Your Last Pants Have No Pockets

Hey everyone,

This is Judy Cohen and this is Wake Up Call 311 on July 29th.

So let's look at chapter five of the Dhammapada or a piece of it,

Which is called The Fool.

And I want to read you the last two verses,

The last verse of the chapter first with some changes to relate to it being about us out in the world.

So it says,

That fools will want unwarranted status,

Deference from colleagues,

Authority in the profession and homage from clients,

Colleagues and everyone.

Obviously you can tell those are the changes.

They will say,

Let everyone believe that I did this.

Let them obey me in every task.

Such are the thoughts of a fool who cultivates desire and pride.

I love this.

This is one of the things I love about the Dhammapada and actually all of the teachings of mindfulness is that they really call it like it is.

But it's also true for me.

I think of how often I want people to know that my mindfulness practice is steady or how I love getting emails and calls asking me to teach or to be the authority.

And even my email tagline,

If we've exchanged emails,

It says founder warrior one and lecturer Berkeley law.

Right.

I like that.

And I loved that part of practicing Lama too,

Right after I started warrior one,

I've told the story,

My husband and I were talking with another couple and they asked that usual American question.

What do you do?

Right.

I'm a physician and my wife is a consultant and I whipped my head around to see if someone else was in the room because who was the consultant?

And I saw then in a way that I really had only,

Maybe I could have felt it in my body,

But I hadn't paid attention to it.

How really deeply wedded I was to being known and seen as a lawyer and just attached to that identity and that status.

Right.

So here's our fool.

And it's true that the first says fools will want unwarranted status,

But I don't know,

Maybe all status is unwarranted.

If I think about it,

It feels like that's true.

Like all demands for deference are undeserved and all authority,

Especially power over authority is illusory and all a lounge is just unnecessary.

It's not that no one will be differential or come to us because we know what we're doing and grant us authority.

But if we want it,

If we strive for it,

Then the verse says,

Such are the thoughts of a fool who cultivates desire and pride.

And I think it says that first because sure,

We think we are separate.

We think we're these separate humans,

Lawyers,

Law professors who are distinguished and distinguished from others with accomplishments and accolades that are ours and that no one else has.

And when we take this point of view,

It points us towards wanting and thinking we deserve deference and authority and homage.

But in fact,

We never accomplish anything ourselves.

I mean,

Nothing we do is something we've done on our own.

So even though it seems like to me,

Like I'm the one who deserves the credit because I reeled in the client or I opened the computer or I powered it up or I did the thinking or the research or the writing or the arguing or the negotiating or I won,

Right?

If I take a closer look,

It's easy to see just the multitude of other humans and even other beings that have helped me,

The support staff in every direction.

Now,

The people who keep the spaces safe and clean,

Friends and family who pay some of the bills,

Prop me up when I'm feeling down,

Giving me a hug when I straggle in from whatever workspace I'm inhabiting at nine or 10 or 11 at night.

And plus all of the humans and other beings who support those humans and the people on the road,

Syphilis,

The people on the road who are obeying traffic laws so that we all arrive and people at the grocery store and the packing plants and in the fields and people who support them and the beings who help grow the plants and just on and on and on.

So we're all just cogs in a wheel,

Part of a whole that we can't see.

And when we see that there is this wheel that we can't see that we're just cogs,

Then it feels better to be.

It feels better to be part of a whole rather than to be the one demanding accolades.

I love the way Marge Piercy puts it in her wonderful poem,

To Be of Use.

She says,

I want to be with people who submerge in the task,

Who go into the fields to harvest and work in a row and pass the bags along,

Who are not parlor generals and field deserters,

But move in a common rhythm when the food must come in or the fire be put out.

So it's not platitudes to thank everyone who made it possible,

Those kinds of thank yous.

And we aren't really doing any deference.

And it's not about authority or homage.

It's about seeing how interconnected we are,

Which is the same as saying it's about having wise view or wise understanding.

And the second reason I think thoughts about deference and authority and homage are the thoughts of a fool who cultivates desire and pride is because even to the extent that in this moment I may be feeling strong and smart and competent,

I might even be feeling invincible.

