Mindfulness, Love, Courage, And Grace

We know the practice: present moment awareness. But how do we practice when things are so rough and torn?

First, with love. The invitation, moment by moment, is, can I bring not only awareness, but also love?

Second, with courage. Because no matter how much love we bring, this mind, this body, this world, will present challenges. It’s nothing personal - it’s just the way things work. So, courage.

And third, with grace. When I googled grace, I got three things: simple elegance, courteous goodwill, and doing honor by one’s presence. I like all three, for all of us, moment by moment by moment.

Also, Happy Halloween!

Transcript

Hey,

Everybody,

It's Judy Cohen,

And this is Wake Up Call 508.

How's my sound?

Thumbs up?

Okay,

Good.

All right.

I'm just going to go on airplane mode.

There we go.

So happy almost Halloween.

To situate us,

We are walking down the Eightfold Path,

Which is the fourth of the Four Noble Truths,

And we're on step two,

Which is wise mindfulness.

And last time I shared some thoughts about that from Bhikkhu Bodhi,

Sharon Salzberg,

Kyra Julingo,

Whose idea that wise mindfulness is a kind of adult supervision is I so love that.

And then I also shared a frame that I like to work with of looking in during formal practice to see what this heart mind is up to in the moment.

And then looking up,

Which starts with the same internal check-in and then invites us to tune into what's happening with others,

With the community,

With the world.

So in other words,

Employ mindfulness throughout the day.

And so that's most of the what of wise mindfulness that I want to say,

But with a little bit of a wrap today and the next time we'll take a look at the how.

So Bhikkhu Analyo,

Who's probably our greatest contemporary mindfulness scholar right now,

Says that wise mindfulness as a path factor,

Meaning as this second step on the path,

Requires two qualities,

Diligence and clearly knowing.

And I think we can take diligence to mean essentially wise effort,

Which again is that first step.

And it's that Goldilocks amount of effort for each of us infused with joy.

And then clearly knowing,

Analyo says it's the ability to fully grasp or comprehend what is taking place.

And he means in each moment on an elemental level.

So grasping and fully comprehending what we're seeing,

Hearing,

Tasting,

Smelling,

Touching,

Feeling internally in the body and emotionally,

And thinking.

To my way of seeing it,

Clearly knowing requires a kind of attention to detail that we already employ as legal professionals,

Right?

Nothing gets by us when we're on our game.

So we know how to pay attention at this level,

But the attitude is different.

In the law,

We're scanning to get things right and to win and for what could go wrong.

In the practice of clearly knowing,

There isn't a right or wrong or win or loss.

We're simply silent observers infusing each breath and each moment with joyful effort and with love.

As we practice over time,

Our capacity to sit or stand or walk in stillness and to attend with a quality of joyful,

Loving awareness to whatever arises increases,

Or at least that's been my experience and I hope it's been yours as well.

Eventually,

Loving awareness becomes a default mode or at least a frequent mode,

Right?

Not only moment to moment,

But also in the broader brush of life.

Annie Dillard,

Pittsburgh writer,

Shout out to my favorite Pittsburgher,

Speaks to this when she says,

How we spend our days is of course how we spend our lives.

With the practice of clearly knowing,

The invitation is to be mindful not only internally,

But also externally.

I take this to mean,

And I mentioned this last time,

That we're invited to not only look in,

But to look up at those around us and at the world.

Of course,

We can't know for sure what others are thinking or feeling or experiencing,

But clearly knowing is it's nevertheless,

It's a loving awareness at a level of connection that at least enables us to read a room or read a human as best we can.

And then particularly thinking about our roles as legal professionals to deliver information or news or frankly,

Even a coup de gras with kindness and compassion and without causing harm.

And even when our work requires us to balance one harm against another,

Loving awareness can give us the insight to know that we're not in a fully non-harming moment and the wisdom to either make a different choice or when that's not possible,

To be compassionate towards everyone affected and including ourselves.

So this need for greater compassion or this pull towards greater compassion is maybe a better way of saying it,

Is what's pointed me over the years towards a definition of wise mindfulness that I hope honors the teachings and the teachers and also my own practice,

Which is present moment attention with courage and grace or courageous graceful present moment attention,

If you want.

