Who is the best gratitude teacher in your life?

[Ron Alexander]

http://www.gratefulness.org/brotherdavid/index.htm

This wonderful teacher would be a great speaker and workshop leader (meditation teacher) locally. I was blessed to be a participant of one of his lectures at Green Gulch Zen Buddhist Center in California.
Presently I am re-reading his book gratefulness - the heart of prayer for about the tenth time.

Gratefulness, The Heart of Prayer: An Approach to Life in Fullness by David Steindl-Rast and Henri J. M. Nouwen (Paperback - Aug 1984)
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Excerpt - page 8: "... 8 Gratefulness, the Heart of Prayer world I have been invited to speak about it. And ..."Surprise me! See a random page in this book.

DAVID STEINDL-RAST was born July 12, 1926, in Vienna, Austria, where he studied art, anthropology, and psychology, receiving an MA from the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts and a PhD from the University of Vienna. In 1952 he followed his family who had emigrated to the United States. In 1953 he joined a newly founded Benedictine community in Elmira, NY, Mount Saviour Monastery, of which he is now a senior member. In 1958/59 Brother David was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Cornell University, where he also became the first Roman Catholic to hold the Thorpe Lectureship, following Bishop J.D.R. Robinson and Paul Tillich.
After twelve years of monastic training and studies in philosophy and theology, Brother David was sent by his abbot to participate in Buddhist-Christian dialogue, for which he received Vatican approval in 1967. His Zen teachers were Hakkuun Yasutani Roshi, Soen Nakagawa Roshi, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, and Eido Shimano Roshi. He co-founded the Center for Spiritual Studies in 1968 and received the 1975 Martin Buber Award for his achievements in building bridges between religious traditions.

Together with Thomas Merton, Brother David helped launch a renewal of religious life. From 1970 on, he became a leading figure in the House of Prayer movement, which affected some 200,000 members of religious orders in the United States and Canada.

For decades, Brother David divided his time between periods of hermit's life and extensive lecture tours on five continents. On a two-month lecture tour in Australia, for example, he gave 140 lectures and traveled 12,000 miles within Australia without backtracking. His wide spectrum of audiences has included starving students in Zaire and faculty at Harvard and Columbia Universities, Buddhist monks and Sufi retreatants, Papago Indians and German intellectuals, New Age communes and Naval Cadets at Annapolis, missionaries on Polynesian islands and gatherings at the United Nations, Green Berets and participants at international peace conferences. Brother David has brought spiritual depth into the lives of countless people whom he touches through his lectures, his workshops, and his writings.

Welcome, Ron Alexander!

You are now subscribed to the Grateful Living newsletter from Gratefulness.org. About once a month you will receive an email about new ways to practice gratefulness.

Meanwhile, members like you add their distinct contributions every day, some by offering their insights through our message boards; some by lighting a candle that gives hope to people around the world. Even if time allows you only to read Word for the Day each morning, please know that such simple rituals are important ingredients in our daily practice of grateful living.

Thank you for subscribing and may your life be ever more great-and-full!

Your Gratefulness Webteam

[Adrianna Dawn Moser]

Ron, I will hold you in Love and Prayer as you hold firm and find your way in the bit of your dad's heritage that you have claimed and are renovating. The love for it is in your heart. .Adrianna.

Ron Alexander said:

Dear Dr. Mike,
What a difference in culture. My experience has been diametrically opposite to yours. I was brought up in the privileged white South. An incredibly different "Old South"! My mother recently virtually left me out of her will, and being liberal did not help. Now, my Aunt Jo, who controls most of the ancestral lands appears to be entrenched against me. They lived together the last few years of my Mom's life and Fox News was their bible and Bush and all the Republican Fatcats with their lacky newscasters were their prophets. They and most white Southerners I know are scared to death of "liberals and Obama." I have even written a poem "Loss of Privilege". I may share that on the poetry group? Anyway I am very grateful to be getting to know you and lets keep writing about the differences in our upbringing - it's worthwhile education!
By the way, none of my relatives called me (most are 6 hours away) during the recent nearby catastrophic fire, and I did get a 30 day notice to leave this beautiful old beachhouse that Dad had artfully designed, and that I have been slowly renovating for over three years.Everybody around here thought I would inherit it, as I am the last remaining son. I have successfully fought off the "notice", but I don't know how long I can do that! Anyway, from my relatives, "I don't feel that deep love" that you are so grateful for...It has made me turn more to my Creator, and that is what I am grateful for.

Much gratitude to you, Ron

[Adrianna Dawn Moser]

I had the priviledge of attending a series of lectures taught by Brother David. He is a very beautiful Soul!

