Groundlessness/Feet On The Ground

To me, groundlessness as a wisdom practice is challenging. It’s an invitation to forget every concept, let go of everything I know, and sit in the direct experience of my life. I love the idea. But as a practical matter, how do I make dinner if I live in a non-conceptual reality, let alone how do I walk into a courtroom and present evidence?

On the other hand, what if the aspiration to let go at this level, in the relative sense, is about just letting go of unwholesome concepts like that we, and others, are bad, wrong, difficult, or not enough? To me, this feels like a powerful enough letting go, and for now, because it points to a powerful level of freedom: the freedom to connect compassionately with others, and the freedom to be connected to my own luminous self.

What about you? If you have a practice of letting go at this level, where does it feel like it leads?

Transcript

Hey,

Everyone,

It's Judy Cohen,

And this is Wake Up Call 4.

.

.

Where are we at?

Where are we at?

We're at 4.

41,

I think.

And I am beaming in from Mexico City,

So it's nice to be here with all of you.

And so let's get started.

Sorry,

4.

40,

Not 4.

41,

Wake Up Call 4.

40.

So even though Pema talked about wisdom,

The sixth of the six paramitas in Chapter 17 of The Places That Scare You,

She sees wisdom,

The wisdom paramita,

Which is in Sanskrit,

It's called prajnaparamita,

As worthy of greater exploration.

And of course,

This is a lifetime of exploration.

And she begins that in Chapter 18,

Which is called Groundlessness.

And I'm calling this Wake Up Call Groundlessness slash Feet on the Ground,

Because in my very limited experience of prajnaparamita,

Or wisdom,

For householders like us,

Meaning people who live in the world who are not monastics,

There is an important and kind of complementary give and take between letting go completely,

Or as well as we can,

Which is what groundlessness is about,

And I'll talk about in a minute,

And being fully interconnected to one another in the courtroom,

In the conference room,

In our homes,

In a feet on the ground kind of way.

So Pema begins with a story about the Buddha,

Taking his community to a place called Vulture Mountain,

And essentially rearranging their thinking,

Which is was what his whole job was anyway.

So they had been studying with him a long time,

They understood impermanence and egolessness.

They understood that nothing including ourselves is solid,

That we're simply ever changing,

Ever evolving beings,

And in the same way that all of nature is never solid,

And it's always changing.

They knew that suffering comes from not believing that that's true,

And from trying to kind of thirst for and grasp for pleasure in the mistaken belief that if we could only control the forces that cause us momentary happiness,

We could actually be permanently happy,

Right?

So that they understood a lot of these concepts or practices,

But on Vulture Mountain,

The Buddha said,

Now that you understand what are really the three characteristics of being human,

Suffering,

Impermanence,

And egolessness,

Let go of those ideas too.

Let go of those ideas too.

And according to Pema,

He told his community that whatever they believed had to be let go,

That dwelling upon any description of reality was a trap.

So sitting with this,

For me,

It's a little bit like training for years and years to finally fully understand the rules of evidence,

Studying them,

Putting them into practice over and over,

Seeing for myself how they work,

What will be permitted,

How I can work within the rules to get the evidence I need admitted.

And then one day stepping into the courtroom and finding out that there are no rules,

That to understand the causes of harm and how to repair harm,

The whole group of us in the courtroom,

The judges,

The jury,

The prosecutor,

The defender,

The accused,

The victims,

The families of both or of everybody,

We're all instructed to drop our identities,

Our positions,

Our beliefs,

All the rules that upheld our system and plant our feet on the courtroom floor and breathe and listen carefully and with love.

And from there,

Without knowing anything,

Sort whatever needs sorting.

So this completely imaginal moment of Prajna Paramita,

I was thinking,

What would this look like?

And it might look like the ritual that Jack Kornfield shares in the Art of Forgiveness,

Loving Kindness and Peace.

He says,

He talks about the Babemba tribe of South Africa.

And he says in this tribe,

When a person acts irresponsibly or unjustly,

They are placed in the center of the village alone and unfettered and all work ceases and every person in the village,

Including the children,

Gather in a large circle around the accused.

And each person speaks to the accused one at a time,

Recalling the good things the person in the center of the circle has done in their lifetime.

