kind of purity. With this idea we look at ourselves and, of course, all we see is impurity; having developed a concept of enlightenment, we examine our own minds and see just the opposite - confusion and conflict.

　　But the point is, these ideas we have about practice are just ideas. Thinking: ”I”m here and Nibbana is over there; I”m just a confused idiot and Nibbana is all purity and profundity,” is merely projecting onto concepts. When it comes down to real practice, enlightenment means actually being aware of confusion itself. Wisdom is that which is aware of ignorance. It”s not a matter of knowing our wisdom, but of using wisdom to know ignorance!

　　The whole practice of mindfulness is about realizing the true nature of this being right here. We”re not trying to plug into some kind of ”Nibbanic Wisdom” that”s floating around in space or waiting for wisdom to fall into our laps. We are being aware of the nature of the human condition as it is. Once we really understand life as it is, then we can begin to transcend it. If we try to transcend it before we actually know it, we”re merely caught up in illusion.

　　Ajahn Chah used to say: ”First we have to pick things up before we can realize how heavy they are.” When we see how heavy they are, then that”s seeing ”dukkha”. Having seen dukkha, we let go. When we”ve let go of things then we realize how light it actually is. ” Ah! What a relief.” And this is where joy comes in - or piti as it”s called in the ”Factors of Enlightenment”.

　　There are various translations of this term piti. As there are various kinds of joy. We were talking yesterday about how, having been motivated by dukkha to seek the ”Way”, we arrive at trust - and this trust in turn conditions joy.

　　So we have these various kinds of joy arising in practice from different causes, and, personally I”ve found reflecting upon them very useful. The point of joy and its function often seems to be missed when talking about spiritual training.

　　Now piti is not just the pleasure of having a good time. But it”s the kind of experience that leads to opening up to life - to awakening. When there is joy, we are ready to discover new things. On the other hand, if we have already decided ”Life is suffering”, and judged it as ”miserable”, then we won”t look any further.

　　Consider children: notice how they observe and want to find out - the fascination they have about things. Sadly, as adults, we”ve become too sophisticated to go around looking into flowers and little things. We function on a much more conceptual level.

　　When we see a flower we think ”flower”. And then, ”Yes, I know all about flowers. I”ve seen flowers all my life and this is just another flower.” Actually, each flower is a unique flower: it is here, at this moment, this time, this place, this flower.

　　If we can truly listen, for instance, to a bird singing; there is just sound. And that”s quite different from thinking, ”Oh, another bird singing.” If we really listen, there is simply sound happening right in this moment, in this pl…

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