Grounded in Gratitude
This past weekend, our sangha had their quarterly "Day of Mindfulness," a day-long 'urban retreat' that includes various forms of meditation including asana, deep relaxation, sitting and walking. Additionally, we often center our Days of Mindfulness around particular "themes" like "Touching the Earth" and this past weekend: "72 Labors: Cultivating Gratitude and Appreciation for the Everyday Gifts We Receive."
So I thought I'd share the core practice for this, coming from the contemporary Pure Land Buddhist tradition by sharing this article I wrote for Yoga Journal several years ago.
Thanks!
Count your blessings and you'll find
that even an uneventful or "bad" day is filled with precious gifts.
By Frank Jude Boccio
At the grocery store, a friend was bowled over by
the simplest act of kindness: A stranger let her step ahead of him in the
checkout line. It was such a little thing, and yet it swelled her heart with
happiness. What she experienced, she ultimately realized, was more than just
gratitude for a chance to check out faster —it was an affirmation of her
connection to a stranger and, therefore, to all beings.
On the surface, gratitude appears to arise from a
sense that you're indebted to another person for taking care of you in some
way, but looking deeper, you'll see that the feeling is actually a heightened
awareness of your connection to everything else. Gratitude flows when you break
out of the small, self-centered point of view —with its ferocious expectations
and demands —and appreciate that through the labors and intentions and even the
simple existence of an inconceivably large number of people, weather patterns,
chemical reactions, and the like, you have been given the miracle of your life,
with all the goodness in it today.
It is easy, as Roger L'Estrange, the 17th-century
author and pamphleteer, said, to "mistake the gratuitous blessings of
heaven for the fruits of our own industry." The truth is, you are
supported in countless ways through each moment of your life. You awaken on
schedule when your alarm clock beeps &,dash; thanks to the engineers,
designers, assembly workers, salespeople, and others who brought you the clock;
by the power-company workers who manage your electricity supply; and many
others. Your morning yoga practice
is the gift of generations of yogis who observed the truth and shared what they
knew; of your local teacher and of her teacher; of the authors of books or
videos you use to practice; of your body (for which you could thank your
parents, the food that helps you maintain your good health, doctors, healers,
and the "you" who cares for that body every day) — the list goes on.
When you awaken to the truth of this incredible
interconnectedness, you are spontaneously filled with joy and appreciation. It
is for this reason that one of the most transformative practices you can engage
in is the cultivation of gratitude. Patanjali wrote that santosha
(contentment, or appreciation for what you have) leads to unexcelled joy, while
other yogic texts say that this sense of appreciation is the "supreme
joy" that naturally leads to the realization of the Absolute. Thankfully,
gratitude can be cultivated. It simply takes practice.
Love the Gifts You Get
If you're like most people, you notice what goes
wrong more often than what goes right. Human beings seem hard-wired to notice
how reality fails to meet some idea of how they think things should be. How
many times a day do you sink into disappointment, frustration, or sadness
because others haven't met your expectations? If you limit your attention to
how life lets you down, you blind yourself to the myriad gifts you receive all
the time.
You may, for example, have ideas about the
"ideal" holiday visit with your family: where it will take place, who
will be there, how everyone will act, what you'll eat, what kinds of presents
you'll exchange. But the visit surely won't match that ideal. And that's when
you're likely to act like a child who has his heart set upon a certain toy for
Christmas: As he unwraps one present after another, not finding that one toy,
he grows ever more upset and disappointed. Utterly dejected, the presents he
has received lie unattended.
You can end this frustrating situation by mindfully
shifting your attention. Begin by paying attention to the reality of what is
rather than the desires you cling to. For the fact of the matter is, regardless
of how dissimilar your holiday gathering (or any other moment in life) might be
from what you had imagined, there is much to be grateful for.
Consider the effort it took for your family members
to get together; the vehicles that brought you all to the same spot —and all
the people who constructed and helped maintain them; the house where you've
gathered; the trees whose limbs burn in the fireplace. Your food, whether
vegetable or animal, was once a living thing and is now providing you with
nourishment. And that food did not just magically appear. Before it was cooked,
it required the energy of the sun, the minerals of the earth, the rain, the
work of farmers, processors, truckers, and retailers —plus the cooks in your
family —to bring it to your table.
It is, as the Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat
Hanh says, the gift of the whole universe. When you stop and really look, you
see that you are supported continuously in literally countless ways. This is
the highest wisdom of yoga, the truth of interbeing, of no separation.
To begin to pay attention to how fully and
completely you are supported, you have to break out of your constricted cage of
Self. Once you have a more balanced view of reality, you are less preoccupied
with what's not meeting your expectations, and more present to what is given. You
grow more appreciative of what you have, and seeing how dependent you are on
others, you grow in generosity, wishing in some small way to repay at least a
part of your debt.
Thanks, Mom!
