Following many months of diligent work by the Order of Interbeing Committee, Dharma Teachers Sangha Caretaking Council, and the elders in the monastic community, we are now able to offer an revised and updated Order of Interbeing Aspirancy Application Packet. This new packet should be used by any new aspirants in North America.
This application assists your local Sangha and supporting Dharma Teacher as you begin the formal mentoring process. The Charter of the Order of Interbeing provides that an Aspirant shall announce their aspiration to join the Order to the Sangha before making a formal request. Formal Sangha support is required to become an aspirant and to join the Order of Interbeing. To ensure the requisite support is available, someone who wishes to aspire and begin the mentoring process should discuss their aspirations with the prospective mentors, including the Dharma Teacher. The Preparing for Aspirancy section of this packet will help you look deeply into your readiness to ask to aspire and begin the mentoring process. In deciding whether conditions are ripe for formal acceptance and mentoring to begin, your mentoring Dharma Teacher will speak with you and consult with your sangha and any other OI Mentors as appropriate.
The act of sitting down is an act of revolution — Thich Nhat Hanh
Sitting down is revolutionary because it means you are stopping and choosing to rest in this place, in this moment.
It’s revolutionary, because modern life is so busy. At work I’m busy getting things done, then I turn to projects at home, to shopping, to gardening, to exercise. Even after my work is done, I still keep checking email or looking for stimulation, to see if there’s something new and exciting happening on Twitter, or Instagram, or Reddit.
This busy-ness acquires a kind of momentum of its own, so that we barely remember that we have bodies.
And there’s nothing more present to us than our bodies, so it’s kind of a ridiculous situation.
There is a kind of loneliness or restlessness that we try to fill with movies, TV shows, reading books, alcohol, or food. But that emptiness never gets filled up. You can only distract yourself from it for a while, but it never goes away.
When you learn to stop, and just sit there, you have a chance to return to yourself. To your true self, and the true nature of reality.
And that’s revolutionary too, because too often we never stop to look deeply into who we really are.
For a long time I didn’t take rest very seriously. I recognized that if I wanted to do good work or exercise well, then I needed rest in between periods of effort. But it felt to me like the rest was just something that I had to do in between the meaningful parts, the important stuff.
And I often felt, as I think many people do, that the rest was something I had to earn. So I would work hard and only then would I felt like I deserved to rest at the end of the day, or on the weekend.
Rest seemed like nothing to me. Just sitting there was usually quite boring, unless I was making the effort to meditate. I needed something to do.
But some things have happened in the past year or two that have helped me to understand rest better.
Sitting as protest
One of the things that has happened is getting acquainted with active, living traditions of protest and resistance, many of which have involved sitting down in public: Sitting down as an act of revolution.
For example, sit-ins in the 1950s and 1960s were a powerful form of resistance. Simply by sitting in a particular place, simply by showing up and being present, people were able to put enormous wheels of change into motion.
This was not always easy. Far from it. Sometimes others would yell at these people who were sitting down at a lunch counter, or pour food on them or drag them out forcibly, arresting them and charging them with breaking the law. In fact, many of the people who took part in these sit-in protests were arrested and convicted — and it was only in the 21st century that their charges were dismissed and their records cleared.
I think this is another reason why Thich That Hanh says that sitting is an act of revolution. Sometimes, just sitting at a lunch counter is a protest, because you’re not supposed to be there. Sometimes, just sitting requires you to do something different than what everyone around you is doing — and that can be revolutionary.
Sitting down as a form of active protest has continued for decades, kept alive by generations of activists. For example, Extinction Rebellion has carried on this tradition by sitting in public spaces. Although these protests can be disruptive, for instance by stopping traffic, XR is also committed to nonviolence, peace, and to doing these actions in a very mindful way.
A Plum Village monastic, Brother Phap Man, sat down with Extinction Rebellion protestors in New York in 2019, and got arrested. He’s written about how it was one of the most important and meaningful days of his life.
Brother Phap Man (right, in the brown robes) at XR Protest in NYC
Days of mindfulness and lazy days
People who aspire to be part of the core community of the Order of Interbeing, to be ordained as OI members and follow the 14 Mindfulness Trainings, are asked to observe 60 days of mindfulness a year.
This is already a daunting requirement. If every day of mindfulness is like the formal days of mindfulness hosted by various sanghas, this is a lot of work! Organizing a day of mindfulness takes a lot of thoughtful planning, communication, and patience. You need to find someone to facilitate meditation, someone to offer deep relaxation, someone to facilitate dharma sharing. Maybe there is a dharma talk. Perhaps someone else will offer some kind of mindful movement. You’ll want some time for singing and for mindfully eating together.
Even attending one of these days of mindfulness can be a lot of work, because you need to clear your schedule and bring 100% of your focus to it, as much as possible.
And you’re supposed to do 60 of those a year?
At some point I learned that Thay also recommends taking a “Lazy Day” every week. This was the point at which I got a little freaked out, and started to think that the OI path might only be suitable for monastics and retired people.
60 Days of Mindfulness plus a Lazy Day every one of the 52 weeks of the year means 112 days, or about one-third of my year, would be devoted to mindfulness and Plum Village practices.
I am sure I’d be a very spiritual person if I could do all that, but with a job, a house, a wife, two kids, two dogs, and a cat to look after, it did not seem like a realistic lifestyle for me.
Also, I didn’t want to do any days of mindfulness or “sitting down” actions where I could get arrested, because I can’t really afford to get arrested right now!
Learning to do less
Two demonstrators at Sit-Walk-Listen in San Francisco, 2020. Photo by Dylan
Despite these fears, somehow I actually managed to get started with the OI aspiration process. And as I started to talk with my teacher, Lennis Lyon, one of the first things she told me to think about was asking myself not “what more can I do?” but “what less can I do?”
I took this so seriously that I wrote a little calligraphy saying “What Less Can I Do?” and I put it on the cover of my notebook. This is the notebook that I use to write down all the things related to my aspiration, all my notes on the things I need to do in order to be a good Buddhist. I had to put a little calligraphy on the cover to remind myself that I don’t necessarily need to do so much.
Still, I wanted to create a reading list, a curriculum for my training as an aspirant. Lennis told me that she used to have a curriculum, but she doesn’t really use it. But after a few months, she reluctantly gave me a reading assignment.
So even with this assignment, Lennis was trying to teach me to do less!
Aimlessness is about not trying too hard. Not aiming for anything in particular but just letting each moment be, and doing what needs doing right now.
In that passage was a line that really struck me:
“There is no need to put anything in front of us and run after it. We already have everything we are looking for, everything we want to become. We are already a Buddha so why not just take the hand of another Buddha and practice walking meditation?”
Walking meditation at Sit-Walk-Listen in San Francisco, 2020. Photo by Dylan
Uposatha Days and Sabbath Days
Another thing that helped me understand rest better is learning about the work of Tricia Hersey. She is a performance artist and activist, and the founder of “The Nap Ministry,” which is “an organization that examines the liberating power of naps.” You can follow the Nap Ministry on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter — she’s very inspiring.
Tricia Hersey brings black liberation theology together with a critique of capitalism and patriarchy — and she is also an enthusiastic proponent of taking naps.
Hersey also talks about Sabbath days — sacred days of rest.