[Adrianna Dawn Moser]

My ex-husband, who decided to hate for reasons of his own, and who taught me how to choose and live unconditional love as I found my own way. And this beautful, most likely, perfectly ordinary to those who do not see it with Spirit Eyes, it of Wildlife Nature bit of Land I am priviledged to create with, in harmony with all the rest of the ones who live here...and to learn so much more than I ever dreamed possible! Croft Sanctuary

[Ron Alexander]

Adrianna Dawn Moser said:

I had the priviledge of attending a series of lectures taught by Brother David. He is a very beautiful Soul!

Yes, Thank you for responding so compassionately, I am so grateful for All, ron

[Ron Alexander]

Adrianna Dawn Moser said:

Ron, I will hold you in Love and Prayer as you hold firm and find your way in the bit of your dad's heritage that you have claimed and are renovating. The love for it is in your heart. .Adrianna.

Ron Alexander

Dear Dr. Mike,
What a difference in culture. My experience has been diametrically opposite to yours. I was brought up in the privileged white South. An incredibly different "Old South"! My mother recently virtually left me out of her will, and... Thank you for reposting this Adrianna, I have gone through so much healing since writing that. Drmike pointed me toward a silent ten day Vipassana Meditation Retreat, and going there has changed my life. I now see Mom as giving me a Divine Inheritance, and I am grateful for I have realized that "the best things in life are not things." However, I still live in the house and still leading a renovation of it until it is "rentable", and then I may not be able to afford the rent? However, that is ok, as I am learning to detach more and more, which adds to my Inner Joy and peace, I am attaching a story:
Ten Days of Silence for Peace of Mind
Ron Alexander

After I returned from a ten day silent Vipassana Retreat, I have been asked "Why would you even want to be in silence for ten days?" That was a good question. I would have thought it crazy, if I had not seen the "Dhamma Brothers" documentary, about the amazing transformation of lifer prisoners (some convicted murderers), after they spent ten days of silent Vipassana Meditation.

Vipassana means to see things as they really are, and was started by Gautama Buddha 2600 years ago. "...Buddha taught: an art of living. He never established or taught any religion, any 'ism'. He never instructed those who came to him to practice any rituals, any empty formalities. Instead, he taught them just to observe nature as it is, by observing the reality inside. Out of ignorance we keep reacting in ways which harm ourselves and others. But when the wisdom arises-the wisdom of observing reality as it is-this habit of reacting falls away. When we cease to react blindly, then we are capable of real action-action proceeding from a balanced mind, a mind which sees and understands the truth. Such action can only be positive, creative, helpful to ourselves and to others." S.N. Goenka "The Art of Living: Vipassana Meditation".

Science also supports the premise behind the Buddha’s meditation, as can be read about in Tolle’s books –specifically identifying with space instead of form.

Daily eleven hours of meditating was not easy, many times I felt like just bolting. However, I am glad I didn’t. I am meditating more and more effectively experiencing much more peace and joy.

Goenka advises practice – “persistence, and you will succeed and end with a ‘Metta’ (Loving Kindness) prayer:
May all beings be happy, be peaceful and be free!”

[Ron Alexander]

Adrianna Dawn Moser said:

My ex-husband, who decided to hate for reasons of his own, and who taught me how to choose and live unconditional love as I found my own way. And this beautful, most likely, perfectly ordinary to those who do not see it with Spirit Eyes, it of Wildlife Nature bit of Land I am priviledged to create with, in harmony with all the rest of the ones who live here...and to learn so much more than I ever dreamed possible! Croft Sanctuary

Well, we do have a lot in common, Adrianna, I am finally divorcing my "trophy wife", and I am learning to forgive her, which is almost as big a challenge as Mom. What I find most helpful is two beliefs: "Everybody is innocent and loving the best they can." And the very helpful Ho'oponopono Prayer: "I am sorry, please forgive me, thank you. I love you." Since in Reality we are all One, when we do this for ourselves and think of the "enemy", it is healing both of us. much appreciation, ron

[Ron Alexander]

Ron Alexander said:

Adrianna Dawn Moser said:

My ex-husband, who decided to hate for reasons of his own, and who taught me how to choose and live unconditional love as I found my own way. And this beautful, most likely, perfectly ordinary to those who do not see it with Spirit Eyes, it of Wildlife Nature bit of Land I am priviledged to create with, in harmony with all the rest of the ones who live here...and to learn so much more than I ever dreamed possible! Croft Sanctuary

Well, we do have a lot in common, Adrianna, I am finally divorcing my "trophy wife", and I am learning to forgive her, which is almost as big a challenge as Mom. What I find most helpful is two beliefs: "Everybody is innocent and loving the best they can." And the very helpful Ho'oponopono Prayer: "I am sorry, please forgive me, thank you. I love you." Since in Reality we are all One, when we do this for ourselves and think of the "enemy", it is healing both of us. much appreciation, ron

Another belief that has really helped me in dealing with difficult people is a principle from Jerry Jampolsky's Attitudinal Healing - "An attack is a call for love." when I remember it!