A Life's Work.

I've spent the past few months working on a new project, something I am calling A Life's Work. It is still a work in progress, but I thought I would give those of you who have supported me for the past few years a sneak peak. 

Take a look, let me know what you think. I welcome your feedback and hope you'll join me on this journey. 

https://www.lifes.work/

Why A Life's Work?

Have you ever ended up down a path you didn't want to be on? Somehow you have found yourself in the darkness, lost in the wilderness, not really knowing where you are or how you got here.

You might feel that you are not living up to your potential, or that you are living at odds with your values or aspirations. You might feel stuck, afraid, tired, unable to appreciate your significance or purpose in this life. You might be sick, in pain, battling your body or your mind with an imminent fear of death or loss.

A Life's Work is about rediscovering who we are, our place in the world, and the gifts we have to share. It is foremost about living a life dedicated to practice. My aim is to give you a light, a lantern, a torch to take with you on your journey, so that you can find your way through the darkness and wilderness.

Along the way, you'll learn to tend that light so it doesn't go out, as well as learn useful wayfinding tools and techniques. Some of these skills you will find useful and beneficial, others you will leave behind. Once you are ready and equipped for the path, you'll learn how to orient yourself in unfamiliar territory, and how to use landmarks and recognize signposts along the way. As you progress, you'll learn to value and appreciate guides and fellow travelers on the path, so that you can save time and gain insight about the path ahead.

By the end, I hope you'll have gained confidence in being a wayfinder, and discovered that the destination is not nearly as important as enjoying the journey that is this life. If you are one of the fortunate ones, you might even discover the great joy that is sharing your light with others, giving them the gift of exploring the wilderness of their own life with confidence and determination.

Trust your self.

Trust your self. Your hidden self, the self that knows how you can show up in the world. 

How we show up in the world is not one self, for each of us plays many roles in this single lifetime. How you show up for your child is different than how you show up for your partner or friend. How you show up at work changes depending on if you are interacting with your coworker, your client, or your boss. 

We would like to think that we can be the same person for all of these roles, that we can bring our authentic self to each of these interactions. But we can't. Each person is asking and expecting something different from us. 

So which of these is your true, authentic self? Which is these is the self that we should trust?

The simple answer is none of these, and all of these.

Chogyam Trungpa says: 

The bad news is you're falling through the air, nothing to hang on to, no parachute. 
The good news is, there's no ground.

We are constantly searching for an identity to hold onto to prevent that feeling of falling (and failing). We are searching for a form that suits us and the image in our heads of who we can be. There is comfort and reassurance in knowing we have a ground to stand on and a position to stand by. 

But there is no ground. Those titles that we have and those roles that we play are not truly who we are or what we do, because we are not one-thing. 

And yet, in the process of discovering who we are, we generously meet people where they are at, helping them in some way. In Seth Godin's new book The Practice, he says:

Generosity is the most direct way to find the practice.

That's the good news. In the process (practice) of discovering who we are and our place in the world, we can get comfortable with the fact that there is no ground, and no fatal crash at the end that is going to be the end of us. When you no longer need to worry about hitting the ground, falling starts to look like flying, and you can direct your attention to starting to learn how to navigate that new space. 

Learning how to navigate life with openness, responsiveness and availability is itself a worthwhile practice, regardless of the results of your endeavor. As Seth says: 

Do you trust yourself enough to commit to engaging with a [practice] regardless of the chances of success?

Last chance to share thanks.

Working in a community pharmacy, you get used to the presence of death in the community you serve. You see obituaries of elderly persons you have been coming to your pharmacy for years. You serve cancer patients for months or years and then one day they just stop coming in. Weeks or months later you might hear from a family member or neighbor that they have passed away. We get voicemails in the middle of the night, letting us know that someone has passed away. Hospice calls. Doctors call to share the news. Young husbands and wives stop by to share the news that their spouse has died unexpectedly. You hear parents sharing stories of their kids dying due to accidents or health complications. Death is ever-present and there is no right time or right circumstance. Death is certain, but the time of death is uncertain.

This weekend, one of our long time elderly patients called to thank us for our years of service. He had been diagnosed with the coronavirus and the prognosis was not good. He was quarantined in isolation and he wanted to pass along his thanks while he still had the chance.

