Happiness is not joy
Happiness is of the world
Joy is your true nature
What indeed is joy? For one, it is not happiness. Happiness is shadowed by sorrow. When you find happiness, you fear losing it. Happiness is of the world, tainted by sorrow like love is tainted by fear. Such opposites are the way of the world. What then is joy if not happiness? Essentially, joy has no opposite. It is not of this world. It is not transitory. Joy is constant, unchanging, always present. Joy is your true nature. You are I AM. There is no other.
Do not seek joy. It cannot be found. It rises from within. In your deepest anguish, joy is with you in your well of despair. Release your attachment to sorrow, and to all expectations of happiness. To release is to clear the way for joy to push upward from the bottom of the well. The world you think you know is in your thoughts. Change your thoughts. Beliefs will shift. Your world will be renewed. You can awaken from your nightmares. Break all attachments to this and that. Hold no expectations. Without desire and expectation there is no fuel for happiness and sorrow. No need for judgment and hope. Do not cling to the world of happiness and sorrow. Enter the room within. Remember twia. Joy is revealed in the whole of the all to eyes that see and ears that hear. To remember twia is to know joy. Joy has no cause. It is your true nature. Joy cannot leave you. To know joy is to be aware. To be aware is to touch the eternal. There is no other than joy.
Happiness is not joy. Happiness is tainted with sorrow, like love in the world is tainted with fear. This is separation. Joy has no separation. Joy is without effort. Joy comes without reason. It is neither this, nor that. You cannot be yourself by trying. To try is to do. The me of the body does what it can to survive. You are joy. Do nothing. To do is to strive. You cannot strive to gain joy. By your efforts you survive and attain your desires. You cannot attain joy. Joy is revealed. When you clear away your attachments, there is joy. It clings to nothing. Happiness clings to desire and expectation. Joy is not of this world. What you desire is happiness, not joy. The me of the body can find sorrow while seeking happiness. Your true nature seeks nothing. You are joy. It is wisdom that brings you to knowing joy. Wisdom knows the way. Abandon the ways of the world. Enter the room within. Remember twia. You are the wisdom that is I AM. You are the light that comes to all. Joy is revealed in the light that is twia. Joy is that which I AM.
In this instance pleasure could be considered a synonym of happiness. "Pleasure and pain, happiness and sorrow" is a phrase I use to describe the results of our satisfying/not-satisfying our "desires and expectations." Like you infer, if we can separate ourselves from "desires" then joy can replace "pleasure and pain, happiness and sorrow." This enables us to hold peace of heart in all situations.
A few thoughts about your treatment of joy and happiness. I do believe you can seek joy by simply honoring the present moments in our being giving full attention to whatever is happening in the “now” of our consciousness. In this way the unconscious struggles will dissolve and our actions then can free flow full of love and compassion. If we can separate the “desires” of life away from the action we might be able to enjoy the stillness and peace of the conscious moment. Don’t attach ourselves to the desires/goals and enjoy the calmness of the present absent of the regrets of the past and the anticipation of the future. Enjoy the peace and calmness of the present moment.
Secondly, where does pleasure fit in the joy vs happiness discussion or is it simply a synonym to happiness?
In Spirit, Bob