Spiritual Solidarity

This talk explores ways to increase your Spiritual Solidarity, both inner and outer, during difficult times. Included are ways to regulate your nervous system, and also connect with your deeper purpose.

Transcript

Today's talk is about spiritual solidarity.

Some of the greatest social activists have been deeply spiritual people.

It's something to keep in mind.

And we can use our spirituality to both guide us and ground us and give us strength during these times.

In difficult circumstances like now,

We're often struggling to balance our psychology and our spirituality,

Our minds and our souls.

And we really can find that balance through solidarity.

And that solidarity occurs on many levels.

The first level is solidarity with your team.

This,

That might be your family,

Your friends,

This sangha,

Like-minded people.

If you join a cause,

People related to that cause.

Another solidarity is with your inner psychology,

Your inner world,

Sort of like we just did in the meditation.

And yet another solidarity is with spirituality and awareness itself.

Much broader picture.

So I'd like to go through these three types of solidarity.

And just starting with the first,

Solidarity with your team.

What does that look like?

I'd like to give an example from the Navy SEALs,

You know,

Who really utilize solidarity as a team as really part of their practice.

And this is sort of an extreme example,

But it highlights the depth of connection that's needed during extreme times.

So this is from Jason King,

Who's a Navy SEAL.

And he writes about how the Navy SEALs have to go through what's called a surf torture challenge.

And in this,

They all lie together at the water's edge,

But their heads are actually facing backwards closest to the water.

And their arms are all locked with the person next to them,

And they form like a giant chain of Navy SEALs.

They do this for many hours,

And their heads are backwards to the waves.

So as wave after wave crashes on their heads and bodies,

They don't know what's going to happen next.

And they're constantly being this onslaught of waves that are crashing on their heads,

Filling their eyes,

Nose,

Throat,

Ears with saltwater,

Stones.

Sand.

And Jason writes that the fear with this is almost unbearable.

He said,

You constantly feel like you could be drowning.

With every minute that ticks by,

You get colder and colder and have more trouble getting your breath and keeping your faculties.

Your fight and flight instincts are pinging all over the inside of your brain,

Looking for an escape hatch.

But he says,

Jason said he learned something really important in this.

He said the one way to get through this impossible experience,

He said,

Is he advised this.

If you get trapped in your own experience,

Surf torture is absolutely just that,

Torture.

The only way to survive is to stop thinking about yourself and keep yourself fiercely connected with your team.

You use all your physical strength to anchor your teammates against the tide with your arms so that your team doesn't wash deeper into the water.

And you hold them tighter so you can all be warmer together.

And you try to make them laugh and you get them to sing.

So during these times,

Let's make a human chain where we hold ourselves tighter and warmer.

We stand in that truth together.

So there's that solidarity of the team.

There's solidarity with your psychology or your inner world.

This involves,

You know,

When the news comes to really balance your inner parts with wise self-leadership.

So one part isn't constantly taking the wheel of the bus and driving it off the road,

Your fear part or your worry part.

You know,

This isn't as easy as we think.

Why?

Because we each have both a combination of buddha nature in us and animal nature.

My teacher likes to say we're both god and animal here now.

So our animal part is going to be afraid and survival-focused.

And yet our buddha nature part is unkillable.

It's always fine.

It doesn't suffer.

And our conditional animal part is always trying to find safety by controlling the impermanent objects out there.

Good luck.

It's ultimately impossible to control any external impermanent objects.

So know that you're working with this conditioned animal nature and,

You know,

We're not going to do it perfectly.

We're not going to abide in this equanimous state throughout the next four years.

But know that you're here to learn to up your level in the game,

To go to higher levels of awakening.

And try not to judge yourself or others.

You know,

We're all rolling at a different place in the game.

Some people are in the first grade.

Some are there in the 10th.

I mean,

It's kind of unfortunate when the leader of your country is in the first grade.

But don't think you being in the 10th grade is a curse.

It's a gift,

Not a curse.

