Our Suffering World All over the world, people are suffering. That’s nothing new. We humans have been hurting one another since before we painted images of war on the walls of caves; and we hunt our furred and feathered cousins for food, or clothing, or just for sport; and now, in breathtaking numbers, we cut down the trees whose leaves turn our pollution into something breathable, and heat up our planet beyond repair. It seems there can be no life without pain. So suffering has always been with us. Lately, though, it has reached the point of explosion. With the pandemic, we became isolated. Businesses folded, employees lost jobs, schools…
-
-
The Shadow Side of Gratitude
Grateful to Be Alive What a thing it is to be alive, to see the many shades of the sky, feel the softness of the moss, listen to the wind rustle the leaves. Even to know the sharp stab of loss is a gift, because the pain means we’ve known love. In the face of disaster and death, we can still be grateful for having lived. When we are grateful, we feel better. It’s true that we all struggle with something. Life wounds us. We have limitations. Maybe we’re blind, or lonely, or have lost limbs. Yet we can still be grateful for whatever senses we do have, for the…
-
Gratitude Amidst Oneness
Our Instinct to Survive We humans are born with an instinct to survive. When our lives are threatened, we get anxious and fight back or seek assistance. That’s because we perceive ourselves to be separate individuals. Many of us understand ourselves to be unique and valuable, as well. Even if we believe in a life after death, we tend to want to preserve our individual, unique, and valuable self. A number of religions, such as Buddhism, Hinduism, and Pantheism, teach that this belief in an individual self is an illusion. If so, it is an illusion that has a purpose. It keeps us going in the face of hardship and…
-
Grateful for Everything
For Everything in Our Lives Lyricist Bruce Findlow, in his song, “For All that Is Our Life,” said that we should offer “thanks and praise” for everything that happens to us. Whether it’s sorrow, failure, fear, or other pain we experience, we should be grateful. [1] He’s not the only spiritual teacher who has proclaimed this. For instance, Rumi, in his poem “The Guest House,” tells us to “welcome” everything that comes to us, and not just welcome it, but also “entertain” it. Each experience is a guest whom we should treat with hospitality. No matter if that guest is a sadness so deep it takes from us all the…
-
Does God Feel Grateful?
Does God Feel Gratitude? Although we start each of our Sunday-afternoon circles with a particular topic, one can never be certain what we will end up talking about. For instance, we once got sidetracked when one of our members asked, “Does God feel gratitude?” How do you answer a question like that? First, what do we mean by “God”? Second, even if we could define that ultimate entity, how can we understand its experiences? After all, we don’t know that the Divine has emotions, at least as we understand them, and gratitude, as I am defining it, is an emotion. Which brings us to our third question: what is gratitude,…
-
Simplicity, Thanksgiving, and Gratitude
Life is a Struggle The other day I spoke with a woman who, for the last six months, has been on light duty at her job. When she first stopped working at a position that required almost constant data entry into a computer, her elbows were so inflamed with tendinitis she had to cradle her tea cup in both hands in order to lift it to her lips so she could take a sip. Although her forearm muscles have strengthened and the discomfort has lessened, she still can’t type on a keyboard. Using a mouse brings her stabbing pain. Voice-activated technology is so cumbersome, is it pretty much useless to…
-
Gratitude and the Three Buddhist Personality Types
Buddhist Personality Types While reading Jack Kornfield’s book, The Wise Heart, I was reminded of the three Buddhist personality types: greedy, aversive, and deluded. [1] Thinking about this week’s theme of gratitude, I wondered if one of those types is more naturally grateful than the others. If so, I suspected it might be the greedy type. This one takes in the beauty of the world, appreciates sights and smells, lingers over coffee, loves his friend’s remodeled kitchen, and sometimes covets his neighbor’s new coat or car. Taken to an extreme, this type can end up stealing, seeking power, or getting lost in pride or addiction. I figured the aversive type, on the…