Un-clouding The Mind

The mind isn’t naturally cloudy. It’s naturally clear and luminous. If you’re in the habit of watching a sunset or looking into the faces of children or elders or the mirror, you probably already know: luminosity is right there, right here.

But if you look in the mirror and don’t see your own luminous mind – and heart - they’re all one system – maybe the clouds have rolled in. And in that case, maybe, just for a moment or hour or day or week, clear the sky, and protect your beautiful mind. Take a break from news media and social media. Choose a tall glass of soda water with lime, or a hot cup of tea. Watch that sun set, or watch the sun rise if you’re an early bird like me.

There’s wisdom not in turning away permanently – we have work to do!

Transcript

Hi,

It's Judy Cohen.

This is Wake Up Call 519.

Nice to see you all.

So we're exploring the Noble Eightfold Path and we're doing it at a time when the country,

The world feels like it's on pretty shaky ground.

And so I feel like these practices,

These practices of mindfulness and of walking this Noble Path can create our own internal solid ground,

Even though externally things may feel shaky.

So we're looking through the group of the eight steps on the path called Sila,

The ethical steps,

Which include wise communication,

Wise action,

And wise livelihood.

And we unpacked wise communication in some detail.

We've been doing the same with wise action.

And wise action has these five pieces,

Doing no harm,

Not taking anything that's not freely offered,

Not misusing sexuality.

And then we've looked at those,

Not communicating unskillfully.

And we looked at that when we looked at wise communication,

What is a skillful communication.

And then the last one is not using substances to cloud the mind is how it's framed.

So let's look at that last step.

And I would like to propose that another way of saying that is,

How do we protect our clear luminous minds?

And I love this step because it's multifaceted.

Originally it was oriented towards protecting the luminosity of the mind by paying attention to what we ate and drank.

And as recently as maybe a generation ago,

Still mostly about that with drugs and alcohol.

These days,

There are so many ways to cloud our luminous minds.

You know,

There are things we can eat or drink,

But there are also shows and social and news media.

And then maybe there are people and environments.

So drugs and alcohol are an easy starting place because they beg the question of whether this element of wise action enjoins us from having a glass of wine or an occasional gummy.

And what I wanna say is,

As an overall proposition,

I feel like this is an individual exploration,

Which invites us mainly to understand,

What does it mean to cloud the mind?

Do we mean a slight fuzziness or total incapacity or something in between?

You know,

A monastic.

Hold on.

Excuse me.

A monastic has an absolute commitment,

No fuzziness.

But for lay people,

The invitation is,

First,

It's about the other elements of wise action,

Right?

Are we more likely to break or to fail to follow the other elements of wise action?

And then second,

Are we clouding our luminous minds that otherwise only need to settle and pay attention to remember,

To recollect sati,

Mindfulness,

That we're all in this together,

You know?

Hopelessly,

Also hopefully interconnected.

So everything we say and do,

Including how we care for our minds matters.

Because no,

We are not gonna cause harm,

Which is the first element of wise action.

You know,

That's our commitment.

So the inquiry,

Like all of practice,

Is a loop.

Like all of mindfulness practice,

It's a loop,

You know?

And I love that about it.

So picking through the ways we can cloud the mind,

And there are lots of others,

I'm sure,

Ones that I'm naming though,

I trust,

I can trust,

That if I have one small glass of wine,

Feel relaxed,

Enjoy the company that I'm with,

Enjoy the moment,

I'm not more likely to cause harm.

As long as I don't drive,

I'm not gonna take anything that's not freely offered or be careless with my words or my sexuality.

You know,

I can trust that they won't cloud the luminosity of the mind,

One small glass.

But,

You know,

You have to figure this out for yourself.

For some people,

One small glass will cloud the mind and cause them to turn away from wise action,

Right?

So we each have to look with loving awareness,

With courage,

With grace,

And see what's true.

And then,

You know,

There's this inquiry of like,

What are you watching right now?

My partner and I were all about the spy and the intrigue.

And then at one point we noticed we were kind of sniping at one another after a show,

Because that was how the characters were speaking to one another.

