UNCONVENTIONAL FORMS OF SPIRITUAL PRACTICE
FINDING EQUANIMITY IN OTHER WAYS
Anything that brings us equanimity, inner balance, well-being, harmony, serenity, happiness or joy can be considered spiritual practice. The parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for this relaxation response. It counters the sympathetic, flight or fight, survival response which confronts us every day.
GRATITUDE AS SPIRITUAL PRACTICE
Prayer can either be supplication and asking for something, or giving thanks which arises from having gratitude. Mostly we ask for things when we pray. When we rather express gratitude for what we have - it becomes a stronger form of prayer. The Creator, the Field and our guides will respond more favorably to gratitude rather than a request - unless we are asking for something on behalf of others or if we are asking for ourselves in order to serve the greater good. When we express our thanks through the container of a simple ritual (lighting incense or a candle or doing any creative ritual of appreciation) it carries more traction and becomes a blessing to the Creator, our guides ... and is also an equanimity practice at the same time.
“Reflect on your present blessings of which every person has many, not on your past misfortunes, of which all people have some.” Charles Dickens
“We are recipients of unearned gifts.” Robert Emmons
Your gifts are only gifts if you find them thus to be – your heart makes them so.
Robert Emmons and other researchers have shown the benefits of a gratitude practice. Such a practice gives promising inner results, including increased equanimity, well-being, as well as enabling our ability to reach out to others.
He described measurable physiological effects such as increased dopamine and serotonin - effects equivalent to taking an antidepressant.
It also increased neuronal density in the prefrontal cortex on F.M.R.I. scans (similar findings have been found in advanced meditators.)
Gratitude creates a positive feedback loop leading to more gratitude. Emmons regarded gratitude as a sign of emotional intelligence.
To savor the moment is to have gratitude.
"Savor! Give yourself to the savoring ... You are only to savor it to be worthy of it..." Father Toomy
"Everyone will be called to account for all the legitimate pleasures they failed to enjoy.' The Talmud
Gratitude is good for our karma too.
"Ingratitude, a horrible and unnatural crime." David Hume
Spacious (Big) Mind is about gratitude and joy. Narrow (Monkey) Mind is about survival and focusing on our basic needs. Monkey Mind is more frequently associated with our wants and ingratitude for what we do not have. If we consciously can enjoy what we have instead of focusing on our wants we enhance our ability to be grateful.
Abundance sates, then stales, then dulls interest and appreciation. Abundance has a darker side than scarcity.
Although only an approximation, Survival's Rules of 3 implies; we can live 3 minutes without oxygen, 3 days without water, 3 weeks without food and 3 months without human contact. When we were hunter gatherers we also needed fire. Today's equivalent is energy to drive our technology. These, as well as having shelter, are our basic needs. Most of us have all of them.
My experiences with the San Bushmen hunter-gatherers taught me that in spite of their spartan, survival like conditions they were happy, joyful and grateful - often even for water alone which was always in short supply.
Equanimity also arises out of having gratitude.
Spiritual pursuits are to be practiced with pleasure, welcomed with gratitude.
We are to experience delight of the senses and be absorbed in joy – therein is the Creator.
The route to God is through the senses.
"With song we can open the gates of heaven." The Talmud
"We pray by singing and dancing." African wisdom
African rituals though often serious are always joyful.
"Joy is not incidental to one's spiritual practice, it is vital." Rev Nachman
Be grateful and you will be happy. Happiness leads to great empowerment. Attend to your well-being, especially to happiness, the cause of which is sometimes found in hidden recesses, always in gratitude.
Gratitude makes us happy and happiness makes us grateful - a positive feedback loop.
Below is a summary of the gratitude practice that Emmons gave his students as part of the study.
"Gratitude is the heart's memory." French Proverb
Buddhism teaches us to take our suffering and make something useful out of it. In helping others, we forget our own pain and with gratitude can find harmony and happiness again. Buddhists also have active gratitude expressing meditations; "I am grateful for all those who made this road I am driving on. I am grateful for all the effort that went into the food I am buying today. I am grateful for all the people who I remember and those whom I have forgotten that helped me along the way etc...
Find joy and gratitude in hidden recesses.
To forgive is to open the heart to compassion and empathy. Forgiveness is the allowing of gratitude - it catalyzes it. When we are resentful and unforgiving we hold on to our grievances rather than gratitude's potential. Forgiveness is a huge one of those hidden recesses.
There is no joy as transforming as the joy of gratitude.
Where there is gratitude there is light.
We need to look for "Light" in terms of our finding joy, happiness, and their equivalents ... all manifestations of inner peace as well as a gratitude practice.
"There are two ways to live one's life. One where everything is a miracle and the other where nothing is." A. Einstein
Gratitude is also an essential part of shamanic practice. Indigenous practices that connect us to our guides are usually done through ritual rather than prayer alone. They can be requests for healing, cleansing, protection or asking for scripted dreams. Any receipt (or even absence) thereof can invoke gratitude.We must ask to receive but not forget to show gratitude when we receive - or even if we do not receive. We have no idea to what extent they may be helping our daily lives and what the various adverse outcomes may have been without their help. These effects can be subtle and are often unrecognized. Even when we come up with defeat we need to be grateful - the result may have been much worse without their intervention.
This exchange is always ongoing. Acknowledging their participation is key.
Paying Forward
Gratitude helps us to pay our gifts forward. Giving comes out of gratitude for what we have. Giving can be a gratitude practice because it brings joy to both the giver and the receiver.
Although sometimes, even though no good deed remains unpunished, it is still a downpayment to our karma, garnishing the soul. Having our gifts thrown back at us sometimes is also test of our spiritual fortitude.
Any who bring joy to another give God joy. Any who act with love for the other’s good and pleasure do themselves partake in God’s rivers of pleasure and good.
S/He who wills to secure the good of others has already secured his own.” Confucius
Practice random acts of kindness. This includes kind words.
“Wherever you turn you can find someone who needs you. Even if it is a little thing, do (or say something nurturing) something for which there is no pay but the privilege of doing it. Remember you do not live in a world all of your own.” A. Schweitzer
“If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, then what am I? And if not now, then when?” Hillel
Giving opens, withholding closes. In giving; is to receive and to welcome the other.
What you touch, touches you.
What you let touch you, enhances or diminishes.
We think that when we give, we create a deficit and this lessens our supply. The soul does not work this way. With the soul giving increases our supply. This fits in with the Law of Attraction which is about love and giving out the light of gratitude.
Give without remembering.
Take without forgetting.
Give freely.
Receive openly.
Do all with gratitude.
It is the way of love.
It is the way of joy.
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