Suññata and the Four Elements - Earth

This is a talk given by Lloyd to the Insight Community of Denver, Colorado on one of the Brahma Viharas - Metta (loving kindness).

Transcript

Or emptiness in the Four Elements.

But in reading through the Discourse No.

140,

Dhatthubha Ganga Sutta,

The exposition on the Elements,

This is the Buddha first taught the Four Elements meditation within the greater discourse on the foundations of mindfulness,

The Sahitya Dhanasubhana.

Then later on in the Majjhima Nikaya,

Which is one of the collections of his teachings,

He goes into considerably more detail on the Elements.

And in that exposition on the Elements,

He adds another one.

He adds the element of space.

And so we're going to,

So rather than this being the fourth and last one of these presentations,

I'm going to add another one on two weeks from now.

We're going to take up his teachings on space also,

Which are really quite fascinating,

And have a lot of overlap with Tibetan teachings for any of those of you who may have done that.

So the upside of doing a series like this is that it allows for us to investigate a set of the Buddha's teachings together,

Rather than just talking about a different unrelated topic every time we get together.

The sometimes sort of shallow side of that is when intervening events prevail and must be addressed.

So just before our talk and discussion about the water element,

If you might remember,

Was this horrific mass killing in this club in Orlando.

And so we really need to take some time and reflect together on how does the Dharma help us hold an event like that,

And process it,

And call on us to use our awareness of the Dharma to try to help heal beyond an event as tragic as that.

And so lo and behold,

We had the same kind of thing happen this last week,

Didn't we?

We had two African-American civilians killed by police officers in two different parts of the country,

Followed by a sniper attack on police officers in Dallas by a deranged African-American army veteran.

So once again,

We have the help,

We're absorbed,

We are searching for ways to be with yet another tragedy in American society,

Another violent tragedy.

So I've been reflecting for the last few days on,

Okay,

Well,

When we last got together,

We actually did find a way to see some connections between those two and how to hold them.

So I'm going to do the same thing this evening,

Addressing first what the Buddha had to teach about the holding of,

The processing of,

The contributions we can make to the healing of our society from the kind of event that we've all just suffered.

And then point out the relationship between the Buddha's teachings on that and his teachings on having to do with our relationship with the Earth.

Among the more well-known sets of teachings that the Buddha offered on the managing of,

The understanding of,

And the resolution of conflict had to do with a visit that he made to one of the religious communities that had been established to perpetuate his teachings.

Now he started off in his mid-30s teaching very small groups of people,

And they just kind of wander around in the bush together out in northeastern India.

And then gradually as more and more followers began to go with him,

It became a little unwieldy for these mass movements of,

You know,

A thousand or two people wandering across the countryside.

And so instead what began to happen were the establishment of sort of teaching centers and practice centers,

Monasteries where the monastics,

The renunciates,

Would live for at least several months of the year at a time.

And they would depend on the alms,

The support from the surrounding community.

And there was a certain amount of pressure put on the Buddha at this time.

He said,

Well look,

We've got these other,

You know,

Budding religious traditions here in the countryside,

And they've all bought real estate,

And they're making wine,

And they're,

You know,

Figuring out other ways to make a buck out of here,

You know,

And they're kind of hustling the teachings a little bit,

And they're getting pretty rich.

We're still wandering around rags begging,

You know,

And it's something,

What's wrong with this picture?

The Buddha's response to that was this.

He said,

The reason that at least as long as I'm alive,

We are going to be mendicant,

Monastics,

You know,

That we're not going to charge fees for our teachings,

The reason that we're not going to adorn ourselves and find silks and whatnot,

You know,

The style of the robes they had and the colors they wore,

The way they came by them was people would throw away their clothing or they'd donate their clothing,

They'd get recycled clothing,

And they would cut it up and they'd stitch it back together in robes,

And then they would dye these robes that they made out of cast-off clothing from the clays that were available on the riverbanks,

Which turned out to be the ochre and the saffron color and whatnot.

So that's where,

And that's why all the monastics just,

You still see wearing these robes,

And you still see them there in their arms bowls,

You know,

Because the Buddha did not want there to be established just another wealthy religious institution that in a very short period of time would become quite divorced from the needs of the people.

