AN 2.31-32 Kataññu Suttas: Gratitude

[mikenz66]

AN 2.31-32 PTS: A i 61 II,iv,1-2
Kataññu Suttas: Gratitude
translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu

We owe a great debt to our parents. The gratitude we show to them is a measure of our personal integrity.
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... .than.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"Monks, I will teach you the level of a person of no integrity and the level of a person of integrity. Listen & pay close attention. I will speak."

"As you say, lord," the monks responded.

The Blessed One said, "Now what is the level of a person of no integrity? A person of no integrity is ungrateful & unthankful. This ingratitude, this lack of thankfulness, is advocated by rude people. It is entirely on the level of people of no integrity. A person of integrity is grateful & thankful. This gratitude, this thankfulness, is advocated by civil people. It is entirely on the level of people of integrity."

{II,iv,2} "I tell you, monks, there are two people who are not easy to repay. Which two? Your mother & father. Even if you were to carry your mother on one shoulder & your father on the other shoulder for 100 years, and were to look after them by anointing, massaging, bathing, & rubbing their limbs, and they were to defecate & urinate right there [on your shoulders], you would not in that way pay or repay your parents. If you were to establish your mother & father in absolute sovereignty over this great earth, abounding in the seven treasures, you would not in that way pay or repay your parents. Why is that? Mother & father do much for their children. They care for them, they nourish them, they introduce them to this world. But anyone who rouses his unbelieving mother & father, settles & establishes them in conviction; rouses his unvirtuous mother & father, settles & establishes them in virtue; rouses his stingy mother & father, settles & establishes them in generosity; rouses his foolish mother & father, settles & establishes them in discernment: To this extent one pays & repays one's mother & father."

See also:
MN 110 http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... .than.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
SN 7.14 http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... .than.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
AN 4.73 http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... .than.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Iti 106 http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... ml#iti-106" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[retrofuturist]

Greetings Mike,

Thanks for this.

I just shared the first one of those suttas with my cousin's wife who has commenced "100 days of gratitude"... she was grateful for it!

Metta,
Retro.

[Sam Vara]

Many thanks Mike.

If you haven't already heard it, you might want to check out

http://forestsanghapublications.org/vie ... hp?id=1203" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

a talk by Ajahn Sucitto in which he reads from the work of LP Liem. I went through a year of listening to a dhamma-talk per day, on my commute to work, and this is one of them that stuck in my mind.

It is on the Cittaviveka website if the link does not work.

[piotr]

Hi,

Here's a passage I read yesterday:

• The term used in the Pāḷi texts for ‘gratitude’, kataññutā, literally means ‘knowing what was done’. Those of us alive today have access to the teachings of awakening only because of the compassionate work of individuals who deeply received and humbly transmitted this treasure generation after generation, for two-and-a-half millennia. In order to maintain a relationship of respect and reciprocity towards our source as practitioners and teachers, we must first of all know the lineage(s) through which our practices were passed down. Without these roots into our history, we risk forgetting that this generation did not invent the Dhamma.
  
  — Jake H. Davis, Strong Roots, p. 4

[mikenz66]

If you haven't already heard it, you might want to check out
http://forestsanghapublications.org/vie ... hp?id=1203" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
a talk by Ajahn Sucitto in which he reads from the work of LP Liem. I went through a year of listening to a dhamma-talk per day, on my commute to work, and this is one of them that stuck in my mind.

Thanks Sam,

That's a really nice talk. It's interesting to have a talk by a distinguished Thai Abbot (even if delivered in Ajahn Sucitto's rather abrasive English accent. I'm sure the original would have been even more soothing... ) to see what sort of things he talks about. Interesting that he puts so much emphasis on society. I liked the comment that if we could be grateful even to the buffalo things would be a lot better in the world...


Mike

[Sam Vara]

"Ajahn Sucitto's rather abrasive English accent."

Careful now! He and I grew up about five miles apart!

[mikenz66]

"Ajahn Sucitto's rather abrasive English accent."

Careful now! He and I grew up about five miles apart!

Well, you Brits do have some rather strong accents...

Though, the main point was that a Thai Ajahn speaking in Thai is always going to sound more gentle than an English speaker... Just listen to the Ajahn Chah recordings here, for example and compare the Thai to American...
http://dharmaseed.org/teacher/352/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Mike

[Sam Vara]

Hi Mike,

Yes, you are right. Interestingly, Ajahn Sucitto does deliver this talk in a rather declamatory style, and normally has a softer approach. The overall "tone" of a talk does have a big impact, I find, and there is definitely some mysterious factor which impacts upon us when we are present at a talk. I remember a Sri Lankan monk giving a very "technical" talk with content that could not be described as stirring, yet lots of the (English) audience felt moved and a bit weepy afterwards.