英文原文
Making Mindfulness and Gratitude A Powerful Daily Practice — WITHIN
By WITHIN teacher Jonathan Borella
Oh autumn - my favorite time of year. Well, it’s tied with spring, and summer, and winter but there is something I love about the low morning light on the changing leaves and the first feeling of nip in the air.
For a friend of mine, though, the beginning of fall is an announcement of the holiday season and forebodes the onset of stress, hurry, and worry. I affirmed that the holidays can be stressful, and then asked her how she’s managed the stress in the past. She said, “I’ve noticed that gratitude and paying attention always bring my mind back to center.” I thought that was a deep teaching.
That gratitude and paying attention tend to bring the mind back to center gives me a helpful clue into how I become uncentered. Things like disgruntledness, discontent, and a habit of noticing what’s wrong more than noticing what’s right are symptoms of a mind deficient in gratitude and paying the wrong kind of attention.
Evolutionary psychology describes an adaptation called the Zargonic effect, which predisposes the human mind to notice what’s wrong more easily than what is right.
It might have served our ancestors well who had to survive in the wild and build a society from the ground up. But for people like us who have time and space and safety to come and sit in meditation together and not have to worry about anything (at least for the moment), an unmindfulness of this habit tends to lead us to worry about things when there is nothing to worry about.
So a mindful practice of cultivating gratitude can help to correct for this habit and bring our mind back to center where there is peace and a more holistic and balanced view of the way things actually are.
A monastic teacher from the Plum Village Community of Engaged Buddhism taught me that the word used for gratitude in the scriptures that the Buddha’s teachings were first recorded in actually means “recognizing what has been done.” That’s why I’ve been so benefited by the Plum Village tradition; it is all about dwelling in the present moment and paying attention.
One concrete practice that we can use in our lives to pay more attention and cultivate gratitude is gathas. Gathas are short little mindfulness verses that we memorize or compose to remember and contemplate throughout our everyday lives for generating mindfulness, and awakened aspiration.
For turning on the water, there is a verse that we can remember to help bring us back to that moment of having water come out of a faucet, run over our hands, and be with the sensations of cool water splashing on our face. It is a miracle that with the turn of a knob water comes down from a mountain or deep underground reservoir to our fingertips.
Without mindfulness, it's so easy to miss those ordinary moments. Life is just one ordinary moment after another, and we drift through it without paying attention, we become sick with lack of gratitude. Mindfulness is medicine.
The moment I wake up, I have the chance to set a tone of gratitude for the day by breathing with full awareness, reflecting on the treasure of 24 hours ahead, and remembering my deepest aspiration. I practice a gatha by remembering a phrase as I breathe in and another phrase as I breathe out. That way my mind and body are totally together and I can be present and connect with the meaning and intention that these words are trying to plant in me as seeds. The words aren’t actually as important as being there with the breath and being open and receptive for the moment.
The gatha my teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh, suggests we remember when waking up in the morning is:
Waking up this morning
Twenty four brand new hours are before
I vow to live each moment fully
And look at all beings with the eyes of compassion
I silently recite the first line while mindfully breathing in and feeling my body laying in bed. With an out breath, I silently recite the second line, and then another in breath and the third line, and an out breath and the fourth line. It only takes two in and out breaths and I’m ready to start the day as my best self.
In that moment I turn what is an ordinary, mundane, twenty four hours into a precious opportunity to be alive and to cultivate a practice. And there are moments all throughout the day for practicing like this. Opening a door can be a moment to stop, calm my body and mind, and set an intention.
Just through coming back to this present moment and paying attention there are so many opportunities for gratitude.
One practice Thich Nhat Hanh suggests is to sit down with a piece of paper and write down all the things you have to be grateful for and before long you’ll fill up that whole piece of paper. You might try it and be surprised at what comes up.