He said,

The way that we'll know whether the Dharma is alive and whether the Dharma is useful and whether the Dharma is indeed achieving its objective is if the people find the teachings of the Dharma and those of us who seek to embody it sufficiently enriching in their own lives to support it with generosity.

And so as these little regional practice communities were getting established and were getting bigger and whatnot,

Some of them,

Depending on who the leaders were that the Buddha had put in place,

Seemed to be doing a better job than others of really getting it as far as what the core teachings of the Buddha and how to practice them and how to live by,

How to put them into practice in daily life,

And also teaching the Dharma to the members of the community who were supporting him.

In this one community in particular,

The community of Kausambi,

There arose a great division within the Sangha between these two rather proud teachers,

One who was an expert in the discourses,

The actual words of the Buddha,

And the other who was the expert in how to put them into practice,

The teachings into practice.

And within this Sangha there grew up these two camps of monks who were fiercely devoted to either one leader or the other,

And they got into the business of saying unpleasant and unkind things about the other side and its leader and whatnot.

And the situation got so bad that some of the monks in the Sangha said,

You know,

This isn't working at all.

And they kind of ran off and found the Buddha and they said,

We're in a world of hurt over here,

Could you please come and help us sort it out?

And so he went and he sat with them and he listened to both sides.

And he said,

Do you remember the talk I gave about the causes of suffering,

You know,

First and second noble truths,

And that the cause of suffering is craving and clinging?

And he said,

Among all the things in one's lifetime or in one's consciousness that are particularly difficult to let go of are the idea,

The gratification of sense pleasures,

Your renunciation is really hard to pull off,

Belief that rites and rituals are the way to liberation,

Belief in a permanent and abiding self,

In the soul or atman,

And attachment to views and opinions.

And he said,

This is exactly the kind of suffering that's going on in this Sangha right now.

You have this powerful attachment to views and opinions,

Which is the actual antithesis of what I've taught all these years.

And so he said,

You know,

You really need to do what you can to reflect on those teachings together and see if you can figure out a way to live in them once again.

And he left,

And within a day or so they were at it again.

And so the monks came back and got him again,

And he brought him back,

He tried one more time.

And then he had a third time,

And when he came back the third time he said,

You know,

Remember our vows,

Remember our refuges,

Taking refuge in the Buddha,

Taking refuge in your own Buddha nature,

Taking refuge in the Dharma,

Taking refuge in the teachings on the way to freedom and enlightenment,

And refuge in the Sangha.

And what he told them was,

This Sangha has become so detached from the ability to take refuge in the Dharma,

Because you are too proud and too attached to your views and opinions to surrender to those teachings,

To allow the Dharma to be a source of refuge.

Because in order for it to be a source of refuge,

You have to take in and embody its teachings.

And you have lost the ability to become free of attachment to views and opinions.

And he said,

Because of the fact you've lost that ability,

The Sangha itself has ceased to be a place of refuge.

You don't have three refuges anymore.

The very sense of safety and sanctuary that is intended to be created by such a spiritual community has been lost,

And if you don't regain it,

This Sangha will collapse.

And they failed to regain it,

And the Sangha collapsed,

Because the surrounding community said,

These people are not walking their talk.

They don't have a clue how to live the Buddha's teachings,

And they are no longer worthy of support.

And it dispelled them.

And so some of them wandered off and decided to take up Sufi dancing,

And some of the others came back.

Most of them came back for the rejoining of a different song,

A different Sangha that kind of had a better handle on it,

You know,

How to do things.

So those teachings,

You know,

Sometimes,

I reflect on that a lot,

You know,

It's because conflict management is one of the things they taught when I was being a professor.

But those teachings,

I think,

Are very much as applicable to us,

Not only as we operate as a Sangha,

And as other Buddha,

Dharma,

Sanghas operate,

But I think it can be really rich and fruitful to think of our entire society as a Sangha,

And that we either survive and thrive by taking care of each other in a way that the Buddha instructed Sangha members to do,

Or we collapse,

We partially collapse.

We live in a state of perpetual strife and discord.

So,

And it's not just Buddhists,

You know,

Last week,

My wife and I were invited to Iftar,

Which is a feast that Muslims partake of after sundown each evening on the holy month of Ramadhan.

