Many seekers of truth along the path of spiritual awakening wish to find the "pot of gold at the end of the rainbow"--most tend to call this enlightenment, samahdi, oneness. Their goal in life is to remember who they are, to awaken to the essence of their true being within the cosmic spiral of creation. At the core of this awakening is essential joy, the joy of finding the essential Self. We will examine this extraordinary spiritual awakening and see how we can change our lives to enter into the sacred journey of the soul that can ultimately lead to this enlightenment, or bring us as close as possible and appropriate for us at this time.

Webster defines essential as a fundamental, irreducible constituent of a whole. When we find the truth about the meaning of our existence, we understand that we are ultimately and utterly connected and one with the Source of intelligence that contains all of existence. We are one with the universe and all energy therein. I define essential joy as that joy that lies at the core of this truth and permeates every aspect of our lives when discovered. It is finding the balance within, a balance that is just waiting to be revealed as we open to the essential Self - that part of our being that many call the soul.

I wish to share with you my journey to essential joy. Along the pathway of life, I found others' discoveries, trials, and wisdom to be so very valuable in my own search for truth and inner peace. I hope that by sharing the details of my journey you will find similarities with your own life challenges. Through trial and error and pure faith, I have been able to extricate myself from the destructive, neurotic beliefs that kept me in emotional darkness. I have moved from fear into trust, from inner chaos to balance, and from despair to joy. It has been a long journey and I hope that the information contained within this book can help to make your path lighter and more joyous and assist in quickening your expansion into your full magnificence.

Are you wondering about the meaning of the beautiful symbol on the cover of this book? Are you ready to hear about a journey of discovery in which you are led into a state of being that holds the possibility of your highest potential and deepest joy moment by moment? Are you open to making your contribution to world peace with the probability of deep contentment, even in the face of challenges, and a life of deep meaning and fulfillment on all levels?

The answers to these questions are sought by many of us as we strive to make meaning of our lives and to live in the fullness and balance that can encompass all areas of our existence, even in these challenging times. We seek inner peace and wish to reach deep down into the core of our beings so that we are expressing the richness of our gifts and talents, unencumbered by fear and timidity. We want joyous, satisfying relationships in which we and our partners can flourish and that catalyze the best within us. We wish to contribute to harmony on the planet by expressing our highest potential. We wish to make life a wondrous journey, full of the passion of discovery of our inner spirit and full magnificence.

Some feel that we should not be concerned with joy at this critical time in our human history. They say that joy is frivolous and that it is selfish to seek this state of being. I say that joy is essential to life because it touches our very reason for being and expresses the essence of the meaning of life. In joy, we resonate with the essence of the Source of Creation and utilize that energy to bring into harmony all of the aspects of human life that are pulled asunder by hate, greed, power and violence. In joy, there is no room for fear or need for control of others. In joy, we all are one and the sister/brotherhood of humanity supports our desperate need as a species for peace. Now, more than ever, the resonant power of joy can bring us together. Not the joy that is demonstrated by personal greed and superficial happiness, but the deep profound joy that unites us as a family in the knowledge that we are all one.

The purpose of this book is not to produce a false concept of joy in which we run away from the challenges of life and hide our heads in the sand of denial of our emotions and the inner need for growth. It is to learn to celebrate those catalysts for growth and to integrate the lessons they bring with the full knowledge of who we really are as spiritual beings experiencing life here in this dimension as expressions of God.

Is everything going well in your life, yet, you feel something is missing . . . an emptiness inside? Or possibly you have the feeling that you are missing something, and you can't put your finger on it? Is your life fulfilled and joyous . . . or is there an ever-present level of fear, anxiety, depression? Are you happy with the way your days unfold? Does life have true purpose and meaning to you? This book will assist you in getting clear answers and guidelines for yourself in order to open to your highest potential for true joy. For when one person comes into the expression of profound and meaningful joy, that one person affects all around them, producing a ripple effect that can change the world.

Many of us in the world today are overwhelmed with demands upon our time, challenges to achieve, uncertainty, and a sense of frustration lying deep within. Many people are walking around with a slight, but ever present, mild depression or they are feeling fear about the state of our world. Is this how your life is, too?

Awakening each day with an anticipation for fulfillment, expansion, and expectation of living this day in a sense of joy, no matter the outer circumstances, is the secret to the full expression of our joy. Of course, we have times of extreme inner peace . . . moments when we feel that all is well with the universe. The challenge is to see the bigger picture and trust the unfoldment of higher good in every one of life's moments.

