With Thanksgiving coming up, this is a great time to go deeper into gratitude.
The famous mystic, Meister Eickart once said that “Gratitude is the only prayer you need.” Put even more simply, it could be said that gratitude is all you need.
Gratitude is the simplest, most consistently accessible doorway to the heart. It doesn’t take any complex spiritual concepts or practices to be grateful.
It’s easy to be grateful when things are going the way our mind/ego likes. When I’m hiking on my beloved Mount Shasta on a beautiful day, my heart naturally is bursting with gratitude.
The trick, of course, is to still be grateful when faced with painful emotions or apparently adverse eventsLast June, I was given a powerful opportunity to practice this. I had a bad fall up on the mountain and broke my leg.
I had to dig pretty deep to find gratitude, since my mind was wanting to convince me that this was a terrible setback. I did my best to stay in the present and not think about the long recuperation period that awaited me. The more I found gratitude for NOW, the more I was able to relax and enjoy the opportunity to slow down and rest and receive loving support from my friends.
We always have three basic choices of how to relate to what is, negative, neutral, and positive.
The negative approach (resistance, avoidance, distraction, numbing, etc) is a losing strategy that perpetuates suffering.
The neutral approach, recognizing whatever is happening as temporary or empty phenomenon and just letting it be, can be very freeing. This approach is used in many Buddhist traditions.
Personally, I’m more drawn to the positive approach. I strongly believe that everything comes from one benevolent loving Source (call it God, Spirit, Divine Mother, or whatever you like) and is for our highest good.
When I‘m grateful for NOW, no matter what’s going on, my heart stays open and my peace is not disturbed.
Hi Andrew, Thanks for your message and hope this finds you well on the road to recovery. Yes, so true how we are invited to shift our rhythms and find new meaning. I am 76 now and feeling a shift, or I call it an invitation to re embrace my contemplative “leanings” in a more encompassing way. I hear myself acknowledging that I am my most authentic self here. Miss my trips to Mt Shasta and seeing you. Looks like in the spring I will be coming to teach a Polarity class on The Nervous System there coordinated by one of my students. Will be in touch as it unfolds. Thanks for your wonderful work there on the mountain. Love, Suellen
Dear Andrew,
Yes, being grateful for everything is most important. I’m glad you’re on the road to recovery and you have a great support group in Shasta. We are all on a journey, in May I found out that I have spinal stenosis…from my neck down. I was told this would be a journey and so far it’s been extremely interesting. My decision to not go to the medical/surgery route but use the techniques of my doctor of over 22 years was the best decision. She is a homeopathic/acupuncture/IV infusions and anything else that is cutting edge. My time getting IV’s i.e., ozone, hydrogen peroxide, EDTA, high dose vitamin C and a few others, has me there for over 2 hours each time and during those visits I’ve met so many wonderful people doing the same thing for other problems. Thank goodness I’m nearing the phase of maintenance and not having to drive to Reno every week. So I’m happy to hear you were able to see your broken leg as an opportunity to be stronger in your belief system! Most important now as we advance into a higher vibration.
Have you met Bryan Tilghman who recently wrote “Telos Welcoming New Earth” published by the MU Press in Mt.Shasta?
Quite an interesting story. I’ll leave you with the most recent channeling by Lee Carroll-Kryon. We are entering a new energy which will allow us to create our reality by stating “I EXPECT good things in my life”. Rather than saying anything else that creates in the future. It was also stated we would have challenges to meet because the dark side doesn’t want us to know this. Ah yes, more to meet and I thought I was getting close….hahahaha At 80 one would expect all the meditating and study would be working quite well by now.
Have a wonderful winter season, it is nice when the mountains are covered in snow allowing noise to be softened with peacefulness. Wishing you many new people on your journey!
Thanks for your newsletter, glad your doing better but then what else would it be, but great for you. I love reading about your trips to the “mountain”! A very special place for me too.