Please explain joy and/or the Kimatthiyasutta Can you explain something about joy?

For example it's mentioned in AN 11.1:


  “But what’s the purpose and benefit of having no regrets?”
  “Avippaṭisāro pana, bhante, kimatthiyo kimānisaṃso”?
  
  “Joy is the purpose and benefit of having no regrets.”
  “Avippaṭisāro kho, ānanda, pāmojjattho pāmojjānisaṃso”.


I can imagine several specific question, please answer any or none of these (from scripture or experience, any tradition of Buddhism).

I'm especially interested in the context of everyday lay life, rather than specifically/only during formal meditation.


Can you explain the joy/rapture/tranquillity/bliss/immersion sequence? What's the difference between these, what's the connection? Is some of this specifically meditative? I'm guessing that at least the start of the sequence, "skilful ethics" isn't only meditative. If this is too long to explain in an answer is there a text/reference you recommend instead?
Does some condition or thing cause joy, apart from a lack of remorse? Is it a matter of choice, at all? When dukkha arises would you say "that's dukkha, I'd better wait for it to cease", or would you say, "that's dukkha, I'd better 'choose joy' instead?"
Is it "primarily ethical", if that makes sense as a question, e.g. if ethics is doing the right thing then is joy (or choosing joy, or intending joy) also "the right thing" in that way?
Would I be right to assume that these maybe happen in stages, like one before the other -- with earlier ones having each next one as their eventual purpose? Is it something of a gradual training, does it make sense to focus on sometimes improving or cultivating one stage (e.g. joy)? How do you "cultivate" joy (is it only by cultivating skilful ethics and non-remorse or...)?
I'm a bit conscious of this answer:


  People need Buddhism when their current raft has sunk. If there is food on the table, a comfortable place to sleep, and they have no complaints about their daily routine, then our jobs as Buddhists is to rejoice in their success (mudita).
  
  Anyhow, I don't claim to have a good solution for the problem-- how do we stay optimistic and positive or happy once we realize the muddle we are in, but at least the Mahayana version, provides a path towards how to find happiness-- by taking action to solve everyone's problems.


Do you agree with that and is that all there is to say on that subject?

Does it happen that Buddhism provides a new raft, or tells a person how to swim, but they still tend to be "depressed" e.g. unhappy and ineffective, as well as troubled or restless?
There's an illustration of "household joy" and "renunciation joy" at the end of this question. Assuming I can imagine a bit what "household joy" might be, would it be worth explaining that illustration of "renunciation joy"?

"Joy" seems to me to appear quite late in the "Ten Bulls" sequence -- relatively late compared to its being quite early in the Kimatthiyasutta -- i.e. it's the last, Return to society, which says, "I am ever blissful" etc. Is that significant? Or maybe it's earlier, like at the 5th of 6th stage.
The word for joy in AN 1.11 is "pamojja":


  Pāmojja (p. 454) Pāmojja Pāmojja=pāmujja
  
  Pāmujja (p. 453) Pāmujja Pāmujja (nt.) [grd. form. tr. pa+mud, see
  similar forms under pāmokkha] delight, joy, happiness; often combd
  with pīti. -- D i.72, 196; S iii.134; iv.78=351; v.156, 398; A iii.21;
  v.1 sq., 311 sq., 339, 349; Sn 256; Nett 29; DA i.217; Sdhp 167. See
  also pāmojja.


The connection here is to the five hindrances.

From SN 46.40:


  “Bhikkhus, these five hindrances are makers of blindness, causing lack
  of vision, causing lack of knowledge, detrimental to wisdom, tending
  to vexation, leading away from Nibbāna. What five? The hindrance of
  sensual desire is a maker of blindness … The hindrance of ill will …
  The hindrance of sloth and torpor … The hindrance of restlessness and
  remorse … The hindrance of doubt is a maker of blindness … leading
  away from Nibbāna. These five hindrances are makers of blindness,
  causing lack of vision, causing lack of knowledge, detrimental to
  wisdom, tending to vexation, leading away from Nibbāna.


Ajahn Brahm commented on remorse (kukkucca) in this essay:


  Remorse refers to a specific type of restlessness which is the kammic
  effect of one's misdeeds. The only way to overcome remorse, the
  restlessness of a bad conscience, is to purify one's virtue and become
  kind, wise and gentle. It is virtually impossible for the immoral or
  the self indulgent to make deep progress in meditation.


So, basically, the purpose or virtue or ethics is to remove remorse, in such a way that it will cause the arising of joy. From joy, it goes next to rapture (piti), then tranquility (passadha) then bliss (sukha).

Piti and sukha seems to refer to jhana.

Hence, the joy arising from the removal of remorse, is basically the effect of the removal of the hindrance of remorse i.e. kukkucca (which is tied to kammic effect of one's misdeeds), by inculcating virtues. Why is it called a hindrance? It's because it hinders progress in meditation, immersion and insight.

Once the hindrance of remorse is removed, then joy results. With this joy (and the removal of all other hindrances), one can progress more easily into jhana.

There is only one small problem here. The word for remorse in AN 1.11 is "vippatisara", while the word for remorse in SN 46.40 as a hindrance is "kukkucca". But the dictionary entry for kukkucca solves this problem:


  Vippaṭisāra (p. 628) Vippaṭisāra Vippaṭisāra [vi+paṭisāra] bad
  conscience, remorse, regret, repentance Vin ii.250; D i.138; S
  iii.120, 125; iv.46; A iii.166, 197, 353; iv.69; J iv.12; v.88; Pug
  62; DhA iv.42; VvA 116; PvA 14, 60, 105, 152. -- a˚ no regret, no
  remorse A iii.46.
  
  Kukkucca (p. 218) Kukkucca Kukkucca [kud -- kicca] 1. bad doing,
  misconduct, bad character. Def. kucchitaŋ kataŋ kukataŋ tassa bhāvo
  kukkuccaŋ Vism 470 &amp; Bdhd 24; -- Various explanations in Nd2 on Sn
  1106=Dhs 1160, in its literal sense it is bad behaviour with hands and
  feet (hattha -- pada˚) J i.119=DA i.42 (in combn with ukkāsita &amp;
  khipitasadda); hattha˚ alone J ii.142. -- 2. remorse, scruple, worry.
  In this sense often with vippaṭissāra; and in conn. w. uddhacca it is
  the fourth of the five nīvaraṇas (q. v.) Vin i.49; iv.70; D i.246; S
  i.99; M i.437; A i.134=Sn 1106; A i.282; Sn 925; Nd2 379; DhA iii.483;
  iv.88; Sdhp 459; Bdhd 96. -- na kiñci k˚ŋ na koci vippaṭissāreti "has
  nobody any remorse?" S iii.120=iv.46. The dispelling of scrupulousness
  is one of the duties and virtues of a muni: k˚ŋ vinodetuŋ A v.72; k.
  pahāya D i.71=A ii.210=Pug 59; chinnakukkucca (adj.) free from remorse
  M i.108; khīṇāsava k˚ -- vūpasanta S i.167=Sn 82. -- akukkucca (adj.)
  free from worry, having no remorse Sn 850. Kukkuccaŋ kurute (c. gen.)
  to be scrupulous about J i.377; kariŋsu DhA iv.88; cp. kukkuccaŋ
  āpajjati (expl. by sankati) J iii.66.