I know without a doubt that everything we seek, if we stay in our purest intention for the highest good, is available to us, if not now, in the future. I know that whatever path we take to find the truth of ourselves will lead ultimately to joy. The truth, you know, lies within us. How many times have you heard this? . . . do you really believe it?

Why do we seek joy at all? Are we, as individuals, only concerned with our own fulfillment? Are we self-centered beings tied to our little lives, hoping to find our little niche of happiness for only ourselves and loved ones? I think not. I think that our true nature seeks to allow us to come into the fullness and richness of our essential selves! Why? . . . so that we can collectively rise to our highest and best as a species and create a world of peace, abundance for all, and radiant joy!

From the deepest part of our Being, I believe that we would love to see all of us on the planet have our needs met and live a totally fulfilled life! Why not? Wouldn't the planet be different if everyone were living a fulfilled life? Would there be any place for competition, greed, tyranny, or war?

We, as human beings, caught up in the mundane things of life, often ignore or forget about the deep meaning of life and our purposes for being here at all. We trudge along with our business, keeping our noses to the grindstone, completely ignoring the Light above us and within us. We miss the magic of life and the wonder and awe of this world when we entangle ourselves in the details, missing the magnificence of the essence. Touching the true essence of life and of our reason for being here brings essential joy and bliss into an existence that could otherwise be empty. We fill our lives up with busy activities, not allowing the natural flow of our soul's quest to find itself. This can lead to disease and death. What are we doing?

When we can touch the Light that we are; when we can make that spiritual connection with the Source of All-That-Is, we find our purpose for living and move easily into the oneness of spirit that is endless peace. Many believe that we are entering into a new age of enlightenment on this planet. There are prophets and mystics who speak of this world passing from the third dimension into the fourth and fifth dimensions. What does this mean? Is this true and inevitable evolution?

The way that I have been able to understand it and integrate it into my daily existence is to, first, allow that it is true. Just allow the possibility. Secondly, my search for truth took me to many spiritual workshops, experiences, books and such. I actively sought knowledge about religions and people's experience of spirituality. And thirdly, I have had many mystical experiences with beings from other realms which unmistakably convince me that there are other dimensions beyond what we perceive with our five senses. The universe is made up of energy and energy manifests in different ways, often in ways we do not perceive with our third dimensional minds. A dimension is only a change in vibrational frequency.

We can have the opportunity to access the power and majesty of our connection with the Source of all, the oneness of the universal matrix of unity and consciousness. We can resonate with the luminescent essence of our souls, become aware of the vehicles of grace that we are, and become beacons of Light as we are meant to be.

In this first book of my series of three books on the subject of joy, I will take you through my personal story of how I found the deep essential joy within and then show you how to find joy by fulfilling your basic human needs through the balance of the masculine and feminine qualities inherent in all of us.

This work was inspired by my husband's and my extraordinary experiences over the last eight years, swimming with the wild dolphins of Hawaii and our fascinating encounters with pilot whales and the majestic humpbacks.

True joy exploded in my being on our first trip to the Big Island of Hawaii, in pursuit of the magical, mystical dolphin experience in July 1993. We were invited by our good friend, Joan Ocean, world renowned dolphin communicator and author, to come along with her on her morning dolphin swim. We met her at her oceanside home and felt our excitement grow as we saw in her eyes the glint of glee that the dolphins were out there in the bay just waiting for us. The thought of being invited into the pod elicited both extreme anticipation and some timidity as we hurriedly got our gear together and entered the water. I have always been a great swimmer and even had some years as a life guard as a teen, but having snorkeled just once before, I had a bit of trepidation at the thought of swimming out into a very large bay in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Doug had many years of scuba experience and loved the ocean as if it was his natural home. In fact he can free dive about eighty-five feet. He took my hand and we three gently paddled out to meet our ocean friends. As we smoothly made our way toward the middle of the bay where the dolphins play, we began to hear their high pitched singing ringing in our ears. It was a delightful sensation and heightened our excitement with every kick of our fins. They sounded so joyous and an air of anticipation surrounded us.

The sounds became louder as we approached the general area where the dolphins swim. I could feel the goose bumps on my skin vibrate with excitement. Joan lifted her head and urged us to do the same so that we could see in the distance the black dorsal fins of the dolphins breaking the surface as they came up to breathe. They were about 100 feet away and seemed to be coming toward us. We put our heads back down into the water and I could feel my heart pounding in my chest. The water was a deep turquoise blue, clear as crystal with streams of light dancing below us seeming to come right out of the sand and reaching upward in shimmering cosmic waves to the surface. The ocean held us in a warm embrace and we floated forward as if suspended in the universe. We could see the white sand beneath us and felt as though we were entering a world of magic. We knew in our hearts that this would be an extraordinary experience.

