Entitlement vs Gratitude #1000Voices

November 20, 2015

1000 Voices

I read the many helpful prompts for this month’s 1000 Voices Speak for Compassion posts with interest. The theme that coincides with Thanksgiving and the aftermath of the violence in Paris is gratitude.   Gratitude is always part of compassion, but this month we will attempt to show what part gratitude plays in the openness of our hearts. I was stuck on the question, “What is the opposite of gratitude?”, a prompt that made me think more deeply on the subject.  In order to know the shadow of some quality one needs to know the true nature of that quality.  What exactly is gratitude?  What are the elements of a sincere grateful spirit?  We can’t dissect or analyze this literally, but must define what it is by what it is not. After sleeping and dreaming about it I have a few ideas about the real enemies of thankfulness.  I have a little list.

• Entitled social classes
• Entitled nations
• Entitled religions
• Entitled families
• Entitled children

What I realize about this problem is that it is purely a matter of perspective.  While some people are grateful to survive others are sore winners.  Sometimes being the individual or group with privilege or advantage obscures reality for those people.  Who can forget (once you know the story of the historical Buddha) the well meaning parents of Siddhartha Gautama who hid all suffering from him by royal decree.  Nobody in his kingdom who was old or in poor health was permitted to be seen by the young prince.  The fact that people suffer, grow old and die was a reality from which his parents thought they could protect him.  Eventually, of course, he accidentally caught a glimpse of this truth.  He left his palace, family, and weirdly artificial environment to find out what else he had been missing.  One of my favorite sayings attributed to the historical Buddha is:

I believe that separation through a feeling of entitlement is cruel and isolating.  All beings suffer and all beings deserve peace and happiness.  The illusion that some of us are better than others prohibits the appreciation of the gift of life.  Entitlement in all of its various disguises is a limitation to thankfulness and therefore to enlightenment.  I wish all my gentle readers the experience of deep gratitude and compassion now and into the future.  Please read more about this subject or add your voice here.