Mindfulness on the Ground

It feels supportive to share about what we’ve read or come to understand about kindness and connection. I’m as guilty as the next person of doing that – probably more guilty. Just ask me – I’m happy to share. 

But the real wisdom is in walking the walk. If I’m talking about how we belong to one another but in my next move, I’m in a “we/they” conversation, how is that helpful? If I’m not only acknowledging but embracing everyone, things can shift. 

This kind of mindfulness “on the ground” feels aspirational. It also might be our only way out of the mess we’ve created.  

Transcript

Hi everyone, it’s Judi Cohen and this is Wake Up Call #531. Today I want to talk about the last verses of Chapter One, Choices, in the Dhammapada. I also want to talk about Artemis, the spaceship and the goddess. Strange Wake Up Call!

The Thomas Byrom/Ram Dass translation of the last verses of the Dhammapada makes the most sense to me:

However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you If you do not act upon them? Are you a shepherd who counts another [person’s] sheep, never sharing the way? Read as few words as you like and speak fewer. But act upon the law [or, the Way, the dharma]. Give up the old ways— passion, enmity, folly. Know the truth and find peace. [And then:] Share the way.

Many of the verses so far have seemed straightforward and this one seems like that to me, too. I take it to mean, it’s one thing to talk about mindfulness. Or to study it. It’s another thing to walk the talk. And to share it by doing that.

Often, in student journals, in our teacher trainings, I how much someone wants to share what they’re learning with their partner or their family, tell them how much happier they’ll be if they practice mindfulness. I have that impulse, too. 

And, I think of the story Ram Dass used to tell, about a woman coming to him and saying, “my family (and you could say my friends and colleagues) love me when I’m a Buddha, but they hate me when I’m a Buddhist.” This is at least partly what this verse is pointing to: study, practice, learn all the things – that’s excellent. It’s good to “learn” that this being human is a bumpy ride, that nothing lasts forever, that we’re all in this together – that we belong to one another and that the only Way is to be kind to one another. Good to learn these foundations, plus, the legal mind wants to learn, which is a great thing.  

But in these verses, we’re not being invited so much into exploring the depth of our learning. We’re being invited to ask about our portable practice, or our life, really – questions like, “what do I do when I get upset? What happens when someone is hurtful? What happens when I’m in a knock-down drag-out fight with opposing counsel, or when that’s what’s happening in front of me, in a courtroom or conference room or other kind of room? What happens when that conflict arises in a personal setting, an intimate setting, and I’m part of it? How do I handle those moments?”

For me, the answer is, not well if I’m not practicing on the cushion but also practicing in real time, on the ground, in the moment. Not well if I’m trying to bring in patience, for example, and patience is only something I’ve studied. Mindfulness – or patience in that example - also has to be what I’m bringing into the moment, and to bring it into the moment, it has to be in my bones, first. Which means practicing formally and in life, over and over and over. 

Because one thing I’ve learned is, the difficult in the situation is so rarely the other humans. Which is not to say that some situations aren’t safe – some aren’t, and in those moments I need to get to safety and get those I love to safety. But when it’s not about safety, when it’s a paper tiger (something that won’t actually hurt me) as opposed to a real tiger, practice in the moment, on the ground, based on that “in the bones” understanding that comes from…practicing on the ground, over and over…is the solution. Not to tell others what I think I know, but to “be the light,” which were the final words of the Buddha. 

And to be the light, for me it’s, go to the body. Go to the mind. And investigate: how’s the body doing? Where is there tightness, and I can invite relaxation? Where is it grasping or clinging, and the possibility of loosening my attachment to ideas or views (or give them up, if that’s appropriate)? How can I attend to the ideas of others, and to their hearts, and then what can I understand? And then, how can I help?

When I can remember to practice like this, and to share like this, it feels like a relief. Letting go of tightness in the body, tightness in the mind, is relaxing, easeful, and also, it enables me to be mindful through the other sense doors, especially my eyes and ears. Meaning, I’m able to see and hear better. When all that clenching is happening, I’m blind. I’m deaf. I can’t see other perspectives, can’t hear what’s being said. Can’t honor the wisdom in the room. Can’t even access my own wisdom. When there’s ease, I can – or I can do that better.

Before I sat down to write this Wake Up Call, I happened to listen to The Daily again (that’s that NYT podcast). They had a segment on Artemis, the spaceship, where they’d invited children to ask the astronauts questions, in the kids’ voices. It was very sweet to hear those voices. I highly recommend it for a little joy in your day. 

It was good to hear the perspective from outer space again, even though it’s always the same: that an astronaut, looking at Earth from out there, can so easily see that we really are in this together. And that there’s nothing to do but be kind and generous and patient and loving with one another. They don’t say this but I think they can see this, too: that there’s nothing stopping us from doing that other than our own minds and the way we let greed, hatred, and delusion run amok. 

Which got me thinking not only about Artemis the spaceship, but also Artemis the goddess, who was Apollo’s twin. Apollo was the god who presided over the law and could tell the future. Artemis was the goddess and protector of animals and nature, and of childbirth. These twins were Zeus’s children, not some lesser gods. It’s inspiring and amusing to imagine that some NASA scientist had the wisdom and sense of humor to name our spaceships after these powerful gods – these tellers of the future, these protectors, these presiders over the law. It’s as if that scientist imagined that an astronaut, from way out in space, would see exactly what they do – and what all of the prophets and sages who’ve walked the earth have seen: that it’s not enough to learn about kindness and peace. That we have embody those qualities in our lives. That we have to live lives that are not divided from one another and also not just paying lip service to not being divided, but lives that are about caring for and protecting one another. Maybe that’s not what that scientist was thinking. Then the cosmic joke’s on us. But what if it is? What if it is?