We are facing what could be one of the largest pandemics in modern history. Many will die, and they will die in isolation, separated from their family and friends at the moment of death.

We all must set out on the journey of death and dying alone. Where we are setting off to none can follow. Being prepared for that journey is important. Coming to terms with death is never easy, but the more open we can be to the presence of death in our lives, the easier it is to be grateful and share thanks while we still have the chance.

Take some time to reach out to your elderly friends and relatives. Call your neighbor, see how they are doing. We are all facing some challenging weeks and months ahead, but the elderly are especially worried and at significant risk.

You never know when it is your last chance to give thanks.

The journey to the center of it all.

That journey that you are on, how far does it go? How do you know when you have reached the end? Is there an end?

A pilgrimage is an interesting journey to set out on. You set out with intention, and then you traverse the journey to its destination. You might set out on the Camino de Santiago in Spain, circuit Mount Kailash in Tibet, or travel St. Kevin's Way in Ireland. Each charts its own course through a living story full of meaning.

Each and every step of the pilgrimage is a call to presence. Our days are considered holy when we traverse the path with presence, bearing witness to those who have gone before us and in whose footsteps we now travel. We are waking up to the fact that the journey we are on is not about my awakening, but our awakening. We encounter a cohort of travelers on a path that looks much like our own. 

But a pilgrimage is not a destination. That would be site seeing. A pilgrimage requires a journey, a circuitous route through barren landscapes and difficult passes. The twists and turns of the journey unravel our old habits and perceptions and weave together a new story about who we are and our place in the world.

When we reach the end of the pilgrimage, we are faced with the difficult choice of how to move back into the world. We acknowledge the fundamental change that we have experienced, and are faced with the difficult choice of how to take that next step forward.

Forging the path ahead.

The path starts right where you are.

You can follow the footsteps of those who have gone before you, but your path is not going to look exactly like theirs. You'll meet your own problems and challenges. You'll enjoy ease and contentment, as well as difficult times.

The journey of self-discovery and awakening is forged based on your own experience.

You'll share that journey with others. You'll travel with others who have a shared kindred purpose. You meet a variety of travelers on the path- teachers, spiritual friends, partners, mentors, students. Some of these travelers will walk with you for a lifetime, some for just a short way.

There is no end to the journey ahead. No accomplishment, and no non-accomplishment. The result is the path. Continue with confidence in liberation.

Clarify your path. Let your path clarify you.

Lifting each other up.

From the Kosalasamyutta on diligence:

The Buddha said: On one occasion, the mendicant Ananda approached me, paid homage to me, sat down to one side, and said: "Venerable sir, this is half of the holy life, that is, good friendship, good companionship, good comradeship."

When this was said, I told the mendicant Ananda: "Not so, Ananda! Not so! This is the entire holy life Ananda, that is, good friendship, good companionship, good comradeship. When a mendicant has a good friend, a good companion, a good comrade, it is to be expected that he will develop and cultivate the noble eightfold path."

There is a journey that we are on, a pilgrimage to the center of it all. It is a great unfolding, an interweaving, and the connections that we make along that journey are important.

The relationships that we have along the way inspire us, pick us up, remind us of why we are here.
It is not about becoming something that we are not,
but reminding us of the person
that we already see
in ourselves.
And being true to that.

Thank you good friend. Comrades indeed!

The importance of regular retreats.

A retreat forms an integral part of the cycle of a practitioner's life. To retreat means to step out of the deep ruts of our normal daily life and encounter the world anew. Imagine skiing in the mountains after a fresh snowfall, where we are no longer conditioned by the well worn tracks of the inner landscape of our mind. We see the opportunity available to us in new ways and in a new light.

A retreat is not something new but forms part of an old tradition of reconnecting with what is most sacred in life. What we now think of as 'holidays' were holy days, during which we devoted time and energy to the sacred. The modern day idea of vacation means to leave behind or vacate, again the idea of stepping outside of our normal routine and daily habits.

There is something deep in our psyche which longs for renewal and rejuvenation. Many people all over the world embark on pilgrimages to seek out and reconnect with this sacred way of being. That renewal happens when the unseen becomes seen, when that which has gone unrecognized becomes apparent.

