Generosity : Creating A Safer, Braver, World

It seems to me that the most generous thing we can do for one another is to create safer, braver, spaces. I’m not sure exactly how, but what about a formula that looks like letting go of as much greediness as possible, letting go of as much aversiveness as possible, and remembering we belong to one another, even in our very adversarial profession?

Transcript

Hey everyone,

It's Judy Cohen and this is Wake Up Call 357.

And today's call is about how generosity might be able to support us in creating safer,

Braver spaces in the law,

Also in the world.

And getting started a little late here because I got caught up in reading about what might be,

Might be,

Might be a climate bill.

So I'll swing back to that at the end,

But we're talking about generosity as the first of the six perfections or paramitas of heart and mind.

And in the past few weeks,

The exploration was about generosity in offering material support and the generosity of offering the teachings of mindfulness,

Which I think we all do by practicing and then porting our practice out into the law and into our lives.

And third form of generosity is the generosity of offering safety.

And so when I first studied the paramita of generosity,

Which also goes by the Pali name Dana,

D-A-N-A,

This was the type of generosity or Dana that really surprised and also delighted me.

And as I've sat with the question of how can Dana really create safety and,

You know,

Done more reading,

The how is beginning to make some sense.

So I'll share that with you.

Here's what Bhikkhu Bodhi,

The great Buddhist scholar says about Dana.

The goal of the path is the destruction of greed,

Hatred,

And delusion.

The cultivation of generosity directly debilitates greed and hate while facilitating that pliancy of mind that allows for the eradication of delusion.

So remember our old friends,

Greed,

Hatred,

And delusion.

Those are the three poisons in classical mindfulness.

And I don't know about you,

But sometimes it looks to me like the whole world is infused by those poisons.

So many people running on greed,

On hatred,

On delusion and the law,

The law too.

Sometimes it looks like the law is kind of governed by greed,

Hatred,

And delusion.

Right?

But it still begs the question of where those poisons come from.

So Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote in the Gulag Archipelago,

The line separating good and evil passes not through states,

Not through classes,

Nor between political parties either,

But right through every human heart and through all human hearts.

If Solzhenitsyn is right and the mindfulness teachers are right,

Then an exploration of the three poisons is really an exploration of that line in our own hearts between good and evil,

As Solzhenitsyn puts it,

Or between greed and generosity,

Hatred and generosity,

Illusion and generosity,

As the mindfulness texts put it.

So Ruth King,

The great teacher,

The mindfulness teacher,

Renames the three poisons gratification,

Danger,

And escape.

And I really like these names because they're so relevant,

Right?

Gratification,

The way in our consumer growth-oriented society we look outside of ourselves for what makes us feel better,

More gratified,

Instead of turning inwards,

More encouraged to do that.

Danger,

The way the world feels and is,

And how we can so often react,

Or I can so often react anyway else,

Be for myself,

With a kind of fight-flight response,

Which isn't different from hatred.

And escape,

Whether we're escaping via our own personal flavor of delusion,

I'll just shout out Netflix and single malt whiskey as my personal exhibits one and two,

Or trying to escape or failing to see the truth that we belong to one another,

Right?

So the hawks this morning on my hillside can only survive as long as I'm responsible for what goes into what I put into the earth and the water.

And so I know all three poisons reside in my own heart.

I want more pleasantness and less unpleasantness,

So I tend to do retail therapy and in other ways,

Looking outside myself for gratification and forgetting that true ease comes from moment to moment attention,

Right?

And I have a real sense of danger these days,

And I can definitely react with aversion,

Frustration,

Anger.

And my exhibits one and two,

It's not that I'm buried in online shows,

It's just that that feeling of needing to escape and sometimes,

Although it's harder these days,

Which is probably a good thing,

Forgetting how intimately we're connected,

How we belong completely to one another and to the earth.

So how does generosity debilitate greed and hate as Bhikubodi says,

While facilitating that pliancy of mind that allows for the eradication of delusion?

And how does that create safety?

Okay,

So here's what I'm thinking.

If I'm more generous,

What's really happening is that I'm letting go of wanting,

Wanting more,

More things,

More external pleasant experiences,

More status,

More money,

Even more time.

And I'm letting go of grasping onto every minute as a minute that has to be productive,

Right?

That's a big one.

And contemplating the opposite,

Contemplating generosity and lawyering,

Right?

It's kind of interesting.

So what about a personal moment to moment strategy of letting go of busyness,

Of breathlessness,

And instead really being generous,

You know,

First with our time.

So if someone walks into our office or calls or writes,

You know,

What if we could relax and turn toward them and listen with full attention with our heart,

Not also checking messages,

Right?

Something that I do.

There's real generosity in this,

I think.

Generosity that helps folks feel safe to reach out,

Right?

And whatever they have to say,

What about a generous attitude too,

You know,

Whether they need help or they're confused or they're afraid,

You know,

Making sure that no one feels afraid to ask questions by being kind and asking if we can help and by not judging and by not being snide,

You know,

Even internally,

You know,

Not letting blame kind of lurk beneath the surface of our words,

Our gestures.

And you know,

If we did this,

The generosity of this level of attunement,

I think this also creates safety and it allows folks to be braver about what they're asking,

Maybe even braver about who they are,

Right?

And same goes with generosity and hatred or fear,

Especially if the opposite of hate and fear is love,

Right?

So instead of impatience,

Which folks can feel,

Even when we think we're hiding it,

You know,

Taking a moment,

Generosity of time to call up our love and be genuinely loving or instead of frustration,

Relaxing and really being with others,

Even though we have a lot on our own plate,

Right?

Instead of gossiping or critiquing,

Not speaking ill of others at all.

You know,

I mean,

Look today,

Instead of opposing climate legislation,

Getting behind it,

Right?

Can we take a moment to appreciate our Senate just for once,

Right?

And that's also debilitating our hate as B.

Kuboty says,

Right?

And I'd like to say kind of subbing in our love because a long life of acts of love,

Isn't that also a long life of acts of generosity?

And don't don't people feel safer around love than they do around hate and fear?

You know,

And then all that generosity,

All that letting go,

All that love it,

I think it really does soften the heart.

You know,

It feels to me like it does.

And it feels like it really does facilitate the pliancy of mind that allows for the eradication of delusion,

Meaning the mind that is present,

That shifts into openness,

Relaxation and love and sees really sees,

Feels,

Gets it,

You know,

Gets it that we're completely interconnected,

Which feels to me has the potential that one piece has the potential to create the bravest,

Safest spaces of all.

OK,

So let's maybe sit with that.

So taking whatever posture is most supportive for you.

For your own practice.

Settling in.

Relaxing.

Relaxing into this moment.

Maybe letting go,

Wanting this moment to be anything other than whatever it is.

One thing,

Any gratification to come from this meditation,

Right?

Something's happening next.

OK.

And if any fear arises or any aversion arises and probably will or could,

I mean,

Anything could arise and it's all in there,

Right?

Then just.

Relaxing with it.

Letting go to the extent that that's possible.

Letting go to the extent that that's possible.

And also watching if the mind wants to slide away into distraction.

And seeing if you can just very gently come back to the present moment and connect to this moment and to yourself and to everyone here.

A bunch of us here today.

Just tapping into that community.

And in this small way of being generous with ourselves,

Maybe creating some safety.

Safety internally first.

Cultivating non-greed and non-hatred and non-delusion as to ourselves.

Shining that generous light on ourselves.

And being generous with ourselves.

And being generous with ourselves.

And being generous with ourselves.

And being generous with ourselves.

And being generous with ourselves.

And being generous with ourselves.