So now when a show gets dicey,

I tend to turn my attention elsewhere.

And sometimes I miss the plot,

But it's okay.

You know,

I'd rather that than cloud the mind,

Snipe at my partner.

And sometimes we'll just watch something more wholesome.

Timing matters also,

Right?

So what might not dull the luminosity of the mind when there's ease and wellbeing elsewhere,

Might cloud it now.

My daughter developed this affection slash addiction for Law and Order SVU during the Obama years.

So it's a long time ago now.

These days,

She's got the British baking show on.

Social media.

Social media for me feels a bit like a lose-lose.

Oops,

There's that weird light.

Feels a bit like a lose-lose.

I mean,

I post as intelligently as I can.

I rarely look around because I get so triggered.

And when I do look around,

It's only when I feel really well-resourced.

You know,

So maybe your experience is different.

And again,

It's personal.

I do love that Australia and now France are prohibiting social media for kids and young teens.

Not super hopeful that that's gonna happen in the US.

The big thing for me these days is news media.

I was a long time NPR junkie.

But about six months ago,

I took a break.

And I still was reading three or four papers every day,

But I just could not listen.

It was really impacting my mind.

So these days,

I'm back to listening again a little.

And to balance things out,

I don't look at the paper till the middle of the day.

I figure it's gonna start to get a little bit and still be there,

The news.

I take the mornings to practice and also,

You know,

To calibrate,

To really keep the mind clear.

Because I know those news clouds will eventually roll in.

But to the extent that I can protect this mind from what sometimes feels like these howling storms,

You know,

Just until it has a chance to ease into the day,

That feels like wise action or a good idea anyway.

And I've never been a TV news person.

Oh,

There,

The sun has moved.

I've never been a TV news person.

So that's a non-issue for me,

But it might be for you.

The last thing I wanna mention is the law.

Because by design,

You know,

We live and work surrounded by conflict.

And it really can feel like a war zone where every piece of writing,

Every call,

Every meeting is either about,

Or it's tinged with a kind of flavor of winning or positioning to win,

Isn't it?

And the combativeness in the air,

You know,

Everybody's sparring,

Even in jest,

We're sparring with each other,

You know?

Because we're so smart,

And so we can,

And it's kind of funny,

And it's kind of not.

And what is this doing to our beautiful luminous minds?

Right?

And,

You know,

Just as I'm naming it,

I can kind of feel the cloudiness,

Right?

But all of us,

Right,

We're practicing law and mindfulness.

And so we're,

We have this incredible blessing,

I guess,

Of the ability to let loving awareness remind us to take good care of our minds and hearts,

And to actually do that,

You know,

To take care of our luminous minds.

And that's a way that we can survive and thrive in the law,

And also take better care of each other too,

Because what's it worth if we're also not taking care of each other and our beautiful blue planet as well?

Okay,

So let's sit.

And maybe just let the words settle,

Let go of the words completely.

Find whatever posture will support you for the next,

So I don't know,

10 minutes,

Nine and a half minutes.

Drop into the body.

Just the sense of the body sitting,

Standing,

Walking,

Whatever your posture is.

You know,

We can really listen to the body.

There's so much wisdom in the body.

Can we bring patience?

Can we bring friendliness to whatever we're noticing?

Can we bring noticing stillness or noticing restlessness?

Can we just bring a friendly attitude towards that?

Let the luminosity of the mind or the heart-mind come through,

Shine through.

And maybe the mind is quiet.

Maybe it's busy.

All is welcome.

Just shining that luminosity on whatever we discover.

Friendliness,

Patience.

The light of loving awareness.

Luminosity of the body,

Luminosity of the heart,

Luminosity of the mind,

Just letting it all shine.

Restlessness,

Fidgetiness,

Anything that's there.

Just meet it with loving awareness.

Thanks everybody for being here.

Stay safe out there.

The wake-up call is dark next week because it's the opening intensive for the 2026 Mindfulness in Law Teacher Training.

So exciting.

So see all of you in two weeks unless you're in the training,

Then see you Sunday.

Have a sweet Valentine's Day.

Give yourself a little love and I'll be sending mine.