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Guided Meditation: Mindful From the Peaceful Middle

Good morning everyone, and welcome to IMC, both in person and online. Just to say a few brief words about the meditation practice: one of the wondrous, miraculous aspects of being a human being is having an equal ability to perceive what's happening externally to ourselves as it is to perceive what's internal to ourselves. I like to think of mindfulness sometimes as sitting at the interface between the outer world and the inner world.

Either one of those, or both of them, can be agitated. They can be challenging. But the meeting place, the bridge, the interface between the inner and the outer—the mindfulness—that's a place where perhaps we can sit calmly. We can sit peacefully in our capacity to be mindful, to explore what it means to be mindful and aware peacefully, even if what we're aware of is not peaceful. We have this ability because mindfulness sits not in the outer world and not in the inner world, but in this magic place between the two.

With that kind of image and idea, maybe you can experiment today and sit here for the next half an hour, seeing what it's like to be aware of whatever is happening internally and externally. The awareness, the perception of it, the mindfulness of it, is peaceful, even if the rest of you does not feel peaceful.

Assuming an upright posture. Settle into a simple way that is easy. Maybe setting your body at ease. Taking a few long, slow, deep breaths, and relaxing. Setting your body at ease.

Perhaps relaxing the face. The shoulders. The belly.

Maybe there's something about your mind you can set at ease. Relaxing the pressure to think.

And setting your heart at some peace, moving towards ease, no matter what challenges you have.

When we get preoccupied with the inner world or preoccupied with the outer world, there's a way in which awareness and attention become narrow. When we sit in that interface, the meeting place of the inner and outer world, and we are mindful from there, sometimes the mind can become broad and wide. Aware of all things. But with awareness not troubled by any of it. You might be troubled, but mindfulness does not have to be. Just aware. What is that place of peaceful awareness of what is?

Mindfulness can be aware of the outer world. It can be aware of the inner world. In a sense, mindfulness sits in the middle. In that middle place.

Mindfulness is also connected to our actions. What we do in response to our inner world, what we do in response to our outer world. If awareness is agitated, so will our actions be. If our awareness is peaceful, our actions will come out of that peace and carry with it qualities of peace.

May it be that whatever peace we have from this practice inspires us to act in the world with kindness, with wisdom, with compassion, and care. May whatever peacefulness we encounter support us in contributing to a better world for everyone.

May all beings be happy. May all beings be safe. May all beings be peaceful. May all beings be free.

Ending Hatred Through Non-Hatred

I spent the last two weeks teaching a retreat at our retreat center, and it was a peaceful life. It was nice to be there. But I was very aware that there is a great absence of peace, the opposite of peace, in many places around this country and around the world. One of the concerns that exists, especially in this country but all over, is the presence of hate. Some people are now preoccupied with the amount of hate that exists. Some people are preoccupied with hating.

I thought I would talk a little bit about the Buddha's teachings about hate. Maybe it's a bit of a reflection that supports us as we consider our relationship with the hate and the violence that exists in our country and elsewhere.

It's not an incidental topic for Buddhists or for the teachings of the Buddha. The Buddha placed understanding hate, overcoming hate, and the destruction of hate at the center of his message and his teachings. It goes together with two other afflictive mental states that harm the person who has them: greed and confusion, or delusion. Greed, hatred, and delusion^[1]—it's often those three that come off the tongue of Buddhist Dharma teachers very easily.

Someone once asked the Buddha, "How does one know the Dharma^[2] for oneself?" If Dharma means the teachings of the Buddha, there are great, wonderful philosophies of Buddhism, and great books are written that you could study to learn what the Dharma is. But how would one actually know this? Surprisingly, he defined it as understanding greed, hatred, and delusion, and the ending of it. He offered a great little phrase describing the Dharma: that it's "directly visible here and now." And how is it directly visible here and now? In seeing the ending of greed, hate, and delusion.

We have all these philosophies of Buddhism and explorations of emptiness and consciousness, but the heart of it is this ending of greed, hatred, and delusion. What is the goal of the Buddha's teaching? The Buddha said the goal is the ending of greed, hate, and delusion. When I first encountered the frequency with which this is taught, my mind started to glaze over it. I was a little dismissive of it. It seemed so reductionistic. I thought, "Where's the great spirituality? Where are the great spiritual states and realities? That can't be it." But apparently, it is.