So use the gift of wherever you find yourself in awareness to keep learning and to benefit all beings.

So there's some tools that you can use to create more of this inner team,

This inner solidarity.

Like I said,

It's knowing when one of your parts gets activated and to give it support from your wise self like we did in the meditation before now.

Psychologist Dick Schwartz,

Who really developed a lot with the parts work,

He said,

It's moving your inner center of gravity from your protective parts to your magnificent essence.

Our magnificent essence is always here now.

And luckily it can be cultivated by being aware of what I call the nine C's of wise self energy.

Actually,

Originally Dick Schwartz called it the eight C's of self in his model,

But one of the other therapists added a ninth C called choice and I thought it was a really good addition.

So I wanted to include it.

So Paul,

Go ahead and put up that slide for us of the nine C's.

So I'll just go through them.

This is how to get in your wise self and your balanced self energy.

Compassion,

Choice,

Creativity,

Courage,

Confidence,

Connectedness,

Calmness,

Clarity,

And curiosity.

You know,

If you can bring any one of these qualities,

Any one of these nines of C's,

You don't have to bring all of them,

Just one curiosity.

Hey,

What the heck is going to happen in this world?

Then you're going to be in a wiser,

More grounded self.

And it will create any one of these C's just going into them.

Creativity,

Courage,

Connectedness will bring more of this inner solidarity.

So another way to create inner solidarity is to be aware of what's called your window of tolerance.

And Paul,

You can go ahead and put that up too.

This is one of the most useful tools in the psychology world,

And we used it for a lot of the first responders after the fire here in Maui.

And it really helps people know how to balance their emotional states.

And there's this center place,

I like to call it the Buddha's middle way,

In the middle called the window of tolerance.

And as you can see,

It says I'm calm enough to learn.

And this is our optimal place.

It's kind of like an equanimity place.

And what you can do throughout the day is you can,

Or week or month,

You know,

Just be aware,

Are you in the upper levels,

Which are really hyper-arousal?

I feel unsafe.

I feel threatened.

It's these kind of high arousal states.

Or have you dropped down below into these hypo-arousal states where you feel avoidant,

Depressed,

Or dissociated,

Frozen,

And overwhelmed?

And really this chart kind of,

You can do it in your mind's eye.

It's really to allow you to track.

Am I in that window of tolerance or have I gone up into a hypo-aroused,

Scared,

Threatened state?

Or am I in hyper-aroused,

Threatened state or hypo-aroused?

Am I collapsed,

Overwhelmed?

You know,

Where am I?

And one thing more to realize about this slide is,

You know,

The Buddha talked about the aversive emotions as being like feeling ill all the time when you're in aversive emotions.

And aversive emotions,

He said,

Were worry,

Fear,

Anger.

Even sadness and grief are classified in the Buddhist lexicon as aversive emotions.

So think about it.

You know,

We've been in a prolonged state of feeling kind of ill or sick and that illness could last a while.

So it's important to pace yourself because we will be bouncing around this window of tolerance with our emotions to remind yourself how to come back to the middle,

That middle way where you can say,

I am calm enough to learn.

So go ahead and take down the slide,

Paul.

Thank you.

So how do you balance yourself and find that middle way in the window of tolerance?

Here's some ideas for this.

These are the practicalities.

First of all,

Do what creates stability inside you.

Mainly,

This means spend time with nature,

Animals,

Children.

Okay,

None of these things know about politics.

Animals,

Nature,

Children,

They don't know about the state of the world.

They don't think about money,

Countries.

They don't even know countries,

Right?

So it's really important you go out in nature,

Be with your animals,

Be with little kids to remind yourself to reset away from this kind of spinning mind.

Reset your nervous system.

The second is to engage in bilateral movement.

There's been a lot of researches that show that bilateral movement,

Moving the left and right parts of your body in succession can really reset your nervous system and calm down.

There's whole like therapy methods,

EMDR and brain spotting,

Used to help people with traumatic reactions with bilateral movement.

