The Religion of Gratitude

Paramahamsa Nithyananda in LivingOneIndia:

The religion of prayer is all about asking God for something or the other. It can be followed by the masses, because it is very much in tune with our asking attitude. It is in tune with the conditioning that has gone inside us from a young age. Asking is the prayer that we have been taught from when we were children. It seems like the most natural way to approach God or Existence.
On the other hand, the religion of gratitude, is based on just an overwhelming gratitude from within, towards God or Existence. It is quite contrary to what is taught to us from childhood. We have always been taught to thank only for what has been received, that's all. We have been taught gratitude as social etiquette, nothing more than that!
How then can we be thankful all the time? It becomes too much! That is why, these religions of gratitude are followed by a select few.
Only a few meditative religions, like Buddhism or Sufism, are based on gratitude. These religions have very few followers, but the quality of the followers is high.
You see: There is nothing wrong with prayer, but getting stuck in the act of asking while praying, is where the trouble starts. Prayer should be used as a jumping board to enter into meditation, a meditation where gratitude becomes prayer and your Being becomes bliss!

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Labels: Gratitude, Love, sufi people, sufis, sufism