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!

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

Your Gratefulness Webteam

[drmike]

Ron,

This is an easy one: by far my Aunt Helen. She already had 5 kids and an troublesome marriage at the time that my mother died--her fraternal twin sister. The choice for her was rather easy, when her sister died she took in the four nephew and neices so that the family would remain unified, and kids (including me) would not get shipped out to orphanages. That's the old South. God first and family. WE do this togther, and material things are not the priority. I have been blessed to have more than one mother on this earth. I have never been abandoned.

For this I remain eternally grateful, knowing that I am deeply loved. I make it an effort to love back without reservation, as was done for me.

Thanks much for allowing me to pay that tribute.
Mike

[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 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

[drmike]

Hey Ron,

Don't worry it's not all bliss. I have a Republican brother I'm estranged from for some 20 years. I'm keeping him out of my will as well.

However, he is always in my heart should he every want to make any effort at reconciliation.

Sorry about the weather and the elements down there, God is still the best judge and guide. He could and would if sought!

Best, Mike

[Heli Aarniranta]

Life it self.
Most of the time the people I encounter in my life.

Truth I am grateful to truth.
I am grateful to my son and his love.

Swami Nithyananda
DDattatreya Siva Baba

And now I am grateful for YOU my new friend to be connected.

so there is always so much to be grateful for everyday we find new ways to be grateful and experience it fully!

[Mike Mallory]

I am grateful for "Want What You Have: Discovering Magic and Grandeur of Everyday Existence" by Timothy Miller, Harper Collins Publishers, Incorporated / October 1993

In the book Miller suggests that we be guided by three principles:

Attention

Compassion, and

Gratitude.

Miller's approach reminds me of cognitive therapy, which I find limited, but he did have a life clarifying impact on me. Since listening to an audio edition of his book over 10 years ago, I have tried to hold his three principles up as a guiding structure in my life.

Mike Mallory

[Iris Conrad]

The book's on my reading list - thanks for pointing me towards Architects of a New Dawn.

Iris

[Ron Alexander]

You are so welcome! Iris, when your page is ready, let me know and let's become friends here also!
Oh, by the way, look at forum above about "Being Grateful for Everything." I have learned so much from their posts! Ron

"Friends are gifts you give yourself." Stevenson

[Ginny Lee]

Ron,
thanks for sharing your story and for all the Aunts and Uncles who give loving care to children. Blessings Ginny

drmike said:

Ron,

This is an easy one: by far my Aunt Helen. She already had 5 kids and an troublesome marriage at the time that my mother died--her fraternal twin sister. The choice for her was rather easy, when her sister died she took in the four nephew and neices so that the family would remain unified, and kids (including me) would not get shipped out to orphanages. That's the old South. God first and family. WE do this togther, and material things are not the priority. I have been blessed to have more than one mother on this earth. I have never been abandoned.

For this I remain eternally grateful, knowing that I am deeply loved. I make it an effort to love back without reservation, as was done for me.

Thanks much for allowing me to pay that tribute.
Mike

[Vickie Sumner]

Yeshua. Yeshua has taught me balance of judgment and the love that is grace. Yeshua has taught me to love to restore. All things are to be grateful for, all things serve the evolution of mankind to the consciousness of Christ. The pure love of God is my greatest teacher, and has been shown me through a multitude of universal laws, lifeforms and experiences.

[Charly Hill]

It seems that everything I write these days is about gratitude. My most recent blog is about a woman who was certainly the best teacher of gratitude I have every known, tho her methods were certainly not conventional. I'll just start it here and you can read the rest if you like on my blog page here or at http://www.conversationsforchange.com/blog.html:

A spiritual teacher once told me "when you get to the place where you really like who you are and where you're at, you'll get grateful for all the s#!t that got you there". She was this little old gray haired lady in running shoes who was my boss when I worked for county alcoholism services back in the 80's. I didn't know then that she was my spiritual teacher and what she said often didn't sound spiritual or make complete sense to me but I knew it was important.........

[Ron Alexander]

Thanx, Charly, I really enjoyed your excellent post on your blog. This reminded me that I was blessed to do my internship for the same license at the Center for Attitudinal Healing (Jampolsky's). He was working with life-threatened children,but as they grew older they did not fit in with the younger children. So I helped create a young adult program, which turned into a job by getting a grant. The professors in grad. school were really amazed that my first work as a counselor/therapist was with life-threatened kids. They had an idea that that is something a seasoned pro. would do. However, I was passionate and enlivened by these youngsters, who knew how to be in the moment, which made them "'angels on earth". It was an enjoyable except for working with the parents, who understandably, were in much grief (which included alot of anger).
So I now proclaim that these young adults were the best teachers for me, and I am so grateful! Namaste', Ron

[Charly Hill]

Thank you, Ron. What a wonderful opportunity you created for yourself at the Center For Attitudinal Healing. I have come to believe that my clients have always been my best teachers, and I am very grateful for them.
Charly