What You Truly Want Is Already Here: Awaken the Joy Within
Joy is the natural state of the unguarded heart — vibrant, luminous, and whole. It needs no reason, no permission, no pursuit. When we stop chasing fulfilment and soften into presence, joy emerges: spacious, serene, and alive within us. This is the first awakening of the true heart.
At the threshold of the heart’s awakening lies a universal human experience: desire. It reaches outward, searching for connection, meaning, pleasure, or relief. Desire fuels dreams, ignites passions, and gives movement to our lives. But if left unexamined, desire can turn frantic, spiralling into endless pursuit. The opening petal of the twelve-petaled Heart Chakra — Anahata — invites us to explore this deep inner current and transform it into something more sustainable and sacred: ānanda, or joy.
Joy is not simply an emotion — it is a mode of being. Where desire is outward-reaching, joy arises inwardly. It is not the thrill of getting what we want, but the quiet realisation that nothing is missing. Joy is the heart’s native frequency, accessible not through striving but through presence. It is found in stillness, in simplicity, in soft moments of being fully here.
When we begin the journey through the heart, we do not try to extinguish desire. Instead, we alchemise it. We listen to what it is truly asking for — and guide it home.
The Shadow: Kāma (Desire)
Desire in Sanskrit is kāma — a potent life force. It connects us to our senses, to beauty, to intimacy. But when desire turns into compulsion or attachment, it becomes a distortion. We begin to seek fulfilment in external forms, hoping they will complete an inner emptiness. The heart, in this state, becomes restless: Split (un-whole), and un-holy.
Symptoms of this vritti may include:
- Persistent dissatisfaction or craving for “more”
- Seeking validation through achievements, possessions, or relationships
- Fixating on outcomes rather than presence
- Feeling empty unsatisfied even after receiving what was desired
The Heart’s Medicine: Ānanda (Joy)
True joy — *ānanda* — is a radiant presence that emerges when we remember who we are beneath all the striving. It does not depend on circumstances or achievements. It can be felt sitting quietly with a cup of tea, in the hush of dawn light, in the breath that returns us to now.
Ken Wilber speaks about the inherent joy and freedom found in simply being present: emphasising the joy of dissolving into the “empty ground” of one’s own awareness and experiencing the “simple feeling of Being” in the present moment, a state of being one with all.
“True joy is not about feeling good; it is about feeling whole.” — Jack Kornfield
Joy is:
- – Immediate: It lives in the present, not the future
- – Unconditional: It is not earned, it is remembered
- – Expansive: It includes everything — even sorrow — without resistance
- – Contagious: It uplifts and harmonises others simply through its presence
The Trajectory: From Craving to Contentment
To transform desire into joy, we must slow down. Listen. Trace each longing to its root. Often, behind the desire for a person, a possession, or an experience, there is a deeper yearning — to be known, to be safe, to belong, to be at peace.
Joy does not reject desire — it decodes it. And when we realise that the feeling we seek can be cultivated right now, the chase ends. Fulfillment becomes a practice, not a prize.
This is the heart’s first great alchemy:
- From reaching to receiving
- From future-fixation to present-moment awareness
- From lack to inner sufficiency
- From seeking love to recognising we *are* love
“When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.” — Rumi
A Pranic Healing Perspective
In Pranic Psychotherapy, the Splenic chakra is seen as the gatekeeper of vitality, and the processing portal through which prana is assimilated into the field. When congested or depleted, it breeds addiction—not just to substances, but to patterns of consumption that mimic aliveness. As Master Choa Kok Sui teaches:
“Addictions are caused by holes or cracks in the aura. When you remove the negative energies from the chakras and aura, the desire for these substances diminishes or disappears.” — *Master Choa Kok Sui, Pranic Psychotherapy
By cleansing and energising this center, the compulsion softens. Energy flows freely again. Desire dissolves not in suppression, but in saturation—with presence, with prana, with peace.
Thus, Joy arises not as the climax of fulfilled desire, but as the afterglow of alignment. It is what remains when the system is nourished, the craving released, and the Heart remembers it was whole all along.
A Chinese Medicine View
Daoist philosophy reminds us that joy arises naturally when the Heart is open and Shen is settled. When we release the need to grasp, the spirit begins to shine. Joy is the glow of the soul seen through a clear lens.
In contrast, desire in excess scatters the mind, agitates the Shen (spirit), and weakens our ability to experience peace. In Chinese Medicine, this kind of unregulated yearning is seen to disturb the Heart, leading to mental unrest and emotional depletion.
