The Gate of Gratitude
When we are told that the only authentic response to life is a continual outpouring of profound gratitude, most of us find good cause to take exception. It is not that we actually want to disagree—we would of course like to have nothing but gratitude for what we experience—but when we witness all the misfortune in the world, it is difficult to feel genuine and unconditional gratitude. Whether it is our own suffering or that of loved ones, whether it is the suffering of those near or those far, whether it is the suffering inflicted on animals or nature in general, the apparently random, meaningless, and irremediable injustices meted out to the undeserving is enough to give even the most faithful pause.
To see the world in this way, without any blinders on, forces us to adopt one of two world views: either the universe is a meaningless accident or it is a purposeful creation. Let us examine these two viewpoints more closely.
According to the first world view, this is a material universe and nothing exists but the matter and energy that make it up. But its matter-energy has become living. And conscious. And conscious of itself.
Beyond that, we know that neither matter nor energy can be created or destroyed—all the past atoms and all the future atoms of the universe exist right now. They are simply being constantly rearranged. Matter breaks down and its atoms are reassembled in other forms. Living organisms die and their atoms have nowhere else to go: they are part of the unchanging pool of atoms that make up the universe—they simply regroup into other material forms. Living organisms die and their energy, likewise, has nowhere to go: it remains part of the unchanging field of energy making up the universe—it simply becomes part of other individual fields of energy within the universal field. All the past energy and future energy making up the universe is present right now.
From this viewpoint, then, everything is matter-energy.
Yet matter-energy has become conscious.
Therefore, consciousness itself must be matter-energy.
And since matter-energy cannot be created nor destroyed, consciousness itself—which is to say, awareness itself—can neither be created nor destroyed. Which means that awareness has existed since the universe began and will continue to exist as long as the universe does. Which means that no consciousness can ever be lost, not even in the death of the biological organism with which it is associated. Awareness has nowhere else to go: it is part of the unchanging pool of awareness making up the universe—it simply reforms into other constellations of awareness, associating with an ever-changing array of matter-energy.
All the past awareness and all the future awareness is present right now.
The second world view does not differ from the first except that it sees this unchanging pool of awareness as the causative principle, as the creator itself, of all matter-energy. And this universe of matter-energy is seen, in turn, as the single living body of the single conscious awareness.
It can be argued that some modern religions are more sophisticated than this, postulating the existence of a separate creator, whose existence is outside and beyond its creation, so that it exists both before and after its creation. But this argument can be answered with another: while such a belief may be true, it is not arrived at by direct seeing of the facts-at-hand, whereas the same spiritual world view can be awakened by perceiving the immanence of awareness—whether it is called mind, spirit, soul, or self—within matter.
Reasonable minds may differ and it is not my purpose here to argue hypothetical points, but I would not be the first to point out that a universe purposefully created to include so much suffering raises unsettling questions about its distant creator. A self-created universe where life and awareness are evolving by adapting and learning, on the other hand, better describes the facts-at-hand and places the responsibility to end suffering squarely on the shoulders of conscious life forms.
Such are the wisdom teachings of old, as epitomized in the example of the golden lion, Though it is in the form of a lion, it is made of gold and not anything else. Though it is made of gold, it is in the form of a lion and not anything else. The gold and the lion are inseparable, They are one thing. Awareness is form. Spirit is matter.
To see all of matter as incarnate spirit is to see the sacredness of everything, including ourselves.
According to the first world view, then, the universe accidentally came into being in such a way that matter-energy gave birth to life, life gave birth to awareness, awareness gave birth to self-awareness, and self-awareness became aware of its own uncreated and indestructible immortality. That all this should come into being by accident, evolving into a self-awareness such as yourself able to conceive the indestructible nature of your awareness, so borders on the impossible that it can only be viewed as miraculous.
That it arose by accident means that there is no one to blame for the way the universe works—and no one but ourselves to blame for the way human civilization works. That it all arises by accident also means that our own individual life histories are accidents, as well: who we are born to, what kind of physical body we inhabit, the culture into which we are born, the opportunities and obstacles we face—all this is part of the accidental nature of the universe and does not bear on our intrinsic worth or capacity. This likewise implies that all of human history is accidental and that no culture or people have any greater intrinsic rights than any other: liberating ourselves from the self-serving mythologizing of nations, religions, and other negative forms of tribalism, we are able to transcend the historical conditioning that separates us and coexist ethically and morally based on the universal self-sameness that unites us.
To be released from all preconceived constraints and see ourselves as miracles within a miraculous accident is to see the absence of any objective meaning that others might try to ascribe to life. It is to see, in other words, that our fate is in our hands and that we have the freedom to mold ourselves into anything we choose.
