Good morning,
Everyone,
And welcome to The Wake Up Call.
It's Judy Cohen,
And this is Wake Up Call 417.
I'm back from the 8th Law and Social Change Jam.
And I mentioned in my emails,
But but not as much on the wake up call,
How how powerful this annual gathering is of lawyers and law professors,
Social justice folks.
And this year we we sat together for the better part of a week.
And we co-created this remarkable and also very portable container for for naming uncompromising truths while staying in unconditional love.
That's sort of,
You know,
What we're about there at the jam.
And then I came home and I dove back into Pema Chodron's book,
The Places That Scare You,
Which we're looking at together here.
And I started to think it's the work of the jam is really is really nothing less than what Pema is teaching us,
Which is about how to be a bodhisattva.
So I was saying I think it was three weeks ago when I was last here,
Which feels like a long time ago.
I missed I missed you all.
That Pema uses the path of the bodhisattva as a framework for the book,
For her teaching.
And so that's the path of a bodhicitta,
Which is mind or heart,
Or she called it attitude.
And bodhi,
Which is awake or enlightened or completely open,
She suggests.
And and so bodhicitta,
The awake or open or enlightened mind and heart and bodhisattva,
Somebody who's on that path.
And what Pema reminds us is that the bodhisattva aspiration isn't to be or become.
It's just this hard everyday work of opening to what what's there,
Including the world and all of its pain and terror and beauty and joy moment by moment by moment.
Right.
And so it's this very it's this very active thing opening and then responding with what she calls unflinching compassion.
The law also requires us to do this if we're doing it well,
Right,
To be open to whatever comes our way,
The pain,
The suffering,
The terror.
And and every once in a while,
The love that walks in the door and to relate to it with unflinching compassion.
And I think we're doing a better job of letting students and young lawyers know that that's what we're all about.
And we have a ways to go,
Or it could just be that I have a way to go on this path of bringing mindfulness and compassion and truth telling into the law and into the world.
You know,
Everyone here is is in a different place in their own place.
But so what I'm saying when I say there's a way a ways to go is I feel like so much of how to be a bodhisattva isn't really teachable,
But it's it's modelable that we're modeling this.
And so the question for me is,
How am I doing modeling this path?
And this is where this is where the law jam comes in for me.
So for many years,
Even though I was a co-facilitator,
I've been a co-facilitator since the beginning of the law jam in 2015.
I felt like I wasn't really fully modeling this path.
I mean,
Modeling it to the extent that I was even able to.
And Pema calls the path the path of the non-aggressive warrior who hears the cries of the world.
So I was doing my best,
But I wasn't really hearing the cries of the world or or even the cries of the people in the jam circles.
And maybe not even my clients or students in classrooms and conference rooms.
And what I was doing instead was skimming along on the surface,
Catching a note or two and then backing away.
I could listen.
I knew how to employ mindful listening skills,
Active listening skills so I could listen to clients and colleagues and and students and friends and family.
But I couldn't hear that well.
You know,
I was keeping my distance.
I was I was keeping myself safe or what what I perceived,
What I believed to be safe.
And I think the reason I was doing this,
Not not fully hearing those cries and trying to keep myself safe is because I had so many unshed tears of my own.
You know,
Traumas in my past that are still there that I hadn't or haven't fully explored,
You know,
Fully come to understand,
Fully made friends with.
Right.
And just plain sorrows about the past,
About mistakes that I made,
About people I lost.
And so I could see some of these things,
But I couldn't let myself get too close.
And I mentioned I mentioned this in in the last wake up call,
Learning to tolerate being terrified.
You know,
I was just terrified.
And I think what I said and I'll say again is I was terrified of starting to cry,
Shedding my own tears and never being able to stop.
And I just you know,
Fear has been such a powerful force in my life.
I can see.
So over the last year,
I've I've begun to let go of some of my fear of facing my own sorrows.
And I don't want to overstate this,
That the operative words in that sentence are begun.
And some of my fears.
Right.
And I'm sure it's going to take a long time,
Maybe probably more than one lifetime,
Probably a thousand lifetimes.
But it's happening.
And I feel like it's happening because I'm starting to tell myself the truth about the sorrows,
The really hard stuff.
And I'm starting to learn how to be with the the hard stuff and to let myself cry,
You know,
Sometimes out loud,
Sometimes just in my own kind of silent and broken heart.
And I think this is at least partly what Pema is saying when she invites us to ask,
Do I prefer to grow up and relate to life directly or do I choose to live and die in fear?
