TNH - 11 - Wise Effort

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We continue our series of talks from the book, The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching, by Thich Nhat Hanh, and this morning I’ll talk about a key component of the Eightfold Path- Wise Effort.  We often talk about The Middle Way in Buddhism, finding the path between the extremes.  Wise Effort is often described as “not too tight and not too loose.”  How do we practice Wise Effort in everyday life?

First, it is helpful to understand that religion has a tendency to run in cycles.  Someone has a direct experience of awakening, seeing themselves and the world in a dramatically different way, an experience of that inter-connectness, of themselves with everything around them, as well as with a greater "energy" or some might say innate potential all around them.  This experience is often so powerful that others flock to them--like Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed--to study, learn and experience it themselves.  Then, the original person dies, and those left try to study, learn and practice as best they can.  Herein lies the problem--there is a tendency to hold on to the original direct experiencer’s experience, and work to preserve exactly what happened and what was said and what was done.  Slowly, the power of the direct experience gets less emphasis, and the power of the religious organization starts to dogmatize, concretize and use the teachings for gaining power over others.  Then, someone bucks the system, decides to go back to the direct experience, then reform arises and new enthusiasm, new teachings, leading eventually to new dogmatism and new power struggles.  Buddhism is no different.  There are many cycles of direct experience, rise of the organization, concretization of the experience, power struggle and decline of original purpose. 

The joy of this moment is that we are living in the time when Buddhism is being integrated into Western culture, and we are finding anew these amazing teachings.  We have this precious opportunity to have a direct experience of what the Buddha experienced, of what Jesus experienced, of what Mohamed and Moses experienced. The books, the Dharma talks, the practice are simply tools to support the direct experience. 

Wise effort teaches us how we can utilize these tools to experience awakening. Surprisingly, reading and practicing can also become obstacles.  For example, once anyone starts to practice meditation, it is a common occurrence that we inadvertently start to judge each meditation session as “oh, that was a good one!” or “that was awful—my mind just spun like a tornado the whole time—that was of no value!”  Awareness of what is happening in your mind and your body is very helpful, BUT judging each meditation session is NOT helpful.  Wise effort includes just continuing to practice whether the meditation feels blissful or boring or beautiful or painful.  An Indian man named Goenka, who founded the modern Vipassana movement would always say, “Continuity is the secret of success”, and “Start again”.

Goenka had this clear understanding that awakening is available here and now, in the midst of ordinary practice.  As we meditate and become aware of more present moments in life, we begin to awakened to the habits, judgments, labels, preferences, stories, rationalizations and everything else that may or may not be serving our greater good.  So, we can practice Wise Effort by continuing to meditate and be fully present, even when we don’t feel like it, even when it’s uncomfortable, even when, ESPECIALLY WHEN, we are having a strong emotion or thought or story.  That’s when the power of the practice really gets turbo-charged.  

I have a visual aid—this vase.  It seems that many of us often think of ourselves as individual silos of stuff, stuff collected from a lifetime of experiences.  What’s in your vase?  Probably some good stuff, some bad stuff, boring stuff and joyful stuff and painful stuff.  This Buddhist practice is about clearly seeing it all, everything that we are holding onto and think of as “Who We Are”.  Most importantly, this practice is about clearly seeing that we are NOT all this stuff in the vase.  Look inside, can you locate where exactly that story is you’ve been telling yourself about who you are and what kind of person you are?  Where are the stories about your family and your upbringing and what's right about you and what's wrong about you?  Where are those bad habits and judgments that often cause so much suffering?  

Through this practice, we can become aware that we often assume our vase is solid, separate and permanent, when that is simply not true.  The Buddha had a direct experience of this Truth.  The vase is just an illusion that we hold on to.  We are permeable, porous living beings with cells that are being born anew and dying in each second. We have this incredible ability to see clearly our stories, then to let fall away those stories that are no longer serving us.   

We can even create new stories that might be more helpful to this practice of awakening.  Thich Nhat Hanh has a beautiful, simple “story” that we could tell ourselves each day: 

“Waking up this morning, I smile.

Twenty-four brand new hours are before me.

I vow to live fully in each moment as best I can

And to look at all beings with eyes of compassion.” 

