Sacred Spaces In The Law

What is sacred about the law? I think there’s a tendency – and I’m as guilty of it as anyone – to point out the flaws in the legal system, especially in the U.S. And even to say that it’s broken, maybe irrevocably.
But what if we imagine the law as sacred? What if we recollect, maybe not in our memory but in our bones, how many generations – how many millennia – humans have been puzzling out how to govern as a sacred obligation, asking: what is just, what is fair, what is right? Not getting it "

Transcript

Hi everyone,

It's Judy Cohen and this is Wake Up Call 376.

It's the day after the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere and sacred days and times for so many cultures and faiths.

So I thought today I'd talk about sacredness and particularly about sacred space.

I've been fortunate to be able to be in a lot of sacred spaces in my life.

I grew up a block from the beach in San Francisco and when I would walk down there as a kid I'd feel part of something much bigger than myself.

The power of the freezing cold waves crashing on the shore,

The vastness of the ocean,

Something completely unknowable.

I couldn't have named it as sacred at the time,

But it was.

And I spent my adolescence hiking and skiing in the Sierras and I still walk and ski in those same forests today.

I call them Tahoe,

But really they're the ancient summer home of the Washoe Nation.

And I feel sacredness there as well,

The quiet,

The vastness.

And sometimes I even have an imagination of the people of those First Nations whose ancestors walked.

The synagogue where I grew up and which my family has attended for five generations and still attends,

It feels sacred.

There's something about walking into its sanctuaries,

Some sense of something much larger than me and yet something to which I feel connected.

And I feel that way visiting the great cathedrals of the world as well,

Something much vaster and larger than I could ever imagine,

But to which I'm also welcome to connect while I'm in there.

And places like Spirit Rock Meditation Center and Green Gulch Farm and Tassajara Zen Mountain Center and Yupaya,

Also these places that feel sacred where I feel connected.

Tassajara for a completely different reason because it's where I took my daughter every summer for 16 years,

You know,

The fun,

The laughter,

Begging at the kitchen for plain tofu in those years when she wouldn't eat anything else,

The Blue Jay who stole her sandwich.

I think sometimes sacred space exists for us simply because of its significance in our lives or the memories that it holds for us.

The law is also sacred space to me.

I feel like the law is something that holds society in place for better and worse.

It's been carved out of years and decades and centuries and millennia of trial and error,

No pun intended.

We've been asking ourselves as humans,

You know,

Can we say this?

Will this work to protect people?

Is this fair?

Is this right?

Is this just?

And of course,

Things don't work from many perspectives for communities of color and other communities impacted by the inherent injustices of the law.

But still there is a,

For me,

Kind of a sacred trust to the law,

Even if our whole career is in opposition to the laws as they're written or as they're imposed.

Like something we could propose in an argument or a document or that a judge could apply has come down in some form through the ages.

And this is also true for me for the physical spaces of the law.

Courtrooms feel sacred.

Justice isn't necessarily done,

But when it is,

When the parties are honest and civil and in good faith,

When the judge is fair,

For me,

There's little that's more sacred,

Equally sacred,

But not really more.

I even feel this way sometimes when I visit law firms for trainings.

There's something sacred and legal organizations,

Something sacred about spaces in which people who are smart and dedicated and persistent are struggling in the muck and the mud,

As the poet Marge Piercy says,

To somehow get something done well and fairly.

Now applying concepts that are sometimes completely new and sometimes as ancient as humanity.

But when I think about these physical spaces I'm naming,

I also wonder how much the spaces themselves have to do with sacredness.

Or if instead,

We bring sacredness into each moment or have the potential to do that.

So if instead of sacredness being some place out there into which we enter or that we tap into,

Sacredness is actually in turn and exists because of the ways we pay attention or attend.

In that case,

The way we attend to nature,

To our places of worship,

To the ancient places where humans have worshipped from time immemorial,

And to the law.

Even our homes,

Even the small spaces where maybe we sit and meditate each day.

