Being Able to Give Thanks Even in Hard Times

When someone treats us kindly, good things happen, and matters go the way we want, it is not hard to give thanks. At such times, anyone can easily bring forth a grateful mind.

But what matters more in practice is the mind we have when things do not go our way. When someone treats us unkindly, says something disappointing, the body is ill, or work comes to a halt, it is not easy to bring forth a mind that can still give thanks within that situation.

Even then, we can try thinking this way. If there was an accident, it is fortunate that it was only this much. If we met unkindness, it is fortunate that the wound was not greater. Even when the body is ill, it is still something to be grateful for that we are alive and able to breathe. This is not pretending that a situation is good. It is finding the place in the mind that does not collapse even within it.

We also sometimes carry, knowingly or unknowingly, the mind that says, "I should be treated well." If we think the other person should recognize us and adjust to us because we are the customer, because we are senior, or because we know better, even a small disappointment feels large. The stronger that mind becomes, the more easily complaints and dissatisfaction arise.

So a practitioner must always practice a grateful and humble mind more than a mind that wants to be served. Even when others do not recognize us enough, and even when they do not act according to our wishes, we should first look into our own mind and govern it gently.

Still, giving thanks does not mean simply enduring every wrong. Necessary words should be spoken, and what needs to be corrected should be corrected. Even then, practice is to speak and act based on gratitude and wisdom rather than being dragged along by resentment and anger.

Today, may we give thanks for good things, find what can be learned even in difficult things, and live the day with a mind that lowers itself and looks carefully rather than a mind that wants to be served.