How to unlock greater joy from within every moment

In my last post I proposed that the absolute pinnacle of our aspiration might simply be to interact with the world in a way that we are rewarded with joy; that such a reward would have to be based on a struggle on our part to do something worthwhile such as making a living, taking care of family or doing good for people not in our immediate circle.

Interestingly in an earlier post I had mentioned that the choice that each moment presents to us can reward us if we choose to do in it a good act because the good act creates a good effect that would benefit us.

Now you might see that there is a relation between experiencing joy that I mention in the first paragraph and the choice that we make [that I present in the second]. This relation is simply that the choice can lead to joy.

But the key as it were to unlocking from this choice its latent joy is the ‘intention’ with which I prepare for each choice.

If we intend in each moment to do well, good will happen and if we compromise on our intention we will suffer a more inadequate outcome [than would have been had we intended well].

So it is as if the tool we really need to work on to experience joy in each moment is ‘our intention’.

Most interestingly fasting in the month of Ramazan offers an opportunity to do just this. When we stay without food or water the whole day we are clearly strengthening our power to intend things. Naturally if one can control himself in one situation they could control themselves in another situation for they could exercise the same self control again. It is very much like the act of fasting helps you sharpen your intention like a smith sharpens his knife.

The sharper your knife is the more bread you can cut with it. This is similar to how a sharper intention will lead to better choices that would thus unlock higher levels of the much sought joy.