{"id":933,"date":"2009-11-23T14:58:59","date_gmt":"2009-11-23T14:58:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/onecity\/2009\/11\/gratitude-and-thanksgiving.html"},"modified":"2009-11-23T14:58:59","modified_gmt":"2009-11-23T14:58:59","slug":"gratitude-and-thanksgiving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/11\/gratitude-and-thanksgiving.html","title":{"rendered":"Gratitude and Thanksgiving"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Ellen Scordato<\/i><\/p>\n

Thanksgiving, a particularly American holiday, is coming up on Thursday.
\"cornucopia-color.gif\"<\/span><\/p>\n

What are we giving thanks for? What am I grateful for? What are you grateful for? These kinds of questions get asked a lot around this time of year. I try to compose a gratitude list almost every day, but I won’t do that here–I figure it is a pretty common practice among beliefnet readers and is\/will be\/has been much discussed in many other beliefnet blogs.<\/p>\n

Since One City is a buddhist blog, I’d like to look at gratitude from the viewpoint of a couple of buddhist teachings. Since Thanksgiving is an American holiday, I’d like to look at how  American and buddhist intersect around the holiday for me this year.<\/p>\n

1) Gratitude reflection #1:
From the Tibetan tradition, I’m familiar with an interesting list of 10 (or 18) conditions necessary for practicing the dharma. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


\nStarting from the good fortune of “precious human birth,” the teaching
\nmoves from describing the eight other ways one could have been born, to
\nlisting ten necessary aspects: being born human, in a region of the
\nworld where the Buddha’s teachings are accessible, with intact sensory
\norgans, without false views, with natural trust in the dharma, in times
\nwhen a buddha has appeared, in times when a buddha has given teachings,
\nwhen those teachings have been preserved and are accessible, with the
\nability to grasp and practice the teachings, and so on.<\/p>\n

I can
\nunderstand that list. What strikes me on this very American holiday is
\nhow grateful I am for a very American freedom: the freedom to access
\nbuddhist teachings and the freedom to practice them. <\/p>\n

Being
\nborn in the USA has given me a whole world of
\nfreedom to practice that I give thanks for every day. It gave me
\nfreedom to convert to a religion other than the one I was born in.
\nFreedom to practice as I please. Freedom of religion and worldview is
\nnot exclusive to the USA, but it is by no means universal. And being
\nborn at this time, when buddhist thought and teaching is growing and
\nmore accessible in the USA every day (to an almost bewildering degree,
\nas Greg Zwahlen<\/a> has so well discussed in his perceptive and learned One City posts) is pretty amazing.<\/p>\n

Grateful for freedom of religious and spiritual observance and practice, yup. I put it on my T-day table.<\/p>\n

2) Gratitude Reflection #2:<\/p>\n

From the Tibetan tradition, I’m also familiar with a body of mahayana teachings called lojong<\/a>,
\nor mind training. These are practices for those on the boddhisattva
\npath, those trying to wake up. The popular buddhist teacher Pema Chodron<\/a> has written extensively on various aspects of lojong and its associated meditation practice, tonglen.<\/p>\n

Lojong
\npractice, which involves contemplating and applying about 56 diff
\nslogans, arose from Eight Verses on Thought Transformation*, three of
\nwhich run as follows:<\/p>\n

4. Whenever I meet a person
\nof bad nature
Who is overwhelmed by negative energy and intense suffering,
\nI will hold such a rare one dear,
As if I had found a precious treasure.
 
\n5. When others, out of jealousy,
Mistreat me with abuse, slander and so on,
\nI will practice accepting defeat
And offering the victory to them.
 
6.
\nWhen someone I have benefited
And in whom I have placed great trust
Hurts
\nme very badly,
I will practice seeing that person as my supreme teacher. <\/b><\/font><\/p>\n

*Geshe Langri Tangpa (1054-1123), student of Drom Tonpa, a chief student of Atisha<\/font><\/p>\n

These
\npractices are all ways of loosening our attachment to our concept of a
\nsolid, unchanging self. They are hard. They are completely inimical to
\nour general way of being “I.” They can be easily misunderstood. They
\nare by no means the whole of practice! <\/p>\n

And they give rise to the giving-thanks lojong slogan: “Be Grateful to Everyone.” <\/p>\n

How
\napropos for Thanksgiving. Be grateful to everyone, even the people who
\nirritate me, since they reveal to me that I can be irritated. They rub
\nup my sore spots, where I might think I’m all fine and dandy but still
\nnurse grudges, and attachments, and pride, and jealousy, and
\nego-clinging, and all the rest of that mucky stuff.<\/p>\n

So what strikes me on this very American holiday is how grateful I am for another American freedom: freedom of speech. <\/p>\n

Private
\nbodies may fire their employees for certain kinds of speech, a torrent
\nof public abuse may rain down upon speakers, but we do have freedom of
\nspeech. We can, and do, argue, as Americans. All the time.<\/p>\n

And
\nhow apropos of my friend Jerry’s post on this blog last week, about
\npolitics. I am grateful for freedom of expression in America. Am I
\ngrateful for what happened in the comments section? Notsa much. I am
\ngrateful we can disagree. Can I practice being grateful to those who
\ndisagree with me, those who arouse my ire? I can. They show I’ve still
\ngot ire to work on; they show I can’t fool myself. I am human. Humans
\nthink like this, like me, like you. <\/p>\n

What do we do about it, working from and toward a compassionate heart? <\/p>\n

That discussion, and the subject of Jerry’s post<\/a>,
\nturned up a nest of muck and hatred and concept that astonished me with
\nits virulence, force, and explicit threats of violence. Do I have
\nhatred in me? Did anyone’s comments arouse a response? I feel sorrow at
\nthe pain expressed and inflicted by comments; what is that? That is all
\nstuff to look at, a big spotlight on human thinking, my thinking, your
\nthinking, our thinking. The Buddha taught four mindfulnesses, common to
\nall traditions. And mindfulness of feeling requires some feelings to go
\non. Mindfulness of thinking requires some thinking.  <\/p>\n

Feeling and thinking are something to be grateful for. <\/p>\n

“I am grateful to be human. I am grateful to everyone.” That’s a lot on the Thanksgiving plate.<\/p>\n

My best wishes to everyone for a peaceful and heart-opening day on Thursday, whatever thinking or feeling is going on. <\/p>\n

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