In the Jewish tradition, Shabbat, the Sabbath, happens once a week. It honors the seventh day of creation, the day on which God rested. When I looked into it, I learned that the Sabbath is very deep, and similar in spirit to Uposatha Days and Days of Mindfulness. It’s a chance to connect with the divine, with true reality, to be extra mindful of what is most important and most real in life. It is a sacred time.
Then I remembered that in the Buddhist tradition, there is also a kind of Sabbath, called Uposatha days.
These are days when you work less, you study the dharma more, you might follow a few extra precepts, maybe you stay overnight at a temple. They happen at the new Moon, the full Moon, and the two quarter Moons in between — in other words, about once a week.
In both of these traditions, rest is very important. The Nap Ministry talks about creating “sacred and safe spaces for the community to rest together.” Safe spaces are important! But it is also important to create sacred and safe times for the community to rest. This is the brilliance of Uposatha days and Sabbath days.
In this view — which the Nap Ministry woke me up to — rest is not something you earn. It is not something you only get to do after a hard day, or a hard week, of work.
Hersey, and Heschel, taught me that rest is a divine right. It is when we are resting that we are most in touch with our true, divine nature. It is only our conditioning that makes us think we need to work all the time, to hustle, to grind, to be busy busy busy. (And who does that benefit?)
Lazy days of mindfulness
So with apranihita and Shabbat in mind I started thinking about how I could get away with doing less than 112 days of very spiritual practice a year.
The first thing I did was to combine Days of Mindfulness and Lazy Days. So now, once a week, I observe a Lazy Day of Mindfulness where I try, as much as possible, to do just one thing at a time, to take it easy and to rest. I try to be as mindful as I can be, while going about the activities of my normal weekend life. It’s my Day of Rest.
There are actually thousands of years of traditional precedent, both East and West, for doing this!
It was a real breakthrough for me to realize that rest is actually a part of Buddhist practice — maybe the most important part. For instance, I used to take a very “busy” approach to meditation. It didn’t count as meditation unless I was working really hard at it! I had to be counting breaths, very strict about my attention, sitting very rigidly, and so on.
But no: Meditation is also about rest. Just sitting. Just being present in a particular place, right now.
This is not just an individual practice. Sanghas can also organize Lazy Days of Mindfulness, days when the sangha gets together but the organizers don’t feel like they have to fill the whole day with scheduled activities. Maybe we just get together, meditate for awhile, do some mindful walking, and then see what other activities might manifest based on who’s there and what they want to offer. Calligraphy? Reading? Or maybe we all drink a little tea and then take naps.
As Thay has written: “Resting is a very important practice; we have to learn the art of resting. Resting is the first part of Buddhist meditation. You should allow your body and your mind to rest. Our mind as well as our body needs to rest.”
Rest and meditation can both happen in a variety of ways — even standing or walking. In fact, the Buddha recognized four postures for meditation: sitting, standing, walking, and lying down.
The Plum Village tradition has sitting meditation, of course, and we are very good at walking meditation. We also have lying-down meditation, only we call it deep relaxation. Half the time we may fall asleep during deep relaxation, but that is okay. Rest is a divine right!
Standing meditation is not discussed a lot in our tradition, as far as I know. But I did get to practice standing meditation during Sit-Walk-Listen, which was a series of mindful demonstrations in support of Black Lives Matter that took place in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York in the summer and fall of 2020. These events were organized by an inspiring group of Wake Up practitioners who put a lot of careful attention into making the events inclusive, safe, and restful spaces; sometimes there were over 100 people all meditating, moving, and talking to support Black Lives Matter (and later, also, to support Stop Asian Hate).
At many of these events, I was one of the “caretakers” who stood watch while everyone else practiced sitting meditation in a public place, such as the broad plaza in front of City Hall in San Francisco. Usually there were four of us caretakers, standing outside the meditation circle, keeping an eye out for anyone who might come by: passersby, media, police, and “shouty people.”
When I wasn’t talking with passersby, which was most of the time, this practice was about just standing there. Just breathing and observing. And I found that, while this was also part of the demonstration, it was very restful as well.
Monk in a tree. Is this sitting, standing, or lying-down meditation?
My conclusion is simple: I enthusiastically recommend taking a lazy day and a day of mindfulness every week, and make them the same day. You can call it a day of rest, as I do.
It can be helpful to put a little ceremony around these days in order to give yourself extra permission to rest. For example, in observant Jewish families, it’s traditional to joyfully welcome the Sabbath with candles and prayer and song. I’m not Jewish, but I’ve experimented with lighting candles to welcome the weekend on Friday night, which is nice. My family is not too excited about prayers and songs, so I’m leaving those aside for now, but the candles we all like.
I find it is helpful to put my phone away, to turn it off or to not carry it in my pocket, and spend all day off the internet as much as possible.
I try to eat each meal mindfully, maybe reciting the Five Contemplations first. If I can take a mindful walk around the neighborhood, that’s good too.
Of course I have things to do on Saturdays: Shopping, taking care of the garden, driving my kids to one place or another. So strict Shomer Shabbos rules like “no handling money” or “no driving cars” don’t work for me, although they might be very supportive for others. (Note: that’s a link to a video clip from The Big Lebowski, which might not make sense if you don’t know the movie.)
The basic idea, though, is whatever I have to do, I try to do it as mindfully as possible.
I think there are many ways to put together a day of rest, and it’s worth some experimentation. This is just how I do it, and it’s been working very well for me for the past couple of years, but some other restful practices may work better for you.
And of course, a day of rest should include a nap! Dogs can be a great inspiration for this.
Lucy, bodhisattva of naps. Photo by Karen Jensen
A word of warning, though. Sitting down and resting is an act of revolution. If you follow this practice, you may find that you start to see things differently. You might find you are increasingly out of sync with the always-on, constantly busy world we live in. You might start to wonder why everyone in a capitalist, patriarchal society feels they need to hustle so hard. You might start to imagine a world where we all have the freedom to do less. You might start to think about liberation.
One last recommendation: If you can get a hammock, or borrow a friend’s, lying in a hammock is a really good thing to do on a day of rest!
Three Key Questions When Considering the Plight of the Earth
The beauty of our planet and its beings is beyond words. And the current suffering of our planet and its beings is heartbreaking. It makes me want to alternately celebrate and mourn, give gratitude and organize. I’d like to explore with you three questions related to the climate situation.
How do we fall in love with Mother Earth over and over to nurture connection with the natural world?
How do we face the immensity of climate suffering and let our hearts break open, without getting overwhelmed?
How does each of us take full responsibility for protecting and preserving our beloved Earth?
1. How do we Fall in love with Mother Earth over and over to nurture connection with the natural world?
When we were small, my guess is that many of us had a secret or magical place in nature where we went for refuge, where we felt safe, or renewed, or in awe. For me, I lived on Puget Sound in a town across the bay from Seattle, with water and mountains all around. When I felt lonely or lost, I would climb the willow tree and look out at the Olympic mountains. Their solidity and calm soothed my agitation. When I was 13, I built a kayak and would float for hours, watching seagulls and clouds. I felt whole, embedded, happy. Do you have such memory?
Most environmentalists started because of love. Across the political spectrum, when asked what makes them care about the environment, they talk about the creek they loved where fished as a child that’s now polluted, or the forest they roamed which was cut down to build a shopping mall, or cypress trees in bayou they call home, now dying because of oil sludge.
