Gratitude For Life - Dharma Wisdom

[Guest guest]

I am working off a theme of an article by Philip Moffitt from this

month's YOGA JOURNAL, on 'Selfless Gratitude'. He speaks on how we can

always feel gratitude for being alive, even when it doesn't seem that

way, being a very powerful form of of mindfulness practice particularly

for students who have depressive or self-defeating feelings...and those

who habitually notice everything that's wrong in a situation. I resemble

those remarks and was inspired to take note at these subjects.

Says Moffitt, "Practicing mindfulness of gratitude consistently leads

to a direct experience of being connected to life and the realization

that there is a larger context in which your personal story is

unfolding... Gratitude can soften a heart which has become too guarded,

and it builds the capacity for forgiveness, which creates the clarity of

mind that is ideal for spiritual development."

I personally experience those concepts alive in my heart when I

forgive I become akin somewhat to those whom I am forgiving and

recognize my self as part of the BIGGER picture in which no other way

have I done so.

Moffitt is clear to point out that the practice of gratitude is not

in any way a denial of life's difficulties...nor deny the Buddha's

teachings on Death. We live in troubling times and challenges,

uncertainties and disappointments abound - and Death is certain whilst

the time of Death is uncertain. "Rather, gratitude practice is useful

because it turns the mind in such a way that it enables you to live into

life or, more accurately to die into life. Having access to the joy and

wonderment of life is the antidote to feelings of scarcity and loss. It

allows you to meet life's difficulties with an open heart. The

understanding you gain from practicing gratitude frees you from being

lost or identified with either the negative or the positive aspects of

life, letting you simply meet life in each moment as it arises."

 

"There is a very old Sufi story about a man whose son captured a

strong, beautiful, wild horse, and all the neighbors told the man how

fortunate he was. The man patientlt replied, "We will see." One day the

horse threw the son who broke his leg, and all the neighbors told the

man how cursed he was that the son had ever found the horse. Again the

man answered, "We will see." Soon after the son broke his leg, soldiers

came to the village and took away all the able-bodied young men, but the

son was spared. When the man's friend's told him how lucky the broken

leg was, the man would only say, "We will see." Gratitude for

participating in the mystery of life is like this."

[Guest guest]

Thanks for sending this Valerie, I have a client who certainly is interested

in reading this, as it corroborates an experience of hers just the other

day.

 

Wim

 

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