These are words that he suggests, but I encourage you to come up with your own words.  What words of encouragement could you re-iterate to yourself regularly to remember to practice being present? Goenka said to himself, “Continuity is the secret of success.”  And it was!  And is!  He also said, “Start again.”  This simple phrase encourages us to simply start again, at the beginning of each meditation session, at the beginning of each morning, even at the beginning of each moment.  No matter how distracted or confused or frustrated or angry or anxious we might feel, we can start again with the practice of directly experiencing this moment, beyond old habits, judgments and stories.  Just start again and again, fresh and anew.  See through the vase full of “stuff” to the essence of aliveness that you are.

Nagarjuna wrote: 

“Clinging is to insist on being someone, not to cling is to be free to be no one”.  

In being no one, we are free to have the direct experience of simply being awake.

Basics of Buddhism - 3 - The Eightfold Path

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Based on the translations found in Awakening the Buddha Within, these eight practices are:

1.      Wise View: Seeing things as they truly are, not through the filters of our past experiences.

2.      Wise Intentions: The Buddha emphasized, "As we think, so we become." Changing our intentions changes the way we see and experience the world.

3.      Wise Speech: Speaking in a way that supports us and others on their spiritual path.

4.      Wise Action: Acting in ways that are wise and compassionate.

5.      Wise Livelihood: Working in a way that supports oneself and others on their spiritual journey.

6.      Wise Effort: Having a passion for enlightenment.

7.      Wise Mindfulness: Practicing mindfulness by being fully present in each moment.

8.      Wise Concentration: Practicing meditation to train our minds.

These eight practices are designed to invigorate our daily lives with compassionate awareness, honesty, and curiosity. These practices are usually translated as a “path”, but in the original teachings, they were described more like a wheel with eight spokes or an eight-limbed concurrent process. It's not necessary to start at the first step and end at the last, but rather to incorporate each as the situation arises.

For me, wise implies what is most skillful—in other words, what does the most good and the least harm.

The Eightfold Path can be broken down into three sections: wisdom, ethics, and meditation. Let's look at these three separately.

Wisdom:

The first two steps are part of the wisdom training: wise view and wise intention. We all have a certain view of the world. We may hang on to the view that our parents told us, or we may have come up with our own perspectives through our life experiences. If I were to ask you, "How do you describe the world?" what would you say? What would your parents have said? Is it a scary place? A difficult place? A wonderful place? An unfair place? A beautiful place? We often view the world from our past experiences and the vision that others have ingrained in us.

Wise intention is how we decide what to do. What are your intentions in your life? What do you value? If you could describe your values in three words, what would they be? Now, think about your thoughts, words, and actions this last week. How well did those match your values that you just described? The Buddhist path is designed to help us live our values. The first step is being clear about what we value, then putting those values into practice every day.

Ethics:

Ethics include the next three steps of wise speech, wise livelihood and wise action. 

Wise speech is about being more careful with how we respond with words (internally or verbally, via e-mail or text, etc.). We can learn to create a gap between stimulus and response by asking ourselves these five questions: "Is it true?" "Is it helpful?" "Is it inspiring?" "Is it necessary?" "Is it kind?" They neatly form the acronym THINK. Answering these five questions may cut out about 75 percent of what we say to ourselves and to others!

Wise action is about acting in ways that encourage and inspire. With greater awareness, we create more options for how to respond to any stimulus. Habit and past experience are not the only ways to choose how to act. Wise action can come from a place of reflection and intention for good. What action will ease suffering? What action will create the most good?

Wise livelihood can sometimes be thought of as limited to only a few jobs that really "do" any good. Instead, wise livelihood includes not only what you do to make a living but also how you do it. How do you show up for work? How do you interact with your coworkers? We can practice working in a way that supports ourselves and others on their spiritual journey.

Meditation:

Lastly, we have the meditation training of wise effort, wise mindfulness, and wise concentration.

Wise effort is about having a passion for awakening. It often feels easier to just do what we have been doing, even if it causes us suffering—there is usually some short-term payoff that makes us forget about the pain down the road. Conditioning and habits sometimes lead us in the wrong direction. The practice of wise effort encourages us to reach within and find that passion for happiness and, as the Dalai Lama proclaims, to "never give up!" Dig deep within you to find the power, strength, and inspiration to change—it is in there! We all have it—no one is left out. In the coming weeks, there will be moments when an old way of thinking will arise, a craving to go back to the old ways; it will at times seem far easier to go back than to practice these darn teachings. But! Within each of us is an amazing ability to change. Find that motivation now so you'll have it at your fingertips when the going gets tough.

Wise mindfulness and wise concentration are such a big deal that we'll save those for next time...

