How to work with gratitude? Can you work with it?

[z00se]

The majority of my experiences with qigong have been with working with an energy in different ways to derive different results (ie. different orbits or working with different channels, or directing the chi to different areas), but it is only more recently that i have spent time working with different energy.

 

Recently i have spent more time trying to be greatful and and have found it good for my heart. It brings feelings of calmness and helps with being in the moment and an increased sense of awareness. Previously I have spent alot of time cultivating what i would have considered happyness and joy or love. I've cultivated this with mental images of what I thought had previously brought me joy and happiness. The feelings associated with achieving a goal or hugging my young kids, my wife, or even the feeling that came as a child by hugging my mother when i was feeling upset and that hug just made me feel better. These emotions however tend to draw me in to working to increasing their intensity because they are pleasurable and perk me up more, I have recently been questioning whether what i believed was love was less love in a meditative sense than the feeling of gratitude. But my skill in this area of working with gratitude is as a beginner and i'm not sure where i'm supposed to be going with it.

 

Doing qigong with what i called the happiness feeling gave me a sense of power, especially when working with it through the body in different ways it gave me a sense of control. Not of being able to control everything but at least a portion of it, and when unsure of how to reach a desired result the energy would show me. For example compressed chi in the dantien would rush to a sick area when i 'let it go' so to speak, or my intention was no longer to gather the energy in the dantien. This type of qigong i grew very passionate about, however the deeper i went with it the more difficult it became to relax. I feel that was not love after all despite what i learned to be the definition of love through healing tao fusion practice. The feelings were primarily linked with that feeling of satisfaction, of having achieved a goal, with what i now would associated with a dopamine type sensation. Although admitedly it did draw an expansive type experience, however that was a byproduct of the practice.

 

So then what is the energy work associated with gratitude? Where do I go from here? I found the happiness type of energy is very easy to compress into the dantien, and very easy to get a hold on with the mind and to work with. I've found the feeling of gratitude or of being greatful or thankful is not so easy to work with.... Like trying to gather gratitude into the lower dantien, i don't think i can? It feels expansive. Previously using the happiness type qi, it had it's own mind, and it was easier to read the mind of, and learn from a compressed energy version of it. However with gratitude energy, trying to direct it to the dantien, it is like it is in opposition.... it's like trying to control the 'giving up' feeling that is associated with gratitude, and the feeling of gratitude is lost with the work.

 

How to develop this type of practice further or deeper? What are the benefits of deeper work? Are there any offshoots to this style of practice you could recommend?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

Louis

[Fa Xin]

Awesome! I think the energy of gratitude/love cannot be contained, as you said. It must be shared. And the more you share it, the more it will return to you, as it will never run out - so no need to store it in a dan tien.

 

This is my experience, and the basis of much of my personal energy practice.  If done correctly, it will start to dissolve the barriers between you and "not you". 

Edited June 8, 2019 by Fa Xin

[dwai]

One practice we do in our tradition is to evoke a sense of purest love we ever felt for someone (as close to unconditional as possible) in the heart and let it spread all over. It carries through in all our interactions. 

[Pilgrim]

6 minutes ago, dwai said:

One practice we do in our tradition is to evoke a sense of purest love we ever felt for someone (as close to unconditional as possible) in the heart and let it spread all over. It carries through in all our interactions. 

What tradition is that? 

[rideforever]

I prefer feeling love-God and sharing the miracle, feeling the miracle of life, sharing light.

 

Gratitude I have found is like "I am grateful ... for ... something", which .... doesn't feel right to me.   

Inside you can be "justifying" yourself, and trying to convince yourself you are happy, or imagining you are happy, and also linking your happiness with someone else.

Or you say "I am happy for xyz", like xyz has been served to you for dinner and that is your verdict. 

Anyway, I have frequently seen deluded people talking about gratitude but it has seemed they are trying really hard to be happy in order to avoid their pain, or to avoid that they don't know themselves very well ... and if they keep talking about how happy they are ... or how "grateful they are" ... that nobody will notice. 

It's a bit like if you kiss someone's ass really really well ... I am so grateful  ... nobody notices that you are martyring yourself.  So, anyway, that's what I have seen a lot and I don't like that word anymore.

 

But if you bridge the light when you are with someone, or you are simply "happy" ... "I feel good right now, I feel good with you, isn't life a miracle, I feel god inside me, I feel god when I see you".   This is good.

 

Then there is no gratitude, because you are not being served something that you make a judgement on.   Instead, You Are.

[rideforever]

Also there is a Law of Attraction thing that is related.

I am sensitive to the opportunities however big or small that are in front of me ... that make me feel most alive, and I take them.  Again and again.   I choose the aliveness opportunities.

And this draws out of you your true life, your true wish, and the universe responds.

 

This is much better than "gratitude" ... I really have a problem with that word.

