Your One Wild And Precious Life

In this live online talk given to the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, DC on New Year's Eve 2023, we reflect on our intentions for our spiritual life and practice as we enter the new year, using Mary Oliver's question that ends her poem 'The Summer Day': "Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"

Transcript

Her poem,

The Summer Day,

You probably remember it where she talks about walking out in the fields and the grasshopper landing on her hand and saying,

You know,

I've been walking in the fields all day.

Tell me what else should I have done?

Doesn't everything die at last and too soon?

Tell me what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

And,

You know,

That,

You know,

Those couple of lines,

I think,

Have become very,

Very celebrated.

And I think rightly so,

Because they,

Certainly for me,

They really are a genuine question of like kind of turning inward and saying,

You know,

How am I living my life?

You know,

Am I living as fully as I can?

Am I embodying this,

You know,

The deepest possibilities of what it means to be a human being on the earth at this time?

You know,

Am I doing what I can do,

However we define that in terms of compassion or wisdom or creativity or love or whatever it is that,

You know,

We can ask ourselves that.

And I kind of wanted to explore this today because,

For a couple of reasons,

One,

Because of the time of year,

Naturally it's kind of coming into a new year,

But also kind of reflecting I'm feeling a certain urgency myself,

You know,

What I might call spiritual urgency.

And I don't think it's just to do with age.

You know,

We get older.

Oh,

How much time do we have,

You know?

I think it's much more to do with a sense of sometimes,

You know,

It's kind of,

Oh,

It's really important to give,

And I told this kind of getting into the content of the talk today,

But kind of like of what,

Really of not being complacent,

You know,

Of not taking our practice for granted,

In a way,

Not taking our lives for granted,

You know?

And,

You know,

So,

You know,

Reflecting on the time of year,

And this is a time when people give a lot of thought to changes in their life,

You know,

Making New Year's resolutions.

Probably all of us here,

Maybe at some time or another,

Have done that.

Maybe some of you do and are doing it,

You know,

This year.

And I think it's really a good thing to,

You know,

Any chance we have of reflecting on our lives and,

You know,

Seeing where we could do things differently,

And making change,

And you know,

Towards a more healthy,

Or wiser,

Or more compassionate,

Whatever it is,

Way of being and way of living,

I think that's a good thing to do.

The reality,

Though,

Of New Year's resolutions,

That's one study,

It says 80% of them have failed by February,

80% by February.

Different numbers out there,

But they're all in that region,

You know,

That's not,

I wouldn't back a horse,

You know,

At that chance of success,

You know,

Not that I back horses anymore,

That's in the past,

But,

You know,

And only 8% are still operative by the end of the year.

Again,

Not really a good,

You know,

Good track record,

Not a good success rate.

You know,

There are lots of reasons for this,

And I'm not going to be doing a talk on New Year's resolutions,

The pros and cons,

But just kind of in passing,

You know,

I just,

As many of you know,

I've written a couple of books on habit change,

And resolutions are typically about habits,

And they're about,

Typically about entrenched habits,

Ones we've had for a long time,

Like,

Oh,

I'm not exercising,

Or I'm eating in unhealthy ways,

Or I'm smoking cigarettes,

Or,

You know,

The typical ones,

Or I'm procrastinating,

And I'm not getting things done,

All of those things,

You know,

They're habits of mine,

Most of them have been going on most of our lives,

You know,

So to think that we're going to make changes in those just by saying,

I'm going to do this,

You know,

At a particular time of year,

Doesn't tend to work that way,

Because there's a lot of,

You know,

A lot of science,

You know,

Can talk about,

But for one thing,

It's two different parts of the brain that are operating,

You know,

The kind of ancient reptilian brain that kind of pulls us,

You know,

Back towards our old habit patterns,

And our prefrontal cortex kind of push,

You know,

Say,

Oh,

But this is a good thing to do,

And when those come into conflict,

Particularly when we're stressed,

Or we're caught up in stuff,

Then,

You know,

We fall off the wagon,

You know,

That's kind of a 30 second version of why a lot of habits change,

You know,

That,

You know,

So if you're making a resolution,

New Year's resolution,

My advice is give real attention to it,

Plan,

Reflect on it,

Think about it,

Think about the conditions that are supportive and the things that are working against it,

Think about what you might do when the going gets tough,

You know,

If you're giving up,

You know,

If you were to give up smoking,

You know,

And,

And,

You know,

You find yourself in a really stressful situation or give up drinking or something like that,

You know,

How would I,

How would I address that if it came up?