So finding ways of renewing our love for the natural world is the starting point that helps us look squarely at the climate catastrophe facing us. I try to take daily opportunities to pause in my hurried pace, take a slow walk in the woods, or even around the block to look at the trees, or sit by a stream, trying to let the earth elements penetrate the cells of my being. There’s a simple reflection by St. John of the Cross:
I was sad one day and went for a walk; I sat in a field. A rabbit noticed my condition and came near. It often does not take more than that to help at times to just be close to creatures who are so full of knowing, so full of love though they don’t chat. They just gaze with their marvelous understanding.”
Even though I have been conditioned to feel separate from nature, it is impossible for me to be separate. My actual relatedness is infinite. Our teacher, Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh, asks us if we can see the sun in a piece of paper, and the rain which nourishes the tree from which the paper is made, and all the elements that were necessary for the paper to manifest, like the micro-organisms under the tree, the soil itself, the logger, the food that sustained the logger, and so without limit. Take any of these elements away and the paper would not exist. Likewise, each of us humans is dependent on an infinite number of causes and conditions. That famous quote from Martin Luther King, Jr, beautifully captures this web of connection:
You get up in the morning and go to the bathroom, and you reach over for a bar of soap, and that’s handed to you by a Frenchman. You reach over for a sponge, and that’s given to you by a Turk. You reach over for a towel, and that comes to your hand from the hands of a Pacific Islander. And then you go on to the kitchen to get your breakfast. You reach on over to get a little coffee, and that’s poured in your cup by a South American. Or maybe you decide that you want a little tea this morning, only to discover that that’s poured in your cup by a Chinese. Or maybe you want a little cocoa, that’s poured in your cup by a West African. Then you want a little bread and you reach over to get it, and that’s given to you by the hands of an English-speaking farmer, not to mention the baker. Before you get through eating breakfast in the morning, you’re dependent on more than half the world. That’s the way reality is structured. So let us be concerned about others because we are dependent on others.”
A short poem by Rumi sums it up:
If God said, “Rumi, pay homage to everything that helped you enter my arms,” there is not one experience in my life, not one thought, not one feeling, not any one action I would not bow to.”
I sometimes sit and feel into how the forest is in me, and I am in the forest, or the ocean, or the sky, or the desert. We are descendants not just of our human ancestors, but also plant, earth, mineral, and star elements. As a practice, one teacher of mine suggests that we “adopt” a life form, a plant or animal or insect, or a piece of land. Observe it, study it, learn about it, meditate on it, send lovingkindness it to it, come to care for it.
One way I try to keep my awareness alive is by reciting some contemplations with my meals. I look at the plate of food, and say… This food is a gift of the earth, the sky, numerous living beings, and much hard and loving work.
May we eat with mindfulness and gratitude so as to be worthy to receive this food. May we recognize and transform unwholesome states of mind and learn to eat with moderation. May we keep our compassion alive by eating in such a way that reduces the suffering of living beings, stops contributing to climate change, and heals and preserves our precious planet. We accept this food so that we may nurture our community, and nourish our ideal of serving all living beings.”
You have your own ways of feeling your love for nature and the earth. The invitation or encouragement here is to go to your well often and deeply.
2. How do we face the immensity of climate suffering and let our hearts break open, without getting overwhelmed.
In Buddhism there is a teaching that the 10,000 joys and 10,000 sorrows are side by side. And we can enter deeper dimensions of life through either entryway. Sometimes when we are in the Love-for-the-Earth mind-state, we are overcome with great feelings of gratitude, of awe, of praise, of yes! Sometimes seeing the sunset or looking deeply at a flower, or watching a butterfly, or smiling at a baby duck trailing its mama, makes tears rolls down our face.
Or the other door opens and we contemplate the immensity of the catastrophe that climate change is bringing.
The warning bells of climate disaster are sounding loudly. The number of animals reduced in half in last 40 years; 50% of all species extinct in 80 years (according to the World Wildlife Fund)? Half of the Arctic ice gone now? Coastal cities around the world flooded in 30 years. 300 million climate refugees in 30 years?
And things are likely to get worse: crop failures, food and water shortages, cities and coastlines flooded, huge species die-offs, mass human migration, regional conflicts, tyranny, and failed states. And low income communities and poorer nations suffer the most harm. Heartbreaking.
One scientist says we are heading for “inevitable social collapse, probable environmental catastrophe, and possible human extinction.”
Think about this. If we are even half way awake, and don’t turn away from this suffering, then we are going to feel heartbreak, deep grief, maybe loads of anger and waves of despair, and probably bouts of confusion and doubt.
How do we allow ourselves to face and feel the enormity of what is upon us? Because if we don’t allow those feelings to arise and heal, then we are in danger of shutting down, going numb, hardening our hearts, distracting ourselves, and playing small ball. I would venture to say that most everyone reading this knows deep in our hearts that there is something very wrong. Fundamentally out of right alignment. Because everything is interconnected, we hurt inside when we even read about things far away, like refugees fleeing rising sea levels, or the loss of another beautiful species gone forever, or the explosion of an oil rig that coats the shoreline for hundreds of miles with sludge that kills the seabirds. Our hearts break. In the human realm too, we hurt when others are hurting. I remember, during the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, the black people had a chant, “An injury to one is an injury to all. An injury to one is an injury to all.” The point is that whether or not we allow space to express the feelings connected with climate suffering, those feelings are present in us.
How do we find ways of allowing ourselves to grieve, to let our hearts break open at both the present suffering and the suffering that is predicted? Feelings of despair, depression, and sadness are natural responses to the possibilities of extinction, but as passing states of grief, not as a reason to give up or not act. Life is still miraculous, even as suffering deepens, there is still so much to love and protect.
If we were together in person, we might share with each other the ways we’ve found to face and feel the emotions connected to the climate crisis. We might deliberately find ways of getting close to suffering—watching a climate awareness video, reading dispatches from scientists, being with folks who had to flee a wildfire or flood. We might read any number of excellent books about our situation.
What has also helped me is to remember that the feelings of despair, fear, or powerlessness that arise about climate change were there long before we ever knew anything about climate change. When we were children, we witnessed or experienced things we knew were a violation of life, but we were too small to stop them. We didn’t have the power. And unless we had a chance to heal these wounds, we internalized feelings of powerless and carry them into adulthood. When facing big challenges, like climate change or racism or poverty, many of us sink into those old feelings of powerlessness and say “it’s too big.”
Feelings are only feelings. They are not the whole of reality, though persistent feelings can fool us into thinking “that’s how things are,” or “that’s how I am.” Unwholesome negative feelings are waiting to be healed. Such healing requires safety, courage, and intention. In my experience, being listened to respectfully and warmly, allows old memories to surface. If the listener persists in offering undivided attention, then I will find myself crying with grief, or shaking or shivering with fear, or trembling with anger, and other signs of emotional release.
I heartily encourage you to try developing a co-listening partner. You can begin by exchanging just 5 minutes each, and build up from there. Just a few guidelines: each person takes an equal time turn; the listener offers no advice, no comment, no judgment, no trying to fix the other person. The listener just provides a sacred space that accepts and encourages whatever feelings arise for the speaker. Releasing old feelings and healing old habit energies will not in itself reduce global warming or stop environmental damage, but it will allow us to think more clearly and act more boldly regarding climate change.