[dwai]

58 minutes ago, Pilgrim said:

What tradition is that? 

Temple style Daoist meditation.  

[Everything]

Yeah, taking the general approach, non-physical, and tapping into your own Non-Physical Source of Well-Being. So as to allow that to expand outward into your life.

 

And you don't work with that energy, you just ALLOW it, it is an act of non-action, or wei wu wei.

The way to allow that energy to expand, is to give it your attention, and as your awareness is focused on it, subtle at first, the energy begins to expand due to momentum which is causes due to consistency of attention/awareness.

 

so at first you wont feel appreciation, but as you keep thinking about appreciation, and how it sounds, and the word itself, then soon, the rest will follow, it is simply how energy works, by law of expansion and momentum due to consistence of awareness and attention.

 

So as you focus on appreciation, you don't have to feel it, just sit with the word. Keep the word in your mind and place your attention on the word consistently, so keep returning your attention to the word Appreciation.

 

Eventually, the energy of it will begin to expand, in your being, and you will begin to receive non-physical manifestations of that energy, as thoughts or ideas, or memories, or visions, or even a thing you see in your life that causes you to feel appreciation. Or a memory of something you used to appreciate. And then you will feel the appreciation. And this allows you to recognize all the things you truely appreciate ever so more, ongoingly, from within all the way to without.

 

And as you then ALLOW that energy to flow by appreciating. You allow to expand further. Also by doing the things that you truely enjoy doing. As you can then appreciate all of the things you are doing.

 

Untill eventually, your entire life, comes back into alignment with the Source of All Creation, and you begin to perceive your world through the eyes of Source. And with that momentum of the power and leverage of the energy which creates worlds, now you can be do or have anything that you can possible want to be do or have. As you are unconditionally worthy. Simply because you were willing to come back into alignment with your true nature.

 

It began with a word you were willing to place your attention upon. And then ended up with you being willing to accept your unconditionally worthy nature, to be do or have anything you so desire. Simply because it feels good, and it is your natural nature to prefer to feel good. And that doesn't have to take a long time. If you are willing to place your attention on that word with enough consistency, to get the ball rolling. And just keep doing it. Over and over again. It really is that simple.

[z00se]

4 hours ago, Fa Xin said:

Awesome! I think the energy of gratitude/love cannot be contained, as you said. It must be shared. And the more you share it, the more it will return to you, as it will never run out - so no need to store it in a dan tien.

 

This is my experience, and the basis of much of my personal energy practice.  If done correctly, it will start to dissolve the barriers between you and "not you". 

 

I began just by using a guided meditation and found it very good, but there was no sharing involved. How do you share gratitude? 

 

With the guided meditation i was guided to be greatful for small things like my heart beat, breath, the chair holding my weight.... then on to other things and just thinking of things i was greatful for.

 

Do you just mention to others from time to time how we are lucky to have this and that? Anything else beyond thay and  just saying thankyou for other peoples help?

[z00se]

3 hours ago, rideforever said:

I prefer feeling love-God and sharing the miracle, feeling the miracle of life, sharing light.

 

Gratitude I have found is like "I am grateful ... for ... something", which .... doesn't feel right to me.   

Inside you can be "justifying" yourself, and trying to convince yourself you are happy, or imagining you are happy, and also linking your happiness with someone else.

Or you say "I am happy for xyz", like xyz has been served to you for dinner and that is your verdict. 

Anyway, I have frequently seen deluded people talking about gratitude but it has seemed they are trying really hard to be happy in order to avoid their pain, or to avoid that they don't know themselves very well ... and if they keep talking about how happy they are ... or how "grateful they are" ... that nobody will notice. 

It's a bit like if you kiss someone's ass really really well ... I am so grateful  ... nobody notices that you are martyring yourself.  So, anyway, that's what I have seen a lot and I don't like that word anymore.

 

But if you bridge the light when you are with someone, or you are simply "happy" ... "I feel good right now, I feel good with you, isn't life a miracle, I feel god inside me, I feel god when I see you".   This is good.

 

Then there is no gratitude, because you are not being served something that you make a judgement on.   Instead, You Are.

 

Yes it can feel a bit strange sometimes but i found just starting with very small things helpful like having shelter or nice weather etc.

 

I know what you mean though. Yesterday i was in the city and those i was with were saying this and that about the city were good but it was meaningless to me, ive always preferred natural spaces. However reflecting on it i was perhaps restisting their sharing of gratitude? Im not sure, this is all new to me

[z00se]

3 hours ago, rideforever said:

Also there is a Law of Attraction thing that is related.

I am sensitive to the opportunities however big or small that are in front of me ... that make me feel most alive, and I take them.  Again and again.   I choose the aliveness opportunities.

And this draws out of you your true life, your true wish, and the universe responds.

 

This is much better than "gratitude" ... I really have a problem with that word.

