The Book of JoyWEDNESDAYS AT ST. LUKE’S NO. I JANUARY 8, 2020

Deb Minnard “Jesus and Laughing Baby” “I’m a professional Laugher.” the Dalai Lama“So that my joy will be in you and your joy be complete.”

May Your Joy Be FullJohn 15: 1-17

Joy and Freshness

Rejoice Always in Everything4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4: 4-7

A “New Narrative Theology” Lens for a New Understanding of Jesus and of Christ Enfleshed

Einstein taught us that everything and everyone is alive with energy. None of us and no thing in creation is mere substance. All is energy. Everyone and everything is a living event. “A post-Einsteinian universe says that ENERGY not substance is what it’s all about; energy not substance is the cosmic constant.” (Bourgeault)

A different language for God“God is the web, the energy, the space, the light – not captured in them…revealed in that singular, vast net of relationships that animates everything that is.” (Barbara Brown Taylor, The Luminous Web, p. 74)

Barbara Brown Taylor: “At this point in my thinking, it is not enough for me to proclaim that God is responsible for all this unity. Instead, I want to proclaim that God IS the unity – the very energy, the very intelligence, the very elegance and passion that makes it all go. “ (The Luminous Web, p. 74)

Love is the Name of the Energy in the Heart of the CosmosPierre Teilhard taught us that the energy with which everything is alive and which therefore makes each of us an event or a walking set of events – that energy is divine. The proper name of that energy is Love. All of life is therefore sacred. There is “diaphanous divinity” in absolutely everything in creation.

“Love is

Harness the Energies of LoveSomeday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, we will have discovered fire.Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Deep Divine Connection of Everything and Everyone

This means that our language about the “Imago Dei” is not just that there is a “reflection” of the image of God in every human being. Rather it is the case that “diaphanous divinity” (Teilhard’s language of the Imago Dei, the Christ, the Word, Love as in John 1) is an active evolving event in every participating part in creation. And the deepest center of every creature is joined to the deepest center of every other creature. That is our connection with one another and with all parts of creation.

The Christ Within

It also means that the Christ is an internal homing device implanted in us from the beginning which we are to connect with and access and excavate beneath the cacophonies of life and the competing voices and the “Herods” of life through our contemplative practices of order-disorder-and-reorder. The “factory equipment” in us is our true self, our Christ, our hard wiring, our Inner Divine Genius. (John 1). Joy is seeking us. Love is seeking us to awaken to it INSIDE us and others.

Themes of The Book of Joy

1. Two paths: 1)Mysticism and Biblical Faith (Theism); 2) Mind and Science (Nontheism)

2. The Key to Joy is Compassion

3. Joy is Deeper Than Happiness

4. Joy is our Wiring. Factory Equipped. True Self.

5. Oneness; Ubuntu

Theme: Two paths: 1)Mysticism and Biblical Faith (Theism); 2) Mind and Science (Nontheism)

“A believer develops this deeper level of joy through faith in God, which brings inner strength, inner peace. For a nonbeliever or a nontheist like me, we must develop this deeper level of joy through training the mind. This kind of joy or happiness comes from within. Then the pleasures of the senses become less important.” Dalai Lama (53)

JEB: In meditation/contemplation, you “descend” to your true self, your homing device, to the place where you are wired, to the place where you’re “factory equipped.”

Joy is Deeper Than Happiness

There are two different kinds of happiness:

“The first is the enjoyment of pleasure through our senses… But we can also experience happiness at the deeper level through our mind, such as through love, compassion, and generosity. What characterizes happiness at this deeper level is the sense of fulfilment that you experience While the joy of the senses is brief, the joy at this deeper level is much longer lasting. It is true joy. “ Dalai Lama (53)

Theme: Joy is Deeper Than Happiness“When joy arises at the level of your mind and not just your senses, you can maintain a deep sense of satisfaction for a much longer period of time – even for twenty-four hours….So, I always say to people, you have to pay more attention to the mental level of joy and happiness. Not just physical pleasure, but satisfaction at the level of mind. This is true joyfulness. When you are joyful and happy at the mental level, physical pain doesn’t matter very much. But if there is no joy or happiness at the mental level, too much worrying, too much fear, then even physical comforts and pleasure will not soothe your mental discomfort.” Dalai Lama (54)

Mental happiness or mental pleasure is a genuine sense of love and affection….If you develop a strong sense of concern for the well-being of all sentient beings and in particular all human beings this will make you happy in the morning, even before coffee.”

“This is the value of compassion, of having compassionate feeling for others. Even, you see, then minutes or thirty minutes pf meditation on compassion, on kindness for others, and you will see its effects all day. That’s the way to maintain a calm and joyous mind.” Dalai Lama (54)

Theme: The Key to Joy is CompassionRichard Davidson, neuroscientist, has drawn together the neuroimaging research into a unified theory of the happy brain….There are four independent brain circuits that influence our lasting well-being.

The fourth circuit is “our ability to be generous.”…We have an entire brain circuit, one of four, devoted to generosity. It is no wonder when we help others or are helped by others, or even witness others being helped….There is strong and compelling research that we come factory equipped for cooperation, compassion, and generosity. (56)

Theme: Joy is our Wiring. Factory Equipped

“Ultimately our greatest joy is when we seek to do good for others.”

“It’s how we are made. I mean we’re wired to be compassionate.”

“We are wired to be caring for the other and generous to one another” (60) Tutu

Ubuntu Theme“We shrivel when we are not able to interact. I mean that is part of the reason why solitary confinement is such a horrendous punishment. We depend on the other in order for us to be fully who we are. …the concept we have at home is Ubuntu. It says: A person is a person through other persons.

“Ubuntu says when I have a small piece of bread, it is for my benefit that I share it with you. Because, after all, none of us came into the world on our own. We needed two people to bring us into the world.” (59)

“In a very real sense we’re meant for a very profound complementarity. It is the nature of things. You don’t have to be a believer in anything. I mean I could not speak as I am speaking without having learned it from other human beings. I could not walk as a human being. I could not think as a human being, except through learning it from other human beings. I learned to be a human being from other human beings. We belong in this delicate network. It is actually quite profound.” (60)Tutu

p. 60

.