Right Livelihood.

Right view, right intention, right speech, right action, 

right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, 

right concentration; this, bhikkhus, is the middle way 

awakened to by the Tathagata.

What is right livelihood? 

We can start to understand by knowing what it is not: it does not harm others, does not deceive others and is not dishonest. 

That is the ground, do no harm. Having the intention to do no harm unto others through your work, the question then becomes, how can you contribute to others and your community? What talents and gifts do you have to share? What problems can you solve that bring benefit to others or the world around you? 

These questions address a critical component of right livelihood: you can contribute meaningfully to the world around you.

We are all looking for meaning in our work and in our lives. Often, in our jobs we search out results, status roles, accomplishment and money as signs that we are doing good work. We focus on the result of our efforts rather than our actions themselves. 

Right livelihood focuses on being engaged with others. The intention and posture that follow naturally lend themselves to presence, abundance and care. When you recognize that you have something to contribute, you will contribute. You will be generous and insightful, you will put in the time and effort, you will show up and be present. 

Right livelihood is pretty simple and straightforward. How can you contribute? How can you help?

Don't do it for the promotion, or the bonus, or the status among your peers. Do it because it is the right thing to do.

Unless.

Unless someone like you

cares a whole awful lot,

nothing is going to get better.

It's not.  

Dr. Seuss | THE LORAX

You show up because you care, but caring is not enough.  What you are fighting for isn't going to happen right now.  What you are protecting is going to continue to be attacked and broken apart.  What you stand for isn't going to be accepted. 

That thing you are doing, it's not going to work this time. 

Or the next.

And probably not the next time either.

But caring means you keep showing up.  You continue to stand your ground.  You continue to fall, then get back up.  You continue to fail, and fail, and fail.  Birth and death playing themselves out for eons. 

Unless someone like you cares a whole lot and relentlessly shows up, nothing is going to get better.  It's not. 

The practice of compassion.

What do you think about when someone says to practice compassion?

Do you think about helping someone.  Lending a hand.  Tending to the suffering, feeding the hungry.  Do you think about a mother caring for her child.  A father picking up their child from an accident.

We tend to think of the practice of compassion as an act.

But what if the practice of compassion was to be open, available and responsive?  What if the act of compassion was to remain open, available and responsive?

The practice isn't about doing, it is about being.

Being open, available and responsive- you could help someone, lend a hand, tend to their suffering, feed them when they are hungry.

You could also simply maintain that space for them.  Be there, with them, not doing anything.  And not needing to.

Compassionate activity.

Compassionate activity doesn't mean that you need to be emotional. 
You don't need to shed a tear to show you care.

Compassionate activity means being open, receptive and present.
It means be generous with your presence,
disciplined enough to not react with carelessness,
patient enough to sit with the resistance,
and that you persist in doing the emotional hard work of caring.
Without wavering in the face of problems and obstacles,
and with the insight to see the connections between the agent, action and patient,
you can engage in perfect compassionate activity.    

Helpless and Stuck.

As the mind develops, we move from a world of sensory perception to a world of causality.

An infants initial experience of the world is simply what it perceives in its immediate surroundings- its mother, father, sights, sounds, feelings, warmth, emotions, pain and hunger.  If the child does not experience something it does not exist.

This is wonderful because it is an immersion in experience.  It is simple, direct, empirical.

But an infant is helpless because it doesn't know what to do with the things it is experiencing.
Pain is pain.  Hunger is hunger.  Fatigue is fatigue.  Warmth is warmth.

An infant who is hungry doesn't worry about anything else.  At that moment, hunger is the child's world and it doesn't know how to fix that. 

A parent who cares knows how to soothe a baby and it teaches it how to soothe itself. 

Somewhere along its development, the infant starts to realize that things still exist even if they cannot directly experience them.  This is called object permanence and it marks the beginning of a rational, logical mind.  It is the beginning of a mind that can plan and act based on intention. 

This is a grand development, but not without its own problems. 

Neither of these two ways of perceiving the world are true seeing.  If your world is your experience and nothing else you are helpless, failing to understand the significance of cause and effect.  A world in which we operate within cause and effect but get wrapped up in its objects and we get stuck.

A parent who cares teaches their child how to get unstuck. 

Teach your child to get unstuck, how to solve a problem and how to avoid getting wrapped up in a mess.  With that skillset, their innate curiosity coupled with the ability to choose and act will carry them to places that you could never imagine. 

Which is pretty scary, as a parent.

That is why you need to teach them to get unstuck. 

Changing the story.

I am continually inspired by my brothers and sisters on the path who are dedicated to their practice and generous with their time and energy.

