Taking Joy In A Knock On The Nose

19:59

19:59

Taking Joy In A Knock On The Nose

Type

talks

Activity

Meditation

Suitable for

Everyone

Plays

2

My general reaction to those little life lessons, the AFOGs, has not been delight. Instead, I’ve often felt affronted or like I’ve messed up or failed. I’m starting to see how to meet those lessons a little differently, though: with joy. Which means I have to laugh at myself, and at the ancient, cement-like, internal structures that feel like they kept me safe…and are no longer useful. Which isn’t easy, but is at least more and more possible. Because no matter how hard the lesson – no matter how painful those knocks on the nose – when there’s joy instead of offense and ease instead of despair, it feels like the opposite of failure. It feels like freedom.

Joy Mindfulness Gratitude Acceptance Freedom Meditation Vigilance Gratitude Challenges Body Awareness Breath Awareness Non Judgmental Awareness Meditation Posture

Meet your Teacher

Sonoma, CA, USA

Meet your Teacher

Sonoma, CA, USA

Transcript

Hello, Hello everybody. It's Judy and this is Wake Up Call 532. So today I want to say a little about chapter 2 of the Dhammapada which is called vigilance or wakefulness. Chapter 1 had various messages. Chapter 2 to me seems to have just three. So I want to talk about it in its entirety. And so here it is. Sorry for those of you who had to look up a fog. Anyway, Here it is in its entirety. This is the Thomas Byram Ram Dass translation and I've modernized the pronouns. Wakefulness is the way to life. The fool sleeps as if they were already dead but the master is awake and lives forever. They watch, They are clear, How happy they are for they see that wakefulness is life. How happy they are following the path of the awakened. With great perseverance they meditate seeking freedom and happiness. So awake, Reflect, Watch, Work with care and attention, Live in the way and the light will grow in you. By watching and working the master makes for themself an island which the flood cannot overwhelm. The fool is careless but the master guards their watching. It is their most precious treasure. They never give in to desire. They meditate and in the strength of their resolve they discover true happiness. They overcome desire and from the tower of wisdom they look down with dispassion upon the sorrowing crowd. From the mountaintop they look down on those who live close to the ground. Mindful among the mindless, Awake while others dream, Swift as a racehorse they outstrip the field. By watching Indra became ruler of the gods. How wonderful it is to watch, How foolish to sleep. The beggar who guards their mind and fears the waywardness of their thoughts burns through every bond with the fire of vigilance. The beggar who guards their mind and fears their own confusion cannot feel fear, Cannot fall, Cannot fall. They have found the way to peace. Okay, So beautiful, Powerful. And I think the three messages or the three invitations, The first one is in those first few verses. Wakefulness is the way to life, The master is awake, They watch, They're clear how happy they are. The verses are saying wakefulness or vigilance, Not a slog, Right? Not a struggle, Not about so much efforting and pushing and pulling. Yes, It requires diligence but the idea or the invitation is, You know, Practice with joy. I think of the the paramita of joyful effort, Virya, Right? Practice with joyful effort. And the commentaries point to this. So this is from the mother commentaries on the Dhammapada and this is back in 1958 and she wrote, Throughout this teaching there is one thing to be noticed, It is this, You are never told that to live well, To think well is the result of a struggle or of a sacrifice. On the contrary, It is a delightful state which cures all suffering. At the time that these verses were written, 2600 years ago, To live a spiritual life was a joy, A beautitude, The happiest state which freed you from all the troubles of the world, All the sufferings, All the cares, Making you happy, Satisfied, Contented. The trouble is, And this is the second point this chapter seems to be making, I think, And one that the commentary talks about as well, So the trouble is, You know, We live and work in a world where doing is so much more highly valued than being, Sitting, Contemplation, Meditation, Right? Again, Writing in 1958, The mother says, You know, The whole of modern civilization points us in the direction of, You know, What you can touch, You are sure that is true, What you can see, You are sure that is true, What you have eaten, You are sure of having eaten it, But all the rest poo, She writes. We are not sure whether they are not vain dreams and whether we are not giving up the real for the unreal, The substance for the shadow, Right? After all, What are you going to gain? A few dreams, But when you have some coins in your pocket, You know, When you have some hours that you have built, You are sure that they are there, Right? So scratch the appearances just a little and it is there within your consciousness and from time to time you hear this thing whispering within you, Take