When I come to see something really clearly, catching a bad thought in the middle of daily activities, for instance, it often triggers joy in me.
I feel I have insight.
Do you think this joy is wholesome or is it based on ego?
How to deal with it?
Again, the importance or the usefulness of the Abhidhamma.
Joy
Somanasa can be either wholesome or unwholesome.
In and of itself, it's neither.
It can be accompanied by wholesomeness or unwholesomeness.
If you like something and that has a joy associated with it, then that's unwholesome.
If you do something positive, like help someone else or cultivate insight and joy comes spontaneously from that, then that's neutral.
If you do something wholesome and you feel good about that wholesomeness and feel joy doing good deeds at the moment of doing, then that's wholesome.
But it's not wholesome because of the feeling.
It's not wholesome because of the joy.
Joy is indeterminate.
It's a part of the mind that is neither positive or negative.
It's indeterminate.
It's neutral.
Depends what it's accompanied with.
And it can come in three spots.
One, in an unwholesome mind.
Two, in a wholesome mind.
And three, in a mind that is the result of a wholesome mind.
So feeling happy because of something good that you've done.
The first one is unwholesome, the second one is wholesome, but the third one, the result is neutral.
And in all three cases, the quality of the mind is not determined by the joy.
So joy is indeterminate.
You see how useful the Abhidhamma is?
I can answer that question without any doubt.
Whether you believe me or not, this is another thing.
Dealing with it is just to say to yourself, happy, happy, feeling, feeling.
If you like it, say liking, liking, and so on.
See it for what it is.