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# Appreciation Heart - A Short Post
- URL: https://www.dropsofdharma.com/appreciation-heart/
- Published: 2025-04-24T05:29:31.000Z
- Updated: 2025-06-02T12:28:08.000Z
- Description: This post shares a Dharma teaching on practicing appreciation even in hardship. Learn to value each moment, the wisdom shared, and your inner capacity to awaken. Appreciation is a seed—nurtured through awareness, it grows into joy, opens your heart, and guides you toward your own Buddhahood.
- Author: Timothy
- Tags: Appreciation, #wordpress, #Import 2025-06-01 12:12

In Buddhist philosophy, there is a class where they talk about appreciation.

> A student asks, *“How can I appreciate when everything in my life has gone wrong?”*

The student proceeds to explain a terrible circumstance: lost his business, lost his partner, his kids won’t speak to him, went bankrupt, lives on the street.

> He says, *“It’s easy for everyone else to appreciate, but I cannot.”*

The teacher says to him, “There is always a way to practice appreciation. But it takes practice.”

- Appreciate that you **have a free moment** right now to practice appreciation.
- Appreciate that you **have enough skill and karma** to have learned a language, to know what the word ‘appreciate’ means.
- Appreciate that you are right now **benefiting from others' kindness**. They are trying to help you develop the skill called appreciation.
- Appreciate the kindness you have shown to yourself **through your discipline** — to learn philosophy.
- Appreciate **there is philosophy we can learn**. And someone took the time to write it down and teach it to others so they could benefit.
- Appreciation is a seed, and if we take care of it, it can grow. Appreciate **you are taking care of that seed in your heart**.
- The feeling of appreciation is a wonderful feeling we can access in our heart anytime. But most of us need a reminder to practice. Appreciate you **have a heart** that can create these incredible feelings unlimitedly.
- Appreciate that **Dharma, the system of life, is patient** — to allow us again and again to forget to appreciate, and again and again, learn.
- Appreciate that we **have this observing ability** we can focus to develop more and more awareness of our life.
- Appreciate that life as illusion is a perfect system — **allowing us to experience life** unlimitedly and develop wisdom and compassion.
- We can observe how shallow our appreciation is when we only do it from our mind. We can practice to appreciate deeply from our hearts. Then a deep content feeling will grow and grow. **Appreciate there is no material in any universe which can match this level of joy.**
- Appreciate that no matter how much suffering we experience in life, **it will all keep changing as an illusion**. The function of all of it is to help us awaken, become a Buddha.
- Appreciate that **our essence is already equal to all the incredible Buddhas and Bodhisattvas** waiting inside for us. Who teaches this? The Buddhas and Bodhisattvas do. We can appreciate **we are born in a universe where their wisdom is still taught**.
- Appreciate **we can become Buddha and help unlimited others also to become Buddha**.

Appreciation is a way to open our Buddhahood.

*From Zen Tim*