Gratitude for the Difficult Ones

Posted by: Michael | 11/02/2013

Gratitude for the Difficult Ones

For the first time I was able to actually feel true gratitude someone who gave me the opportunity to practice restraint and patience. I can’t describe to you how earth-shaking it is to have realized that it is, in fact, possible to be grateful to the difficult beings in our lives. Hitherto I had always thought it was a nice but solely poetic notion that did way the bodhisattva mythos but was not possible to cultivate in daily life but the mind’s infinite mutability has surprised me once again.

I feel that, bit by bit, I am discovering the truths of many practices I had long discounted based solely on what I viewed (and, in many ways, continue to view) as mistaken or unfounded metaphysical assumptions. Still, it is like I have often said (and I think I am plagiarizing Ven. Ajahn Sumedho): I am orthodox in regard to doctrine but heteropraxic when it comes to means.

May we train our hearts to embrace all beings!