Jan212025
Words of WonderThe Net of Gratitude - Rumi

Giving thanks for abundance
is sweeter than the abundance itself:
Should one who is absorbed with the Generous One
be distracted by the gift?
Thankfulness is the soul of beneficence;
abundance is but the husk,
for thankfulness brings you to the place where the Beloved lives.
Abundance yields heedlessness;
thankfulness brings alertness:
hunt for bounty with the net of gratitude.

by Rumi, interpreted by Kabir Helminski and Camille Helminski

 

What is it with Rumi?! When I read some of his poems, I feel like my brain flips over! This poem is one such. It’s like he’s writing from a place so much more vast, connected to a reality so much beyond my usual ‘known’, that rational thinking just gives up. But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing left. When I drop into the body, I find all kinds of goings on. With this poem I’m uplifted, something rises in my heart wanting to heed the call Rumi is making, recognising a truth and pushing towards the possibility of it.

So, let’s grapple with this. What comes first, gratitude or abundance? And further, what comes first, gratitude or contentment? We assume that being grateful is something that arises without our conscious involvement and as a result of something good happening. But what if the state of gratitude is its own reward, generating a perception of an abundance around us? And what if we can choose deliberately to enter into it more? Something good becomes visible to us by allowing gratitude’s glowing warmth to embrace us into an abundant world.

‘Hunt for bounty with the net of gratitude’ is Rumi’s parting line. Well this much is clear – practicing gratitude is recommended. Letting gratitude be a net in which you can catch the abundance, beauty and poignancy of life moment to moment. But I sense that what Rumi really wants to do is to beckon us towards this instruction: relish getting caught in the net yourself, get caught into the net of ‘the Generous One’; be lifted into being and surrendering to the essential abundance of life.

Fay Adams

 

 

 

 

Ps. Our mindfulness and compassion training pathway teaches you how to bring gratitude alive in your own life. Check it out here.

Photo by Herbert Grambihler on Unsplash

Author: Fay Adams

Fay Adams trained to teach mindfulness under the guidance of well-known teacher Rob Nairn, whilst living on the Holy Isle retreat island off the west coast of Scotland. She now teaches courses and retreats in mindfulness, compassion, insight and engaged mindfulness around the UK with the Mindfulness Association and she is a tutor on the University of Aberdeen's Studies in Mindfulness MSc. Fay is a dedicated meditation practitioner of 15 years. Fay was originally drawn to mindfulness in her twenties because of her chronic pain. Throughout her 6 years of living on Holy Isle in a small meditation hut, she immersed herself in discovering what the pain was all about. In the process she began to find a new way to inhabit mind, body and community. Ultimately, as well as (mostly) freeing her from the pain, this has become a deeply rich basis for living life fully. Her practice was formed and matured within a Tibetan Buddhist context. More recently it has been influenced by Reggie Ray's somatic practice and is now also coached in a love of nature and the Earth and she finds that deep ecology, as taught by Joanna Macy and others, is a path towards wisdom. Fay now lives on the Staffordshire/Cheshire border with her partner and son.