And so when we were there,

You know,

Enjoying the meal,

I'd done some background study and talked to some Muslim friends beforehand about sort of core teachings of Islam and the significance of the ceremony known as the colors of Islam,

Like faith and prayer and generosity,

And the importance of fasting as a way,

Among other things,

To get in touch with what it feels like to be really hungry and not be able to eat anything,

To be in touch with those who are hungry not because they chose to be,

But because they have no food.

Dold Caldera,

An archbishop of one of the cities in Brazil,

Said when I ask for food for the poor,

They call me a saint.

When I ask why the poor have no food,

They call me a communist.

So it's a way to be in touch with those who are less fortunate and to understand the need to help them that's related to the teaching of generosity.

And so as I learned more about their teachings,

The more I realized how much that faith tradition actually has in common with Christianity,

How much it actually has in common with Judaism,

How much it actually has in common with Buddha Dharma.

So we have faith communities in different denominations throughout our country,

All of which share these same teachings on the need to figure out how to live together in mutually respective and even loving communities.

And so I think it really calls on us to look for every opportunity we can find to be with others and witness that teaching,

Basically to witness our own faith,

Not in the sense of proselytizing,

But in the sense of joining with others and affirming the importance of living together in a certain kind of way in order to keep these tragedies from happening over and over again.

So this core teaching of the Buddha with regard to the Sangha,

He said in order for there to be genuine Sangha,

In order for there to be a Sangha in which you can actually take refuge,

You really need to learn how to live together in a mutually respectful,

In a community and environment of mutual caring,

Of taking care of each other.

Otherwise you will not have the safety that you seek.

He also taught this,

Not just lay people or discourses and whatnot,

If you ever decide you want to really study the texts of the Theradatta Buddhist tradition,

You'll find that going back to the time of the Buddha,

The first language in which the oral teachings of the historical Buddha were basically put down on paper and reduced to writing was in the Pali language,

And they wrote his discourses on Ola leaves with dye,

And they bound the leaves together like pages in a book.

And they carried these piles of leaves around in these three different baskets,

The Tipitaka.

First basket was the discourses,

The transcribed teachings of the historical Buddha.

Second one was a reorganization of the discourses and the framework of essentially a manual of Theradatta Buddhist psychology called the Abhidhamma.

And the third basket was a code of conduct called Avinya.

And the way the Avinya came into being was as the Buddha and his followers were wandering around India and setting up camp and trying to figure out how to live together well and keeping with his own teachings,

Things were not always,

They were not always happy campers in Mr.

Buddha's neighborhood.

Every once in a while,

Things would get kind of rough-edged,

And so two or more people would get into it over something or other,

And they'd come to the Buddha and they'd say,

Well,

We have this dispute between us about how to apply your teachings in a particular kind of way.

And he would listen to both sides,

And then he would offer a teaching on how they should resolve that particular issue,

Basically put out a kind of a tenet of behavior or something for them to go by.

And it occurred to people,

You know,

We probably ought to be writing this stuff down.

And so they started doing that.

And so the Avinya is actually almost like a collection of case law for these different disputes that would be brought to the Buddha,

And he'd resolve them and somebody would write it down.

And so eventually it became this code of conduct.

And for monastics,

For people in robes around siddhs who have devoted their lives to it,

Whether you're a man or woman,

There are about 225 to 235 different rules you have to live by.

Not so easy to do.

And the reason that they compile this code and keep it is because it is literally rules to live by.

It's how to live together in a peaceful community.

In Asia,

In the monastic communities to this day,

There is this ritual of reconciliation,

Or ritual of atonement that's practiced.

And usually on a full moon night,

Once a month,

When once a lunar month.

Whenever there has been conflict between any two people in the Sangha,

The practice is to come together and for one to say to the other,

If there is any way I've offended you,

Either knowingly or unknowingly,

Through anything that I've thought or said or done,

I ask forgiveness.

And then that either is or is not in the heart of the other to forgive.

And,

Because it usually takes two to tango,

If the other person realizes they too were a part of the conflict and bears some responsibility for it,

Then they say if there is any way that I've harmed you,

Either knowingly or unknowingly,

Through anything I've thought,

Said or done,

I ask your forgiveness.

And then if they can do that,

They do it.

So it's the way they peaceably reconcile differences within the Sangha.

So real tuned in and a really minute and precise way to the nature of community and what's necessary in order to keep it healthy.

