Draw Down Joy | Y’sod

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כְּגַוְונָא דָּא, (תהילים ק׳:ב׳) עִבְדוּ אֶת יְיָ' בְּשִׂמְחָה. חֶדְוָה דְּבַּר נָשׁ, מָשִׁיךְ לְגַבֵּיהּ חֶדְוָה אַחֲרָא עִלָּאָה הָכִי נָמֵי הַאי עָלְמָא תַּתָּאָה, כְּגַוְונָא דְּאִיהִי אִתְעַטְּרָת, הָכִי אַמְשִׁיךְ מִלְעֵילָּא.

As it is written, “Worship the Divine in joy” (Ps. 100, 2), that the joy of a person may draw down upon them supernal joy. So, too, does the lower sphere affect the upper: according to the degree of awakening below there is awakening and heavenly joy above.
— Zohar II, 184b;  Tetzaveh 11, 94

At first, this can sound like a description of some distant metaphysical system: we create joy below, and then a corresponding joy descends from some supernal realm above. But the deeper meaning is something we can verify directly in our own experience: the “upper world” need not be understood as a place somewhere else, but rather, as the dimension of awareness itself — the field of consciousness within which all experience arises. Awareness is always present; every thought, emotion, sensation, and perception appears within it. But usually, awareness remains in the background while our attention is absorbed in the movements of mind and emotion. We are busy thinking, reacting, judging, resisting. 

But when we intentionally practice awareness — when we become present on purpose — something changes. The qualities inherent within awareness begin to infuse our lived experience: spaciousness, receptivity, intimacy, unburdened openness. The act of becoming present is the “awakening below” – our intentional turning toward whatever is present. The “awakening above” is then the blossoming forth of the deeper qualities already inherent within awareness itself, including joy.  

In order to awaken the “upper joy,” we need not “pretend to be happy.” Joy in the deeper sense is not forced positivity. Rather, it arises naturally when we live in the moment for its own sake. When we consciously open to life as it happens, we become receptive to the deeper joy that isn’t dependent on any circumstance or on “getting what we want.” – the lower movement awakens the higher. Or perhaps more accurately: when we create inner space through Presence, the deeper joy that was always present can fully reveal itself.

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