When We Are Grateful, We Feel Joy!

When We Are Grateful, We Feel Joy!

  

Sensei said "The spirit of gratitude is very important. When we are grateful, we feel joy. When we are joyful, we also feel courageous. That leads us to want to do our utmost to show our appreciation to others. Having met many people all over the world, I have reached the conclusion that people who are able to feel gratitude are happy.

  

It is also true that those who betray others do not have this spirit of gratitude. Such people just expect others to do things for them. They come to depend on others and to rely heavily on their goodwill. Therefore, when other people don't do as they expect, they feel cheated and disappointed and start to complain incessantly. The slightest setback causes them to sulk and sends them into depression. But they are really just making themselves miserable, and they end up wandering through a self-created maze of unhappiness.

  

"The Gosho says; '... even though you chant and believe in Myoho-renge-kyo, if you think the Law is outside yourself, you are embracing not the Mystic Law but an inferior teaching'.

  

Concerning yourself with what others are doing and complaining when they don't live up to your expectations is looking for the Law outside yourself. Such thinking ultimately comes down to spiritual weakness."

  

- Daisaku Ikeda

Towards Victory, Excerpted guidances from the NHR Value Creation Feb 2014