So do more things like walking,

But be mindful of left and right.

When you're walking,

Playing pickleball,

Swimming,

Running,

Dancing,

Yoga,

Anything that removes your left and right in succession and just bring more mindfulness to that and use that to start to release some of the mental stuff that we're carrying.

And if you don't have time to move your body,

One of the pioneers in bilateral tools,

David Grand,

He has free brain spotting music.

So you can put your headphones on and it'll go left,

Right,

Left,

Right.

It'll pendulate in the music.

And you can just Google him,

Google David Grand,

G-R-A-N-D,

Bilateral music,

And you can get free downloads to listen to.

Really helps,

Especially if you're like,

You know,

Stuck inside.

Also on a more logistical level,

Really pick and choose when you do the news.

I mean,

Doing the news now is like being punched in the face or,

You know,

Punched in the gut.

So like choose when you're going to get punched in the face.

Be ready for it.

Not that you can ever be ready for that,

But kind of just try to decide,

Okay,

Here it is.

Also make sure you empty the trash.

Empty the trash of your own mind and worries periodically or every night if you can.

Do some kind of nightly ritual where you put down the fear and the worry.

You know,

I had one body worker that told me,

You know,

Every night she takes a shower and she uses the water element to wash down all the things collected from the day.

Or you can use the earth element.

The Hawaiians have a practice where at night they put all their worries and concerns in a rock outside the door and they just let the rock hold it all night.

You know,

And of course you're going to pick this stuff up again.

Don't worry about that,

But at least try and empty the trash now and then and have some kind of ritual or way that you remember not to get trash compacted.

On another practical level,

If you're going to engage in activism or resistance,

Pick one or two things and really focus on that one thing.

You know,

One of the tactics that's going on right now is blasting us with so many issues and so many 911-type fires that we're just overwhelmed and we don't know which one to respond to and which one to focus on.

And we're getting in that hypo-aroused state in that chart where we're just kind of frozen and overwhelmed.

Oh my god,

What do I do?

Because every cause seems like a 911-type cause.

So try to just at least pick your cause.

Take your time,

But find it.

Focus on it.

Don't worry about other things.

Maybe someone else will pick the Gulf of Mexico as their issue,

But just try to stay with what you want your one thing to be.

You know,

Like the Navy Seals then join arms.

Once you find your cause,

Join arms in those waves.

Teacher Dipoma lived through several government takeovers and then it was Burma,

Now it's Myanmar.

You know,

Brutal coups and takeovers.

And she would fiercely tell her students,

Each of you has enormous power.

Do not waste it.

Each of you has enormous power.

Do not waste it.

And the way you don't waste it is you find that one thing to focus on.

Our greatest social activists focused on one thing.

They didn't try to do everything.

Don't feel guilty about what you can and can't do.

Trust that all of us as a group will each find our focus and that will work.

Lastly,

I'd like to look at Solidarity on a spiritual level via awareness itself.

Chief Joseph White Eagle cautioned,

Low conscious energy,

Anger,

Fear will sever your connection with Source and stop the enlightenment that flows in your soul.

So make sure with all this happening that you don't stop the enlightenment that flows in your soul.

Tibetan Lama Palden Gyatso,

He was imprisoned and tortured by the Chinese for 33 years.

33 years and when journalists interviewed him,

They asked him what the greatest danger was and he said the greatest danger was that he might get angry at his torturers.

And he said that was because they had his body and he didn't want them to have his mind.

As well.

So the number one key to keeping your spiritual solidarity intact like Palden did,

The number one key is to have a spiritual orienting principle.

And this principle is your go-to no matter what happens.

I like to call it my magic wand goal.

Through these times of change,

However many years it is,

If I could make wave a magic wand and you can have cultivated blank from these difficult times,

What would you want it to be?

Through these times,

You'll have cultivated or achieved what as a result?

Just take your time and remember it's a magic wand.

Do you want complete fearlessness?

Full awakening?

Why not?

And just feel and drop that into your heart.

That's your orienting principle.

