Understanding True Gratitude

Arriving at a deeper understanding of gratitude by reviewing this concept within the context of a consciousness framework

There are a wide variety of different topics covered in these articles. Having said that, the majority of individuals who read any of these articles are likely to be interested in developing themselves, and so despite there being a diverse number of different topics covered, they all perform the fundamental function of helping to clear the reader’s conscious perception. The reason why the topics covered can be so varied, and yet they can still provide the reader with significant insights with regards to how they can develop themselves, is because true self development is not something which relates to only one specific area of our lives or to any specific phenomenon.

We often find a similar approach being taken by many people with regards to how they engage with the concept of spirituality. When they initially come in contact with this concept, we will often find that an individual starts to separate their lives into ‘spiritual’ activities and ‘non-spiritual’ activities. This division will ultimately end up becoming a block in their conscious perception that will need to be removed in the future. Although we may like to try and split the world and the way we interact with it into different distinct categories, fundamentally, none of these are real.

It is by seeing this that we can then bring ourselves to understand that one way in which we can develop ourselves is by coming to understand the basic principles which guide the mechanisms that allow the cosmos to function. This, in some respects, is part of the function of the Unified Consciousness Framework. It helps to bring many of these principles into the awareness of the reader in a clear manner so that they can come to perceive the cosmos from this more unified perspective of things.

It is by doing this, by truly devoting our lives to being able to perceive these different topics through this unified perception, that we are able to shift our conscious perception and establish a new perception of the world within us which, in turn, changes the way that we interact with the world. It is when we do this that the nature of consciousness itself also comes more clearly into our perception, which includes within it the nature of the cosmos and ourselves. It is then that our deeper understanding of consciousness becomes the link that connects together all of the various external phenomena we come in contact with.

This means that one of the things that the reader will find in these articles is that some common themes and ideas, which we may have all come across at some point in our lives, are specifically focused on as we allow these themes and ideas to become understood within the context of a consciousness framework. After having gone through that process, and also having internally realised what is written in these articles, the reader then no longer holds these ideas as something separate and distinct from each other in their conscious perception, but hopefully now understands them within the context of a much more expansive whole.

This article is a perfect case in point. In it we will be specifically looking at the concept of gratitude, which I am sure all readers would have come across at some point in their lives. The role that this concept plays in our self development though is not always so obvious. We will often see that many individuals in the self developmental space discuss the idea of a ‘gratitude practice’ and how it is important to make such a practice a part of our lives. This is all good and well, but until we have understood the relevance of these practices within a much larger context, these actions and practices will serve a limited purpose as a part of our much more expanded process. They may still be beneficial to engage with, depending on the nature of the practice and whether we approach it consciously, but to fully unify our conscious perception we must be willing to go even deeper than this in our search for the Truth.

It is for this reason that in this article we will look at gratitude in much greater depth and come to understand what it represents from a consciousness perspective. By doing this, we will also then come to understand what the true implications are for us when we choose to engage with a ‘gratitude practice’ and how it can help us with our development. Over the course of the article a distinction is arrived at between what we may typically think of as an expression of gratitude and what is referred to in this article as true gratitude, which is the internal realisation of this expression within our perception; making gratitude an integral part of the way in which we interact with the world.

Therefore, the remainder of the article could be summarized by a number of different key questions that will be answered over the course of it. These are: What is gratitude? What does the concept of gratitude represent from a consciousness perspective? What does it actually mean when we say that we are grateful for something? After all, if we are planning to implement a gratitude practice as a part of our lives, shouldn’t we at least first come to understand what gratitude actually is?

The Search For Gratitude

It is worth reminding the reader at this point that what is contained in these articles are not just concepts which have been conjured up from the ‘ether’, but everything that is written about in these articles is related to real experiences which became a part of my life as a part of my own process. I too spent many years of my life aware of the concept of gratitude and thought that my understanding of it was sufficient. To some degree, even being aware of it provides us with some aid with our own process of self development.