Buddhism is criticised for being 'pessimistic', yet the Buddha often spoke of joy being in the world. Joy can be relatively coarse (arising from inefficient actions, e.g. hunting) or refined (arising from efficient actions, e.g. keeping the precepts). The joy which meditation can develop is better than these, since it's not based on attachment (to inefficiency or efficiency), but on acceptance of ourselves as we truly are, without comparisons.

Alan James founded the House of Inner Tranquillity, along with his wife Jacqui James in 1980. He continued to teach the way to enlightenment until his retirement in 2010.   

This talk was given in October 1985