Thoughts on Life Purpose & Unreasonable Joy

Updates on my life and work, recorded and written musings on unreasonable joy and life purpose, and photos of my recent escapades.

Hi Friends!

Earlier this week marked one year since I joined the community at the Monastic Academy for the Preservation of Life on Earth (MAPLE). 🎉 🥳 🧘‍♂️ 😮

It began with a free two month apprenticeship program to test out the waters, and after realizing more joy, connection, and growth in that short time than in any other period of my life, I decided to become a resident.

This year has been such a wonderful experience that I recently extended my commitment to May 2023. I envision this giving me the necessary time and space to deeply soak in the fruits of a training that leads to the greatest joy life has to offer and a mind and heart that can lead humanity in these perilous times.

During my time at MAPLE, I’ve had the privilege of doing 10 week-long contemplative retreats. I’ve also been given the opportunity to design, manage, and co-facilitate our online programs and amplify the in-person training through leading workshops and creating new educational systems with thought-leaders such as Zak Stein and fellow resident Daniel Ryūshin Thorson. It’s been an absolute blast to be able to step into my soul’s calling as a teacher and education systems designer, while at the same time being a student receiving a world-class mindfulness and leadership training.

Me leading session one of MAPLE Fundamentals with folks from 8 countries!

These experiences have given me some nuanced perspectives on fundamental yearnings of the human heart. Recently, I was interviewed on cultivating unreasonable joy and our team edited a clip from a course I was leading on connecting with your vow and aligning your behaviors to be in accord with it. They are embedded below. The clip on purpose is less than a minute while the interview on life’s greatest joy is ~15 minutes (starting at the 3:58 mark).

What is your vow, life purpose, or soul’s calling?

In this video I speak to what we perceive a vow to be at MAPLE and how it differs from conventional perspectives on life purpose or soul work. A vow is a lifelong, ever-changing guide that reminds you of what’s most important. Gaining clarity on what it is requires you to ask the question of your life. Why are you on this planet? What is most worth loving? What must you do to live and die without regret? What are you willing to completely give your mind, body, and life to? From a spiritual perspective after all, this life isn’t “yours.” You have been given this vessel of a mind and body to awaken to who and what you truly are, to discover your heart’s unique calling, and then to give that away for the benefit of the world. This profound journey into the depth’s of your being and then radiating that fundamental gift is the ultimate purpose of your life.

Often when we try to think up our purpose it has a very different feel to it. We might feel pressure from finding our “one-single-true life purpose” — failing to see it’s dynamic essence that is continually shifting with the heart’s rhythms. We might feel shame about not doing enough good in the world — failing to view the sacred offering of cultivating our own inner landscape. Or we might associate it with our likes, wants, comforts, and preferences — failing to see that our vow is asked of us by life, called forth from the world, and that it might include profound difficulty and struggle in trying to live up to it. A vow is far more mysterious, deep, and ever-lasting than we can comprehend with our rational mind. It’s a life-long journey and this journey is joy.

On Cultivating Unreasonable Joy

The process of connecting with one’s vow is also the process of cultivating life’s greatest joy. As I mentioned, from an ultimate perspective, the purpose of our life is to become fully alive, to awaken to our true nature and to offer that essence combined with our unique calling to be of service. When we truly embark on this immensely difficult journey our perception and world begins to fill with a moment-by-moment joy, wonder, and beauty that is like no other.

This striving for meaning and happiness are fundamental yearnings of our being, but we often mistake what they are which leads our behaviors and values astray. As my teacher Soryu Forall once said, “Humans have been learning how to be happy without true happiness.”

The type of joy that most of us are familiar with is impermanent and dependent on condition. This means that we tend to pin all of our happiness on things like wealth (a job that brings us security), family (dependency on our partners, children, or parents), health (body feeling good), and the mind (the need to rationally understand). Of course these are beautiful and important aspects of a life worth living, but pinning all of our happiness on them creates suffering. Our wealth, family, mind, and body will all fall away and yet we cling on to them for dear life. We are terrified of death and old age, scarcity and disability — without seeing that this terror and clinging onto what we deem to be secure is itself impoverishing our heart.

Unreasonable, unconditional joy is beyond all of this. As we practice meditation and take the spiritual path, we slowly open up to a profound peace and joy that is not based on anything. Even as our mind, body, family, and wealth deteriorate, we are held in an eternal happiness that is like no other. This all might sound totally crazy, but if this were true, and I’m suggesting it is, then it changes everything.

I’ll wrap it up with some recent snapshots of the joy that’s entering my life :)

I love you all.

Joe