Faith In An Appropriate Response

When I think of faith, it’s often faith in someone or something.
But these days I’m thinking of faith in terms of believing
that if I keep practicing, and we all keep practicing,
then we’ll know the appropriate response, meaning, the right thing to say or do.

The right thing in our day-to-day lives, for sure. But also the right thing in a bigger sense. In other words, faith that all of this sitting in silence 
and filling the space with kindness will give us the wisdom to know the appropriate response, if the courts go sideways
or we’re in danger of losing the Republic entirely – a Republic, said Benjamin Franklin, if we can keep it.

Transcript

Hi,

Everybody.

I see so many friends.

It's really nice to see you all.

Okay,

We can go ahead and get started.

So,

Hello again,

Everybody.

This is Judy Cohen,

And this is Wake Up Call 477.

Really nice to see you all.

So,

Last week,

I was sharing Norman Fisher's wisdom to the Working Group for Law and Meditation,

Which was essentially that right now,

Let's sit tight,

Let's get resourced,

And then,

As he said,

Be ready for battle.

And then my interpretation of that,

Which has to do with sitting tight,

Being about taking refuge,

You know,

Finding moments of peace whenever we can.

And I'm definitely still doing that,

And I hope that that was useful for you to hear.

Maybe you're doing that too.

But I'm also noticing that it's not January anymore,

And it feels like there's some energy in the year.

Maybe not momentum yet,

But I'm definitely noticing I'm feeling busier,

Like there's plenty to do.

I don't know if that has to do with layering on top taxes,

But at the same time,

There's this sense of energy,

And then we're all still right here,

You know,

With the leadership that we have,

Or if not leadership,

With those who are in power,

In office,

And with a lot of difficulty in the world,

And with the weather,

You know,

Reliably unpredictable.

So,

We're still right here.

And what I started to think about was this koan that I first heard from my friend A.

J.

Cutchins,

Who's a death penalty lawyer here in California,

Many of you know.

And it goes something like this,

In the 10th century,

Zen master Yun Men was on his deathbed,

And one of the monks asked him,

What is the teaching of a lifetime?

And he replied,

An appropriate response.

So,

Looking at this in an ordinary way,

Which is mostly the way that I've heard it talked about,

You know,

It's possible to explore by considering that in any given situation,

There's an appropriate and an inappropriate response.

Somebody walks into your office,

And they want to talk,

And you know,

If you have time,

Or if they're clearly in need,

Or both,

Then the appropriate response might be,

Sit,

Talk.

If you're up against a wall,

Or they're just stopping by to say hi,

And you're headed out the door,

Then the appropriate response might be,

I'd love to,

How about another time?

In either case,

You're considering the situation,

The impact on everyone of whatever you're choosing to say or do.

You're making sure that it won't cause harm,

And then you're speaking or acting.

That discernment process,

That discerning wisdom process,

Even in a relatively inconsequential moment,

That's the appropriate response process.

Or in a more consequential moment,

You know,

Discerning wisdom working the same way in a courtroom,

Or in an important meeting,

When someone says or does something that triggers you,

Or triggers your client,

Or when you're in the classroom,

And someone says something that could cause harm,

And there's that split second,

Your discerning wisdom arises,

You know the right thing to say,

Which is also the compassionate thing to say,

So the appropriate response,

As opposed to the inappropriate one.

Or with something even bigger,

Like something bigger than you or me,

Or the community where we live,

It's the same.

What's the wise,

Compassionate thing to do?

And bringing in that discernment process,

Remembering that everything we say and do has consequences,

Making sure we won't be causing any harm,

And then after that,

Speaking or acting.

And then if you remember,

There's also a coda to that,

Which is checking in after speaking or acting,

Making sure no harm was caused,

And if there was inadvertent harm,

Which is what it would be if,

You know,

If we've gone through the first three inquiries,

Then making it right as best we can.

So as far as I can figure out,

That's the recipe for an appropriate response in the sense of appropriate versus inappropriate.

But I was reading more about this same koan,

And I came across some interesting pieces,

Including a talk by a teacher named Barry Magid back in 2010 in New York at the Ordinary Minds Endo,

And he said,

This is my best understanding of what he said,

That another way to understand an appropriate response is from a non-dual perspective,

Meaning instead of looking at what's an appropriate response and what's an inappropriate response,

We can also look at each moment as a moment in which all of the wisdom available to us is always coming together.

