Hey everyone,
It's Judy Cohen and this is Wake Up Call 468.
Hi,
Hi everybody.
Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving.
If you are in the U.
S.
,
Things were a little wild around here but very fun.
So we've been examining the hindrances,
Which are those states of mind and heart that arise and fall away and that kind of cloud the waters and they make it hard to see clearly and they make it hard for the heart to respond wisely and with compassion.
And just to name them again,
There are five and the five hindrances are greed or desire is the first one,
Aversion or hate is the next one.
Then we have two pairs,
Sloth,
Restlessness and worry and then doubt.
So today I'll say a few things about desire or greed and also about aversion or hate and I'm also say a little bit about how for me at least it's not about sitting above the fray at all,
Even though that was the title of the message today.
It's about being in the fray because it's just how it is to be human is to have these hindrances arising and passing away.
So first desire.
Desire feels like wanting often but not always wanting physical comfort but in my experience also wanting emotional comfort or solace or wanting things to be a certain way or to be different from the way they are now and then suffering under the misapprehension that if desire is fulfilled,
If I get what I want,
If I get what I think I want,
Then I'll be happy.
So relatively benign example,
I had plenty of desire last Thursday,
Maybe you did too.
I ate a plate full of food and then I was deluded into thinking that if I ate another plate full of stuffing and gravy and other yummy things and maybe a little more pie then my my tummy would be happy.
And so it's the mouth,
The tongue,
The eyes,
The ears,
Even the fingers kind of getting into the act and definitely the mind getting activated and getting convinced and drawing me forward and then to have another plate and and forgetting to pay attention to how my body was feeling which was full.
So the delusion of desire,
The mind filled with colorful dyes,
As the simile goes,
Or in my case colorful foods,
All of which were beautiful and made it impossible for me to see clearly and without that clarity I overate.
So again,
Fairly benign example but desire can take us down much more destructive paths,
Right?
It's the hindrance or it's one of them that leads to addiction and that can be addiction to substances but it can also be addiction to the billable hour or to salary or to saving the world,
Right?
To doing good,
Right?
It's what pushes us to do something or even something athletic like to run or to swim or to bike or even to practice yoga asana,
Not a little bit beyond our capacity if let's say we're building strength or we're building endurance but far beyond our capacity so that we harm ourselves and to feel a kind of sensory desire for what endorphins or some imaginary security or something we're under the misapprehension will bring permanent happiness or at least end our pain,
Right?
So colorful dyes,
Colorful foods,
Colorful rewards and those colors occlude the present moment and then I'm no longer paying attention to whether or not I'm full or exhausted or I have enough.
I'm no longer in the present moment which is where wisdom resides or I have the possibility of knowing how I feel and how to move forward or the present where equanimity lies,
Where equanimity is possible which I always need,
Don't always have but always need and which I feel like we're all going to need in the coming months and years.
So we're calling Gil Fronsdale's acronym BELLA for the hindrances.
First we let the hindrance be,
So in my case notice and let desire be.
It's here,
See it,
Stay with it,
Examine it.
The E,
It's powerful,
It feels physically and mentally compelling to have a little more stuffing,
To work a few more hours,
To push beyond what's useful or what's safe.
And then L,
Lessen up,
Ease up,
You know,
Once there's presence there's some agency and we can decide to ease up.
And then the next L,
Let go the ideal which with practice is possible.
And then finally the A to appreciate,
Appreciate,
Well a lot of things,
Appreciate that we can actually practice enough so that we can see desire arise or at least see it after it's arisen,
Remember that it's not our fault.
I mean who doesn't have desire ever,
Right?
None of us.
Appreciate that it will recede.
Sometimes for me I feel released from desire.
And finally appreciate,
The biggest part right,
That we're in this together,
That no one here has ever not wanted one more piece of pie or one more cookie or one more bite of something.
And that because we're in this together there's community in just being human,
Right?
There's community in just being human because we're all dealing with these five hindrances,
Even if we have no idea about that,
No names for it and no practice.
