The Three Elements Of Peace

Not much can change on the global scale,
or even in my community (or even in my house), 
if I’m not thoughtful and intentional about my own personal behavior.
I know that. You probably know that, too. 
But I’d also say, not much can change if I’m not 
thoughtful and intentional in a specific way:
by being a little (or a lot) more generous;
 by committing, and making sure, that nothing I say or do will cause harm;
 and by taking the time, no matter how busy I am,
 and no matter how much the world throws at me,
 to train my heart and mind to be still.

Transcript

Hi,

Everybody.

How's the sound?

Okay.

All right.

Great.

Hi.

Welcome.

This is Judy Cohen,

And it's Wake Up Call 490,

And happy well-being in law week.

So if you've been on the Wake Up Call,

You probably heard me mention Adrienne Marie Brown's words,

The activist Adrienne Marie Brown's words,

What we practice at the small scale sets the patterns for the whole system.

And that's the sentence that helps me to sort of move my thinking from mindfulness as being only about personal well-being,

But to being about personal well-being for sure,

And also about how can we think about mindfulness as being a positive influence on the world,

And especially right now,

Right?

Because right now I know I need my own personal well-being,

And I also feel like it's crucial,

You know,

To the best of my ability to be a positive influence wherever I am as well as I can.

And I'd also say that in this moment the temptation is there to be otherwise,

Right,

In the world,

So easy to feel polarized.

In our profession where sometimes it feels like we're all adversaries,

You know,

That feels tempting to me,

Or I default to a kind of battle-hardened approach,

Or to debate if I soften it,

Or to criticism if I soften it a little bit more.

And it's internal as well,

Right,

In my self-talk,

You know,

Pointing out to myself what I'm doing well,

But also often what I'm not doing well.

Lost count of the number of student journals this year where they were able to move from,

I need to be very critical of myself,

I didn't get here by not doing that,

To,

Wait,

Maybe there's another way.

So I'm in a time of busyness right now because I'm about to start traveling for several weeks,

And if you saw the note I'll be in and out of the wake-up call,

The note sort of explains it.

I'll be spent sending emails letting you know when we'll be meeting and when not.

I hope it's not confusing or disruptive.

And what I notice about being so busy,

For me,

Is that in a time when I'm super busy,

It's really important for me to keep the guardrails on,

Right.

So it's important for me to remember my intentions and the qualities of heart and mind that I'm wanting to cultivate,

Practice,

Embody.

Because when I don't do that,

It's really easy to slip into old habits and patterns that,

You know,

May or may not support my own well-being or be positive for anyone else.

And yes,

The good news is that some of those positive qualities have become habits,

And that's really wonderful when they show up.

I'm sure that's really wonderful for you too.

You know,

When you see a positive quality of mind,

A wholesome quality of mind show up automatically,

And you can credit,

Well,

You might credit good parenting or you might credit your practice or anything in between.

That's really wonderful.

But that's not always the case,

At least for me.

So I feel like at a time of busyness,

I need a lot of vigilance too.

So there's been this trio of qualities or practices,

Or maybe trainings is the right word.

That feel supportive right now,

Maybe essential right now.

And it's a trio of generosity and ethics and concentration.

In Pali,

The words are dana,

Sila,

And bhavana.

And one of the great teachers of this era,

Sayadaw Upandita,

Taught about these three trainings as essential and as leading to peace.

And for me,

That feels urgently necessary right now.

Peace,

You know,

Not only peace in some of the most dire situations in the world,

Ukraine,

Gaza,

Sudan,

Myanmar,

Elsewhere.

And not only peace in this country,

Which,

Yeah,

It doesn't feel very peaceful to me right now.

And not only peace,

Peace in our courtrooms and conference rooms,

Which are these little hotbeds of not peace,

Right?

But also peace in our hearts.

Because again,

What Adrienne Marie Brown is essentially saying,

What we practice in our hearts at the smallest of scales sets the pattern,

Right?

I love the Chinese proverb that says that too.

If there is light in the soul,

There will be beauty in the person.

If there is beauty in the person,

There will be harmony in the house.

If there is harmony in the house,

There will be order in the nation.

If there is order in the nation,

There will be peace in the world.

So before diving into dana,

Sila,

And bhavana,

Which I want to take some time to do over the weeks or month or two,

Even maybe,

I want to invite us all to take a step back and look at our own lives and at the world,

The world just as it is today,

And see if this training,

Just by me naming it,

Seems resonant.

