Worthiness

Sometimes I feel like we take for granted the privilege we have as lawyers, law professors, judges, and mediators. Or that we’re not worthy of our power. Or that I’m not.

Because what is privilege if we forget that we’re all in this together, and that everything we say and do, matters? And what is power unless we use it to clarify our minds? Or access, if we don’t remember to first, access our own hearts?

Transcript

Hey, Everybody. It's Judy and this is Wake Up Call 528. Welcome. We're looking at the Dhammapada, The poetry of mindfulness, And looked at the first several verses of chapter one, Choices, Which say, I'll give like a very unjustified three line, With our thoughts we make the world. Only love dispels hate. You too shall pass away. So knowing this, How can you quarrel? And temptation cannot touch the person who is awake. So the next two verses, And this is Gil's translation first, Gil Fronsdale, Whoever is defiled and devoid of self-control and truth, Yet wears the saffron robe, Is unworthy of the saffron robe. Whoever has purged the defilements, Is self-controlled, Truthful, And well-established in virtue, Is worthy of the saffron robe. Thomas Byram's translation is very similar, If a person's thoughts are muddy, If they are reckless and full of deceit, How can they wear the yellow robe? Whoever is master of their own nature, Bright, Clear, And true, They may indeed wear the yellow robe. So the verses for me, What they're doing is they're raising this question of who is worthy of the robe, And the robe, The yellow or saffron robe, Is the robe of a monastic. So for taking the verses literally, They're speaking to the question of what makes someone worthy to be a monastic, And they answer the question, I think, By saying essentially that a monastic is only worthy of the robe if they've purified their mind. The commentary on the Dhammapada, The commentary in both books, And then other commentary that I've been reading, Casts a wider net, And it says, Yes, The verses are written to address monastics, But they apply to ordinary folks too. If that's true, Then are we held to the same standards as a monastic? And I guess I'd say yes and no. No, Because a monastic has decided to dedicate their whole life to awakening, And they've taken robes, They've decided to live outside of society and in a religious life. So that's not the same as what most of us are doing, Any of us are doing now, And most of us probably will do in our lives. And yes, Because why not? Like why not hold ourselves to the highest possible standards in terms of training our minds and hearts? As long as we bring a combination of joyful effort and self-compassion to our endeavor, Why not practice and study and reflect as absolutely diligently as possible and with the intention to fully awaken? Only good can come of that. If we do decide to do that, If we do decide that this is what it means, Then what does it mean to be purged of defilements? Mindfulness is a kind of purging process, Or maybe purification process is a more positive way of putting that. And so this is really what we're doing. And we kind of know that all of the practices, The shamatha practices, The insight practices, The loving kindness and compassion practices, The practices that cultivate generosity and patience and joy and wisdom, All these are practices that purify our hearts and minds. Purify from, Purify or purge what? The defilements is what the Dhammapada says, And those are greed, Hatred, And delusion. So this is our endeavor, To purge the defilements from the mind, To abandon unwholesome or unskillful states of mind and prevent them from arising again. That's what we're doing. And to purify our minds so that they're filled with skillful, Wholesome states like generosity and love and compassion and a sense of interconnection, So that our hearts and minds remember all the time that we're all in this together, That we belong to one another. So purify our minds so that there's enough brightness and clarity essentially to see that we're not separate. All of which is consistent with practicing law, Is consistent with teaching, Is consistent with mediating and being a judge, Or it can be, Right? We have to figure that out though for ourselves. I was at Leaf Cabraser this week leading a meditation, And that was the question that came up. They're all litigators. They said, We're all litigators. How do we bring mindfulness into such an adversarial endeavor? And the answer is, Try it and see for yourself. It worked well for me. It's worked well for a lot of people whom I've worked with and who people here are training and working with, Right? Many lawyers, Many teachers, Many judges, Many mediators. Are there some who are unworthy as the verse says, Right? Those who are defiled and devoid of self-control