It sounds like you're confusing the emotional state of joy (short-term, easily accessible) with the level of consciousness of joy (long-term, takes a lot of conscious development to reach). The first one is how you feel in the moment, and you can experience it via Power of Now techniques and the like. The second one is your background level of awareness, which is an entirely different kind of beast.
I freely admit it's problematic to use the word joy to describe both. I think it makes sense to use joy to describe the emotional state, but it's probably not the best term to use to describe the level of consciousness. I'm at a bit of a loss for a better word though. Joy is the emotional residue of that particular level of consciousness, but the underlying structure of it is far more complex IMO. Perhaps a good word to describe it is truth, since it feel like the true nature of reality really opens up at that point, and life becomes much easier.
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