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Happy Hour: Turning from a Mindset of Scarcity to Gratitude

Hello, welcome everyone to Happy Hour. It's lovely to be with you. It makes me happy to come together in this way. Greetings to everyone not just on Zoom, but also on YouTube for joining us, as well as the folks on Audio Dharma who will be joining us later asynchronously.

For today's practice, I wanted to offer a quote from Lynne Twist. Lynne Twist is the author of a wonderful book called The Soul of Money. It is just a lovely book. There are many wonderful quotes from it, but the one that I wanted to share as the inspiration for our practice really nails it. We've worked with the theme of enoughness many times before, and the sense of scarcity versus enoughness, and this quote from her captures it perfectly. Here we go:

"For me, and for many of us, our first waking thought of the day is, 'I didn't get enough sleep.' The next one is, 'I don't have enough time.' Whether true or not, that thought of 'not enough' occurs to us automatically before we even think to question or examine it. We spend most of the hours and the days of our lives hearing, explaining, complaining, or worrying about what we don't have enough of. We don't have enough exercise. We don't have enough work. We don't have enough profits. We don't have enough power. We don't have enough wilderness. We don't have enough weekends. Of course, we don't have enough money ever. We're not thin enough. We're not smart enough. We're not pretty enough, or fit enough, or educated, or successful enough, or rich enough, ever. Before we even sit up in bed, before our feet touch the floor, we're already inadequate, already behind, already losing, already lacking something. And by the time we go to bed at night, our minds race with a litany of what we didn't get or didn't get done that day. We go to sleep burdened by those thoughts and wake up to the reverie of lack. What begins as a simple expression of the hurried life, or even the challenge of life, grows into the great justification for an unfulfilled life. This internal condition of scarcity, this mindset of scarcity, lives at the very heart of our jealousies, our greed, our prejudices, and our arguments with life."

Quite profound. I appreciate, in some ways, maybe we see some of our attitudes in what she says. Maybe not in everything, or maybe in all of it. There is this sense of scarcity, the sense of lack. I know too, when I go to bed at night, I think, "Okay, I got this done, great." I try to remind myself of the beautiful things in the day, but of course there's also a sense of, "I didn't get that done, and that done." Usually, I try to turn towards what's good—what were the gifts of the day, what I'm grateful for. And yet, as I read this, I had the sense of, "Oh yeah, this sense of not enough. It's not enough time, not enough this, not enough that."

So, I wanted to bring it in for your consideration. If you identify with any aspects of this not-enoughness, how can we turn our minds from scarcity to enoughness? What do we actually have plenty of? What is good? What good is there in our lives already? The sense of plentifulness is already here. The time we have, the resources we have, the goodness we have, the love we have, what is already here. That is the invitation for today's practice.

With that, let's land our bodies and meditate together.

Guided Meditation

Arriving, arriving, arriving in this body. Arriving in this moment.

What if we arrive with a sense of enoughness, whatever has been accomplished or not today? Whatever there is or isn't, whatever is happening in this body, how do we turn into enoughness? However the conditions are, can we tune into the enoughness in this moment, and to the perfection in this moment? Not tuning into what's lacking, but what is good, what is plentiful.

Let's start with our bodies. Feeling our feet on the earth. Gravity is enough. It's reliable. We never think of that, do we? Yes, gravity, thank you.

Feeling our bottom on the seat, on the chair, the cushion. Sitting here is enough. It's plenty. It's wonderful. It's awesome. The fact that we can do this—we can sit and be breathed. With as much health as there is available in this moment, it's enough. It's enough. It's plenty.

To appreciate what is with every breath. Feel grounded in our body with every breath. Just this. Give thanks in our hearts for what is here already, what we usually don't notice. Appreciating, opening our senses with calm, with peace, with gratitude. The spaciousness and peace there is already. There's so much peace inside, we just keep stirring it up.

And we appreciate this breath, this body, however it's showing up right now. Recounting the goodness of having been able to eat today. Breathe, digest. Having so many organs working, functioning. Sight, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, cognizing. And if parts of the body are peaceful, without pain, appreciating this. Wonderful.

Appreciating and welcoming some blessings in your life. Maybe loved ones, friends, relationships, colleagues. Bringing them to heart for a moment. Maybe one being or a group, your choice. Letting it fill your heart, the goodness of it. Creating your wealth—such wealth. Imagine if this person, this being, this group was not part of your life for a moment. How empty perhaps, how challenging it would be. And now bring them back. Feel the wealth of their presence. Plentitude. Plentifulness of this gift. Let your heart relish it. The ways in which this relationship nourishes you, keeps you happy, comforts you, maybe even challenges you in some ways to grow. Unspeakable wealth.