If these three trainings,

With just whatever colloquial definitions you have right now for generosity and ethics and concentration is another way of talking about bhavana,

Seem useful,

Urgent right now for your own well-being,

For the well-being and benefit of others,

For the world,

The planet.

And forget about the technical or mindfulness-based meanings.

We'll get to that.

Have some fun with that.

And just take a mental step back.

And with just with your current understanding of generosity and ethics and concentration,

Or you could call that third training a settled mind,

Right?

How needed,

How resonant do those qualities seem right now?

Because this is my current working hypothesis,

That loving and acting with true generosity,

Even if just some of us do that,

Could change our own internal approach,

Those of us who are doing that,

Including our self-talk,

From aggressive to loving,

And our approach to others technical adversaries,

Sure,

The person on the other side of the case,

But also paper adversaries,

You know,

The ways that,

I don't know about you,

But I have these moments of kind of assuming that somebody is against me because it's so ingrained in my training,

Right?

So change that from,

Again,

From aggressive to loving,

Or change our approach to the world from unplugged,

I do plenty of unplugging these days,

To compassionate,

And our approach to the earth,

Maybe especially our approach to the earth,

From resource to be exploited,

To sacred.

So that's the sort of overview of the DAWNA part of my working hypothesis of these three trainings,

And then the SELA,

The ethical part,

That practicing SELA,

That cultivating an ethical life is a game changer personally,

Because what it does is it gives us something called the bliss of blamelessness,

Right?

That sense of,

Okay,

I'm in alignment with what I believe,

With what is best for all beings,

Right?

And then encourages others to follow suit.

And then the third piece,

How settling our minds,

It's supported by generosity and ethics,

Right?

When I'm feeling a lot of generosity,

Expressing a lot of generosity,

When I'm really in alignment,

It's much easier for the mind to settle.

Something that can check out as we explore this together.

And it's also the foundation for both of those,

Because as we cultivate settled present moment attention,

Does that help us to understand how to open our minds and open our hearts?

And can we see where and how our open hearts and hands are most needed,

Right?

So in the Satipatthana Sutta,

Which is the teaching on the four foundations of mindfulness,

The classic teaching,

At one point the text says,

If anyone should say,

Without having built the lower story of a peaked house,

I will erect the upper story,

This would be impossible.

But if they were to say,

Having built the lower story of a peaked house,

I will then erect the upper story,

This would be possible.

Meaning,

You know,

We can't really create anything.

We can't create a more open heart,

A more connected profession,

A more connected world,

Without that first story,

Right?

Without that foundation.

And understanding mindfulness and practicing mindfulness feels like an essential element of that foundation.

We're all working on that.

We're here working on that together,

Right?

And then there's generosity and ethics and a settled mind,

Which together are either another essential element of the foundation or whole of it.

Okay,

So let's sit with that.

So yeah,

Just for settling into your seat,

Or if you're standing or walking,

Settling into the body in whatever posture you're in right now.

And connecting,

Just connecting with yourself,

Connecting with your body,

With your breath.

And just notice the attitude in the mind right now.

And if there's any clenching or striving,

Even if it's striving to pay attention,

See if you can just let that go.

And see if you can place the attention on the breath in the body,

Just the body breathing,

Or the sound in your environment,

Whichever is most supportive for you.

And place it there with so much gentleness and so much care.

You know,

Like a precious object,

2,

000 years old,

Beautiful,

Delicate.

Just place the attention.

When the mind wanders,

Replace the attention.

And see if there's generosity present,

You know,

Maybe not the generosity of,

Here,

Take what I have and giving somebody something off your plate,

But more like,

Oh,

Whatever is present is welcome.

Gently,

Lovingly coming back to the breath or to the sounds in your environment.

And whatever is happening is welcome.

And you're seeing how being here together,

Sitting quietly,

Breathing,

Listening,

That practice is in alignment with what feels right for you to be doing right now.

You're here.

And maybe even enables you to let go a little bit more of any concerns just for right now.

Just the invitation to take this sense of generosity and ethical choice and this settled mind that has hopefully arisen for you or already was there.

Take that with you out into your day.

Thanks,

Everybody.

Thanks for coming to The Wake Up Call.

It's nice to practice with you.