3. How do we take full responsibility for protecting & preserving our beloved Earth?
This is the third question for us to look at. It follows from the first two. For once we are in touch with our love for the Earth and all its amazing creations, and once we have let our hearts break open at the immensity of human-caused destruction to the Earth and its creations, then we naturally want to do what we can to protect and preserve our beloved.
First, a deep bow of gratitude to many of you who are very engaged in climate justice work. Thank you for your devotion and hard work. My hunch is that most of us reading this ask ourselves repeatedly what more can we do to help make things right? What are we to do in the face of near certain kinds of collapse? In my opinion, we need transformation at the base. Tinkering at the edges will not transform our collective suffering. Refusing to look directly at the seriousness of our situation gives us false hope that somehow we can avert the worst, and thereby keeps us numb enough to go along with accepting things as pretty much they are, or just advocating for mild, piecemeal reforms, thereby sealing our fate.
Actually, there’s a huge menu of things we can do. I’d like to list a few interrelated elements.
a) Cultivate an empowering story about climate change. Like, “What if total climate catastrophe is not inevitable? What if we are big enough to tackle this? What if this is just the right level of challenge to slingshot us through to the next level of collective consciousness?” What would we do differently if we adopted this view?
b) Build community around us. We can’t do this alone. We need each other. Maybe we can develop an “Earth Buddy” to check in with, think with, feel with, act with. Maybe join or start a green committee in our church or synagogue, or local town sustainability commission. Maybe gather around ourselves a small group of friends who agree to care about each other’s well- being, practice a common set of spiritual teachings or rituals, study the climate justice situation, and commit to engaging in mindful action together as a group. We are better together.
c) Start where we are. We can see clearly how climate change highlights the interconnection among issues that were previously viewed a fairly separate. Climate change is a racial justice issue. Climate change is a food security issue; a national security issue; an economic justice issue; a public health issue; a population issue; a democracy issue; an immigrant issue; a technology issue; a patriarchy issue, a species loss issue, a rights of the earth issue; and so on. Anything we care about is somehow related to climate change and environmental degradation.
This interconnection also means that we can start anywhere, like planting a garden, caring for our children, nurturing our church community, standing for racial justice, protesting the pipelines, contributing funds to climate justice organizations, supporting a carbon tax at the statehouse, joining a mass civil disobedience action, working for climate friendly political candidates, advocating for the Green New Deal.
d) How might we add a climate lens to whatever we are doing already? Each of us has family, a network of friends and acquaintances, or maybe a work setting, social media community, and so on. We probably have more influence than we know. Maybe this week, you could arrange a think and listen session with a friend about how you might add a climate justice lens to whatever you are currently involved with.
e) And for those of us who like concrete actions, consider how you might work on one or more of these buckets of climate justice related work:
Climate education and awareness (study, offer a citizens course in climate change, study and educate others on the links between racial and ecological suffering, research best summaries of science and/or solutions, etc.)
Healing (offer climate grief circles, listening groups for eco-anxiety, create ceremonies and rituals for feeling and healing, for visioning and empowering, etc.)
Resilience (migration assistance, poverty alleviation, family planning, food security, girls’ education in developing world, etc.)
Electoral politics (running for office, supporting climate friendly candidates, promoting ballot initiatives that highlight a climate justice issue, etc.)
Fundamental system change (ending fossil fuels, shifting to an equitable steady-state economy; protecting voting rights; reviving democracy with Citizens Assemblies & local engagement, dismantling racism, patriarchy, and class oppression, etc.)
Big things, yes! But surely worthy of the better angels of our nature. The Dalai Lama puts it squarely in our lap when he says, “We are the pivotal generation.”
Thank you for considering these three interrelated questions under the headings of Love, Heal, Act:
How do we…Fall in love with Mother Earth again and again, in order to let love be at the center of our actions?
How do we…Face the immensity of climate suffering and let our hearts break open, in order to avoid going numb and in order to release vast potential of energy, fearlessness, and power?
How do we…take full responsibility, self-defined, for protecting and preserving our beloved Earth, in order to do all we can to avert the worst of suffering and open the doorway to a collective awakening based on love, compassion, generosity, humility, and contentment?
In closing, here is a short poem by Zen teacher Robert Aiken Roshi that points to the longing I think many of us have for right relationship with the Earth. He says:
Hearing the crickets at night, I vow with all beings to find my place in the harmony crickets enjoy with the stars.”
Bowing in gratitude, John Bell Chan Dieu Tri / True Wonderful Wisdom jbellminder@gmail.com
Dear Dharma Teachers, Dear Order Members, Dear Aspirants,
In 2021 there will be two opportunities for aspirants from North America to be ordained into the Order of Interbeing. These will be online transmission ceremonies. In order to facilitate the process, please review the requirements, criteria, and procedures for North American students of Thich Nhat Hanh.
The Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings offer clear guidance for living simply, compassionately, and joyfully in our modern world. They are a concrete embodiment of the teachings of the Buddha and the Bodhisattva ideal. Anyone who wishes can live their life in accord with these fourteen trainings.
To formally join the Order of Interbeing means to publicly commit oneself to studying, practicing, and observing the trainings and, also, to participating actively in a community which practices mindfulness in the Plum Village tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh.
The minimum requirements for joining the Order of Interbeing, as established by the Charter of the Order, are that the aspirant:
Be 18 years of age or older
Has received the Five Mindfulness Trainings and the Three Jewels
Practices with a local Sangha in this tradition
Is committed to observing at least sixty days of mindfulness a year
Has been mentored by members of the Order of Interbeing for at least a year, and
Is ready to begin the work of an Order Member: Sangha building and support, explaining the Dharma from personal experience, and nourishing the bodhicitta (the mind of love) in others while maintaining a regular meditation practice in harmony and peace with one’s family.
The process of becoming an aspirant and receiving support and training varies depending on the region and on local circumstances. In a region in which the Order of Interbeing has been established for many years, there may be clearly defined procedures; Dharma Teachers and Order Members available to train and support aspirants; and a community of Order Members that meets regularly for recitation ceremonies, study, and days of mindfulness. In other regions an aspirant may have to travel a considerable distance to practice with an Order Member or Dharma Teacher and the training of aspirants may be much more informal. Nonetheless, the Care-Taking Council and the Dharma Teacher Sangha of North America has developed and adopted an OI aspirant process that is now required in the process of receiving the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings in North America.
The decision that an aspirant is ready for ordination is a joint decision involving the aspirant, the aspirant’s local sangha, the OI mentors, and one or more lay Dharma Teachers who either have been directly mentoring the aspirant or who have been working with the OI mentors.
It is not possible to specify the exact criteria that determines whether an aspirant is “ripe enough” for ordination – for ultimately it depends on heart-to-heart insight and recognition of a mature Bodhisattva spirit – however, some general guidelines can be stated. To be eligible for ordination into the Order of Interbeing, there is the expectation that the aspirant:
is a stable practitioner who has learned to transform suffering and embodies the practice of mindfulness in his or her own life,
practices with a spirit of generosity, attentive to the needs of others,
is committed to continue deepening his or her practice of the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings,
is able to teach the basic practices to others,
participates (and will continue to participate) regularly and harmoniously in their local practice community and in the Order of Interbeing community, and,
has the intention and capacity to be an active Sangha builder.
