Thank present the past gave us.

If we know how to appreciate the past, we'll know how to appreciate the now.

Wherever stage of the life we are at now,

Whatever we are doing today,

Be grateful.

Be grateful not only to the present,

Be more thankful for the history.

Reading the newspapers, the road signs, the job we are holding or simply the ability to speak at least one language--- didn’t happen suddenly right at the moment when you need it.

Everything begins from the day we were born. From the moment we took our first breath of life. If you were to see in a wider perspective, everyone around us plays a part as our teacher.

Not so much about we learning about them, but through them, we discover and learn more about ourselves. Through external experiences, we realized our strength & weaknesses.

For a simple example, to be able for us to write today, if I were to retrace back… there will be tons of people I’m grateful for:

All the teachers from my formal educations, if not for them, I would not be able to even write a simple blog post today;

My parents who painstakingly held my hand with a pencil tracing ABC;

My parents’ teachers for passing this knowledge… and so on.

The point is, everyone we met contribute some percentage of who we are now.

No matter how successful we thought we are now, its not solely based on our own effort. It’s an accumulated effort from all others, since the day we were born.

I particularly like the opening mantra, before the start of our practice. The last few verses that noted us to be thankful for the teacher who is standing in front of us ( at the present time), and the many teachers before us who passes down this divine knowledge till today ( in the history).

Every time when I sang it loudly in my heart before the practice, it reminds me to be thankful for whom I am today;

The teacher & myself, for the time we invested in the practice. 

Om
Vande Gurunam Charanaravinde
Sandarshita Svatma Sukava Bodhe
Nih Sreyase Jangalikayamane
Samsara Halahala Mohashantyai

Abahu Purushakaram
Shankhacakrsi Dharinam
Sahasra Sirasam Svetam
Pranamami Patanjalim
Om

Translation

om

I bow to the lotus feet of the Supreme Guru
which awaken insight into the happiness of pure Being,
which are the refuge, the jungle physician,
which eliminate the delusion caused by the poisonous herb of Samsara (conditioned existence).

I prostrate before the sage Patanjali
who has thousands of radiant, white heads (as the divine serpent, Ananta)
and who has, as far as his arms, assumed the form of a man
holding a conch shell (divine sound), a wheel (discus of light or infinite time) and a sword (discrimination).

om