Dharma Talk by Robin O'Connor on Wise Concentration

Today’s topic is about “Wise Concentration”.   My concentration is completely off so I felt the need to type out what to say.  The rock sitting here is a souvenir from a hike on my retreat which serves as a reminder that I should be kind and compassionate to myself.  Ironically, I did not sleep well last night since I felt a cold coming on.  I ended up waking up late this morning and rushing to get out the door and to make an 8:30 a.m. meeting.  Of course, Murphy’s Law, I could not find my keys.  I searched everywhere in the house, dumped my purse, and it was becoming later and later by the minute.  I was angry at myself for losing them in the first place.  I ALWAYS put my key in the same pocket in my purse. Then, I started blaming the kids.  Okay, which of the kids took them from my purse?!?   Then, I looked over at my poor little dog Sophie hiding on her bed in the corner of the kitchen—her big eyes bugging out of her head and shaky little body reminded me that I was losing it—I was out of control.  I knew what to do.  Slow down…close your eyes…breath…just be.  I opened my eyes and the first thing I saw were my keys hanging in the front door lock.

When Janet asked me to facilitate this evening, she suggested that I talk about my experience at the one week silent retreat we attended a few weeks ago.  The truth is, I am still trying to figure out what it all means and I am not sure what to share.  I did not want to make up some cutesy story.  I want you to know it was not an easy thing to do.  Instead, I will tell you the entire experience of going on retreat is described in this chapter of “Awakening the Buddha Within”.

When I first arrived at the retreat center we were late—I don’t like to be late.  We missed dinner, missed Surya’s opening discussion, and it was pouring down rain.  Janet tucked me away safely in my cottage and the week-long Nobel Silence officially began. It felt weird and uncomfortable.  The cottage smelled like Pine Sol and it was cold.  The process of the 5 T’s (Taming, Training, Testing, Transforming, and Transcendence) as Lama Surya Das describes in this chapter officially began.  I crawled into the twin bed like a scared little girl at summer camp, pulled my blanket from home that smelled of fabric softener up to my nose, and fell asleep.

The next day, I felt naked, vulnerable, raw and scared.  I wanted to leave.  If this were a play, here enters the 5 Hindrances in their full glory.

I felt out of my skin without the distractions, the responsibilities, without the worries of what to do next, no TV, no radio, no cell phone to fiddle with, no work, and no kids, and I missed my dog.  I was craving all of the stuff from my day to day.

I was very angry at myself for using up a week of vacation that could be better spent on a sunny beach relaxing with an umbrella drink in hand.  I was resentful and jealous of the woman in front of me in meditation who had perfect curly hair and mine was in a pony tail because I forgot my hair conditioner.  I was angry at Janet Taylor because she told me that there was wi-fi and it did not work—like it was Janet’s fault?  Why did I only come to the retreat with only Pema Chodron and Lama Surya Das books on my e-reader?

I was restless since I did not know what to do with my body feeling awkward and sore sitting in long meditations.  Crazy thoughts were racing through my head—I could not concentrate.

Every time I meditated I started to fall asleep and it was not even lunch time yet.  I had nothing to do and time seemed to stop.

I started to doubt why I was there.  Will they be able to tell I am struggling more than everyone else?  Rinpoche who?  Should I be here?  All of the people seem to know so much more than me.  What is with all the people in the maroon scarves?  Janet has one too.  Must mean they are important.  How can I possibly ask a question of Lama Surya Das?  I will sound stupid.

Instead of getting the running for the hills, I forced myself to stick with it.  I meditated, meditated, and meditated more.  Eyes open, eyes closed, chanting, walking, sky gazing, and eating meditation.  I did Tibetan Yoga, regular yoga on my own, and I started feeling the energy pumping through my body.  I started creating my own meditations to pass time like sound meditation or sunset meditation.  I cried lots of tears along the way.

Over a few days time, I began to transform.  I began journaling everyday what I was grateful for.  I began feeling the heavy weighted backpack I carry everyday full of the craving, anger, resentment, restlessness, sleepiness, and boredom becoming lighter and lighter.  I felt in my body. I felt healthy.  For the first time in my adult life, I felt my spirit running my life.  I felt free.

I gained some wonderful insight into who I am and my meditation practice.  I realize am still learning.  On the last day of my retreat, I made the following notes to myself in my journal to carry what I learned from the retreat back with me.

