Really, we
can be thankful for so many things… but still, we are not.We deprive
ourselves from the open, happy feeling of gratefulness. Because we think we
have nothing to be thankful for. This moment is not quite how I would like it
to be.
“I will be
grateful when I manage to set my life on tracks! I will be thankful when I get
my wage rise! I will be thankful when… sometime… sometime… I will be thankful,
when my life circumstances will be like this and that.”
You will never be satisfied, and thus: you will
never be grateful.
When you
reached the goal you have targeted, you may go out for a while and then you
celebrate your success with an awesome sex-party after a few glasses of red
wine. But maybe you do this in a more moderate way: you go home, have a beer,
watch a football match in the television – while you sit back and enjoy the
taste of success, which happens in the present: “This is so good. I reached
this. I calmed down. I am thankful, because this worked out!”
Then a little
time goes by and the functioning of the mind returns: “You still have so much
to do. You do not have the time to enjoy the present moment. Here is a new
goal, you need to work very hard for this!” – and it finds a goal for itself,
on that is distant and projected in the future, you can take this for granted.
“I will be grateful, when I get this done too!”
When you
were happy about your success, you were grateful, you felt an inner relaxedness
(“I got this done too, I can rest a bit now!”), you surrendered yourself to the
present moment: the singing of the birds became a bit more beautiful, the sun
shone with even more warmth, the flowers were even more stunning, etc…
What is
more, the otherwise unbearable neighbor seemed to be kinder, “more human-like”.
You let the present moment take you in with ease, peace, calmness and openness.
You opened up yourself to it to accept its completeness, its beauty. You lived in the magic of the present
moment.
And then
appeared the mind with the goal to be pursued and – boom! – shattered the
beauty of the pleasant-happy presence. You start planning again, the cogwheels
in your brain begin spinning, your head hurts, you are tense and you suffer.
Experience the
wonder of being thankful! Loosen up, spread your arms, breathe in and sigh:
“Oh, thank
you! I am thankful to be alive. I am grateful!” – and start listing all those
things that make you (or could make you) feel grateful.
And as you
do the practice of being thankful, some sort of a wonder happens: your tension
dissolves, the previously shrunken, worrying and overprotecting general (the
ego) faded away, it may even be gone completely.
You opened
up, accepted and embraced the world in its complete beauty – just the way it
really is. You wake up from the dream of the mind as an open, peaceful, happy
observer. You no longer fight the Universe, you embrace it and from this moment
on, the Everything is on your side: it helps you with small wonders, joys – for
which you can be thankful again.
Smile now! Spread your arms, breathe in the
air, and embrace the present moment at the same time. Breathe a big sigh:
“Thank you. Thank you for everything!”.. And enjoy
the effects of .. just a smile!
(Excerpt from the book "Mindfulness Meditation - Journey into Consciousness" by Ervin K. Kery)