and truth and muddy and reckless and full of deceit? Those people are unworthy of wearing the saffron robe according to the Dhammapada, And I don't doubt it. If the mind of a monastic is defiled, Really devoid of truth, Really muddy and reckless, They probably shouldn't be at the monastery. So then what does unworthiness mean for us as lawyers and as lay practitioners? So I'll just say, I don't think we need to have completely purged the defilements. I don't think the standard is have a bright, Clear nature every moment of every day. I don't think moments or even days of muddy make us unworthy, Right? We're here. We're practicing together, And that's a huge thing, You know, Practicing on our own, Being really diligent if we are about waking up. That's a huge thing. So I don't think perfection serves us, Especially since perfectionism is kind of rampant and really the enemy of excellence everywhere and in the law in particular. So I don't think the perfectly clear mind is the standard that we need to hold ourselves to or that we can hold ourselves to. I mean, Aspire to, Yeah, Great, But not hold ourselves to and then feel unworthy if we, You know, If we notice some mud, Right? I mean, Don't they say no mud, No lotus? But what about recklessness and deceit? You know, One commentary that I read talked about it this way. It talked about it in terms of hypocrisy. So are we really being diligent? Are we setting and resetting our course, Our minds, Our hearts towards kindness as much as humanly possible? Are we practicing or are we pretending that we want to live a mindful life and then not doing the work? So I'm not going to ask anybody to put in the chat how many minutes a day that we sit, But pretending to want to cultivate a clear and loving mind and then not doing it. Deceit sounds like a really big word, But what is that? You know, It might create doubt in our minds. It might create doubt. And I mean, Everybody here, We come here, We sit together. So I don't think that's the case for anyone here. But there sure are people in the world like that, In the law, You know, In the paper, People who are mostly defiled, Who mostly are filled with greed and hatred or mostly deluded, Very reckless, You know, Very full of deceit. Several come to mind. And I'd say no one on the path doing the hard and also loving work of learning to understand and cultivate the mind. None of us doing that is unworthy. I think we are all worthy. I think we are all worthy. And that's important, I think, To remember. And also, We wear robes, Right? We wear robes to graduate. From law school, We wear robes to sit on the bench. In commonwealth countries, We wear robes to practice and to teach, You know. So what if the qualifications to wear our robes included purging the defilements, Being well-established in virtue, Being bright, Clear, And true? You know, In asking us to be ethical and civil and well-versed in the law, Isn't the bar also asking us to purify our minds, Set aside greed, Focus on service, Set aside hatred, Even in adversarial moments? You know, Abandon delusion and remember we're all in this together. Isn't the bar saying that it matters if our nature is bright and clear and true? And if it is, If it is, Then maybe mindfulness practice is more essential to the law than we've been talking about. You know, Maybe it goes to our fundamental skill set, Our preparedness, Our worthiness to practice and teach. Maybe it goes to our worthiness, Uh, Not to wear the saffron robe, But the black one. Okay, So let's, Uh, Let's sit. Finding your, Uh, Your posture. Whatever will, Um, Support you in, In practice today, Finding the body, Settling into the chair or feet on the floor if you're standing or lying down, Feeling the body connected to the couch or the bed, Wherever you are. Maybe you're in the car. I know one of us is in the car and just dropping into the present moment, Using the body as an anchor, Noticing the breath in the body, Bringing the attention to the breath, And then in the most loving way possible and also diligent, Begin to attend to the breath as it flows in and out of the body. And whenever the mind wanders, Smile that moment of mindfulness when you notice, And then very diligently and very lovingly come back to the breath and practice. Wondering mind, Smile, Moment of gratitude for noticing, And then come back to the breath, No matter how tempting, No matter how compelling the story is, Or how tempting it might be to check some other screen. Just let that go and come back to the breath. Wandering mind, Moment of mindfulness, Gratitude, Come back to the breath. Gently, Lovingly, And also diligently. Come back to the breath. Thanks everybody for being on the wake-up call. Good to see you. Good to practice with you. Take care. I'll see you next week. Be safe out there.