 

I am also very sensitive to this, especially with my business so is perhaps why it grew so fast. However i created a habit where i felt compelled to act on those opportunities and although very lucrative,  it made me mildly anxious and not helpful for relaxation.

[Fa Xin]

11 minutes ago, z00se said:

 

I began just by using a guided meditation and found it very good, but there was no sharing involved. How do you share gratitude? 

 

With the guided meditation i was guided to be greatful for small things like my heart beat, breath, the chair holding my weight.... then on to other things and just thinking of things i was greatful for.

 

Do you just mention to others from time to time how we are lucky to have this and that? Anything else beyond thay and  just saying thankyou for other peoples help?

 

When you think of someone and hold them in your heart with gratitude, appreciation... there's an energetic transfer that happens. You're connecting with them.  That's why you feel what you feel in your heart.  So by doing this, you are sharing.  But it's not something to be bottled up... is what I meant by sharing.

 

Since everything is energy, the thing like the chair holding your weight - your connecting with your surroundings, and feeling the increase of energy in your body.

 

That's how I see it, at least.

 

I heard a story once, of a boy who went to see a Sufi master. He traveled long and hard to get there...when he finally arrived at the Master's house he tried to open the door and it stuck.  After all the travelling and hardship, he was angry and kicked the door.  The Sufi master calmly said, "I won't teach you anything until you apologize to that door." The boy yelled - "Why should I do that? It's just a stupid door. It's not alive."  The Master replied, "If the door was alive enough to take your anger, it's alive enough to take your compassion."

 

Cheers!

Edited June 8, 2019 by Fa Xin
vocab

[liminal_luke]

I think there´s a quality of ego surrender inherent in the feeling of gratitude.  Gratitude is about recognizing something good in the outside world that exists outside our circle of control.  When we´re grateful we step aside from preoccupation with ourselves and recognize the other.  In some ways, gratitude is about recognizing that we aren´t in control, that good things can come to us unbidden.

 

In working with gratitude, I´d emphasize the sense of surrender and letting go, the idea that it´s a big world out there and we can´t control everything and don´t need to.  Maybe it´s not so much a matter of how to work with gratitude as how to let gratitude work with us. 

 

  

 

 

[doc benway]

Another approach to working with gratitude is to work with what is blocking it from naturally arising.

In the tradition I follow, the basic premise is that all of the enlightened qualities we seek are already always available in us.

We do not consistently experience them because we lack access, we block ourselves from that very access.

 

Our practices are mainly to eliminate those blockages and allow these qualities to arise spontaneously and effortlessly.

If we try to generate these qualities they are often misguided, informed by our confusion and ignorance.

We don't attempt to pack, concentrate, or store anything because we are not the storehouse, we are simply a conduit or doorway and it is our job to open, not close or hold things in. The storehouse is far greater than this physical body and mind. It is the very ground of existence from which we have never for one instant been separate.

 

So from this perspective, if it appeals to you at all, look at what blocks gratitude from naturally expressing in your life.

Is it expectations, taking things for granted, not paying attention to what you have, not taking a moment to appreciate the beauty of the day, the taste of salt, the feel of rain on skin? Do we revel in the miracle of our children growing and learning without getting irritated by their boundless energy and lack of restraint? Do we value the little things our partners do to make our life just a little easier? Do we value the person who takes our trash away knowing that otherwise we would have to do it ourselves? Do we even see that person, maybe say hi, leave them a little gift? Do we value each and every breath, knowing that many struggle every time they breath; each and every bite of food knowing so many children are presently hungry? I'm not saying we should be obsessed with everyone who is suffering all around us but we need context for the many wonderful things we take for granted every day. A little bit of mindfulness can go a very long way. Every moment of life is filled with so many blessings! Simply having this opportunity to type on a keyboard and share thoughts with all of you all around the world instantaneously... unbelievable! And to think so many have to walk miles just to collect water every day, others hiding in fear as bombs drop around them or gunshots ring out from the drug gangs like in my poor city, one of the most violent on earth.

 

You asked about how to share gratitude. For me this is very practical. Meditations are wonderful and energetic practices are supportive but to really bring this stuff alive it needs to express in our lives and in our relationships. Energy isn't just something to be guided through the channels or concentrated in the dantian, it is what courses through me as I am connected to my inner source and share that connection with others with openness and sincerity. Energy is connection, just like a circuit, break the circuit and there is nothing there, no flow.  I try to be a bit more mindful as I interact with others, knowing that they likely have some significant challenges in their lives, some may be horrific. I try to see that the world looks very different from their perspective and their interaction with me reflects their perspective. My perspective may be profoundly different in ways I can't even imagine. Can that give us the opportunity to feel a bit more patience, a bit more understanding, and not take things so personally? Can we make eye contact with everyone we meet and offer a genuine, warm smile because we feel so fortunate to be able to walk and see? Can we go the extra mile to express our good fortune through a little volunteer work on a Sunday morning rather than typing posts online? Can we tip a little larger, take a little less, make our next car electric, and listen more to others rather than tell them that they should be more appreciative for what they have? This is not about telling others what to do it is about looking more deeply and carefully inside.

