The Buddha once said, “There are two persons who are rare in the world. Which Two? First, the one who volunteers to help others selflessly. And second, the one who is grateful and helps in return.” All of us, one time or another, have been told to be grateful. Maybe a parent mentioned it at dinnertime, as we poked some unseemly vegetable. It is probably safe to say that most of us know the abstract term gratitude as the personal characteristic of being thankful; a willingness to demonstrate appreciation. Of course, an understanding of this concept can be developed with or without a formal connection to conventional ideologies. But gratitude really is a worthy enough term to explore further, to go beyond our innate knowledge, with the hope that we might see how some of its expression throughout the world in different belief structures informs us more about being thankful.
Returning to the Buddha, or Siddartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism from 500 BC, we find that he points out gratitude can only be cultivated side by side with kindness. This makes sense, as gratitude lacking kindness is really no thing at all; kindness certainly must be present. The Buddha also suggests both of these attributes be made genuine through manifested action. As only through an act of kindness can a person truly express real gratitude, whether he or she is on a giving or a receiving end of the spectrum. Though the causes may sometimes be different, both “giver” and “receiver” are able to be thankful. Importantly, our definition allows each person an opportunity to participate in this gratitude, as when kindness finds a place in the generosity of giving for example. Conversely, on the receiving end, a humble acceptance of generosity is often met with a kind word of thanks. Buddhism in this instance, helps us to see the interconnectedness between people that develops with true gratitude.
There is a Hebrew expression, hakarat hatov, meaning: "recognizing the good". This is obviously close to the previous idea of benefiting from other people's actions. There is however, more, as the Jewish idea of "seeing the good" is immediately connected with the desire to reciprocate, to give and not just take. Implied is the importance of responding with more than what one has received, which really is a finer expression of gratitude, or hakarat hatov. This seeing the good acknowledges that despite how many legitimate worries we carry, it is still crucial to value every little bit of good in our lives, no matter how small. In this way small gestures beget larger, more kindly expressions, more giving. Now we have not only kindness and interconnectedness, but also the attributes of seeing and valuing the tiniest bits of goodness that lead to active reciprocation in our idea of gratitude. Recognition is tied to a reciprocal response in order to complete the manifestation of real thankfulness.
Stepping beyond this concept of gratitude as a kind of interaction, a call and response between two people; we enter into an expansion of this expression as a valuing of one's existential seat in the world. Whether or not one has developed personal feelings about divinity, meditation on gratitude has led many people to contemplate their relation to the universe at large— and not just in relation to other people. A mystical practice in Islam, called Sufism, has proponents that equate the divine with conscious energy, an energy that created everything. This "Energy" they say, is the root of all gratitude. This idea, among many other things, engenders thankfulness for one's very existence, which is expressed in the following story.
An early Sufi mystic, Junayd of Baghdad, once travelled with some students in a desert. They had run out of food, but each day trudged along tightening their belts along the way. Each one became a little more despondent as time went on, as their stomachs rumbled louder and louder with every step. They couldn't but notice though that their master seemed quite content, almost smilingly enjoying his time. Finally, one of his youngest students couldn't take it any longer and blurted out, "how can you just be so pleased about our situation! We are going to starve here in this desert!" Junayd softly smiled and said, "My gratitude in existence is unconditional. It is not that I am grateful because existence provides this and that and that. I am — and that’s enough. Existence accepts me — that is enough. And I don’t deserve to be, I have not earned it. I will trust existence in my life and I will trust existence in my death. It is my love affair."
This is a very advanced and perhaps, an almost unattainable vision of gratitude. Sufism is certainly not alone in this core definition. Many belief systems, not just the ones presented here, share in varying degrees this kind of teaching of thankfulness. In fact, each system (including the irreligious) has both something unique to say about gratitude, as well as sharing a common thread. We could have very easily started with any other cultural belief systems, wended our way through some other path and yet still find that existential gratitude lies at their heart in some form or another.
We have at this point unpacked our idea of gratitude quite a bit from its original manifestation of kindness, acknowledgement, reciprocation, interconnectedness and thanksgiving. We can now see that for some this deep appreciation is bound up in trust in one's place in the world. Connecting the dots, it may be safe to say that, ideally, existential gratitude begets acknowledgement, which begets reciprocation, which begets kindness. Each belief system in a manner connects each giver and receiver to all of these attributes in a potentially infinite loop of giving thanks. The root is the unconditional gratitude acknowledging without any exception that one's very being in of itself calls for thankfulness. It can not be separated from kindness, action or recognition, but most of our belief structures try to show us that being alive is the original moving cause for gratitude. What more or better could be said about this idea than that? May we all strive in that way to some degree or another. As the Christian mystic, Meister Eckhart, once said "If the only prayer you said was thank you, that would be enough."