When I was doing that exercise I didn’t have to get far down the list before I realized I was actually writing a list of my attachments. One of the things that came up was my car. Cultivating gratitude for my car naturally led me to contemplate what life would be like without my car. So much anxiety came up. I was living in LA at the time, and I definitely needed that car. And then all the troubles of owning a car also came up - insurance, maintenance, parking. I thought owning a car is actually kind of a pain in the butt. I realized I was only scratching the surface of gratitude. To go deeper, I turned to the teachings of my root teacher, the Buddha.
The Buddha recommends four objects of gratitude: parents, teachers, spiritual friends, and all beings. That has been a deep practice for me.
My, like most people’s, relationship with my parents is complicated. I’ve heard teachers say even if you didn’t have great parents, you can always be grateful for them having given birth to you. At the time, I thought that was kind of a cop out. But as I’ve reflected more and more, and slowly recognized how lucky I am to be a human and to be here, I have a lot of gratitude for my parents.
Actually, I’m very lucky and have much more than that to be grateful to my parents for, but just being here and having the opportunity to reach the highest potential a human can realize - freedom of mind and transformation of suffering - I couldn’t do that without my parents.
There is a vivid image that the Buddha shares: Even if you were to carry your parents around on your back for a thousand years and never put them down, and they were to defecate down your back, you would not have repaid your debt of gratitude to them. I remember reading that and feeling a tremendous burden and guilt. I owe my parents so much and here I am living eight hundred miles away. My dad had a stroke and I’ve only visited him a few times. I’m not repaying my debt of gratitude.
And then I looked more deeply at the discourse and realized I can’t repay my debt of gratitude no matter how hard I try. The burden of guilt lifted and I knew what my parents wanted most from me was to make the best use of what they passed on to me for freedom from suffering and to cultivate kindness, compassion, joy, and peace in my daily life.
There is no burden of debt in true gratitude because there is no separation between the giver and the receiver. Gratitude is an insight into the way things are.
