This is an AI-generated transcript from auto-generated subtitles for the video Happy Hour: Simple, Yet Profound, Gratitude. It likely contains inaccuracies, especially with speaker attribution if there are multiple speakers.

Happy Hour: Simple, Yet Profound, Gratitude - Nikki Mirghafori

The following talk was given by Nikki Mirghafori at Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, CA on November 23, 2023. Please visit the website www.audiodharma.org for more information.

Happy Hour: Simple, Yet Profound, Gratitude

Introduction

Hello again, and welcome to Happy Hour, everyone. In the US tonight is the eve before Thanksgiving, the holiday of giving thanks. I know that our Canadian friends had their Thanksgiving about a month ago already, but it's always good to give thanks. So, in honor of coming together and giving thanks, we'll do the gratitude practice. It is a beautiful, uplifting practice; it's one of the beautiful heart practices. Let us engage together in this way.

Before we get started, one thing I like to say is that gratitude practice is best done not as an obligation. You shouldn't feel that you must be grateful simply because you have this or that, because you're not suffering grossly, or because people are suffering more in the world. This "should-ing" of gratitude doesn't work; it feels contractive. It opens the heart best when it's genuine, when the heart truly has a deep appreciation for something—for anything.

I usually like to start the practice not by thinking about what you have in your life that you want to be grateful for. That's a great practice too, but I prefer starting this practice from right here and now. The way I like to lead it tonight is for us to just come to our bodies and breath and settle. Just settle in the silence without any thoughts of what to be grateful for, and just be. From this place of stability, see what bubbles up in this moment.

Maybe you appreciate the silence—oh, appreciation, gratitude for that. Maybe you appreciate the softness of the cushion we're sitting on. Let it arise from the moment's experience right here, right now, instead of making it a thinking practice. Again, there is value to the thinking practice too, and I will lead us toward that at the end, but it's nice to start really grounded in the here and now. That's the method to the madness today, our gratitude madness. Let's begin practicing together.

Guided Meditation

I'd like to invite you to arrive and settle in your body.

Feeling your feet on the earth. Body on the cushion. Feel your breath moving through your belly, your whole body. Just coming to the breath. The sensations of the body, the simplicity of this moment. Calming and settling and soothing for a few minutes on our own.

If thoughts are arising about the past and future like helium balloons, letting them go. Releasing them and coming back to the body. Sensations of the body, the breath. Just this breath. Just this one. It's never been, will never be. Connecting with this breath anchors you right here.

Can there be an appreciation for the silence in this moment, right here? Appreciating the gift of being able to sit in silence together.

Can we be appreciative of this breath? This in-breath, this out-breath, however it is.

And can we be appreciative of this mind that cognizes, that perceives, that knows right now whatever is happening? This faculty of knowing, mysterious. This faculty of consciousness alive within each of us.

Can we be appreciative of this sense of awareness, whatever it's aware of? If it's aware of thoughts that are going past and present, can we be grateful for this mind that thinks, that problem solves?

Can we be grateful for our heart? Our capacity to care. Our capacity to be impacted, to feel care, to love, and even to feel pain. To resonate, to be sensitive. Not a rock, but a sensitiveness that we have. To love, to be loved, to appreciate, to be touched, moved, and to also even hurt. The heartful emotional capacity we have. Can we be grateful for all of it?

And then letting go of all that. Coming back to silence and sensations of the body. The breath, the simplicity of it. Grateful for simplicity. Grateful for resting in simplicity in this moment.

Maybe as we feel our body sitting on the chair or a cushion, can there be gratitude for this chair, this cushion? Everything that has come to make it be here right now. All the workers, fabric, filling, workmanship, planning, roads, transportation—all the infrastructure that has made this chair possible.

Maybe if we're feeling the clothes on our skin, having gratitude for being covered with warm or cool clothing, wherever you are. Everything that has come together to make this possible here.

The food that we have eaten that's giving us energy right now to be present and to function.

