Humans incline towards the same fundamental desires. If we all share joy as our fundamental desire, why is it that we differ so much in our specific desires, and even more in what we believe and in how we act?
The difference in how different individuals approach the search for joy—or if they do at all—generates significant differences in the amounts of joy they encounter. While we may share the same fundamental desire, we do not share the same external circumstances or internal qualities. We differ in our beliefs and how thoroughly we edit and live them, our experiences and their interpretations, and the direction and intensity of our efforts.
Joy can come from different sources, and the source you choose to recognize is part of the reason for the wildly different ranges of intensity of joy experienced between and within people. Joy can come through bodily sensation or mental meaning, and they are not equal. Joy that comes from bodily sensation occupies a range of intensities, but is drastically limited compared to the upper bounds of joy that comes from meaning. Joy through meaning comes from the alignment of your actions and your chosen purpose.
The intensity of joy you experience will also depend on the value of the meaning you’ve chosen and the degree to which you have sacrificed to that meaning.
The value of the meaning you’ve chosen is a composite of the actual value of the meaning and the value you perceive. You will experience the lesser of the two, meaning you can’t enduringly experience greater value than something actually has, and you can’t experience greater value than the limits of your perception of its actual value.
Your ability to maximize joy will depend on your discovery and choice of what has the greatest value. This is why it is so vital to understand as much of reality as accurately as possible. You have to comprehend what was, what is, and what will be. Only then can you fully view the range of options before you and the value of each.
It’s important to realize that the options of greatest value will carry the greatest price. The price of things of great value act as a gate controlling who has access to them: those who do not understand the value of great things will never pay the price required to obtain them.