No matter what happens,

I'm willing to have this happen to learn and to become blank.

Whatever this is.

It can be like a GPS device that you drop into your heart right now.

And don't worry if it's not perfect.

Just let yourself feel what this orienting principle is.

Try to pick one and really drop that in and hone in on it.

And then maybe write it down and really every day as a form of mindfulness,

Kind of check in.

Am I doing that today?

If your goal is fearlessness,

What are you doing?

Did you practice that today?

Did you practice that this week?

So doing the micro movements towards this as well.

So we kind of can drop that orienting principle in like GPS device,

But then,

You know,

Keep pendulating back to it,

Checking in,

Tweaking it.

It's really easy in this time of suffering chaos,

Overwhelmed,

To lose sight of our orienting principle.

Think about how easy it would have been for that Tibetan Lama Palmden to lose his focus.

But know what you're cultivating during these times and never give it up.

Just never give it up.

And then you will have used this time no matter what happens.

You'll have used it well and it will benefit all beings.

Because none of us are saying that we want to cultivate more hatred during this time.

And then this orienting principle can be like a rudder on your boat.

And when the big waves come and you're just thrown back and forth every week,

There's another huge wave.

You can come back to,

You know,

Those waves can propel you because you have a rudder.

You have your principle and the difficulties can make you even more fearless,

Awake,

Truthful,

Whatever your principle is.

Our orienting principle,

It's really like a resolve.

And the Buddha,

When he woke up,

The night he woke up,

He had an incredible resolve.

So let this resolve be that you're going to be unbroken and you're going to develop strength from this and be better and more amazing and more connected to the truth.

Another way to create spiritual solidarity,

To up your spiritual ante,

Is to go bigger.

And I work with supporting a lot of people in a mental health way.

And it's been fascinating lately in the last month or so,

People have naturally been going to what I call upper management.

It's kind of good news to see that.

And they're starting to access upper management.

And what do I mean by that?

People are like consulting more their higher power,

Power greater than themselves.

In Hawaii,

They call it the life.

Keola,

They're consulting life itself,

Something bigger.

They're going to their elders,

Their mentors,

Their teachers,

The wisdom keepers.

We need to include these as part of our Navy SEAL team,

The wisdom keepers.

And,

You know,

Supposedly the Buddha talked with guides or devas or spirits.

He actually consulted them fairly often in the stories of the Buddha.

And in fact,

When he was deciding to teach the devas,

Or he kind of didn't want to teach and the devas or guides told him,

Hey,

You should teach,

You know,

It would really be helpful.

So I'm glad he listened to his guides.

And,

You know,

I'm noticing some people do have access to these guides or power greater than themselves.

And,

You know,

If you're going to start listening to upper management now is the time.

Because it is part of your team.

And it will broaden.

So we're not just listening from the mind and the human thing.

We can listen at these higher levels.

Some people are also going to plant medicines.

Plant medicines can give us a bigger perspective as well.

It's,

You know,

Whatever operates and opens up this bigger perspective.

And interestingly,

When people go to these wisdom keepers and guides,

They all kind of say the same thing.

It's kind of interesting to me that the guides all really will say like,

Hey,

Don't worry,

It's ultimately going to be okay.

And the guys almost always just laugh and laugh and like,

Kind of reassure us and laugh.

So letting this upper management be a team member,

If you don't have access to any of these,

Don't worry.

You know,

You can really zoom out to the bigness of the universe during these times.

You know,

Whole galaxies are being born and dying as we speak.

Whole planetary systems are being swallowed by black holes.

So there is a big context this is being held in.

Or to go bigger,

You can just remind yourself of the Buddhist teaching of or impermanence.

Everything is impermanent.

All governments,

All societies,

All democracies,

All people,

All countries,

The earth,

The galaxy,

All of it is impermanent.

It's all going to go.

Everything you can see,

Hear,

Touch,

Taste right now is going to go.

But there's hope in all this.

Despite all this change,

There's still something here now that doesn't end and doesn't change.

