I call it Joy, which is here a technical term and must be sharply distinguished both from Happiness and Pleasure. Joy (in my sense) has indeed one characteristic, and one only, in common with them; the fact that anyone who has experienced it will want it again… I doubt whether anyone who has tasted it would ever, if both were in his power, exchange it for all the pleasures in the world. But then Joy is never in our power and Pleasure often is.
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This is a portion of a passage from C.S. Lewis’s book *Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life*.
The best answer to your question on what Lewis was describing will be found in his book.
My own interpretation is that the experience he names “Joy” is one that comes into a person’s awareness/psyche from outside the person. A person can, by his/her own efforts, bring the experiences that Lewis names “Happiness” and “Pleasure”, but not “Joy”. “Joy” comes as a result of other forces/influences that don’t obey the person’s efforts.
I believe the person is trying to state that joy is an immediate and greater pleasure, you feel the effects of joy with whatever you are doing, but the feeling soon fades into lesser emotions. Happiness and pleasure are more sustained and lessere motions, according to the person. They also view joy as a more extreme emotion than the other two. Thus, experiencing joy is rare, you experience joy only at the height of your excitement and when you take true pleasure in your actions, pleasure, and happiness are experienced more frequently, and are a combination of many things. Joy is a pure emotion.
Probably some bs but it’s hard to tell out of context. Is it a work of fiction, self help, Facebook meme? Might be able to figure it out with a idea of context.
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