Wisdom Inquiries: The Invisible Chain That Links Lawyers

What if the perfection of wisdom is bigger than clarity and insight and interconnection? What if it’s bigger than not causing harm? What if the perfection of wisdom is understanding that not only are we – lawyers, clients, opponents, and all – impossibly and irrevocably linked by some great invisible chain, but also, or more so, worthy of each other’s care, and empathy, and love?
As Hafiz says, “Look what happens with a love like that. It lights the whole sky.”

Transcript

Hi everyone, It's Judy Cohen and this is Wake Up Call 380. So I've been talking over the last couple of weeks about prasanna paramita, Which is the perfection of wisdom. And while I've been talking about prasanna paramita and the other five paramitas, Everybody knows I've also been reading Norman Fisher's book about the paramitas, The World Could Be Otherwise, Which I cannot recommend more highly, Or highly enough. So if you've been reading along, Or if you've read Norman's book some other time, You know that Norman doesn't use the word wisdom for the sixth paramita. And that's the traditional, The traditional word is that the sixth paramita is wisdom paramita, Prasanna paramita. He uses the word understanding. And so he calls prasanna paramita the perfection of understanding. So even though I've been talking about wisdom these last couple of weeks, As if I know something about wisdom, Which is funny, But talking about it anyway, Because right, That's what we have to do is talk about it. Imagine that we know something about it, Which is what Norman is encouraging us to do. So I've been talking about wisdom and it's even in the title of the Wake Up Calls. I thought today I'd shift to understanding and let's see what Norman has to say about the difference between the two. So in the chapter on prasanna paramita, Norman has a whole disquisition about language. And how difficult it is to say what we mean with words which are so imprecise. But we're lawyers, Right? So our training is to do exactly that, To say what we mean using words in the most precise way possible. You know, One wrong word, One misplaced letter or punctuation mark and clients fate or our career even could hang in the balance. But maybe because our professional life is based on language, It's also easy to see how Norman is right. Or in my experience, Norman is pretty much always right anyway. But he is right that language is imprecise, Not only because it's so difficult to come up with exactly the right words to say exactly what we mean, But also because language is just a reflection of reality. Reality, Of course, Being a whole nother topic. But so language is a reflection of reality. And my favorite example of this is a contract. Whenever I wrote a contract for a client, I would always say the same thing. You know, We're going to go to all this trouble. We're going to go to all of this expense to say exactly what you want, To say what you want to have happen. And exactly what happens if the situation falls apart and then once it's signed, I want you to put the contract in a drawer or in a proverbial drawer these days, An electronic file, And hopefully never look at it again. You know, You and the other party will do your deal, Live your lives, And hopefully things will work out. And the contract is not the deal. It never was. It will only be the deal if the humans can't work things out. Right. Maybe everybody tells their clients that. It kind of helps. So words are just a reflection of reality. They're not reality. They're not reality, But language still matters, Which is why Norman proposes that a better word for prajnaparamita is understanding. And he goes through the etymology of wisdom and of understanding, Which also resonates with the lawyer in me, You know, Going through the etymology of the words. And he concludes that wisdom is an old-fashioned word that denotes, He says, Sobriety, Caution, Prudence, And some other things that he says are conducive to the imaginative world that he's inviting us into in his exploration of the paramitas. And I frankly hadn't thought of wisdom as soforidadi, You know? I'd always thought of it as insight, That a wise person was someone who could see clearly. And he doesn't disagree, But he picks understanding as the more inclusive name for this final paramita. So here's what he says. He says, Understanding is an interesting, Interesting, Double-sided word. It includes much of what wisdom does. If you understand, You see things clearly from all sides, Which will give you discernment. But the word understanding hides within it something more. Etymologically, To understand is to stand with. The under part of the word doesn't mean under, It comes from a Proto-Indo-European root that means among or between, Not beneath. So understanding means to be close to, To be with. And he says, We take it like that. An understanding person we feel is compassionate, Considerate, Empathic, Exactly the spirit of prajna. The perfection of understanding includes these two parts, To know, To see how elusive and shimmering this life is. And at the same time, With and through this seeing, To be understanding of life, To care for it, To stand with it in empathy, Love, And compassion. So if this is true, And again, In my experience, Most of what Norman says seems true to me, Then what does it mean to be an understanding lawyer? Or another way of saying it is, What does prajna paramita mean for lawyers? And the first part seems simple to see. To practice the perfection of understanding as a lawyer is to see things clearly from all sides and to have discernment. Meaning, As I understand it and share it, The commitment that our words, Our actions matter, Our choices matter, And that they impact one another. And that we want to have a positive effect, A wholesome impact. So simply to see, Although maybe simple, But not always easy to do because plenty of the matters we work on are multifaceted and complicated, And it's not always easy to see things clearly from all sides, Even though we're certainly trained to see and to have discernment. To make sure that we are committed, That our words, Our actions, Our choices matter, Impact one another, And we want to make sure that they have a positive, Wholesome impact. First part seems reasonable as a lawyer, But again, Not so easy. But this second part, The second side, To be close to, To be with, To be compassionate, To be understanding, To be empathic. I think this for us is the harder part because what Norman says is all we are really talking about on this second side is love. And we have much more practice, Much more training in keeping our professional distance, In being insightful and incisive, And discerning even in presenting a calm, Cool, Collected demeanor. Much more training in that than we do in being close to our clients, Really seeing them, Fully empathizing with them, And frankly, Much more training in that sort of cool way of being, Then in loving them. And I say that as a generalization and not speaking to anyone here in particular, And maybe some of you who are here have some practice in really loving your clients, And that's a pretty wonderful thing. And when I was practicing, I had some clients who I really understood and really cared for. And can I say I really love them? I don't know. But Norman says, Of course, Love and understanding go together. To practice the perfection of understanding, The perfection of understanding is to understand this light truly and deeply. Knowing life as it is, We love it. Understanding beings, Naturally, We love them. So the inquiry is, You know, What if we practiced that kind of understanding in relationship to our clients, Our colleagues, Opposing counsel, The judges, All the players? Now, What if we practiced it at home? What if we were leaders in practicing it in the political domain, In the environmental world, All of the places where we already lend our good hearts, Our willing hands, Our expertise? What could change if we put energy into the perfection of understanding that looks like knowing and seeing how elusive and shimmering this life really is? And at the same time, With and through this seeing, Understanding life, Our clients, Colleagues, Opponents, Friends, Family, Planet, You know, Caring for them, Standing with them, All of them, Not even thinking of them as them and us, But all one in empathy, In love and compassion. What could change? So let's do it together. Finding a posture that is comfortable and supportive of your practice, A posture into which you can invite the body right now, Both relax and also pay attention. And as we settle in together, Practice together, You may even tapping into the elusiveness, The shimmering quality of life. And if there's busyness or a sense of energy of wanting to get somewhere, Move on, Just noticing that, The invitation to come back to the present moment, This present moment of practicing together, All of us practicing together, Supporting one another, Sensing into that, This small community that we have, And that supports all of us in cultivating these qualities of empathy and love and compassion. And we get to take them out into the world, Sensing the goodness of what we're doing together just by sitting. Thanks everyone for joining me on the Wake Up Call today, For joining each other on the Wake Up Call today. Nice to be together. Take good care. Have a good rest of your Thursday and a good weekend. I'll see you next Thursday.