This is the time of year when many of us in the U.S. practice some ritual of gratitude. Gratitude forms the basis of the twelve-step recovery programs that were the beginning of my spiritual journey. But if you search the Temple’s current doctrine, you won’t find the topic of gratitude anywhere.
Or will you?
Certainly, ctrl+F won’t turn up any form of the word, but that doesn’t mean it’s not there. One of my favorite quotes about gratitude comes from Marcus Aurelius in the Meditations:
Receive without pride; let go without attachment.
One of the reasons I find this quote so useful is that it is not specified what we might receive, whether a material gift, a favor, a compliment, etc. Nor is it specified whether we receive from another person or from pure happenstance. No matter what good fortune might come our way, it is incumbent upon us to have humility, to put aside feelings of pride and entitlement. And the easiest way I know of to do this is to feel grateful for what I have been given.
Similarly, it is nowhere specified what we are called upon to let go. People and material things come and go, and it is important that we recognize the futility of a continual chase for transient material gain, of whatever kind. This isn’t to say that we have to turn away from all material pleasures, but rather that we must learn to appreciate them when they arrive without clinging desperately to them.
So once we start looking at gratitude as a way to practice humility and non-attachment, core values for us as Jedi, we can see that gratitude is all over our doctrine after all.
I’d like to share one quote from our Creed that similarly, I think, sidles up to the concept of gratitude without talking directly about gratitude:
[I]t is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned; . . .
So whether you take part in some seasonal celebration of gratitude or not, I do hope that you find blessings in your life for which you can feel grateful.
But enough out of me. I want to hear what you think.
