The Treasures Within

Hey everyone,

It's Judy Cohen and this is Wake Up Call 383.

I think we could probably talk about the Paramitas which we've been talking about for several months now,

Half a year.

Do that for at least that much longer or that many more lifetimes longer but I'd like to start something new.

I'd like to start exploring the seven,

Something called the seven factors of awakening and if you've been on the Wake Up Call or you've been studying mindfulness which many of you I know are,

Have or are or do,

You know that mindfulness is all about the lists.

So for many years I thought,

Oh the seven factors of awakening,

It's just another list and I'm not sure it is just another list.

As I've been studying it,

I'm starting to wonder if it might be like the master list or or at least the list that invites the most elemental parts of all of the other lists and shows us the best way to move forward,

Move forward towards freedom.

So that's what the seven factors are,

Seven elements that support awakening,

Hence the name or freedom.

Christina Feldman,

Author of many mindfulness books and she's the co-founder of Gaia House in England,

Says the seven factors can also be called the seven limbs or supports of awakening.

The Pali word for the factors is Bojanga,

Bojanga,

Bo for Bodhi,

Right,

So Bodhisattva,

Wakefulness,

Liberation and Anga for the limbs,

Like our limbs.

So that's why Christina says it can also be called the seven limbs.

And so but let's get a definition of awakening.

She offers a lovely one,

Emerging from a habit-driven compulsive life into a way of being and inhabiting our life where we flourish,

Are creative and engaged and feel free.

So I really like that.

Also sounds to me really big and it sounds so it sounds awesome and it also sounds fraught just to be perfectly upfront about it because it's it's awesome to imagine living a life where in most moments or all moments every single one of us is flourishing and creative and engaged and free.

I mean that would be an amazing world.

And it seems fraught in the sense that for me the question arises,

Okay how do I emerge from my habit-driven compulsive life,

You know,

And how do I do that?

It's not just how do I emerge but how do I do that without self-judgment,

Without self-criticism?

Because in my experience too often when I see my habits and compulsions,

When I see the ways they cause sorrow to myself and to others,

Then I have the thought,

You know,

Judy for heaven's sake you've been practicing for years and years,

How can these habits and compulsions still be driving you?

And self-compassion is the next step but it's it's not it's not so often the first step,

Right?

And I think this has more than a little to do with being a lawyer.

When I think about the level of perfectionism implied and just outright expected in the legal education world and in legal training inside our firms,

Inside our organizations,

I think you know how could any of us possibly see the ordinary afflicted humanness that's inside of all of us,

Right?

And not feel at least a little dismay even though maybe we've been practicing mindfulness for years.

But here's the thing about the seven factors.

They're not qualities we need to learn from the outside.

They're not like cultivating a critical mind or honing our analytical skills or our legal research,

Something that we don't have before we start to do it.

The seven factors are qualities and capacities we already have.

They're already there.

We don't have to do anything or go anywhere to find them or learn them because they're already in our consciousness.

They're seeds in our storehouse consciousness as Thich Nhat Hanh might say.

In the ancient texts they're referred to as our inner wealth and the treasures that protect us against sorrow and adversity.

And I feel like we need them right now.

We need the seven factors right now.

I mean maybe we've always needed them as humans.

But this world,

You know,

It's so full of sorrow and adversity.

It's full of amazingness too,

But it's really also full of sorrow and adversity.

And partly there's plenty of that in the profession,

Right?

ALM just published an article called The Lawyers Are Not All Right about the toll the pandemic and our slow-moving cultural response to it over the last few years has taken.

And then the week before that the ABA Journal published a short piece called Law is the Most Stressful Profession,

Right?

But as lawyers,

You know,

We do sit in a certain location in society so we have a lot of privilege.

And then we're in the U.

S.

Where we already have a lot of privilege just for being here for all of its faults and they are many.

You know,

The U.

S.

Is still a pretty good place to live.

