Hey,
Everybody.
It's Judy.
This is Wake Up Call 539.
This is the last Scandinavian wake up call for now.
Although I will say I'm going to miss this part of the world.
Plus,
It's been super fun hanging out with our,
What we call our Madrid kids,
Our kids who moved to Madrid.
So they came here.
So we're still exploring the Dhammapada.
We will be for a bit because we're on Chapter 8 and there are 26 chapters.
So chapter eight is called The Thousands,
And it begins with these lines.
This is the Thomas Byram Ram Dass translation.
Better than a thousand hollow words is one word that brings peace.
Better than a thousand hollow verses is one verse that brings peace.
And it kind of goes on like that.
And then it says,
It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles.
All right,
So it's written for the lawyers.
So Mira Alfassa,
The mother,
Sri Ma,
The French-Indian collaborator of Sri Aurobindo,
Whose commentary I've been sharing.
She starts her commentary on this chapter with,
All kinds of different things are gathered here,
But the central trend is that it is preferable to have one moment of sincerity rather than a long life of apparent devotion,
And that a psychological and spiritual victory over oneself is more important than all external victories.
So started thinking about what would one sincere moment look like and Merriam-Webster defines sincerity as honesty of mind and freedom from hypocrisy.
And of course,
You know,
There's only one person who knows whether we're being honest and not hypocritical,
And that's us.
Other people might sense dishonesty,
They might sense hypocrisy,
But we know.
So there's an invitation in this chapter,
I think,
To develop our practice so that we know when we're being honest and free from hypocrisy.
And when we're fooling ourselves.
So that we can have or we can create those singular moments of sincerity.
And I guess another way of thinking about this is talking about how much I practice or how earnestly I'm studying or what I know on a philosophical level.
Without dedicated formal practice and then without putting practice into action in portable ways in our lives,
That's offering a thousand hollow words or a thousand hollow verses,
But not simple words of peace.
And again,
Without practice,
I may not even know I'm doing that,
Right?
I may not even be aware that I'm being dishonest or that I'm being hypocritical.
And I mean,
I feel some sorrow knowing that lack of awareness happens.
I'm not happy about it,
But I am happy that my practice and not the philosophy I understand or think I understand.
But my practice on the cushion and my kind of boots on the ground with mindfulness,
That's what helped.
Those are what helped me to catch those moments every so often.
Right.
So that's the part I'm happy about.
And when I do.
To not turn away and also to not criticize myself and instead to just to make amends.
The verses say,
Essentially,
Our lack of sincerity,
Our thousand hollow words and verses,
Our hundred hollow lines,
Those aren't going to get us anywhere.
And by implication,
I take this to mean it won't help anybody else either,
Won't help the world.
But one word,
One verse,
One line that brings peace.
So it's that moment when our practice is alive and we see and hear clearly,
And we know what's wise,
And we know what's kind,
And if what we're saying or doing is neither,
We know to shift to something that is.
Right,
That That moment,
That one word,
That one verse is worth everything.
So this first piece of chapter eight,
It's not about philosophizing.
Or even talking much about our practice,
But just practicing.
And honestly knowing our own hearts and minds and seeing clearly and not turning away when they're not pointing towards kindness and wisdom,
Remembering we're only human,
So this is going to happen,
Not judging ourselves.
But then turning the wheel and intentionally pointing and repointing our hearts and minds towards kindness and wisdom.
Which in turn opens up for us,
Because of our practice,
These more and more subtle tools as well.
So the tool of Vedana,
For example,
That spidey sense that offers so many insights,
Including knowing when we've said or done something that's not landing well.
And along with Vedana,
Hiri,
And Uttapa,
My very favorites,
You know,
The uh-oh that tells us we're about to say or do something.
Uh oh,
Unwise,
Unkind,
And the oh no.
That tells us after we already did it and we didn't stop ourselves.
All right,
Those are my favorite.
Alright,
So all of this is a lot of words.