So present moment attention is the diligent,

Clear,

Loving attention moment by moment internally and externally.

And that's the foundation for the arising of insight into suffering and the end of suffering into interconnection,

Into impermanence.

And that's what enables compassion.

At least in my experience.

Courage.

I feel like it's something that all of our teachers are implying.

Like when we pay attention invariably,

We encounter difficult internal states.

I mean,

There's greed,

There's anger,

There's exhaustion,

There's worry.

We might even doubt mindfulness altogether.

And plus,

We notice,

Or I do,

That sometimes more loudly or with stronger resonance,

The unkind words and actions of others,

They're really amplified.

Difficult news,

Bias,

Injustice is really amplified.

And so it's not easy,

You know?

And we can't face these things without courage,

Let alone stay with them,

Right?

Stay with the truth of the moment.

And also with the truth of how our own challenges aren't separate from everybody else's,

Right?

Without courage,

We can't do that.

We can't stay with the truth of how everything we say and do matters,

Even in great moments of pain,

Right?

How we all are breathing the same air.

And when we can't see or we can't stay,

Then compassion fails to spring into being,

To use one of our favorite legal terms.

It fails to spring into being or it emerges,

But then it kind of withers.

So,

But with courage,

We can see and we can stay.

And then it's natural to connect and compassion arises and grows strong.

So,

Jack Kornfield says it this way,

He says,

As children,

And I would say maybe in the law too,

Many of us were taught courage in the form of the warrior or the explorer,

Bravely facing danger.

In mindfulness,

Great courage is not demonstrated by aggression or ambition.

Aggression and ambition are more often expressions of fear and delusion.

The courageous heart is the one that is unafraid to open to the world,

To care no matter what.

The great news is we do learn courage in law school or we should.

Bobby Kennedy,

Bobby Kennedy,

The dad,

Said in 1962 at the University,

At the University of San Francisco School of Law,

Shout out to Johanna,

Our dean is here,

1962 at USF School of Law,

Courage is the most important attribute of a lawyer.

It is more important than competence or vision.

It can never be an elective in any law school.

It can never be delimited,

Dated,

Or outworn,

And it should pervade the heart,

The halls of justice,

And the chambers of the mind.

Okay,

And then grace,

Right?

For me,

Grace is the loving companion of courage.

You know,

If we need courage to open to the world and to care,

If courage must pervade the heart and the halls of justice and the chambers of the mind,

Then we also need grace to remember our own humanity and that all things that arise also pass away.

To remember that our own exhaustion and fear and worry will subside one day,

As will the current violence in the world,

Even if we're not here to see it.

To remember that whatever we are here to see,

Tikkun olam,

Our job,

Our reason for being here is to heal the world in whatever way we can,

Every day.

And to see that it's not just the practice,

It's the whole point,

Right?

To bring loving awareness to each moment,

No matter what presents itself,

To care about everyone,

Not just those who think or live the same way we do,

And to let go,

You know,

Moment after moment after moment of everything that gets in the way of love.

So on grace,

Annie Lamott says it best.

She says,

I do not at all understand the mystery of grace,

Only that it meets us where we are,

But does not leave us where it found us.

So let's,

Let's see.

So finding your most loving and courageous and graceful pasture for this moment.

And settling in,

Just feeling your connection to the earth,

Whatever best way you can,

Whether it's the feet on the floor or the sit bones in the chair,

Connected to the floor,

Connected to the earth,

Or the hull of the boat connected to the water of the earth.

And then who are the beings,

The humans,

The other beings that are nearby,

That are in your immediate environment?

Can you connect with them?

And can you,

Can you connect with,

Can you open your heart and connect with an even broader circle?

All the humans and other beings in the community where you live in the city or state or province or country?

Continent?

Hemisphere?

A world?

And can you let the love that's in your heart just radiate out just gently,

Not as a kind of a sending,

But more as a kind of a,

An offering.

And also as a receiving.

Sending and receiving love.

No content,

No effort,

Just a willingness to be part of this fractured and beautiful world.

I do not at all understand the mystery of grace.

Only that it meets us where we are,

But does not leave us where it found us.

Thank you everybody for being here.

Good to see you all.

Lots of love to everybody.