Last Week The Fool, This Week The Sage

Hey everyone,

It's Judy Cohen and this is wake up call number 312.

It's August 5th.

Welcome.

Last time the archetype of the fool was what was up.

And the fool is someone from a mindfulness perspective,

The one who mistakenly believes there do some status or deference or authority by virtue of their identity.

And what an illusion that is because really we're all in this together.

Marge Piercey's beautiful lines,

Passing the bags along,

Moving in a common rhythm and also how the fool in the archetype of the Tarot can be the person who's simply on their journey and in beginner's mind.

And so maybe putting that together,

It's a little of both.

So today's chapter six of the Dhammapada and it's called the sage.

So we had the fool and now we have the sage and here are the opening two verses of the sage.

Again,

Gil Fronsdale's translation.

Like someone pointing to treasure is the wise person who sees your faults and points them out.

Associate with such a sage.

Good will come of it.

Not bad.

If you associate with one such as this,

Let one such as this advise you,

Instruct you and restrain you from rude behavior.

Such a person is pleasing to good people,

But displeasing to bad.

So this is an important instruction,

But it really,

It really made me wonder,

Really made me think I've worked with two teachers primarily for a long time.

And I'd like to think I'm open when they point out my faults,

But they don't do it much.

And maybe I should be asking them to point them out more often.

And that's question is if you work with a teacher or you work with a coach or a therapist or a shaman or mentor or any wise person,

Do they point out your faults?

And if so,

How do you relate to that?

And if not,

Then first question is,

Do you want to ask them to do that?

So with my closest people,

I try to ask a lot and in collegial settings also,

I try to ask,

But I notice that I don't always know who the sages are.

And sometimes I know who they are,

But it's hard to listen.

So it can be for me,

It can be a friend.

It can be an aunt or an uncle or cousin.

It can be my dad,

My brother,

My daughter,

My partner.

And some things are easier to hear than others.

Sometimes I tell myself,

I want to have my faults pointed out.

I want to be advised,

Instructed,

Restrained from being rude.

And then sometimes I really don't.

And sometimes even though on some level,

I know I'd better listen.

Right.

And that good will come of it.

Not bad.

I still turn away rather than feeling hurt or insulted.

And at work,

It's the same colleagues,

Clients,

Students,

All of these can be sages.

If we're willing to listen,

I taught in that first COVID online semester last fall,

And it was a difficult time.

The teachers were trying to make things work.

The students were holed up in Berkeley or back home with their parents.

Everybody was tense and scared.

George Floyd had recently been murdered,

The movement for black lives and the protests that it midwife were more alive than ever.

And when I got my course evaluations,

They were good until the last two.

I've always suspected that the deans organize the evaluations.

So if you're a dean on this call,

I know there's a couple.

I'd be curious about that anyway,

With those last two,

I was really pointed out there.

There just weren't enough writings on audio and video from the non-white mindfulness perspective.

And in the past years,

I had been slowly incorporating more black and Brown and Asian and queer voices into my syllabus.

But the students who were my sages in those evaluations pointed out very frankly,

As students will do that.

It wasn't enough.

It wasn't close to.

And so there's no question about whether or not to let these sages advise me,

Instruct me,

Restrain me from rude behavior,

From racist behavior.

I'm doing that.

I need to do that.

But I did feel all sorts of things I'd rather not have felt,

Right?

Dismay,

Frustration,

All the things that point me in the situation.

I did my best,

Right?

When of course it's not about that.

It's about listening to the sages who show up at the least convenient moment with maybe some of the worst news.

So we're all mindfulness practitioners here.

And what would we say to each other?

We'd say,

Get curious about those feelings,

Give them space as Rhonda McGee would say.

And I've had this really wonderful week and a half of listening to her in a Dharma talk and then getting to sit with her in the working group two nights ago.

And she's really a sage for me and what she would say,

I think is take a long loving look,

The feelings and add the situation.

And so what happens when we do this,

When I do this,

I think is we have to become the sage of our own dilemma.

In other words,

We practice and in our solitary practice,

We look in at how this being human really works.

And we see,

Or I see we have the best of intentions and we still need all the sage advice and instructions we can get.

Or I do,

I need to listen carefully everywhere and it's not always good news.

And when I hear it,

I might feel embarrassed or chagrined or frustrated,

Or there might be denial or justification,

Right?

But taking a long loving look is the first big step.

And then remembering that we can't change the past,

But we do have this moment.

And in this moment we can set a very clear intention and act on that intention to not cause harm or to not cause more harm,

To not cause any more harm,

To be kind,

To be loving.

Because although this construct of me or you as solid and knowable and a person who would do or would never have done this or that isn't supportable,

This construct isn't supportable.

When we're listening to the sages in our lives and to our own inner sage,

We can shake loose some of those constructs.

And then we're in beginner's mind.

So the fool and the sage,

Maybe they're not so different,

Right?

We're in beginner's mind.

We can let go of thoughts of ourselves as someone who doesn't need to listen or can't listen because it's too painful.

And we can just listen,

Right?

And this act in and of itself,

This act of listening in and of itself becomes an act of love,

Love towards ourselves for sure,

Right?

Listening in and also listening to,

And it also becomes an act of love towards others and an act of love for the world,

A kind of iterative way of living and listening and hearing and taking in and taking on the work of doing better and then listening again and again.

And it's all for the purpose of bringing more love,

Which ultimately looks like more justice,

Which is the way that Cornel West puts it,

Right?

He says,

Justice is what love looks like in public.

Okay.

So let's sit.

So finding whatever posture would best support you right now.

Okay.

And coming to the present moment.

So wherever you might be,

Whatever you might be doing,

Whether sitting and quietly listening this whole time or doing some other things that need to be done and half listening or whatever is happening right now,

Seeing if you can come to the present moment,

Your present moment right now.

And that might be by just paying attention to a few breaths to drop in.

Or that might be by dropping into the body and just feeling the body sitting,

Standing,

Lying down,

Walking,

The stillness or the motion of the body.

Or that might be by resting the attention on the sounds in your environment.

Okay.

And then just beginning to listen.

Not even as an effortful exercise,

So much as just listening in to whatever information is available to you.

Not turning away and just staying in each moment and seeing what is there.

When the mind wanders away,

That can be your question,

What's here?

Or what can I hear right now?

In the most loving way.

What can I take a long loving look at right now?

What can I hear right now?

What can I hear right now?

What can I hear right now?

What can I hear right now?

What can I hear right now?

What can I hear right now?

What can I hear right now?

What can I hear right now?

What can I hear right now?

What can I hear right now?