Hey,
Everybody,
It's Judy Cohen,
And this is a Wake Up Call 525.
How's my sound?
Okay.
All right.
Thank you.
So we're looking at the Dhammapada,
Which is the poetry of mindfulness.
And we're in the first chapter,
Which is called Dichotomies,
Or it's called Pairs,
Or in Thomas Byram's translation,
It's called Choices,
Because the verses are mostly offered in couplets with the first verse of the couplet stating the unskillful option,
And then the second or following couplets offering the skillful option.
So the first couplet in the Dhammapada is,
We are what we think.
All that we are arises with our thoughts.
With our thoughts,
We make the world.
And it goes on.
The next couplet offers what feels like an example of this.
So Gil Fronsdale's version is,
Pardon me one second.
Gil Fronsdale's version is,
It goes like this,
And this is in quotes,
They abused me,
Attacked me,
Defeated me,
Robbed me.
For someone hostile like this,
Hatred does not end.
And then it repeats,
As many of the mindfulness verses do,
And it says,
They abused me,
Attacked me,
Defeated me,
Robbed me.
For someone not hostile like this,
Hatred ends.
Hatred never ends through hatred,
But by non-hate alone does it end.
This is an ancient truth.
And this is something that Gandhi said,
That Dr.
King said,
And that has just been repeated throughout the ages.
Thomas Byram's version is just a little bit more colloquial,
And I like it a lot.
He says,
This is the quote,
Look how they abused me and beat me,
How they threw me down and robbed me.
Live with such thoughts and you live in hate.
And then he repeats it,
Look how they abused me and beat me,
How they threw me down and robbed me.
Abandon such thoughts and live in love.
So the world,
Yeah,
The world is so much about this,
Right?
But I really love this for lawyers,
For the law,
Because the law is so much about this.
You know,
I mean,
People walk into our office and this is exactly what they say.
They abused me.
Look how they threw me down and robbed me.
And they're angry and they want justice or they want revenge.
And the view is,
I'm injured,
Someone should pay.
And there's so often very little pause between the moment of something terrible and the filing of the complaint.
And that's what we call it,
Right?
This happened just so tragically with terrible avalanche in Tahoe,
Right?
I heard from family who lived up there that,
You know,
This is the way they put it.
The day after the avalanche,
The lawyers were already circling,
You know,
They hadn't even recovered the people.
So and for some of our brethren,
Our siblings in the law,
You know,
This way of being,
Look how they abused me and beat me,
Look how they threw me down and robbed me,
Is music to their ears because it's a new case,
It's a new matter,
It's billable hours or,
You know,
It's a chance to make a name or avenge.
And yeah,
It's a playing out on the national,
Even the international level.
Now,
This is our administration in the U.
S.
Right now.
This is how somebody gets to good,
I'm glad he's dead.
When a public servant like Robert Mueller dies,
You know,
Look how he abused me and beat me,
How he threw me down and robbed me.
So,
I mean,
This is ancient wisdom right here,
Right here in front of us.
And the Dhammapada is very clear,
Live with such thoughts and we live in hate.
And we do,
We live in an adversary world where aversion and antagonism and war rule,
You know,
Where hatred is sanctioned across the airwaves and the interwebs and in so many cases,
The lunch counter and the dinner table.
And then,
You know,
Not to put too fine a point on it,
It's really interesting to watch for it on a personal level.
So I've been watching and it's really something.
There are so many times that this mind goes to,
You know,
They did this,
He did that,
She did this.
And it's even it's something small,
But the mind can so easily default to that kind of thinking.
You know,
I don't want to think of myself as somebody who lives in hate,
But it is a kind of hatred to walk through the day blaming others for the inconveniences of life,
The traffic,
The line at the market when I'm in a hurry,
The unreturned call or email,
The food left out on the counter,
You know,
The unkind words.
Look how they abused me and beat me,
How they threw me down and robbed me.
So I went to I went to Norman Fisher and in his book,
Training in Compassion,
Which is where he's offering his version of the 59 slogans of the Lojong.
There's one slogan that came to mind as I was reading these couplets of the Dhammapada,
Drive all blames into one.