To begin cultivating gratitude, it helps to be
aware of some of the most pernicious obstacles to doing so; often it is these
very roadblocks that provide the opportunities for practice. One of the most
obvious obstacles is the failure to notice what you have —a roof over your
head, a family with which to share the holidays. As Joni Mitchell sang,
"You don't know what you've got till it's gone." So, the first thing
you need to do is to start paying attention to what you have!
And here's where expectations can prove to be an
obstacle. You expect your alarm clock and your car to work, your loved ones to
be there for you. Once you come to expect something, you tend not to pay it
attention. You take it for granted. Use your expectations as reminders to
cultivate gratitude.
Another big obstacle, and therefore another
opportunity to cultivate gratitude, is the trap of feeling entitled. Gratitude
may not spontaneously arise when the garbage man takes away your trash, since
he's "just doing his job." But the fact is, regardless of his
motivation, you are benefiting from his efforts and can meet them with an
expression of gratitude.
One formal practice for cultivating gratitude,
developed in Japan by a practitioner of Pure Land Buddhism, is known as Naikan,
which means "looking inside." It's a structured method of
self-reflection that encourages an objective survey of yourself and your
relationship to the world.
At its most profound, Naikan is practiced on
retreat with trained counselors. From dawn until night, every day for a week,
you sit and reflect on your mother —what you received from her, what you gave
to her, and what troubles you caused her. You generally spend about two hours
reflecting on your life from birth to age six, and then for each three-year
period after that, meeting with a counselor after each session, until your
whole life has been examined in relation to your mother. You then move on to
your father, siblings, lovers, friends, and others. In such a situation, you
are free to honestly look at how you have lived your life.
Naikan can also be done as a daily practice. The
rewards will become immediately evident in the blossoming of a natural, deeply
felt sense of gratitude and appreciation for your life and for all the gifts
you receive daily —gifts that you realize were always there but that went
unnoticed and therefore unappreciated.
The practice of Naikan can lead you to the
realization that you are rich indeed, and that you are not only not alone but
are truly supported by the universe! You may even come to see the truth in the
exhortation of the 13th-century mystic Meister Eckhart: "If the only
prayer you said in your whole life was 'thank you,' that would suffice."
Just Say Thanks
Set aside 30 minutes, preferably at
the end of the day, to try this Naikan practice.
Sitting comfortably, with eyes closed, take a few
moments to bring attention to your breath, mantra, or any other technique that
you normally use to center yourself. When you feel settled, ask yourself this
series of questions:
What have I received today?
Be specific and reflect on as many things as you
can recall. It can be something as simple as your partner's smile, the sound of
a bird singing at dawn, the driver who let you merge into the crowded freeway.
Remember, the motivation or attitude of those who gave you something is not the
issue. Maybe you were offered lunch because you showed up at lunchtime, not
because your friend made a personal effort to make you lunch. The fact is, you
were fed, and you can feel gratitude
for that. The mere fact that you benefited from someone's actions is all that
is needed to cultivate gratitude.
Notice which of these things you did not appreciate
as they happened. Can you recall what was taking your attention when one of
these acts of grace occurred? Were you stuck in problem-solving mode, thinking
of your to-do list, or making judgments?
We often live as if the world owes us. As you
reflect on what you have been given today, you will likely see that, if
anything, you owe the world an insurmountable debt. This insight is more than
merely humbling; you may find yourself feeling a deeper sense of gratitude and
a natural desire to be generous in serving others.
What have I given today?
Go through the day's events in the same way, but
this time notice what you have given to others. Be as specific and concrete as
possible. As above, your motivation is irrelevant. What did you actually do? It
may have been as simple as feeding your cats, washing the breakfast dishes, or
sending a friend a birthday card. You may find that without great fanfare you
contribute to the well-being of many people and animals —you make a positive
difference to the planet.
What difficulties and troubles did I cause today?
Again, be specific. Don't overlook the seemingly
insignificant. Your list may include things like "I backed up traffic
while looking for a place to park" or "I chased the cats off the
lounge chair so I could sit there." This question is often the hardest,
but its importance cannot be overstated. It may bring up feelings of remorse,
but its primary purpose is to provide a more realistic view of your life.
In general, we are all too aware of how others
cause us inconvenience or difficulty, but rarely do we notice when we are the
source of inconvenience. And if we do, we usually brush it aside as an
accident, not that big a deal, or simply something we didn't mean to do. We cut
ourselves a huge length of slack! But seeing how you cause others difficulty
can deflate your ego while reminding you again of the grace by which you live.
These questions provide the framework for
reflecting on all your relationships, including those with family, friends,
co-workers, partners, pets, and even objects. You can reflect on the events of
one day, a specific person over the course of your relationship, or a holiday
visit with family.
Remember, what makes this a meditative
practice is that you are not analyzing your motivations or intentions; you are
not interpreting or judging. You are simply shifting your attention from
self-centered thinking to seeing things as they are, and as all yoga traditions
point out, in seeing, there is wisdom and liberation.
