Dear friends,
You are very welcome to this meditation session and I hope you get benefit from it.
Today our theme is Thankfulness and we are going to recite a litany of thankfulness.
You may have been busy in the time before this session,
So to allow yourself to come into the present moment and into a time of relaxation,
We will have some quiet music.
As the music plays,
Try to become aware of your breath,
Your simple breathing in and your breathing out and your awareness of your life here and now in this present moment.
Thank you.
And now let us begin.
This is an invitation to pause and consider just some of the things we can take for granted in our daily lives.
Not all of us enjoy all these benefits all the time,
But most of us listening to this enjoy most of these benefits most of the time.
In this we are blessed beyond measure.
Our good fortune is a reason for the most profound gratitude.
And this sense of gratitude is our motivation to make our contribution to the sum total of human happiness by exercising kindness and compassion as we go about our daily lives.
Gratitude for what we have is a welcome antidote to the emptiness which comes from constantly wanting more.
And we know in our hearts that enduring happiness comes from within,
Not from the temporary pleasure which we find in acquiring things and yet more things outside ourselves.
Let us pause for a moment to just be.
Notice how we are just now.
Look around and pay attention to the space that we're in.
The place where we make time to come into the present moment.
Listen for the sounds around us.
Near sounds.
More distant sounds.
Maybe the chattering of birds.
Maybe the hum of distant traffic as the world goes about its business.
It's good to be quiet and it's good to be here.
It's good to just be.
For our waking up to this new day,
Yet another new day,
We are truly grateful.
Because we did nothing to deserve this.
For the bed in which we slept.
For the security of our home.
For our family.
The parents who gave us the gift of life.
The family members who have accompanied us on life's journey.
For neighbours,
Friends and acquaintances who help us along the way.
For all these people we are truly grateful.
May we be the support to them that we hope they will be to us.
For our amazing bodies with which we experience this extraordinary reality.
We are truly grateful.
We pause to consider our gift of movement.
Our senses.
Sight.
Hearing.
Smell.
Taste.
Touch.
Our intelligence.
Our ability to love and care.
How can we find words to sufficiently express our gratitude for all this?
All we can do,
All we must do,
Is pause and give thanks.
For the gift of peace,
Stability and security in the place where we live.
We are truly grateful.
In a world where conflict is not uncommon,
May we have the courage to raise our voices loud in a calm call for peace.
For our food coming to us from so many sources.
And for the web of human cooperation which brings provisions to the tables of the world.
May we be truly thankful.
For human ingenuity which has improved our lot so that most of us enjoy comforts and conveniences that would have been unimagined even by the rulers of old.
May our compassion and our gratitude extend to the many people who do not share our good fortune.
May our thankfulness for what we have lead us to work tirelessly for a more just distribution of the world's resources.
For the gift of this Insight Meditation Community,
Its millions of members,
Its thousands of contributors,
Its variety of inspirational thoughts,
Its timers and its prompts,
Its music and reflections,
Offered for the support and encouragement of all of us.
We are truly grateful.
It has been said that if the only prayer we ever say is thank you,
It is enough.
And of course it is.
As we awake to the light of each new day,
May we be filled with feelings of thankfulness.
Feelings of thankfulness which will inspire us to go out into the world and spread happiness and peace,
Bringing the gift of kindness and empathy and compassion to the people we meet.
May our existence today and every day be a blessing on the world.
Namaste.
Thank you.
