Category Archives: Tag A: Quotes, Poems, Songs, Images

Gratitude Quotes from Meister Eckhart & C.K. Chesterton


If the only prayer you said in your whole life was ‘Thank you,’  
that would be enough. ~ Meister Eckhart (1260-1328) 

I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought,   
and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.   
~ Gilbert Keith Chesterton 



M. K. Gandhi on Living the Answers


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“You must be the change you want to see in the world.”

REFERENCE: Interview with Arun Gandhi, grandson of M.K. Gandhi
https://www.pbs.org/kcet/globaltribe/voices/voi_gandhi.html

AMY ELDON: One of Gandhiji’s most famous sayings is, “We must be the change we wish to see.” In what context did he say that and what does it really mean?

ARUN GANDHI: Well he said this when he was speaking after prayer service and he mentioned this because people kept saying to him that the world has to change for us to change. He said, “No, the world will not change if we don’t change.” So we have to make the beginning ourselves. It has always been our human nature to blame someone else for everything that is happening. It’s never us. We are never at fault. And he tried to make us realize that we are just as much in the fault as anybody else. Unless we change ourselves and help people around us change, nobody will change because then everybody will be waiting for the other person to change.


“For me whatever is in the atoms and molecules is in the universe. I believe in the saying that what is in the microcosm of one’s self is reflected in the macrocosm.”  

REFERENCE: 4 April 1947,  The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi  (CWMG) , vol. 87, p. 207.


“My life is my message.” 

REFERENCE:  Douglas Allen (2008).  The Philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi for the Twenty-First Century . Lexington Books. p. 34.


Ben Bochner – Give Thanks for Unknown Blessings

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Performed February 10, 2012 at Tsunami Books, Eugene OR. Accompanied by Rob Tobias on harmonica and Brook Adams on guitar. First public performance of this song reflecting on the Occupy movement, from the final set of a “Songwriter Showcase” organized by Rob Tobias. Bochner is a singer-songwriter based in Eugene. Rob Tobias performs solo and with the Northwest Express; Brook Adams is bandleader for the Swingin’ Marmalukeys. Video by Randy Prince. More Ben Bochner songs on MySpace .

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Gratitude: A quote from Jack Kornfield and Joseph Goldstein


A number of years ago the Menninger Foundation sponsored a conference at which Mad Bear, an Iroquois medicine man, spoke. After several days of meetings at which scientific papers were presented, it was his turn. He said, ‘For my presentation I’d like us to begin by going outside.’ Everyone followed him outside to an open field, and he asked us all to stand silently in a circle. We stood for a while in silence under a wide open sky, surrounded by fields of grain stretching to the horizon. Mad Bear then began to speak, offering a prayer of gratitude. He thanked the earthworms for aerating the soil so that plants can grow. He thanked the grasses that cover the earth for keeping the dust from blowing, for cushioning our steps, and for showing our eyes the greenness and beauty of their life. He thanked the wind for bringing rain, for cleaning the air, for giving us the life-breath that connects us with all beings. He spoke in this way for nearly an hour, and as we listened our mindfulness grew with each prayer. We felt the wind on our faces and the earth beneath our feet, and we saw the grass and clouds, all with a sense of connectedness, gratitude, and love.”

From Seeking the Heart of Wisdom: The Path of Insight Meditation by Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield





Seven Quotes about Gratitude


  From Melanie Greenberg’s article on PsychologyToday.com .

 

  1.  “Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.”  — Marcel Proust

      

  2. “We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.”   — Thornton Wilder

      

  3. “As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”  — John F. Kennedy 

      

  4. “At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.”  — Albert Schweitzer 

      

  5. “The deepest craving of human  nature  is the need to be appreciated.”   — William James

      

  6. “Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.”  — Oprah Winfrey

      

  7. “He is a  wise  man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.”  — Epictetus