The importance of a spirit of gratitude

It’s easy to blame others for where we are in life, but in truth, only we are responsible for where we are and certainly it is we who are solely responsible for our individual futures. I am so saddened when those around me constantly complain about their condition, particularly when they have the means at hand to change their lives entirely.

I found this passage from president Ikeda’s New Human Revolution, which I am currently reading, particularly poignant.

…those who betray others do not have this spirit of gratitude. Such people just expect others to do things for them. They come to depend on others and to rely heavily on their goodwill.

Therefore, when other people don’t do as they expect, they feel cheated and disappointed and start to complain incessantly. The slightest setback causes them to sulk and sends them into depression. But they are really just making themselves miserable, and they end up wandering through a self-created maze of unhappiness.

The Gosho (WND, 3) says:

Even though you chant and believe in Myoho-renge-kyo, if you think the Law is outside yourself, you are embracing not the Mystic Law but an inferior teaching

Concerning yourself with what others are doing and  complaining when they don’t live up to your expectations is looking for the Law outside yourself. Such thinking ultimately comes down to spiritual weakness. It results from the lack of a philosophy of independence; a philosophy that teaches that everything starts with us and what we do. That philosophy is none other than Buddhism.

Taken from The New Human Revolution, Vol 2.

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