Our theme is “Be Grateful to Everyone”.
Work with this each and everyday. Put it before yourself as you get up in the morning, after morning exercise, as a reminding factor during the day.
There are the little things that constantly bother us about others; people we see – the way they behave, dress, move, treat others. Be Grateful to Everyone.
There are impersonal affronts we see on the news; how some behave toward their fellows, political leaders, commentators, celebrities, etc.
Then there are chronic, more personal, bigger situations in our life. Family members, in-laws, people we know well who have treated us badly and worse. Be Grateful to Everyone.
We need in our work to be-friend parts of ourselves that we shun.
To quote Trungpa, my teacher in this, “The slogan “Be grateful to everyone” is about making peace with the aspects of ourselves that we have rejected. Through doing that, we also make peace with people we dislike. More to the point, being around people we dislike is often a catalyst for making friends with ourselves. Thus, “Be grateful to everyone.” If we were to come up with one word about each of the troublemakers in our lives, we would find ourselves with a list of descriptions of our own rejected qualities, which we project onto the outside world. In traditional teachings on lojong it is put another way: other people trigger the karma that we haven’t worked out. They mirror us and give us the chance to befriend all of that ancient stuff that we carry around like a backpack full of granite boulders.”
This theme is about learning from all situations and other people becoming our teachers. Not fighting others and situations, but embracing them with our inner presence, which opens us up to another force. We open up, open our hearts and minds to situations we would ordinarily be closed to and allow them to become our mentor.
Trungpa Rimpoche again, “”Be grateful to everyone” is getting at a complete change of attitude. It does not mean that if you’re mugged on the street you should smile knowingly and say, “Oh, I should be grateful for this,” before losing consciousness. This slogan actually gets at the guts of how we perfect ignorance through avoidance, not knowing that we’re eating poison, not knowing that we’re putting another layer of protection over our heart, not seeing through the whole thing.”
There are many layers to this theme. Don’t work on this with the mind, with thinking, work with this in actuality during the day. There is a good deal to find out about ourselves, our leaks of energy and our potential for Compassion.