I believe it's Carl Sagan who said that if you want to make an apple pie, first you need to create the whole universe. All the causes and conditions, atoms, all the stardust, and billions of years of evolution to make all of this possible. It's just the amazing magnificence of being a part of this. Gratitude for being a part of this consciousness, a part of this mystery of existing.

We usually get stuck in the minutia of our lives. Opening our perspective to the wonder and gratitude of it all.

And as we bring this meditation to a close, appreciating this being—me—who has brought me to this moment to practice. To cultivate my heart in community. Appreciating the community. Appreciating it all, even the challenges. It's like this, and it won't always be.

May all beings everywhere be happy and free, including ourselves.

Small Group Sharing

Thanks, everyone. Thank you for your practice.

I'd like to invite us to do a very uplifting practice that just makes the heart happy. This practice is in small groups where each person will share one nugget, and the question is: What are you grateful for? It's really a beautiful way to share and bring joy, muditā¹, vicarious joy, joy for the joy of others. We've done this a few times before, and every time we do it, I see you come back from the groups with a bigger smile than you went in with. Happiness arises naturally; we don't have to push it. Just, what are you grateful for?

One person will offer one thing they're grateful for: "I'm grateful for practicing with you for Happy Hour." Then the next person will say something, and we'll just go around and round, holding each other with care, with appreciation, with gratitude. It's precious to be able to have this opportunity, this community, to be able to share in this way.

Let's do reverse alphabetical order for speaking, and you can always say "pass," not a problem. Take care of yourselves. Take care of each other. No questioning, no directing, or advising. Let it be simple. All right, I'm going to create the rooms. Have fun, take care.

Reflections

Okay, welcome back, everyone. We have a few minutes for reflections. Any reflections you'd like to share, especially if you haven't shared in the large group for a while? You can also put your reflections in the chat. If you type them to me privately, I won't read your name, otherwise, I will.

Any reflections you'd like to share, any questions, anything from this practice? T., you are smiling. One of you says, "I feel much better from sharing gratitude." Amy says, "My group was magic, mettā²." That's sweet, that's very sweet. I definitely saw the smiles when you came back.

Neil, I see your hand.

Neil: Two thoughts. First, we should do this every night. This was great. Second, you know, I've been thinking: the universe is something like 14 billion years old. My life is a blank in the lifespan of the universe. I can't make my life fun every second, or pleasurable or whatever, but whatever it is, it's better than the rest of those 14 billion years from my viewpoint. [Laughter] It's not so easy to remember that all the time, but I'm trying.

Nikki: [Laughter] Keep on, keep on. I love it! Exactly, that's absolutely right. Even the pain, the complexities that we make our small self, even that is amazing compared to the rest of it, as you were saying. Exactly. Thanks, Neil. Thanks for sharing, that was lovely to hear.

Amy?

Amy: This was great, thank you so much. I'm really grateful for the awareness of the transient nature of things, and how much my practice has helped me meet the moments and move through them. The last two weeks have been some of the hardest moments of my life. My mom's been in the hospital straight from retreat—I didn't get to end retreat without it. It was a TIA³ that made her dementia worse, and so now it's like I only have her for seconds. It's heartbreaking, but I also remember what we talked about: the beautiful moments of it. I had a beautiful conversation of love with her. Even if I'm at my lowest, I wake up the next morning sometimes grounded with Gil⁴, or looking forward to this, and I'm like... I'm in love, I'm in the mettā. I trust in the unfolding and I'll meet it. It feels like a superpower that I can move through moments and be okay, and see love in darkness, you know?

Nikki: Ah, thank you, Amy. I couldn't have said it any better. Thank you. To see love and light in the darkness, yeah. Gratitude for it all. Thank you, that's such a beautiful note to end on. Thank you so much for offering this.

My heart is warmed by all of you. Thank you so much for your beauty, your goodness, your practice. Being exactly as you are with all the complexities of being human, as we love and we ache and hurt and bumble our way along and grow. We grow in goodness, and divinity grows through us growing.

So thank you all. May all beings be well, may all beings be free, and may all beings truly know their own magnificence, including us. Thanks, everyone, be well. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. Bye-bye.