How Attention Creates Stability

The more attentive I am, especially to this mind running amuck, the more stable I feel. If I’m off on my latest adventure, surfing for that pair of shoes I just have to have or baking those cookies I just have to eat, there’s so much tug and pull. If I can catch those impulses before they take over, I still might buy the shoes. But at least I don’t feel so consumed.

The mindfulness metaphor is that of a mountain. The invitation is to stop chasing our tails – the gentlest possible way of naming what we’re seeing on the world stage – and instead, sit still, in silence, like a mountain.

When I remember to do that for even a few minutes, I feel the difference. The agitation settles. I feel grounded. There’s a measure of peace.
Even though peace might feel like a rare commodity these days, it’s actually right here, under our noses, if only we can remember.

Transcript

Hi everybody, It's Judy and this is Wake Up Call 527 and we're looking at the Dhammapada, The poetry of mindfulness. First chapter, Dichotomies or pairs or choices. I think today's more about choices but those are all the names. So the first couplet in the chapter says, We are what we think with our thoughts we make the world. Next is about how hatred never ends through hatred that only love dispels hate. Next you too shall pass away knowing this. How can you quarrel? So these have been fun to explore. And next Thomas Byram's translation offers this, How easily the wind overturns a frail tree. Seek happiness in the senses. Indulge in food and sleep and you too will be uprooted. The wind cannot overturn a mountain. Temptation cannot touch the person who is awake strong and humble. Who masters themself and masters and minds the law. And then Gil Fronsdale's version, It says it the same thing but it's a little different. It's whoever lives focused on the pleasant, Senses unguarded, Immoderate with food, Lazy and sluggish, Will be overpowered by Mara as a weak tree is bent in the wind. Whoever focuses on the unpleasant, Senses guarded, Moderate with food, Faithful and diligent, Will not be overpowered by Mara as a stone mountain is unmoved by the wind. So take the first couplet of the chapter, With our minds we make the world. If we take that to be true, Then I'm reading these verses as an invitation to drill down. And I think they're saying, You know, It's not just a general thing that with our minds we make the world. It's also that whatever we pay attention to is what we're cultivating. So in other words, Where we place our attention matters. If we focus mainly on sense pleasure, And we do this, Or I do this, Because I think it will make me happy. And that's the most natural human thing in the world. The trouble is, If we do that, It's pretty quick we can figure out that it doesn't actually make us happy. It creates a lot of stress because of all the wanting and grasping and clinging. And you know, So it creates suffering. We know that. And you know, One of the ways it does that is it creates a kind of proliferation in the mind. Because wanting just creates more wanting. Right? So there's an instruction in mindfulness to guard the sense doors. Guard the sense doors. And the sense doors are the eyes, The ears, The nose, The tongue, The body, The mind. Because those are the doorways through which, Well, They're the doorways through which we experience our lives. And they're the doorways through which sensual pleasure enters. But guard the sense doors doesn't mean don't enjoy life at all. I mean, Enjoy life. It doesn't mean don't put on your favorite cashmere sweater on a chilly day, Or don't eat a wonderful meal, Or don't create a beautiful home for yourself, Or don't look great when you go out. It doesn't mean any of that. Even if it once did when these instructions were only for monastics. But we're householders, I think, Most everybody here. And we're just ordinary humans going about our lives. And enjoying life is also a great instruction. It's an important instruction. But we should still guard the sense doors in the sense that it's very easy to get caught in proliferation. So if we don't guard the sense doors, And we keep them wide open all the time, They can become kind of insatiable. You know, They can gobble up whatever is pleasant and leave us always wanting more. And, You know, Of course, The law and consumer capitalism, In general, Very much support this. And there's no judgment, They just do. Yeah. So it works like this. We all probably know the mechanism, But through the tongue, I taste something yummy, And I want another piece. Or through the nose, I smell something compelling, And I go to it. Or through the mind, I conjure a fantasy, Or I latch on to a worry, And then I become like a dog with a bone. And nothing can persuade me to let go. So whoever lives focused on the pleasant, Senses unguarded, Immoderate with food, Lazy and sluggish, Will be overpowered by Mara. Mara is the god in the legend, Or maybe the history, Who tempted the