The widely misuse of 'Gratefulness' and 'Contentment'

'Gratefulness' is a natural reflection of 'Contentment' (and vice versa) in oneself arising from within oneself, regardless of whether there's a reason for it, or not. It's neither something good nor bad, as it doesn't change the truth of names and forms being what it is, even though the presence of the sentiment or the thought of 'gratefulness' and 'contentment' in the mind can help certain people to get through certain challenging difficulties in life more easily.

But, nowadays, 'Gratefulness' or 'Contentment' has become something that is widely being misused by many people trying to 'advice' or 'threaten' other people, either wittingly or unwittingly, out of certain intention, expecting other people to be grateful or content, by telling other people, "You all should be grateful and content for the good things that you already have, and shouldn't be difficult or complaining about anything else." Some people believe in and tell others, "If you don't know how to be grateful, all your good karma will be gone, and bad karma will come to you."

Some even propagate, "Just by being alive and still breathing in this present moment, people should be grateful and content. Why are people complaining about non-functional government, selfish politics, poverty, corruption, discrimination, unjust, prejudice, crimes, violence, or some other forms of human imperfections?" or "You have a good and comfortable life, you should be grateful for the privilege that you have, why do you want to be busybody minding about other people's suffering and get yourself into 'troubles'?"

Showing concern and going against towards the existence of all kinds of unnecessary suffering in the diverse human society resulting from non-functional bias and corrupted system and leadership run by human beings under the influence of survival instinct, selfishness, greed and self-righteousness deriving from ignorance and egoism, is nothing to do with being ungrateful or discontented towards 'All the good things that we already have.'

Being at peace, being grateful and content in the present moment now with or without particular reason, while being undetermined or undisturbed by all kinds of suffering and difficulties resulting from ignorance and corruptions in the world, accepting the perceived reality in the present moment now as it is, regardless of whether it is pleasant/desirable or unpleasant/undesirable, as the mind is void of egoism of attachment, identification, desire of craving and aversion, judgment or expectation, it doesn't mean that one is void of selfless actions, or one is keeping quiet, agreeing, supporting, encouraging, ignoring, or denying towards all kinds of ignorance and corruptions that are existing in this world of selflessness and impermanence.

Meanwhile, performing selfless actions showing concern and going against towards the existence of many unnecessary suffering resulting from ignorance and corruptions in this world of selflessness and impermanence, it doesn't mean that one cannot be peaceful, or should be disturbed and determined by all kinds of suffering and difficulties mentally or emotionally, or is being ungrateful or discontented, or is under the influence of attachment, identification, desire of craving and aversion, judgment or expectation. The teaching and practice of non-attachment, non-identification, desireless, non-judgment and non-expectation doesn't mean that one should just stand there not moving away from being abused by some abusers while encouraging more abuse to be happening.

The poison itself has no intention to be poisonous, or not. Knowing something is poisonous and still want to take the poison as the mind strongly believes in "I am fit and healthy, I am protected from being harmed by anything," and suffer from it, is pure ignorance. It's nothing to do with non-attachment or non-judgment.

The 'neither right nor wrong' in the teaching and practice of non-judgment, is about non-attachment towards or going beyond the conditional qualities of names and forms that are subject to selflessness and impermanence, it's not about approving wrongfulness, or seeing everything as all good, right or positive and nothing bad, wrong or negative. The truth of names and forms are neither right nor wrong, neither good nor bad, neither positive nor negative, but the egoistic intention of human's impure mind that put into the selfless intentionless names and forms can generate beneficial or harmful consequences.

Those who know this, they can be doing their best, performing necessary actions in the world that might help the world to have less unnecessary suffering and difficulties due to ignorance and corruptions, without attachment, identification, desire, judgment or expectation towards their actions and the fruit of their actions, or towards the world of selflessness and impermanence governed by the nature's law of cause and effect, while being undisturbed and undetermined by all kinds of ignorance and corruptions. 

There is no such thing as "Be grateful and content for all the good things that we already have, that we are still alive and still breathing, and need not be concerning or complaining towards all kinds of ignorance and corruptions in the world," as that is merely something created out of the egoistic selfish intention of certain ambitious people who want less obstacles hindering them from achieving their selfish greedy ambitions, may it be something political, religious, spiritual, ethnical or cultural under a particular thinking, belief, values and aspiration.

For example, a good and functional and humble 'authority' will not and don't need to tell the people to be grateful and stop complaining about anything, by oppressing freedom of expression. It's only a corrupted and non-functional and arrogantly defensive 'authority' will 'tell', or 'remind', or 'threaten' the people to 'be grateful', as they don't like and would disallow any complaint and criticism towards their shortcomings, as they are too arrogant to acknowledge shortcomings in them, not to say, to consider other people's knowledge and different opinions that could help them to be more functional.

The world's history is formed by actions and the consequences of actions. The history of human beings is made by human beings, either intentionally or unintentionally, and our actions in the present moment now, determining what kind of history we are making.

Everyone has the freedom to perform certain actions, or not, out of their own free will and understanding, while all actions, including inaction which is also a form of action, will bring along the consequences of actions, regardless of whether the fruit of action is being the way that the minds think and believe how it should be, or not.

In yoga practice, one needs to know how to free one's mind from being conditioned and influenced by any particular political, religious, spiritual, ethnical or cultural thinking, belief, values and aspiration, allowing the mind to inquire the truth of names and forms as it is, and hence, be able to make the best decision and perform the best action that would bring more benefits than harm or more peace/kindness than unrest/hatred into the world, as there's no perfect decision or perfect action and perfect fruit of action can be found in this world of selflessness and impermanence.

Yoga practitioners, especially yoga teachers or yoga community leaders, who understand this, will not try to influence or dictate other people's decision and action based on one's particular physical condition and ability/limitation, or based on one's particular political, religious, spiritual, ethnical or cultural thinking, belief, values and aspiration, but allowing all and everyone to free their own minds from being conditioned by any particular influences, to inquire the truth of everything as it is, to make their own decision independently and perform necessary action out of their own direct understanding through self-inquiry.

There's nothing wrong and it's okay to have pleasant and unpleasant thoughts, feelings and emotions, arising and passing away in the perceptive thinking mind. More importantly, it's having the core understanding towards selflessness and impermanence, be free from egoistic attachment, identification, desire of craving and aversion, judgment or expectation towards all kinds of names and forms arising and passing away, selflessly and impermanently. The modification of the mind is just what it is. Unconditional peace is there as it is, undetermined by the selfless impermanent modification of the mind/actions and the fruit of actions/conditions and situations in the perceived world of names and forms, neither arising nor passing away, neither appearing nor disappearing, neither increasing nor decreasing.

One can be dispassionate and renounce from worldly affairs, activities and relationships, but it doesn't mean that one wouldn't be performing selfless actions that would help the world to move forward, without attachment or expectation towards the world has to be or not to be in certain ways. This is nothing to do with generating good karma or avoiding bad karma, not to say, the presence or absence of gratefulness or contentment. Unless the mind is still being disturbed and determined very much by the condition and situation in the world, then one can completely retreat from performing any actions in the world, to be looking after one's mind before one can serve the world efficiently, in peace.