Hey everybody,
It's Judy and this is Wake Up Call 547.
I'm feeling a little sad today with Gloria Steinem's death.
And falling on the heels of Dolly Parton's death.
You know,
These two women who are sort of in my consciousness and who I looked up to my whole life for different reasons,
But I mean,
In some ways for also for some of the same reasons,
So.
Wishing you well on your next journeys,
Gloria and Dolly.
So I want to read the first few verses of chapter 15 of the Dhammapada because For me,
They frame the chapter,
But there's more in this chapter,
So we won't finish this chapter today.
Um,
And in a way,
They frame for me many of the aspirations of mindfulness.
So here's Gil Fronsdale's translation.
Says,
Ah so happily we live without hate among those who hate.
Among people who hate,
We live without hate.
Ah,
So happily we live without misery among those in misery.
Among people in misery,
We live without misery.
Ah,
So happy we live without ambition among those with ambition.
Among people who are ambitious,
We live without ambition.
Ah so happily we live we who have no attachments So it's an ideal.
Is any of it realistic?
So first I think about the law,
Then I think about the world.
Either the world right now is filled with more hate,
More misery,
More ambition,
More attachment than it's ever been,
Or We're just more aware of the hate and the misery and the ambition and the attachment because it arrives all day long from every corner of the planet into our hands,
Into our devices,
Into our palms,
Into our hearts.
And 25 years ago,
Let alone 2,
500 years ago,
When these teachings were first offered,
You know,
That wasn't the case.
So either we're more aware or there is more difficulty,
But it sort of begs the question of whether any of this is realistic.
Is it actually possible to live without hate among people who hate?
Or to live without misery among those who are in misery,
Without ambition at all,
Let alone among ambitious people like lawyers,
To live without attachment,
Right?
Because what do we do about,
I don't know,
You could call it empathy,
You could call it mirror neurons,
Whatever basic element of being human tends to feel what others are feeling.
So how do we live among hate without becoming infected and feeling hateful ourselves?
At least hateful of the haters,
Right?
Or how do we live among misery without feeling just desperately sad?
Or how do we work in a super ambitious profession?
And yeah,
It could be the law,
But it could be any profession,
Or maybe it's most things right now in the world,
You know,
Without becoming ambitious and competitive and wanting to get to the top and stay there ourselves.
And all of that,
Of course,
Begs the question of what it even feels like to have no attachments.
So before we dive into the inquiry,
I just want to say I take the word hate to include all the aversive states.
Many times in the teachings,
The word hate feels too strong and aggressive for the situation,
For me,
For the situation in my life,
But anger or irritation or impatience or frustration or just plain old aversion feels just about right.
So when I hear,
You know,
Among people who hate,
We live without hate,
I'm thinking of living without anything in this mind or heart that falls into the hate bucket.
Okay.
And the trouble for me,
Trouble for me is that when somebody is practicing hate,
I want them to stop.
And frankly,
It doesn't matter who's hating,
You know,
It could be,
You know.
Someone who's hating based on identities or politics,
Maybe politics are identities now,
I don't know.
Or it could be a very equanimous person,
Somebody practicing loving kindness who's hating the haters.
Or it could be somebody who sets themselves above another hater because they feel that they themselves,
You know,
Don't hate.
And that could be me.
Um,
But the invitation of this line is to live happily not hating.
And also not picking up hate and tossing it back at a hater.
Right?
Because,
And this is Joanna Macy,
She says,
The line between good and evil runs through every human heart.
Right so we all have this and the dhammapada line so happily we live without hate among those who hate It seems to be about seeing hate and not hating it.
Seeing the hate in others,
Also seeing it in our own hearts and not hating others or hating ourselves.
And instead,
And this,
It feels really radical,
But I think it's saying love the haters and love that hatred in ourselves so that healing can happen,
Right?
It doesn't mean inviting them to dinner.
It's just what's happening in the heart.
Because we know from the Dhammapada and Dr.
King and all the wise teachings that hate never ceases by hate,
But by love alone is healed.
And then with misery,
Similar but maybe different,
Slightly different take.
There's an old story about a very skillful monk.
I mean,
This isn't a story,
This is history about a skillful monk named Mathieu Ricard.
And this is many years ago,
A group of contemplative scientists test him in an fMRI machine.
And the first time in the machine,
He's told to focus on images of children in misery and to summon empathy,
To feel what they're feeling.
And he's got decades of practice and a short,
Time he knocks to be let out of the fMRI machine.
Too much.
Too much.
He himself is miserable.
Then they slide him back in,
Same images,
And he's told to summon compassion.
In other words,
Not to feel the misery,
But to see it and then to care.