I gazed into the depths and looked all around us hoping to see the dolphins approaching us. Within just a few minutes, I began to feel a sensation on my skin that was delicious and felt as though millions of tiny, soft electrical shocks were being administered in waves of pulsation to every cell. At the same time, I could hear a pulsating purring sound that reminded me of a very happy kitten. From Joan's video, I knew that this was the dolphins' sonar.

Soon, my eyes widened with pleasure at the site of a beautiful spinner dolphin gliding toward me under the water. First there was one, then three, then eight or more. Majestic beings! Their exotic coloring delighted me. Their noses (rostrums) were long and sleek, unlike the bottlenose dolphins often seen in the movies, and their eyes were deep and tender, reminding me of the soft eyes of deer. They felt like old friends and my heart leapt with joy as they came right up to us and enfolded us in the pod. We giggled and laughed till our snorkel masks filled up with water! An explosion of wonder engulfed our senses and we marveled at the precious moments that unfolded. More and more dolphins surrounded us until we felt as though we were just one of the pod. We happily found ourselves gliding along right next to the dolphins as the world slipped away and we knew we were in an eternal moment of bliss.

That first day, we spent hours in giddy play. The dolphins graced us with their playful presence and opened our hearts to a deeper level than we had ever felt before. They stayed with us until we were spent with joy, slipping away to the end of the bay to leave us breathless and in awe. I knew that my life had changed profoundly within those few hours. Little did I know, though, that it would change so dramatically. The seed of joy was planted in my heart and I knew that we were being immersed in the deep profound joy of Spirit to some day, some how share with the world.

Looking into the eye of a humpback whale is an experience that moved me into the depths of my soul and catalyzed the unfolding of this work of deep essential joy. Seven years after the dolphins initiated the process, a whale calf came eye to eye with me during a group excursion in the Dominican Republic.

As our group of ten eager souls, hoping for a fantastic encounter in the ocean with the enormous cetaceans, excitedly clamored onto our small boat, the anticipation could be felt deep in our bones. We happily headed out to sea, breathing in the salty ocean air and feeling the warm Caribbean sun lighting up our grins of joy. We bounced along in glee, searching in all directions for the telltale spout of the whales. Like excited little children on an Easter egg hunt, the slightest sign of a change in the ocean surface brought an inhalation of expectation as we waited to see what it was.

Finally, we spotted a small spout of water and air about fifty yards away. This was a baby whale, a calf! Our captain pulled the boat ever so gently over toward the whale, so that we were about twenty feet away, and urged us to very quietly slip into the water. By this time we had all of our snorkel gear on and were ready to go. Doug and I positioned ourselves on the side of the boat so that we could easily and quietly enter the ocean. We gently lowered ourselves into the water and held our breaths, feeling our hearts pounding in our chests. The mother whale was hanging about twenty feet away from us and suspended twenty feet below the surface. Our eyes were mesmerized by her enormous size, but mostly by her gentle nature. We gazed upon her, knowing that we were experiencing something profound and awesome and felt as though we were in another world altogether. We knew that she trusted us as she deeply gazed into our eyes, sending waves of love into our hearts, opening the doors for universal wisdom.

Her calf was above her floating on the surface twenty feet away. We were suspended in this profound instant of time, in awe of each other, for what seemed to be a timeless moment. The calf, then, turned toward us and gently made its way directly to us with a grace that was very beautiful. We wondered how close she would come to us and if the mother whale would let her come very near. At about an eight-foot distance, the calf turned again so that she could look directly into our eyes. At that profound moment, I felt the expanse of the universe exploding in my third eye. In her eye I could "see" the oneness of all things; I could touch the divinity inherent within the matrix of life. I could feel a depth of wisdom that reached deep down to the core of my being, to the true essence of connection. It was sacred and indescribable. I would never be the same. I knew I was to stop my outer activities and go deep within to find the deep essential joy to share with the world.

I invite you to open your rational mind while you read this book. Open your heart and allow the information to be held in your heart center while you discern if one or another of the ideas, meditations or exercises here resonate with you and your own truth. This is my journey and perception of truth and I wish to share with you simple steps I have discovered which can lead toward awakening the spirit within. Of course, it is up to you to discover, reject, or embrace any of the information within these pages. I hope it awakens within you a deeper exploration of who you really are and a discovery of deep essential joy for you and for all.