posted July 6 2019 on Facebook:
Jundo Cohen I
once wrote something about Buddhist “Gratitude” (Big G) not being like
our usual idea of listing up things to be grateful for: (https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php…)”
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“]T]here
is a greater, transcendent, boundless Gratitude in the Buddha’s
Teachings that does not even need the subtle “see the bright side” “find
the positive to counter the negative” or “personal pay-off of what’s
ultimately nice for ‘me'” in the above sense of ordinary gratitude.
Rather, there’s an even Greater “Non-Pay-off” than that! A Jewel so
precious, it shines as both earthly jewels and life’s thrown bricks and
stones in our shoe.
Ordinary human gratitude is what we are encouraged to feel in the above exercise, and it is fine. In fact, it is wise, healthy and important. Yet there is a “Buddha’s Gratitude” which is not dependent on what we “like” that momentarily pleases the selfish-self, that is not based simply on “looking out for the good side” or experiencing the “gorgeous” day. This Emptiness that is all Fullness -is- both the glass “half full” and “half empty!”
A Buddha’s Gratitude is Vast and Unlimited … a Gratitude both for that which we love and that which we may not, a Treasure beyond yet holding mere “silver linings” “brass rings” and “lumps of coal”. It is a Peace and Wholeness which transcends “pro vs. con”, a Beauty which sees even the ugly times as “gorgeous day”. We are grateful for life, for death, for health, for sickness .. each and all as Sacred. It is a Gratitude in the face of a cancer diagnosis, Gratitude that dances all disappointments, a Gratitude which comfortably holds even the tragedy of Syria or any other bloody field (a Gratitude that is Grateful, even as we seek to stop such tragedies in the world). ”
Reality is Dharma 