And when we do that,

We can see that there's really no possibility of an inappropriate response,

We're always just responding with the wisdom we have,

And that's always enough.

And I appreciated this framing a lot,

And one of the reasons I appreciated it was I sort of had an object lesson right then,

And it was right after I read it,

This was Tuesday,

I was writing The Wake Up Call Tuesday,

And I happened to look out of the window of my office,

Which is on our property,

But I don't normally look out that window,

And we have this little creek on our property,

And in summer it's totally dry,

In winter it's usually a small stream,

And I looked at this creek and it had completely overflowed the banks and the whole area of the property and everything under the office building,

Under the house,

There was just huge water flood everywhere,

And it was raining,

I mean,

It had been raining,

And I called out to my partner,

And he does the lion's share of the outdoor work,

And he came hurrying outside,

And it was pouring,

I mean,

Turned out,

I guess we got something like four inches in four hours,

And the dog was splashing around in the water like crazy,

And he was having a fine old time,

No problem for him,

Which I was thinking,

Maybe that's a whole other talk,

But we could barely hear one another,

Over the rain and the rushing water,

We were literally shouting two feet away from each other,

And in my mind,

A thought arose,

I have to write the wake-up call,

That was the thought that arose,

And then there must have been another thought,

Which I didn't even catch,

Because before I had even consciously formed the next words,

I said,

Tell me what to do,

And then he directed me to this pile of rocks,

And we made a dam,

And we made another dam,

And we got shovels,

And we diverted the creek,

And you know,

Eventually stripped down,

Put everything in the wharf,

Bathed the dog,

Took a breath,

And then I sat back down to write this,

And I think this is what Barry is saying,

Is that in any given moment,

Whether there's a lot at stake,

Or maybe only a little,

But remembering that there's always something at stake,

Because everything we say and do matters,

Right,

And so it could have been a courtroom moment,

Or a classroom moment,

But it could even be just a small interpersonal moment,

Whatever wisdom we've got comes together just in a flash,

You know,

We're not considering,

We're not using our discerning wisdom in a conscious way,

Necessarily,

We just do what's right in front of us,

You know,

The body knows,

Or maybe the mind knows,

Or maybe both know,

Or maybe they're not different,

Maybe there's no duality there either,

There's just a knowing of what is the appropriate response,

Rather than a choice between an appropriate response and an inappropriate one,

And that happens because we're present,

And Barry is saying,

I think,

Or I think this is what he's saying,

That this is kind of the deeper meaning of the koan,

And I really loved this way of contemplating this koan of an appropriate response,

Because of the way it points to and honors all of the practice that we've all been doing for all of these years,

You know,

This notion which we can check out ourselves to see if it's true,

That in any given moment,

If we've been practicing a while,

And we're practicing then,

Meaning we're in the present moment then,

We're present for that moment,

Then whatever we offer is an appropriate response,

And one of the reasons that I love this so much is because it's framing an appropriate response,

Or that an appropriate response will arise as a kind of element of faith,

Meaning that in this larger moment,

As Norman said,

You know,

It's unclear what we should be doing other than resourcing ourselves,

But in resourcing ourselves,

We're readying ourselves for the larger appropriate response,

So that even though right now there's no way of knowing yet exactly what that is,

When the moment arises,

You know,

When the court goes sideways,

Or a militia shows up at our state house,

We'll know the appropriate response in that moment,

And we'll make it.

So let's sit.

Finding your seat,

Your posture for this sit,

And bringing,

Well,

First relaxing,

And then bringing all of the dignity that you have for this moment to this moment,

And I guess by dignity,

What I'm meaning these days is this is an act of courage,

And an act of wisdom to be practicing right now,

And how much dignity there is in that to be cultivating wisdom right now,

And then if the breath is your object,

Or if sound is your object,

Inviting the attention to settle,

Settle down,

Settle in,

And just attending to this present moment,

To whatever is here,

Coming back when the mind wanders,

That's the wisdom,

And coming back with so much kindness towards yourself,

Also wisdom,

Calling out for the wandering mind,

Come on back to this moment,

With not so much the practice of staying in the present moment,

For the whole sit,

Although that might be your practice,

But of coming back when we've wandered off,

And with kindness,

With joy,

With a sense of gladness that this is an important thing to be doing right now.

Thanks everyone for being on the wake-up call today,

Great to see you,

Really nice to see you,

Take good care,

Be safe out there,

Thank you,

Thanks Judy,

That was nourishing,

Have a good day everybody.