Nothing needs to be done

Nothing needs to be done. 

We live in a culture where it seems like there’s a whole lot of stuff that “needs” to be done, but nothing really NEEDS to be done.  Not inherently.

Yes, there are consequences for every action and every inaction, but it is liberating to realize that we are in fact CHOOSING to do everything we do.  Try this simple exercise.  Think of all the things you do in any given day, from something as simple as kissing a partner or family member good morning, to paying our taxes or going to work. Nothing needs to be done.  We are choosing to do what we do.  And when we wake up to this fact—society isn’t making us do stuff, our parents aren’t making us do stuff, nobody can make us do stuff.  They may encourage, demand, solicit, request, cajole, intimidate, punish or torture, but NOTHING NEEDS TO BE DONE. 

When we realize that we start with a clean slate each moment, we start to realize the importance of choosing more wisely.   It doesn’t mean we wake up tomorrow and do nothing, but it could be a powerful tool for beginning to question why you do what you do.  What is motivating you?  Why do you feel so strongly sometimes that certain things need to be done?  What do you want? …  And how are your choices getting you there?

Cultural influences are an inevitable part of living in any society.  We are pushed and pulled by our family and friends, by the media, and by our very minds, to want to fit in, to be part of something, to not be an outcast.  But, sometimes our culture, our family our friends the media, our very minds are leading us in the wrong direction.  Hypnotizing us into believing that there are certain things that we must do, but upon careful examination, this is simply not true.

This liberating process of waking up to the power of choices hit me so strongly when I was on the pilgrimage in India.

I have read many books, as many of you have, telling the story of Buddha’s life, and as I’ve talked about it, I always downplayed the whole story as “legend has it…”  yeah yeah yeah.  Does it really matter that Buddha lived at a certain time and was said to have had certain encounters?  I kept going back to the basic teachings as the real source of Buddhism.  Who cares what really happened in his life?

But what I experienced when I literally walked on the ground that allegedly Buddha and his first followers walked on, it helped me imagine what it must have been like at the very beginning, when this whole practice of mindfulness and waking up was so new to everyone.  Walking in all those places where, legend has it, he walked, encouraged me to reflect upon what he and his followers must have been experiencing.

Imagine that you are this man named Siddhartha.  You live in a situation where your every need is taken care of.  You are completely cared for and have a cushy life.  But, you find that something is missing.  He couldn’t quite put his finger on it. ..The external luxuries weren’t making him feel whole, satisfied, fulfilled.  So, he simply left behind everything that he had known his whole life.  He left his home, his family, his wife, his newborn son, and went off to find what was missing.   Ever wanted to do that?  Have you ever had that feeling that it is all just too much to deal with?  Now, I’m certainly not advocating walking away from our responsibilities, but by imagining what was happening in the Buddha’s life, I think we can all relate to what he might have been going through.

So, he left, and left behind a mess.  His dad was mad at him for leaving the family business of running the kingdom, his wife must have really been irritated leaving her with a newborn.   And he left with nothing, so he is wandering around in the forest, hanging out with some new friends that he found, and they convinced him to try this new spiritual practice called asceticism.  Asceticisim believes that we should give up all worldly pleasures, even most eating, to have time to solely focus on creating a spiritual experience.  It is a very extreme way of life.

In the jagged hills near Rajgir, I climbed to the top of the crags, and sat in a place where Buddha may have come to reflect on this ascetic practice he followed strictly for six years.  The view was breathtaking, I tried to imagine his thoughts, as hungry as he must have been—what his thoughts might have been.  Haven’t we all struggled at times with a way of life that we think might bring us happiness but it still makes us suffer?

Then, he crossed a river, and through exhaustion, fell on the shore of the other side.  A young girl saw him suffering and gave him milk rice.  Her name was Sujata, and her act of kindness enabled Siddhartha to live.  I crossed the river where it was said that he crossed.  I went to the memorial honoring Sujata and her act of kindness, and I was struck how we all have opportunities to help others in their time of need, not knowing what the long term beneficial effects it might be.

With some more strength, Siddhartha went to Uruvela and sat down under a huge Bodhi tree, this beautiful knotted tree with artistic leaves that are found everywhere in the area.  He committed to just sitting, just breathing, just being, until he understood what was missing in his life. And there he awakened.  Awakened to the fact that there was a way of living that was joyful and happy, that could actually reduce suffering.  Because of his awakening, Uruvela is now known as Bodh Gaya, where a magnificent temple has been erected, and around it, craziness.  Thousands of monks and nuns and people from all over the world come to this place to see, to chant, to meditate, to prostrate, to do whatever they can to try and get that awakening that Siddhartha had in that very spot.