Also,

Practice compassion,

I think that's really essential.

So,

So nothing against New Year's resolution,

But just if you do,

You know,

Just my advice is that you give a really serious thought to them,

Otherwise,

They just become a source of disappointment.

But what I want to really focus on today are intentions,

You know,

I think intentions are quite different from resolutions or the different kind of resolution that if you like different kind of aspiration,

If you like.

And,

And I want to focus today on aspirations for,

Or intentions for our spiritual practice,

You know,

How we,

You know,

How for our meditation,

For our practice,

For our,

You know,

Not just formal meditation,

But really how we're living our lives,

How we're,

How we're embodying our spiritual life within our life,

You know,

Hopefully,

Our life is our spiritual life or our spiritual life is our life,

You know,

Not always the case,

But that,

You know,

Ideally,

That is what we'd want it to be,

I think.

And I want to focus on the,

Both the potential and the importance of waking up to the fullest potential for freedom in this human life.

So I want to kind of look at,

You know,

How important is it to,

To give attention at this time,

But really at any time to our spiritual practice?

And what am I,

You know,

What do I need?

What,

What would it be good to pay attention to?

So,

So I'm not,

We'll talk about intentions and just to say a few words about intentions.

Intentions are,

They're really key to anything we do.

I mean,

Anything we do consciously,

You know,

Rather than,

You know,

In our sleep,

For example,

But anything we do is motivated by intention.

If I got up to close the door,

I'd have to have the intention to do that in order to,

To do,

You know,

To make that,

You know,

To take that action.

Everything is motivated,

Moved by intention.

Intention is the,

Is the,

In Buddhist teachings is really the,

The ground of karma.

You know,

It's,

You know,

If you are,

You know,

It's understood that the kind of the moral component of our actions are rooted in intentions.

It's very different,

Just as in the legal system,

It's,

It's very different if we intend to do something,

You know,

If a,

If somebody intentionally kills another person,

Then that's a very different kind of act than a physician who's trying to save a life,

But,

You know,

Doesn't,

Isn't successful and the person dies.

Very,

Very different.

So,

The intentions are key to,

You know,

The,

The karmic kind of impact of,

Of anything we do,

Our responsibility for it.

The,

The researcher,

Professor died a couple of years ago,

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi,

A Hungarian-American professor.

He wrote the book,

The really seminal book on flow states,

You know,

These states where you get into where you're so completely in the thing you're doing that,

You know,

You're completely embodying it,

You know.

When I think of flow states,

I think of an Alex Honnold,

Who was the first person to climb El Capitan at Yosemite,

You know,

Which is like 3000 miles,

3000 feet of,

You know,

Straight rock,

You know,

With few crevices here and there.

And he did it,

He was the first person not to do it,

But to do it without ropes,

I think.

And there's a documentary on it.

It's a scary documentary,

Watching somebody,

You know,

Even though you know the outcome is still like going up there.

Anyway,

In order to do that,

You really need to be in a kind of completely in the,

In the,

In the flow,

In the,

What do you call it?

In the,

What's that word?

In the zone,

In the zone is just another term,

You know,

You need to be doing that.

But anyway,

He wrote about flow states,

But I'm not going to talk about flow states.

But just to say he also talked about,

Had some very good things to say about attention and intentions.

He spoke about attention as psychic energy.

And I always like that term.

It's like our attention is the energy of our psyche,

The energy of our intentions,

The energy of our spirit,

You know,

What we're wanting is like,

You know,

Where am I putting my psychic energy?

You know,

Am I putting my psychic energy into stressing out or getting angry with people?

Or am I putting my psychic energy into being kind,

Being compassionate,

Being generous,

Being,

You know,

Engaged in what I'm doing,

Whatever.

Now,

So that about intent,

Attention,

But he said about intentions,

He says,

Intentions operate as magnetic fields,

Moving attention towards some objects and away from others,

Keeping our mind focused on some stimuli in preference to others.

