Gratitude to Things (extract)

"We live in a society where people tend to take things for granted. It’s one of the drawbacks of having a lot of creature comforts to the point where they seem normal and we don’t notice them anymore. This taking things for granted tends to grow into a sense of entitlement. Not only do we have good things, but we feel that we should have good things and we get upset when we don’t. Some people have begun realizing the problem here, recommending that we cultivate gratitude for the things we have. But they’re not talking about gratitude for the things, but gratitude to the things. You’re grateful to your house for sheltering you; you’re grateful to your bed for supporting you, for giving you comfort.

I’ve seen many articles written on the topic and have heard people talking about this many, many times, that we should be grateful to the things that provide us with comfort. But that’s not the Buddha’s take. Gratitude, he says, is not to things, it’s to people, to beings who’ve made choices. The Pali words for the two sides of gratitude are kataññu katavedita: Kataññu means literally knowing what was done. Katavedita means wanting to respond for what’s been done for you. This is an entirely different dynamic. Instead of being grateful to the bed, you’re grateful to the person who built the bed and did a good job of building it, or to the person who bought it for you to use.

Here at the monastery, you’re grateful to all the people who’ve given the many things we have here that make it possible for us to practice — beginning with the land, then the buildings, and then all the things in the buildings. These have all been provided through someone’s skillful intention, someone’s compassionate motives, someone’s generosity.

The reason that this is an important distinction — that you’re grateful to the people for the things, rather than being grateful to the things themselves — is that if you feel gratitude to your bed, it’s hard not to get attached to your bed, and to think that the goodness lies in the bed as a thing. Whereas if you’re grateful to people, you realize that the goodness lies in the action, the intention behind the action that gave the bed or made the bed. That helps you reflect that our society is held together not by good things, but by good intentions."

~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Gratitude to Things"

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