Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

My teacher, Anam Thubten, said in his dharma talk yesterday that spontaneous joy is something to practice.  Joy from the heart, without reason or justification.  This kind of joy comes from an open heart without judgement or questioning; a release of mind to allow the heart to respond.  When I heard him, I felt freed.  Free from having to justify joy when something bad is happening in the world or in my personal life.  Joy from being fully awake in the moment does not need explanation or reasons.  A spider web being stuck on my robe sleeve this morning exhilarated me with the spider's inventiveness.  The white blossoms of the rodadendron in our back garden was an estatic moment.  The taste of a champagne mango I peeled and cut up at breakfast was a little hit of heaven.  Our moods and feelings are mercurial, and pretending we are one thing, be it sad or happy, is false.  The joy is in living, in being alive, and treasuring this too brief gift while we can experience it.