Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

Sign In Register
Examples: Monday, today, last week, Mar 26, 3/26/04
Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.

Gratitude/Interdependance

wolfscalissiwolfscalissi
edited June 2005 in Buddhism Basics
I posted this at another site about a week ago and I thought this was a good place to share this


I am deeply aware of this tonight. Meditation awareness practice has led me to this in a very strong way. How can we not be humbled by all of the things we have? How could we not be gratefull to the point of complete humility?

I'll begin with what I call the "tuna-fish theory". I was in the store yesterday and I watched a lady have a raging fit at a store clerk because they were out of canned tuna. as soon as I heard her anger and watched this unfold I felt a deep and amazing feeling. I dont know how to describe it but it led me to the following thoughts. do you realize what it takes to get just one can of tuna on a shelf at a store? think about it! boats had to be built out of trees that had to be grown by men who had to be born. Boats in the sea, men casting nets to catch fish that were born in the sea.....brought to the shore placed on ice , put in trucks shipped to a factory, processed, canned and labeled for your convienience!? ordered and shipped to every store in the country (world?!) and placed on the shelf for a whopping 69-cents. now how in the world could we be upset when a can of tuna was not in stock? greed? Ignorance? non-awareness !

So now tonight as I prepare a meal for my wife and daughter everything,EVERYTHING, I touch I am uterly and profoundly gratefull for. I cannot make the pans I cooked with nor the glasses and plates. I have not the place to grow the food nor the climate to grow all of these things. I turn on the faucet and there is clean water giving my family life. the list is endless I am not as I believed an "independent" man. I am completely interdependent on everything and all beings. I wish to tell you this because I am also gratfull to all of you for being here. Thank you for allowing me my voice.

a deep and profound ^gassho^ to you all, May our lives go well

Comments

  • Maria22Maria22
    edited June 2005
    I've never stopped to think about it that way, it really puts things into perspective. It's amazing when you think about all of the conveniences in life, we take for granted. Also, regardless of how insignificant a person's job may seem, it's still part of the "machine" and makes the world go around.

    Good story... :)
  • wolfscalissiwolfscalissi
    edited June 2005
    thanks Maria, its the first time I really felt my connection with all of the things in the world, very sharply. I have had the thought before but this was not a thought it was just slow motion dharma. I'm still trying to figure out how to walk with this on a moment to moment basis. It makes me understand the old Zen monk (anyone know his name?) who said "I am gratefull to the dust, sometimes I even bow to a single speck of dust" I can't find a better way to say it than that. :bowdown: There are no insignificant things.

    ^gassho^
  • AnitaAnita
    edited June 2005
    Wow. ^_^

    That was a great thought wolf!

    I just wish everyone in the world would actually sit and think about things like that. ^_^
Sign In or Register to comment.