So our intentions are kind of what,

What motivates us,

What moves us towards what's important and by,

You know,

By process of elimination moves us away from what's not important to us.

So,

You know,

Thinking about intention in that way,

You know,

What are our intentions in terms of our spiritual practice?

And as I'm talking about this today,

I want to really emphasize one thing strongly.

And that is kind of the attitude with which,

You know,

You bring to it and with which you listen and really inviting an attitude of non-judgment,

Because very,

Very easily we go into a place,

You know,

We look at like,

How's my spiritual practice?

Oh,

I'm terrible.

I'm not doing this.

I'm bad.

I'm,

You know,

That's,

You know,

That's that's just another form of dukkha,

You know,

It's just another form of suffering,

You know,

Where we're beating ourselves up,

You know.

So that's not a wise or helpful way of looking,

You know,

It's understandable.

We all do it to lesser or greater extent,

But just inviting a non-judging attitude,

A compassionate attitude,

Seeing everything that comes up as like,

Yeah,

This may be how it is right now,

But doesn't have to always be this way.

Very,

Very different than kind of saying,

Oh,

I should be doing this.

I shouldn't be doing this.

I'm not good enough,

You know,

All of that.

So inviting all of this from a standpoint of non-judgment.

And the question,

Really underlying question is,

Can you envision giving real attention to your spiritual life,

Your spiritual practice,

Your spiritual journey in this moment and in the time ahead,

You know,

As we move into the new year,

Towards the new year.

And if I think about,

You know,

If I think about my spiritual practice,

My meditation practice,

My mindfulness practice,

What I,

You know,

What I do,

Whether it's loving kindness or equanimity or whatever.

If I look at that and also look about,

Look at the extent and the,

You know,

Energy with which I bring my practice,

My qualities I want to cultivate into the world.

You know,

I would say about myself that at least a good deal of the time,

You know,

There's a fair amount of complacency.

You know,

There's a fair amount of like,

You know,

I don't want to say phoning it in,

But this is a little bit further than that.

But it can be a certain way in which we,

You know,

We might meditate every day and yet still feel that like,

Oh,

I'm doing okay because I'm meditating every day.

And I'm trying to be kind of pretty kind and,

You know,

Not nasty or bitchy or,

You know,

Angry or whatever,

You know,

Towards others.

I'm kind to my family.

I try and do that as best I can.

You know,

You might think,

You know,

And thinking about meditation practice,

We can think,

You know,

Well,

I'm doing my practice.

I'm sitting on the cushion for 15 minutes or half an hour or whatever it is each day or as often as I can.

But I wonder,

You know,

I think about this in relation to myself,

You know,

And I think if we look at that question,

You know,

I think many of us,

You know,

Can easily take our practice for granted.

You know,

If kind of like,

You know,

If we're doing,

You know,

A kind of some dose of it,

You know,

On a regular basis,

That that's kind of enough,

Then that we can have a certain complacency in relation to our practice and in relation to our spiritual life more broadly about kind of what are we doing this for?

You know,

That's a kind of another question.

I mean,

Are we doing it just for some level of relative calm in our lives so that we're kind of relatively stable and things aren't out of control?

Or are we looking at our spiritual life in terms of maybe a deeper set of possibilities or deeper potential,

A potential for freedom in our lives,

A much deeper freedom than we may reflect on or recognize in our,

You know,

In our day-to-day lives,

You know,

That,

You know,

Because how the Buddha shared his teachings were not just as,

You know,

Self-help,

You know.

Ah,

You'll be a bit better if you do this or life will be nicer and you'll be kinder to other people and it'd be better for the world.

You know,

It was much more a sense of nothing is more important in life than,

You know,

Than the life of the spirit,

Waking up.

Nothing is more important than waking up because the difference between living an awake life and living an asleep life,

An unconscious life,

Is all of the difference in the world.

It's the difference between happiness and suffering,

Genuine happiness and suffering.

It's the difference between deep freedom and being entangled in life.

And so for the Buddha,

This,

You know,

The question was absolutely what he spent 45 years of his life until he died,

Teaching about,

You know,

Because coming from compassion,

He wanted to share what he had learned himself through his own direct experience and say,

Look,

This can be helpful to you.

You don't have to take it.

I'm holding it,

As you would say,

With an open hand and it's here if you want it.