“March 31, 2012

It is the last day of my retreat and I am sitting in my favorite spot by the fountain next to the Lotus Meditation building.  The wind is blowing fiercely as if it is trying to blow me back into my day to day life—reality.  However, I now know that THIS moment, with my hair wildly whipping around IS reality.  Not tomorrow, not yesterday.

1.      Slow down in life.  Live the moments.  Be mindful and cherish them.  Be grateful.
2.      See the joy in living—smile!
3.      Go on retreat again soon. It is necessary.
4.      Be compassionate to yourself.  Give yourself a break every now and then. You don’t have to push yourself so hard.
5.      Be silent more.  Sometimes saying nothing is best.

Things I am grateful for--Retreat Day 7:
1.      The cool wind and the fact I have so much hair to mess up.
2.      Finally seeing the desert
3.      Knowing I have my kids and my dog to go home to
4.      Janet Taylor for her influence on my life and how it has carried into my children’s lives.”

Here I am.  I have moments like I had this morning that are far cry from wise concentration.  I lost 8 pounds on retreat and, as of today, I have gained it all back.  Enlightened?  Nope.  At moments?  Possibly.  I have my flashlight to keep me on the path.

Elizabeth Lesser said in the The Seeker’s Guide, “Meditation practice is like piano scales, basketball drills, ballroom dance class. Practice requires discipline; it can be tedious; it is necessary. After you have practiced enough, you become more skilled at the art form itself. You do not practice to become a great scale player or drill champion. You practice to become a musician or athlete. Likewise, one does not practice meditation to become a great meditator. We meditate to wake up and live, to become skilled at the art of living.”

EIGHTFOLD PATH - Wise View

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As we continue our series of talks from the book, Awakening the Buddha Within, by Lama Surya Das, we’ll start on the Eightfold Path, which is the Fourth Noble Truth.  This is the medicine that the Buddha gave for enlightened living.  If you are suffering, this is your prescription.  The eight components are view, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness and concentration.  In some translations, you’ll find the adjective to describe all these teachings as “Right” (Right view, etc.),  but that word "Right" is too black and white, too absolute. A better translation might be Beneficial or Wise.  Whatever is beneficial or wise for relieving suffering.

The first component, Wise or Beneficial View, is seeing things as they truly are, not through the filters of our past experiences.

This first step is critical to the practice of all the other steps.  It’s taught first because it’s an excellent place to start the journey.  We begin by waking up to the fact that we are causing our own suffering.  I think of it in the same vein as the first step of the 12-step program, when people admit that they are powerless over some old conditioned unskillful behavior.  And, along with this fact, we also have the view that it is possible to relieve our suffering, that others have done it and we can as well.  Confidence, even the smallest amount, can be cultivated.

The other day, someone said to me that they were waiting to do something they really wanted to achieve until they got their ducks in a row.  I can really relate.  No matter how many things are going right in my life, I’m often focused on the one or two things that aren’t going so well.    I sometimes seem to be solely focused on getting all the ducks in a row.  Five of the ducsk are doing just fine, and I still have two that are running amok.  I get the last two in line, the another one goes out of whack.  I have started to see how my clinging to things being a certain way often ensures that I’m never completely happy. I’m subtly trying to get those ducks in some arbitrary row that I’ve made up. I make to do lists of all sorts, subconsiously feeling like once everything is done, then I’ll be happy.  For me, the first step of the Eightfold Path, Wise View, reminds me to honestly examine why I want things to be different in the first place.  

In his teachings, the Buddha was trying to point out that getting the ducks in a row is not the purpose of life.  If we do happen to get the ducks in a row, it will probably be fleeting because, before we know it, those pesky ducks will be running amok again OR we will desire new ducks or all the other ways that our thoughts and emotions can be scattered.  Before we start chasing after the ducks again, we could try a new approach.  We can try using mindful awareness to examine more closely what is actually happening, seeing more clearly our thoughts, our motivation and our actions from a fresh perspective.  

“If only…”  Lama Surya Das encourages us to identify those subtle and not-so-subtle ways that we hide from the truth, by identifying what we’re wishing for.  “If only….”  How would you finish that sentence?   Most of us, we continually consciously or unconsciously defend the stories that we repetitively tell ourselves, about our childhood, our family, who or what we are.  In Buddhism there is a Sanskrit word called, “Samsara” that is literally translated as “perpetual wandering”.    It is the symbol of this cyclic conditioned existence that we find ourselves in. We often keep doing the same things, telling ourselves the same stories about it, and having the same frustrating outcome.  Wise View helps us get off the hamster wheel.

