Yoga & Abuse

Part One

Recently, riding the rising tide spurred by the #metoo movement, women yoga students have been speaking out about the abuse and harassment they have been facing -- some of them for years. We're by now all aware of the horrendous criminal behavior of Bikram Choudary, but many of us are just learning of the long-term harassment perpetuated by Astanga Yoga guru, Pattabhi Jois through the revelations of Karen Rain. (Please be sure to follow the links in order to read Mary Taylor's anemic response to Karen Rain as well as to view the linked video)

If we've been practicing for any length of time, we're probably familiar with the all-too-many scandals including those around John Friend and Rodney Yee.  Sadly, these are just two of the western yoga celebrities who have failed to live up to yoga's own ethical guidelines embodied in the Yamas (or the Buddhist yoga equivalent, the Precepts). But it's not been just western teachers, and it's not simply a very recent problem as this comprehensive list shows. And it includes those held up as "saints."

I've previously written about abuse in the buddhist community and pointed out that such abuse is -- at heart -- not about sex or money, but ultimately it's an abuse of power. 

One take-away from all this is that yoga is not something apart from human foibles. There is a long and deep tendency to romanticize yoga, yoga teachers, and yoga practitioners and perhaps this very romanticization is one of the factors behind such atrocious behavior (along with the patriarchal nature of traditional yoga and the contradictory and confused relationship to sexuality in our culture).

And now, Yoga Alliance is wishing to center itself as an arbiter of ethics. To be frank, I am no fan of the Yoga Alliance. Over the course of 20 years it has positioned itself as being something it is not. The Yoga Alliance is NOT a certifying or licensing body; it is simply a registry of yoga teachers who can prove they've taken a yoga teacher training that meets Yoga Alliance's woefully dismal standards (200 hours emphasizing postural practice, with barely any depth in terms of the history and philosophy of the vast Yoga Tradition). 

But by clever positioning, they've created a situation where many employers who know no better will only hire a yoga teacher who has registered with Yoga Alliance (perhaps days after completing their 200-hour training) over someone with decades of experience who has not fallen for the money-making scam of the Yoga Alliance. And students looking for a Yoga Teacher Training will often pass by longer, more in-depth trainings offered by seasoned veterans for a 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training mill because it is registered with the Yoga Alliance.

So, with that said, I will say that it is good news to see Yoga Alliance seemingly taking the abuse and harassment in the yoga community seriously. Especially given their historical woeful "responses" to those who have gone to them for support such as Cori Wright. Of course, as a registry, they really have no power other than -- as Sharon Roche says -- taking away their "credential." Note that on their website regarding their grievance process it says:

Yoga Alliance will respond to each grievance received. We will also take appropriate action(s) to ensure compliance with our Standards, Requirements, Code of Conduct, and Policies. 

Yoga Alliance will address all breaches in our Standards, Requirements, Code of Conduct, or other Policies with the person and/or school. Any information you share will be recorded in the account holder’s file. This information is only accessible to Yoga Alliance and may be used to inform the development of our grievance process in the future.

In the interest of protecting students and trainees, we address all breaches in our Standards, Requirements, Code of Conduct, or other Policies with the person and/or school against whom the allegations were submitted. 

Yoga Alliance affords all registrants due process. Therefore, we may not be able to provide updates regarding any action(s), conversations, and/or outcomes taken with the person or school. 

This all sounds to me like a lot of blustering. As you can see there is very little other than platitudes and empty phrases being offered here about "appropriate actions" and addressing "all breaches" of their standards, but they don't actually say what such actions are or will be, nor via what channels they will address "all breaches." And then in response to the question: 

Will Yoga Alliance revoke or suspend the school or the teacher's account?

Yoga Alliance affords all registrants due process. Yoga Alliance may or may not satisfy your intended outcomes and desires if you file a grievance.

In other words, caveat emptor.

Part Two

So, unable -- or unwilling -- to look to Yoga Alliance for any guidance, the discussion and actions that must be taken look as they are up to us to take the lead. And, as to be expected, perhaps, when the topic of ethics is raised, there is bound to be much drama, heat, and argumentation. 

"Aren't the Yamas (or Precepts) enough of a guideline?" ask many practitioners. But the history of abuse should be answer enough that they are not. And while we would all agree that rape is absolutely wrong, rationalizations around some of the adjustments Jois gave, for instance, are still being made by some among the Astanga Yoga lineage. And then the issue of the relationship between teacher and student grows even murkier, with quite a surprising number of teachers saying there is nothing at all wrong with teachers and students becoming sexually or romantically involved and others finding it absolutely a non-negotiable no-no.

The most common argument against yoga teachers becoming sexually involved with their students is the argument based upon the alleged "power imbalance" between teacher and student. But here's an article written by a women who argues against the idea of any power imbalance. 

I've been asked if I would think it wrong for a personal trainer and their client to become sexually involved; that in most cases the relationship between a yoga teacher leading a class in postural practice is more similar to that of a personal trainer and their client than between a therapist and their client or that between a dharma teacher and their student. 

