The Art of Enjoyment

Enjoyment Inside and Out

We all want to enjoy life, right? What would life be without enjoyment? I think it would be quite bleak, dry, and heavy. Am I correct? If so, how should we best enjoy our lives? That is the question.

Etymologically speaking, where does the word enjoy come from? The answer is important if you want to learn the Art of Enjoyment.

‘Enjoy’ stems from the Middle English word enjoyen, a composite of en, meaning in, and joy. In other words, our ancestors expressed enjoyen, an inner joy. This, if their word speaks truth, constitutes true enjoyment. The key lies in this tiny but immense word en.

Oh humanity! If you could only absorb the ancient wisdom of en, or in, into your stubborn and outwardly oriented mind. We find that mini-mighty word in countless terms that are so frequently used:

Just look at ‘enthusiasm,’ which means in God, or ‘yogically’ speaking, God within. This is the secret to a truly enthusiastic life.

Contemplate the word ‘enlighten,’ meaning inner light. That is what our lives can shine with – the inner luminosity of the soul.

Or… look at ‘enshrine,’ meaning inner sanctuary. The best way to enshrine the Divine is inside, in the temple of the soul.

Another wonderful en word is ‘ennoble’ which means letting your nobility come from within, instead of from any outer status of nobility.

We can go further. Ensure means inner certainty. ‘Let’s ensure that…’ would be translated as ‘let’s feel the inner soul-certainty that…’.

All of this brings us to the art of enjoyment. It could be written as in-joyment — enjoying life from within. This is why Yogananda instructed, “We should learn to enjoy life with the soul.” What did he mean?

We more than often enjoy things from the outside in. Something beautiful happens and we enjoy it. The correct word for that process might be ex-joyment.

Instead, we need to learn to enjoy everything from the inside out! Whatever is in front of you, enjoy it. Not only the beautiful things but the challenges and the difficulties. Train yourself to enjoy from within your soul whatever test you are going through — just as you might enjoy going to the gym and lifting weights, even though it may be tough, tiresome, and sweaty.

You can also learn to enjoy your mistakes by discovering the lessons they teach you. Do you see that possibility for yourself?

All of this requires that you have an inner joy available to in-joy everything: life, events, people in their manifold stages of craziness, the rain, the snow, the sun, the hail, the storm, the silent calm after it, etc.

Building Inner Joy

How do we build the inner joy that in-ables us to in-joy?

The straightforward answer is by contacting the soul and God. These are the two great fountains of Joy. They are also the secret of being enlivened, possessing life from within.

Practice inwardly touching the soul and God. Feel their joy both in meditation and in your outer and daily life. Make that inner enjoyment your philosophy of life. In-joyment is subtle, deep, and non-sensual. You need to develop and acquire a certain degree of sensitivity to receive it.

Enjoy everything with the inner joy of God.

In meditation, give a lot of space to the state of in-joyment. After practicing the techniques, as the great Master Yogananda taught us, enjoy the after-effects. We strongly emphasize the word enjoy, or in-joy. Make it a conscious practice: Now I fully enjoy whatever there is to enjoy – a little peace, a little connection, a little inspiration. ENJOY! IN-JOY.  Make it big!

Then enjoy the world from within with the soul. Practice in-joyment and renounce ex-joyment.

Here is a beautiful teaching from Yogananda:

God wants you to enjoy food and flowers and people, but not be attached to them.

So your yogic training is to enjoy life, making sure not to become attached to anything. If we get attached, it’s again ex-joyment – an enjoyment that depends on outside appearances and effects. That is the trap.

So this is the trick: enjoy everything with the inner joy of God. Practice both in-joyment and God-enjoyment. How do we do this? By enjoying the world and seeing Him in everything.

Yogananda tells us:

Enjoy the smell of the flower, but see God in it…. To enjoy flowers for their loveliness is good, but far greater is to see behind their purity and beauty the face of God. To be carried away by music for its own sake cannot compare with hearing God’s creative Voice in it.

We should say: “I enjoy YOU wherever I look, in whatever I enjoy.” Isn’t that a marvelous training?

This teaching can be misused. “I enjoy alcohol and see God there.” “I enjoy heavy sensuality and see God there. Why not? God is everywhere.” These are dangerous thoughts, as they mean fooling yourself. This course could lead you to slavery and dependence, instead of freedom and in-joyment.

So enjoy simple things, sattvic (pure) things, good food, the sunset, nature, uplifting music, art, beauty, and most of all enjoy the sweetness of friendship. This is another marvelous guideline Yogananda offers us — “I enjoy friendship more than anything in the world.” Very interesting! Let’s do that too, all of us, very consciously.

In short, let’s properly learn the art of enjoyment. Let’s nourish our in-joyment, enjoying life with the soul. Let’s walk through life enjoying everything from within with God, free, unattached, and strong.

Why strong?

Because in-joyment requires a certain inner strength or en-powerment. Tough times come to everyone. This world is both beautiful and ugly. Yogananda, once again, gives us fantastic guidance:

Live in this world and enjoy beautiful things, but when ugly things come to you, do not be sad.

We can allow ourselves to be unhappy for a while when sad things come — otherwise, we would not be human. Even Masters cry when their close friends die, or when they see enormous suffering. Jesus wept also when Lazarus died. Nevertheless, with all of its transitory ups and downs, the undercurrent of our lives should be definite and lasting in-joyment.

Summary

In short, let’s make life beautiful from within. A yogi’s life should be a thousand times more enjoyable than a worldly one. Historically speaking, the philosophy of enjoyment (hedonism) was expounded by the Epicureans who fed their joy with all kinds of outer stimuli. In a contest of enjoyment, as yogis we would conquer them heavily by using our invincible skills and methods of in-joyment.

This could be a daily practice for us all as we battle bad moods, tough circumstances, sickness, loss, disappointment, and defeat. If we exercise our in-joyment properly, we will gradually become masters of our lives and will enjoy life from an unseen inner source.

One very important key in all of this is that if you want to enjoy life from the vantage point of your soul, take your ego less seriously. Laugh at yourself. Then laugh again. You will probably have a lot to laugh about!

Every now and then be a little nutty — be playful like a child, innocent and silly — it adds to the fun of life and helps you not to take yourself too seriously.

Keep a sense of humor even when things do not turn out as you hoped. This too is part of your training in enjoyment.

So many people will never arrive at true enjoyment because no one has taught them the art of in-joyment. We, however, can say YES! to life and YES! to enjoying life with the soul, from the soul.