A Zen proverb says if you cling to nothing, you can handle anything.  So, we can take this opportunity right now to be more honest with ourselves, to practice seeing things more clearly.  

Exercises to practice Wise View are:

1.       I don’t know.  Even if you think you know, it’s extremely valuable to rest in the place of not knowing.   Imagine yourself being in your situation for the very first time.  What would it feel like to let go of our previously held beliefs about ourselves, and about others and start from a place of not knowing?

“We’ve enclosed ourselves in a relatively small space by thinking life is only one certain way. It binds us in, and we’re not aware that we’re living in a tiny, cluttered room.  BUT with the practice of mindful awareness and quiet reflection, it’s as if the walls of the room are torn down, and you realize there’s a sky out there.”   Larry Rosenberg, The Art of Doing Nothing (Spring 1998)

2.       Self-inquiry.  What am I holding on to?

What are you clinging to?  What are you not being honest with yourself about?  In this moment, finish this sentence, “If I were being completely honest, I would tell myself….”  What would you say? How can we commit to dropping the old stories, dropping the old way of explaining things or people or past events or even ourselves.  

If you are in an accident and you break your arm, ignoring it, not looking at it, will not fix it.  It’s only when you face the reality of the wound, only then you can begin to take appropriate action to heal. 

3.       Let go of any sense of struggle 

Who or what are we fighting with or against anyway?  How can we try to surrender to the moment, to the deep truth in the moment?  Imagine that life isn’t about struggling at all, that life can be about being in the flow of living.  Letting go of this sense of struggle, having a sense of surrender can be incredibly powerful.

4.       Cultivate compassion

The practice of seeing clearly is what finally moves us toward compassion. Seeing, again and again, the infinite variety of traps we create for seducing the mind into a struggle, seeing the endless rounds of meaningless suffering over lusts and aversions (which, although seem so urgent, lusts and aversions are not the source of happiness).  We begin to feel compassion for ourselves. And then, quite naturally, when we feel compassion for ourselves, we then start to feel compassion for everyone else. Start with yourself!  We can know, as we have never known before, that we are all stuck with bodies and minds and instincts and impulses.  We can surrender to this fact, and that is the first step out of the suffering.

It is often pointed out in the Buddhist teachings that compassion and wisdom go hand-in-hand.  True compassion for yourself AND others is NOT mutually exclusive. 

With Wise View, we commit seeing ourselves and others with insight and compassion.  Tara Brach, in Radical Acceptance said, “In any moment, we can take refuge in awareness.  When we get lost, we need only pause, relax open to what is here, what is now and re-arrive in the natural presence that is our true home.” We can give up the struggle, embrace the ducks wherever they are, and allow ourselves to be at peace.  This is the first step towards true transformation.  

We practice seeing things, ourselves and all others as if for the first time.

The Fourth Noble Truth - the Eightfold Path

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We are continuing a series of talks on the Basics of Buddhism.  I recommend the book Naked Buddha, a Practical Guide to the Buddha’s Life and Teachings, by Adrienne Howley.   We’ve talked about compassionate awareness, honesty and curiosity and how we often inaccurately label ourselves and others.

For the third talk in this series, we’ll discuss the Fourth Noble Truth, which is the Eightfold Path.  These eight practices are designed to invigorate our daily lives with compassionate awareness, honesty and curiosity.  It’s translated as a path but in the original teachings it was described more like a wheel with eight spokes or an eight-limb concurrent process.  It’s not designed to start at the first step and end at the last, but rather to incorporate each as the situation arises. 

These steps are often described as Right View, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration.  However, the word “Right” may not accurately relate the original teaching.   Many translations use the word, “Right”, but that implies a rigidness, a right versus wrong.  A better translation might be Clear or Wise or Complete.  I like the word “Clear” because it describes how we are wiping off the windows of our vision to see more clearly ourselves and our lives.  But perhaps Wise is the best description.  Wise describes what is skillful and what does the most good and the least harm. 

The Eightfold Path is often broken down into three sections—this is a little different than Adrienne Howley’s take on them, but I admit I prefer the description in Lama Surya Das’ book, Awakening the Buddha Within, which is the book we are going to tackle next.  In it, he describes the three sections as Wisdom, Ethics and Meditation.  Let’s look at these three separately.