One gatha that Thich Nhat recommends that we practice in the shower is:
Unborn and indestructible
Beyond time and space
Both inheritance and transmission
Are empty of giver and receiver
If I look at my body as an object of transmission, then I think of it as inherited from my parents and from their parents, and from thousands of generations of ancestors going all the way back to single celled organisms, and atoms fused together by an exploding star billions of years before that. But before my body was transmitted to me, where was I to inherit a body? Without a body, how could there be a me to inherit one?
The very ideas of transmission and inheritance, of giving and receiving, are false ones based on objectifying and reifying what is actually an unborn and indestructible flow of energy, beyond time and space. There is a natural flow of energy in life cycling from one being to another. We are truly in harmony with that when we are able to blend and receive with grace and give with generosity. With the knowledge that we are participating in life, we let go of all complexes about who is giving and who is receiving.
I step out of the shower and into the present moment. What a miracle. What a wonder. What isn’t there to be grateful for?
Jonathan has taught regularly in WITHIN’s online meditation studio. He is currently on an extended retreat.
中文翻译
将正念与感恩打造成强大的日常实践 — WITHIN
作者：WITHIN 老师 Jonathan Borella
哦，秋天——我最喜欢的一年中的时光。嗯，它和春天、夏天、冬天并列，但我喜欢清晨低垂的阳光照在变化的叶子上，以及空气中第一丝寒意。
然而，对我的一位朋友来说，秋天的开始是假日季节的宣告，预示着压力、匆忙和担忧的开始。我确认假期可能带来压力，然后问她过去是如何应对压力的。她说：“我注意到感恩和关注总是能让我的心回到中心。” 我认为这是一个深刻的教导。
感恩和关注倾向于让心回到中心，这给了我一个有用的线索，了解我是如何变得不中心的。不满、不满足，以及习惯性地注意到错误多于正确，这些都是缺乏感恩和错误关注的心智症状。
进化心理学描述了一种称为 Zargonic 效应的适应，它使人类心智更容易注意到错误而非正确。
这可能很好地服务于我们的祖先，他们必须在野外生存并从头建立社会。但对于像我们这样的人来说，我们有时间和空间和安全来一起静坐冥想，不必担心任何事情（至少暂时如此），对这种习惯的不正念往往会导致我们在无事可担心时担心事情。
因此，培养感恩的正念实践可以帮助纠正这种习惯，让我们的心回到中心，那里有和平，以及对事物实际方式的更全面和平衡的看法。
一位来自梅村社区（Engaged Buddhism）的僧侣老师教导我，佛陀教法最初记录的经典中用于感恩的词实际上意味着“认识到已经完成的事情”。这就是为什么我从梅村传统中受益匪浅；它完全是关于安住当下和关注。
我们可以在生活中使用的一种具体实践来更多地关注和培养感恩是 gathas。Gathas 是简短的正念诗句，我们记忆或创作它们，以便在日常生活中记住和沉思，以产生正念和觉醒的愿望。
对于打开水龙头，有一句诗句我们可以记住，以帮助我们回到水从水龙头流出、流过我们的手、感受冷水溅在脸上的那一刻。这是一个奇迹，转动旋钮，水从山上或深地下水库流到我们的指尖。
没有正念，很容易错过那些平凡的时刻。生活只是一个又一个平凡的时刻，我们漫不经心地度过，不关注，我们因缺乏感恩而生病。正念是良药。
我醒来的那一刻，有机会通过全意识呼吸、反思未来 24 小时的宝藏，并记住我最深的愿望，为这一天设定感恩的基调。我通过吸气时记住一句话，呼气时记住另一句话来练习 gatha。这样，我的心和身体完全在一起，我可以当下，并与这些话语试图在我心中种下的意义和意图连接。话语实际上不如与呼吸同在、对当下开放和接纳重要。