Try it out.

Test it for yourself.

Don't believe it just because I'm saying it,

Just because I seem wise or whatever,

But see for yourself.

The word in Pali is ehipasiko.

See for yourself.

Test it out.

So what I always found refreshing in Buddhism when I came to it in my mid,

Late 30s,

Which was very different from the religion of my birth,

Which I felt,

I'm saying it is like this,

But the religion of my birth felt like a lot of,

You know,

This is what you should do and this is how you should be.

And,

You know,

There was a lot of oughts about it and a lot of what I felt at the time,

Dogma about it.

I'm not making an overall judgment now,

But that's how I experienced it.

So it was very refreshing for me to kind of come to a tradition that was,

Oh,

You actually see for yourself.

You actually test it out.

You look,

Does this work for me?

If I let go of this,

Does it help?

That's how the Buddha said,

You know,

What happens when you let go of clinging?

What happens when you abandon clinging?

Is it helpful or not helpful?

What happens when you cultivate loving kindness,

Compassion,

Equanimity?

Is it helpful or is it not helpful?

See for yourself.

If it's not helpful,

Try something else.

You know,

Try tai chi,

You know,

Try whatever it is.

Try overeating,

You know,

Whatever.

Try whatever you think might be,

Might give you happiness and see for yourself.

So this is kind of the spirit that the teachings come out of.

And so the question,

You know,

Am I giving the attention to my wild and precious life that it deserves and requires if I'm going to realize the deepest possibilities of these teachings and these practices?

You know,

As I think about,

You know,

This,

You know,

This question of,

You know,

How do I,

You know,

Plan to,

How do I meet this?

Tell me what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

And for me,

The most important thing in this life is to know ourselves,

Is to really know ourselves.

You know,

Socrates,

I think,

You know,

That was his mantra,

His motto is know thyself.

I believe it's over the temple in Delphi in the Greek island.

Know thyself.

And know thyself,

You know,

Is at the heart of the Buddha's teachings.

The Buddha's teachings are all about knowing ourselves.

All the teachings really come down to self-awareness,

Knowing ourselves deeply,

Obviously not in a judging way,

But in a way of discernment of like,

Oh,

Turning the attention inward.

This is what we do with mindfulness.

We turn the spotlight of awareness,

Using that as a metaphor,

Like inward and say,

Okay,

As we did in the meditation today,

And we look at,

Okay,

What am I noticing right now?

What am I experiencing?

And can I be with this?

Can I recognize this?

Can I allow this to be here?

Can I not pathologize it?

Can I not say,

Oh,

This is bad and this is good?

Not judge it,

Not hold on to it.

Oh,

I want this,

Not push it away.

I hate this,

But actually to see the impersonal nature of everything.

The emotions come and go.

The feelings come and go.

The thoughts come and go.

Even the beliefs come and go if we don't keep fueling them,

You know,

That we,

That they're all impermanent.

They're all changing.

The Buddha taught that they're not really even who I am.

This is not who we are.

We think it is who we are.

We think,

Oh,

I'm my beliefs.

Oh,

I'm my emotions,

You know,

Or I'm my illness.

You know,

I'm my,

This is who I am,

But it's not really who I am.

Again,

See for yourself this.

This is the invitation.

But,

You know,

The Buddha said,

This,

Is this really who we are?

These changing experiences.

Can we practice just seeing them coming and going and then learning through the observation,

Through the awareness,

Through the witnessing of all of this,

That maybe I'm not this.

I'm not who and what I thought I was,

That I took myself to be.

Oh,

I am this.

I am this person with this role.

Well,

Maybe the role is just like a suit of clothes that we put on or,

You know,

A jacket that we put on and take off,

You know,

The roles,

You know,

The role of a teacher.

You know,

If you take that seriously,

You kind of think,

Oh,

I'm something,

You know,

People think I'm this or,

You know,

Or even the role of the student,

You know,

Whatever we can think of as like,

We can solidify it,

We can reify it,

Solid,

You know,

Make it into,

Reify,

A thingify it,

We thingify it,

We turned it into a thing.

But it's all coming and going,

You know,

And the more we can see that,

The more we can recognize that things can be put up.

It's not a problem having a role,

But recognizing that we put it on,

We take it off.

