Finding Deep Joy (Revised)

To those who see aright, this vast and mysterious universe is packed with deep joy. Its stars throb with joy, its radiations hum with it, its dark or glowing nebula embed it. The dances of the atoms and galaxies are dances of joy. Here below, joy lies hidden deep down at the hearts of all things---of boulders, trees, sharks and ourselves. So says eminent Theosophist Robert Ellwood, who sees the joy pervading the universe as accessible to everyone, not just mystics and saints. Joy can enhance the happiest of circumstances and ease the most adverse. It is our birthright and true nature. Humph! Not mine, you say? Ellwood frankly acknowledges our shifting moods, life's tedium, and the reality of pain and despair. But he invokes Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, and Sufi wisdom to affirm joy despite all conditions---for richer of poorer, in sickness and in health. Then he leads us to find deep joy for ourselves, one precious moment at a time. At once simple and profound, this warm, gentle book is one you will cherish for yourself and as a gift for old friends, young people seeking vision, and any loved one in need. This new edition includes inspiring sidebar quotations and stunning photography to quicken our perception of deep joy in ourselves and at the heart of the natural world.

150 pages

About the author: Robert Ellwood was born in Normal, Illinois, in 1933. He was educated at the University of Colorado, Berkeley Divinity School at Yale in New Haven, Connecticut, and the University of Chicago Divinity School. He received his Ph.D. in the history of religion at Chicago in 1967. Dr. Ellwood has served as an Episcopal priest and a chaplain in the U.S. Navy, and is also a priest in the Liberal Catholic Church, a small denomination using traditional Catholic styles of worship while presenting an esoteric interpretation of Christianity. An eminent Theosophist, Ellwood is the author of over twenty books, ranging from textbooks in religious studies including Many People, Many Faiths, a popular world religion textbook, to books on the recent history of religion, The Fifties Spiritual Marketplace, The Sixties Spiritual Awakening, and Islands of Dawn, to inspirational books written from a Theosophical perspective -- Finding the Quiet Mind, The Pilgrim Self, Theosophy, and The Cross and the Grail. In 1988 he was a Fulbright Scholar in New Zealand. During the 1998-99 school year, he served as the Goodwin-Philpott Eminent Scholar in Religion at Auburn University in Alabama. In 2001 he was the Swedenborg Lecturer at Urbana University, Ohio. He lives in Ojai, California, with his wife Gracia Fay, a writer and teacher.