New York State Of Mind

Podcasting from New York City, where there are countless humans, bumping into one another, day in & day out, creating their own realities. I wonder if any of it is real. To me, it looks like countless worlds colliding into being, then dissolving, right before my eyes. It looks like the three characteristics of mindfulness, alive and well on the streets of New York: an object lesson in impermanence, stress, and emptiness. Sound interesting? If so, please listen.

Transcript

Hi everyone,

It's Judy Cohen and this is Wake Up Call 320 on October 7th.

I'm still in New York,

Ancient home of the Lenape people.

And I've been studying this island of Manhattan.

So I'm going to diverge from the Dhammapada again today to talk about it.

And I'm going to borrow Billy Joel's phrase and call this talk New York State of Mind.

So I'm not sure what Billy Joel meant.

It looks like maybe he meant being in the buzz of the city,

Something like that,

Which I can sort of understand that even though I'm certainly no native to New York.

But there's not just one buzz,

There's tons of different buzzes here.

There's different worlds happening on this island.

And in the larger city,

There are worlds of food and art and politics and theater and shopping and biking and gardening and gardens and mindfulness.

So yeah,

A million others.

But also there are all of the humans alone and in pairs and in groups interacting with one another,

Each in their own worlds.

And not just in,

But creating their worlds.

So one human walks up to another and it's like striking a match.

I've just been seeing a conversation sparks and not just a conversation,

But a whole world springs into existence and the humans slip into that world.

And then when they part,

That world fades away.

So it's been really interesting to watch.

I watched a young woman with a baby and a Snuggly come out of a cafe and see a group of friends and a conversation sparked and happened.

And then they said their goodbyes and the woman moved on.

And when she did,

Her countenance changed.

Maybe she was thinking about being a mom or being a partner or being a lawyer.

Maybe she's a lawyer planning,

Regretting,

Somehow identifying with the world she had just created,

Co-created or the world she was in as she walked away.

Or maybe she was feeling her feet hit the pavement,

You know,

The warmth of the baby against her chest.

And then I walked by two men yelling on a corner and one was trying to calm the other one down and I couldn't hear what they were saying,

But it felt volatile.

And then one man walked off shaking his head and the other began wiping tables with a towel.

Maybe they were both identified with being right still inside the world.

They'd co-created by their argument,

Even as it dissolved.

Or maybe the table wiper was thinking about being a cafe owner or the walker was thinking about being a wholesaler or a server.

I don't know.

Or maybe one was feeling the damp cloth in his hands and the other,

The hard surface of the sidewalk beneath his shoes.

Who knows?

All I could see was that in both cases,

There was this collision of humans on purpose or by chance,

And then a world sprang into being and then the humans separated and the world dissolved.

And this is happening billions of times a day,

All 7.

7 billion humans on this small planet colliding with each other day in and day out and into the night,

Creating worlds that exist then dissolve.

And this is something that I've known,

I've read about it,

I've studied it,

I've had some experience of it.

But in New York,

I don't know why,

But I've been witnessing and experiencing it over and over,

Colliding a world getting created,

Separating a world falling apart.

And so that's what I mean by a New York state of mind.

So it's been kind of an object lesson for me in the three characteristics of life,

Impermanence,

Stress and emptiness.

And Ruth King names these differently and I really love her name.

She says,

Our lives are not permanent,

Not perfect and not personal.

So impermanence is the simplest piece for me to see in all of this world after world coming into being and dissolving moment after moment,

Each world only lasting as long as the convergence.

In other words,

As long as the conditions that support it.

And you can check this out for yourself.

Like you don't have to be in New York.

Does a world come into being when you read an email,

When you text with someone,

When you enter a Zoom room,

When you're having dinner with someone?

And does it dissolve when you've replied or ended the text stream or close the Zoom window or finished dinner?

You know,

In one way of understanding it,

Impermanence is nothing more complicated than this.

In another way,

It has bigger implications.

Right.

So each matter,

Each case,

Each class will one day end.

Our work will one day be over.

My husband just retired and is done practicing medicine,

At least for now.

And it's big,

By the way,

In case you're headed there anytime soon.

Relationships end because one day one person or the other will either turn away or die and we will all die.

So I like to understand impermanence on its own,

But also as a characteristic that kind of flows into the second characteristic of stress or suffering or the poly word is dukkha.

So impermanence creates stress if we try to deny the existence of it,

Of impermanence is the it.

So moment by moment,

I catch myself wanting something back that's already gone or wanting something that's working to never end.

Or wanting some likable aspect of myself to not change or to get better or some aspect of myself that I'm not fond of to disappear.

And that wanting that causes stress.

So maybe you can see that in operation for yourself in your own life.

And then for me,

The biggest cause of stress and suffering is getting identified with all of this coming and going,

And it happens for me all the time.

So I got identified as someone who had a sense of the best West Village sushi after zillions of hours of research and getting all these great recommendations from friends.

I got identified as someone into the art scene.

I was,

Quote unquote,

Fit when we rode our bikes around Central Park.

Never mind how sore I was the next day.

I was smart,

Discussing politics over breakfast,

Caring,

Visiting my ex mother in law,

Openhearted and not racist,

Looking up and going to black owned businesses.

I was a mindfulness teacher in a program on Tuesday,

And now I'm what the leader of the wake up call.

Right.

So but really,

It's all an illusion.

In truth,

I am none of those things.

Those are just worlds taking shape and dissolving.

There's not a Judy Cohen.

There aren't even any versions that are solid that I can hold on to or point to.

There's just taking shape and dissolving.

It's just empty,

It's alive,

It's joyful,

It's sorrowful,

It's confusing,

It's full of love,

It's full of everything.

But it's also completely empty.

Nothing is actually sticking as long as I don't grab hold.

Now,

When I forget that,

Which is all the time and attached to a version or a world,

It's painful because impermanence,

It's going to dissolve.

Or it's painful because someone will challenge me or because I know when I sit down and take a breath that I don't actually know anything about West Village sushi.

Right.

So when I remember that this human called me is just taking shape and dissolving,

It's incredibly freeing.

And that's what Ruth King means when she says not personal.

None of the worlds arising and dissolving are personal.

Nothing is personal.

Everything is in motion.

If I forget that,

If any of us forgets that,

It can be really painful.

And if we remember and we remember to just let go,

It can be really freeing.

So let's sit.

Finding your posture,

Whatever is most supportive of you.

Of your practice.

Feeling your body sitting in the chair or standing or lying down or walking.

Taking a moment to to feel into the tenderness of impermanence.

That here we all are together,

But just for a few minutes.

And here we are all alive.

But just for a little while.

The things we do.

The worlds we create.

The ways we think about ourselves.

All arising and dissolving.

Coming and going.

Maybe you can see it,

Feel it.

Just like the sounds.

Maybe you can hear the sounds in the background,

The city sounds are coming through the window.

Arising and then fading away.

Or like each breath.

Arising and fading away.

Very nice.

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Can we just be in this flow?

Not grasping onto anything,

Not running with any of the stories.

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