我的老师 Thich Nhat Hanh 建议我们在早上醒来时记住的 gatha 是：
今晨醒来
二十四小时全新在前
我誓愿充分活每一刻
并以慈悲之眼看待一切众生
我正念吸气时默念第一行，感受身体躺在床上。呼气时默念第二行，然后吸气第三行，呼气第四行。只需两次吸气和呼气，我就准备好以最好的自己开始这一天。
在那一刻，我将平凡、普通的二十四小时转变为活着的宝贵机会和培养实践的机会。全天都有这样的练习时刻。打开一扇门可以是一个停下来、平静身心、设定意图的时刻。
仅仅通过回到当下和关注，就有许多感恩的机会。
Thich Nhat Hanh 建议的一种实践是坐下来，拿一张纸，写下所有你必须感恩的事情，不久你就会填满整张纸。你可能会尝试并惊讶于浮现的内容。
当我做那个练习时，我还没写多远就意识到我实际上在写一份我的执著清单。浮现的事情之一是我的车。培养对车的感恩自然让我思考没有车生活会怎样。许多焦虑浮现。我当时住在洛杉矶，我绝对需要那辆车。然后所有拥有车的麻烦也浮现了——保险、维护、停车。我认为拥有车实际上有点麻烦。我意识到我只是触及了感恩的表面。为了深入，我转向我的根本上师佛陀的教导。
佛陀推荐四种感恩对象：父母、老师、精神朋友和一切众生。这对我来说是一个深刻的实践。
我和父母的关系，像大多数人一样，是复杂的。我听过老师说，即使你没有好父母，你总是可以感恩他们生下了你。当时，我认为那是一种逃避。但随着我越来越多地反思，慢慢认识到我作为人类在这里是多么幸运，我对父母有很多感恩。
实际上，我非常幸运，有更多要感恩父母的事情，但仅仅在这里并有机会实现人类能实现的最高潜力——心的自由和痛苦的转化——没有父母我做不到。
佛陀分享了一个生动的形象：即使你背着父母一千年从不放下，他们排泄在你背上，你也没有偿还你对他们的感恩债务。我记得读到这个时感到巨大的负担和内疚。我欠父母这么多，而我住在八百英里外。我父亲中风了，我只探望过他几次。我没有偿还我的感恩债务。
然后我更深入地看那篇开示，意识到无论我多么努力，我都无法偿还我的感恩债务。内疚的负担解除了，我知道父母最希望我的是充分利用他们传给我的东西，从痛苦中解脱，并在日常生活中培养仁慈、慈悲、喜悦和和平。
真正的感恩中没有债务负担，因为给予者和接受者之间没有分离。感恩是对事物本质的洞察。
Thich Nhat 建议我们在淋浴时练习的一个 gatha 是：
不生不灭
超越时空
继承与传递
皆空无给予者与接受者
如果我将我的身体视为传递的对象，那么我认为它是从父母和他们的父母那里继承的，从数千代祖先一直追溯到单细胞生物，以及数十亿年前爆炸恒星融合的原子。但在我的身体传递给我之前，我在哪里继承一个身体？没有身体，怎么会有我来继承一个？
传递和继承、给予和接受的概念，是基于将实际上不生不灭、超越时空的能量流客观化和实体化的错误观念。生命中有一种自然的能量流从一个生命循环到另一个生命。当我们能够优雅地融合和接受，慷慨地给予时，我们真正与之和谐。知道我们正在参与生命，我们放下所有关于谁给予谁接受的复杂想法。
我走出淋浴，进入当下。多么奇迹。多么奇妙。有什么不值得感恩？
Jonathan 定期在 WITHIN 的在线冥想工作室教学。他目前正在进行长期闭关。
文章概要
本文探讨了如何通过正念和感恩的日常实践来应对中年不满，结合佛教视角。作者 Jonathan Borella 分享个人经验，指出感恩和关注能帮助心回归中心，缓解不满和焦虑。文章介绍了 gathas（正念诗句）作为具体工具，如 Thich Nhat Hanh 的晨间诗句，以培养当下意识和感恩。还讨论了佛陀推荐的四种感恩对象（父母、老师、精神朋友、一切众生），强调感恩能带来内心平和与对生命本质的洞察。整体上，文章倡导通过简单日常实践，如写感恩清单或淋浴时默念 gatha，来增强幸福感，对抗进化心理学中的负面偏见，适用于缓解中年不满等生活挑战。
高德明老师的评价
用12岁初中生可以听懂的语音来重复翻译的内容：这篇文章就像教我们玩一个“感恩游戏”，让我们每天注意身边的小事情，比如喝水、开门，然后说谢谢。这样，当我们觉得不开心或担心时，感恩能像魔法一样让心情变好。作者还教我们念一些短诗，比如早上醒来时念“今晨醒来，二十四小时全新在前”，帮助我们记住要开心和善良。感恩还能让我们更爱爸爸妈妈和朋友们，知道他们对我们很好。
佛学的各个宗派视角评价，突出《显密圆通成佛心要集》的视角：从佛教显宗和大乘视角看，本文强调的感恩与正念实践，与《显密圆通成佛心要集》中倡导的“心要”修行高度契合。该经典主张显密圆融，通过简单法门如持咒（如准提咒）来净化心念、积累资粮。本文的 gathas 类似于简易咒语，帮助修行者安住当下，培养慈悲，这与准提法强调的“日常用功、即事而真”相通。感恩作为修行基础，能对治贪嗔痴，尤其针对中年不满等烦恼，准提法以其普适性和便捷性，可融入此类实践，快速提升心性，实现显密双修的目标。
在修行实践上可以应用的和可以解决人们的十个问题：1. 缓解日常焦虑：通过感恩练习，如写清单，减少不必要的担心。2. 提升幸福感：关注当下小确幸，对抗不满情绪。3. 改善人际关系：感恩父母和朋友，增进和谐。4. 增强专注力：gathas 帮助心回归，提高工作效率。5. 培养慈悲心：如晨间诗句，促进对众生的关爱。6. 减轻压力：正念呼吸和感恩结合，放松身心。7. 应对中年危机：以感恩视角重新评估生活，找到意义。8. 促进睡眠质量：睡前感恩反思，带来平和入睡。9. 提升自我认知：通过感恩深度反思，了解执著和依赖。10. 实现灵性成长：融入准提法等修行，加速觉悟进程。