#8 The Month for Joyful Transformation 2024

The Month of Transformation through Joy
October 8 to November 16, 2024

Help me find satisfaction
and a deep, abiding pleasure
in all that I have,
in all that I do,
in all that I am.

These words by the Hasidic Master, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, suggest that the most assured means of transforming our suffering, despair, lostness and longing is through earnest prayer. Therefore, offering your suffering to Goodness, and asking for help, can restore a sense of joy.

The Christian Mystic, Meister Eckhart, tells us that gratitude is a very good prayer.: “If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.” Therefore, Joyful transformation can begin with those two holy words.

The Sufi mystic, Rab’ia prays that her love for her Beloved is enough. Therefore, focusing on devoted love is a joyful way to transform difficulty.

The Lakota people practice the belief that transformation may come through ceremony. Therefore, we may transform difficulty through creating and participating in ceremony.

Meditation is a primary practice of many Buddhists. Therefore, mindful medication can lead to inner peace, transforming our unsettled racing minds into joyful equanimity.

And we can meditate while walking: Many Asian wise ones also recommend what they call Forest Bathing to lift and transform weariness and many forms of suffering. Therefore, a walk in the redwoods can provide a practice of pure joyful transformation.

And we can create a walking meditation: Transforming weariness into mindful joy.

Contemplation of many things that touch and inspire us can lead to the transformation of our troubles into joy. Such as:

Listening to an enchanting story. Or imagining listening to such a story.

Contemplating strange and wondrous beauty:

Enjoying a delicious fruit fresh from the Earth can transform any distaste into joy:

Watching an artist in the midst of creation transforming ennui into awe:

Gazing at a stunning work of art can fill us with admiration and awe, joyful antidotes to dissatisfaction:

Embarking on a strange new voyage of discovery:

Hanging out with happy friends

And more happy friends:

And holy friends:

Or writing words that transform despair into delight:

Rumi assures us that

“There are hundreds of ways
to kneel
and kiss the ground.”

What is your way of utterly changing the form of something that troubles you?

Using those ways that carry joy is a good practice.

Joy in the World. And in me.
Praise. Praise. Praise.