It might be disappointing for you to hear, but as long as there is hate in the world, I think it's pretty wonderful to have a religion that is based on coming to the end of hate, front and center. Other religions have other things front and center, and perhaps the virtues of how you live are a little bit on the edges of that center. But for the Buddha, front and center was the end of greed, hatred, and delusion.

Dharma practice becomes understanding how hatred works, lessening our hatred, and not acting on hatred enough so that we can find a path that takes us to a time where it comes to an end for us. And that includes not just hatred—it's a big word, and some people maybe feel, "I don't have hatred, I'm just irritated with my neighbor," or "there's bitterness," or "there is resentment." All those are considered to be forms of hatred. There's also hostility. Hostility and hatred in the Buddhist teachings are closely connected, almost synonymous. Whatever hatred is, it always involves some degree of hostility as part of it.

Does irritation always have some quality of hostility in it? Does frustration have some degree of hostility in it? I don't know, maybe. It depends how we define these words, but if you're frustrated with your computer and you throw it across the room, then there's hostility in it, right? So for the Buddha, even the mildest irritation and frustration is a seedbed for hatred. As we begin looking at the ecology of hatred, frustration and irritation are part and parcel of it.

The Mind as Forerunner

I like to think of the Dhammapada^[3], a collection of verses and one of the most widely read scriptural texts from the time of the Buddha, as having a kind of formal beginning. What's interesting about it is that the Bible begins with a reference to God—God created everything. In contrast to that, the Buddhist beginning in the Dhammapada has nothing to do with God or anything outside of the individual. It's more like it all begins in our mind. It says: "All experience is born of the mind, made of the mind, created by the mind. Mind leads." It's quite a contrast, pointing towards one's own mind.

After saying that, the text goes on to the next verses, and it says:

"They attacked me, they abused me, they defeated me." Harboring hostility like this, hatred does not end.

"They attacked me, they abused me, they defeated me." Not harboring ill will or hostility like this, hatred comes to an end.

Hatred does not end through hatred. Hatred ends by non-hatred. This is the ancient truth.

Some translations like to translate non-hatred as "love," which makes it a little more inspiring for some people: "Hatred does not end by hatred, hatred ends by love." But I like to translate it as non-hatred, which is a literal translation, because there's more than just love that can end hatred. Generosity, care, and friendliness are all alternatives to hatred.

Here again, we find this emphasis on hatred front and center, emphasizing the importance of the mind and being careful with your mind, because what you do with the mind has consequences. Those beginning verses go something like this: "All experience is born of mind, rooted in the mind, created by the mind. Speak or act with a corrupted mind, and suffering follows like a heavy cart follows the oxen that's pulling it." It's a burden you carry along. Then it repeats: "All experience is born of mind, made by mind. Mind is a forerunner. Speak and act with a pure mind, and happiness follows like a shadow."

A shadow has no weight; let me try weighing your shadow. The difference is between a burdensome weight that you carry with you versus something that has no weight that floats along everywhere you go. What we say and what we do are consequential for our happiness, for our suffering, for the burdens we carry, and for the happiness that is easy for us to have.

The Narrowing Nature of Hate

Hatred is considered to be a fire; it burns us. It's sometimes referred to as holding liquid poison in your hand. If you have a wound or a cut in your hand, the poison can get in. Having hatred is like having poison in an open wound. Hatred is considered a kind of bondage. The tradition clearly understands that hatred harms the person who hates.

But to tell that to someone who hates, or to be told that when you're full of hate yourself, often doesn't help. To understand hatred, I think it is very important to see that hatred creates a strong sense of separation between oneself and others. Hatred narrows the broadness and openness of the mind. It creates very strong definitions and boundaries between who I am and who someone else is. The absence of hatred, however, loosens and dissolves some of these strong definitions, boundaries, and ideas of "me," "my people," and "those people."