Everything is always changing.

I was great.

Then my back went out and it was almost healed.

And then the stomach flu found me and reminded me how not invincible I am.

And now I'm feeling good.

And no doubt the proverbial shoe will drop,

The other shoe will drop sometime when I least expect it.

Life is impermanent.

There's pleasure,

But then the next thing there's pain,

There's gain.

The next thing there's loss,

Praise,

Then blame,

Fame,

Then ill repute.

These vicissitudes of life.

Nothing is permanent and we can't take anything with us,

Not into forever.

And a lot of times not even into the next moment or the next day.

You saw the tagline on the email probably,

That's what my late father-in-law always used to say,

Your last pants have no pockets.

So this image of the fool in the Dhammapada is wanting and striving.

And then there's another fool,

The fool in the tarot deck,

Just another view of the archetype.

And in the tarot deck,

The fool can be interpreted as someone who wanders through life full of folly and delirium,

Which is not so different from someone who thinks they deserve deference or homage or who tries to impose their authority or believes they deserve it.

Or she can be interpreted as lighthearted,

Joyful,

Spacious,

Embracing beginner's mind,

Embarking on the hero's journey.

So I guess my question is,

What if we kept in mind wise view,

This view that we're impossibly interconnected,

That as Thich Nhat Hanh says,

We enter our,

And that everything is always just slipping through our fingers.

So nothing we have and no one we are or are becoming is anything real,

Anything permanent.

And what if we did that with joy,

With spaciousness,

With beginner's mind?

Then I wonder if the desire for status,

Deference,

Even authority,

At least in the sense of power over,

Would even arise much.

And I'm kind of guessing it wouldn't,

Or at least not as much.

And then,

Wow,

What a relief.

What a relief to live with joy and to be on our own hero's journey,

Along with everything,

Everyone else who's on theirs,

Paying attention and laughing at our own misperception and tapping and re-tapping into the fluidity and the inner-arness of life.

What a relief.

Okay,

So let's sit.

So these are the instructions that my teacher,

James,

Is giving these days,

Which I really love.

First,

Connect with the earth.

Really allow the mind to rest and just connect with the earth.

Maybe the earth is right beneath your feet or maybe it's 20 stories down,

But still sensing in wherever it is to be earth.

And maybe as you connect to the earth,

Get a sense of the earth.

A sense of how small you are.

Just this tiny being.

A teeny,

Tiny part of all of the life on the earth and the life of the earth itself.

Never forget.

Heddar carrot.

Yeah,

Yeah.

Sure.

Good.

Thank you.

And is there some relief to think about that?

A relief to feel into that belonging.

To be a part of this unfathomable whole.

Good,

Moving,

Changing,

Just to be a part rather than to be separate.

Good,

Moving,

Changing,

Just to be a part rather than to be separate.

Good,

Moving,

Changing,

Just to be a part rather than to be a part rather than to be a part.

And then the second instruction,

Connect with the earth and then connect with each other.

So there are 41 of us here.

And you might know,

Some of you might know each other,

Some of you might not know anyone.

We all know a little bit.

I mean,

Everyone knows me already.

But just the sense of community.

The sense of all of us being here sitting quietly together,

Connecting with each other.

Good.

And then we're part of this beautiful web.

We're all up on Zoom and we weave this little web together and then here we are resting at home for just a few minutes together.

Good.

Good.

And then the last instruction,

So connect with the earth,

With each other,

And then with yourself.

Not that separate,

Isolated self,

But the part of you who is unique and who is on your own hero's journey.

Joyful,

Spacious,

Embracing beginner's mind.

True nature.

Open and loving.

Connect with that part of yourself.

Good.

Good.

And then we're going to take a few deep breaths.

And usually I say at the end to let go of whatever we've been practicing with and take a few deep breaths and you're welcome to do that.

Out into your day,

So whatever is most supportive to you.

Thanks,

Everyone,

For being on the wake up call today.

Great to see you all.

Have a lovely Thursday and weekend.

Be safe.

And I'll see you next week.