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48 Yang-Sheng (Nurturing Life) Volume 2, Issue No. 5

What is happiness? Have you ever asked

yourself what happiness really is? Where it comes

from? What its real nature is? To some people, hap-piness seems like an illusion, something unreal or, at

OHDVWDVWDWHWKDWGRHVQWODVWORQJ0D\EH\RXYHdecided that to feel happy you need to buy a big,

beautiful house. So you work and work, month aftermonth, year after year, to save the money. One day

you get the house, the big house you knew would

make you happy. You move in and sooner or later

you realize that you are still lookingIRUKDSSLQHVV:KDWVJRLQJRQKHUH"

There is such a thing as happi-ness, it is real. People are always look-ing for happiness, but happiness is in

WKHPLQG,WVOLNHDFORXGWKDWFRPHVDQGJRHVDFURVVWKHVN\:HUHVHDUFK

ing for a cloud because clouds havemany interesting shapes and eye-

catching colors. They are always mov-

ing, and so searching for a cloud issomething exciting. Just like a cloud,

happiness is always movingmoving from one

thing to the next and the next. . . . That is its nature.

But joy . . . joy is like a blue sky that is al-ways there behind the clouds. Everyone wants hap-

piness because happiness is easy to catch. Joy is dif-ferent from happiness: With joy, you have to dis-cover what you already have, to accept it, and to em-

body it. Yet almost no one wants to make the quan-

tum shift necessary to discover joy!

This is the big difference between the Eastand the West: The goal of all Eastern training and

Eastern spiritual practice is to discover joy. Western

SUDFWLFHWULHVWRFDWFKKDSSLQHVV7KDWVWKHPDLQGLI

ference. Yet, in order to feel either happiness or joy,

LWVVWLOODVVRFLDWHGZLWK\RXUERG\

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SeptemberOctober 2012 49Yang-Sheng (Nurturing Life)

you get happiness, when you achieve the big, beauti-

ful house, then you will be depressed because . . .ZKDWVQH[W":KLFKFORXGDUH\RXJRLQJWRSXUVXH

now?

You see, joy is not achieved; joy has to bediscovered. Joy is what you already haveyou are

born with itLWVGHHSO\ZRYHQLQWR\RXUERG\mind and spirit. You have to nourish this concept

EHFDXVHMR\LV\RXUV,WVZLWKLQMXVWOLNH\RXULQborn healing ability. But because of the culture or

our upbringing or personal environments we become

distracted and unaware of what is really ours, andthen we confuse happiness with true joy. Yet no

matter what, joy is like a blue sky: it is there all the

time underneath everything else. You just have to

XQGHUVWDQG\RXMXVWKDYHWRUHDOL]HLWVZLWK\RXDOOthe time. Discovering joy requires a change in con-

sciousness. Qigong is a path that can connect you to

the Universaland to this deeper aspect of yourself.If we look at joy using the meditation con-

cept, which is also Qigong practice, it has no action;

happiness has action. To experience true joy, you

GRQWKDYHWRGRDQ\WKLQJ-R\GRHVQRWUHO\RQDFtion. Joy does not depend on external circumstances

RUHYHQWV,WVVRPHWKLQJWKDWFRPHVLQWHUQDOO\

When you are happy, you always want to continue

doing something, to extend the happiness with moreaction. Happiness is more on the superficial level,

the physical level: you can see it, think about it, you

can feel itLWVRXWVLGHLWVH[WHUQDOJoy has great depth; it is an invisible aspect

of this reality. Happiness manifests itself in the visi-

ble; it has no real depth. In a way, they reflect Yin

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50 Yang-Sheng (Nurturing Life) Volume 2, Issue No. 5

Check us out online at

Yang-Sheng.comY

S

and Yang, the duality of our existence. Can you see

the difference in your life?

The colors of the world blind human eyes;The tones of the world deafen human ears;

The tastes of the world make human mouths water;

The pursuit of pleasures makes the human mindcrazy;The pursuit of the unattainable makes human con-

duct unnatural;The wise man puts his ear to his heart and ignores

his mind.

7DR7H&KLQJFD%&(&KDSWHU

Nan Lu, OMD, LAc, is the

founding director of TCM

World Foundation and its sisterorganization, Tao of Healing,

both based in New York City.

He is clinical associate profes-

sor at the School of Social Wel-

fare, State University of New

York at Stony Brook. Dr. Lu

holds a doctorate from Hubei

College of TCM, China, and is

a Lac. In New York State. Classically and university

trained, he is a master herbalist as well as an interna-

tionally recognized Taiji expert and Qigong master, andis a best-selling author of three TCM books published by

Harper Collins. Dr. Lu's specialties include women's

health, cancer and immune system disorders and he fre-

quently partners with doctors of Western medicine using

a complementary approach. He advises and lectures ex-

tensively on TCM, preventive and integrative medicine

and has been an invited speaker at major conferences,

(www.tcmworld.org; www.tcmconference.org;

www.breastcancer.com). Contact: Kristen Park

973.378.8864. kristenpark@optonline.net