Once we recognize that we finally have the means and ability to mitigate all the suffering in the world, we are able to step out of the narrow ravine of fearful competition for resources that separates us and into the vast, open plain of universal prospering that unites us. It is here, in discovering a goal that all benefit from equally, that distrust and separatism can be set aside—and goodwill and kind-heartedness can flow between all peoples everywhere for all time.
That the accidental and meaningless nature of the universe should lead us to a point of humane and spiritual conduct teaches us that, despite the harshness of its conditions, we can adapt to the material universe without losing our intrinsic nature. And what, from this perspective, is our intrinsic nature? Accidental, of course—accidental in the sense of not predetermined and not preformed. Which is to say, open-ended, infinitely flexible and adaptable, and capable of spontaneously changing along with changing circumstances.
In light of our miraculous good fortune, then, of having arisen from meaningless accident to be presented with the opportunity to establish an immortal and perfect civilization, the only authentic response to life is a continual outpouring of profound gratitude.
According to the second world view, moreover, this self-awareness that was aware of its own uncreated and imperishable nature gave birth to self-awareness, awareness, life, and the material universe. That all this should come into being by the purposeful intent of our own collective self-awareness, investing our formless nature into form itself in order to discover and actualize our unknown potential, so perfectly expresses the miraculous nature of all we experience that it seems impossible.
This is simply because of the times in which we have been raised. So pervasive is the single-minded message that we all need be fearful and insecure and self-serving, that we no longer need hear it anymore, for it has become so deeply ingrained in our hearts that only the most profound and disrupting of experiences can uproot it and replace it with the message of trust, good will, and loving-kindness. Indeed, it seems inconceivable that such a message of hope and well-being could be passed among all people everywhere, from every parent to every child, generation after generation, with the same single-mindedness employed in spreading the message of fear and distrust. Self-styled pragmatists will argue that such a message could never be sustained because of all the events disproving it—yet the message of paranoia has easily been sustained across the centuries despite the constant stream of events disproving it daily.
So we raise generation after generation of fearful, selfish, and distrustful people, allowing those who can shout loudest—governments, religions, corporations, the media, and the wealthy—to convey a message of division that benefits them by ensuring the continuation of their standing. Here we allow our own self-created suffering to arise, for this message of division is what enforces unnecessary poverty, hunger, illness, and violence on billions of our peers every day.
We come into this world wide-eyed and open-hearted, ready to love and be loved, but find ourselves surrounded by sullen, withdrawn, and desperate people. Time and again we see the awe-inspiring potential surging from the eyes of the newborn—and time and again we resign ourselves to the eventuality that that light will dim and be nearly extinguished by the unnecessary harshness of their social surroundings. What, it is only fair to ask, do we under these circumstances have to be grateful for?
For the light of potential in the newborn’s eyes.
Once we experience ourselves as not created by anything or anyone, we can come to grips with the fact that we are yet learning what we wish to be. That we are yet deciding our fate. That we are yet evolving both our understanding of a worthy purpose and our resolve to carry it out to the benefit of all. That we are yet becoming more conscious of our true potential.
What do we have to be grateful for?
For the great barely-tapped reservoir of wisdom, compassion, and creativity within us.
Your heart beats to benefit all the cells in your body, not just one in particular. The sun shines to benefit all life, not just one in particular. Similarly, we are immortal because awareness is conjoined to the entire universe of matter-energy, not just one body within it: we are immortal because the universe is our body, not just a particular life form within it.
Once we experience ourselves as indestructible and imperishable, we can come to grips with the fact that we ourselves are just newborns. That the dreaming awareness is beginning to awaken. That we are leaving behind the immaturity of the early stages of growth and advancing upon the universal path of wisdom. That although we have much room for improvement, we have the reserves to reach our furthest goal.
From the perspective of the second world view, therefore, it makes no difference whether matter created mind or mind created matter—the only authentic response to having the good fortune of temporarily being comprised of atoms of self-awareness capable of sensing first-hand our own irrevocable immortality is a continual outpouring of profound gratitude.
This is the I Ching trigram for Lake. It symbolizes rejoicing. It speaks of our need to experience—and give expression to—all of life as a blessing and a gift, the richness and poignancy of which surpasses any imagined. Just as a lake perfectly reflects the sky above, our animal nature and intellect must become a mirror for the open spaciousness of our universal awareness. By nurturing the spiritual sensitivity of Lake within, we train ourselves to embody inner Gratitude.
Perfection does not mean things are the way we want them to be—it means that, because of the chain of cause-and-effect, things cannot be different than they are. This carries with it the additional meaning that introducing new actions into the chain of cause-and-effect will produce a change of circumstances downstream. For this reason, perfection always refers to a state of emerging perfection: things are always as good as they can be under the circumstances, but circumstances can be changed and things can be changed for the better.