So in addition to these rules for interpersonal conduct,

In the Vinaya there are actually also quite a few rules having to do with how to live together in community on the physical plane.

Stuff like how to dig an outhouse and keep it clean,

Where to draw your water from,

Where to get rid of your waste,

How to use the toilet,

How to practice personal hygiene,

How to conduct yourself with integrity,

But also in a way that's respectful of the impact that your presence there has on the environment,

Not just your relations with other people,

But the environment itself.

It's very focused because of their regard for the sanctity of all life,

The need to protect ourselves from the pain.

They're very tuned in to trying to minimize the environmental impact of their communities,

To waste just as little as possible,

And to have as little negative impact as possible on the environment,

Including things like the quality of the air and the water and the circumstances where they were living.

So in that same regard,

The Buddha taught not only there but in many other discourses about relationship to oneself and the exposition on the elements.

That's one of the things he does here.

He said to this question-and-answer discourse that he was putting forth,

And it's following along the theme of doing four elements practices as a way of waking up from the trance of self by focusing on the air element.

He talks about focusing on each of these elements as he says,

Its inner aspect and its outer aspect.

You can focus on the air element internally when you inhale.

You take in air,

Exhale,

You put that air or some modified version of it back into the environment again.

He said,

Is it your air when you breathe it in?

No.

Is it your air when you breathe it out?

No.

It is the air element moving through you and all other sentient beings.

There's the water element experienced externally,

Rivers and streams and rain and snow and whatnot.

There's the water element experienced internally.

We drink some beverage and the body converts it into the various fluids,

Blood and other fluids that we need to survive.

Do we hang on to all the water we've ever drunk?

No.

It wouldn't be a good idea if it was good,

Right?

My water does.

But all that's happening is that the water element is moving through us.

It's not our water.

It's us participating in the hydrologic sample.

So he said,

This is not me.

This is not mine,

This water element.

This fat and long body is indistinguishable from the environment of which it is a part.

The fire element.

We do manipulate the environment in ways to try to keep our body temperature within a livable range.

But the body itself,

Of course,

Has all these mechanisms to try to do the same thing.

When we get too cold,

We shiver as a way of trying to warm the body up.

When we get too hot,

We sweat as a way of trying to cool the body off.

It's a really good thing that those are not dependent on cognitive processes,

Isn't it?

Oh,

I think I'll shiver now.

Oh,

I think I'll sweat now.

The body takes care of itself.

That's what I was having to think about.

It's been doing it now for our particular species for well over 200,

000 years.

And so these are things that are happening irrespective of whether we do or do not want to happen.

These are simply natural processes that are going on.

We give some thought of what we may want to eat,

What its effect on us may be and what not.

But unless we want to kill ourselves off,

Which the Buddha can't get pretty close to doing before he reaches an enlightenment,

Just by starving ourselves,

Then there are certain kinds of needs that the body has.

So the Buddha says,

Think about the circularity of these elements,

The air and the water,

The energy,

The fire.

He said when you were first born,

Did you say to yourself,

Oh,

I think I'll start beating this heart now?

No.

It started happening when you had a teeny little egg that you could hardly be seen in your mom's body.

And from that time of inception until the end of your life,

That heart's going to beat a certain number of times.

And you don't sit around thinking,

I think I'll beat the heart now.

It's taking care of itself.

It's the fire element at work.

And it's working through us and flowing through us just like it is throughout the rest of the universe.

So the Buddha said,

You will live a happier and more relaxed life if instead of thinking about this being me and me controlling it,

If you simply think of yourself as part of,

As not separate from,

All these other processes that are going on.

But this collection of processes is also a sentient being.

And since having taken the bodhisattva vow for the liberation of the compassionate care for all sentient beings,

That includes you.

So even at the same time,

We don't want to get too precious about my air or my water or my spleen or my inability to move,

But just that this is stuff that's going on in the world right now.

We nonetheless have this responsibility for the kind care of this cat along the line.

For as long as it's around.

For as long as these compounded elements are together.

And of course the Buddha says,

Because of this circular continuous relationship between us and the external elements,

The care that we seek to devote to ourselves and to others,

Other humans,

Other sentient beings,

Is inextricably intertwined with the quality of the environment itself.

If we poison the air,

We poison ourselves.

If we poison the water,

We poison ourselves.