Buddha as he sat attaining awakening. Brought all the temptations to distract the Buddha from his commitment to sit in silence and stillness until he awoke. So whoever lives focused on the pleasant, Senses unguarded, Immoderate with food, Lazy and sluggish, Will be overpowered by Mara, As a weak tree is bent in the wind. And it's hard. I try to be moderate with food, But for example, Last week I ate half my salad, And it felt like plenty. And yesterday I went to the exact same takeout, And ate the whole salad, And I felt a little overstuffed. Right? So it's just this being human, And paying attention, And making good decisions. Lazy and sluggish is not usually my issue, And until I realized it probably includes procrastination. And then if it includes procrastination, You know, I'm all in. So what else is, You know, What else is not only is the grasping a recipe for stress and suffering, It's very destabilizing. When I'm unguarded, And I'm focused, Focused only on sense pleasures, I feel like I'm being pulled this way and that. I'm never sated. I'm never feeling like the moment is good enough, Or I have enough, Or there is enough. This kind of proliferation is exhausting, And it throws me off balance, And I can never quite stabilize. So I do feel like a weak tree bent in the wind. But the verse says, Temptation cannot touch the person who is awake, Strong, Humble, Who masters themselves, And minds the law. So meaning, I think, That the temptations of the sense pleasures can't, Maybe they can touch us, But they can't subsume us if we're seeing. They can touch us because, Again, We live in the world, Right? We're not monastics, But they can't subsume us if we're seeing that they're happening, Right? We're awake. We're choosing to let go. We're awake. We're strong, Strong, I think, In our resolve to pay attention. You know, We're really committed, Oh, I'm going to pay attention, And I'm going to sit and do some formal practice so that I'm in the habit of paying attention, Pay attention at that level. If we're humble, And for me, Humility is all about remembering I'm not going to get it right every time, Or most of the time, But at least I'm pointing in the right direction. And also humble, Humble also in the sense that we can't see nearly as clearly as we think we can, Or I can't see nearly as clearly as I think I can. And in terms of mastery, It feels to me like remembering to guard the sense doors as much as possible feels like mastery to me, And minding the law, Which is the last part, Isn't our law, The law that we practice, It's the law of the dharma. It's about paying attention to all of this, To all of the dharma, To all of the laws of mindfulness, Or in some cases, Those laws are more like the laws of nature. And so the positive read is when we can guard the sense doors and stop or slow down the proliferation and let go, And remember, We're not going to get it right every time, And that we don't see as clearly as we'd like to. And when we can master some of this some of the time and a little bit more as the years roll on, Then we're going to be much less vulnerable to being uprooted. And yeah, The cultivation is simple, Not easy, But it's just what we've been doing together and on our own for all these years, Learning to pay attention, Learning to be kind, Learning to care, To be patient, To be generous and joyful, And to stay balanced. And when all fails, Yeah, Just to love one another. So let's sit, Finding your posture, Whatever that is this morning, This afternoon, Whatever time it is in your time zone, And settling in, Feeling the body sitting or standing or lying down, Whatever posture you're in right now, And feeling into the possibility of this stability that's being named, This sense of mountainous. Just bringing the attention to the body, Breathing and feeling the gravity, The physical force of gravity, Holding us to the earth, Settling us. And just for these few minutes, Coming to a kind of complete stillness, Whatever your complete stillness is for today, Sitting like a mountain, And maybe there are lots of storms in your life are coming your way. There are certainly storms in the world, But just for these few moments, Just coming to a mountain-like stillness. And if the mind wanders, If there's proliferation in the mind, Wanting, Grasping, Clinging, Just the gratitude and appreciation when you notice and let go and come back, Come back to your mountain pose, Sensing the stability that's available, Really settling into it and memorizing it, Imprinting it so that it's a refuge and you can come back in any moment. In a moment, I'll ring the bell and then we'll each go off into our days and bring our expertise and our training into all the places that we need to do that. And I think that bringing our stability, This ability to be the mountain in the room is maybe the greatest gift that we can offer today. Thanks, Everybody, For being on the Wake Up Call. Good to see you. Good to sit with you. Be safe out there. I'll see you next week.