You Good morning,
Good afternoon.
Hi,
Everybody.
It's Judy and this is Wake Up Call 551.
We're on Chapter 18 of the Dhammapada now.
And the Byram Ram Dass translation calls this chapter impurity.
And Gil Fronsdale calls it corruption.
So these are pretty powerful words,
But I think the verses actually offer something more hopeful.
So let's take a look.
Hold on one second.
Okay,
So the framework for this chapter.
Is that we're all standing at death's door.
So we should remember that.
You know,
We should remember that we're just here for a moment and then decide to be kind and just and loving right now,
Not at some future moment or when conditions supported better or with certain humans or certain other beings,
But not with others.
So remember that we're always standing on a cliff.
Toes hanging over the edge,
Smallest breeze might topple us,
And there won't be anything to take with us except the choices we've made in our lives.
And so to ask ourselves,
What have I cultivated?
You know,
How have I made the world a little bit better for having been here?
In what ways have I been a light in the darkness?
And the first few verses of the chapter say,
Your life is falling away.
Death is at hand.
You are the lamp to light the way.
And then they talk about practice and say,
Neglected.
The sacred versus rust.
For beauty rests without use.
And unrepaired the house falls into ruin and the watch without vigilance fails.
And then they say there is impurity and impurity.
When a woman lacks dignity,
When a man lacks generosity,
And let's say vice versa,
When a human lacks either of those.
But the greatest impurity is ignorance.
Free yourself from it.
Be pure.
So this echoes what we've learned in earlier verses because over and over the Dhammapada is reminding us that we have just little time.
And that while we're here,
What matters is to be kind,
Connected,
Loving,
And generous.
And there's a whole cosmological way of looking at it that's present in this chapter,
Which is that,
You know,
We're doing this to help others,
But also to have a better life the next time and eventually to pass out of the cycle of birth and death.
And maybe that's something that resonates for you.
From a non-cosmological perspective,
Though,
I take this to be about remembering,
Recollecting,
Sati,
Recollect,
Recollect,
That we're practicing to help others.
That in a very direct way,
Not only or not so much in terms of subsequent lifetimes,
That right now,
You know,
We don't get away with anything.
Everything we say and do matters.
There are consequences,
Good and bad.
And our intentions and our impact determine those.
So when I'm kind,
There's ripple effect.
When I'm angry,
Different ripple effect.
When I cause harm,
Different ripple effect.
And I may not be able to see the consequences because I might be denying or I might be looking away,
Right?
Might not have the wisdom.
To see you know i'm disconnected i'm siloed i'm living inside a delusion of separateness right these are all Big possibilities for me personally,
And maybe they are for you too.
But still these consequences are happening.
And when we practice mindfulness formally on our cushions and also portable mindfulness in our work,
In our life.
Then we're paying attention moment by moment and we get to see our intention and impact.
We get to,
We have to,
Right?
Because at least for me,
Sometimes I see my intention or my impact too late.
The intention has already formed into words or a text or a post.
They've gone out into the world,
And it's not a get-to,
But a have-to.
I have that cringy moment.
Of,
Oh yeah,
I can't believe I just said that thing.
I just did that thing.
What's so interesting to me about this chapter,
Though,
Is,
I mean,
Of course,
These reminders,
And especially because in this chapter,
If you read the chapter itself,
It's so lyrical,
So lyrical.
But what's so interesting to me about this chapter is this verse.
How easy it is to see your sibling's faults.
It says brothers,
But how easy it is to see your sibling's faults,
How hard to face your own.
You winnow theirs in the wind like chafe,
But yours you hide like a cheat covering up an unlucky throw,
Meaning like a throw of the dice.
Dwelling on your siblings' faults multiplies your own.
You are far from the end of your journey.
The way is not the sky,
The way is the heart.
So just starting from the end,
You are far from the end of your journey.
I don't think it's contradictory to say that that's true.
And we're standing at death's door.
We're here for a moment.
Because from a cosmological point of view,
We each have many,
Many lifetimes before we attain freedom,
Or at least I do.
I don't know about you.
Maybe you only have one more.
Um.
.
.
And from an on-the-ground perspective,
We each have plenty to do to purify our hearts and minds,
And we're not there yet.
But the beginning,
I love this.
How easy it is to see the faults of others,
Yet to cover up our own,
Hiding them like a cheat covers up an unlucky throw,
Right?
I just love this imagery and it's our world.
Isn't it our world?
I mean,
The wars,
The internal divisions,
You know,
ICE versus the immigration lawyers,
AI versus the cautionary voices,
The states that are in play,
You know,
Two men pulling guns at a dog park.
Right,
Two lawyers in a courtroom,
How easy it is to say.
I know to be kind and loving and helpful and generous,
But not here.
Not now,
Not with this person.
This person or this situation doesn't deserve kindness or generosity.
I'm not connected to that,
Or I'm not connected to them.
So Shreema,
Whose Dhammapada commentary I've been sharing,
Says this.
She says,
I have very often heard people saying this is about this chapter.
I have very often heard people saying,
Oh,
Now that I am trying to be good,
Everybody else seems to be back.
But this is precisely to teach you that one should not be good with an interested motive.
One should not be good so that others will be good to you.
One must be good for the sake of being good.
And she says,
It is always the same lesson.
One must do as well as one can the best one can,
But without expecting a result.
Without doing it with a view to the result.
Just this attitude to expect a reward for a good action,
To become good because one thinks that this will make life easier.
Takes away all value from the good action.
You must be good for the love of goodness.
You must be just for the love of justice.
All right,
So that's our world.
Just for the love of justice.
So if each chapter of the Dhammapada has a takeaway,
This is mine from this chapter.
How often I give myself an out.
And say,
Yeah,
You know,
Practice is important.
But not here,
Not with them.
And how essential it is to remember that,
You know,
Yes it is,
Because we're not practicing for results and we're not focused on how the other person or the situation is.
We're practicing for the love of it.
So generosity for the love of generosity.
Kindness for the love of kindness,
Justice for the love of justice.
We're practitioners for the love of practice.
And just to remember how essential it is to remember that we're not here to get better or do better or discern whether the situation or the person is worthy or is entitled to our goodness.
We're just here for this moment.
And we're all in this together,
We're not getting away with anything.
And we're here to leave the world,
You know,
A little bit better each day for having been present in that day,
Just for the love of it.
So that's it.
You So finding a posture that will support your practice today.
And settling in.
Feeling your connection.
To your own body.
Feeling your connection to the earth.
Connection to one another.
And then taking a couple of moments.
To settle the attention on the breath,
If the breath is your refuge.
Or sound if sound is your refuge.
And then for the rest of this practice,
Just dropping all the effort in.
And just practicing for the love of practice.
And I'll just be quiet and practice with you.
Generosity for the love of generosity.
Kindness for the love of kindness.
Justice for the love of justice.
And practice for the love of practice.
You Thanks,
Everybody.
Great to sit with you.
