PLEASURE, JOY, HAPPINESS AND MORE

Ashok SILWAL

When you talk about
Pleasure, joy, happiness..
And you try to “define” them,
Using various grammatical forms
Like nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs,
To indicate similar moods
But the same……
You apply metaphors, images, symbols..
And you find words like
Contentment, satisfaction, cheerfulness,
Delight, exultation, enjoyment…
To name just a few,
Well aware that each of us
Has different emotions and concepts of them;
There are many different shades
In moods that change from person to person.
I don’t want to make references here
To scientific psychology manuals.
I would like , without presumption,
To base myself on my personal experience,
Trying to see myself a little more clearly!
Asking poetry for help..

Perhaps, in this context, the most spontaneous,
Most immediate, most direct emotion is
PLEASURE.
It is said that pleasure is like
Wild grass growing between stones.
It’s a moment that passes,
It excites us because it arises from senses.
Pleasure is sensual:
Whether it is the scent of a flower,
That inebriates us,
Or the taste of food or beer on the tongue,
Or a look in ours, or a landscape or a painting,
Or a particularly sweet music in our ears;
And what about a caress on bare skin,
A loving embrace… body against body..
When sensuality of pleasure
Is confused with sexuality…
Pleasure is an exaltation of the senses:
Sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch.
It is a sense of life and satisfaction,
Fulfillness of appetite, of desires,
A reason for enjoyment.
The pleasure is often overwhelming and uncontrolled;
It is strongly felt but also ephemeral.
It is also joyful.

So how do you distinguish pleasure from joy?

JOY is a storm that falls from the sky
And then rises towards it.
It’s like a grace coming from elsewhere.
Joy is exuberant, noisy but very positive.
It is that of the children in the schoolyard,
The screams of the fans if the team won,
Relatives and guests wishing happy birthday
Singing at the top of lungs during the party.
Joy bursts!
We dance for joy, we shout for joy, we jump for joy
Even we cry for joy..
When what we feel is so strained and deep
That laughter and crying merge.;
I remember this kind of indefinable emotion
At the birth of my children..
Joy then delights us above ourselves.
There is something instinctive in the joy:
When you reach goal or your wish comes true.
Joy is often collective;
You scream, you dance, and jump..with relatives and friends!

And just as joy is different from pleasure,
The two are different from happiness.

HAPPINESS is a very calm lake that shines under the sun.
Happiness is a state that strives to last.
It is silent, calm, sweet,
It is a state of intimate satisfaction
That starts from loving yourself.
Happiness soothes us.
It is a sense of well being, of contentment,
A kind of satiety.
In front of a beautiful landscape
Feeling immersed in Nature,
Wrapped in tenderness,
Without any worry,
In a meditative silence.
It is an emotion that have a spiritual dimension,
Better experienced alone…
When you just want to close your eyes
And smile at the sky.

Of course , everyone has their own pleasures,
Their own joys, their own happiness….
And if they are different emotions,
They are also one inside the other.
Everyone has tried to give a definition:
Philosophers, scholars, men of letters, religious people..
But.. there is no single answer.
To each their own attempts..
Trying and managing to be
As at peace with himself as possible..
Be it contentment, delight,
Cheerfulness, satisfaction, exultation….

PLEASURE, JOY, HAPPINESS ..
In the Epicurean CARPE DIEM.

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