' Gratitude '...

Gratitude arises when the preciousness of ‘This’ is realized. ‘This’ is life happening right now in whatever way it is happening. Perhaps ‘you’ are sitting on a chair, just reading these words. That is all that is happening and it is perfectly enough. Sitting. Breathing. Looking. Reading. Thinking. Feeling. That is all there is. Suffering and searching arise when the belief in a separate, thought-created “me” starts telling the story that something other than ‘This’ should be happening.

Once the search for something more starts up, true gratitude for ‘This’ cannot be seen. Gratitude is not something we find in the future. Future is just a thought arising now. Gratitude is not thought. You can think about gratitude, but it would still just be a thought about gratitude entertained by a separate self. True gratitude arises naturally in presence. Gratitude is realized to be your very essence when the search for something more than ‘This’ is seen to be a thought-based illusion.

When ‘This’ is seen, the simplicity and preciousness of life is seen. In this realization, it is not that ‘you’—as a separate entity—are grateful for other people, things, and situations. In true gratitude, there is no self attempting to gain something from other people, things, and situations. There is only gratitude. Gratitude for ‘This’ in whatever form it takes right now. Simple gratitude for aliveness itself.



-Kiloby, Scott. Reflections of the One Life: Daily Pointers to Enlightenment