If we become extravagant and unlimited in the way we generate heat on this earth,

We destroy ourselves.

If we do things that fundamentally alters the earth's life-carrying capacity,

We harm ourselves and we harm all sentient beings.

So in this understanding,

To be a fully caring,

Compassionate human being,

Insofar as our care of ourselves,

Other sentient beings,

It inevitably involves kind care for the earth itself.

And whenever we find or see things that are going on that are inhibiting or destroying life-carrying the past of the earth,

Then we're called upon as bodhisattvas to do something to restore that sense of care to what it once was.

And that can have sort of real implications.

You know,

200 years or so ago when we were in the process of getting climate change out of the way,

And we allowed pretty much anyone to do pretty much anything with the air and the water during the course of industrialization,

We started poisoning ourselves like crazy.

You know,

We're killing people off by the hundreds,

But because of the stuff we're putting in the water and the stuff we're putting in the air,

Gradually as this nation became more technologically advanced and richer and whatnot,

We decided there were certain kinds of behaviors that we didn't think were really acceptable anymore as far as industrial processes and whatnot.

So we began to regulate them more and more stringently.

And then major industries were starting to really sort of feel the pinch and say,

Well,

If that's how you feel about it,

We'll take our dollars and go on and go find somewhere else to do this instead.

And so one of the things that's going on right now and has been a major way for at least since the Clean Air and Clean Water Act came into being,

First we had major polluting industries moving around the country,

Kind of like whack-a-mole,

You'd find some states that have really weak laws and you'd set up shop there.

And then finally we got national laws in the 1970s that said no matter where you are in the United States,

There are certain things you can't put in the air anymore and certain things you can't put in the water anymore,

At least not in the high concentrations.

And so just like they used to run around looking for states in the U.

S.

,

We can buy more laws now,

They're doing the same thing globally.

So one of the,

And that's bringing into play of course the discussions we're having right now about global trade partnerships,

Right,

Because what we have is a fair amount of evidence that in the past when we've had these agreements come into being,

All the major multinational corporations that are looking around for,

Just like they did here in the old days,

For the nations to have the weakest environmental laws,

You don't have them on the books at all,

Or if they do have them in order to get money from the IMF and whatnot,

Just never enforce them.

And so that's where they're relocating.

And the point I'm making for some strange situations every now and then,

One of the world's leading producers of uranium on the world now for nuclear power plant fuel and also for nuclear weapons is Namibia.

And they are cranking out the uranium in vast quantities and they're doing really,

Really wrong things for the environment that are going to poison it for thousands of years to come.

So that's the number one source of income for Namibia.

Number two source of income,

Tourism.

So what makes this awkward is that they allow uranium mining in the national parks.

So if you're going to travel in Namibia,

You have some astonishing national park lands there.

They're just something to behold.

You better read your guidebook with some care,

Because there's some of those you may not want to visit when the winds blow in the wrong direction,

Or you happen to be downstream of the mining activity.

So what's that got to do with us?

Is there anything we can do?

But you bet there is,

You know.

Based on what we choose to consume,

What we choose to buy,

Where its ingredients come from,

Okay,

We all bear to some extent some degree of karmic responsibility for that which we purchase.

The rare earth elements that go into electronics,

For instance,

Including electric cars,

Right?

Unless you want to get really depressed and start feeling guilty.

Don't read about where the rare earth elements come from and how they're mined and what happens to the people who do it and what happens to the environment when they do it,

Okay?

That's not a pretty picture,

Right?

Just not to say it can't be made safer,

It can't be made cleaner,

Okay?

Can't be made safer for the workers,

You know?

If there is enough concern and consideration and attention devoted to it by those of us who are experiencing the fruits of all those labors.

So it's like this vast,

Intricate web,

You know,

And it's not just overseas.

There are places here in the United States where we have populations,

Usually impoverished ones,

Oftentimes ethnic minority populations,

By virtue of where they live or what they do for a living,

Whose lives are being pretty seriously affected by the way we produce products and consume them and deal with waste.

So,

You know,

When I first began to teach and I would start to raise issues like that,

I'd have people say,

Well,

I came here to hear the Dharma,

You know?

I'm not coming back again until you stop getting off into these.

Well,

You know,

If we go back to what the Buddha actually had to teach in terms of them,

In the end,

How they were to live on the land,

This is the Dharma,

You know?