The Spleen transforms food and experience into Blood and Qi—subtle streams that flow upward to support the Heart, the seat of spirit. When this nourishment is lacking, the Heart becomes restless, its joy obscured by grasping and overthinking. We hunger for what cannot satisfy.
When the Spleen is weak, the soil of our being becomes unstable—unable to digest life, we grasp for sweetness outside ourselves. Craving, in this view, is not sin but signal: a message from the inner terrain that nourishment has not yet reached the Heart. The Qi is scattered, the Shen unanchored, and we chase pleasure not because we are greedy, but because we are hollow.
“When the Spleen is deficient, the limbs feel heavy, the Heart is unsettled, and the will loses its direction.” — Su Wen, Chapter 23
Insights from Esoteric Acupuncture and Advanced Energy Healing
From the Esoteric Meaning of Key Numbers (Esoteric Acupuncture Vol 7), the split, or un-whole-heart is described in the difference between “one-ness”, and “two-ness”. This is primarily addressed in the Esoteric ShaoYin structures within the New Encoding Patterns, that reinforce and stabilise the Heart-Kidney / Fire-Water Axis, creating an inner alignment, or re-union.
“The One became Two for the Joy of becoming One again.”
There is a hunger that is not of the body—a craving born from the places within us that feel unloved, unseen, or seperate from Source. When the Heart is wounded, when the inner temple cracks from grief, neglect, ore the illusion of separation, the soul leaks light. And in that subtle emptiness, something stirs: the urge to fill, to grasp, to consume.
“When the Heart center is not strong, individuals tend to search outside of themselves to be nourished… but what they are seeking is an inner spiritual connection.”— Dr. Mikio Sankey, Esoteric Acupuncture Vol. I: Gateway to Expanded Healing
Dr. Mikio speaks of these wounds in the field as a doorway—one that opens not just to longing, but to intrusion. Where wholeness is absent, parasitic forces (both psychic and physical) may enter, whispering through compulsions, addictions, or the magnetic pull of false nourishment. These may take the shape of behaviours that drain, relationships that entangle, or even unseen energetic presences that feed on our fragmentation.
“If the individual is not centered in the Heart, parasitic energies, both internal and external, may anchor themselves into the lower fields… creating patterns of disconnection and dependency.”
Through the refining of the Inner Spiritual Heart—specifically, the building of the Antahkarana, the rainbow bridge light-lattice between the physical and higher spiritual realms.—we mend the breach. We no longer need to chase what was never truly missing. Strengthening this connection is vital for maintaining energetic sovereignty:
“Esoteric Acupuncture focuses on strengthening the Heart Field and refining the Antahkarana, so that you remain centered in your Inner Spiritual Essence no matter what energies are circulating around you.”— Dr. Mikio Sankey
By developing the heart center and the Antahkarana, one can fortify their energy field against both internal compulsions and external energetic intrusions.
Yet the remedy is not defence, but remembrance.
For example, the New Encoding Pattern: Wei Chi Strengthening Grid (which I consider Antahkarana development to be a prerequisite for), can often be installed or invoked as psychic protection and energetic shielding. However, the higher-octave experience of this pattern is one of fullness and expansion – the Light Density in the energetic field (Light Quotient) is greatly increased, which in itself is ‘protective’ –
Joy arises not because the hunger is fed, but because the Heart is full again. And in that fullness, we become unassailable.
Esoteric Fourfold Fullness
In the Esoteric Acupuncture Template, we can also work with the Fourfold Fullness grouping QI HAI (Ren-6), SI MAN (kid-14)R, SI MAN (kid-14)L, and GUAN YUAN (Ren-4) , as it is used in the New Encoding Pattern: Extended Crystalline Heart Grid,: The geometry of this grouping forms a dual fire/water shao-yin triangle pairing, with an asymmetry, making the structure formed between the points more like a cross †, or kite shape. The energetics here are warming, energising and radiant, and the key vibrational frequency is the Contentment that leads to Joy.
In self-cultivation and inner alchemy practices, there are many methods for creating the sense of magnetism in the lower elixir field / dantien – so that energy is drawn in, submerged, contained and refined here. This activation can be seen as an inverting of this polarity, to strongly charge the entire field with radiant light energy.
