My thought about gratitude and suffering not being able to coexist is that gratitude overrides pain. Of course, if pain is severe, it takes profound gratitude to override it. That's a theory -- I've never had the experience. I learned that love is like muscle, the more you use it the bigger and stronger it gets, it's not like a bar of soap that diminishes as you use it. I probably learned the truth of that most powerfully in the process of my love growing in having a child, and then a second child. Over the years I'm happy to notice that my judgementalness has decreased and my compassion and love have grown, which makes my living more peaceful and satisfying. What occurs to me about having an eye on the sky while still seeing the ants is that it is important to see the forest and the trees, not lose sight of either, maintain balance. While I have some grand vision, it's important to live in each moment and relate with each person with compassion. I practice that by reminding myself that that sort of binocular vision and living is important.
On Apr 3, 2015 david doane wrote :
My thought about gratitude and suffering not being able to coexist is that gratitude overrides pain. Of course, if pain is severe, it takes profound gratitude to override it. That's a theory -- I've never had the experience. I learned that love is like muscle, the more you use it the bigger and stronger it gets, it's not like a bar of soap that diminishes as you use it. I probably learned the truth of that most powerfully in the process of my love growing in having a child, and then a second child. Over the years I'm happy to notice that my judgementalness has decreased and my compassion and love have grown, which makes my living more peaceful and satisfying. What occurs to me about having an eye on the sky while still seeing the ants is that it is important to see the forest and the trees, not lose sight of either, maintain balance. While I have some grand vision, it's important to live in each moment and relate with each person with compassion. I practice that by reminding myself that that sort of binocular vision and living is important.