And I don't want to sit up here and abuse my position by telling you what to buy or not to buy,

Who to vote for,

Who not to vote for.

What I do invite you to do is to consider the karma consequences of all the actions that we take,

Relative to each other,

Relative to the environment,

Because they really make a difference.

And it all falls under this realm of mutual care.

Caring for the earth is caring for each other.

Because if the Buddha taught anything in the Four Elements,

In the exhibition on the Almas Baptist,

It's that they are not distinguishable.

We are not different from that which we breathe.

We are not different from that which we imbibe,

From that which we eat.

We are what we eat and what we drink and what we breathe.

Right?

And that's the truth.

Okay,

Climbing down off my soapbox,

Let's have some reflections and discussions and questions that anyone might regard me as.

I was listening to an interview on NPR with a guy who is a former cop and now working with these issues of his right reaction and so on.

And it was interesting to hear what he had to say because he said that a certain tunnel vision exists in a cop who feels that he's threatened.

You know,

If he thinks that the guy he's got on the ground has a gun,

Even if the gun was in his pocket,

He's not thinking rationally.

There's this kind of,

All that kicks in is this overwhelming fear and this huge protectant self.

Yeah?

So I'm wondering why the police departments of this country are not having mindfulness classes as the military has done and so on.

Why not?

I mean,

You know,

My experience in teaching inmates was that the one real benefit they got from it was the ability to stand back from the situation and not to just explode.

Yes.

You know,

The capacity just to step back.

Yes.

There is a time in our history when we call them peace officers.

Yeah.

So how do we get from peace officer to law enforcement officer,

Right?

Or militarized police officer.

Yes.

When I was teaching,

I actually taught a class.

It was a core class for our criminal justice program.

And it was for police officers at the command level and investigators and whatnot.

And they talked about how the police literature is full of the iconography,

The mindset of the police officer as a warrior.

You're going into the field and it's a dangerous place.

You never know,

You know,

Where the next threat might arise from.

So that mindset of going into a war zone every time they go on a shift,

You know,

Is so radically at odds with how we would like for the police to serve the community.

And for that matter,

Most of the police I know,

How they want to serve the community.

Part of it as I've worried,

The militarization of the municipal police departments has been going on basically since the 1960s when we had riots and whatnot.

And they've just been getting more and more heavily armed ever since.

And then we have these programs where the military gives surplus weaponry to police departments.

And so they,

You know,

It looked like Soweto,

You know,

In Ferguson,

Missouri,

The way everyone was fitted out and driving around in these armed vehicles and so on.

The other thing that really,

That really disturbs me every bit as much,

You know,

I think we need to do everything possible as far as demilitarizing police and training,

Making sure they get trained in a way so that they don't see everyone,

Everybody on the street as a potential threat.

Especially someone who may not be the same color as me,

Is entertainment.

Among the most popular shows,

You know,

Out there is kind of an NCIS franchise.

And so they have this narrative going that if you're part of a military criminal investigative service,

The Constitution doesn't apply.

So you can run around blowing people away with abandon,

Which they do.

You know,

I actually looked at the body counts on some of these shows.

If there was a law enforcement officer like these people who killed a couple of people a week,

Right?

They wouldn't be on the job real long because they would be considered to be insane,

Right?

But somehow or another,

These violent cops and robbers shows that we've got,

The public gets the expectation that peace officers,

The law enforcement,

Are only doing their job if they're killing people.

Right?

They're protecting you if they killed somebody else,

Right?

Instant justice.

And as long as there is an appetite for that,

As long as we ingest that kind of thing mentally,

As long as we're not to the point where we're going to call that out and say,

You know what,

You're presenting a radically distorted and diseased picture of American society that's causing people to think our role is in much more violent place than it actually is.

And so we can just turn away from that narrative and say,

You know,

This is harming us in a really positive way.

I think it's going to be problematic.

I think I see that as,

Personally I see that as mental and emotional pollution of our society,

Every bit as much as water or air pollution is.

Please.

Well,

That makes me think that the answer to that could be well.

That's what people want to see.

That's what,

You know,

They want to see on TV.

And then we come back to what I think is deep down inside of us,

We all have probably a vital side or something inside of us that is angry or not peaceful or at war with something internally.