And that's an intense question for me.
You know,
It takes me tons of courage just to ask myself the question,
Do I prefer to grow up and relate to my life directly or do I choose to live and die in fear?
Do I prefer to grow up and relate to the life others are sharing with me and be grateful for what I'm privileged to get to see and see it without judging it or interpreting it or trying to fix it?
Or do I choose to teach and practice law and be in community with me,
With my family and to not see others clearly with truth and with love?
And and therefore,
Same outcome,
Live and die in fear.
So this is essentially the question that I found myself asking myself at the law jam.
Was I was I willing to sit down in a circle of powerful,
Heartful colleagues and companions and friends on this panel and let myself be seen as the beautiful,
Flawed human that I am and appreciate and see all of them for whom they are on this bodhisattva journey as beautiful,
Flawed humans.
And the way it was framed at the jam was as an invitation.
There was space for each of us.
And is each of us willing at the jam,
But in the law and in the world to speak with uncompromising truth and to abide in unconditional love?
And it seems like an impossible invitation,
Just as I'm naming it right here.
And yet the answer last week and at all of the jams and last year at the 2022 Mindfulness in Law teacher training and this year at the Mindfulness in Law Society online retreat and in Memphis,
Where we met in person,
It's always yes.
When there's a commitment to uncompromising truth and the field we create is unconditional love,
Then yes,
It is possible to step in.
It's not always easy,
At least for me.
Sometimes it's not always easy,
Sometimes terrifying.
And still,
Yes,
It is possible to step in.
As Penna says,
It is possible to grow up and relate to life directly instead of choosing to live and die in fear.
So that's my that's my report from the law jam.
And also to reconnect with all of you.
Thank you for listening.
Next week is Thanksgiving and Native American Heritage Day here in the U.
S.
So I'll be off again next week,
Next Thursday.
Sorry for the kind of bumpy November.
If you're not Native American of Native American heritage,
Or if you are,
But the land you inhabit is not your ancestral land,
Maybe next Thursday,
Just an invitation at 8 a.
M.
Pacific,
Maybe when you might be here,
But you're going to be knee deep in pies or whatever you're you're making for Thanksgiving or for the next day for Native American Heritage Day.
Take a moment and discover the original inhabitants of the land where you are living and offer some gratitude to those ancient people who are some of whom are very much alive in our communities today for caretaking that land for so many generations.
And I'll put in the chat a great website where you can find out exactly where exactly whose hand land you're inhabiting right now.
OK,
Let's let's sit together,
Let's sit together.
So just finding a posture that is that is supportive for you right now and dropping in,
Feeling your connection to this earth,
This beautiful earth,
If you know whose land you are,
You are a guest on,
Then maybe naming that for yourself.
You're in Sonoma.
We are guests on the southern Pomo tribal lands,
The great and Rancho Rio lands,
Just connecting to the earth,
Even if it's one story down or 10 stories down from where you're sitting and really,
Really sense into this earth,
Inhabiting the earth and then and then inhabiting your own body,
Just feeling the body sitting or standing or lying down or walking,
Whatever posture you happen to find yourself in right now,
Tapping into just being alive,
But maybe some gratitude for just being here right now,
Being able to take a breath and listen.
Maybe have that cup of tea that you had this morning or a beautiful meal,
Letting the attention settle on the ground or on the ambient sounds in your environment and just letting the attention rest and rest.
And if it feels supportive for you,
Inviting the question,
What is true for me right now?
And that invitation.
That question might point to something as simple as I am alive,
I am breathing,
I am paying attention.
That's a beautiful.
Exploration of truth.
Or it might be about what what is in my heart right now.
And if if you are taking a look at what is in your heart right now,
Can you meet whatever you discover?
Or if you are taking a look at the body sitting,
Breathing,
Can you meet whatever you discover,
Whatever truth you discover?
Can you meet that with unconditional love?
And if there's any resistance to the truth of what you see.
Of what you discover,
Can you meet that resistance?
With unconditional love.
Insert,
Insert that love at whatever.
Level you are.
Attending to so that no matter what is happening.
No matter what your truth is in the moment.
It is arising in a field of unconditional love.
And then take that with you today,
Take that with you this week,
Take it with you for for your whole life.
Thank you so much for being here.
I put the link to the Native American land map in the chat.
Hopefully you can copy that or it's just native dash land dot c a.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you to all of you for being here.
I have so much gratitude for this community.
Be well.
Take care.
I'll see you in two weeks.
