Election Eve Session, Monday, November 4th: Monday, November 4th, is Election Eve. Some of you may be wondering how to get through the next week. The “What ifs” are profound and troubling no matter what the results. Staying engaging and doing what we can to support the outcome we want is important to our mental health as well as contributing to a positive result. But it is also critically important to support wholesome qualities in the mind and abandon unwholesome ones at all times.
I will be offering a special session next Monday devoted to protecting a healthy state of mind and practice as we move through the powerful currents that surround Election Day. In conversation and practice, we’ll explore appropriate responses to the election to find some equanimity and calm with which to meet our changing world.
See Innerlight Center for Yoga and Meditation, https://www.innerlightyoga.com/ weekly classes, Mindfulness Meditation for Stress Reduction, Mondays at 5:30pm
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We have been exploring the hindrances recently. Two weeks ago, I shared the one of the Buddha’s similes for the experience of the five hindrances as follows:
Sensual desire is like being in debt.
Anger/aversion is like a disease.
Sloth-and-torpor are like being in bondage.
Restless-and-worry are like being enslaved.
Doubt is like being on a perilous journey.
To be free of the hindrances is like getting out of debt, being well, being freed from bondage or slavery and arriving safely at your destination.
Moreover, this freedom from the hindrances allows wholesome qualities to arise in the mind. One of the most important lists the Buddha offered was of the Seven Factors of Enlightenment. When the mind is free from hindrances, these seven factors can arise: mindfulness, energy, investigation, joy, tranquillity, concentration, and equanimity. As indicated in their name, the seven factors of enlightenment arise and lead onward to enlightenment, either the temporary or final freedom from suffering.
As I have indicated before, the hindrances don’t arise only in meditation but are arising and passing away through our daily lives. We only become more aware of their presence in meditation. And while this awareness is a key first step, it is not the end of the story. With the hinderances, first, becoming aware of, and second, tolerating their presence allows the wholesome factor of investigation to arise. Thus, the first two factors of enlightenment are brought to bear - mindfulness and investigation. The purpose of this tolerance, acceptance, and investigation of the suffering state of the hindrance is to learn what it is, and how it arose and finally what conditions allow for the abandoning of the hindrance, what causes the hindrance to cease.
This excerpt from Venerable Analayo’s book, Perspectives on Satipatthāna, elaborates:
"A clear understanding of the different ways in which the hindrances can manifest is relevant not only when one tries to meditate, but also in relation to more mundane tasks such as trying to learn something. As their very name indicates, the hindrances of sensual desire, anger, sloth-and-torpor, restlessness-and-worry, and doubt “hinder” the proper functioning of the mind.
"Any attempt at study, whether of a language, a theory, or anything else, can be greatly enhanced by devoting some of one’s awareness to one’s mental condition while learning. Such awareness can alert one to the presence of any of the five hindrances. For example: indulging in sensual fantasies instead of being with the topic in hand, having aversion towards what one “has to learn”, feeling bored, becoming restless in the wish to get it done quickly, or lacking confidence in one’s ability to complete the task successfully. Each of these conditions will of course go a long way in frustrating one’s efforts to learn effectively. Recognizing these conditions, however, makes it possible to overcome the mental condition that “hinders” one’s attempt to learn effectively. In this way, contemplation of the hindrances has considerable potential in relation to education and study.
"In the ancient Indian setting, the task of learning anything was inextricably related to memorizing, to learning something by rote. This was of considerable importance for the early Buddhist community, since all the teachings given by the Buddha and his disciples were passed on by oral transmission. Thus someone who is learned, in the ancient context, is one who quite literally “has heard much” and remembers it.” (p. 189)
A word about the approaching election: I want to reiterate what I said last week about the election and compassion as one of the effective ways to abandon the hindrances - especially anger or aversion or ill will. This hindrance is present in toxic quantities this week as the election barrels down on us.
This election is not just about the negative. It is also based on our love for ourselves and other humans, those who share our country with us as well as those who share the world with us.
And when that love sees suffering, compassion arises. We have all felt this compassion recently.
We must begin to understand that the hindrances are suffering - desire is suffering, aversion is suffering, agitation and remorse are suffering, apathy and dullness of mind are suffering, and doubt is suffering. When we are caught in suffering, we yearn for clarity, calm, being centered, ease of mind and body, equanimity. We yearn for the presence of the enlightenment factors.
Can we hold our suffering, our pain, our annoyances with compassion? Can we extend compassion to others? Can we wish that others also hold their suffering with compassion? When I extended the compassion outward to others with whom my mind was at war, it allowed me - sooner or later - to connect with how I cared about them.
Since I have been back from retreat, it has become clearer to me that the love I feel for family, friends, neighbors, all inhabitants in this world is more important than the disagreements, arguments, injustices. This is not to belittle the desire for justice - but to help us stay connected to the current of love and compassion even as we work with fierceness toward our hope for a better future for all. Love and compassion are not passive qualities, but can be the basis of the arising of the warrior within us, can inhabit us with a fierceness to protect the weak, seek justice, to do all we can toward a better world for all.
“In the end, everything is either love or a distortion of it.” ~~ Ann C. Klein