“Life is filled with many wonders, like the blue sky, the sunshine, the eyes of a baby… Awareness of the precious elements of happiness is itself the practice of right mindfulness… Wherever we are, any time, we have the capacity to enjoy the sunshine, the presence of each other, the wonders of our breathing. We don’t have to travel anywhere else to do so. We can be in touch with these things right now.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh
“The Kingdom of Heaven is spread across the land, but people do not have the eyes to see it.” ~ Jesus
Happiness and well-being are states of mind. True peace-of-mind, the feeling of completeness, of needing nothing more, is, as Buddhism offers, Nirvana, and as mystical Christianity offers, The Kingdom of Heaven. True happiness evokes, quite naturally, a sense of deep gratitude, and conversely, deep gratitude evokes a blessed sense of happiness and well-being. Happiness and gratitude are inextricably linked.
Buddhism is quite unique among world religions in that it speaks of states and actions of mind such as gratitude, forgiveness, kindness, love, compassion, and empathy not as religious ideals, but as practical, psychological necessities for happiness and well-being, for peace-of-mind, for profound sanity. They are referred to as “virtuous” qualities in Buddhist teaching not because they make a person holy in a conventional religious sense, but rather, because without them, a person cannot be whole, and “whole” is the word that “holy” is derived from – as in, that which must be preserved whole or intact, that which cannot be transgressed or violated – in other words – to be one, to experience connection. And connection, wholeness is the true state of spiritual realization, which not coincidentally, is also the true state of profound mental health. They lead to the cessation of suffering and the enhancement of well-being and peace, of happiness.
Jesus and Buddha were both teaching that virtuousness and “holiness,” to be one with the “Kingdom of Heaven,” were states of mind, ways of seeing and experiencing the world as connected and sacred. It is then natural that with seeing the sacred in all aspects of life, comes the experience of immense and overwhelming gratitude arising from the realization of wholeness and connectedness.
This makes gratitude a kind of key that can turn the lock opening the door of mind, freeing us from prisons of fear, resentment, anger, dissatisfaction and despondency, into the vast field of grace and peace beyond, for it not only is clearly a state of mind, it is also an action of mind, available as a choice. Gratitude does not have to be an accidental mind-state of circumstances; it can be a choiceful action of directed awareness, that, as Thich Nhat says, “is itself the practice of right mindfulness,” giving us the “eyes to see.”
We are, however, accustomed to the experience of gratitude as being rather rare. It is a response to an exceptionally conscious realization that we have received an extraordinary gift. We wait for it to come to us, and so, it can be said that most people’s relationship to gratitude is passive. We receive it as the result of something very desirable occurring. Gratitude comes over us. However, generally from within our American cultural conditioning, “very desirable” doesn’t happen very often. Only occasionally is life experienced as desirable above some general neutral, or even unsatisfactory, ongoing evaluation.
In fact, many, it can be noted, have a generally rather callous and unappreciative perspective, and more often than not, keep their attention on the difficult and less-than-desirable elements of experience much of the time. So, it is very unlikely that their general perspective will be one of sustained gratitude. We, as a people, it must be acknowledged, actually rather like to complain. Complaint is a major subject of our rumination and discourse, with the result that deep gratitude and happiness are rather rare.
In Zen there is a most instructive teaching that asks about our various experiences, “what is this?” or “who is this?” So in this exploration, it behooves us to ask, “Who is this that likes to complain?” It certainly isn’t any enlightened aspect of us. And, just so, it is important to ask, “What is this?”
In meditative exploration, it is discovered that it is the ego, that critical, judgmental voice in our heads that likes to complain. And to express it simply, ego is the one in us who likes to feel important, big, significant, and so, sadly, as it is easiest to feel big by making something or someone else small, we are all too often critical and judgmental. Ego also wants to be right, and so it needs to make others wrong. So we complain, we belittle, we argue, are insensitive and unappreciative. We separate ourselves from others, life and circumstances. No wholeness here. No “holiness” here. Not much happiness either.
However, we all know individuals who seem to be rather unshakeable in their general state of happiness. They are always looking on the “bright side.” We call them optimists. Sometimes we call then naïve. There can be no avoiding the realization, however, whether optimistic or naïve, they do seem happier than most people. Whether this sunny disposition is the result of genetics, conditioning, or just attitude, perhaps we would do well to realize there is something wise about such people.
Asking, “What is this?” – If we would notice – such people also tend to be generally appreciative, even of small, seemingly insignificant, things. They are not ego-centric, their perspective seems to draw in the many small aspects of life and find union, connectedness with how “Life is filled with many wonders…”
Again, as Buddhism teaches that happiness is a state of mind, one that can even be cultivated, we can appreciate then that a general perspective of gratitude that leads to happiness is therefore a perspective that is beneficial to cultivate with ever subtler, and more general, all-encompassing, focus. It could even be said, as Thich Nhat Hanh does, “Awareness of the precious elements of happiness is itself the practice of right mindfulness,” leading to healing us of our pervasive egoic dissatisfaction. We can, as a result, feel increasingly whole, complete, happy, and sane. “Wherever we are, any time, we have the capacity to enjoy the sunshine, the presence of each other, the wonders of our breathing… We can be in touch with these things right now.”
This, however, is no Pollyanna perspective. Steeped in deep compassion for the suffering in this world, realizing the connectedness of all things, this gratitude is deeper than mere egoic satisfaction. It touches the very well of our being. Recognizing wonder, connection and sacredness in all things, we are able to realize a gratitude, happiness, and therefore, well-being, so thick it can even encompass the difficult, hurtful, and sad in this world. It is capable of healing us, as it gives us the strength to do what we can to heal the world. This was the path walked by both Buddha and Jesus. It is the path they pointed to for all humanity’s salvation, and you don’t have to be religious in any conventional sense to walk it.
Just live, and see in everyone and everything a preciousness that makes the world whole and holy.