And if we can do that with lightness,

You know,

Just really lightly take it on and take it off,

Then life becomes much less challenging.

We get less worried than when people criticize us in a role that we're in,

Or say,

You don't have that role anymore,

You're fired,

You know.

Oh,

If you're completely identified with the role,

Then that's tragedy,

That's catastrophe,

When you've lost the role.

But if the role is something that you put on,

I'm not saying that it's not hard to be fired or lose your job,

All of that,

Those are real things we have to deal with.

But they're not everything,

You know,

None of these things are everything.

There's something that's deeper than all of this.

And that's what,

You know,

That's what the teachings come back to.

What is it that when we take away all of the roles and we take away everything we identify with,

What are we left with?

So,

Knowing ourselves,

You know,

The Four Noble Truths are about knowing what causes suffering,

The clinging of the causes suffering,

And what leads to greater freedom,

The letting go of the clinging.

You know,

Mindfulness is a way to get at the questions I was kind of speaking about,

Like,

Who am I?

What am I?

What am I beneath all of this stuff that we normally take so seriously and take as who I am?

Who am I?

What am I underneath all of this?

What is it that I am?

You know,

What is the purpose of this life?

You know,

If I ask that question to you,

I mean,

What do you see the purpose of this wild and precious life being?

You know,

What is the meaning?

What is the purpose of this life?

Probably we come to a lot of,

You know,

Different answers to that question.

And if you like,

If you want to share in the chat,

You know,

What is it for you?

When I think about that,

I think the purpose for me is really to wake up to the deepest potential of who and what I can be,

Who and what we can be in this life.

You know,

That I don't know that there's any,

And use a 25 cent word,

Eschatological purpose,

Any kind of longer term,

You know,

Outside of everything purpose.

You know,

That I don't subscribe to,

You know,

To do God's will and go to heaven afterwards.

That's not my bag,

As we used to say.

But for me,

It's to really embody the fullest potential of who I am as a human being.

You know,

You might say to live a beautiful life.

What would it be to live a beautiful life?

You know,

Not a wealthy life,

Not a famous life,

You know,

But a beautiful life.

You know,

We can think of people who've lived beautiful lives,

You know.

Some of them are spiritual people.

Some of them are not so spiritual in the spiritually kind of sense.

You know,

We think of Dr.

Martin Luther King.

We think of Mother Teresa.

We think of,

You know,

We think of the Buddha or Jesus or,

You know,

All of these wonderful,

Great,

Great figures,

But also ordinary people who've lived beautiful lives.

You know,

I really connected,

As some of you know,

With a teacher,

Mainly through listening to his talks.

I met him a couple of times in the UK,

Rob Burbea,

You know,

And he has,

I think,

477 talks on dharmasy.

Org,

Which if you're going to listen to them,

I suggest you do them in chronological order,

Beginning in about 2006,

Because he's a very original and unique kind of teacher.

He died about three years ago,

Actually,

In early COVID,

Not of COVID.

He had cancer.

But anyway,

I think of his life,

You know,

He was,

You know,

Obviously in great pain and difficulty dealing with,

I think,

Pancreatic cancer.

And yet he would,

Every chance he had,

He would,

You know,

Do a dharma talk,

Whether it was,

You know,

At the retreat centre,

He was he couldn't do it all the time,

But ultimately at home recording his talks,

You know,

Right till almost the day or the week that he died,

You know,

Doing that.

I think,

What a beautiful life,

You know,

What a beautiful expression of a human life to really give in that kind of way,

You know,

With that.

And many,

Many other people,

We think of people who are very unsung people,

You know,

People who are working in shelters and,

You know,

Volunteering in different ways.

And,

You know,

Just the million acts of kindness that we often lose amidst the crises and all the hard and difficult things that are happening in our world that are going on every day and the great kindnesses and thinking,

You know,

And so that's kind of where I'm getting at in terms of in terms of this question of,

Like,

Our spiritual practice,

You know,

What are we giving attention to?

What are we,

You know,

Are we giving the,

You know,

The urgency,

If you like,

To our practice that perhaps it deserves,

That it merits that attention?

Again,

Holding it in a skillful way.

