“If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.”
-Meister Eckhart
Normally we are only grateful for the things in life that we consider to be good, and often times we even forget to be grateful for the good things. One step we can make towards non-dual awareness is to be grateful for everything that happens in our life.
“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
-Hamlet, in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet
We don’t have enough information to know whether the things that happen to us are good or bad. Sometimes, such as in the case of the Stoic philosopher Zeno, who lost a vast fortune which in turn led him to become a great philosopher, a devastating loss can become the greatest thing that ever happens in your life. Consider the following Taoist story about a farmer:
One of my favorite Tibetan Lojong mind-training slogans is number thirteen:
“Be grateful to everyone.”
Pema Chodron provides the following commentary on why it’s important to be grateful to everyone:
Others will always show you exactly where you are stuck, they say or do something and you automatically get hooked into a familiar way of reacting - shutting down, speeding up, or getting all worked up. When you act in the habitual way, with anger, greed, and so forth, it gives you a chance to see your patterns and work with them honestly and compassionately. Without others provoking you, you remain ignorant of your painful habits and cannot train in transforming them into the path of awakening.
Positive and negative experiences are two sides of the same coin. You couldn’t have “good” experiences without “bad.” You wouldn’t even know that a “good” experience was “good” if you didn’t have the contrast of “bad” experiences. Difficult people and situations give us the opportunity to develop patience and compassion, which are very good things indeed.
“Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy.” - Thomas Merton
Being grateful to the difficult people in our lives is the first step towards loving them as we love ourselves. Gratitude bridges the gap between our anger, and our love.
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.
James 1:2
In closing, once again I leave you with the words of that great Christian Mystic, Thomas Merton:
“To be grateful is to recognize the love of God in everything that is given us and that has given us everything. Every breath we draw is a gift of God’s love, every moment of existence is a grace, for it brings with it immense graces. Gratitude therefore takes nothing for granted, is never unresponsive, is constantly awakening to new wonder and to the praise of the goodness of God. For the grateful person knows that God is good, not by hearsay, but by experience, and that is what makes all the difference.”
Be grateful to everyone…what a nice and powerful sentiment. Thank you for sharing.