A Cycle of Joy-to-Joy

I will begin this piece with my current view on what I will call the fundamentals of consciousness. It is, in part, the blending of perspectives from Steve McIntosh and Aurobindo, along with my own, which has its origins in a multitude of collected, and personally generated, insights over time.

I originally founded this Blog based on a single moment’s revelation when reading Steve McIntosh’s book Evolution’s Purpose. Some untold number of parts came into a coherent sensed perspective in that moment, in which I felt the wholeness of a pattern. Many of the parts were fleshed out in more detail in the days that followed and have continued to this day.

From the Blog Page Choice and Appreciation, some of McIntosh and O’Donohue:

“What does a universe of existential perfection do for an encore? It transcends itself through the development of creatures who can experience becoming perfect in time. That is, to achieve evolutionary perfection freely by choice, by effort, and even occasionally struggle, is to create an aspect of reality that did not exist in the state of existential perfection that we recognize as prevailing in the universe prior to the Big Bang.”

“Evolution is drawn toward perfection through the choices of consciousness….”

And I’ll add one here one by the Irish poet John O’Donohue.

“…the ultimate passion of the Cosmos is the creativity of divine beauty”.

I will now blend in some things that I’ve envisioned since returning to some of Aurobindo’s work that I had read when I was younger. I will note here that Aurobindo talks of joy, McIntosh uses perfection, and O’Donohue says beauty. I will use all three, as I think that they are pointing towards the same energy.

The purpose of Becoming is to create the next most perfect thing so that it might bring joy to Being, the beloved. So, an inherent part of what Becoming does is sharing. It creates something perfect, something amazing or beautiful, in order to share it, thereby to bring joy. In previous posts when I have listed what I saw as some of the fundamental traits of children, I included not only things like playfulness and curiosity, but also a child’s natural impulse to share. And in doing so, they want you to be as excited as they are about their discoveries, or their creations. They seek to delight their mothers, as they have been delighted by whatever they have discovered or created. And the appreciation shown by the mother delights the child due to the experience of shared joy. At least for a moment, they are “Oned” in joy, to use a term from Julian of Norwich. This brings about a circle of joying between an aspect of Becoming – that which is creating/sharing – and an aspect of Being – that which is appreciating/loving. Some form of perfection is discovered or created anew and then shared. The mother loves both what was shared and the one who shared it, which brings her joy. The one presenting the gift is, in turn, joyed by the delight of the mother and the cycle begins again. Each brings joy to the other, with a form of perceived perfection or beauty as the medium.

Though I won’t delve into it here, I do want to point out that this same circle of joying occurs within the child first. Sharing initiates an external copy of this circle. It is probably fractal-like. If Aurobindo’s belief that joy is all there is happens to be true, then this cycle would manifest at all levels of consciousness, though our awareness of it would typically be limited to the frequency ranges where our attention is currently most attuned.

So how does this duo manifest in us? I’ll begin with a view on the Becoming side of this interchange. To me it seems like there are at least four components to how its energy is expressed: the first is the imagining of that which might come into being; the second is the process of the creative action itself; the third is the satisfaction of completing it, which completes the internal cycle; the fourth is the appreciation of it by another or others. It is possible that some may get satisfaction solely from their internal joying cycle. This will not, obviously, include the sharing component. For some, the internal pleasure of the imagining, or the feel of the creating process may be sufficient and completion not necessary. It is the dancing with the creative energy, both the imagining and/or the action that follows, that enlivens them. And some may find the completing of their creation sufficient, finding joy in that alone and they do not need to share and extend that joy to others. And on the external side, it is also true that some are simply reluctant to share some of their own creations for a variety of reasons. Natural introverts, as an example, are much less likely to share than an extrovert. The need to share with others could also be constricted by any number of psychological or physical impediments. But regardless of what I might or might not share of myself, the sharing of other people’s discoveries or joys is almost always joyful.