And then,

You know,

Just looking at the earth and I don't want to have too many hubris about this,

But look what just happened to our friends in Turkey and Syria and they're digging out from this Goliath of an earthquake,

You know.

So it's an unfathomable mountain of sorrow is what I wrote in my notes.

An unfathomable mountain of sorrow,

You know.

And then I watched Tyree Nichols' parents sitting up there in the gallery during Tuesday's State of the Union speech sharing their sorrow,

Sharing their dignity with the whole world.

We need,

I think,

We need this inner wealth right now.

And,

You know,

Again,

Maybe we've always needed it,

But for sure we need it now.

For sure.

We need these treasures that protect us against sorrow and adversity.

Not to erase the sorrow because that would be spiritual bypass,

Like,

You know,

Smiling and holding up peace signs in both hands and saying,

I'm good.

I'm good.

I'm great a lot of the time and I'm not good too.

And I think that might be true for all of us.

But inner wealth in the form of the seven factors isn't to ignore or gloss over the sorrow.

It's an antidote to relating to sorrow without wisdom or compassion,

Without the double negatives.

The wealth of the seven factors is the ability,

Our ability,

To see what's happening and cultivate a joyful attitude anyway,

An equanimous attitude anyway.

To learn to be with,

No matter what the thing is,

And to be with with peace.

The ability,

As Christina says,

To emerge from a habit-driven compulsive life into a way of being and inhabiting this life,

This life,

Just as it is,

Right?

Where we flourish and where we're creative and engaged and where we feel free.

So I have Rudgard,

Another Gaia house teacher,

Who I've sat with,

Who I really love,

Says the seven factors are the anti-hinderances,

The antidotes to a mind filled with aversion,

Greed,

Sloth,

Torpor,

Restlessness,

Worry,

Doubt.

And the factors are always there.

That's the amazing thing.

They're always there.

But they're seeds.

So until we notice them,

Appreciate them,

Nurture them,

Until we strengthen them,

We can't really use them.

So here's what they are and then let's unpack them over the next few weeks here.

They are mindfulness,

Investigation,

Energy,

Joy,

Tranquility,

Concentration,

And equanimity.

And in case when you just heard them,

You thought,

Wait,

These aren't new.

We've done these.

I've studied these before.

I feel that way.

But from the perspective of these being treasured treasures,

You know,

Buried deep down in our consciousness,

Buried treasure,

I haven't looked at them that way.

So I want to invite us into a kind of uncovering of and a kind of exploration and a polishing of these seven factors,

These seven treasures.

So for today,

For our sit,

Let's just be mindful.

And as we're sitting and using our mindfulness practice,

Let's also pay attention to how mindfulness is present already,

Right?

And let it come alive a little bit.

So finding a comfortable posture,

Posture that will support your practice for the next 10 minutes or a little bit less than that.

Sensing into the body,

Sitting in the chair or cushion or wherever you are right now,

Noticing the breath in the body,

Just that the body is breathing,

Nothing more complicated than that.

But the noticing,

The noticing,

And when there's some steadiness,

Some steadiness in the attention,

Steadiness in the body,

Then seeing if you can step back and notice this factor of mindfulness,

Just this simple ability that you have to step back and see that mindfulness is happening.

That present moment attention is happening without any judgment,

With some real courage,

With grace,

Not trying to be someplace else or wishing something else was happening.

Just these few minutes of practicing mindfulness,

It's already there.

And is there a gladness in the heart,

In the mind,

That mindfulness is there,

Or a wonder,

Or an appreciation?

Because it's pretty amazing noticing that we have this quality of mindfulness that we can practice right now.

And if the mind wanders,

Just come back to the body,

The breath in the body,

And this amazing sense of being mindful.

Thanks everyone for coming to the Wake Up Call today and yeah,

Take your mindfulness practice with you and just see if you notice that it's with you throughout the day or throughout the whole week.

And I'll see you next week.

Take good care.