Can you say more about the alchemy of gratefulness?
“Gratefulness is certainly the most precious alchemical process. If it takes possession of you, then naturally all kinds of neuroses, psychoses, or any other psychopathology will evaporate – for the simple reason that gratefulness consists of a few fundamentals of spiritual awakening.
“The first: you are needed by existence. Man’s greatest need is to be needed. And if you can feel that even trees, the moon, the sun and the stars all need you; without you this existence will miss something, will not be complete – although you are so small, almost nothing. But unless you were needed, you would not have been here. There must be some essential need which you are fulfilling; without you there would be a gap which nobody else could fill.
“You are not replaceable. No man is, no rosebush is, no blade of grass is – nothing in the world is replaceable. Such unique individuality has been conferred on you. This is the first element which brings gratefulness to your heart.
“The second: you are so unworthy, so undeserving, you have done nothing to have this dignity to be part of this beautiful existence. The feeling of your nothingness, the feeling of your being almost a nobody – still, the existence goes on showering its love. Not that you deserve, not that you have earned it in any way, but it is simply the nature of existence – its overflowing joy, its overflowing love, its overflowing nourishment, its playfulness. And it goes on giving without asking anything in return. Its greatness, its vastness, our smallness, our nothingness – its abundance and our nobodiness – immediately create a deep, heartfelt feeling of gratitude.
“This feeling brings immense grace to you; it brings beauty; it brings a certain song to your being. It suddenly gives you wings to fly in the sky. Just the sheer miracle of it – that you are nothing and the whole existence is available with all its treasures to you. It is unbelievable – what can you do? You don’t have anything of your own except to be in deep gratitude.
“To me, this is the only prayer. All other prayers are manufactured by man. This is the only prayer – that arises out of you as a fragrance arises from flowers; a prayer that is not said, not expressed in words, but is lived. It is expressed in each of your actions, in each of your gestures. You have a tremendous reverence for life; out of this reverence nonviolence arises. Out of this reverence a love for peace and a rebelliousness against all war and all destruction arises. This prayer is nothing but a silent ‘thank you.’ But its alchemical impact on your being is immeasurable.”
An excerpt from The Disappearance of Sex