Please join me for a casual, drop in guided meditation designed to create space, connect and ground us during this time of uncertainty and anxiety. I will also share a few dharma reflections and there will be an optional time for a brief check in. Let’s take this time to meet ourselves and each other just as we are, with compassionate presence and support as we prepare for the evening and beyond. Click here to connect by zoom.
This talk explores how true empathy and compassion occur when we are able to put ourselves inside the skin of others. When we are truly in contact with suffering (including our own) genuine compassion is born in us. The talk concludes with a boundless radiation lovingkindness practice.
When I clicked on the video, immediately I felt anger welling up. The woman, Amy Cooper, was living up to every stereotype in the book for an entitled white woman. No commentary or explanation was required to see her privilege and racism on full display. An African American man and avid bird watcher, Christian Cooper, had politely asked her to put her dog on a leash in a part of Central Park that requires it. She refused. Mr. Cooper began videoing the encounter, remaining calm as Ms. Cooper (no relation) became increasingly agitated. She walked up to him, breaching social distancing boundaries and pointed to the camera, ordering him to turn it off. When he didn’t she threatened him, yelling, “I’m going to call the police and tell them an African American man is threatening my life.” She put a strong emphasis on “African American.” He answered, “please do.” She stepped away and followed through on her threat, escalating her pleas to the police as though her life was truly in danger when obviously it wasn’t.
Even as she called the police, her dog still wasn’t leashed; she was holding it by the collar as it squirmed and choked. Finally, as she hung up she leased the dog. Mr. Cooper calmly thanked her and turned the video off. When the police arrived, they were both gone and thankfully no physical harm came to Mr. Cooper.
Tragically, on this same day, another video emerged, this one of a cop in Minneapolis with his knee on a black man, George Floyd’s neck. He pleaded to be released from this strangle hold, he couldn’t breathe. After 10 minutes he went still and was pronounced dead at the hospital shortly after. Mr. Floyd’s only offense was allegedly trying to spend a counterfeit $20 bill.
Anger gripped our nation along with an outpouring of grief. I personally felt horrified that the moral foundation we build our practice on in Buddhism, sila, was so fully breached in this moment, even knowing that it has been for centuries. So little has changed. My heart broke and I wept. More tragic loss of life, almost more than my heart could hold.
Grief and rage swept through social media as this video was viewed again and again. A strong public response can work to put pressure on federal and state officials regarding specific incidents and in some cases pave the way to justice. But this alone isn’t enough to bring about desperately needed systemic change. Our hearts and minds also need a deep reset; there’s real work to do.
The woman in the first video, Amy Cooper was certainly aware that her actions could have put Mr. Cooper in grave danger. Her apology indicated she was conscious of the peril that false accusations can lead to. “I am well aware of the pain that misassumptions and insensitive statements about race cause and would never have imagined that I would be involved in the type of incident that occurred with Chris.”
While I don’t know her politics, the truth is that liberals and conservatives alike are capable of behaving as Amy did. Why? Because even if we believe we personally have no bias, this is usually far from the case. Amy Cooper, in her apology even asserted, “I am not a racist.” But embedded in our culture are deeply held biases and there’s no use pretending they don’t permeate much of our conditioning and actions, even if they’re mostly unconscious. This underlying conditioning can and does lead to grave harm when unchecked.
When we only expend energy vilifying the Amy Coopers of the world, we turn them into the “other” and fail to consider how such actions could be carried out by many of us who consider ourselves beyond such behavior. Instead, can we let this be a wake up call to investigate how racism and bias exist, not only in our in our culture, but in ourselves? This quote from Ijeoma Olus speaks to this point, “The beauty of anti-racism is that you don’t have to pretend to be free of racism to be anti-racist. Anti-racism is the commitment to fight racism wherever you find it, including yourself. And that’s the only way forward.”
So what will bring about change? Here’s what Ruth King, an African American Buddhist teacher and author of Mindful of Race said, “Racism is a heart disease that’s curable. Cultivating a heart (through mindfulness practice) that is wise and open can be the medicine that is needed in moments of conflict.”
