In the end, nothing … is said.

Unspoken words are the most powerful to use: they can be used to express your infinite joy and, behold, you are joyful!
Then you hit the mark.

From your observation of ducks, you seem to have some idea of what you think joy might mean to a duck. From your observation of men, you seem to have some idea of what joy might mean for men. But if you do not know what it means for you, then how can anybody tell you?

I don’t trust all that much in what I think because thought just tends to reflect what I desire. It’s tricky to think that one knows. So, in searching for a meaning for the word ‘joy’ I look to my experience, both internally (memory) and to my observations (current). This process brought me to suspect that desire (or a feeling of need and pleasure for a duck) was intimately connected with joy.

If you have decided on what joy is, independent of what others say, independent of what it is supposed to be, independent of every possible definition, then you know. This is not ‘thinking that you know’, you just know whatever you feel. But that does not mean that you can express it in words.

The certainty inherent in “knowing whatever you feel” seems as universal as it is subjective. It is what allows one to think that one knows in the self-centric illusion that the decision has been derived at ‘independently’.

When you want to feel joy (or any other feeling that you are familiar with regardless of how it is called), you are able to do so when you desire, because it is part of you when you do.

Are you implying that I have the free will to choose to feel what ever way I desire?

There is no difference between desire and joy however fork-tongued this may sound. Neither is there a difference between desire and sadness, for that matter.

Differences are in the eye of the beholder, as are similarities. Saying “There is no difference between desire and joy” or “Neither is there a difference between desire and sadness” doesn’t elucidates much. Not that it should, but then what is the point is saying it? Alas, that is a question I often ask myself, and yet I rattle on.

However, it is profoundly revealing when, as Buddha said, one sees that: The surrounding world affects sensation and begets a craving thirst that clamors for immediate satisfaction. The illusion of self originates and manifests itself in a cleaving to things. The desire to live for the enjoyment of self entangles us in a net of sorrows. Pleasures are the bait and the result is pain.

As far as seeing differences or similarities, I’d only say that the former tends to be more stressful while the latter is more soothing… as least for me.

Just what is “joy” anyway?

What’s this question? Why would you ask? Why explain what joy is not?
This question can mean at least three things:

1. You know for yourself how joy feels, but you want to know what it is (however, the verb ‘to be’ is not a correct way to describe an essence)
2. You do not know what joy is, because you never felt it.
3. You do not know what joy is, because you do not know with what feeling it corresponds, although it might be among your known feelings (without getting into detail whether the memory is a correct way of knowing a certain feeling).

Besides that, it could also be deemed a hook, just something to say and not a question that expects an answer. Neither does it have to be a rhetorical question, as if there is no answer possible. In a way, isn’t your question is fork-minded?

From your observation of ducks, you seem to have some idea of what you think joy might mean to a duck. From your observation of men, you seem to have some idea of what joy might mean for men. But if you do not know what it means for you, then how can anybody tell you?

If you have decided on what joy is, independent of what others say, independent of what it is supposed to be, independent of every possible definition, then you know. This is not ‘thinking that you know’, you just know whatever you feel. But that does not mean that you can express it in words. Here enter the silent words. Then there is no trigger necessary, neither desire, nor is it necessary to apply any rating. When you want to feel joy (or any other feeling that you are familiar with regardless of how it is called), you are able to do so when you desire, because it is part of you when you do. There is no difference between desire and joy however fork-tongued this may sound. Neither is there a difference between desire and sadness, for that matter. Quiet words do not rate nor can be rated.

Unspoken words are the most powerful to use: they can be used to express your infinite joy and, behold, you are joyful!

Just what is “joy” anyway? Do my ducks feel it? It appears so when they come across a juicy snail. Their ’ship cometh in’. I notice the same responses in humans when their ’ship cometh in’. Each person’s ’ship’ is a function of what is most important to them in life, what they value most, what they desire most, what brings them the most pleasure.

For ducks that’s a few snails, for humans it may be winning the lottery, falling in love, opening a Christmas present, dying a martyrs death. The only thing these have in common is that they all represent for an individual something important or pleasurable and thus desired by that individual.

Speaking of desire and pleasure: It is no wonder then that Buddha said in his Truth #2, Pleasures are the bait and the result is pain, and that the Tao Te Ching says, Therefore the sage desires not to desire.

The ‘positive’ way we always rate joy, and the ‘negative’ way we often rate desire and pleasure demonstrates the inconsistency (hypocrisy) we unknowingly fall into when we think that we know. As an Native American might once have said, “Pale face not only speak with fork tongue, also think with forked mind.”

In the end, nothing … is said.

Unspoken words are the most powerful to use: they can be used to express your infinite joy and, behold, you are joyful!
Then you hit the mark.

How ironic the inability of language to communicate true meaning. Of course, if it could we’d no long have any thing to say. Thus in my view, it is the conversation (the process) that is key, not the content.

What? Nothing? Variations of ‘nothing’ are possible, when variations of ‘hold fast’ are considered! Love it, admire it, find in it the mastery of all. Consider the void within as the vital source that sustains all that is colored by fire without.