This coming week it is Thanksgiving in the States. However commercialized any holiday becomes, or whatever the truth at the root of any holiday may be, we can use each holiday that we have, wherever we are, as a point of reflection. Thanksgiving in particular is a great point of reflection.

When we experience gratitude, we are at peace, we are in love. Sometimes it can be extremely blissful. But at the very least, there's a contentment that comes with gratitude.

It's interesting because one of the teachings of this era is gratitude. You can be taught to make gratitude lists and to find out what you have gratitude for. That really reveals love, and it's beautiful. The only problem with doing something to experience gratitude is that usually, we're trying to experience gratitude so that we feel good. It becomes linked to cause and effect—if I do gratitude, if I find out what I'm grateful for in any moment or any day, I will feel better. As beautiful as that is, and I'm not saying this is wrong, it's often limited. It's based on a sensory expression rather than really just being based in gratitude. And then whatever sensory expression comes, just comes, and it is usually a beautiful experience. Then that is the temptation that gets us back in the loop—I feel horrible, and I want to feel good. I remember there's a trick I can do. I can look around for what I'm grateful for, and then I won’t feel horrible anymore. That can work for a while, but in general, after a while, it gets tarnished. It's gratitude to get rather than gratitude for what is already here. Nothing needs to be gotten from what is already here, not even a feeling of gratitude. You are simply in love with being here. Gratitude is an expression of that love.

So, on this holiday, I invite you to recognize this gratitude that is always here.

There are lots of things that we aren't grateful for, and I'm not suggesting that you cover those or deny them. I’m not suggesting that you don't have deep concern for those things, whether they're personal or societal concerns, global or environmental. Whatever form they may take, those concerns deserve to be examined, and the feelings that come with that may be uncomfortable, may even evoke deep grief. There's nothing wrong with that. There's room for all of that. In the willingness to experience whatever is evoked by whatever situation, to experience it all the way home, you find love, which is gratitude. You don't get love, you don't generate love, you find that love is here, and gratitude is another word for love. It's your nature.

As people age and even as they end their lives, they can often experience a lot of things that are not necessarily the source of gratitude. But what is always a source of gratitude is that I am. I am, regardless of my body, regardless of my society, regardless of my world, whatever the outcome may be. I am. Even on a deathbed, this recognition of the preciousness of being can flood the dying person with gratitude, with love. Gratitude that I have been.

So right now, you still are. How precious is that! But since you are, you may be tempted to take it for granted, and want to be more, or better, or keep away something that you don't like, rather than just taking a moment—this moment—to recognize that at the core, in the beingness itself, you are. You are what is present.

If you stop all of your means to get what is present, all of the exercises, all of the thought forms, all of the meditations, all of the practices, and simply tell the truth—what is here that is always here? What remains when changes and concerns and moments of bliss or misery appear?

This is the point of our meeting. This is what Papaji sent me out to invite you to. Not to teach you, because the truth is, this cannot be taught. If you are learning something, you're actually acquiring something you don't already have, which is wonderful. We can learn any number of things, and may we learn and continue to learn. It's a great offshoot and celebration of being.

But being is first. Being is total. And you are that being. I meet you in this gratitude for that.