Gratitude (感謝Kansha): Warms the world
If you are looking for the way to give treasure of the heart to people,
You must be grateful to Tao.
Because, you have received the way to do it through the teachings of Tao Sangha.
If you are looking for spiritual growth for yourself and others,
You must be grateful to Tao.
Because, you have received the way to do it through the teachings of Tao Sangha.
Pure gratitude to Tao is not because you have gained something..
Gratitude is because you are able to give.
And there is a clear determination of repaying within it.
Be wise enough to know if your gratitude to Tao is real or not,
Especially, when you have received something from Tao.
Because often it makes you feel as if you have true gratitude to Tao.
But, if your gratitude doesn’t include the determination of repaying,
This gratitude will be called “gained gratitude”.
Be careful with your “gained gratitude”.
What you have gained no longer becomes the reason to feel gratitude to Tao.
You know why? Because you have it already.
You will start to feel that you deserved it. (Your right to receive, of course, or why not?).
Then you will start to desire and look for more merit to gain.
You might even start to look towards feeling unsatisfied so as not to feel gratitude.
And as soon as you stop gaining merit from Tao,
The “gained gratitude” you felt before could easily turn to negative feelings towards Tao.
Because “gained gratitude” is based on your self interest.
If the motivation of your Tao Sangha study was not to share the merit with others,
You might not able to have real gratitude to Tao, but temporary “gained gratitude”.
Gratitude to Tao is to give, not to gain.
And there is clear determination of repaying,
And repaying means to give the same gratitude to others that you received from Tao,
And it is for Tao to be praised.
And the richness of repayment comes from the motivation of giving,
More than you think you have received from Tao.
If determination of repaying is not clear, your spirit might not have grown enough yet to receive the merit of Tao.
Your capacity might not have expanded enough yet to receive the spirit of Tao.
If you have such a rich motivation, as repaying more than you received,
You have the capacity to receive unlimited merit from Tao.
The merit will be more than you can ever imagine.
Gratitude to Tao increases the richness of your heart.
Gratitude to Tao itself is blessing your existence.
The real gratitude makes you feel that your gratitude is always never enough.
Because gratitude to Tao is forever.