One of the people who has inspired me is Seth Godin who introduced me to a new definition of an artist.  An artist is someone who makes an impact, benefits someone and effects change.  In this sense we all have the opportunity to be artists, regardless of our profession.  We all have the opportunity to take a moment, lend a hand, to truly listen and share generously.

We all have an opportunity to care. 

The thing about being an artist is that you don't create art all the time.  Not everything you do in your day is about making an impact.  Most of your day will be spent doing your job, working on the tactics, getting things done.

The artist can be busy and still make great art.

For me, this relieved a great burden, something I actually struggled with for a long time.  I was carrying a lot of frustration and aversion to being busy and working hard because I wasn't able to devote myself fully to making an impact.  I felt that too much of my days, weeks and months were wasted because I could be doing something better.  I could be doing better work but my work itself was preventing me from actually doing that.  That resistance to the nuts and bolts, ground level experience of my job (and life) prevented me from seeing and seizing those moments when I could act, when I could be generous.    

The function of our work is to make an impact, but not all the time.  We struggle to find meaning in our work and in our life, but we need to create meaning.  If we could even spend 10% of our time seizing those opportunities to make an impact and to care, we would find great meaning in our life.  It would even allow us to be really good at the busy, mundane, daily responsibilities that we need to fulfill because they would further create opportunities to create art. 

I can tell you that even 10% is hard.  It is too easy to hide in the busy tactical aspect of your life, too easy to keep your head down and keep plugging away at what you are doing.  We hide in the busy and then complain when our work has no meaning.  We fight internally against the resistance, but the resistance often wins and prevents us from stepping away and actually caring.

That is the fight, the struggle.

If we can recognize and identify that resistance, then we can actually find ways to reduce it.  Once we know what it looks like and what it is trying to do, we can push through the resistance and strive to make an impact, strive to care.  Start to create art.  

Time to care.

Do you ever find yourself in a situation where you are just too busy to care.  Maybe you are dealing with a different problem and it is not convenient right now.  Maybe this is something that you should care about, but right now it is too hard.  Screw it, toss in the towel, ruin it, who gives a damn.  Right?

Do you only care when it fits your schedule, when you've had time to prepare, when it is on your terms?  Is that really caring at all?

What about when people aren't part of your tribe, your group, your religion or party?

Caring means you put aside your trip and your agenda for this person in front of you.  Caring means you are here, when you could easily be somewhere else.  Caring means you showed up.  Caring means you put in the effort, you gave something, you actually listened.

Caring is never easy, it is emotional heavy labor.  You need to muster patience, fortitude, perseverance and grit.  You need to know how to work with your own anger and aversion.  You need to be comfortable being open and receptive.

If you are looking for signs of accomplishment in your practice, look at what happens the next time you are in a situation where it is too intense to care. 

Caring is not emotional.

Caring is not emotional, and when things are going badly caring doesn't mean losing your emotions. 

Caring is intentional.  You choose to care.

Caring means showing up, even when things are tough.  It means doing the work, even when you don't want to.  It means your still here- for me, for them, for us- because you want to be.

Part of our family.

There are those who care and those who don't.

Don't worry about those who don't care, treat them with respect and kindness and let them go there way.  Respect your own time and energy.

Those who care are like your own family.  They show up, do the work.  They push through resistance because what other choice do we have?  Pour your energy and time into strengthening the network, on impacting their lives and offering your support.  Benefit others, contribute value and the whole community benefits.  

We all want to be part of a family that cares, that takes a chance on being generous and kind.  Such a family experiences true wealth, or ratna, and they are crazy enough to want to share it with others.   

What should I do?

How often do we find ourselves saying this?  How often do we ask this to others?

We really don't know what to do.  The complexity of our lives and all of our decisions and responsibilities are overwhelming.  If someone has the right answer, please, tell me.

This question actually protects us.  Implicit in the question is that we want to do something remarkable, we want to live a meaningful life, a life of purpose, but we don't really know how to do it so we ask the question.  But asking the question actually shields us from the responsibility of the result, it shifts the fear and the possibility of failure onto the other person.  If this doesn't work out, it is her fault not yours. 

We all care about our life, how we live it and how we spend it.  But caring is not enough.  You need to take responsibility.  Responsibility for your actions- your thoughts, words and deeds.  You need to take responsibility for your health, your well being and your values.  

First we need to care about our practice, then we need to carry the responsibility. 

Oddly enough, then we might find ourselves asking, how do you do this?  Why do you do this?  What advantage does this have over that?

