James Baraz is the founder of Awakening Joy, an internationally recognized course designed to awaken well-being through practices inspired by Buddhist thought. James speaks simply and eloquently about the key elements at the heart of the program: “Love is contagious. Joy is contagious. Putting happiness at the center of life becomes the greatest gift that you can give others.” The Awakening Joy course has been taken by more than 20,000 people around the world since its introduction in 2003.
James has taught mindfulness meditation since 1978 and is co-founder of the world-renowned Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California. He is co-author of two books Awakening Joy: 10 Steps to a Happier Life and Awakening Joy for Kids.
His latest Awakening Joy course kicked off on January 26, 2021 with over 600 attendees. The course, which includes live Zoom sessions every other week, is archived online along with practice letters on each of the 10 themes and available to registrants on the web over the course of the entire year, so it’s not too late to sign up for this year’s course.
According to James, “I believe every person wants to be happy. At the core, all of our actions are motivated by a longing for genuine well-being. Our own well-being and joy have the capacity to awaken those qualities in others around us, becoming a gift to everyone we meet.”
Awakening Joy in These Times
In these days of Covid-19, James is more motivated than ever to share this material with others. At this moment of time—with the pandemic reality, isolation, economic hardship, divisiveness and various kinds of suffering, as well as a planet in need of healing—he feels that all who are committed to making this a better world are called upon to awaken as much consciousness, love and skillful action as we can. He hopes his course contributes to that urgent need. Awakening joy, or awakening love, or awakening consciousness—he sees them as all the same.
It’s said in Taoism that life consists of “10,000 Joys and 10,000 Sorrows”. James feels it’s important to see that we have a choice how to respond to life. If we see only the sorrows we’re weighed down by negativity. If we see only the joys we live in denial and can’t respond to the suffering around us with wise compassion.
The course offers practices to learn how to skillfully work with our negative thoughts and feelings so they don’t rule our actions help us through these difficult times. In addition, practicing other healthy habits such as gratitude, integrity and compassionate help awaken all the goodness inside. What’s more, they affect those around us. Just as fear and hatred are contagious, goodness and caring are contagious, too. He sees each person who takes this course as an agent of goodness.
As previously mentioned, James was part of a group that founded the widely-respected Spirit Rock Meditation Center in 1986. At Spirit Rock, he has served on the Board of Directors and the Governing Teachers Council, as well as founding (with his wife Jane) Spirit Rock’s Family Program in the early 90’s. It was through the Family Program that James met OW&E’s Linda Joy Kattwinkel, who, along with her family, has been a long-time participant since 1995, when her son Miles was 5. Linda Joy served on the Spirit Rock Family Council for over ten years.
Today, Linda Joy assists James with legal matters relating to Awakening Joy, including copyright and trademark protection, and licensing agreements, for the Awakening Joy brand. She has also provided advice relating to the Awakening Joy teacher training program, including drafting the teacher agreement, which allows those who have completed the training to lead groups, classes and daylong workshops, while giving credit to Awakening Joy and James.
James says that the teacher training is one of the most rewarding things that he has ever done. There are currently 52 Awakening Joy Teachers around the world, including Australia, Ireland, Canada, Brazil, UK, Germany, France, Israel and the US. The popularity of the teacher program is growing quickly and there are 37 teachers-in-training in the 2021 class – all of whom are taking a group through the complete Awakening Joy course with James’ guidance. “I love to mentor and share what I can,” said James. “I see bringing out the best in people as one of my main tasks.”
James created two programs at Spirit Rock in the same spirit. He writes on the Awakening Joy website: “The Community Dharma Leaders program (CDL) has developed hundreds of leaders sharing the principles that we teach at Spirit Rock with communities all over the world. I also created and wrote the guidelines for the Kalyana Mitta (KM) or Spiritual Friends Network, which spawned hundreds of small peer-led groups.”
James concludes: “The thought that in leading this training I can help create a network of leaders who can support many more people in cultivating greater joy and consciousness in the world using the AJ materials brings me great happiness.”