Gratitude situates the real world in a person’s mind with the soul on good terms. When gratitude is present, all things unfortunate disappear from a person’s mind. The feeling of appreciation actually turns into a moral reinforcer because empathy is strengthened and continuity is structured in the mind. The tune of gratitude is one that few can recognize because of suffering. When it is recognized, the soul is uplifted out of suffering for anyone who recognizes its value.
Moral reinforcement happens with people who actually understand what empathy is all about. Empathy is the beginning of morality, as intellectuals have said before. In trueness, empathy situates the world for people to understand its value. From time to time, empathy may be used intensely but often empathy can be scythed for its temporary value because as humans we forget suffering and leave our minds to escape how one feels for another’s suffering. Trueness in empathy begins with repeated gratitude for the current moment and all its glory.
Kindness is different from empathy. Some people have both feelings and others have none. When kindness is integrated into one’s life, empathy may be there or it may not because of materialistic permanence of things such as cars and clothes. Empathy may not exist easily with those who have little because of suffering they experience. But those with little can often be more kind if they want to.
I have encountered many people in my life who are kind but may not receive the moral reinforcement from gratitude that arrives with its practice. The feeling of gratitude becomes a trait if the mind uses such moral reinforcement. Without empathy, gratitude will usually just make us kind to one another. But together with empathy, gratitude structures continuity and strengthens each of us despite the amount of material wealth.
Can one use empathy and not gratitude? I doubt it. You can have kindness without gratitude if you are fake about the practice, but you cannot have empathy in its real form without gratitude. Empathy does not depend on materialism. Its strength as a feeling is in its ability to serve humanity from one corner of the globe to the next. Soul and beauty are transfixed with empathy and gratitude. Kindness is the additive ingredient for friendship; however, the meat and potatoes of one’s life meal start with gratitude.
Thank you.