And you know,

It's every incident,

Every experience that can be recalled with any detail and accuracy.

It's recounted and all of their positive attributes,

Their good deeds,

Their strengths,

Their kindnesses are recited carefully and at length.

And this tribal ceremony often lasts for days.

And at the end,

The circle is broken,

A celebration takes place and the person is symbolically and literally welcomed back into the tribe.

So what would that look like inside of our system or as a different system?

The ancient message is that holding on to anything,

You know,

A belief in who we are as a fixed and solid prosecutor or defender or trial lawyer or family law lawyer or even mediator,

Even peacemaker,

You know,

Even a meditation teacher,

A belief in what pain and suffering are and the ways that harm should be recompensed or punished or a belief in just rehabilitation or in what justice means at all,

A belief in impermanence or interconnection,

Knowing what these things are,

Any fixed ideas at all.

The ancient message is that these block wisdom and that to unblock the very wisdom we need in our lives and probably to save or at least to best serve society and the earth right now,

We have to let go of all of that too.

So what would that look like inside our legal system?

Can a lawyer let go at this level,

Considering everything we're responsible for and all we have to hold on to and to hold up and to uphold,

You know,

Can we learn to enter into a room or into any situation really not knowing,

Having let go of all concepts and even of the concept of letting go itself,

You know,

Enter with don't know mind as San Francisco Zen Center founder Suzuki Roshi always used to say,

Pema says,

The only way to fully understand the teachings of compassion and wisdom,

The only way to practice them fully is to abide in the unconditional openness of the Prajnaparamita,

Patiently cutting through all of our tendencies to hang on again,

To hang on to anything,

Any concept at all.

So I'm sharing this,

This,

These teachings,

I'm sharing them being a conduit and,

And also my more or less kind of wild interpretation of what this level of letting go might look like inside the law.

It's not as a suggestion for what to do,

Right?

Because you all already know what to do.

You know,

We all know what to do.

What to do is to practice,

To meditate,

To learn how this heart mind actually works.

Your own heart mind actually works.

Gain insight into the causes and conditions of your own life.

Learn to let go of all the grasping and clinging and suffering and,

And to cultivate a loving and compassionate heart.

And then see for yourself,

You know,

See what you discover,

See what,

If anything that I've shared either today or,

You know,

Anytime is useful.

You know,

What's useful,

You keep practicing with what's not,

You let go the most ancient of the teachings.

Come see for yourself.

All of the ancient teachers said this,

All of our modern teachers tell us this,

Come see for yourself,

See what is true.

See for yourself if letting go is worthwhile.

If letting go at this deeper level that Pema is talking about and that I'm,

I'm weirdly extrapolating into the law is useful.

And if it's not wholly useful,

Are there parts that are useful?

Then with the useful parts,

Practice and see what happens when you do.

Finding a comfortable posture,

Your posture,

Whatever best supports you right now.

And connecting to the earth,

Maybe placing the feet flat on the earth and sensing into that connection,

Receiving strength or offering strength,

Whatever is,

Is right for you right now today.

And connecting to yourself,

Just this sense of how it feels to be in your body in this moment.

And see if you can bring that exploration of this moment,

This moment in your body to its elemental level,

Just the sense of the body,

Breathing,

Hearing sounds,

Maybe digesting breakfast if you're out on the West Coast or the tummy is grumbling for lunch if you're out East.

Letting go of any,

Any concepts around the body and just being present to the sensations,

Restlessness or settledness as a sensation in the body,

Not as a concept.

And then inviting the awareness to the mind and noticing if thinking is happening.

And just noticing thoughts arising and passing away,

Not as concepts,

But just as phenomenon.

Letting go of thoughts as they arise and letting go of any sense that letting go of thoughts is the right thing to do.

It's like opening the palm and letting sand flow through the palm,

Sand,

Water,

Holding on to nothing,

Breath,

Sound,

Sensations,

Thoughts,

Even emotions,

Just arising and passing away.

And even the knowing of that arising and passing away,

Abiding in the unconditional openness of the prajnaparamita.

And then fluttering the eyes open.

Wonderful to sit with you.

Have a beautiful Thursday.

Take good care.

Be safe out there.

I'll see you next Thursday.