I myself somewhat selfishly wanted to go there for the same reason.  I wanted to be there, to try to experience exactly what he must have experienced, when he gave up thinking that there were things that must be done, and through giving up, discovered this incredible way of living.

Imagine even then, how his life must have changed.  Once he had this awakening, he initially felt that no one would understand, so he kept it to himself, but eventually he felt compelled to say something to try and explain.  So. He went to Sarnath, and in Deer Park, he sat down with his five friends who he had been hanging with before.  They got it, they rejoiced, and then they all started hanging out practicing this new way of living.

Imagine the feedback they must have gotten from other people of the time—“what?  What are you doing?  Are you crazy? Why aren’t you still doing what everyone else is doing?”  They were probably seen as radicals, busting up the system, a threat to the old way of life.  But they did it anyway.

As I walked the paths in Deer Park and sat in the spot in Sravasti where Buddha is said to have lived for 19 years, I imagined the excitement he and his followers must have felt, able to let go of the criticism and stay true to their process.  They were discovering a new way of living and they were supporting each other on this new path.

This story, I discovered, was not some old legend with no meaning.  This story is our story, all of our stories.  This story is as contemporary as consumerism and complacency.  We each have struggled at times to find a way of living that feels joyful, and right for us.  And these practices of the Eightfold Path, the Five Precepts and the Four Boundless Qualities have been proven by others to work, BUT inherent in the teachings is a call to skepticism.  DO NOT TAKE ANYONE’S WORD FOR IT. They only work if you try them for yourself. 

I stood on Vulture’s Peak at sunset and read the Heart Sutra, the essence of the Mahayana teaching.  The words seemed to penetrate me at the deepest level.   When I let go of the dualistic thinking of me versus others, when I expand in to the consciousness of all things, I let go of my individual struggle, which turns out to be just a thought in my mind anyway.  I can then get a glimpse of the bigger picture, I can see a greater meaning, I can feel a deep connection to all beings, who are going through the same process as I am.

And, I realized that I didn’t need to be in some special place to have this experience.  This can be our Bodh Gaya.  These flowers on the altar can be our Bodhi tree.  We are here to support each other.  Imagine the limitations that the Buddha would have felt if it had just been him alone, trying to meditate and try this new way of living.  He needed the support of his sangha, his fellow seekers as much as they needed him.  We are here to love and support each others, BECAUSE to some extent, we are all radicals. We are bucking the current system.  We are committing to no longer worship at the feet of our current culture, to no longer trying to find happiness by rearranging our external circumstances.  We are here making a difference, we are here changing western culture little by little, beginning most importantly with ourselves and what we can do internally and then locally, what we can do right now, in this very moment. 

Nothing needs to be done. 

You choose in this moment and in every moment what you want to do.  You can choose loving-kindness.  You can choose compassion, You can choose sympathetic joy, You can choose equanimity.  Despite of what ANYONE, including your own mind, might tell you, YOU ARE CHOOSING, IN EACH MOMENT.

So, Buddha’s story now strikes me as every person’s story of awakening. 

And in two weeks, On December 9^th, at 6 pm we’ll be in this very room, with the relics of the Buddha and other remarkable Buddhist teachers throughout the last 2500 years.  I am personally asking you to join me on that night, to be here and bring your friends and family who might be willing to come, so that we can all come together to create and support an experience of loving-kindness and compassion.  Imagine this room filled with 300 people solely focused on creating more loving-kindness and compassion in the world, starting here, starting now.  Not waiting until we have enough money or time or resources or less criticism or whatever it is that you might think you need before beginning.  Start now. 

In honor of the upcoming Buddhist Relics Tour, this morning we’ll practice together the Loving-Kindness meditation.  Let Buddha’s story be your motivation for going beyond any personal struggles, beyond any pre-conceived notions of who is lovable, who deserves to be loved.  Go beyond to see that we all deserve to be loved, that we can cultivate the innate love and compassion that is guaranteed to be within each of us, no matter how much someone might cover it up with wrong thinking, no matter what you might have done in the past. 

“Things are not as they seem,

Nor are they otherwise

So you might as well burst out laughing!”

~ Tibetan Dzogchen master Longchenpa, 1308-1369 CE