Gratitude meditation
Vastmind
Memphis, TN Veteran
Let yourself sit quietly and at ease. Allow your body to be relaxed and open, your breath natural, your heart easy. Begin the practice of gratitude by feeling how year after year you have cared for your own life. Now let yourself begin to acknowledge all that has supported you in this care:
With gratitude I remember the people, animals, plants, insects, creatures of the sky and sea, air and water, fire and earth, all whose joyful exertion blesses my life every day.
With gratitude I remember the care and labor of a thousand generations of elders and ancestors who came before me.
I offer my gratitude for the safety and well-being I have been given.
I offer my gratitude for the blessing of this earth I have been given.
I offer my gratitude for the measure of health I have been given.
I offer my gratitude for the family and friends I have been given.
I offer my gratitude for the community I have been given.
I offer my gratitude for the teachings and lessons I have been given.
I offer my gratitude for the life I have been given.
Comments
Have added extra puja for the ingrates
With indifference bordering on forgetting I ignore the care and labor of a thousand generations of elders and ancestors who came before me and are all dead 💀
I offer safety and well-being to zombies, trolls and the neglected.
I offer dirt blessing by my burial
I offer my blood and organs to any post death collectors.
I offer my gratitude to anyone taking my family and friends. Please replace with better models.
I offer my companionship to anyone preferring my absence.
I offer my gratitude for the teachings and lessons I have ignored and bypassed.
I offer my gratitude for the life I have been given loaned.
Who is this “I” of whom you speak
Moderator's observation:
@Vastmind posted a really thought-provoking post, and an example of how we can focus on the pleasure of the privilege of opening our eyes in the morning, breathing and being alive.
Is it really fair that the last two comments have seemingly belittled her contribution, and made light and a joke of it?
Well my comment was meant as a semi-serious reflection on the nature of all such affirmations, that they tend to place you very directly in an “I”-centric mode of thinking. It’s certainly not meant to belittle it.
Apologies @vastmind if you read it as such...
The thread is in the 'Meditation' sub-forum.
The thread's title is 'Gratitude Meditation'.
Maybe taking it off at a tangent and introducing a different observation isn't the most appropriate response... don't you think?
If it offends, No.
If it however moves into an appreciation beyond what can sometimes be crass sentiment, Yes.
I feel our beloved moderator judged it right, it was valid sentiment/feeling/puja
I offer Gratitude for the immoderate and extremes.
With reference to the original post, this is a very important topic to me. I think many people who experience low self-worth have a sense that they don’t deserve what they have, or they don’t deserve to be happy. Somehow, consciously offering gratitude can help to make us more comfortable in our own skin. Maybe once we acknowledge what we’ve been given, that snide voice which tells us we don’t deserve it is less believable.
When we offer gratitude sincerely, we’re unassailable. We have an honest relationship with the world we’re interdependent with.
So, this meditation is something I’d like to incorporate into my routine. Thanks for posting it, @Vastmind 🙏
Well, if Jack Kornfield is gonna be made fun of, at least @lobster did it here, and not at Jack’s house/site, bec I wouldn’t put it pass him. * eye roll *
I’m not offended, but yeah, of course I meant it serious...Gratitude and it’s teaching is a basic to Buddhism...and we all need more of it. If what I post on a certain topic/subject doesn’t hit home for anyone or a certain person, please feel free to post a different method or tool used for that Teaching. The point of us all getting together here is learning and talking Buddhism after all, right?
@Kerome ...I accept your apology for using such a played out, dry joke as the ‘I’ card. I’m formally submitting it to Readers Digest’s overly used phrases. It’s a uniquely Buddhist offense, hahaha
I offer my gratitude for the humor and laughs we share here at NB!
These two people are hard to find in the world. Which two? The one who is first to do a kindness, and the one who is grateful and thankful for a kindness done."
— AN 2.118
In saying that kind and grateful people are rare, the Buddha isn't simply stating a harsh truth about the human race. He's advising you to treasure these people when you find them, and — more importantly — showing how you can become a rare person yourself.
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/lessonsofgratitude.html
I Belong to the RAK group; we have a closed Group page on Fb... Every post in there has recommendations for, or examples of, being kind.
It costs nothing, is actually much easier than you'd think, and plenty of people can recommend it as a workable process.
From HHDL to Maya Angelou, the message is the same. If we can be anything in this world, we can be Kind.
I took @lobster's post as a reminder to be grateful even for the things we may be averse to and the lessons they can teach us.
Thanks for this @Vastmind
I've had a very trying two weeks and it's easy to forget where it falls in the scheme of things when it's all you can seem to focus on.
🙏🙏🙏
Exactly
I am grateful for sincerity. I am glad you are incorporating a worthwhile practice to remind yourself.
Gratitude is its own reward.
Let me put it another way ...
In the subtle gratitudes of dervishism (which I am grateful for), we extend our gratitude (increase in Love) to even the harsh and harder teachers in our experience.
Our harshest teacher is often our own being. Did anybody guess?
Indeed. This is hard, wrathful, advanced stuff. Be grateful for gratitude ... in all its extensions.
For most of us, as @federica mentions, kindness and gratitude requires an easier focus/practice. Do not be grateful for the down drag demons until you can drag them up ...
Be kind. Be open. Be grateful.
Gratitude and generosity is part of resilience training ...
https://www.mindful.org/how-people-learn-to-increase-their-resilience/
If an atheist be grateful for the godful.
That is generous.