We can take solace in that and spiritual solidarity in that.

What is that?

Ajah Shanti says,

Kind of adamantly,

He goes,

Notice the truth that always is right now.

The truth that always is.

It doesn't matter what state you're in,

Happy or afraid.

The truth of awareness always is now.

Emotions will come and go.

Experiences will come and go.

But the truth always is.

So find spiritual solidarity in this awareness itself,

This truth that always is now.

Awareness is never worried or afraid.

Awareness is bigger.

It's like a canopy.

Holding the suffering is bigger than the suffering.

A 90-year-old monk,

Ajahn Sumedho,

He describes this,

Going to this bigger canopy,

As being able to rest in,

Quote,

The mass of consciousness.

He says,

I am a pure mass of consciousness.

Nothing can take me out.

Nothing is done by me.

It just happens.

It just is.

I do what is necessary here now,

And yet nothing is necessary from the consciousness itself.

Then he goes on to add,

My true nature is not personal.

My true nature is only conscious awareness,

Pure,

Silent awareness.

When thoughts or emotions arise and cease,

Consciousness is stable behind it all.

Thoughts,

Emotions arise and cease,

And consciousness is stable behind it all.

So bring awareness to that.

Utilize your thoughts and emotions.

They're here,

But don't be lost in them.

What's stable behind our thoughts?

It's like pulling the curtain on the Wizard of Oz.

Behind your thoughts,

What's the truth that's always here right now?

So one final thing related to this.

All these things I mentioned today,

Connection with your team,

Balancing your inner psychology,

Or finding solidarity in your orienting principle,

All these things are really here so we can be available to something even greater.

We're not doing these things for ourselves.

We're really doing it for the one being.

And if it doesn't make sense to you yet,

Don't worry,

It will at some point.

The true team we're locking arms with is you as the one body,

The one love,

The one truth,

The one mind.

That's that consciousness that's stable behind it all.

You know,

And we're in a mess in this human world right now because we've forgotten.

We've really gone to sleep.

And that's all that's happened.

We've gone to sleep to this truth of our one being,

Our one life.

And this is not metaphoric,

It's literal.

There isn't really a separate you that's going to carve out safety for you or quote the right people.

And the separation I heard Bernardo Kotschrup,

A physicist,

He was talking about how if you saw a flower and it was over there in the field and it was declaring its separateness,

I'm a separate flower,

I know I'm separate,

I have to protect me,

It's me,

It's my life.

You would just laugh.

But why is it that we do that?

I'm separate,

I'm special,

I'm not connected,

My life is different and important than the rest of us.

So think about that flower declaring its sovereignty and its separateness and see that it's ridiculous that even we do this,

See this sovereignty that we all share as one being.

And occasionally just ask,

How would the one being see this or do this?

And if you were acting with infinite truth and freedom and wisdom here now,

How do you want to use your freedom here now?

And you can ask that every day,

Every minute.

Right now you're using your freedom to listen to me and I'm using it to talk,

Minute later you might be using your infinite freedom to wash the dishes,

But it's your infinite freedom as part of the one,

That way we're never a victim,

You might pick up your focus,

Your cause.

How do you want to use this infinite freedom as part of the one today,

Now,

And now,

And now?

I'd like to close with a quotation from Sage Nisargadatta about this.

He says this,

The entire universe is my body,

All life is my life,

Only the whole is real,

Parts come and go,

In every event the entire universe is reflected,

The particulars are born and reborn in the changeless reality,

Your mind is just one part of nature,

The changeless is obvious here now,

You are it already,

Keep in mind the changeless,

Then the reality of the whole will explode in you.

Entire universe is my body,

All life is my life,

In every event the entire universe is reflected.

We're doing this all together as one team,

Crashing waves,

Ups and downs,

Window of tolerance,

Orienting principle.

Reviews

Wonderful! This talk synthesizes, clarifies, and expands things I have been holding onto as a lifeline recently. Immensely grateful. 🥰