care, Do not be taken in, You know? If a person lives in an inner perception, People look at them slightly askance and wonder whether they are altogether mentally sound. Somebody who does not pass their time striving for wealth or trying to increase their comfort and well-being, Trying to secure a good position, Become an important person, They are kind of mistrusted. People wonder whether they are in their right mind, Right? So that is from 1958 and for me, This is especially true in the law, Right? That anybody who is not ambitious is not necessarily well-regarded and we might be ambitiously trying to do good, But if we are not ambitious, We are not well-regarded and yet this chapter, Vigilance, Wakefulness is inviting something very different. So the second message seems contradictory at first. The verses say, And you probably caught this, First of all, By watching and working the master makes for themselves an island which the flood cannot overwhelm, The fool is careless. That sounds a little judgy but not wrong, But then it says, The master guards their watching and from the tower of wisdom they look down with dispassion upon the sorrowing crowd, Upon those who live close to the ground. Mindful among the mindless, Awake while others dream, Swift as the racehorse, They outstrip the field, Right? So this sounds really competitive to me. It sounds really we-they, It sounds condescending, Not connected or interconnected, Doesn't sound compassionate, Sounds pretty harsh. Look down upon the souring, Sorrowing crowd who live close to the ground and I can imagine, Especially with the legal mind, But also with just a human mind, How the invitation to look down from the tower of wisdom could be taken as not the most wholesome invitation. But, And here's the other hand, And this is what I was thinking about when I read, Or after I'd read it a few times, Is, You know, Meditation is free. Most teachers offer their wisdom freely with the invitation to support them if we receive benefit. Some retreat centers even operate that way, So actually there's really no barrier to entry. There's no reason why everyone can't, You know, Watch and work and make for themselves an island which the flood cannot overwhelm. Maybe most of us are caught up in ambition and gain, But everyone is free to work with vigilance and wakefulness to uncloud their mind. And the last few verses of this chapter are pretty clear about this, By watching Indra became ruler of the gods, The beggar who guards their mind and fears the waywardness of their thoughts, Burns through every bond with the fire of vigilance and cannot fall. They have found the way to peace. So everyone, I think, Is free to do this, But to do it, We need the three points of view that this chapter is inviting, And the first is that this is a path of joy, And the second is that it's a worthy endeavor to give up at least some ambition, Some striving, And the third, And this is from the mother commentary, We tend to take stock of the day, And if we've had some material advantage, Some pleasure, A physical satisfaction, It's a good day, But if we receive a good lesson from life, If life has given us a knock on the nose, We don't give thanks. So third, The joy and gratitude is for the knocks on the nose, As much as it's for the material pleasurable moments or more than it's for those, Right? And so the third is that joy can arise if we orient ourselves that way, If we're vigilant, No matter what's happening, No matter how hard knocks the moment. Okay, So let's sit with these words or letting go of these words. So finding a comfortable posture for you for right now, And just notice, I can't, Most people leave their screens off, That's cool, But just notice if you've turned your screen off and you're not going to meditate, And see if you can find that joyful effort to actually come to your chair or your cushion or your couch and sit or stand and begin to pay attention and just give yourself these few minutes. It's just bringing the attention to the body first, The body sitting or standing, Or maybe you're lying down, Maybe driving, Checking in with how you're feeling right now, Bringing the attention to the breath. This is a really generous thing to do, To bring the attention to the breath or to sound if the breath doesn't feel like a safe place, And to invite the attention, Invite the mind to settle and just ride the waves of the breath or the waves of sound. And when the mind wanders or the to-do list arises or there's restlessness in the body or rumination happens or any of the ways that the mind wants to do something other than settle, Any little knock on the nose or big one, Invitation to just say, Thank you. Okay, I see that. I see you. I see that. And then let it go. Maybe there's tightness in the body or worry or anger in the heart or mind. Invitation to just say, Thank you. I see you. And then come back to the breath. Maybe the attention is focused, Maybe it's scattered. Maybe the body feels good. Maybe there are aches and pains. Thank you for whatever is present. This practice that invites us to see what's present and to say, Thank you for whatever is here.