I had a speculative view that I create my own unique random thought worlds during the day using the raw material of my past merits. I am responsible for the wavering and confused conclusions I make about distant "public" figures. Causality doesn't apply primarily to physical processes where all intentional action is out of sight out of mind. But as Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote to me in 2018, insight without a proper foundation of generosity can be very unsettling.
The four noble truths are an advanced teaching, but even though I can't fully understand them yet, at least I'm able to let go of other political ignoble truths during the day.
Gratitude can only flourish when the mind is unburdened from the accumulated weight of random imaginary thought worlds deludedly clung to as essential facts. Otherwise any noble but modest gesture deserving of gratitude tends to be dismissed as trivial in the "big picture."
My direct experience performing intentional actions may be limited geographically this instant but believing in karma and rebirth it's vast across eons of time. Another speculative view is that through gratitude I can momentarily inhabit a world as if it is already the year 5000 A.D., that creative visualization doesn't just create brand-new places to live in this life but transplants hi-fidelity copies of direct experiences across the span of numerous existences, so that such experiences offer reliable pleasure.
"How do you keep patience going? How do you keep persistence going? By having a good sense of humor about what’s happening to you in the path and having an infinite good humor that can keep you going. This is the attitude that allows you to say, “Whoops, another mistake! – Well, try again! Another mistake? Try again!” It’s that ability to step back from yourself a bit to see what you’re doing and not to be so in to a particular state of mind or in to a particular identity that you can’t let it go." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Infinite Good Humor"
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