Those of us who are white can support this much needed awakening by undertaking the hard work of mindfully unpacking our own cultural conditioning about race and our own privilege. Some people are initially offended when they hear the phrase “white privilege.” I was at first. But when I attended a Buddhist teacher’s conference in 2014, we undertook challenging awareness exercises that uncovered our unconscious privilege. My own privilege became crystal clear for the first time.
In 2018 I began a white privilege program with some senior teachers from InsightLA. Their white teachers are all requited to complete this program to continue teaching there. The program template we used came from Spirit Rock and it included a monthly meeting, homework and time to explore our biases and privilege together. Honestly exploring our blind spots, bias and privilege was vulnerable and hard work, but ultimately very rewarding and eye opening. It was a start. If you’re white and you’ve never done this work, I highly recommend it.
In our practice, we can do a deep and sincere inquiry, “how can my practice and my actions lead to a more just, less biased world?
Last year the program director for an international corporation asked me to give a presentation to their staff about how mindfulness can help uncover and reduce unconscious bias. At first I was skeptical. Sometimes our culture sees mindfulness as a cure all for everything and only skims the surface of this practice. But the truth is that mindful awareness is an vital step in uncovering hidden bias and this has been verified scientifically. As I delved deeper, I concluded that right intention is also an essential ingredient. Ideally, if we start with an ethical foundation of non- harming and cultivate right intention and mindfulness, we have a recipe to begin to uncover and overcome deeply held biases. Then if we add right action to the mix, we have some hope for true change.
How could mindfulness practice have helped Amy Cooper in the split seconds before she went into full reactive/racist mode? When Christian Cooper asked her to leash her dog, instead of becoming agitated and vindictive, perhaps she could have noticed anger and tension arising in her body. She may have had enough space in her mind to perceive how she was reacting, mentally and physically, to entrenched biases about the skin color of Christian Cooper, then she might have seen a human being asking her to follow the leash laws. Most of all, perhaps a deeply embedded sense of “self against other” would not have taken full force and instead, a moment of awareness could open her to listening and taking right action. Then all she had to do was leash the dog and continue on her way.
May this moment be a deep wake up call for our hearts and minds. May we look beneath the surface and find the place where we are all connected and touch this truth. May we be kind and compassionate, may we remember we are not separate and act out of this understanding to benefit all beings.
We’re now moving into a new phase of the pandemic with many states partially reopening or even phasing out the quarantine. For some of us, it seems far too soon for safety. Uncertainty and a sense of groundlessness remain a significant part of this landscape. Personally I’m doing my best to walk where there is no ground and ride the unknowns without a map. Some days its easier than others. It helps to remember that the maps we hold in our minds are based on past experience or an approximation of what is present.
When our feet touch ground and the terrain differs from the map, we are in unknown territory that may feel groundless. Yet getting comfortable with this empty ground is the very heart of dharma practice, a doorway to liberation from a mind that clings to what it knows, or what it thinks it knows. Yes, it feels scary at times and compassion is essential when we explore this unknown terrain. But without allowing for these variations in the landscape, our experience hardens into an outdated map that doesn’t reflect the territory.
We can struggle to make the terrain conform to our old map, or let go and become intimate with the ground (or no-ground) we actually inhabit. We can relax with what is truly here and know in our hearts that we’ve never really been anywhere else. This great heart/mind of awareness holds us in a more reliable and spacious ground that we can learn to trust.
In April I taught my first online retreat and, to my surprise, it turned out much better than I expected.
The non profit I founded, One Dharma Nashville, holds an annual spring residential just outside of Nashville at Bethany Hills, a beautiful sport that is surrounded by nature. I knew by early March that the odds of this retreat happening were slim because of the virus. I began contemplating switching to an online offering to replace it, but felt hesitant, doubting the efficacy of meeting together on zoom while practicing at home.
Once we officially cancelled the in person retreat, I saw two choices: practice together online or skip the spring retreat entirely. Reluctantly, I chose the former. I have to admit initially I wasn’t looking forward to teaching a retreat online and only went ahead to accommodate those in our sangha who had voiced support for this format. Slowly as we got closer to the start date, I warmed up to the idea and even looked forward to leading home practice with sangha while on quarantine.