On the Being side of the equation, it is looking for experiences of perfection, of beauty, in any of its forms. The joy, love, appreciation and gratitude for those experiences follows naturally, be they generated by a person or the natural world.

I will use my own experience of writing as an example. I do find delight in opening the window of perception and discovering a pattern in consciousness not yet seen. Over the decades I have engaged in any number of practices, and many conversations, to evoke this kind of opening, as well as having taken many courses and read many books. If there is any hint of insight, or of broader pattern, in what I’ve heard, read or experienced, I will jot down notes to play with later. More often than not, no avenues for further inquiry are forthcoming so that noticing languishes. I write so many notes that I often don’t even go back and read them all. But in each case a modicum of delight was experienced, and then, perhaps, it was gone for good. Other ideas become incipient blogposts but never fully come out of me. At times I do feel the weight of incompleteness in both of these cases. Periodically I choose to go back and toss out past notes and partial essays to alleviate the experience of that weight. However, when I am fully done fleshing out an idea in writing, and actually post it on the blog, there is a real sense of satisfaction. I’m done. What wanted to be expressed is out of me and the energetic pressure that built up from a lack of its free flow ends, and the internal cycle is complete.

I have become acclimated to the fact that when I post a piece, comments are rare. I’m not even sure how many people have read it, since the subscribers get it via email and might never read it. But when I do get feedback, it does seem to matter. It brings me more into resonance with the space from which the expression arose, whether a refined alignment from the comment has occurred or not. I am more whole, in a sense, with that aspect of myself. It feels as if I had to pull what was written from a deeper part of me. And the narrow stream from which I tapped into that space, though still accessible, is not wide enough for its full flow and its embodiment until it is appreciated and has brought joy in some form.  It does make sense to me that finding joy in any form makes one more whole, particularly when the expression arose inside oneself.

So, one way that Becoming may be expressing here in this world is not only in the creating and sharing, but also in looking for affirmation that what it had to offer has brought some form of joy to another. That would more completely reflect that exterior joy-to-joy cycle referenced above.

I will also point out that one can bring great joy by sharing beauty found anywhere. When, for example, you discover a great book, vacation spot or dessert, getting an “Oh Wow!” out of someone is really satisfying. You have brought joy. Children do this all of the time, particularly when they are very young and so many things are new and astonishing to them.

Individuals will generally tend to lean more towards either Being or Becoming, but we all contain both in an oscillating dance. So, we need to bring joy through some form of beauty and to appreciate the gifts of others, as well as their unique talents. If we get too bogged down in either, that respiratory system can get out of rhythm. If it becomes occluded or stagnant, the loss of joy-to-joy respiration can result in all manner of “negative” emotions, such as anger and grief.

In this creating/sharing and appreciating, the joy-to-joy cycle shows up in myriad forms, from fixing a leaky faucet to calling someone just because you haven’t spoken in while. It may well be that the vast variety of possible expressions of beauty that exist in this physical world, with all of its inhabitants, is why we came here. The differences and contrasts provide enormous possibilities for creating, experiencing, and sharing beauty. It’s a kind of playground. Sharing beauty, bringing joy, loving and appreciating what is present, and those that create it, can all accelerate the flow of the system, or kickstart it back towards its natural rhythm should it get off track.

All of this can take effort. As Steve McIntosh said “…to achieve evolutionary perfection freely by choice, by effort, and even occasionally struggle…” Aurobindo says that joy is bound up in matter so the weight of that matter has to be penetrated to release the joy and that is, in part, where effort is involved.

Create beauty, share it, appreciate the unique gifts that each person has to create, as well as what already exists in the world. Perhaps the Earth is appreciating all that we create, just as we appreciate what She has created, and cycling with that is another fractal layer of this pattern.

…and the Witness is simply present to it all.

 

She hurls herself forth outside him in a burst of joy, to play at finding Him again in Time – He and She, two on one. – from “Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness” by Satprem.