Hi everyone,
This is Judy Cohen in the Since Wake Up call,
372.
So let's keep looking at the fourth perfection or paramita of heart and mind,
Which is virya paramita,
The perfection of joyful effort.
Last week was about the joy part,
The kind of irrepressibility,
As Zen teacher Norman Fisher calls it,
And how to understand that,
Notice it,
Practice with it,
Cultivate it.
So I've been practicing with joyful effort,
Which is what I'm doing with the practices as I offer them here for this whole time of 371 times before this.
And with virya,
With joyful effort,
I've noticed something interesting lately.
So I tend to wake up really early,
A lot of mornings,
Sometimes earlier than I'd like,
Sometimes around 4,
4.
30 a.
M.
I'm not sure why,
Not at all sure that's even important.
When I first reported this to my teacher,
I reported it as a problem.
And he said predictably,
No problem,
Right?
And he said,
Just get up and practice or get up and write.
So I've been doing that.
And he was right.
It's really lovely.
It's really lovely to practice yoga,
To sit so early.
It's dark when I start,
And then when I open my eyes at the bell,
It's beginning to get light,
The light,
The sunrise,
The trees.
It's really beautiful.
Nevertheless,
I do feel underslept.
And so my more generalized and I'd say until recently relatively unconscious response throughout the day to waking up so early has been to be frustrated that I haven't gotten enough sleep,
And then to feel somewhat betrayed by my own body,
Which just won't sleep enough.
But I wasn't really paying attention to the fact that those were the feelings that were beneath the surface or that because those were what was there,
They were kind of permeating my mind and heart and spilling out into my day,
Which points to two things about joyful effort.
And the first is that it really requires courage.
It requires the courage to turn towards whatever there is and not flinch.
So once I saw that frustration and betrayal were what was happening,
My initial response was flinch,
Right?
That's terrible.
It's the wonderful person I want to be or maybe more precisely,
It's not the person I want to know myself as,
Right?
But to vow to be a bodhisattva,
Someone whose primary commitment is to heal the world,
To kun olam,
Is first not to flinch or to not flinch,
Right?
And next to see and then to turn towards and then to investigate.
So for me,
That has meant letting go of the flinch,
Letting go of not wanting to be like that in air quotes,
Right?
A sleek complainer,
A frustrated person,
A person betrayed,
And just seeing without any judgment,
Without any frustration on that level of,
Oh yeah,
That's just what's happening.
Now there's my girlfriend,
Frustration.
There's my BFF,
Betrayal.
Not pleasant to be around,
But there she is.
So joyful effort and you know,
Maybe joyful isn't just fitting in at the moment,
But really joyful effort.
At first,
It's about that process,
Really.
It's about that process of having the courage not to flinch.
And then next,
You know,
The courage not to flinch and to see and turn towards and investigate also means that there's something to do,
Right?
And that's something for me has been to bring joyful effort to letting go of frustration and betrayal.
So I'm not spreading that around like peanut butter on everybody's bread.
And it's also been to bring joyful effort,
Joyful energy to the fact of waking up at 4 a.
M.
So in other words,
Not only do I need to transform frustration and betrayal into my teacher and really my beloved teacher and see what I can learn about it and see how I can let go of it and especially of the attachment to not wanting to be that person,
Right?
But I also need to bring very joyful effort to the morning itself and to see the morning as my teacher and to be grateful to the early morning as a teacher or even to fall in love with the early morning,
Right?
Maybe that a bit a little earlier at night.
So as we practice more and more with these bodhisattva vows in general and with joyful effort in particular,
The ancient texts say that these changes,
Whatever we're practicing with,
Whatever each of you is practicing with,
Those changes do come,
That we just simply become less self-centered,
Less self-concerned.
And here's what Norman Fisher says about that.
He says,
We become an extraordinary person concerned to reduce self-centeredness and establish love and concern for all others without exception.
And then he very helpfully reminds us that of course,
Once you become this kind of person,
You can't help but notice that you are not different from anyone else.
So while taking this vow changes your life,
At the same time you remain the same.
Your self-centeredness doesn't simply up and vanish.
It remains just as before.
The difference is that now you know it for what it is and your commitment is to see through it.
So he always makes it seem so simple.
But that's what we love about Norman.
Anyway,
All of this begs the question of what it means to take these vows to begin with,
Which is possibly academic considering that Norman says we can't take them or even make them.
We can only practice them.
And what he means is that we can practice generosity and ethical conduct and patience and joyful effort and the last two paramitas,
Which are concentration and wisdom.
But we can't vow to become a bodhisattva because then we're just going back to it being all about ourselves.
So in other words,
This whole discussion about the paramitas,
It's definitely boots on the ground stuff.
And it's also deeply aspirational or imaginal,
Really,
Because look,
The world is a mess.
I mean,
It's not as much of a mess as I was afraid it was going to be today,
That's for sure.
But still it's a mess.
You know,
The news out of Sharm El Sheikh is not good on the climate,
Political turmoil everywhere.
Also,
The stressors,
The extraordinary stressors,
Really,
Of practicing law.
And we all know all the things,
Right?
But this vow of joyful effort and these other vows we've been looking at,
They transcend all of that.
So yes,
Absolutely they're practical.
Be generous,
Be ethical,
Hurry up and learn patience already,
Right?
And do all of it with joyful effort,
With irrepressibility.
I love Norwood's word.
And also my friends,
We are not going to get this thing done.
No matter how early you get up,
No matter how generous you are,
How patient,
How irrepressible,
The world is what it is.
Things are what they are.
People are who they are.
Your partner is your partner.
Your kid is your kid.
And you are you,
And I am me.
So we all want to bring our very best,
Most generous,
Most ethical,
Most patient,
Most joyful,
Most energetic self to each moment.
But we are not going to permanently solve anything.
The world goes on.
A little better for our joyful effort,
But still,
It goes on.
So the invitation is to cultivate so much joyful effort that every day,
Every moment of every day,
We are ready to do what has to be done to heal the world.
We are looking for things to do,
And we are not overwhelmed.
And we know that no matter how hard and how joyfully we work,
We are not going to get the bottom of the world's inbox.
And that's okay.
So let's start.
Letting your posture for today,
Letting it be a posture that is upright and that supports your practice.
Bringing joyful effort to that practice.
Dropping the body,
Dropping into the body.
Connecting to the earth.
Connecting to yourself.
And connecting with one another.
Drawing nourishment from each of those places.
The earth,
Your own good heart.
And this beautiful community of mindful lawyers.
And then just bringing the attention to the breath.
Noticing the in breath.
And when thoughts arise,
Emotions arise,
Just noticing them.
Bowing to them.
Letting them go.
And coming back to the breath.
Letting them go.
Thank you.
Nowhere to be but right here.
Nothing to do but breathe.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
