On Being Grateful

There is much in life that we take for granted. We expect to have food at the next meal. We expect to have a certain level of comfort in our lifestyles. We expect clean water to drink and clean air to breathe. When we are ill, we expect that medical assistance will be available. We expect all these things ‘coz they generally always have been there for us. In spite of the fact that these things are not readily available for to many souls in the world who must battle everyday to survive.Instead of seeing ourselves as most fortunate & greatly blessed for all that we have, we feel indignant or unfairly treated when these things are not available to us. We are quick to complain about missing comforts.We are quick to see ourselves as victims and slow to see ourselves as beneficiaries. There is a Chinese proverb that says: “We count our mischief carefully and accept our blessings without much thought.”

Cultivating Love

*Master-who directed me towards spiritual love.
The emotional life of a aficionado is a strange affair.Having met with a master we long to respond to that unbounded grace with a great and unbounded love.Yet we may sometimes find our own heart to be a dark and cramped thing,a lifeless lump,incapable of a great and spiritual love.We precieve our own unworthiness even while rejoicing in the blessings recieved.

Other than the Master,I know of no one

Who can rescue me from this jungle.

But I have never loved the Master.

How do we understand this ? Everything so far sounds,actually,like expressions of the emotion of love.This desire to praise.This gratitude.This trusting reliance that makes me cry out that I am in jungle-inpenetrable,confusing and confounding-and only the Master has the power to rescue me.Aren't all these facets of the emotion of love?What does it mean"But i have never loved the Master"?That is spiritual love which is quite different from the emotional roller coaster we call love.Emotional love has ups and downs.It comes and goes.It is subject to the influence of circumstances.We come into his presence,and we feel so much love and bliss.We got out into the circumstances of our lives -someone crosses us,we yell,we blame,we judge.Where then is that love?We attend to meditation and in that stillness in peace and calm, the feeling of his nearness.Then then there is some sitution involving,say,our loved ones,or perhaps what we think of as our security.We worry.We fret.When worry swarms around our head like a cloud of gnats so thick it blocks out the light -where is the love that recognizes the Master's hand orchestrating every detail of our lives.The spiritual love is not flimsy and fickle emotion that alters with every changing tide.Spiritual love is something deep and clear,something permanent and unchanging.