Should We Be Grateful for Everything?
Kripa Hum - I am divine grace.
What stands out right away about this statement is that it makes you think of the opposite - so bad things don’t bring gratitude? Shouldn’t we be grateful for everything around us?
That is correct and incorrect at the same time. It is correct and incorrect because we don’t have any appropriate means of measuring to define correct and incorrect - but that is another story.
So it is correct for the sleepy mind that we should be grateful for everything around us because your sleepy mind wouldn’t know what to do if it were incorrect. The sleepy mind cannot accept that possibility because that would mean accepting that evil exists.
Therefore, for most of us, the obvious conclusion is that we should be thankful for everything. But that is shortsighted - it is wiser to accept that there is good and evil because otherwise, we will never be able to discern between the good things that we should let into our lives and the bad things that we should keep away from our lives.
Most of us do not consider evil a category - we consider it something that is part of fairy tails, Hollywood, and the Bible.
Yet, we should consider it! And we should ask an even more important question: Will we ever succeed in overthrowing evil?
The answer is: No, we won’t. Because how can there be good if there is no evil? That is not possible - as impossible as it is to see the stars without the void in the background.
So let us accept evil but keep it away from our lives and be thankful for the goodness in our lives instead. And let us accept that we won’t save the world but that is not the point anyways. The point is to connect with goodness and gratitude.
Yes.
Opposite values are complementary.