Blog » Sweet Dews Of Dharma Talks » 2013 » The True Meaning of Being Thankful
The True Meaning of Being Thankful2014-01-16
Spoken by Dharma Master Heng Nian
English Translation by Lotus Lee
It will be Thanksgiving in a couple of days. Emperor Liang’s Repentance at Gold Sage Monastery is always held during Thanksgiving break. Therefore, I think that we should all learn to be thankful.
Actually, Buddhism also talks about being thankful. In Chinese, the word for being thankful is made of the two characters “gan” and “en.” “Gan” means to be moved or touched. Our minds are always moved by different things, which cause us to do either good or bad deeds. As a result, we reap what we sow. However, in our case we should be thankful for the kindness that other people have shown us. For instance, we should be thankful to the Venerable Master, to our parents, and to the people who have helped us, and do wholesome deeds to repay them.
As for the character “en,” means kindness. It is made up of the character for “cause” on top and “mind” on the bottom. We can see from this character that it is the mind that plants causes. Someone may say, “ My family does not treat me well. Why should I be thankful to them?” Actually, you should be thankful that you can come here to hear the Buddhadharma and that you can learn to change yourself according to the principles of cause and effect found in the text of Emperor Liang’s Repentance. Consequently, you should still be thankful to them.
You may not have good affinities with your children, your coworkers or others, but you should still be thankful. Why? These are all unwholesome retributions that came about because we planted unwholesome causes in the past. We should be thankful that we are able to come to the monastery today. If our lives were overly peaceful and happy, we might be enjoying ourselves elsewhere instead of coming here. The reason we are able to hear the Buddhadharma is due to the unwholesome affinities that have given us trouble in our lives and so caused us to come to the way-place. Therefore, we should still be thankful.
Other people might say: “My children are good and my spouse is nice to me, so I don’t need to be thankful.” Actually, you should still be thankful, because these wholesome affinities come about due to wholesome causes planted in the past. You should continue to tie wholesome affinities with others, so that the process of your cultivation will go smoothly.
Especially in the monastery, I have many things to be thankful for, because we receive the blessings from the Triple Jewel. I sometimes become lax, but as soon as I remember that I have an obligation to many people, I will urge myself to cultivate vigorously. We should also be grateful to the Venerable Master for giving us this place to cultivate. If we observe carefully, there are countless things that we can be thankful for in the monastery.
Yesterday a Dharma Master talked about being mindful of death, and today we talked about being thankful. Mindfulness of death and thankfulness mainly serve to help us bring forth the resolve for Bodhi. The resolve for Bodhi is the resolve for enlightenment, to be enlightened to the truth that the world is full of suffering and we should leave quickly. When we are born in this world, we either come to incur debts or to return them; in order to change the retribution of samsara, we should be enlightened to reality and seek to attain liberation from it. The true meaning of being thankful is to understand this principle.
