Spiritual ABC's -- Letter J

J
JOY
Rejoice and be exceedingly glad. Find this divine energy in your daily life and share it with others.

That's it.  It is all brain chemistry.  If you are feeling "exceedingly glad," there is nothing "divine" in it.  It is just the interaction in your brain of the chemicals that induce sensations that you interpret as pleasurable.  Too little of one or the other, and the whole business turns into bitterness and depression and a deep, weary sense that there is nothing at all worth fighting for or living for.  

Scientists who study the neurochemistry of our brains are pretty well convinced that anything we get "hooked" on as a pathway to feeling joy and pleasure is probably just our neural equivalent of a lab rat pressing a lever to activate the electrodes implanted in the pleasure center of the brain.  So... whatever your joyfulness thing is -- exercise or alcohol or sex or spanking or hymn singing or doing good deeds or gambling or eating or cutting or...  it is all just the frantic scrambling of a stupid creature trying to feel good for just a minute. 

Blech!

swan

And, yeah, I know I have deviated from my "letter" image template for this series.