But I wondered, will people actually practice outside of our zoom meeting times? Can folks navigate home life, spouses, pets, maybe even children, wile meditating multiple times a day? Some decided they couldn’t, especially those with multiple kids at home or difficult work challenges. But many in our sangha and beyond decided it was worth a try. Everyone who attended was an online retreat beginner even though most were experienced retreat practitioners.
Observing full silence while also sharing home space with others is almost impossible, so most found a practical “middle way,” observing silence part of the time but still connecting and communicating with those at home. People living alone set up their time as a traditional silent meditation retreat.
I was surprised at how connected we felt meditating together multiple times a day. Having a schedule and sticking to it, even though it wasn’t as intensive as an in person retreat, allowed us to feel solidarity in the practice and in the dharma in a way that sitting alone doesn’t. Even when practicing during the offline times during the weekend, many people reported feeling a sense of connection to the sangha.
Retreating at home in this way isn’t as conducive to experiencing the deep samadhi (meditative absorption) that many meditators encounter on residential retreat. Yet other benefits emerged that are equally valuable. Many of our retreat participants reported how the barriers of retreat and home life dissolved. They were able to clearly observe and bring awareness to conditioned patterns that show up in daily life. Some of our retreat practitioners have reported that this mindful intervention has already had lasting positive effects. Often on residential retreats, reentry into everyday life feels challenging. But in this format, the line between the two was so subtle that reentry felt more natural.
I now believe home retreat is a valuable development in our practice that allows the barriers between retreat practice and home life to dissolve. As we bring our retreat practice more deeply into our everyday lives, the penetrating wisdom of the dharma sheds a light on parts of ourselves, and the way we function day to day, that may be obscured otherwise. It opens additional capacity to choose, with compassion and wisdom, a more responsive and aware relationship with ourselves and others.
I’m still a firm believer in retreating together in nature and look forward to the time when we can do this again safely. But for now, and even once quarantine ends, I believe online home retreat practice is here to stay. Both formats have value in differing ways. And I’m personally on board for more home Zoom retreats, both as a practitioner and a teacher. In fact, I have one coming up this weekend. See you on the other side!
We often hear of taking refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. How do we relate to refuge through the lens of an unstable, destabilizing world and political environment and a virus that has upended our lives? In this talk I explore these questions and bring refuge back to this very moment – to the freedom we can find here and now, even in these very challenging times.
A compassionate, open heart begins to melt away the distinction of inside and outside, self and others. There is only this heart, this compassion, this moment. Perfect in sadness or in joy.
Yesterday morning my husband and I went out early to hike at Radnor Lake, a nearby, very popular nature preserve. We thought if we arrived before 6:30 we would have the place mostly to ourselves. But when we arrived the parking lot was already half full. We shifted to a backup plan, a nearby park that is much less well known than Radnor Lake. We pulled in to an empty parking lot and enjoyed brisk walk on the park loop, seeing only one other person the entire time we were there. I deeply appreciated being immersed in nature as the sun rose over the trees and cast long, golden shadows across the fields. For a while, life felt normal and unhindered by a global pandemic encroaching ever more deeply on our city. Immersed in a moment of beauty on a brisk morning, my heart was full of gratitude, joy and presence.
On our drive home during what is normally the morning rush hour, we saw few cars on the main arteries. I felt a pervading sense of stillness as the engines of our economy have come to a near halt and the pressures to produce have, to some extent, been lifted. Inside I felt the waves of activity and doership fully paused and my heart at peace. It struck me how our perceptions of activity and movement, the worldly winds, are like a phantom and a dream, largely created by the mind and fulfilled by restlessness, desire and greed. This deep pause refreshed of my heart and mind at a level I normally access during deep meditation or while on retreat and removed from everyday life.
To be clear, many people do not have this privilege. Many must report to work outside their homes no matter what and my heart breaks for those who must be in harm’s way. On a less dire level, this slowdown is affecting my livelihood and, like most, my retirement account has been crushed. Yet in these moments of stillness and presence all is well no matter what else may be true at a relative level. This is the peace that is always here but too often obscured when our minds look outward to seek fulfillment through busyness, consumption, or greed.