The Gateway Si-man, Kid-14, or “The Fullness and Balance of Four” – ’Four’ symbolises the dynamic forces on Earth: the four winds and their corresponding directions, embodying the natural influences that shape our world. It also represents our four limbs, which grant us the ability to move, explore, and grow through our experiences. Mastery of movement allows us to fully engage with the world, bringing a sense of satisfaction and balance into our lives. Through this movement, the natural cycles of life find their rhythm, creating harmony.
When Qi flows freely, it moves in all directions, nourishing and reaching every part of us that needs it to sustain life. At this point, the kidney meridian joins the Chong Mai, providing a powerful surge of vitality, akin to a seed bursting forth into life: the Chong Mai contains the inherited blueprint of our developmental potential, guiding our growth.
In Chinese wisdom, there is joy in having enough, but the true wisdom of contentment and satisfaction lies in knowing when we are full: Si Man embodies this fullness and balance, representing the deep contentment that comes from experiencing and understanding all directions in life. This grouping invites us to fall into harmony with the four directions and allow their winds of fortune to blow towards us.
Esoteric Fourfold Fullness also refers to the ‘involution of spirit’, and unifying the ‘innermost’ and ‘outermost’ fields of the subtle bodies (Lower Quaternity connects to the Upper Quaternity) . In a similar way that the final layer of the Wei Chi Strengthening Grid does so, in the paired New Encoding Pattern: Extended Crystalline Heart Grid, the Fourfold Fullness grouping powers, charges, balances, and increases the density of the Lightbody and overall capacity to hold a greater Light Quotient.
“Joy is the infallible sign of the presence of God.” — Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Simple Practices for Integration
🌟 Gratitude Immersion
Each evening, close your day with a quiet ritual of remembrance.
Name five moments — no matter how small — that brought genuine, heart-felt joy.
A breeze on your skin, a kind word, a moment of laughter. 🌿
Let your nervous system fully drink in and appreciate the beauty of those moments.
Allow them to settle in your cells as nourishment — a gentle rewiring toward joy.
🔍 Desire Tracing
When you observe a desire stirring within you, take a moment to pause.
Instead of chasing it, get curious.
Ask: What is the feeling I hope this will give me?
Then gently inquire: Is there a way to feel that right now?
Even in a breath?
Even in stillness?
Even in movement? 🌀
This simple practice reveals that the heart of desire often lives within us already — quietly waiting to be met.
🎵 Joy as Frequency
Choose to spend time in spaces and with souls that uplift you.
Not to distract from pain — but to recalibrate.
Joy is more than an emotion — it’s a frequency your being can entrain to. ✨
Let the laughter, the light, the music of joy gently re-tune the tone of your inner world.
This is resonance medicine.
🌬️ Inner Smile Breathing
Let your breath and awareness drop into your chest, and soften — as if your heart field itself is expanding.
As you exhale, let a soft smile gently emerge, and settle even more deeply — into your heart.
Smile inwardly, smile at your heart. 😊
Feel that smile be warmly mirrored back from your Heart – then allow it to shine out your face, out your eyes, and out every pore of skin.
With each subsequent breath, let your heart open like a lotus turning toward the sun.
👁️ Presence Practice
Let the ordinary become a holy experience, in each and every moment.
Pause, often, and ask: Where am I finding Joy, right now?
It might simply be the sun on your skin, the scent of tea, the miracle of breath. 🌞
Don’t immediately reach for more – sit in satisfaction, contentment, and savour.
Let each small shimmering now be enough.
The moment is always offering joy — if we are willing to meet it.
🪞Reflection Questions for Journaling
• What do I most deeply desire — and what do I believe it will give me? ✨
• Can I recall moments of joy that required nothing external at all? 🌿
• How does true joy feel different from excitement or pleasure? 🔥
• What part of me still believes I must earn joy or prove my worthiness? 🧱
• Where in my life am I delaying joy for some imagined future moment? ⏳
• Can I allow joy to rise — even here, even now, even uninvited? 🌸
Closing Thoughts
The first petal is a call home. It invites you to shift from chasing to cherishing, from consuming to communing.
In releasing desire’s grasp, you do not lose your vitality — you refine it.
You begin to touch the essence of joy, which lives not at the end of longing, but in the heart that pauses, softens, and opens.
Let this not only be a concept, but a felt experience. As you breathe into the heart, may joy rise — quiet, unwilled, and free.
I warmly invite you to follow along with this series,
and to share with fellow seekers on the path of the heart.