And I've been feeling this sense of urgency,

I think,

Over the past year,

You know,

Kind of,

And even more so,

I think,

In recent months,

A sense of the depths of the possibilities of freedom in this life,

You know,

And that it doesn't just come from,

You know,

Sitting down to meditate for 30 minutes every day or for however long it might be every day.

You know,

That's a great thing to do.

And it's a wonderful,

I think,

All of us who have a regular spiritual practice recognize what value it has in our lives,

You know,

And so I'm not in any way wanting to under emphasize the importance of that,

But to actually emphasize that there's also more,

You know,

Again,

Holding more in a skillful way,

You know,

Because in a way that's not even the best way of putting it.

But this sense of urgency in Zen,

They speak of practicing as though your hair were on fire,

As though your hair were on fire.

It's a great image,

You know.

Again,

It has to be held in a skillful way because otherwise it can be like,

You know,

I've got to get there.

I've got to do it.

You know,

It can bring a lot of clinging to it.

But if it's held in a wise way,

It conveys that sense of urgency,

You know.

This life is fleeting,

You know.

We don't have a lot of time.

We often think we have more time than we have,

You know.

We could probably all think of stories of people who thought they had time,

You know.

Maybe loved ones who thought they had time,

But they didn't.

And maybe that will be our story as well,

That we thought we had time,

You know.

We had thought we had time to take care of our spiritual practice.

And ultimately,

The time is always now,

Isn't it?

It's only ever now.

Everything is always now.

But the mind can kind of say,

Oh,

I can do that tomorrow.

I can do that next week.

I can do that next year.

Good luck with that one,

You know.

It's because we may not have time.

And again,

I'm saying this in a way,

Inviting us to hold it in a skillful way,

Not to kind of put it like,

Drop everything now and go to a monastery or a nunnery or whatever,

You know.

But,

You know,

We all have our paths and,

You know,

There are different ways and forms in which we wake up.

But I've always loved this from the Diamond Sutra,

This fleeting world.

Thus shall you think of all this fleeting world,

A star at dawn,

A bubble in a stream,

A flash of lightning in a summer cloud,

A flickering lamp,

A phantom and a dream.

So you think of just how evanescent,

How fleeting this life is,

A bubble in a stream,

A flash of lightning in a summer cloud,

A flickering lamp,

A phantom and a dream.

So thinking about that,

And I'm conscious of time,

So I'm kind of moving towards concluding on this.

But,

You know,

I've been thinking a lot,

And for me in teaching a lot,

Both in my practice and the teaching,

You know,

Focusing a lot on the central teachings of the Buddha,

Which are about awakening,

The Four Noble Truths and the foundations of mindfulness,

You know,

That point us towards this freedom that's possible for each one of us,

Not just for some,

Not just for a few,

But for every one of us.

We all have this capacity,

We all have this spark,

We all have this potential,

We all have what the Quakers called that of God within us,

However you want to hold that.

We have this potential,

Each one of us,

However we've lived our lives up till now.

And,

You know,

For me,

The Buddha's teachings,

I'm pretty certain in this lifetime,

Would always be kind of the bedrock for me.

You know,

The Four Noble Truths,

The foundation of mindfulness,

Foundations of mindfulness,

The heart practices,

You know,

The other core teachings of the Buddha.

But I've also been very,

Very influenced and affected,

You know,

At different times in my practice,

But coming back particularly in the last year,

To teachers like Eckhart Tolle,

Who wrote The Power of Now,

Of Ajah Shanti,

Who's,

You know,

Many of you may know,

Maybe not everybody does,

But who's again,

Somebody who is a very awakened teacher.

These are contemporary,

You know,

Folks.

Ajah Shanti announced just a couple of months ago that he was retiring from active teaching,

But is going to be probably writing books and things like that.

But they have a way of,

A kind of an immediacy in their teachings that I find incredibly powerful.

You know,

I've talked recently in the last few months about Eckhart Tolle,

Coming back to The Power of Now,

And just the power of just that,

His teachings of coming back to this moment.

Thich Nhat Hanh,

Obviously,

It's another very clear example of that as well,

That,

You know,

Right now,

This is the moment,

This moment.

And Ajah Shanti,

He puts it,

You know,

Has a talk called The Always and Already,

The Always and Already,

Meaning that it's always here,

The freedom is always here,

And it's already here.

