The Wake Up Call for Lawyers

What Do Wisdom and Compassion Look Like Right Now?

January 14, 2021 Judi Cohen Season 5 Episode 284
The Wake Up Call for Lawyers
What Do Wisdom and Compassion Look Like Right Now?
Show Notes Transcript

Mindfulness is many things but it's definitely not about hiding out. One thing mindfulness can help us to do is to cultivate greater wisdom and compassion - fierce compassion. This Wake Up Call explores what that means right now. Happy listening.

Today is January 14, 2021 – six days before the inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States. One day after the 45th president was impeached for a second time. One week and one day after the U.S. capital was attacked for the first time since the British invasion of 1814. 

Fifty-eight years since Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his, “I have a dream,” speech at the Lincoln Memorial. Two hundred and twenty-five years since the founding of this country. Four hundred years after Africans were first kidnapped, brought to these shores, and sold into slavery in a place called, by white people, the New World, and by the people who had inhabited the land for hundreds of generations, Turtle Island. And five hundred years since the beginning of the annihilation of the peoples of Turtle Island. 

1550 years since Muhammad was born, 2070 years since Cleopatra ruled Egypt, 2020 years since the birth of Jesus, 2400 years since Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. 2600 years since Gotama Buddha lived in India. Around 3000 years since Moses parted the red sea. 

When I try to keep this in mind, it’s mind-boggling. And, it also makes it easier to see this as just one moment, in a long, continuous, string of moments stretching back into ancient time. And, it makes it even more important to ask, what now?

Last week I talked about “don’t know mind.” Not that I know what that is except in tiny, fleeting, glimpses. But what I can tell you from those, is, it’s a mind that’s wide open, not trying to say or know what is. It’s a recollection of our human lineage. It’s a kind of humility. 

When you’re doing legal research or arguing in the courtroom, it’s hard to have don’t know mind. You have to know, not, “not know.” And so you do know. Which is appropriate. 

But at the same time, you don’t really know. You know your case, your goals, what your client wants. You know what’s expected of you. You know the possible outcomes, or most of them. 

But you never know what a witness will actually say. How a jury will decide. What your boss will think of your memo. How the world will receive your book. 

Or even, what will happen on the way home from work, even if the way home is just from one room to another.

So you never really know. 

Who knows what will happen with the pandemic? I spoke to a physician yesterday who said, we don’t know so many things: will we still be contagious after we’re vaccinated? How long will the protection last? When will herd immunity really occur?

Who knows what will happen next week, with the inauguration? Who knows what 46 will mean. What 45 has meant. What 44 meant. I think I know, but I really don’t. Maybe you think you know, but do you? The Dalai Lama was once asked what the French Revolution meant. And he said, “Too soon to say.”

We live in such uncertain times. But then again, that is the nature of this being human.

So again, what now?

Well, just because we don’t know, doesn’t mean we don’t know. We still know a lot: we each have a great deal of wisdom. And we still care a lot: we each have a great deal of compassion. Wisdom and compassion, the two wings of mindfulness. 

We need wisdom right now more than anything, except compassion. Because we should remember what the poet Gary Snyder, a longtime Zen student, says: “Wisdom without compassion feels no pain.” 

Maybe your response is, “whoa, whoa, whoa, let’s just go with wisdom then. I’ve felt enough pain already.” I feel that. On Monday a friend and teacher said they got a call from a student, from the hospital. On oxygen. Battling COVID. Over the line, from their hospital bed, they took off their oxygen mask and said, “Please pray for me. I’m scared. Please pray for me.”

So I don’t want any more pain, and I don’t know anyone who does, and here it is anyway. So what now?

Well, yes, we need wisdom right now more than anything except compassion. And, we need compassion right now, more than anything except wisdom. 

There’s an old Zen story about Wumen, a great teacher, who was asked on his deathbed what was the goal of a lifetime of practice. And he said, “an appropriate response.” What is an appropriate response, now?

Maybe, placing ourselves in the vast expanse of history. Maybe, deciding to “not know.” Maybe, rolling up our sleeves and doing whatever we can do to support and love our clients, students, families, friends, communities, selves. Maybe, remembering Dr. King’s reminder, that, “The time is always right to do what is right.” 

And maybe, wisdom without compassion feels no pain, meaning an appropriate response without compassion is cut off. So what now? Maybe, we come closer. Maybe, whatever it is, whoever is in front of us, we come closer. Maybe we keep our mind open, no knowing, and we keep our heart open, too, even though its enough pain already. Because if wisdom without compassion feels no pain, this is no time to cut off. 

Sure, we need breaks. I take a breaks. Please, take lot of breaks. Watch Netflix. Drink a little wine. Read a romance novel. Go for a run. Hide under the covers. 

But when you come out, choose a wise, compassionate, appropriate response. 

Or better yet, notice you’re already doing that. Every day, you’re deciding and changing and shifting and considering, and then choosing an appropriate response. 

So maybe that’s the appropriate response to, “What Now?” Right now, remember that you know what’s right. That taking a few moments in silence each day gives you the space to know what’s right, and to know how to do what’s right. That you’re already doing that, and thus, you’re already doing what’s right – what’s wise, what’s compassionate, what’s appropriate. And that now, it’s important to remind yourself that you’re doing that. Don’t your very best. Doing what you can. Maybe that’s, What Now.