Happy harvest time — a season of thanks for the abundance from the farms and gardens.
We are grateful for Kalyana Mitta.
Here we are, together, in this community of abundance. For many of us, reflecting on the DVI sangha brings up gratitude and a wholesome awareness of goodness. You may notice this yourself as positive Vedana arising — a felt sense of warmth or ease — when gratitude touches the mind. Kindness and gratitude sit at the very center of our practice and our life together as a sangha.
Thanissaro Bhikkhu points to something the Buddha once said:
"These two people are hard to find in the world. Which two? The one who is first to do a kindness, and the one who is grateful and thankful for a kindness done."
— AN 2:118
In his essay The Lessons of Gratitude, Thanissaro Bhikkhu notes that kindness and gratitude aren't separate virtues — they have to be cultivated together, each one giving rise to the other. Gratitude becomes heartfelt, he explains, when we've genuinely benefited from someone's action, when we trust their motives, and when we sense they went out of their way for us. Seen this way, gratitude isn't passive — it's part of an ongoing exchange of giving and receiving that binds a sangha together. You can read the full essay here: The Lessons of Gratitude
A quick spoiler for next month's newsletter: we'll be sitting down with Jaimie for an interview. Her ordained name, Kataññūtā, comes from the Pali word for gratitude itself — a lovely reminder of how central this quality is to practice. We'll share more of her story next time.
Here is another view of gratitude, this one turned toward each of us individually:
Reflect on this:
You, with all your flaws, have been chosen for this opportunity to consciously taste life, to know it for what it is, and to make of it what you are able. This gift of a conscious life is grace, even when your life is filled with great difficulty and it may not feel like a gift at the time.
— Phillip Moffitt
Wherever you are this harvest season — in ease or in difficulty — may you find a moment to notice the gift of this conscious life, and the quiet threads of kindness that hold us all together.
We are grateful for your presence, reading this here. And we look forward to sitting with you soon.
With Metta,
Frank, Jaimie, Jon, Linda, Pamela, and Samuel
The DVI Steering Committee