Our wise hearts have the capacity to pause and find peace even during a time of great upheaval. The environment is also resting, pollution is down along with global travel and other forms of consumption. What is stark to me are the extremes of this continuum: an economy that can’t or won’t wake up to the realty of climate change on one end and a global pandemic on the other that shuts everything down and thus, the earth comes to rest for a while. We humans have not yet found a middle way and it is unclear if we will. So for now we can begin with our own hearts and minds, coming to rest when we can and allowing ourselves to retreat.
During a recent talk, Jack Kornfield spoke of leading a zoom conference for a large group people in China who were on lockdown. He explained to them that hundreds of people at Spirit Rock Meditation Center paid a lot of money to be on retreat, while they were on retreat in their homes for free. He encouraged them to take the opportunity while they could.
Many of us have this same opportunity right now, to slow down for a while, to retreat right where we are and find this stillness, for ourselves and for those around us. As Jack recently said, “This is the time to steady yourself – and it affects everyone else.”
This opportunity won’t come again in just this way, so please join me if you can and allow this time to be one of returning, not just to your physical home, but this home of your body, your breath and the great awareness that holds you in times of stillness and movement, stress and release, sorrow and joy. As Martin Luther King said long ago, “Be the peace you want to see in the world.” Now is the time.
May we all be safe and well, may we be held in compassion and filled with lovingkindess. May we find peace.
There’s a popular saying about how to eliminate fear, I’m sure you’ve heard it: “Choose love, not fear.” This is reassuring; it makes people feel that they always have a choice not to be afraid if they can love instead. It is the principle of replacing what’s considered a negative, fear, with a perceived positive, love. But it doesn’t always work. Sometimes we just feel afraid and there’s nothing we can do to eliminate the fear. We can try, perhaps we can do it for a while, but often the fear just pops back up in another way, just like grief or anger. Maneuvering to get rid of it can have unwanted repercussions and often intensifies the anxiety.
So what do you do when your maneuvering fails? Be as fearful as you need to be. Pause and open to it, feel it in your body, don’t try to get rid of it. Stop viewing it as a problem and approach it as a friend who needs your attention. But also be aware of the thoughts and projections that are feeding the fear. You don’t have to nourish those thoughts. What would happen if you just let your fear live inside your body for a while, just as it is? What if you quit viewing fear as the enemy, something to get rid of? Would it overrun you and eat you up? Not if you cultivate a steady mind and an open heart in the presence of the fear. You’ll slowly see that this present moment awareness is bigger than fear. Take a few deep breaths and step in, readily or slowly, at whatever pace works for you. Through this practice you can reach a still and open dwelling place where wisdom lives. You can steadiness in the midst of fear, and maybe even love.
Intimate with Life
At Home Residential ZOOM Retreat with Community
Thursday Evening, April 16 – Sunday Noon, April 19, 2020
Led by Lisa Ernst
“Enlightenment is Intimacy With all Things” ~ Dogen
This silent retreat will follow the same format as an in person retreat and is suitable for newer as well as experienced meditators. It will include periods of sitting and walking meditation, instructions, dharma talks, q&a and private meetings with the teacher.
All you need is a quiet space in your house and a device with a ZOOM connection for practicing in community. Since we’re all spending more time at home these days, this is a good way to deepen practice right where we are, supported by community, and then carry it over with less transition time when the retreat is over.
This retreat is offered on a sliding scale of $125 – $200. Please note that this fee supports not only One Dharma during a difficult time, but also our partners, The Nashville Friends Meeting and Bethany Hills Retreat Center, who we are supporting so they will be there when physical spaces open again. There will be a separate opportunity at retreat’s end to make a *dana offering (donation) to the teacher. A scholarship spot is available if you need financial assistance. Email onedharmaretreat@gmail.com with questions. Payment can be made by Venmo @onedharma or at paypal here.
Lisa Ernst is a meditation teacher in the Thai Forest lineage of Ajahn Chah, Jack Kornfield and Trudy Goodman. She leads workshops and retreats nationally and is a visiting teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center.