Maybe these places don't have inherent sacredness so much as that our attention or maybe our faith makes them sacred.

A couple of weeks ago,

I had to be in the hospital,

I mentioned this a couple of wake-up calls ago,

And just to get some antibiotics.

And some of you know I'm offering this new Essential Mindfulness for Lawyers 2.

0 program.

And for the December dates,

They were all on Mondays.

And at first,

They wanted me to stay in the hospital until Wednesday.

So it would have been over a Monday.

And I was really debating,

Do I cancel the Monday program?

Do I see if there's a room at the hospital where they'll let me run it?

What if I get to go home?

Will I feel well enough to offer it?

Because I was not sick,

But you know how it is,

Just being stuck someplace like that for a few days.

So they did let me go home.

And it was pretty early on the Monday,

So I was home and showered and rested by the time of the 5 p.

M.

Class.

So I thought,

Why not?

And I will say this was against the advice of some of my closest friends.

But following the advice of some of the others,

There was a split.

Anyway,

I've always felt that the dharma,

The teachings of mindfulness were sacred.

They spoke to me the very first time I ever heard them,

And they've just resonated ever since.

And I know this is true for many of us,

Not all,

But many.

And so that Monday,

As I was teaching the program,

I realized all this is,

Is the creation of sacred space.

That's all it is.

Creating a space like this,

Like what we do here together,

Where we can sit together and practice and explore the teachings.

And it felt,

It felt healing.

It didn't feel like a burden.

It didn't feel at all beyond my strength or resilience,

Even though I'd been sort of medically poked and prodded for several days,

Just finishing up that morning.

And so,

You know,

That,

That takes me to kind of one final inquiry about this for now,

Which is about how much we work as lawyers and as law professors and in the law in general.

You know,

We have this huge conversation going on in the law about how it's inherently too much.

And it probably is.

It probably is.

But I guess my inquiry is,

What if the spaces where we work in the law and what if the work we do in the law is sacred?

Or what if we see it that way or relate to it that way?

And I don't mean what if we could,

I mean,

What if we actually already do?

And then in that case,

What if all that energy is not always,

At least,

A kind of overachieving,

Fear-based,

Driven kind of energy?

What if instead it's fueled by kind of love and a kind of reverence and even faith?

And my cynicism gets in the way when I say this,

But when I move it out of the way,

I feel like if I'm looking at all the sacred spaces I've named,

It seems like there's this common denominator.

There are spaces and there are moments that are filled with those three things,

With love,

With reverence,

And with faith.

And so what if the law is also filled with those for us?

So let's sit.

So finding a comfortable posture that's upright,

Let's be upright today,

But also relaxed and also inviting love into this moment.

And just attending to the breath and the present moment for now,

Whatever is here.

I guess I should say if there's love,

Attend to that.

Maybe there's not.

And then if there's not love already here,

Calling that in by just calling to mind someone,

Some being with whom you have a loving and uncomplicated relationship and just sensing into that sense of love and caring,

Maybe even noticing that just by doing this,

You can create a sacred moment for yourself,

Sacred space,

Or that this space we're sharing as we're sitting together is sacred.

And then maybe tapping into whatever sense you have of yourself in connection with the law.

Maybe you're in your office right now or in a workspace in your home that's become your office.

Maybe you've been in a courtroom lately or in negotiation in person or virtually.

And just turn towards that and see if there is sacredness in that for you,

Just as an inquiry.

And then maybe letting that go unless it feels resonant to stay with it.

You can just let it go and just come back to this present moment,

The breath,

The body,

Maybe sensing into the sacredness of this space that we're sharing together if it feels that way to you.

And just inviting you to take any sacredness that you feel,

Take it with you today.

Thanks everyone for being on the Wake Up Call today.

It's really nice to sit with you.

Take good care.

Have a safe and joyful weekend,

A sacred weekend,

If that's what's up for you.

And I'll see you next Thursday.