Quick Musings on Gratitude and Divinity
I silently stood on the beach to watch the sunset. Quite a spectacle. I was flooded with sentiments of Gratitude for just witnessing it, for being alive and having eyes to see it. An explosion of Gratitude extended to every part of my body. Gratitude for my legs for taking me there, for my stomach for processing the food I previously had, for my mouth, for my spine, my lungs, and my bones. Gratitude then extended beyond me, to the ocean, to the evening breeze, to the foam covering my feet, to the fish in the sea, to the other persons also watching the sunset. I wonder what feelings were they feeling. Surely more than one experienced this high state of Gratitude. This particular young man even raised his hands up, in a gesture of receiving and giving back. He channeled something. I felt it too and then I did the same. I wanted that all my friends could see it too, my family, and my acquaintances. Gratitude became a sudden impulse for doing something with that sunset, anything, just creating, sharing and then giving it away. Naively, all I could do was start singing.
It is known that Gratitude vastly improves your life when you practice it. This happens due to a positive loop created when you are thankful for the everyday little details. When you do so then your dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin kick in. This puts you in a receptive mode for everything that happens to you and makes you more aware of how wonderful simple things are.
This natural focus on the positive aspects of what happens to you influences your mood. You become even more aware, more open to trying new things, and more grateful for what you have and everything that happens in your life. Then incredible things start happening to you. This is not an esoteric magic trick (but let’s be honest it kinda looks like it). It is well documented by neurochemists. This video by Kurzgesagt explains better how Gratitude can be an antidote to dissatisfaction. The intention of this write-up is not to explain the science behind it but rather to explore what happens next when you go deep into these states of Gratitude. I argue that they open the door to something far more immense and beautiful that is very close to what the religious call Divinity.
I never thought I would be thinking these thoughts. I’ve been an atheist since very young and created my worldview based on what science could tell me. But I can no longer pretend I haven’t seen these things. After I experienced what some would call a spiritual awakening via an encounter with the medicine Bufo Alvarius, I realized there is no turning back. I now know I have always been sensing that there might be something else going on with reality but didn’t have the language to describe it. Quantum Physics hints at it, Buddhism has known this for a very long time, Biology and Evolution talk about it, Astrophysicists stumble in awe at conclusions they don’t want to fully accept, Yogis have created a path to it, and wisdom from ancient religions have been describing this for centuries.
It’s everywhere. Yes, we’re all one, we’re all connected, what we call God is within us, all is love, and the Universe is a simulation, a hologram that we all create together, call it what you will, let’s not trouble ourselves with semantics. Each one of us has been sensing all of this, it is even in modern media. Shanti, Shanti, right? We might discard it because we don’t want to sound too crazy, but deep down we all have sensed it before. We are all one, we are the Universe ourselves. These are shallow words until you experience them directly with all your cognition, your body, your mind, your emotions, with all your being. Then you dissolve into that vastness of the all-is-one, you become… it.
Sigh…
So then, how Gratitude can lead you to Divinity? Imagine each one of them is like a room, a space you enter. Keep this image in mind. When you are in Gratitude you are infused with a deep sense of giving back, sharing what you have, and helping others to get what they need in order to thrive. You become a caretaker, a creator of wellbeing, of novelty, of arts. You do this unselfishly because this is what Gratitude does. It makes you give to others. An offering, a prayer of good intentions. This includes everybody, humans and non-humans, sentient and non-sentient, living and non-living beings like rocks, mountains, rivers, and clouds. Deep compassion for everything that exists. You care. This is what unconditional love feels like. This is a space suffused with Love.
When you are attuned to this Universal sense of Love in deep meditation/contemplation states your sense of identity dissolves into it. You become the Universal Love. This is a space suffused with Divinity, and you fill that space. It’s getting harder to describe it at this point (and possibly useless), but what is fascinating is how close this sounds to what the religious describe in their testimonials and words. God is the nothingness, the void from which everything emanates and what all returns to, and we are “it” experiencing itself through us. This is what reality is doing. Divinity is very mysterious to understand and yet very simple to feel. The all-is-one is hidden in plain sight and in us.
Entering Gratitude and Divinity feels effortless as is our natural state. You have felt it before. Remember the last sunset you sighed at or the last time you watched the stars, or when you admired a bee sipping on flowers, or when you took shade under a tree and felt its love, or when you smiled back at a smile of a loved one. That’s it. This is what is going on.
This reality is a very persistent illusion but is not as real as it appears. We must stay here and do the best we can to make others thrive. This is what takes us back to Divinity, a place we actually never left, we just forgot.
We were never individuals, we are always in the all-is-one space. Pay attention, it’s all around you. It is you.
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Inspiration:
- Quick Musings on Life and the Universe
- Video about the mystery of Eleusis (a summary of Immortality Key book by Brian C. Muraresku.) Watch here.
- The Wild Things Are Coming (A Story About Care). Video essay by Just Wondering. Watch here.
- An Antidote to Dissatisfaction. Video by Kurzgesagt. Watch here.
- A short documentary on Bufo Alvarius. Watch here.
