The Path To Waking Up

Each of the eight steps of the mindfulness path - the path to waking up - feels important. But the first, which emphasizes that everything we say and do matters, feels like the most important to remember. When I do, I’m kinder on call-center calls, more compassionate to people who upset me, curious about political views that seem diametrically opposed to mine and the neighbors who hold them.

Everything we say and do matters…for one obvious reason, to me anyway: we belong to each another. All eight billion of us share this small planet we call home. So, we have a binary choice. We can save our kindness for those we feel “deserve” it, or care about everyone and the earth. One choice got us into the pickle we’re in. The other might just get us out.

Transcript

Hey everyone,

It's Judy Cohen and this is Wake Up Call 452.

So we've been looking at the first,

Second,

And third of the Four Noble Truths,

Which are the seminal teaching of mindfulness.

The first,

The truth that being human includes hard times,

Includes rough patches.

The second,

That the hard patches turn into suffering when we refuse to accept that there is difficulty in life,

That there are hard patches and instead want things to be different,

Want the hardships not to happen.

The third,

We can suffer less or not at all by learning to let go and be with whatever arises,

Hardships and all.

The fourth noble truth,

Which is where we are today,

Is the Eightfold Path.

So it's the fourth of the four,

But it's the path as well.

It's the eight steps to the end of suffering,

To waking up.

And the eight steps are laid out,

I would say linearly,

But they're not sequential.

So if we're on the path,

We're always cultivating all of them.

But still,

I think it's helpful to to categorize them and then go through them step by step.

So first I'll do the categorizing and then talk about what's often named as the first step on the path.

So the eight steps are wise view,

Wise intention,

Wise communication,

Wise action,

Wise livelihood,

Wise effort,

Wise mindfulness,

And wise concentration.

And sometimes they're called right view,

Right intention,

And so on.

But I just think about us as lawyers and how we live in such a right-wrong world.

So I get wary of using that word.

And in the language of mindfulness,

The opposite of right is not wrong anyway,

But unskillful.

So I don't think it's helpful for me to understand the eight steps as right versus wrong.

And I like to use wise and then compare that to unskillful.

The steps,

These eight steps,

They're classically grouped into buckets.

And wise view and wise intention are in the wisdom bucket.

They're the two steps where we look up at the world and see how things work.

So maybe you could say these are the big picture steps.

Wise communication,

Which is actually classically called wise speech,

But since we do so much more than talk in the 21st century,

I like wise communication.

So wise communication,

Wise action,

Wise livelihood,

These comprise the ethics bucket.

And they're the way that we cultivate an ethical life.

Wise effort,

Wise mindfulness,

And wise concentration go into the cultivation bucket.

In Pali,

The ancient language of mindfulness,

The word is samadhi,

Which refers to a state of mind of calm and clarity.

So these three steps,

Wise effort,

Wise mindfulness,

And wise concentration are the steps where we're cultivating a calm,

Steady mind.

As mindfulness made its way from Asia to the West,

I've talked about this a bit on The Wake Up,

Called the samadhi bucket of wise effort,

Wise mindfulness,

And wise concentration was emphasized.

And I'm not sure if anyone knows exactly why.

Maybe because a calm,

Steady mind is what enables us to cultivate the other steps on the path.

Maybe because the West already had its own ethical framework.

And but I don't know,

There's there's crossover.

The first precept of mindfulness,

Though,

Don't cause harm to living beings or the earth isn't really part of the Western canon,

As it's been lived over the last few thousand years,

As far as I can see it.

So I don't know.

Maybe because the great teachers didn't think it would be effective to offer the ethical elements of mindfulness to the West before the Western mind was settled and calm.

And maybe that's saying the same thing as a calm,

Steady mind enables us to cultivate.

Or maybe because the ethical elements emerge on their own from the meditative practices and the wisdom elements also.

So the teachers felt less of a need to be explicit.

I kind of wonder about that last one,

Considering that's my experience,

That the other elements arise from the Samadhi practice,

The calmer and more settled this mind is,

The more easily I can I can see and I can live into the ethical aspirations,

The wisdom aspirations.

So we'll go over all of this over the next several weeks,

Along with all the steps.

And today,

I'll just say a little about the first step,

Which is wise view.

And wise view is comprised of,

Classically comprised of two elements.

And the first is an understanding of the Four Noble Truths,

Which is what we've been looking at.

So that this being human includes suffering,

That the cause of suffering is wanting things to be other than they are,

That there's an end to suffering,

Which is letting go of wanting things to be other than they are and learning to be with whatever arises with kindness,

With compassion,

With equanimity for ourselves,

And for everyone.