The first two steps are part of the Wisdom training:  Wise View and Wise Intention.  We all have a certain view of the world.  We may hang on to the view that our parents told us, or we may have come up with our own perspective through our life experiences.  If I were to ask you, “How do you describe the world?”  What would you say?  What would your parents have said?  Is it a scary place?  A difficult place?  A wonderful place?  An unfair place?  A beautiful place?   We often view the world through our past experiences or from the perspective of others who have convinced us of how they see things.

When I was growing up, there was a girl down the street named Shirley Stewart.  I can see her face right now.  She lived catty-cornered to me, and she would follow me home from school every day and taunt me the whole way, saying that she wanted to fight me for some reason or other.  Now, I was a scrawny, sickly little kid—I did not have one good punch in me, but I certainly fantasized about hitting her right in the face!  I’d like to say I was a pacifist but I was just too dang scared to try and mess with her.   She never hit me but threatened to do so about a thousand times.  Luckily, we moved away from the neighborhood when I was 12, but I can still see Shirley’s face staring me down, making me feel stupid and weak.  When I was young, I saw myself through the eyes of Shirley Stewart.  When I was in college, I began to have more confidence in myself, the mental and emotional energy looking for ways to hate her.  She turned out to be a very nice person, but at first I didn’t realize why I hated her so much.   I wasn’t seeing her clearly.  Wise view is about about being willing to have a certain fresh curiosity about ourselves and those around us.

Can we really put one label on the world or on ourselves or on others, particularly since everything and everyone are always changing?  What has happened in your past that you are still hanging on to? What are the filters through which you see the world?  We may have a relationship that went sour, and then all potential partners start to seem to have those same traits.  We may have been mistreated when we were young, now the whole world might look like a scary place.   We begin to recognize these filters and peel them away, so that we can see ourselves and others more clearly. It helps build a sense of wonder in each moment, a fresh curiosity to see more clearly. 

Wise intention is how we prioritize what to do.  What are your intentions in your life?  What do you value?  If you could describe your values in three words, what would it be?  Now, think about your thoughts, words and actions this last week.  How well did those match your values that you just described?   The Buddhist path is designed to help us live our values, and the first step is being clear about what you care about, then translating that into practice every day. 

These first two steps are cultivating a desire and intention to see ourselves and the world more clearly.    The next three steps are about ethical living.  With this clear perspective, we can begin to live a sacred life.

Wise speech is about being more careful before we respond.  As we discussed the very first day in this series, we can ask ourselves three questions:  Is it true?  Is it kind?  Is it necessary?  That may cut out about 75% of what we’re telling ourselves and others! 

Have you ever hung up your cellphone and started recapping the conversation to the person you’re with, only to double check that the cellphone is disconnected?  What were you saying that you didn’t want the person on the phone to hear?  It’s easy to use gossip and slander as a bonding process among friends.  Wise speech is reminding us that words have power, and we can choose words to encourage and support.  Encouragement and support can be a better way to bond with each other.  What do you say to yourself? How do you encourage and support yourself each day?

Wise Action is acting in ways that are wise and compassionate.  With greater awareness, we can create more options on how to respond to outer circumstance.  Habit and past experience are not the only ways to choose how to act.  Wise action comes from a place of reflection and an intention for good.

Wise Livelihood is working in a way that supports oneself and others on their spiritual journey.  This step does not mean we all have to change jobs! Of course, we try to choose jobs that don’t include weapons of mass destruction, but any job has some potential for killing—even a nurse is killing bacteria in order to reduce illnesses.  It is far more important to wake up to how we work.  You may have an awesome job but still be acting in ways that are unskillful.  Wise Livelihood reminds us to seek work that is supportive but also to do whatever work we’re doing in ways that are supportive as well.

And lastly, we have the Meditation Training of Wise Effort, Wise Mindfulness and Wise Concentration.  Adrienne translates these in slight different words, but I think they convey the same meaning

Wise Effort is having a passion for enlightenment.  It can feel much easier sometimes to just do what we’ve done before.  Go back to the rut, go back to old habits.  This Eightfold Path is about applying energy and focus to a new way of living.  What thought will you have in those difficult moments to keep you doing/thinking this new habit?  Wise Effort is encouraging us to reach within and find that passion for happiness and to, as the Dalai Lama proclaims, “Never give up!”

