Spirituality/General: Gratitude and God

Imagine a nondescript door. People walk by it every day, ignoring it. If they knew that beyond this door was a land showered with divine energy, then perhaps they would enter. Stepping through, they would experience profound feelings, understanding, and focus. That door is gratitude, something easy to miss.

Being grateful is a doorway to the divine. Much more than being thankful when someone is kind to you, gratitude covers all experience. At its base is a deep appreciation for being alive. Life is a miracle and a blessing. From this sacred place, spiritual energies and insights can fill your mind, heart, and body.

Often, being grateful centers you in the now. You are in touch with reality, and you understand how sacred everything is. If being grateful gave us no other gift, then grounding us in the now would be enough. You are free from the sins of the past and of fearful expectations. It blesses you with the serenity and stillness of the eternal moment.

Feeling grateful is easy for some, but for others it takes work. For the latter, an intellectual approach is helpful. You can be grateful because you aren't lacking something. Take the ability to see. I'm better off than those who are blind, or I could be blind myself. Therefore, I can be grateful that I can see.

Another method, which isn't actually a method, is to appreciate what you have, but not because you are comparing yourself to someone who lacks that resource. And neither are you afraid to lose what you have. Rather, you appreciate its “isness.” For instance, I am grateful that I can see. Period. Although this sounds simple, the experience is profound.

If something exists, then we can be grateful for it. The creation of the universe was miraculous. Consequently, everything in it is miraculous. This is easy enough for spiritually minded people to understand, at least on the surface. But how do suffering and injustice apply? As difficult as it is to accept, they, too, are miraculous, just by their existence. Gratitude can lessen the intensity of suffering and increase our capacity to love unconditionally. The Dalai Lama shares an incredible story about this.

The Chinese communists had captured and tortured a Tibetan Buddhist monk for several years. During his ordeal, he endured intense physical and psychological pain. Yet, the monk's only concern was that he treat his tormentors well. He used suffering to strengthen his faith and to increase his compassion. Suffering provides lessons and opportunities. Although we don't seek these experiences, we can benefit from them when they arrive.

Gratitude loosens the hold of the ego. It resets our internal compass from "It's all about me" to "I live in a loving universe." This expands and transforms our consciousness.

When gratitude fills your heart, humility soon follows. These traits help remove the psychological armor that we have donned to protect ourselves, often against imaginary enemies. [Don Quixote] They soften our interpretations of events. We automatically become more loving and thus contribute to the spiritual evolution of the species. We accomplish this with a simple shift in attitude, and we shift every time we walk through that door.

Copyright 2003 by AlternativeApproaches.com

About the author: Michael Lamas works with Starbuilders whose mission is to help build a new civilization. He believes a new civilization is possible, because if individuals can change and they can then societies can. Part of Michael's work is to provide various models of reality and "Evolutionary Technologies" metaphysical tools that aid in spiritual development. To reach Michael, write: unity@starbuilders.org.