The point of that journey isn't to have some great experience, but to rediscover the very ground of our being and to arrive at the center of which that very journey unfolds. Often we find ourselves reminiscing about the good ole days, but what we truly long for is a genuine path that leads to pure presence, in which we can tap into the wellspring of our own renewal and reconnect with the openness, generosity, and kindness that give our life purpose and meaning.

Mid-life breakthrough.

To have reached our destination,
to have traversed the path, accomplished our aims.
Just beyond where we are is where we want to be.

As such, we are divided amongst our self,
forever thirsting for things just beyond our reach.

Although we long to have gone beyond,
the journey to freedom takes place right in the middle of the path,
in the midst of our own life.

The mid-life struggle is the mid-life call to being present in the life you have created,
and to put aside your thirst and yearning for things beyond yourself.

We awaken in the middle of life to the way things are, not the way they could be. 

Refuge as a doorway.

Life is full of thresholds that forever change who we are and how we live our life. A doorway is one of the most common symbols of a threshold, for we move from a place in which we are familiar into a place that is unknown to us and beyond our sight. One side of the door is the past and where we have come from, on the other side is the future and what is yet to come. On one side we leave behind the familiar, to discover something else as the mystery unfolds.

Each of us is called to be more deeply present in the world, to participate and contribute to the world around us in some way. That call may come from a random encounter, a problem we are facing, an accident or even a dream. We most notice that call when we are hesitating to step out beyond our comfort zone, second guessing ourselves, or holding back from fear or uncertainty.

That call creates a threshold. It presents a small gap in which we are given an opportunity to be more open, responsive and available. That chance encounter isn't a chance at all, because it is how you are to use your life as the journey of self-discovery.

If we recognize that call, but choose to hold back or give in, then we fall back into our habitual ways and over invest in things outside ourselves, beyond our control.

Answering that call means crossing the threshold and finding ourselves on a sacred journey or pilgrimage to rediscover our own buddha heart. The challenges of the path continually present themselves and we slowly learn to set aside our own fixation and confusion so that we can awaken to our genuine way of being.

This threshold that we are talking about, between presence or giving in to the resistance, is traditionally presented as refuge. Before the doorway of refuge we reified who we are and believed in powers outside of ourselves for our freedom and liberation. Beyond the doorway is a world in which we recognize our innate potential and rely on our own experience and wisdom as the path. On that journey of self-discovery and revelation of our own buddha heart, we will find that we need to rely on teachers who have traveled this path, teachings that we can rely on, and supportive companions who understand the journey that we are on.

Refuge isn't a one-time event. Again and again we are called to cross that threshold, to leave behind our narrow conception of self and strive for awakening. Again and again, we rely on the Dharma to guide us on that journey.

Refuge is the doorway to awakening and marks a significant shift on your journey of self-discovery.

We are always off course.

Ask any sailor worth his salt and he will tell you that the direction that we are going is never the direction that we seek to go. You must always correct and adjust the course to make it to your chosen destination. With the vehicle that you have chosen, there is no direct course from here to there.

In the same way, our practice does not have a true alignment. There isn't one right way. The practice moves through you as you navigate your life. You must correct and make adjustments, that is the practice.

Know the direction that you seek to go. Know that the journey is long and follows many wayward paths. Also know that the quickest route is right into the headwind.

What do teachers teach?

Does a good teacher teach you the method, the skills?
Is it all about the information? 
Once you have gathered all the knowledge and can do the practice by rote, are you learned?

The best teachers teach you the path, the journey.  They push you to your limits and then give you the resources and support needed to figure out how to break through them.  They inspire you to look deeper.

They encourage the evidence based doubt of the scientist and the reason based doubt of the debater.  They understand the value of a good question and teach you to be brave enough to ask it.

The truly great ones teach you how to carry the ball yourself.  They show you how to bring your practice and knowledge into a new environment and still be able to connect the dots.  They teach you how to stand up, shoulder the weight, and to do it with patience, kindness and generosity.

You should read Stop Stealing Dreams by Seth Godin, it redefines what school is for and lays out a new approach to teaching and learning.