1-25. Do not depend on others to give you joy. They cannot give it to you and they cannot take it away from you. Be your own joy.
It is frightfully easy to fall into a pattern of thought that leads to the conclusion that others have the ability to directly or indirectly affect or change your mental state. Indeed they can commit actions that you like or do not like. But these actions are independent of your mind. Their actions simply do not have the power to directly affect a change in your mind, other than changes that you believe are either necessary, required or caused by their actions. It is possible to accept the actions of others without any attachment to their actions or the outcomes of their choices. This state of nonattachment is not particularly common in this world, as almost everyone is taught, both directly and tangentially, that the actions of others must engender certain reactions in their minds. This is a most unfortunate state of affairs, as it serves only to rob a great many Souls of the peace that can come with a choice to accept without reactivity. From this reactive nature can come a sense of dependence, a willing slavery to the actions and beliefs of others that serves only to imprison one’s mind within the will of another in a way that cannot actually be either True or Real. When you choose to believe that you must depend on the approval, consideration, attention or companionship of others, you will automatically enter into a state of mind that dictates that if they do not undertake actions or utter words that you either approve of or that align in ways you approve of with your own thoughts or feelings about yourself, you will be forced to suffer at their hands. This is simply incorrect. They do not have this power. Only your own choices as to your reactions to their actions have any power to bind your mind to any outcome or mental state. Your unwitting willingness to attempt to transfer this immutable power, this solidarity of your consciousness, to others is without value to either you or to them. They cannot use this power that you attempt to offer them. They do not have control over your choices. They can only direct their own lives, choosing for themselves what they wish to hold as true for themselves alone. This is equally true for you as well. By constantly attempting to relinquish a power that you alone hold into the hands of others, you consistently and incessantly attempt to ask them to be the stewards of your own mind, a role that they cannot play in your life. In equal measure, it is not actually possible for others to give you joy. Joy is not an item to be exchanged or a value to be bartered for. It is not an emotional state that can infect another or be transferred from a joyous mind to an unhappy mind. This transference is not possible. It is actually nonsensical when regarded from a clear perspective. Your mind is inviolate. You choose what you believe to be true for you. Another’s mind can present arguments and suggestions to you. You can choose to listen to their ideas or you can close off your attention from them. The degree to which you take their ideas to heart is solely for you to elect. Their perspectives may be closely aligned with yours, perhaps so closely that their beliefs mirror yours in a great many ways. When this occurs, their insights into your experiences and reactions may have great value to you. They may be able to see the parts of your mind you are either hiding from or are unwilling to admit are in play in any particular situation. When this occurs, heeding their advice may be of great assistance to you. Or it may not. In the end it is only for you to choose what you are both willing and able to believe. It is not the role of others to be allowed to exert undue influence on you. They may try, but their efforts will forever be in vain. They can only alter your mind or change your opinions if you so choose to make such changes in your personal belief structure. These changes may occur on a subconscious or unconscious level. They do occur, despite your awareness of the shifting of your mind towards a new or previously held belief structure. When you are ready to stop attempting to release your permanent responsibility for your own emotional state, you will begin to feel ever greater levels of peace and acceptance arising in your mind as you begin to accept that you indeed do have the ability to choose your reaction to any particular situation, no matter how wonderful or unpleasant it may be. To be your own Joy is not at all difficult. In fact it has likely occurred many times in your life already. You may simply have not been particularly aware of it when it occurred. When you accept yourself, just as you are, without reservation or hesitation, you will begin to feel Joy building from the deepest levels of your mind. It is always there, always present and forever with you no matter what other layers of illusions you have placed upon it through the contorted, bewildering and aggravatingly persistent guile of the ego. The ego has no ability to conceive of who you are in Truth. It is a meaningless concept to the ego, a great and impossible premise, a statement of such accuracy that the ego cannot countenance any possibility that it could in fact be true. The ego wraps itself in lies, using these lies as the foundation of its phantom existence, demanding that you uphold its lies as unassailable truth, lest it be found out to be the impostor that it is. The ego does not want you to be happy. It only wants. Endless desire, constant hunger and permanent emptiness are its modus operandi. An ever cycling, bottomless pit of darkness is its core, sustained by absolutely nothing. But your Joy is not at all dependent on the ego’s mad ideas or upon the support or consideration of others. You alone are sufficient, just as you are. Just you as you are in Truth, without anything added or removed, without expansion or reduction, absent any qualifications – truly a miraculous Creation of God. This is your Nature. Perfectly complete and utterly Real at all times, your Soul has not forgotten your Creation. Your heart shares in this Joy, this eternal Unification of all that lives with our Perfect Creator. The ego would have you believe that you created yourself, that you arose from virtual nothingness as a body and that it is this material form that animates your Soul. This is not true. It has never been and can never be. All that God Creates does not die. The ego’s death is certain. It will cease to have any utility or existence when you transition back to formlessness upon your physical death. But your Joy will remain, eternal and inexpressibly beautiful as it dances forever with the Light of Love that is your Home. You need not wait a moment longer. You do not have to go anywhere or effect any change to yourself to experience this Joy of Life everlasting. It is already within you, permanently joined with all that you are for indeed, it is in Truth who you really are. Ask not for what the ego would tell you of your Origin, for it does not know. Instead relax into an accepting and nonjudgmental awareness and mental state. At this level of consciousness, great Joy will begin to flow upwards from your heart to the uppermost levels of your mind, the part of thinking that it commonly referred to as consciousness. Nothing is needed for you to experience this state of Oneness with all that Lives. It is already completely joined with you, fully accessible in any moment and utterly available whenever you should choose to allow your mind to return to such a simple and open state of awareness. Your Joy is yours alone, now and forever, an eternal unfolding of acceptance and awareness of the innate Union you enjoy with all that is eternal, which is forever flowing outwards from the Heart of Love.