There's community in that that's just the way it works.
So that's desire.
I mean I say that's the way it works,
You have to check this out.
But that's the way that it's said that it works and it's that way it works for me.
Okay and then the second one hate or ill will,
It works the same way in my case.
No red hats showed up at Thanksgiving so I didn't get to practice with strong aversion on Thursday,
But Friday I did.
Friday I got to practice with that boiling water mind as the simile goes,
Right?
So we have a situation on the road where we live here in rural Sonoma.
There are a few neighbors who are let's say resistant to change and that combined with a road that's nearly impassable after 40 years of neglect,
It makes it makes it challenging.
So I've been using my my negotiating skills,
My practice skills,
Such as they all are,
To try to cobble together a solution and things had actually been going okay until Friday when one neighbor just lost it and let loose with this torrent of of rage at me.
I mean really beyond anything I can remember in practice in 30 some odd years of practicing law,
So that's that's saying a lot.
And what happened for me was definitely a lesson in humility,
Right?
I went from astonished to kind of this eerie calm,
Right?
And then to being completely outraged.
And the good news is I kept my mouth shut until he got off the phone,
Although there was plenty of desire to yell back,
Right?
So both hindrances were present,
But it was a good 45 minutes and a lot of hugs from my family before I could recalibrate.
So if you've had this,
You know you know there's just this moment when hate or anger,
It just wells up and there's and there's nothing to do but just to let it go through,
Right?
And with enough practice,
The hindrance,
They may they don't well up as often or or as powerfully.
You know the Dalai Lama famously said when he was asked if he was still angry with the Chinese for occupying Tibet,
He said almost not,
Right?
So with practice.
And one of the interesting pieces on Friday was how much I felt both at the mercy of hate and at the same time able to watch it arise and recede,
Right?
So maybe you know how that's like because you've seen this in your own experience.
Anger or hate or ill will,
It just comes up and then it recedes.
And so to plug in to Bella again,
Seeing it,
Being with it,
Examining it,
Letting it lessen or attenuate before you say anything,
Before you do anything,
And then ultimately letting it go.
And then that last piece,
Appreciation,
Which I really feel is key when Gil talks about appreciating the hindrances.
When any of my teachers talk about that,
It feels like this invitation to bow to them,
Really.
You know,
To bow to them as in to take them as a gift,
This gift of practice,
This gift of seeing them for what they are,
Of seeing this mind for what it is,
Right?
Gaining a little bit more insight into how this unfathomable mind works and to the truth that that points to,
Which is again that we are all in this together,
In this life,
On this earth,
In this moment.
And that doesn't change no matter who we are or how much practice we have or what path we're on or even who we voted for last month,
Right?
We're all in this together.
Okay,
The gift of the hindrances,
The first two.
So let's sit.
So finding a comfortable posture for you that is upright but also relaxed.
And then closing the eyes or lowering them.
And turning the gaze towards the heart.
Feeling the connection to the earth,
Our home,
This collective home that we share.
And connecting with one another.
And then finding the breath and beginning to follow the breath.
And noticing if any of the hindrances are present,
If desire is present,
Or if ill will is present.
If a hindrance arises,
You know,
Can you welcome it?
Can you welcome it with love,
With compassion?
You welcome and examine,
Be with and examine the hindrances.
And this is where we get to practice.
Do that with a lot of,
A lot of love.
And then we're practicing being with whatever arises with love.
And yeah,
Just like practice in and of itself is a choice,
We're choosing to sit together and to sit.
Also love is a choice.
I mean,
Maybe we're lucky enough that it just happens for us,
But for me anyway,
It's a choice.
I have to make that choice.
So just inviting you to make that choice with any hindrances arising now or that arises when we close our sit anytime.
Thanks everyone for being here.
It's really nice to see you all.
It's so sweet for me to see you,
Even when you don't turn your screens on.
I don't know.
It's really nice to see your images or even just your names.
Have a nice Thursday and have a good weekend and stay safe out there.
Take care.