And when I went back and read it,
Norman is saying that drive all blames into one suggests that what we should do is take the blame no matter what,
Instead of blaming others.
And there's a wonderful story in there about the head cook eating the snake,
The head of the snake.
And I'll tell it some other time,
But what what it really means,
Right,
It is not that we should take the blame no matter what,
Instead of blaming others in some conventional way.
Norman says,
You know,
We've been doing that all of our lives,
Constantly feeling guilty.
And if we're not feeling guilty,
We are shamed.
And he says,
What drive all blames into one really means is that,
Yes,
Things are going to happen and we'll have the temptation to say they abused me,
Attacked me,
Defeated me,
Robbed me,
But don't.
It may be their fault,
Norman says,
But you really can't blame them,
Because everything that happens,
Disastrous as it may be,
And no matter whose fault it is,
Has a potential benefit,
No matter how bad it may seem at first.
And it's your job to find out how to turn it into a benefit.
You know,
I love Norman for the way that he just like cuts right to the chase.
So he continues,
He says,
You take the full appreciation and full responsibility for everything that arises in your life,
No matter whose fault it is.
And he puts this in italics,
This is very bad.
This is not what I wanted.
This brings many attendant problems.
But what are you going to do with it?
What can you learn from it?
How can you make use of it for the path?
So,
You know,
Not saying,
Look how they abused me and beat me,
How they threw me down and robbed me,
You know,
Not letting unskillful thoughts stick around when they've arisen,
But abandoning them.
And this is a main tenet of mindfulness,
Isn't it?
And when skillful thoughts like,
How can I make use of this,
What can I learn here arise,
Encouraging them and sustaining them.
That's what that's what we're all about.
That's what we're learning.
That's our our whole lives as practitioners.
Right.
So somebody cuts us off or is rude or in my case,
A student is consistently late or a client is nasty or ungrateful or a partner does or doesn't do something.
And when we can abandon that,
Look how they abused me,
Thought and call of friendliness and compassion and kindness.
You know,
What happens is love.
And it doesn't mean we're not passionate about our work,
It doesn't mean that we're not passionate about justice,
About the rule of law,
About serving others or that we're not passionate about taking care of ourselves and the people we love and our country.
You know,
We still are.
It's just a question of coming from hate versus coming from love,
Right?
Coming from look how they abused me and beat me or coming from how much we care,
You know,
Letting go of hate and being a loving presence,
Bringing friendliness into each moment,
No matter what.
Hatred never ends through hatred by non hate alone,
Does it end?
This is an ancient truth.
So you can try it out because the Dhammapada says it's true,
So maybe it is,
Right?
So try paying attention at this really granular personal level when the thought arises,
Look how they abused me or look how they abused them,
Right?
And when you can,
Just let that thought go,
But don't let go of how much you care and let care be what's left and then follow Norman's advice and see how you can make use of it on the path.
OK,
So let's sit.
And this seems like a good time to do a meditation on just watching thoughts arise and pass away.
You know,
Mindfulness of mind,
Let's look at let's look at our beautiful minds.
So take a posture that is going to support you for the next nine minutes.
And settle in and take a few breaths.
Feel the body sitting or standing or lying down.
Connect with the earth.
Who never says,
Look how they abused me and beat me,
And she sure could.
And then bring the attention to the breath.
And just begin to follow each breath.
And then when there's a.
And there's a little stability,
A little concentration,
Just begin to.
Observe the mind.
Observe thoughts arising and passing away.
And doing that with a lot of love,
Doing that with a lot of.
Grace.
And even looking at the tone in the mind is the mind.
Loving.
In a loving place or not loving because it could be a loving place.
That the thoughts that arise.
Are loving or not loving,
And it could be that the container in which they arise.
Is loving or not loving.
And.
Shift into love whenever.
The the opportunity presents itself whenever there's a moment of choice.
And.
Remember that.
This practice.
Is is really the practice of love and you're already.
Cultivating that tone of mind,
Tone of heart.
This is something really beautiful.
That we're all doing just right now.
Hatred never ceases by hatred.
But by love alone is healed.
This is an ancient truth.