In order to be ordained in 2021, it is requested that the aspirant and their mentors put together a packet containing the following:
Completed Order of Interbeing Application for North American Applicants.
For those applying for May 2 ordination, please use this PDF application
For those applying for the June ordination with Blue Cliff Monastery please use this online application form.
letters of support from OI mentors and
letters of support from Dharma Teacher(s)
letters of support from local Sangha members and family members (when available)
original letter of aspiration to join the OI (if there is one)
a letter to Thay articulating the aspirants desire to be ordained into the Order of Interbeing. This letter should include a brief spiritual history and a clear commitment that the aspirant will be a Sangha builder in a community which practices in the Plum Village tradition.
a copy of the 5 Mindfulness Training certificate, or at least the date, place, teacher of that transmission and the name you received.
Photo of yourself.
If the aspirant wishes to ordain with Plum Village Practice Center on May 2 at 3:00pm Paris Time, then please email a copy of the items above to Thay Phap Huu at phaphuu@plumvillage.org. DEADLINE: March 17, 2021
If the aspirant wishes to ordain during the Order of Interbeing Online Retreat hosted by Blue Cliff Monastery between June 24 -27, then please complete the application form and upload the required documents to Dropbox. Questions can be directed to Thay Phap Khoi at phapkhoi@plumvillage.org. DEADLINE: May 1
In June 2020, within a week of George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police, I invited white practitioners on our OI list to a “Listening Circle for Healing Our White Racism” on Zoom. One hundred (100) mindfulness practitioners showed up! After some welcoming, validating of them, and offering some framing thoughts, in pairs and four-way structured listening sessions, people explored two questions: “What breaks my heart about the current racial suffering?” and “What in me needs healing around race?” Hearts opened, ears listened, tears were shed, anger arose, acceptance was experienced.
As a result of that first 90 minute session, a bare beginning, I invited them to continue for three more consecutive Wednesdays. Seventy (70) of those 100 people committed to continue their exploration of their own white racism and hopefully to become familiar enough with the format of the Listening Circle model that they might be able to offer something similar to their white friends.
At the end of this four week series, I offered to facilitate a monthly gathering for all those who agreed to facilitating a similar “listening circle” in their locality. Twenty-five for those 70 signed up for that. We’ve been meeting for six month in a 90 minute format. We divide the time between a) small equal time groups to explore some facet of our internalized white racism, b) hearing from folks about their experience of facilitating their own circles, and c) having time for coaching, Q & A, or more theory sharing. It’s been inspiring to watch folks learn to lead this work. As a result, these listening circles are sprouting up all over the country. It proves what we In RC know, that if the conditions are right, it turns out that white people are fairly eager to do this inner work.
To assist them in their facilitation, I wrote up a short guide for Listening Circle facilitators that grew out of that initial four week experience (plus decades of my own work). This guide is designed to provide facilitators with a kind of ready-made kit to help them offer an accessible, replicable, and effective experience for participants. The guide includes framing ideas, facilitation suggestions, sample schedules and facilitator notes, and lots of resources. It can be used as is, or adapted for one’s local community, or pieces excerpted for one’s own guide. Please feel free to adapt for your own use as appropriate. If I can be helpful, please contact me at jbellminder [at] gmail.com.
On January 20, 2021, Joanne Friday, our beloved dharma teacher, partner, friend, and mentor, transitioned from the Historic dimension into the Ultimate dimension.
Joanne was a Dharma teacher in the Tiep Hien Order, the Order of Interbeing, founded by Buddhist monk and Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. In 2003 she received authority to teach from Thich Nhat Hanh, her teacher for twenty-seven years.
When doing research for this column, rather to my surprise, I couldn’t find all that much written on Right Livelihood, even though it is part of the Buddha’s Noble Eightfold Path. It is as if most Buddhist thinkers consider the matter relatively straightforward, simply a matter of choosing a job that at the very least does not violate the Five Mindfulness Trainings and ideally one that allows us to help others. But not everyone has the option to avoid wrong livelihood, given the structure of the job market in our society. For some people with few opportunities, the best they may be able to do in terms of a job is one that is at odds with the mindfulness trainings. Even for those of us with jobs that mostly qualify as right livelihood, in a society such as ours so riven with injustice, they are still likely to have aspects that are problematic in light of the mindfulness trainings.
The Buddha himself, of course, spoke of what constituted Right Livelihood. In the Pali Canon (the earliest layer of Buddhist scripture), the Buddha forbid people to work in trades that caused others harm, specifically naming occupations that involved the sale of weapons, living beings, meat, intoxicants, or poison. He also encouraged householders to work hard, since he saw being able to support oneself and one’s dependents as virtuous for a householder. But he also also encouraged laypeople who could afford to do so to be generous with their wealth. More specifically, in The Discourse on Happiness, the Buddha said “To have a chance to learn and grow, to be skillful in your profession or craft, practicing the precepts and loving speech—this is the greatest happiness. To be able to serve and support your parents, to cherish your family, to have a vocation that bring you joy—this is the greatest happiness. To live honestly, generous in giving, to offer support to relatives and friends, living a life of blameless conduct—this is the greatest happiness. […] To live in the world with your heart undisturbed by the world, with all sorrows ended, dwelling in peace—this is the greatest happiness.” In the Buddha’s eyes, for householders, practicing Right Livelihood was not only a matter of doing right, but being able to have a job that allowed them to bring joy to themselves and others, while maintaining equanimity and not being attached to the outcome of their livelihood.
Our Society’s Limitations on Right Livelihood
But how many people have such opportunities? In The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching, Thay, dealing with the difficulties of the contemporary world, paints a more complex picture. He warns that even monasticism can become wrong livelihood if monastics make unreasonable demands on laypeople. He also points out that many people are trapped in wrong livelihood. He encourages them to do what they can to change jobs or transform their occupation. As an example, he points to farming, encouraging farmers to switch over to organic production practices to the extent that they can, while recognizing that this is not always easy.
But many people have little control over their jobs. In a sangha I used to sit with, one person worked as a server at McDonald’s. This is clearly not right livelihood—he was serving meat and McDonald’s routine business practices contribute greatly to the destruction of Earth’s ecosystems. But, given his life circumstances, this was the job he could get and he was making the best of it. It is worth noting that such jobs are often not only harmful to others, but to the workers themselves. An extreme example of this is the way workers in slaughterhouses often develop PTSD from spending all day killing animals.
Bringing the Practice to Whatever Livelihood We Have
Even when we are trapped in occupations that are wrong livelihood, we can try to bring the practice to them and cultivate mindfulness. In The Hidden Lamp, a collection of wisdom stories and koans about Buddhist women practitioners, there is the story “Ohashi Wakes up Working in a Brothel.” Ohashi was a woman from the aristocratic samurai caste who sold herself into prostitution to support her impoverished family, when her father lost his position in the court. While living this life, she met the great Zen Master Hakuin. He did not condemn her for practicing wrong livelihood, but told her she could achieve enlightenment where she was—which, with diligent practice, she did. Eventually, married one of her patrons and, with her husband’s permission, became a nun. Commenting on this story, Zen priest Judith Randall notes that Ohashi’s reasons for entering prostitution were themselves part of the bodhisattva path—she sought to support her family, despite how degrading job must have seemed to an upper caste woman in a culture concerned with personal and family honor.