We talked a few weeks ago that we can practice mindfulness as if our hair is on fire, and the only way to put out the flames is compassionate awareness.  This new way of living takes practice and energy.  Dig deep within you to find the passion and fire to change.  In the coming weeks, there will be moments when an old way of thinking will arise.  A moment of craving to go back to the old way of living, it will at times seem so much easier than practicing these newfangled steps.  At that moment, when the past coping mechanisms seem to have renewed allure, we can remember to connect with the passion to live a new life, a greater life, a more fulfilling life.  Find that passion now so you’ll know where it is when the going gets tough.

Wise Mindfulness is practicing mindfulness by being fully present in each moment.  Mindfulness is a commitment to staying awake to the reality in each moment, no sleepwalking through life.  We can approach living with curiosity and non-preference, savoring things just as they are.  Then, from this place of curiosity, the richness and fullness of the world opens up and provides us with amazing gifts of clarity.  It’s important to NOT think about mindfulness as a burden to bear but as a gift that we are giving ourselves, a totally free, easily obtained, always there, medication for what ails us.

"He who maintains attentive mindfulness is like the great sage, the Buddha. Careful attention to mindfulness is an elixir and a blessing."  --Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche, Tibet, nineteenth century

Wise Concentration is practicing concentration to train our mind.  These changes don’t occur overnight.  It takes practice and focus. To experience this amazing transformation, it helps to practice concentration daily. We practice by focusing on our breath or on a mantra or on walking or on eating, being very focused on whatever is that we are doing.  Eventually, we can release the focus into just being, when just being becomes our natural state of openness and awareness. 

So, this week, your assignment is simple:  Look for ways to bless yourself and the people around you. Bless others with your undivided attention, listen with an open heart.  Bless others with your smile-smile at people you don’t know even smile at the people you do know.  Bless yourself by kind thoughts of encouragement and support. Try being with yourself or another in a non-judgmental way.  You might even have someone in your life that would be willing to have a mindful lunch or dinner with, where the two of you practice these eight steps as best you can.  It might make for a very different eating experience!

The Power of Intention

The second step on the Eightfold Path, is Right Intention. The power of intention is discussed in the Dhammapada, a collection of sayings by the Buddha,

The thought manifests as the word;

The word manifests as the deed;

The deed develops into habit,

And habit hardens into character;

So watch the thought and its ways with care,

And let it spring from love

Born out of concern for all beings…

As the shadow follows the body,

As we think, so we become.

So what is this thingl called intention? Of course, we’ve all heard the saying that the Road to Hell is paved with good intentions, implying that our intentions are irrelevant and that our actions are the most important demonstration of our lives. Actions are important, but this common saying doesn’t take into consideration where actions come from in the first place. Imagine that you are standing over a person with a knife in your hand. Your intention is to harm them, you stab the knife into their heart and begin slicing into them, and they die. Now, imagine the very same action, but you are a surgeon and your intention is to heal them. Something goes wrong during the surgery, and they die anyway. The outcome is exactly the same, but the motivation for your action was extremely important to understanding the situation.

Jack Kornfield says that intentions are the seeds you plant in your heart that grow to become how you live your life. The stories you are telling yourself about your life are the foundation of how you experience life and how you react to any situation that you find yourself in. If you wake up in the morning, and something goes wrong, and you decide that it’s going to be a crappy day—then you’ve set your intention to find the crappiness in life. And we usually find what we’re looking for. Buddha recognized the power of intention. In the New Testament of the Bible, Paul said that we shall reap what we sow. And sowing actually begins with our thoughts and intentions.

In this moment, right now, ask yourself “What is my primary intention in life?” “Why do I get up in the morning?” When you think about getting older and reflecting back on your life, what do you want to see? In Buddhism, we are encouraged to start with a clear intention, not settling for just sleepwalking through life reacting in old conditioned ways.

“Breathing in, breathing out, feeling resentful, feeling happy, being able to drop it, not being able to drop it, eating our food, brushing our teeth, walking, sitting—whatever we’re doing could be done with one intention. That intention is that we want to wake up, we want to ripen our love and compassion, and we want to ripen our ability to let go, we want to realize our connection with all beings. Everything in our lives has the potential to wake us up or to put us to sleep. Allowing it to awaken us is up to us.”