Returning to the Buddha, or Siddartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism from 500 BC, we find that he points out gratitude can only be cultivated side by side with kindness. This makes sense, as gratitude lacking kindness is really no thing at all; kindness certainly must be present. The Buddha also suggests both of these attributes be made genuine through manifested action. As only through an act of kindness can a person truly express real gratitude, whether he or she is on a giving or a receiving end of the spectrum. Though the causes may sometimes be different, both “giver” and “receiver” are able to be thankful. Importantly, our definition allows each person an opportunity to participate in this gratitude, as when kindness finds a place in the generosity of giving for example. Conversely, on the receiving end, a humble acceptance of generosity is often met with a kind word of thanks. Buddhism in this instance, helps us to see the interconnectedness between people that develops with true gratitude.
There is a Hebrew expression, hakarat hatov, meaning: "recognizing the good". This is obviously close to the previous idea of benefiting from other people's actions. There is however, more, as the Jewish idea of "seeing the good" is immediately connected with the desire to reciprocate, to give and not just take. Implied is the importance of responding with more than what one has received, which really is a finer expression of gratitude, or hakarat hatov. This seeing the good acknowledges that despite how many legitimate worries we carry, it is still crucial to value every little bit of good in our lives, no matter how small. In this way small gestures beget larger, more kindly expressions, more giving. Now we have not only kindness and interconnectedness, but also the attributes of seeing and valuing the tiniest bits of goodness that lead to active reciprocation in our idea of gratitude. Recognition is tied to a reciprocal response in order to complete the manifestation of real thankfulness.
Stepping beyond this concept of gratitude as a kind of interaction, a call and response between two people; we enter into an expansion of this expression as a valuing of one's existential seat in the world. Whether or not one has developed personal feelings about divinity, meditation on gratitude has led many people to contemplate their relation to the universe at large— and not just in relation to other people. A mystical practice in Islam, called Sufism, has proponents that equate the divine with conscious energy, an energy that created everything. This "Energy" they say, is the root of all gratitude. This idea, among many other things, engenders thankfulness for one's very existence, which is expressed in the following story.
An early Sufi mystic, Junayd of Baghdad, once travelled with some students in a desert. They had run out of food, but each day trudged along tightening their belts along the way. Each one became a little more despondent as time went on, as their stomachs rumbled louder and louder with every step. They couldn't but notice though that their master seemed quite content, almost smilingly enjoying his time. Finally, one of his youngest students couldn't take it any longer and blurted out, "how can you just be so pleased about our situation! We are going to starve here in this desert!" Junayd softly smiled and said, "My gratitude in existence is unconditional. It is not that I am grateful because existence provides this and that and that. I am — and that’s enough. Existence accepts me — that is enough. And I don’t deserve to be, I have not earned it. I will trust existence in my life and I will trust existence in my death. It is my love affair."
This is a very advanced and perhaps, an almost unattainable vision of gratitude. Sufism is certainly not alone in this core definition. Many belief systems, not just the ones presented here, share in varying degrees this kind of teaching of thankfulness. In fact, each system (including the irreligious) has both something unique to say about gratitude, as well as sharing a common thread. We could have very easily started with any other cultural belief systems, wended our way through some other path and yet still find that existential gratitude lies at their heart in some form or another.
We have at this point unpacked our idea of gratitude quite a bit from its original manifestation of kindness, acknowledgement, reciprocation, interconnectedness and thanksgiving. We can now see that for some this deep appreciation is bound up in trust in one's place in the world. Connecting the dots, it may be safe to say that, ideally, existential gratitude begets acknowledgement, which begets reciprocation, which begets kindness. Each belief system in a manner connects each giver and receiver to all of these attributes in a potentially infinite loop of giving thanks. The root is the unconditional gratitude acknowledging without any exception that one's very being in of itself calls for thankfulness. It can not be separated from kindness, action or recognition, but most of our belief structures try to show us that being alive is the original moving cause for gratitude. What more or better could be said about this idea than that? May we all strive in that way to some degree or another. As the Christian mystic, Meister Eckhart, once said "If the only prayer you said was thank you, that would be enough."