Showing posts with label Gratitude. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gratitude. Show all posts

Thursday, November 24, 2022

Gratitude: The Heart Of Unitarian Universalism



Back in the Spring of 2007 the UU World published a feature article entitled The Heart Of Our Faith by Rev. Dr. Galen Guengerich the senior pastor at All Souls Church in New York City. The article was based on a sermon that Rev. Dr. Guengerich had given at All Souls on October 15, 2006.


Rev. Dr. Guengerich writes in part:


The feeling of awe emerges from experiences of the grandeur of life and the mystery of the divine. We happen upon a sense of inexpressible exhilaration at being alive and a sense of utter dependence upon sources of being beyond ourselves. This sense of awe and dependence should engender in us a discipline of gratitude, which constantly acknowledges that our present experience depends upon the sources that make it possible. The feeling of obligation lays claim to us when we sense our duty to the larger life we share. As we glimpse our dependence upon other people and things, we also glimpse our duty to them. This sense of obligation leads to an ethic of gratitude, which takes our experience of transcendence in the present and works for a future in which all relationships—among humans, as well as between humans and the physical world—are fair, constructive, and beautiful.


Rev. Dr. Guengerich had a book published in May of 2020 entitled “The Way Of Gratitude: A New Spirituality For Today.”


Thursday, November 28, 2019

Is there graitude without forgiveness?

Here's a little tip.

There is no gratitude without forgiveness.

We can pretend to be thankful which is better than not, but if there is grievance, resentment, anger, guilt, fear in your heart you can't experience and extend genuine gratitude.

So before you give thanks, consider first whom you have to forgive for making you unhappy. Recognize that you are not a victim but a beloved child of God. Give up you willingness to make other people and situations responsible for your unhappiness.

Having given this up, then reflect on your blessings and give thanks.

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

What does a life of gratitude look like?







Jesus said that in order to pursue and bring about the reign of God one had to be in the world but not of the world. It is an interesting idea.

We are captured by a political discourse, an economic discourse, a religious discourse, a legal discourse and others. I am using "discourse" to mean system. We all are captured by and participate to various extents in these various systems. We, unfortunately, from a spiritual perspective, give value to our standing in these systems. Jesus reminds us, as does the Buddha, that this is all nonsense. Our standing in these systems will all pass away. These systems have very little to do with what Jesus called the Kingdom of God.

What is the Kingdom of God and how do we bring it about? The Kingdom of God, I believe, is very similar to what the Buddha called enlightenment. The Kingdom of God and enlightenment involves our becoming fully realized, fully conscious human beings and that we participate in life in a peaceful, compassionate, and generous way.

To what extent does Unitarian Universalism inform its members ability to achieve the "Kingdom of God" or enlightenment in their lives? Jesus says that the way to the kingdom is to "love as I have loved". As Galen Guengerich says in his sermon on Gratitude, the Jewish answer to the question of how to get to the Kingdom is through obedience to the law. The Muslim answer is through submission to the will of Allah. Rev. Guengerich suggests that the Unitarian Universalist answer might well be "gratitude."

The way to the kingdom in Unitarian Universalism is to cultivate and practice a life of gratitude. Interesting idea. What would a life of gratitude look like? Is that an attractive way of life for people to pursue? What obligation and discipline does it require of us? How does one build a life on gratitude? What are the implications for each of us in terms of our personal development and in terms of the health and quality of the communities and world we live in? Would the practice of a way of life based on gratitude bring about the fulfillment of human kind?

Of course, gratitude cannot arise without forgiveness and forgiveness in the spiritual sense means giving up making other people and situations responsible for our unhappiness. Once we forgive others and situations then we open the path to gratitude.



Wednesday, May 22, 2019

Do gratitude and compassion flow from our awareness of our utter dependence on the interdependent web of all existence?

Rev. Galen Guengerich, Senior Minister at All Soul's in New York City, says that one of the key components of a Unitarian Universalist theology should be an understanding and appreciation of gratitude. This gratitude, he says, is based on our realization of our utter dependence. I agree with Rev. Guengerich, and today I am reading Osho's book on compassion.

Osho says that compassion is like a fragrance that emanates from meditation by which I think he means awareness of the "interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part." In a sense I think that is what Rev. Guengerich means by utter dependence generating gratitude, and this is what Osho means by compassion.

Osho says, "... and I call a person religious who has come to understand that the whole existence is a family. He may not go to any church, he may not worship in any temple, he may not pray at any mosque or gurudwara - that doesn't matter, it is irrelevant. If you do, good, it is okay; if you don't that is even better. But one who has understood the organic unity of existence is constantly in the temple, is constantly facing the sacred and the Divine."
Osho says further that compassion can't be forced, it is not a discipline, it is a natural consequence of the awareness of the wholeness of creation. For this I think we not only experience compassion, but also tremendous, joyful gratitude.

Monday, February 26, 2018

Without forgiveness we have nothing

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth..." This acceptance is based on forgiveness. Forgiveness comes before acceptance. Without forgiveness, acceptance is not possible and illusory.

Forgiveness is the giving up of the path of the ego for the path of the spirit.

Forgiveness is turning from idols to Love.

Forgiveness brings gratitude and gratitude brings peace, what some might call contentment. We are happy at last at what is.

Based on the ego's law of scarcity we always want more. We are constantly grasping and clinging and thereby create our own hell.

We need to give it up. We need to forgetaboutit and be grateful for today, Today is a gift, given for free.

Friend to me, "How are you doin?"

Me to friend, "Happy to be here."

Friend to me, "And I'm happy and better now that you're here."

Thursday, November 23, 2017

May the love you desire and deserve flow from gratitude and thanks


Editor's note: 
Rev. Galen Guengerich, pastor at All Soul's Unitarian Church in New York City,  writes that gratitude should be the center of our UU faith. For more click here. I appreciate Rev. Guengerich's idea and being a student of A Course In Miracles and a Roman Catholic Unitarian Universalist, I think that forgiveness comes first, then gratitude. It is hard to feel grateful until one feels forgiven and forgives.

Wednesday, November 22, 2017

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