Gratefulness

[Guest guest]

Osho:

The moment one is capable of feeling grateful for both pain and

pleasure, without any distinction, without any choice, simply feeling

grateful for whatsoever is given... Because if it is given by God, it

must have a reason in it. We may like it, we may not like it, but it

must be needed for our growth. Winter and summer are both needed for

growth. Once this idea settles in the heart, then each moment of life

is of gratitude. Let this become your meditation and prayer: thank

God every moment--for laughter, for tears, for everything. Then you

will see a silence arising in your heart that you have not known

before. That is bliss.

The first thing is to accept life as it is. Accepting it, desires

disappear. Accepting life as it is, tensions disappear, discontent

disappears; accepting it as it is, one starts feeling very joyful--

and for no reason at all! When joy has a reason, it is not going to

last long. When joy is without any reason, it is going to be there

forever. It happened in the life of a very famous Zen woman. Her name

was Rengetsu.... Very few women have attained to the Zen ultimate.

This one is one of those rare women. She was on a pilgrimage and she

came to a village at sunset and begged for lodging for the night, but

the villagers slammed their doors. They were against Zen. Zen is so

revolutionary, so utterly rebellious, that it is very difficult to

accept it. By accepting it you are going to be transformed; by

accepting it you will be passing through a fire, you will never be

the same again. Traditional people have always been against all that

is true in religion. Tradition is all that is untrue in religion. So

those must have been traditional Buddhists in the town, and they

didn't allow this woman to stay in the town; they threw her out. It

was a cold night, and the old woman was without lodging, and hungry.

She had to make her shelter underneath a cherry tree in the fields.

It was really cold, and she could not sleep well. And it was

dangerous too--wild animals and all. At midnight she awoke--because

of too much cold--and saw, in the night sky, the fully-opened cherry

blossoms laughing to the misty moon. Overcome with the beauty, she

got up and bowed down in the direction of the village, with these

words: Through their kindness in refusing me lodging I found myself

beneath the blossoms on the night of this misty moon... She feels

grateful. With great gratitude she thanks those people who refused

her lodging; otherwise she would be sleeping under an ordinary roof

and she would have missed this blessing--these cherry blossoms, and

this whispering with the misty moon, and this silence of the night,

this utter silence of the night. She is not angry, she accepts it.

Not only accepts it, welcomes it--she feels grateful. One becomes a

buddha the moment one accepts all that life brings, with gratitude.

[Guest guest]

Thank you for that interesting article. Most of us do not find

happiness because we do not accept the things given to us. If the

things are not to our liking, we say we are suffering, and if they

are to our liking, then we say God has fulfilled our prayers.

 

Assuming a hypthetical situation, where all our desires are satisfied

and if there were no problems in life, would we really be happy?

 

Hari Aum !!!