And this time he can stay indefinitely.
So I'd say that among people in misery,
Living without misery is about compassion.
Seeing and caring about misery,
But not taking it on.
So live without hate among haters,
Love the haters,
And also love the hate that runs through our own hearts.
And live among people in misery without misery.
Hear the cries of the world and care and want to help.
Okay,
And then ambition.
I love this.
So when I first read this chapter of the Dhammapada,
It made me think of the,
Do you remember the 1982 movie Gandhi,
The really early one?
So there's a scene in the movie where somebody says to Gandhi,
You know,
He has the aspirations to free India from British rules,
Pretty big aspiration.
And somebody says to him,
Well,
You're ambitious.
And he replies,
I hope not.
And that line has just rumbled around in my heart for all these years.
Like,
What does that mean?
And it's just,
It's stuck with me.
And I guess I wonder if the invitation to happily live without ambition among those with ambition,
It's kind of,
I don't know,
It harkens back to that for me,
And it makes me wonder if it's reminiscent of the Bhagavad Gita,
All of which,
All of which,
The little I know about it,
I've learned from my BFF and my fellow MLT teacher,
Elisa Gray.
Hi,
Honey.
Thank you.
Which says,
We can set an intention,
We do our absolute best,
But in the end,
We have to let go of outcome.
So maybe the ambition to win,
To acquire,
To become.
Is something to let go of.
Which is also something I think any trial lawyer would agree with.
We do our absolute best and then it's out of our hands.
Um,
But then a wholesome ambition to do our best to practice with joyful effort,
Maybe that's okay.
And then that points to the final lines I read at the beginning of the call.
Ah,
So happily we live,
We who have no attachments.
Right?
And in a way that's all of it,
Right?
Letting go of hate and of hating those who hate and of hating ourselves for hating letting go of being swallowed by the misery of the world,
But still not wanting others to be miserable,
Caring,
Wanting to help,
Being able to be with them.
And doing our absolute best to bring about a good outcome and a more loving,
Compassionate moment and world,
But not being attached to the outcome,
Right?
Maybe that's all of it.
So there's more in this chapter.
Save it for next time.
For now,
Let's say bye.
So finding your posture,
Whatever will support you best for this sit today.
And we'll do a little metta today.
So a little loving kindness.
So for that practice,
There's always the invitation to lean back in your chair,
Relax,
Let the body relax.
So if that's available to you,
You can do that.
And if you're standing,
You can even lean against a wall.
You can even lie down for this practice.
And just stabilize the attention by paying attention to a few breaths.
To the body breathing.
And then just to start calling to mind some being.
With who you really love and whom you have a very uncomplicated and loving relationship with,
So.
Could be a child,
Could be an elder.
Could be a pet.
And just feeling that love,
That ease,
That loving ease or easy love in the heart,
Maybe in the belly,
Maybe in the whole.
Torso,
Let it kind of rumble around.
And then just a few minutes of metta for ourselves.
Just wishing ourselves well on this day.
Beginning of September.
Beginning of fall.
And saying silently to yourself,
May I be safe.
And really imagining what true safety would feel like.
For you.
Maybe putting the hand on the heart,
If that's helpful.
May I be safe and may I be happy.
And may I be healthy.
Wishing for all of the health that's available to you right now in this moment.
And really feeling into that,
May I be safe and happy and healthy.
And may I be free.
Free from stress and suffering.
May I live with ease.
Genuinely caring for yourself.
And then this inquiry,
What might it be like to be able to live?
Without hate among people who hate.
So call to mind a difficult person.
Not the most difficult,
Maybe.
But someone who.
.
.
Just breaks your heart a little bit.
Or if you have a practice of calling to mind someone who breaks your heart a lot,
Welcome to work with them.
But just keep in mind your own well-being.
Call to mind this difficult person.
And really.
See them.
As someone who just wants to be safe and wish them safety.
All beings want to be safe.
May you be safe.
And see them also as someone who wants to be happy,
Like all of us want to be happy.
May you be safe and may you be happy.
And may you be healthy as well and healthy.
And body healthy.
In mind,
In heart,
In spirit.
Wishing them true well-being.
And then wishing them freedom from suffering.
And ease.
And to be free of hate.
And to be free of all of the afflictions.
And then letting go of this imagination of this difficult person and coming back to your own good heart.
You know,
This beautiful practice that you're willing to Engage in.
This.
Sometimes it's called a purification process of just letting go of the.
.
.
Of the stickiness and difficulty in our own hearts.
Yeah.
I'm fluttering the eyes open.
Thanks everybody for your practice and your beautiful hearts.