Like Hakuin, in The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching, Thay encourages us to try to make the best of whatever job we have by bringing mindfulness to it, engaging in practices such as telephone meditation and loving speech. This is something even people trapped in wrong livelihood can do, making the job a little better for the world.
My job—a college faculty member who teaches sociology and global studies—could certainly be considered right livelihood in many ways. A major part of my work is raising awareness of important social issues among my students, encouraging them to be open-minded to new ideas and to the experiences of people coming from much different social backgrounds than they do. And yet there are aspects of the job I wrestle with, because in my mind they are harmful to my students. There are many ways I could easily transform my job into wrong livelihood—showing a lack of compassion for my students when they are having life difficulties that make it hard for them to keep up with their work, using harsh speech or dogmatically imposing my views on them. These are things I mostly manage to avoid, thanks to my mindfulness practice, though I am by no means perfect. But there are still many parts of my job that trouble me and seem to be at odds with right livelihood. I must grade my students, despite abundant evidence from educational research that, over the long run, grading discourages learning. And, simply by following the norms of higher education, I am socializing my students for lives of obedience in the corporate workplace.
I’ve tried to address these by implementing a grading system that is more transparent and, at some colleagues’ suggestion, this year I will be experimenting with rewarding students for creativity and risk-taking—even when they get things wrong. And I make a point of demystifying the “hidden curriculum” in my classes, explaining to students how all their college classes socialize them to be creative within the boundaries set by an authority figure, the skillset most valued for white-collar workers and professionals in a typical hierarchical bureaucracy. But this does not solve the problems, only blunts them—and, just as the McDonald’s worker must continue to do harmful things if they want to hang on to their livelihood, I too must do these things if I wish to continue pursue my career.
Additionally my ability to try to mitigate and demystify the harm I do is a privilege. A McDonald’s server can’t try to raise customers awareness about McDonald’s negative environmental impact, at least not without being fired from their job.
Interbeing, Social Organization, and Right Livelihood
Even should we somehow have a job that truly constitutes right livelihood, that does no injustice or other harm, we do not live in isolation. In The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching, Thay looks at the interbeing nature of right livelihood—even if we have a job that is right livelihood, by participating in our wider society, we create a demand for jobs based on wrong livelihood. A straightforward example of this is that, even if we are not butchers, if we eat meat, we create a demand for people to be in that trade. Probably most of the people reading this column don’t eat meat, but are you able to eat a diet that is entirely organic and otherwise ecologically sustainable? I buy what I can that it is organic, but I certainly can’t claim an entirely organic diet—and thus I contribute to farming that hurts the Earth and creates a demand for people to engage in wrong livelihood by engaging in conventional, environmentally destructive agriculture. Thay notes that even religious orders or charities are caught up in this dynamic, since they generally accept monetary donations from those who practice wrong livelihood.
What this means is that, if we want everyone to be able to work at right livelihood, it’s not enough to look at people’s individual choices. We need to look at how our larger social organization limits and channels people’s choices—and then we need to change how our society is organized, so people have better, less harmful options available to them. Many activist groups have been pursuing such goals for a while.
Moving to a Society that Supports Right Livelihood
Peace Conversion
One example is from the peace movement, in which activists have advocated for what they call a “peace conversion”—converting industries and factories away from weapons and war production to socially beneficial uses. In doing so, they hope to get the support of workers in such factories, by ensuring that they will be able to keep their jobs—the factories will stay in production, but be restructured for new products; and the workers will get retraining so they can continue to work there. Mary Beth Sullivan, summarizing the ideas of Seymour Melman, lays out what a plan for peace conversion might look like: The process would start with setting up local alternative use committees at military factories, each consisting half of management, half of workers. These committees would draw on their knowledge of the factory and workforce’s capacity to develop proposals about how to shift production in the factory away from war-oriented products to more socially beneficial ones. Ideally, this would happen at factories across the country and the national government would publish and promote the plans each factory came up with. The government would additionally make investments promoting the peace conversion, both in individual factories and in rebuilding public infrastructure, thereby creating market for the new goods.
The most successful peace conversion campaigns have been ones that actively involved workers in planning the conversion, drawing on their existing skills and knowledge of what the plant does. Brian Martin points to Lucas Aerospace in Britain in 1970s, where the initiative for a peace conversion came from the factory workers themselves. This is particularly important because in communities where people feel heavily invested in military production for jobs and prosperity, can be hard to win people over. When some of the initiative comes from the workers themselves, this can make people more open to the process. At the same time, outside peace activists need to be prepared to support workers in these factories, who are often vulnerable to firing or other forms of retaliation for speaking out.
Unfortunately, there is seldom support from those in management or other positions of power for such initiatives. Mary Beth Sullivan describes the effort by Speaker of the House Jim Wright in 1988-89 to hold hearings on a peace conversion bill. These hearings never happened—opponents of the whole idea mobilized charges of financial misconduct against Wright, forcing him to resign and thereby putting an end to any discussion of peace conversion in Congress. There will inevitably be an uphill struggle against those who are invested in the current power structures and feel threatened by such changes.
The Green New Deal
The Green New Deal involves a similar idea, but applied to environmental issues—investing in clean technologies and converting polluting industries to environmentally sustainable ones, including providing retraining for workers so they can work in these new industries. The Green New Deal not only seeks to ensure that people can keep their jobs, but to improve the quality of those jobs and create more jobs for the unemployed, while empowering workers through strengthening unions. Proponents of the Green New Deal also want to invest in communities that will be hardest hit by climate change—many of them also the poorest communities—to help them manage the transition to a world shaped by climate chaos. Some versions of the Green New Deal also propose funding these programs by slashing military budget, others by raising corporate taxes, and yet others by specifically targeting polluting industries by eliminating subsidies, increases taxes, fees, and fines. (For more details on various versions of the Green New Deal, see 1) Tom Athanasiou, “Bernie’s Secret Climate Weapon,” The Nation, September 30, 2019, pp. 24-26; 2) John Bellamy Foster, “On Fire This Time,” Monthly Review, November 2019, pp. 1-17; 3) Joshua Holland, “Think the Green New Deal is Pricey?” The Nation, September 30, 2019, pp. 4-5).
Economic Democracy
Looking forward, we need to think about a democracy conversion—moving towards workplace democracy, so all of us have democratic control over the place they spend most of our waking hours. We can’t really say we have a democratic society if the place we spend most of our waking hours—work—is run in a completely top-down, autocratic manner, akin to a totalitarian state. Philosopher David Schweickart has detailed a fairly complex model of what such a society might look like, which he refers to as economic democracy and market socialism. (See “Interview with David Schweickart,”, by Thad Williamson, for Dollars and Sense, March 4, 2005; and “Economic Democracy” by David Schweickart, for The Next System Project). Businesses would be organized as worker cooperatives. Depending on the size of the enterprise and the worker-owners’ own preferences, there might be regular town-hall style meetings where workers vote directly on major policy decisions, or there might be an elected board of directors, held accountable by active organization on the part of the worker-owners. Again, depending on the preferences of the worker-owners, everyone might be trained in and help carry out administrative duties; or specific people with expertise in management might run the company on a day-to-day basis, while remaining democratically accountable to the workforce. These worker-owned businesses would continue to compete with each other in the market. Another critical element of this system of market socialism for Schweickart is for all banks to become publicly owned, with charters directing them to work for the public good. That way decisions the banks make about what industries to invest in can be guided by decisions democratically made by elected public officials based on the common good, as opposed to the current model, which focuses on what is the most profitable. Schweickart argues this preserves the benefits of markets, promoting innovation, while eliminating the extreme inequalities in power that allow for exploitation. He also notes that such a transition wouldn’t have much disruptive impact on most people’s daily lives, while still profoundly transforming society.
