Gratitude and Kindness Out Weight All The Rest

If you imagine the picture we typically associate with Justice you will probably see a blindfolded woman holding a scale. (Justice is blind) With that scale in mind, when trying to become an Enlightened being, if you have a large helping of Gratitude and an equally heaping portion of Kindness on your scale you will without question find yourself much further along the path than anyone you encounter without those qualities. Regardless of the virtues they possess kindness and gratitude are the Twin Pillars of spirituality.
Gratitude is being grateful for being alive, for having a place to live, a country like the one we live in to call our home. Having transportation to get around, even if it is a bus. Think of all the millions of people who don't have a way to get from one place to another. The people who can't get simple medical attention because there is no way of getting to where it is offered. Many couldn't get help anyway even if they could get there because there is no way to pay for it.
How many people die every day from starvation in a world where thousands of meals are thrown away everyday because they have passed their expiration date in one-way or the other? Do we give thanks that we are among the lucky individuals that have more than enough or are we complaining because we just can't find anything that we really want to watch on our television this evening with a hundred stations available to us at the flick of a switch. Of course we are watching that television in our warm home with in door plumbing.
How many times do you thank the Universe that you are in that group? It would be just as easy for you to have been born in total and complete poverty with absolutely no chance of ever getting out of it.  

How about Kindness? I am not talking about finding a homeless person and offering to give him a room in your house. That would be very kind but not very likely or very smart in most cases. What I am talking about is being kind to your wife or your boyfriend when having a misunderstanding. Being kind instead of right.
How many times every day do you argue a point with someone just so you can be right when the argument is over. Frequently you are still only right in your own mind because the other person is convinced that you are hallucinating. That other person is often someone that you say you love. How difficult would it be to just acquiesce and let them be right and in the process be Kind? As often as not the argument was about what color socks you wore to a business meeting two weeks ago last Thursday anyway. Who Cares Be Kind instead of right.
These things are so simple to correct and would change the complexion of society if we all put a little effort into them. This is not going to be something that the vast majority of the people in the world are going to start doing, Gratitude and Kindness is not the focus of most. If one day it enough people do start thinking this way and a critical mass is reached this too will become the way of the world.

(Read The Hundredth Monkey Phenomenon By Ken Keys Jr.)
Think about that. A world where the majority of the people were grateful for what they have and just naturally kind to everyone they encountered. I actually think Nastradamus predicted a world like that and 1000 years of peace. These things are not so hard to do and we can start right now. Maybe you are the Hundredth Monkey.
Be kind instead of right just once today on purpose and give thanks for something as well.
Meister Eckhart said;
" If The Only Prayer You Ever Said In Your Life was
THANK YOU It Would Suffice."

NAMASTE
Jack Egener

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