I was struck by how much of the popular news concerns things related to greed, hatred, and delusion, especially violence. It's very evocative. People read about the challenges. But how often do you see headline news that someone loved someone else, or cared about someone else? I recently heard that a friend of mine had an acquaintance who bought an airplane ticket to Eastern Europe. He told friends and started a GoFundMe page, saying, "I'm going there to help the Ukrainian refugees. If you want to give me money, you can, but I paid my own way there." He went there on his own initiative and spent three weeks driving refugees from the Ukrainian border to wherever they had to go. That didn't make headline news.

Why does the news always focus on problems and expressions of violence and hatred? I suspect one reason is that human beings have a strong survival instinct. We have a very strong sense of wanting to survive, wanting to exist as an individual. Things that threaten our survival get our attention. As we read about things or have experiences that seem to threaten our survival, directly or indirectly, it strengthens the sense of self. It strengthens the "me" who has to respond, do something, and protect myself. The focus becomes increasingly on "me and my people" in order to be safe, get our way, or be fulfilled.

When we read about these things, born from self-concern, conceit, and selfishness, we often get horrified or angry. The attention points right back to ourselves: "Now I feel terrible," "I'm worried about climate change and how it's going to impact me," "Something has to happen." The self gets deeply involved.

One of the ways it gets involved here in this country is an astounding amount of conspiracy theories. I read recently that the whole modern movement toward conspiracy theories had its birth in the aftermath of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. I remember when I was a kid, my parents and their friends would read all the books published right after the assassination, discussing all their theories about what really happened. Of course, people want to understand what's happening; it's how we protect ourselves and find our way. But understanding the situation often reinforces the conceit of "I'm right, I figured it out, now I know." In a confusing world where it's hard to know what's true, the confusion is frightening. We wonder how to survive and manage ourselves.

The whole political spectrum is filled with conspiracy theories. Having conversations with good friends can sometimes feel like going down a rabbit hole, with people presenting with great certainty, "This is how it is." Sometimes it is how it is in some ways, but what is the context? What is the wider view? What's useful, and how do we find our way with all this?

Taking a Stand in Non-Hatred

Buddhism doesn't have a final answer or recipe to solve the world's problems. What the Buddha offered was how to resolve ourselves as individuals so that we could be forces of good in the world. Rather than looking to God as the creator of the world, we look at ourselves as the creators of the world—the world that will grow from how we live this life.

One of the core principles of this is: don't succumb to hate. Work to end hate in yourself and promote the ending of hate in the world. Speak up when there's violence. Make a refuge for people who are suffering from the violence of the world. Be a refuge for the people who are struggling and afraid. Move in the direction of love, care, and compassion, not in the direction of excessive self-concern and self-preoccupation that narrows the scope of our attention.

How do we do that when there is so much reinforcement to get narrow and revert back to ourselves, our concerns, our needs, and our opinions? Sometimes when I'm in conversations with people about what's happening in the world, people get opinionated. I get this feeling like I'm supposed to have an opinion. I'm supposed to either agree with them, or if I disagree, I have to assert myself. Then I'm caught up in this whole thing of who's right, who's wrong, my opinions, correcting people, and them wanting to correct me. The focus is on me. It's not a comfortable world to be in. Those conversations don't lead to peace.

If we ask the question, "What leads to world peace?" we might be missing the point. We might be missing where we can make the most change, which is in ourselves. Can we not narrow our scope, our attention, and our focus? Can we not be caught in self-preservation and self-protection in a way that creates a strong separation between self and others, defining ourselves in relation to the people who are a threat and the people who are not?

In one passage in the teachings, it is said that the Buddha brought an end to greed, hatred, and delusion, and then lived with courage, bravery, and taking a stand. That is powerful language: to live with courage, bravery, and taking a stand. This is not about just being peaceful for oneself, ending hatred, and disappearing passively into some nice meditative state. What does it mean to live with courage and bravery out of non-hate? Non-hate does not mean we become passive. It means acting out of a state of friendliness, love, care, and goodwill. In those states, the focus is not predominantly on oneself and one's own survival. The doors of attention are open, and our concern goes out to others.