 

For me gratitude starts recognizing that voice inside that is so often critical and judgmental and seeing it for what it is, simply energy, ignorance of my true nature manifesting in many dysfunctional ways. Gratitude requires connecting with a deeper, more authentic source of that energy in a way that allows it to express without being distorted by all my many desires and expectations. When the inner voice no longer has control of my life, there is an opening for something much more powerful and authentic to manifest. Many qualities can come from that source and what comes is generally what is required by whatever circumstances are present in the moment. 

 

Anyway, sorry for the rambling post but I was feeling a little bit connected inside and this is what spilled out.

Have a wonderful Sunday everyone!

I need to do some work...

[Fa Xin]

Today I heard someone say “Being thankful is accepting things as they are.”  

 

I suppose they’re right, and gave me a new way to look at the concept. 

 

I would maybe go further and say Being thankful is embracing things as they are. 

[Nungali]

On 09/06/2019 at 7:29 AM, z00se said:

 

Yes it can feel a bit strange sometimes but i found just starting with very small things helpful like having shelter or nice weather etc.

 

Or waking up in the morning and realising you are still alive . Or, as I heard an elder say recently  ;" I just grateful to feel the sun shining on me . "

 

I often feel grateful for shelter , warmth and food ... I had a 'rough patch'  in my youth; an experiment of trying to survive alone in the wilderness ... that intersected with a huge long term storm cell and flood ( that isolated the area I was in, so rescue not  possible ... what a trip ! )  Also I have had two major 'health scares' and several 'near death' accidents .  It all helps  

 

Enjoy every day and every part of it while you can ... and be thankful and appreciative .

 

My teacher  then cemented all this experience  ;  'Always say 'Bugglebear' -   'thankyou '...' I am good, thankyou' , 'thank you for this experience'   . You want something , you ask 'Mum' , she will give it to you  - if you follow Law. "

 

 

"Always say bugglebear and appreciate everything you are given . "

 

 

And I cant believe how true that has been !   So  bugglebear for that too ! !

 

I have also found, one of the best ways to cement this in the psyche is to make offerings . Anything from 'preparations', to little feasts, collections of flowers, even 'spirit houses' .  But  lately, I make offerings to 'mum'  ( 'mother nature' .... sort of )    via the animals . Mum likes that, they are her children to .

 

Quote

 

I know what you mean though. Yesterday i was in the city and those i was with were saying this and that about the city were good but it was meaningless to me, ive always preferred natural spaces. However reflecting on it i was perhaps restisting their sharing of gratitude? Im not sure, this is all new to me

 

 

I am grateful for the good things a city can produce ... but even more grateful I do not live in one    

 

 

I prefer it here

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gondwana_Rainforests

 

 

{ Local 'Gondwana Rainforest' )

 

 

Edited June 9, 2019 by Nungali

[Nungali]

I just came upon this while I was revisiting the   life and work of Ted Strehlow

 

 

 ( his )Notable remarks

"There had been no kinder folk anywhere than the Australian natives."

"We have to train ourselves to look upon the land of our birth with the eyes, not of conquerors, overcoming an enemy, but of children looking at the face of their mother. Only then shall we truly be able to call Australia our home. Our native traditions can help us to become finer and better Australians."

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Strehlow

[Starjumper]

7 hours ago, Nungali said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gondwana_Rainforests

 

 

{ Local 'Gondwana Rainforest' )

 

 

Excellent!  

 

This looks like around here:

 

Edited June 10, 2019 by Starjumper

[Nungali]

Yeah , this one ;

 

 

 

But that is at the national Park. I am further up the valley and opposite a steep escarpment to the north - Its WILD in there , very steep and primeval .

 

 

The view from the top  .... it's somewhere down in that hole ;

 

 

 

The road  down  to the coast is fun .

 

 

from  9:50

 

 

 

 

 

... on a nice  day that is ...not in the wet season ;

 

 

[Nungali]

38 minutes ago, Starjumper said:

 

Excellent!  

 

This looks like around here:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gondwana_Rainforests#/media/File:N_Eng_NP_(1).jpg

 

 

That seat is a fav of mine

 

 Its a short drive and just a few minutes in from the car park ..... on a quiet day , it doesnt seem like it .

 

Continue on a bit down the path and  it goes to Crystal Shower falls.  Another famous place

 

 

 

 

Its a very pop international tourist area, so I tend to stay at home on holidays and weekends, especially long weekends, like this one -  Queen's birthday, or some BS like that.  Great in the off season though