We become curious, active learners and experimenters.  Little scientists with big dreams.  Everything falls within our domain and we are always pioneering the next breakthrough.  

The mark of ignorance.

What does ignorance look like?

Is it rigid beliefs or definitions?
Is it incorrect information?
Is it hollow assertions?  Conflated ideas?
Grossly biased perceptions?
Is it the emotionally overwhelmed?
A narrow world view?

The mark of ignorance is selfishness.

It's opposite is compassion, empathy.  It's opposite is to care.

In this way we all suffer from ignorance.  We should strive to recognize it in ourselves and work even harder to bring about its opposite. 

We should strive to care.  

Embodied.

I see a lot of weary and disheartened people.
I see a lot of disembodied people.

More than anything, I think people are looking for a sense of authentic presence in their lives.  They want to feel genuine, to feel that their life is full of meaning and purpose.

They want to be embodied.

But to be embodied, you need to know where you stand.  To trust your ground.

You need to know your values, to have integrity in what you do and dignity in who you are.

You need to have confidence, be brave enough to push past your fear and face your uncertainty.

You need to see through your faults and failures, drawing out the lessons and carrying on the wisdom.

You need to be willing to be vulnerable, to care without being callous and to give without expectation.

To be embodied is to embrace the qualities in you, to see the illusory nature of everything you are, were or will be, but to see that potentiality despite the illusions.

Its all right there, embrace it.  

The Plague of Indifference.

We are suffering from one of the worst epidemics in recent human history.  It has the potential to spread to every corner of the land and to infect every person.  It leaves its victims lifeless, like wandering zombies.

It is the plague of indifference.

It strikes those who care.  Those that are trying to make a difference, to bring benefit to others.  It has a slow onset, germinating in those who time and time again go the extra mile.  It reproduces and gains its strength as kindness and generosity are taken advantage of, exploited and disrespected.

The infection starts to display signs and symptoms as the victim gets worn out, angry at themselves for trying so hard and for caring so much.  They may feel guilty for wanting to help others, for repeating this cycle again and again only to end up in states of loss.

The infection has reached its full measure when the victim no longer cares, when they just go through the motions and do what they are told.

One remedy for this infection is to show appreciation and respect to those who aren't infected.  To rejoice in their efforts.  This remedy can delay or offset the progression of the disease, but it is not necessarily a cure.

The only cure is to protect your own mind, and the only way to do that is to cultivate bodhicitta, the awakened mind.  It is only by cultivating bodhicitta that you can bear the burden of unpleasant and painful circumstances.  It is only by cultivating bodhicitta that you can abandon your own susceptibility to 'woe is me'.

One who cultivates bodhicitta is a bodhisattva, a courageous awakened warrior.

They don't fight others, they fight to establish them in peaceful, happy states.
They fight to bring them benefit.

They fight for those who care, and to help those who don't to regain their purpose.

It is a battle worth fighting for.

As it states in the Heart Sutra:

There is no attainment, and even no non-attainment.  Therefore, Shariputra, since bodhisattvas have no attainments, they rely on this perfection of wisdom and abide in it.  Having no obscurations in their minds, they have no fear, and by going utterly beyond error, they will reach the end of nirvana. 

Remembering Your Teachers

The ones who taught us to learn.
The ones who taught us to love learning.
Those that taught us to love, to forgive, to care.
Those that taught us to stand on our own two feet,
And those that taught us to get back up again.

Remembering those who taught us to explore, 
to push past our limitations,
to break the mold,
and those that taught us to put it back together again. 

We really remember the ones who taught us to confront our fear,
and the one that taught us how to tame our mind.

You might not know who you are,
the impact you have had.
You don't remember the words you said,
or even how you said them.

But we do.  Thank you.

What do you stand for?

What do people like you do?

People like us do the work.  We show up.

We care.

We are generous, loving and kind. 

We like to have fun, we are good natured and easy going,
but we don't waste time,
because we don't have time to waste. 

Our work- to liberate ourselves from our own confusion, fear and neurosis so that we can truly be open, receptive and available for others.

That is where the magic happens. 

Legacy

Success.  Achievement.  Fame and fortune.
Viral videos and one-hit wonders.  Your fifteen minutes of fame.

We all leave a legacy behind, but it doesn't have to be a parade of ego.

To leave a legacy of kindness, compassion and generosity, you only need to follow one bit of advice:

Honestly care for others.

Dedicate all your actions to helping others, alleviating their suffering.  Take a moment to build a personal connection, share your time with those who need it.  Give gifts that matter.  Leave your workplace, your community and your world better than you found it.

That is a legacy that lasts.