So perfection is the perpetual state of the universe. Because it is not a human universe, however, we discern many apparent imperfections in it. This is largely due to our upbringing, which traditionally teaches us from a very young age to look for imperfections, to “find what is wrong with this picture” and to “find what doesn’t go with the other things”. While this awareness of form is a useful skill, it is not traditionally balanced with training to acquire the compensatory skill of formless awareness, which allows us to perceive the otherwise invisible essence common to all form. And since it is on this level of essence that the perfection of all creation can most profoundly be appreciated, the spiritual sensitivity required to radiate authentic Gratitude comes only after we calm our animal nature and intellect, keep our attention from dwelling on things, and free ourselves from any habits of thought, feeling, memory, or action.
Because the universe has to support an infinite array of life forms, moreover, it has many aspects that are openly hostile to human life. Even under the best of conditions, everything we know and love is going to perish. Herein lies the practical aspect of Gratitude, for it requires great courage to look into the face of such loss without flinching—only the strongest and the wisest know how to endure the foreknowledge of such loss by maintaining a continual outpouring of Gratitude for the honor and privilege of living in the same time and place as that which they revere. The future death of all you hold dear is made bearable, in other words, by experiencing the most profound Gratitude for their presence in the present moment: to gaze upon what we love as if for the last time is to gaze upon it forever. To be grateful for the shared moment is to step into the shared eternity.
Without this practical aspect of Gratitude, its ideal form becomes mere abstraction and flight from life. Beyond that, however, it can be said that of all the forms of expression, none are so rich or poignant than those which give voice to the inevitable perishability of what is loved even as they rejoice in the moment of shared presence. Indeed, this form of expression reflects the dynamics of perception perfectly: imperfection comes about when we perceive what is absent, whereas perfection arises when we perceive what is present.
Train yourself to perceive the perfection around you and your heart will fill to overflowing with rejoicing and Gratitude. But train yourself to perceive the imperfection around you and your heart will fill to overflowing with sorrow and ingratitude.
Exercise One—Sit quietly with eyes closed and visualize a single atom, once part of a star, becoming part of the atmosphere, then part of the soil, then part of a peach tree, then part of the peach you are eating, then part of your own consciousness, then part of the atmosphere again, and on its way to being a part of an infinite number of forms over the course of the universe. Expand this vision to include all the atoms everywhere in flux as they move between all the various forms of matter-energy: what was inanimate becomes animate, what is organic will become inorganic, in an ever-shifting interchange of atoms. Deepen your appreciation of this invisible interchange by sensing how everything, whether organic or inorganic, animate or inanimate, must be viewed as being both alive and aware. Hold this vision in mind as you engage in your everyday activities, seeing all the things and people you encounter as the temporary forms of shifting atoms: everywhere you go, address your intent to this underlying interplay of the smallest elements of creation by paying silent homage, Thank you forever. You see mountains or buildings, clouds or furniture, trees or lampposts, people or animals, and you acknowledge the relationship between the atoms temporarily making up your form and theirs, paying silent homage, Thank you forever. Do not force feelings that are not present and do not imagine things that cannot be—as with previous exercises, simply perform this one sincerely and allow thoughts to be transformed into emotional and physical feelings in a natural and easy-going manner.
Exercise Two—Sit quietly with eyes closed and visualize an upwelling of joy, a rejoicing in the perfection of all creation, surging out of you as you silently repeat the catch phrase, I am a well of happiness, overflowing into the lives of others. Allow the emotional logic to sink in: a well of happiness is not changed by happy or sad things around it—it changes things around it by nurturing their deepest essence at that point where perfection recognizes perfection. View all around you as perfect. If things appear to go your way, be grateful for the opportunity to learn humility in the face of success. If things appear to go against you, be grateful for the opportunity to learn flexibility in the face of obstacles. Make yourself a part of the spiritual landscape, silently repeating the catch phrase, I am a well of happiness, overflowing into the lives of others.
If we are truly to make a better civilization, it will be because we are motivated by a profound sense of gratitude for the impossibly miraculous creation within which we find ourselves. As our awareness continues to evolve we will recognize on our own what the wisdom teachings of old have whispered all along: Gratitude is the first gate, Gratitude is the last gate, and Gratitude is every gate between.
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The above is an excerpt from The Spiritual Basis of Good Fortune by William Douglas Horden.
If you’d like to learn more, visit the website: http://spiritualbasisofgoodfortune.com/
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The Toltec I Ching, by Martha Ramirez-Oropeza and William Douglas Horden has just been released by Larson Publications. It recasts the I Ching in the symbology of the Native Americans of ancient Mexico and includes original illustrations interpreting each of the hexagrams. Its subtitle, 64 Keys to Inspired Action in the New World hints at its focus on the ethics of the emerging world culture.
Click here to go to the main site to see sample chapters, reviews and the link to Larson Publications for ordering the book.
