W

that joy.”

•           •           •

hat is this thing called joy, and how is it possible that it can evoke
such a wide range of feelings? How can the experience of joy span
from those tears of joy at a birth to an irrepressible belly laugh at a joke
to a serenely contented smile during meditation? Joy seems to blanket
this entire emotional expanse. Paul Ekman, famed emotions researcher
and longtime friend of the Dalai Lama, has written that joy is associated
with feelings as varied as:

pleasure    (of the five    senses)

amusement   (from   a   chuckle to  a   belly   laugh)

contentment (a  calmer  kind    of  satisfaction)

excitement  (in response    to  novelty or  challenge)

relief  (following  upon    another emotion,    such    as  fear,   anxiety,    and

even    pleasure)

wonder  (before something   astonishing and admirable)

ecstasy or  bliss   (transporting   us  outside ourselves)

exultation  (at having  accomplished    a   difficult   or  daring  task)

radiant pride   (when   our children    earn    a   special honor)

unhealthy   jubilation  or schadenfreude    (relishing  in  someone else’s

suffering)

elevation   (from   having  witnessed   an  act of  kindness,   generosity, or

compassion)

gratitude   (the    appreciation    of  a   selfless    act of  which   one is  the

beneficiary)

In his book on happiness, Buddhist scholar and former scientist Matthieu
Ricard has added three other more exalted states of joy:

rejoicing   (in someone else’s  happiness,  what    Buddhists   call    mudita)