And that there is a path to the end of suffering,

Or to awakening,

You could say,

Which is this Eightfold Path.

So you can see that as with all of mindfulness,

The teachings loop back on themselves.

The first step on the Eightfold Path,

Wise view,

References the foundational teaching of the Four Noble Truths.

Okay,

So and the Four Noble Truths,

Again,

Are the first element of wise view.

The second element of wise view,

Super interesting,

It's an understanding of and kind of a decision to live in accordance with the laws of cause and effect,

Or karma.

And just to say like the ancient teachings of mindfulness contain like a warning,

Like a user warning,

That it's not possible to have a complete understanding of the way karma governs us lifetime through lifetime,

If you believe that sort of thing.

Actually,

In one place in the teachings,

It says that,

You know,

You have the potential to kind of lose your mind if you try to actually understand karma lifetime across lifetime,

That only,

Only a Buddha can understand that.

So I don't know if that's true,

But I know that I can't.

So but I'm,

I'm not even close to there.

So yeah,

I don't know if that's true.

But it's interesting,

Isn't it?

It's interesting that this bigger picture of karma is not comprehensible to the ordinary mind.

That said,

If they all the teachings also say it's definitely possible to see karma on its direct level,

In how basically in how everything we say and do matters.

So one way that I find useful to contemplate,

Contemplate karma is to think about successive lifetimes as more happening in the moments that arise and pass away right now.

So the way that if in one moment,

I'm impatient with a colleague or a friend or a family member,

Their response in the next moment,

Right,

So this death of one moment and birth of the next,

Death of a lifetime,

Birth of a lifetime,

The way that their response in the next moment might be defensive or aggressive,

And underneath that they might feel hurt and not understand why I've said or done what I have,

Treated them with something less than kindness,

Right?

Or even on a long-term level,

But still,

You know,

In this lifetime,

If I'm anything less than compassionate towards someone,

I'm sowing into the relationship these seeds of discord,

These seeds of discontent,

Right?

And in my experience,

I'm able to do the opposite,

To be kind and compassionate in a kind of a global way,

When I tune in to others and their needs and their happiness,

And have faith that when I'm unconditionally and also indiscriminately kind and compassionate,

You know,

The Dalai Lama says,

Be kind whenever possible,

It's always possible,

Right?

So it's partly when I tune in to others,

That's really important for me,

And it's also when I have faith that when I do that and am unconditionally and indiscriminately kind and compassionate,

There will be ease.

I will have ease.

There will be ease in this body and mind,

And the seeds of peace in the relationship will be sown.

And when I do that mindfully,

Because I have to do it mindfully,

I have to pay attention to the way those mirror neurons are always flashing,

The way that we're keying off of one another every moment of every day,

The way,

Again,

Everything we say and do matters.

So one way to say this succinctly is that the invitation is to be empty of self-concern,

Mindful,

And ceaselessly consciously responsive,

Or to remember that our actions are our only true belongings,

And to recollect,

To be mindful of the fact that all of the path,

All of exists inside the framework of the fact,

Whether we take heed of it or not,

That we belong to one another and and to the earth.

So let's,

Let's sit.

Finding your seat,

The posture for you right now,

Today,

In this moment that is most supportive of your practice,

Most supportive of taking the next ten minutes or nine minutes to be silent,

To look inwards,

To collect and calm the mind and body and heart,

Bringing the attention to the body and how it feels to be sitting here,

Or if you're standing,

Or lying down,

Or walking,

Or driving,

How does it feel to be in this body called,

Called you,

And to be breathing,

Just sensing into the breath as it's flowing in and out of the body,

Sensing into and attending to the breath,

Bringing the attention,

The awareness to the breath,

And then once there is some stability,

Some calmness maybe,

Then sensing into the other beings in your environment,

The human beings and the other beings as well,

Those in your home,

If you're at home,

Or your office,

If you're at work,

Or the other drivers,

If you're driving on the road,

The other human and other beings in your town or city,

In your country,

Your hemisphere,

And all of the beings on this beautiful blue planet,

And just connecting to all beings and noticing how that feels,

Does it feel like we belong to one another,

Feels like that to me,

How does it feel for you,

And what,

What practices might support you in,

In connecting in that way and seeing that we do belong to one another,

Does the heart want to open just a little bit more,

Do the hands want to unclench a little bit,

The hands or the jaw,

At Upayasin center they chant every evening,

Let me respectfully remind you,

Life and death are of supreme importance,

Time passes swiftly and opportunity is lost,

Let us awaken,

Awaken,

Take heed,

Do not squander your life.

Thanks everyone for being on the Wake Up Call.

Take care,

Have a,

Have a good Thursday,

Be safe out there,

I'll see you next week.