We may begin practice with a wish for bliss, a wish for peace. We try all kinds of approaches and finally arrive at dharma practice. You may be trying to find some solution to change your life from what it is. Over time you notice how you continue to taste everything, all the varieties and flavors of experience that are part of the human condition. Life being life. Practice doesn’t help us to avoid any part of it, but instead points us straight in, face to face with who we think we are, how we actually are, who we want to be, who we are afraid of being.
Some approaches help no matter what’s going on. One of these is gratitude. Receiving every moment. When we feel happy or when we dread, when we’re afraid or confused. The Way of practice is to regard all of these as gifts. Practicing gratitude helps us to enjoy an open mind and being willing to feel the vulnerability that comes along with it. It’s especially helpful when something really difficult happens. We can ask, with the mind of the Way, “Hmmm, how does this help me? How can I relate to this in a way that benefits me and those whose lives I share?”
We say thank you for things, we say thank you for experiences, and we say thank for problems. This is the path. Problems keep us paying deeper attention with a mind that is not filled with what we already know. What can we come to see more clearly after our reactivity and excitation has calmed? We are free to inquire, with quivering {an attitude of} gratitude, and ask, “What is this really?”
