Appreciation : The forgotten virtue in life

When someone feels unhappy because he is not being understood by others, that person lacks appreciation.
When two human beings speak to each other and none of them listens to the other, they lack appreciation.
When we would like for everyone to be the same, to think the same, to feel the same ; in that ideal there is lack of appreciation for variety.

Appreciation is not related with a person in particular but is the relationship, the setting, the person, the circumstance, the moment, that special time of being aware, of being thankful for life for having the chance to experience without expectations, without attachments. For when there is attachment, there cannot be appreciation.

Appreciation then, is to let things be, to allow things to happen, to live in continuous wonder to be in a thankful state without the word thanks in our minds.

We can appreciate a spiritual teaching which came to us through a book, a person, a situation, through any other means; but to fully appreciate that teaching, our state of detachment is important, for otherwise; we cannot see; we become engrossed in that teaching, closed minded, so there is no space for anything else, but that literal teaching.
Or we could become totally against it, reject it with our whole being, on those 2 extremes there is attachment.
We have attachment of an idea, a concept which we call our teaching. Rejecting everything else only demonstrates the extent of that attachment.

In that polarity of being engrossed or rejecting there cannot possibly be appreciation.

There is a butterfly flying. I can look at it, perceive its colors, perceive its singular way of flying, perceive the shiny day, the flowers around, the smile in my face; it is in that detachment, in that lack of expectation, when beauty could be felt. That beauty is love.

The moment a thought enters: I must possess that butterfly, there is no appreciation anymore. It is like caging the butterfly inside our house so we can see it forever. That is the extent of possessiveness that some have over others.
There are some who would rather pin the butterfly in a wooden wall, so they feel that this butterfly is theirs, that it cannot run away. The extent of that sickness is demonstrated in their attachment to ideas, concepts, ideologies, traditions, cultural biases, in such a way as to kill the beauty of the butterfly just to hold on to a concept: the butterfly is with me.

That sickness is attachment. Pinning the butterfly is not the way to appreciate it.

Many religions and philosophies teach about detachment. Be detached, when those words are mentioned to someone who has no experience of appreciation in life; that person will take detachment as another mental sickness: negligence.
Learn to appreciate and detachment will come automatically.

Learn to appreciate others and yourself and your mental sorrow will go away.
Learn to appreciate life, be thankful of it and you will learn to be spiritual.
For in that appreciation there is love and that dear friends; is all.

Regards

Ankush D Shilimkar