A Grateful Heart

-

 

This sermon is about blessings from the Universe and keeping a grateful heart. As Cicero says: “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.”

The Path prayer begins with: “I open myself up to the Universe and its blessings with a grateful heart” because practice of all eight Virtues starts with recognizing and appreciating life’s blessings. Always start with what you have and what you can do, not what you lack or your obstacles. Gratitude means maintaining a positive and optimistic attitude and doing your best to pay it forward. It means never taking the Universe or any specific part of it for granted. Tell people that you love and/or appreciate them. Take the time to play with the dog. Smile at strangers. Be nice to others, not because they are nice to you, but because who somebody else is shouldn't dictate who you are. This kind of mindset takes Effort and Mindfulness, as well as a great deal of Self-Control.

Some people are suffering so much from a lack of resources that they see nothing to be grateful for, and this is tragic. If you have the ability, Path doctrine encourages you to donate time or money to non-profit organizations that offer help to those in need. (Please note that the Path Ministry will never ask you for money for itself. We just encourage you to make charitable donations if and when you are able to.) 

You can apply the virtue of gratitude to all Eight Virtues of the Path:

I am grateful to have a Self that I can control.

I am grateful to be able to maintain Balance in my life.

I am grateful for the opportunity to act with Integrity.

I am grateful for the rewards that come from Effort.

I am grateful for that peace that comes with Patience.

I am grateful to be able to act with Compassion.

I am grateful for my mind, that I may practice Mindfulness.

I am grateful for the Serenity that comes with the practice of the Virtues.

Always be counting your blessings.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

On Gender Identity & Sexual Orientation

-
  Topic: Core Tenet #6 On Gender Identity & Sexual Orientation This Tenet teaches us to use an individual’s preferred name and pronouns, even if we do not yet understand why.   For those who are fortunate enough never to struggle with identity issues, the experiences of a trans person, or anyone using a different name than the one they were given, can be confusing and therefore frustrating. We automatically dislike anything we do not understand, but it is our responsibility as followers of the Path to put in the Effort to ask questions until we do understand. It is also our responsibility to exercise Patience and Compassion when we are asked to address an individual in a way that is different than what we are used to. Trans people in today’s society face multiple challenges. Research indicates that over eighty percent of trans teens have attempted or considered suicide. Some states literally deny that they even exist in any official capacity. Others simply do nothing t...
Read more

Sympathy for the Devil

-
  Topic: Sympathy for the Devil Let me start by saying that I do not believe in the Devil as an independent entity. The only thing more irrational than an imaginary friend is an imaginary enemy. Evil is within the hearts of humankind, and the only hell is what we create for ourselves here on Earth. That being said, it seems to me that the Devil character in Christian mythology is at least an equal to the God character, if not more powerful. God seems incapable of just blinking the Devil out of existence and eliminating “evil” from the world for all time.   Devils and demons can possess people and make them do things they wouldn’t ordinarily do, violating their free will, which God apparently cannot do. In some ways, Satan is nicer to humanity than God is. The God character in the Christian Old Testament commits genocide, wipes entire cities from the face of the Earth, and strikes people down for breaking the pettiest rules, even if they don’t actually know what rules they ...
Read more

A Stoned but Somehow Relevant Thought

-
  Wheels Upon Wheels The Wheel of the Virtues and the Wheel of Ka. The wheel of the seasons, the wheel of years. The wheels that measure the globe of Earth, horizontally and vertically. The wheel of the Earth’s orbit around the Sun. The cycle of the phases of the moon can be expressed with a circle. The cycles of life and death and rebirth. Then there are the cycles of the Chinese and Solar Zodiac signs. Even the pattern of a single rotation of Earth describes a wheel. Everywhere you look, there are wheels or circles or cycles. What does all of this mean? The most likely explanation is that I am stoned and seeing patterns in the Universe that I cannot see while I am sober. Does this invalidate the whole thing? I do not think so; now that I see it, I cannot stop seeing it. Just an interesting thought. 
Read more