I’ve spent a lot of New-Age-hokey-true-wisdom-searching-efforting trying to figure out what joy really is. Is it our true nature, our original essence, the stuff of our Soul? If joy is our true nature, then why do so many hardcore buddhists seem so fucking serious all the time? If enlightenment is about becoming desireless, then do I have to let go of all my desires to tap into joy? Questions, questions.

I’ve talked to rabbis, and priests, and monks, and people who I consider to be high esoteric practitioners. I’ve figured out a few things about joy… and I’ve woven them into this week’s episode of LIGHT WORK: “The service of joy, especially in these times”. Listen in for:

• Should you leave your soul-dulling job and follow your joyto France? (Maybe.) I’ve got some ideas on HOW to buck fear and obligation.

• The difference between happiness and joy, and a story from my divorce about the first time that I really understood the truth about joy.

• Are you addicted to longing? Waking up to the corruption and addiction in our own psyches, community, and society. Starting to make more holistic choices.

• Moving towards joy: Two questions to help you remove the debris and create more space for light to move in.

• The3 kinds of “happy lives”, Sensitive New Age Guys, Flow Boys…

• And finally: Living in joy without feeling like you’re betraying your (or anyone else’s) pain. Shedding the achievement, possessing, having, striving ways to be “happy” and focusing on one way to be joyful—to serve.

My people, you are heartbreakingly (in a good way) beautiful. Here’s to the Light Work.

.  .  .  .  .

How you listen is how you live
(A poem for being of service)

You may hear this as an order, an invitation, or as the opportunity of lifetimes.

How you listen is how you live.
Can you hear the women crying?
Can you hear the soil gasping for clean air?
And did you hear that?
That’s the sound of a good man asking, How can I serve?

Only with all of you. Mostly by being informed. Entirely with your longing.

Root your life so deeply into your Soul that comparisons, and materialism, and status quo idealism, and the lie called media realism cannot possibly sway your Truth.

You won’t be a sucker for motivation. You will be a devotee of inspiration.

You want to serve? (Please say yes.) Then do what ambition tells you not to do. Forget your goals and your regimens. Be very still and lean in to listen to the pain of the world. And then it will be very clear what to do when you know the Truth. You will let your heart blaze. And your solutions will be fierce with Love, fast with delivery, and sustaining.

You will walk into any room and you will bring joy to bear on the situation.
And it will sound like this:

I am listening.
I know who I am.
And I am here to serve.

Listen to the rest of LIGHT WORK, Ep. #3 HERE.