To talk about what the Dhammapada says so succinctly,
Which is that the invitation is to let go of all of this and simply offer the one word that brings peace.
Um.
.
.
And I think that,
You know,
Another element of this and I mean,
It's nothing I'm thinking of.
It's implicit in what the Dhammapada is saying is compassion.
Because if either by habit or by circumstance,
I don't care whether or not.
I can offer one word that brings peace,
Then I might be offering words that bring war.
Right?
And you know,
You all know my favorite Pema Chodron inquiry,
Am I going to practice peace or am I going to war?
And in some ways,
This feels like the heart or a heart of this chapter's inquiry.
Yes,
As lawyers,
But also just mostly as humans,
Right?
That we need to know whether our words and actions will lead to peace or to war.
And then to choose,
You know,
Honestly,
Sincerely.
Which might mean our words,
We choose to have our words lead to immediate peace.
Or it might not.
It might mean that our words can't lead to peace immediately because there's a war to be fought.
Right,
For justice,
For humanity,
For somebody we represent,
Somebody we care about,
Somebody we love,
For ourself.
But I guess what I'd say is that in that case,
I think what I'm reading here is that we at least want to know that sometime in the distant future,
Our words and our actions will ultimately change.
Lead to peace,
You know,
That we have this aspiration,
Even if They cannot do that right now.
Right now,
They have to be engaged in a just war,
In an important war.
And all of this points to the second theme of the chapter,
Which is that it's better to conquer ourselves than to win a thousand battles against others,
Which to me means,
Again,
It's not important to talk about our practice or get into philosophical conversations about it or you know,
Prove how wise we are,
That we know more,
That we know better.
But just simply be there for one another.
You know,
To be kind whenever possible,
Which His Holiness says is always possible.
And to put kindness into action,
To sit beside and support and advocate for and lend our privilege to And this might all come together as one word of peace to those who legitimately need us.
And then with people who ask us to work in service of hatred or greed.
To also offer kindness and wisdom,
And if it just doesn't penetrate,
Then no hatred,
No scorn,
But also just say no.
And then later verses in chapter eight talk about devotion.
Better than a hundred years of worship,
Better than a thousand offerings is one moment's reverence for the person who has conquered themself.
And this points to our role models,
You know.
The truly compassionate,
The bodhisattvas,
Who do the unending work of offering wisdom and compassion all the time,
Even when there's nothing to be done except sit down beside somebody and love them and maybe let them weep.
It also points to the fact that sometimes those bodhisattvas are us.
And so we can also have some reverence for ourselves and the distance we've come and the obstacles and hindrances we've overcome to be able to offer a word of wisdom or a gesture of kindness,
Even though we know that the distance we still have to travel is far.
Okay,
So let's sit.
Self-finding.
Finding your posture and Letting all the words go.
Bringing the attention to the body,
Whatever posture you find yourself in.
Bringing the attention to the breath.
And stabilizing.
The attention stabilizing the mind,
The heart,
Just taking a few moments.
To do that.
And then bringing to mind,
Calling to mind,
One word or it doesn't have to be one word but it could be a short phrase or A verse.
But something that you have to say or to offer.
That points towards peace.
And maybe repeating this word or this phrase.
Disperse.
Letting it.
Repeat in your own heart.
Or it may be that it's more of an attitude.
The sense of having an open heart.
Or having an open mind or a don't-know mind.
Maybe that's your one word of peace.
And just sitting with that one word or phrase or verse or attitude.
And with some reverence.
For yourself,
For the work,
The practice that has brought you to this.
To this knowing of how to bring peace into a moment.
So some reverence and also some gladness.
Yeah.
Having gladness for your practice.
And for the peace that arises from your practice.
And maybe one last embrace of.
All the good practice.
That you do.
And then just let go of it all and send it out into.
The room that you're in,
The community that you're in.
Out into our world.
Thank you everyone.
Thank you so much for coming to the wake up call.
I will see you from back in California next Thursday.
Take care,
Everybody.
Love you all.
