In the last year we touched the subject of meaningful life. Someone might ask a reasonable question: what are signs of a person who lives meaningfully? How does he or she look like?

One thing is certain - meaningful life is not directly correlated with outward accomplishments of a particular kind. Psychologists could tell us many stories about their patients who are successful in their work, yet suffer from inner emptiness and turmoil. Their lives are compartmentalized: although they know principles which make them winners and achievers, they are far from being whole and fulfilled.

I think that the foremost quality of a person who lives meaningfully is peace. This peace transcends current experiences of an individual, so it is possible for him/her to be peaceful even if things aren't going well. A person is at peace with himself/herself, the Higher Power, and with the whole world. And the next vitally important quality of such happy individual is gratitude.

Gratitude is not just about being nice and polite. It comes from deep understanding of the nature of things.

Gratitude is not something that we do when we feel like it. It is not something that we do in obedience to some religious law in order to avoid sufferings and to earn blessings. Gratitude is the way we perceive our relationships with whole life.

So, what is gratitude? It is joy and rapture which we experience when we discern inherent goodness of a thing, a person, or an event.

Some people insist that only believers in God can be truly grateful. I understand their point, but I think that their vision of reality is slightly distorted. They make the same mistake as those who say that only believers in a certain doctrine can be truly loving. You just have to look around carefully enough to become convinced that it is not true.

Gratitude comes not from our minds and ideas contained therein, but from our innermost being, from our divine nature. Even unbelievers possess this nature. We all live, move, and have our being within God. Yet we can make a conscious decision to stay attuned to the spirit of gratitude, and to give it outward expression. We will learn from our experience that gratitude is one of the most important life's dynamics which contributes to our happiness and fulfillment.

If we are uncertain which way to go, gratitude will show us the best path. If we are ambiguous how we can ever achieve success, gratitude will multiply all good things in our world. It will attract to us even greater blessings from the storehouse of the universe.

Some people object to that. They think that an attitude of gratitude is counterproductive, because if a person is perfectly satisfied with everything, he/she doesn't want to improve life. He/she accepts things which are actually unacceptable. Could this criticism be justified?

It seems that those remarks come from people who never gave themselves to the practice of gratitude. Therefore, their position is the one of a casual observer. They really haven't experienced that which they judge. For true gratitude never leads us to resignation and never makes us passive.

The same innermost being from which our gratitude flows, is the source of creative ideas and urges to move on in our outward expression. It is the new dimension of opportunities and resources at our disposal. All those who tap into that source never become disappointed with it.

As I mentioned before, there is no need to be an adherent of a certain doctrine in order to be grateful. Yet consciousness development of gratitude is certainly a spiritual experience.

(to be continued)