Lest this sound like a complete pipe dream, it’s worth noting that many of the elements of this model already exist in the real world. The best known system of cooperatives is probably the Mondragon Cooperative Corporation in the Basque region of Spain. Rather than a single monolithic corporation, it is a network of cooperatives, including its own bank and university. They are one of Spain’s major manufacturers. Less well known is the fact that one-third of the economy of northern Italy’s Romagna region is made of worker, consumer and social service cooperatives. Rather than one large network of co-ops as in Mondragon, there are several loose networks of co-ops, including one affiliated with Roman Catholic Church and another with the former Italian Communist Party. The existence of this network of cooperatives is facilitated by Italian law, which provides a support network of laws and other institutions that has allowed the cooperative system to grow and thrive. Based on these and other examples, Peter Gowan has developed a proposal for a legal framework and system of institutions that could foster the growth of worker co-ops in the US. An important element of this would be the gradual conversion of existing business by giving workers the right of first refusal to buy any business being shut down or sold and a system of public financing to support their buy-outs. Publicly owned banks also already exist, such as the Bank of North Dakota and the network of Sparkassen—small municipal banks—in Germany. Based on these, Thomas M. Hanna has developed a set of proposals for converting banks to long-term public ownership when the next financial and banking crisis inevitably hits.
A Mindfulness Conversion?
Finally, I would suggest we need a mindfulness conversion. On one level, there are too many industries that benefit from or actively promote unmindful behavior—think of the advertising industry, encouraging people to consumer ever more goods, in ways that are both ecological unsustainable and encourage people to mire themselves in behavior that feeds the three poisons of greed, ill-will, and ignorance. On another level, too many workplaces are saturated with unmindful, uncompassionate behavior like bullying or expectations that people will sacrifice their personal lives to their work duties. There are increasing numbers of companies with mindfulness programs, but often these are geared towards helping employees manage stress rather than reorganizing the workplace so it is less stressful and more nurturing to begin with. And it is rare that these programs extend to questioning the basic ethics of what the company does. A workplace culture grounded in true mindfulness and compassion would look profoundly different than what we see in most workplaces today. These would be workplaces where everyone is treated with respect and care, where everyone has good health insurance, where everyone’s job is enriching and rewarding, where everyone has a reasonable work-life balance, where everyone is listened to and empowered, where there are thorough-going attempts to root out inequalities based in gender, race, class, LGBTQ status, etc.
Conclusion
All these different types of workplace conversions can be complementary. Brian Martin argues that the democratization of economy—the conversion of businesses to worker co-ops—will help with peace conversion. As workers gain more control over the workplace, they are more likely to put those workplaces to uses that are beneficial to their communities rather than destructive. The same is true of a green conversion. Industries that promote war or environmental pollution are also obviously not consistent with ethically grounded mindfulness, so any mindfulness conversion would have to involve the conversion of such industries to peaceful and environmentally sustainable activities. A democracy conversion could also help potentially promote greater mindfulness, since a healthy democracy fosters more dialogue, reflection on one’s own ideas, and a willingness to listen to others’ ideas, needs, and aspirations.
Matt Williams Truly Holding Peace Lakeside Buddha Sangha Chicago IL, USA
May all doctors, nurses, and other hospital workers have the emotional strength and physical stamina to meet the challenges they are facing every day.
May all essential workers — police, firefighters, store personnel, delivery people, and more — be safe from this virus as they perform their critical services.
May everyone struggling with illness from this virus be blessed with healing and renewed strength. May all who are touched with sickness and death of loved ones be comforted in their anxiety and grief.
May all who are stressed financially during this time receive the assistance and support they need.
And may we all have the strength to embrace our fears and sorrows — and also water seeds of joy — in this deeply challenging and uncertain time.
Meeting suffering where it is – a path to freedom.
Centering the lives of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) in our practices meets the suffering where it is and offers a path to freedom. A New Paradigm for Racial Justice and the Global Pandemic” is an offering by Marisela Gomez and Valerie Brown. We encourage all Order members to read and practice these Contemplations on the Five Mindfulness Trainings.
A New Paradigm For Racial Justice and the Global Pandemic
By Marisela Gomez and Valerie Brown
Let us open to a new and deeper way of understanding the Five Mindfulness Trainings, guiding principles for mindful and ethical living, which call us toward individual and collective awakening, compassion, and peace. We are aware that we are interconnected. What happens in Wuhan, China affects people in New York City. What happens to the Black body affects all bodies. We are called forward.
The global pandemic is a gateway to suffering worldwide, disproportionately impacting Black people, indigenous, and people of color, who face poverty, sickness, displacement, and death. They, we are not alone. Our lives and livelihood are interconnected. We are called forward.
We cannot exist independent of low wage workers, health care workers, un-housed people, single mothers, undocumented people, the unemployed and underemployed. If one such person lives on the knife edge of racial, ethnic, social, structural, and systemic oppression and discrimination we are all affected. We are called forward.
The practitioner dwells in the now, recognizing equanimity and instability, discrimination and non-discrimination, ill-being and well-being, practicing right view and engaged through compassionate action. Aware of the cycle of racial, ethnic, and social inequities and discrimination, we courageously turn to practice wholeheartedly. We are called forward.
Lighting a stick of incense, listening to the sutras, sitting upright and solid, palms joined, the practitioner looks within and in concentration the path and fruit of skillful action is revealed. We are called forward.
Speak aloud these words with the sangha voice, a true river of understanding:
Acknowledging Beauty as Reverence for Life
Aware of the suffering caused by oppression and generational harm based on racial, cultural, social, and ethnic inferiority and superiority and its resultant structures of injustices and harm, I acknowledge the beauty and violence inherent in life. I vow to resist being complicit in systems and structures that continue to perpetuate violence and hatred instead of reverence of life for marginalized groups. I recognize that each person contributes to my individual and our collective awakening, and the co-creation of a world that celebrates and affirms differences and similarities. All living beings can teach me something, when I remember to pause, breathe, listen deeply with a calm and open mind and heart, and ask myself: ‘is there more’ or ‘ what else is here with me’’?’ I honor and respect all life guided by Right View and Right Energy.
Belonging and Connecting as True Happiness
Aware of the suffering caused by ignorance and aversion of my own and other’s racial, ethnic, cultural, and social history, its legacy and how this affects me whether I am aware of it or not, I am committed to connecting to these histories. I know that turning toward these histories with an open heart is my journey of awakening to true belonging. I will take the time to learn the history of the racial and ethnic group with which I identify as well as for other socially constructed racial and ethnic groups. Aware that there is no genetic or biological difference between different racial and ethnic groups, and that these identities were constructed by one group to establish dominance over others, I will turn toward racial and other forms of othering with an open heart and compassionate action. I know that this history has led to fragmentation inside and outside body and mind and brought much suffering to all beings. I vow to transform this suffering through the practice of connecting with an open heart. I will notice when emotions of belonging and othering arise and I will ask myself ‘why’? Whatever feelings, perceptions, or mental formations arise, I will embrace and when needed engage with love in action. I am committed to practicing Right Resolve, Right Speech, Right Action, and Right Livelihood so I can help relieve this legacy of racial and social suffering. I will practice looking deeply to see that true happiness is not possible without true connecting leading to belonging and understanding.
