The word for joy is piti
Why is it considered joy?
It’s because the concentrated mind is de-armouring the tension, but you might experience the tension as edginess. So if you start to feel a little shaky from the concentration, this is actually a demonstration of joy. The shakiness was always present, you just didn’t notice it. If you are present in a relaxed and gentle way with this, the shakiness will dissolve.
Every time you start to shake from life’s events it means that you’re on the edge of a deeper level of calm. When this happens, what do you usually do? You usually back away from it and distract yourself again. That’s your limiting factor.
But if you could keep your concentration, stay with the shaking, and persist through it a bit, eventually you would release the tension held in the body. You would be like that jet plane going through the sound barrier.
There would be a clap, which in this case would be a settling of the calm, and the mind would just continue on without the shaking, in a clearer state. The tension held in the body comes from distracting the mind, which actually takes more energy than keeping the mind concentrated.
From the Wisdom Archive, collected words from Achariya Doug Duncan Sensei’s teachings. www.dharma-japan.org
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