Great Gratitude and Appreciation
"Facilitator: All right, may I speak to another voice?
"Great Joy: Sure. Go ahead.
"Facilitator: I would like to speak to the voice of Great Gratitude and Appreciation.
"Great Gratitude and Appreciation: Great Gratitude and Appreciation here, sir!
"Facilitator: Tell me about you.
"Great Gratitude and Appreciation: Well, I'm full of gratitude and appreciation for this life, for this world, this universe, for his family, his children, his wife, his teachers, his friends, his relatives, for the world, for all human beings. I'm full of gratitude to his ancestors, those who have preceded him. I just feel gratitude and appreciation for the way things are. I'm full of gratitude and appreciation.
"Facilitator: Are there things that you're not grateful for?
"Great Gratitude and Appreciation: Well, that's not me. I'm grateful for everything. That's him. There are certainly things he's not grateful for. Just ask him. But me, I'm grateful for it all, even the hard times, even the difficulties. Maybe especially the hard times and difficulties, because I watch him grow and I watch others grow through their difficulties. Sometimes it seems like it's just absolutely necessary to go through hard times, and I appreciate that. I appreciate that he gets what he needs. He doesn't always get what he wants, but he seems to want what he gets.
"That's the beautiful thing, that's the secret, to want what you get rather than trying to get what you want, because that seems like a never-ending battle, and a losing battle at that. We seem to always get what we need, though. So when we want what we get, it's really like wanting what we need.
"It's just like eating healthy food instead of junk food. Junk food may give him a temporary moment of pleasure but in the end he's not very happy with himself. Because he knows it's not good for him. Junk food makes him put on weight, it rots his teeth. It's not healthy. When he eats good food, in the end he's happier.
"So, appreciating the experiences he needs in order to grow, to expand, to go beyond himself — is a good thing. He can have great joy, appreciation, and gratitude for these experiences. That's how I see it.
"Facilitator: Have you changed since his earlier years, as great gratitude and appreciation!
"Great Gratitude and Appreciation: Well, I'm a lot more present now. Before he had that initial awakening he definitely wasn't full of gratitude or appreciation. There were certainly things about his life he appreciated, and people he appreciated, but very conditionally. When he was winning. like in his water polo matches and swim meets, he was happy. When he was losing, he wasn't so happy. When his grades were good he was happy, when they weren't so good he wasn't so happy. It was all very conditional.
"Everything is impermanent, temporary, but now there are more minutes in an hour, more hours in a day, more days in a week, more weeks in a month, that he's full of joy, gratitude and appreciation.
"Facilitator: And that doesn't depend on getting more of what he wants — it's more enjoying what he gets?
"Great Gratitude and Appreciation: Correct. Enjoying and wanting what he gets. Now he sees that everything that manifests is reality, everything is a teaching. In other words, he can either learn from it, or he can ignore it, or deny it. When he ignores or denies it, that doesn't bring fulfillment. When he learns from everything that arises, and everyone — when everything's a teaching and everyone's a teacher, I seem to be more present as gratitude and appreciation for his life."