-Pema Chodron, from Comfortable With Uncertainty (Shambhala Publications)

When we’re feeling stressed or depressed or anxious or happy or cheerful or silly or whatever state of mind might arise, in that moment we can recognize these states of mind, and we can ask ourselves: “What is my intention?” “What do I want out of life, and what do I want to put into life?” We can wake ourselves up. We can use the rising of any emotion or thought to better understand ourselves and to recognize the power of clarifying our intention. An emotion or thought is NOT who we are! We always have a choice about how to respond to anything and anyone in our life. Bring to mind a time in your life when you felt stuck in a bad situation, when you had that feeling of having no choices, feeling that there was no way to escape some particularly difficult situation. When you think about those times, even when things might seem at their worst, we still have the ability to set our intention towards waking up, to being curious about the situation, not judging ourselves for whatever we’ve done in the past, giving ourselves the gift of forgiveness and clear seeing. Waking up enables us to see the world with fresh eyes, to see new options that we might have missed before.

Naturally, there will be times when we have to admit we’ve fallen back asleep, that we didn’t act with good intentions, or even times when our intentions were kind and compassionate, but the outcome was still less than desired. Even in those situations, we have a fresh opportunity to set our intention to waking up and getting back on track.

Sometimes it might seem like too much effort. Our limited minds might tell us that it’s just easier to keep doing things the way we’ve been doing them. Living a life without any specific intention can at times seem very alluring. Let’s just smoke that cigarette or have that drink. Let’s watch TV until our brains turn to mush. Who cares? In those moments, when mindfulness seems like too much trouble, that is the most important moment for practice. That is the moment to remind ourselves of the deep, long-lasting happiness that can be found in waking up and staying awake. We can remind ourselves how wonderful life can be.

“Action isn't a burden to be hoisted up and lugged around on our shoulders. It is something we are. The work we have to do can be seen as a kind of coming alive. More than some moral imperative, it's an awakening to our true nature, a releasing of our gifts. This flow-through of energy and ideas is at every moment directed by our choice. That's our role in it. We're like a lens that can focus, or a gate that can direct this flow-through by schooling our intention. In each moment our intention gives this energy direction.”

–Joanna Macy, from “Schooling Our Intention,” Tricycle, Winter 1993

So, First, in each moment, we can set our intention. And Second, in each moment, we can remind ourselves of why it’s worth making the effort. And third, we can identify the choices that we are making in our lives. It can often seem like there is just one answer, the old conditioned response, to whatever is happening in our lives. But that simply is not true. We live in arguably the free-est country on the planet—and yet we can fool ourselves into thinking that we don’t have choices. The Buddhist teachings encourage us to use our intention as a litmus test against which choices can be evaluated. Then, we can choose consciously. We can decide what we want our life to be about, and can then choose our thoughts and actions based on that intention.

Last year, a friend of mine was facing some very difficult challenges in her life. I asked her if it was okay for me to share some of her story—she said yes. She had always been a good saver and smart financial planner, but then she found herself in financial crisis: she and her husband were both out of work, having a mortgage that they were struggling to pay, savings having been depleted, no end seemed to be in sight. As she and I talked about the dire circumstances, I was struggling to find a way to help relieve her pain. But my friend had found her own inspiration. She said that she was ready to explore all the options, even ones that had once seemed inconceivable to accept. She said that she knew bankruptcy and foreclosure were options, that she could live in her dad's basement and start her own business. She talked enthusiastically about the joy of moving in with her dad and starting fresh. She had taken the blinders off of what was possible and found there to be possibilities that, not only could she consider, but that she could even see as positive.

Our intentions color the stories we tell ourselves. In the face of the worst financial situation of her life, she knew she had choices, and that it was up to her to decide what to do, that life was not happening to her. She was creating the life she was living, and no matter how dire things seemed, she could set her intention on making new choices, set her intention on seeing the world as a place of possibilities and those new choices could include joy and happiness. That is the power of intention.

So each of us gets to choose, not once in a lifetime or once a year, but we are choosing in each and every moment, how we are going to live our life. We are choosing whether we live with clear intention or whether we allow ourselves to get dragged down in the mire of old habits and old ways of seeing the world and old ways of seeing ourselves. It is a choice. And no matter how many times we might think that we fail, we always, every one of us, have a new moment to start fresh.

There’s a wonderful William Blake quote that says, “If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear as it actually is—infinite.

So, we can be encouraged that the work of waking up is an opportunity to see the world come alive. We can wake up to this truth, we can recognize our unique gifts and manifest those gifts in our everyday actions. We can recognize the flow-through of energy from intention to action. We can recognize that every moment is a moment to start fresh. In each moment, we can set our intention to living our true purpose.