Right now,

It's already here.

It's not something we have to go to,

Or reach to,

Or do all these preliminary practices to get to.

Yes,

It's helpful to sit in quietly,

And it's helpful to have this non-controlling,

Non-judging kind of an awareness,

And open.

Yes,

Do that.

But not with some agenda,

Or we've got to do something to get somewhere.

It's always already here,

Right now.

So,

You know,

I'm thinking as well of Martin Luther King,

Dr.

King's,

You know,

His talking about the fierce urgency of now.

And obviously,

He was talking about the civil rights movement,

And the urgency of civil rights,

And voting rights,

And,

You know,

Fundamental rights of all beings,

Of African Americans,

But of all beings to be free,

You know.

And that term really applies equally to our spiritual life,

You know,

The fierce urgency of now,

Of waking up,

You know.

And the relationship between the urgency of our spiritual practice,

And the urgency of what we need to do in the world,

In relation to climate change,

And all of the conflicts going on in the world,

That we have to engage,

And bring about change in those areas.

But how interrelated the one is to the other,

The inner and the outer.

You know,

I share the story of Maha Ghosananda,

The great Cambodian teacher who was here in D.

C.

25 years ago,

Helping on the,

You know,

To try and bring about an end to landmines,

You know,

Planting of landmines.

And he said,

You know,

On the steps of the Capitol,

He said,

If we're to remove the landmines from the earth,

We first have to remove the landmines from our own hearts.

That the landmines in the earth begin in our own hearts,

They begin in our greed,

Hatred,

Delusion.

So there's not,

They're not really separate from each other,

What we do in the world,

And what we do in our own hearts.

So just as we're coming to close this,

I just want to maybe end with an invitation just to turn inward for a couple of minutes,

And just take a couple of minutes to just reflect on,

You know,

Just generally what I've been sharing here about this one wild and precious life,

And your own one wild and precious life,

And the attention you're giving,

Again,

From a non-judging standpoint.

Then what you might do,

And really inviting to hold two things at the same time.

The first is,

You know,

What's in the way of being completely free and at peace right now,

In this moment,

Right now,

In this moment.

And that this moment is the moment,

Always the moment of freedom,

Where freedom is possible,

Right now,

With whatever's coming up,

Whatever's here,

This moment.

And to be able to hold this,

The immediacy of this,

With the sense of,

In this moment,

Reflecting on intention,

You know,

As we go into this new year.

What,

If anything,

Might you give attention to in your spiritual practice over the time ahead?

What might you,

What might you focus on?

It might be just this coming back,

Remembering the now,

Here now,

This moment without judgment,

The freedom that's here now.

It might be just to begin a meditation practice if you don't have one,

You know,

Create the conditions for that.

I'm happy to,

You know,

Outside of this,

To share some ways of doing that.

And Tara Brock has a wonderful,

You know,

Booklet,

I think,

On her website about cultivating a practice.

So,

You know,

Whatever it is,

You know,

What's calling for attention?

And maybe just coming back to the quote I shared from the 20th century spiritual teacher,

Krishnamurti,

He said,

We come to this infinite web of life with a thimble,

So we go away thirsty.

So,

May we come to this infinite web of life with a,

With a huge basket,

A container to hold whatever we need to,

We need to hold.

Reviews

This was wonderful. Thank you 🙏 ❤️

Thank you ❤️

🙏🏾 2025.

Helpful🥰www.gratefulness.org, ahimsa www.compassioncourse.org

I entered this talk with anxiety and left calm, knowing that I will be fine.

Thank you. The reflection at the end was the icing on the cake

A message we should not forget in our busy lives.

That was a great and timely talk. I feel encouraged in my practice, and grateful.

Wonderful words of wisdom. I heard the urgency of our own Spiritual Life. It's later than we think!

So thought provoking. You made me question a lot about my beautiful life. It is work in progress, not perfect but bit by bit l am getting there. In a place of relative peace with much work to do to be of assistance to others ie family & friends. I am not sure that there is any great purpose for me other than giving of myself & living in the here & now with a continued awareness & a contentment. Caring for myself so that l can care for others.
I am grateful to all my special teachers, you yourself & those mentioned in your talk, aiding me along my chosen path 🙏