Thursday, March 16, 2006

On My Gratitude Practice, Day 8

[Image source]


During today's mindfulness session (very cool), we talked a little bit about impermanence and gratitude. The two go hand in hand. All things must pass; all living beings must die. To celebrate impermanence, we should feel gratitude for the things in life that we value.

The problem for most of us is that we feel attachment more than gratitude. We grasp to the things we value and cherish. It's a natural response of the ego to do so. Ego fears change, impermanence.

But we can override its grasping by cherishing, by feeling gratitude.

Today, I am grateful for the Dharma. I am grateful for these teachings that offer a way out of grasping and suffering.

I am also grateful for smokehouse almonds, but I think that might be edging over into grasping. And, that's . . . okay.

What are you grateful for?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm grateful that my intuition led me to take an energy medicine workshop today. I've had mysterious physical challenges for many years, and today's workshop introduced me to new tools for exploring possibilities that I've always suspected existed but never before encountered in an accessible way. I suspect I'm on the edge of something that's going to make a big difference in my life.

Umguy said...

The sound of a pedal steel guitar. And then guitar in general. And then the wonder of music.