Stay with this being if you wish, or you can open up to invite another blessing in your life. For a moment, imagine your life without it. It's disappeared, not here anymore. And then bring it back in. It is here. Wow, what a blessing. Let your heart relish with gratitude the joy and blessing of this gift. Let yourself say thank you. Hallelujah.

Stay with this if you wish, or you can invite another blessing into your life. Something that brings you joy. Imagine your life without it first. It never happened, it's not here. And now bring it back. It is here, part of your life, continuing to support you, nourish you, bring you joy. Let your heart rejoice in its goodness.

Stay with this, or invite another aspect, another blessing in your life. You know the drill: imagine your life without this. It's not here. And then bring it back. It is here, this blessing. Let your heart celebrate with gratitude, with appreciation. Kiss the earth for your good fortune.

Let this practice be a celebration of all the gifts you have. Physical, emotional, relational opportunities, whatever it might be. Physical gifts, mental gifts. Your body and your life. Relationships, knowledge, skills, values. Maybe celebrating dispositions. "Thank heavens I have this gift of curiosity," or whatever else it might be. Humility, kindness, being good with words. Whatever it might be, imagine it wasn't here, and appreciate that it is.

Stay with this, of course. And if you wish, try on something a little more exploratory. You can always go back to the previous invitation. The invitation is: bring to your heart, your mind, and your body an area of life that you often, perhaps without questioning, find your mind goes to "not enough." Scarcity. Not enough. Feel that in your body. You know what it feels like, this not-enoughness in the body. This physical sense of lack. Now let it go. Let go.

Perhaps explore, invite creative ways to shift the perspective. To see the plenty, the blessing, the goodness that's already here. It's present. Don't look at your life through a straw and only see lack. Take the straw away. What is here already?

There is so much here already. So much. We feel scarcity, we feel greedy, we want more and more and more. Ouch. Return. Ah, what's here? So much is here. Calm, peace, generosity. Release through our hearts. Release into peace and abundance.

There is so much here, so much in this life already. So many gifts. Turn to your fullness, your abundance.

As we bring this meditation to a close, let us rejoice. Celebrate in the goodness. The goodness of seeing goodness. The goodness of seeing fullness, our gifts, our blessings. May our hearts feel full, generous, and abundant towards ourselves and everyone else. Such a beautiful place to live from, to live out of with intentionality.

May all beings, may all beings everywhere truly know and appreciate their goodness, their blessings. May all beings everywhere, including ourselves, be well and be free.

Reflections and Small Group Practice

Thanks everyone. Thanks for your practice today.

Tonight we turned towards the practice of knowing our goodness, knowing and appreciating our blessings. The practice we did was bringing blessings to mind, first imagining our life without them, and then bringing them back to really appreciate the sense of fullness and living from this place. We really appreciate turning our minds intentionally towards what's good, what's beautiful.

As the Buddha said, whatever you ponder and frequently reflect upon becomes the inclination of your mind. So if we ponder upon our lack—that there's not enough, we need more, we need more—as Lynne Twist says in the quote I read, we become more greedy. We have jealousies, prejudices, arguments with life. That would be our orientation.

Instead, if we turn to what's here, there's so much here already. Our hearts feel full, abundant, grateful, and generous. The opposite of greed is generosity. Generosity towards ourselves, towards life. In this brief, short life where we are here, we are appreciating and living it fully from a place of fullness.

For our small group practice today, I'd like to invite us to practice with a joy-inducing, gratitude-inducing practice. We've done this before and it never fails to bring more joy and gratitude. That is going around and asking: What are you grateful for? What brings you joy?

We'll go alphabetically by first name. When your turn comes, you can offer something, or you can say "pass." You can just hold silent presence, that's perfectly fine. Offer one thing, and others will hold it with generosity, with happiness for you. This is a mudita^[1] practice too, happiness for the happiness of others. Then the next person will go, and you'll celebrate what brings them joy, what they're grateful for, and round and round.

Let's turn towards our fullness and each other's fullness. Let's celebrate our own fullness and celebrate each other's fullness. It's so wonderful to celebrate the fullness of others. It's so beautiful to be able to do that, to celebrate other people's blessings as if they were our own.

Be kind to yourselves, be kind to others. No questions, no directing. Just show up as you are. Offer your heart if you like, or offer kind, generous space holding. I'm going to open the rooms. Take care of yourselves, take care of others, and enjoy.