Cherishment as True Love
Aware of the suffering caused by discrimination and oppression, I vow to understand its roots within my consciousness and my body and the collective body of the sangha and larger society. I vow to recognize the ways in which I have benefitted or not-benefitted explicitly or implicitly from systems and structures that foster discrimination and injustice. I am aware of the legacy of violence, especially unlawful police violence, perpetrated against Black people, indigenous people, people of color, differently abled people, people of various gender identities and expressions and sexual orientation, and others who are marginalized. I acknowledge the lived experience of all people to deepen my capacity for understanding and for greater compassionate action. I am aware that narrowly constructed, prevalent interpretations of intimate relationships constrain how we cherish each other in our expression of love, leaving many further isolated and alienated. I am committed to looking tenderly at my suffering, knowing that I am not separate from others and that the seeds of suffering contain the seeds of joy. I am not afraid of bold love that fosters justice and belonging and tender love that seeks peace and connection. I cherish myself and my suffering without discrimination. I cherish this body and mind as an act of healing for myself and for others. I cherish this breath. I cherish this moment. I cherish the liberation of all beings guided by the wisdom and solidity of the sangha. This is my path of true love.
Vulnerability as Loving Speech and Deep Listening
Aware that vulnerability is the essence of our true nature, our humanness, I vow to risk listening and speaking non-judgmentally with understanding and compassion to alleviate suffering and support peace in myself and others. I vow to live with empathy, compassion, and awareness and to listen for understanding rather than disagreement. When I’ve hurt others through my unskillful action or speech, I vow to practice making a good apology that acknowledges what I have done and offers sincere regret, knowing that this supports the other person and me. I am committed to speaking that aligns with my highest aspiration and encourages honesty and truthfulness. I am committed to generous and courageous listening that bridges differences and supports understanding of others who may be different from me. I am committed to taking meaningful steps to become a true instrument of peace and to help others to be the same. When I am not able to understand the experiences of others, I vow to come back to my breath and my body, and to offer myself gentle patience while learning to support myself in developing greater awareness and skill. I vow to practice awareness of my beliefs, perceptions, and feelings, aversions, and desires and to take refuge in mindful breathing and in the sangha to support greater stability, peace, and understanding. Through my practices of vulnerability, patience, forgiveness, and deeply listening, I know that my speech will be guided by love and understanding. Practicing in this way supports Right Speech and Right Action and guides me to Right Insight.
Welcoming as True Nourishing and Healing
Aware of the suffering caused by the consumption of an inadequate history of racial and ethnic forms of social segregation, I am committed to healing myself and the world by welcoming, and practicing with this awareness. I will notice how my thoughts, perceptions, feelings, words, and actions may have been influenced by this inaccurate history. I will look deeply to understand how both physical and mental health, for myself, my family, and my society have been influenced by embracing and denying this racial, social, and ethnic history of inferiority and superiority and its legacy of inequities and injustices. I will cultivate joy to support me toward individual and collective wholeness. I will practice mindfulness of the Four Kinds of Nutriments to become aware of how edible foods, sense impressions, volition, and consciousness are all influenced by this history. Practicing with Right Energy and Right Resolve, my Right Action of consumption will include awareness of certain websites, electronic games, TV programs, films, magazines, books, and conversations and how they continue to foster wrong perceptions of racial, ethnic, and social injustices. My understanding of interbeing supports my conscious consumption that sustains a healthy understanding of differences, one that does not oppress or discriminate. This Right Insight will preserve peace, joy, and bring healing in my body and consciousness, and in the collective body and consciousness of my family, my society and the Earth. To assure that my descendants do not live in a racially, ethnically, and socially unjust world, I commit to diligently practicing with true welcoming on this path to nourish and heal myself, the sangha, and society.
The Five Mindfulness Trainings keeps us centered in life’s storms and joys and reminds us that life is a precious gift. The Trainings are a path to liberation and transformation. Practicing these Trainings supports us toward racial and ethnic reconciliation and social change and heals deep suffering. The Five Mindfulness Trainings helps us cross this shore of suffering and brings us to the side of true awakening and love
In this time of great fear, it is important that we think of the long-term challenges—and possibilities—of the entire globe. Photographs of our world from space clearly show that there are no real boundaries on our blue planet. Therefore, all of us must take care of it and work to prevent climate change and other destructive forces. This pandemic serves as a warning that only by coming together with a coordinated, global response will we meet the unprecedented magnitude of the challenges we face. – The Dalai Lama
Dear Friends in the Dharma,
This is a truly critical time in American society. We are in the midst of a global pandemic, financial collapse, climate change emergency, and approaching a November election that threatens to exclude many eligible voters. As Buddhist teachers and leaders, we recognize that every vote and voice needs to be heard to help guide the next years of our society wisely.
A mutual caring community is one of the central teachings of the Buddha. In these times so marked by divisiveness and a lack of compassionate leadership, many of you have wondered how you and your whole community can help move us in this direction. Here are two crucial activities to encourage for everyone in your community:
Register to vote; and sign up for an absentee ballot: You and your community can do this through Vote.org. Over thirty states now have no-excuse absentee voting, and many others are considering allowing COVID-19 as a valid excuse.
Get your friends and family to register, sign up for an absentee ballot, and vote.
There’s more we all can do, and these actions don’t demand a lot of time.
1. Volunteer to do voter registration, absentee sign-ups, and get out the vote through these organizations.
State Voices: A network of nonpartisan state coalitions of hundreds of grassroots organizations. Reach out and see if there are volunteer opportunities.
National Voter Registration Day (Sept 22): Provides training and support on how to conduct voter registration, and will be making a heavy pivot to remote options this year, as well as a push to sign up for Vote-By-Mail (absentee). Includes legal guidance for voter registration drives.
Vote Early Day (Oct 24): Inspired by National Voter Registration Day and anchored by a number of large media and tech companies, this organization will also be providing toolkits and training opportunities for impactful work, including recruitment of election workers. Will be assisting voters with both mail and in-person early-voting options. Was in the works pre-COVID-19, but is likely more critical in a pandemic.
When We All Vote: The best-resourced, truly nonpartisan voter engagement organization.
2. Help ensure that eligible voters get to vote in key states, including Michigan, Pennsylvania, Florida and Wisconsin. Whether non-partisan or partisan there are many ways to help. There are many ways to do this.
3. Sign up to be a poll worker. Serving as a poll worker offers a dramatically under-appreciated opportunity to have an impact. Problems are made markedly worse or are mitigated to a substantial degree based on the quality of the poll worker. Chronic shortages of election workers nationwide cause long lines at the polls, especially at polling places that serve communities of color.
You can sign up to be a poll worker using this form and be connected to your local elections office.
Our collective involvement leading up to the November elections can really make a difference. Please forward this to as many teachers and Buddhist communities as you can throughout the United States. And thanks for joining us!
With lovingkindness, compassion and blessings, Yours in the Dharma, 100+ Buddhist Teachers
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