Daily Connect: How to Give Thanks

Remember these two things: be loving and wait for gratitude to arrive. And when it comes, don’t resist, because the ego may create some resistance. Gratitude goes against the ego.

Gratitude means surrender, gratitude means bowing down. Gratitude means saying to the unknown energy, the unknown force, god, ’I was not worthy and you have given so much to me. I was not worthy and you have filled me with such love. I was not worthy and you have given me such a beautiful existence.’ 

This goes against the ego…so remember: love also goes against the ego, because in love also you have to put the ego aside.  But in love you put the ego aside; in gratitude you simply drop it forever.

So love is a training for gratitude. First you put the ego aside, then it comes back again and again. Then slowly slowly you start feeling that it is a separate thing from you. If it can be put aside, it can be dropped too. It is not you.

And also, whenever you put the ego aside you feel such joy in you that naturally you start learning the lesson: whenever the ego is there sitting on top of you, it creates misery; whenever it is aside, bliss arises. The arithmetic then is simple – if you want to be eternally blissful drop this ego forever; and that is the second step, ’anugraha’, gratitude. Once these two steps have been taken the journey is complete. In two steps the journey is complete.

Osho, from The Tongue-Tip Taste of Tao