This ability to open up the doors of concern out into the world can be frightening. Aren't we supposed to take care of ourselves? How are we going to manage? That movement doesn't get a lot of press in the paper, because people don't click to read a lot about love. It doesn't trigger their self-preservation or titillation concerns.

Look at this amazing libel trial going on and on between those two actors. I'm blown away that public resources, courts, and judges are being used for such an amazing amount of time for this. Why are people so interested? Why is it in the news every day? Where is the news about love, care, and support? There's news about the size of armies and how many soldiers are killed, but what about the news of all the many people who are helping and all the lives they're saving?

Becoming a Force for Good

In Buddhism, it's not only about focusing externally. We have this amazing ability to be aware at the meeting place of others and ourselves, the outer world and the inner world. Buddhist practice is to have that awareness open and broad, encompassing both. We can be careful with what's going on inside, coming to a resolution around our own hostilities, resentments, and bitterness, bringing those to an end, while also being open to the wider world. The non-hatred that we grow in can then meet the world with wholesome, positive goodwill.

Right now in this country, it is horrific to see the violence that has happened just in these last months. There is a phenomenal, record number of mass shootings in a short period of time. If you look at the statistics of hate crimes in the United States, numerically, the greatest number of hate crimes are directed towards Black people. The second greatest is towards LGBTQ people. Violence against LGBTQ people doesn't always get the same level of press as other violences, except maybe the shooting in Orlando some years ago. Then, Hispanic people. But in terms of frequency and per capita for the different population sizes, the greatest amount of hate crimes in this country is against Jewish people. There are about five or six million Jewish people in this country, but a disproportionate amount of violence and hate is directed towards them given their population size. And now we have this growing amount of hate against Asian people. It seems the pandemic, and how certain people blamed the Chinese for it, was a catalyst for a whole new level of violence against Asians.

We have to be very careful not to react to all this in a way that continues the movement of different groups in this country seeing each other as separate and distinct. We must recognize the horrific problems and be careful not to exaggerate or extend the separation and hostility between people. Is it possible to not exclude, but rather keep opening up? Imagine if each of us could be a refuge for anybody who comes into our view. Could we be a friendly presence with goodwill for anybody who comes into our purview?

How do we do that? How do we make room in our hearts even when people do violent things? We have to oppose the violence, say no, and try to stop it. But never succumb to hatred. Work for the end of hatred in yourself. Promote the end of hatred in the world. With an open heart, live with bravery and courage.

The teaching was that the Buddha took a stand. And what do you take a stand in? You take a stand in peace. You take a stand in non-hatred. And then you live in the world with love, goodwill, and kindness, supporting our heart's peace and supporting the possibility for other people to have their hearts at peace.

We might not have the solution for what our society needs, but in my mind, if we can be friendly to people, who knows what impact that friendliness has on someone we meet? One of the prime conditions for a certain degree of violence and hatred in our society is people who are bullied, marginalized, and feel that the door has been closed to them. Who knows—if you're friendly to the little kid down the street, you might never know how significant that was. That act of friendliness might have prevented someone from growing up to have horrific, violent tendencies.

What if someone had been friendly to someone like Hitler when he was a kid? Could that have changed history? I don't know, maybe it is naive to say. But we'll never know how many potential "Hitlers" did not become Hitlers because they had a loving grandmother, or a neighbor who believed in them, supported them, and gave them kindness.

We might not have the solutions to the world of today. But it's possible that each of you has a solution for what the world is going to be like in fifty years. You'll never know it, but maybe you are kind to a small child, a teenager, or an adult. Maybe you showed them that they were lovable. You showed them that they were worthy. You showed them a different way that too many people don't see in our society, where too many people are ignored, forgotten, and marginalized.

It's possible that one of you here today is going to be responsible for the fact that in fifty years, someone did not become a force of destruction, but became a force of goodness and support.

The causes and conditions of how things evolve always begin here with us, with our actions. Just like the beginning of the Dhammapada, it begins with our actions and what we do. That's the beginning for the future.

I trust it. I trust that we can live in wholesome, supportive ways with love, care, and compassion. I trust it, and I don't need to know what the consequences are in fifty years for doing so, because I believe in it now.

May you each be a force of good in this world, so in fifty years, it's a better world. Thank you.