Note: In grateful appreciation of the poem below, Jikoji intends to add similar poems about our practice from many authors; for another example see Cliff's Three Turnings of the Dharma Wheel"
Please send your poetic dharma contribution to Jikoji by email; click on the last link on this page.
Gratitude
In each turning of a key, raising of a cup
Each step forward or blinking of an eye,
Behind each thought
Each beat of the heart
There is--deeply hidden, disguised--
Gratitude.
A form of Dharma, of one's true nature
It comes forth the deeper one lives
Into Profound Interconnectedness
While briefly surfing
Upon this turbulence of being.
Joy, sorrow; love, hatred; destruction, renewal;
Vital health, painful illness; dismay and delight--
In their affirmation, recognition,
Lies the route, the channel to Gratitude.
Rather than sweet and sugary
Gratitude ruthlessly erodes
The sense of significant self.
The more pervasive our thankfulness
The less necessary we are to ourselves.
The starting point is so close
It's hardly seen or felt,
So fast, it's already gone
When thought about.
Let Gratitude surround each move,
Gesture, thought, smell, taste and touch--
Each--a wonder of being,
Each easily overlooked
As we go about
Busily maintaining our selves
All day long.
So, without "should" but with awareness,
Let us return again and again
To this moment, this place
Most gratefully
by Gerow Reece