And so the importance of making peace within to be able to then be peaceful.

I think one of the narratives both in the news and also certainly in a lot of,

You know,

Drama,

Law enforcement,

Drama,

Entertainment,

The bedrock,

The thing that fuels it,

That feeds it all is fear.

And so you begin with,

You lay the foundation with a narrative of fear.

And if you're in a perpetual state of fear,

Then you're looking around for some strong force to serve you,

To keep you from being harmed by that which you're afraid of.

And so,

I mean,

And that narrative,

I think,

Really needs to be seen as in parallel with narratives of hope and of kindness.

And looking at how one tends to crowd out the other.

And in my view,

We become somewhat more engaged in public dialogue when we can to say,

You know,

When we're afraid,

It does not bring out the best in us.

It doesn't bring out the best in our fears.

And it doesn't usually result in very good public policy.

And it's probably not the path we want to go down.

We want to live in a state of a happier society in the future.

You know,

The president talks about that.

He addresses,

He'll say that.

He says things about,

We need to choose hope over fear,

We need to use kindness over whatever.

He gets criticized for being weak.

Which is interesting.

And he,

As well as a lot of law enforcement officers that I know,

As well as other political leaders say,

You know,

To the extent that we demonize American Muslims,

That is a direct threat to our national security.

Because it causes them to not feel welcome.

To not feel as if they want to come forward and share information about potential wrongdoing when it arises.

If they feel like they themselves are under the gun,

That they themselves are in battle of minority,

It doesn't foster the kind of support and loyalty for the country that we need to have if we're going to move forward together.

That's a self-fulfilling promise.

Thank you.

First of all,

I think the exploitation and violence towards the earth,

It's all rooted in the same thing.

The violence towards each other,

The exploitation of other people and areas.

But you said something about turning away and I think that's important because I think I was having a conversation about the two black men who had been shot at work.

And one of the things that I said and I had to catch myself later was,

You know,

I don't recognize where I live anymore because it's become so divisive,

It's so violent and so over the top.

But what I was actually thinking after that is,

I mean,

That's my privilege speaking too.

It's up now where it's obvious to most all of us that it's like that.

But like just wiping it back isn't going to make it better because there are people in the community and African Americans and Hispanics and people with lots of money and I mean a thousand different groups who have never had that sense of peace or that had a sense that the officers were safe to call.

And I think there really is a need to turn away and recreate or not recreate,

Create something that is different and not just think that we can kind of go back to the good old days or something.

Also,

When we flip the switch,

We want the light to come on.

When it's 100 degrees outside,

We want it to be 70 degrees in here.

There is a pretty direct connection between our desires in that regard and what happens to the earth as well.

And so kind of walking that back involves kind of reconnecting on a level in a way that shows us,

You know,

Yeah,

We really do need an effective energy grid and we really do need ways to generate electricity that serve us more.

That serve us and yet at the same time don't destroy the life of the character past the earth at the same time.

So it's not like all the industry is bad or whatnot because a lot of that is out there that's crucial to our survival.

You know,

Transportation infrastructure,

Utility infrastructure,

All these other things are what keeps us going as a society.

So it's not that they're evil.

It's that we simply need to be continuing to work on more mutually caring means of achieving those objectives,

Whether it's socially or environmentally.

And I promise you,

You leave us a little time so you all could peruse the books.

So why don't we now settle back into our sitting posture for just a moment.

Blocking the eyes to once again close.

The intention to come to rest on the yep and yams.

May we live with ease and no ease of well-being.

Safe from all inner and outer harm.

May we be free of physical affliction and mental anguish.

May we acknowledge and accept any suffering we find within us or see in each other with courage and with caring and with kindness.

May our friends and families and loved ones,

All those whom we hold dear,

All those in our communities,

Those whom we know and do not know,

Like and do not like,

May they likewise live with ease,

Safe from harm.

May they be happy.

May they be peaceful.

May they be free.

All those who suffer violence and all those who are perpetrated,

May we be happy and peaceful and free.

All beings who walk the earth and live within it.

All beings who fly in the skies above,

Swim in the waters below.

All beings both seen and unseen,

All beings in all the realms of existence.

May all beings live with ease.

May all beings be happy.

May all beings be peaceful.

May all beings be free.

Have a safe journey home.

Reviews

Interesting. 🙏