I'm writing this to invite any who may read it to offer your viewpoints, as I am not putting myself out as some final arbiter of ethics. Attempts by any organization to create a universal code of ethics will continue to meet resistance from those who wish yoga to remain de-centralized.  Given that, I believe individual studios and local communities must become involved in responding to the abuse that has remained in the shadows for too long, and work to dissolve the current murky situation with clear guidelines made known to all students.


I do think that the Yamas or Precepts may serve as a foundation for ethical guidelines, but then I believe studios and individuals may need to formulate their own "Codes of Ethics" that get more specific and go beyond the general categories covered by the Yamas and Precepts as Spirit Rock has done with their "Teacher Code of Ethics," most notably in their added points on sexual relations.

I wish to end this with a short survey of the Five Precepts from the Zen traditions as a way of sparking discussion:  

1. I vow to avoid causing harm; I vow to cultivate reverence for life.

This is the first precept I took with Thich That Hanh in 1995. And how do we avoid causing harm? The buddha recommended that we think ahead about the possible consequences of our actions. And even if we proceed to act because we have not foreseen any possible harmful consequences, we must keep vigilant to see if there are any unforeseen harmful consequences and change course and make amends. We are human; we will mess up, but we must be committed to learn from our unskillful actions. How do we cultivate reverence for life? Thay suggests we do so by being as mindful as we can, practicing gratitude to the life we all subsist upon (whether vegan, vegetarian or not), and by eating moderately. 

2. I vow not to take what is not freely offered; I vow to practice generosity.

This second precept reminds us to not steal, which includes not taking credit for anything others have said or done. We also should not steal from ourselves. And generosity, the buddha said, goes to the very heart of yoga: self-transcendence. We all can give of our time, energy or material resources, whether a kind word or smile or volunteering at a non-profit, or donating money to a cause we support. 

3. I vow not to indulge in exploitative, oppressive sexual relations; I vow to practice consensual sexual responsibility.

Whether we are monogamous, polyamorous, or involved in any kink such as BDSM, it isn't the act itself but the heart/mind motivating the act. By definition, consensual sexuality cannot be exploitative or oppressive.

4. I vow not to lie, or spread rumors of which I am not certain; I vow to speak the truth at the appropriate time, to the appropriate person, in the appropriate space for the appropriate reason.

Right Speech is a powerful yoga practice and perhaps the most difficult. Truth can be wielded as a weapon to harm others, so note the point about checking our motivation for speaking. There may be times when noble silence is the best way to practice right speech. Right speech most notably includes not speaking of things of which we are not sure, which would end the divisive, cancer of gossip.

5. I vow not to intoxicate my mind; I vow to maintain clarity of mind.

Buddha means "awakened person" so Buddhism could literally be translated as "Awake-ism." Thus, the value of a clear mind cannot be overstated. We often fixate on drugs and alcohol as intoxicants, but we can intoxicate ourselves with gossip, Facebook, television... and even yoga practice if we are using our practice to avoid reality. 

The Middle Path

“Let me tell you about the middle path. Dressing in rough and dirty garments, letting your hair grow matted, abstaining from eating any meat or fish, does not cleanse the one who is deluded. Mortifying the flesh through excessive hardship does not lead to a triumph over the senses. All self-inflicted suffering is useless as long as the feeling of self is dominant.

You should lose your clinging involvement with yourself and then eat and drink naturally, according to the needs of your body. Clinging attachment to your appetites – whether by deprivation or indulgence – can lead to slavery, but satisfying the needs of daily life is not wrong. Indeed, to keep a body in good health is skillful, for it supports the mind in staying strong and clear.

This is the middle path.”

--- The Buddha from “Discourse One”

The Buddha had lived a life of indulgence before setting off to become a yogin. And then after six years of extreme austerities, on the verge of collapse, if not death, he decided to bathe and eat, build up his strength and stamina and eventually broke through to full awakening. And from the first teachings of what became a 40-year teaching career, he taught the middle path, and ever since, this moniker has become synonymous with Buddhism.

The Emaciated Buddha after years of extreme tapas

Even to this day, there are yogins in India practicing the extreme forms of renunciation, but what the Buddha is reminding us, whether we abstain from or indulge in our appetites, though it looks very different, there is the same fixation on the self. And it is this fixation that traps us in the round of dukkha (dissatisfaction, stress, suffering, pain).

In another teaching from later in his career, he had a student who had been a veena player. The veena is a lute-like stringed instrument, and the Buddha, consummate teacher that he was, addressed Sona’s experience as a musician to teach him the middle path of practice. He must have noticed Sona sitting in meditation either in a collapsed, overly loose way or in what zen teachers refer to as the “stone Buddha,” sitting rigidly and overly stridently effortful. The Buddha asked:

“Sona, what happens when you tighten the strings of the veena?”

Sona replied, “The pitch increases.”

“And if you continue to tighten the string?” the Buddha asked.

“Then eventually the string will snap,” replied Sona.

“And what happens when you loosen the strings?” the Buddha continued.

“The pitch decreases,” Sona answered.

“And again, if you continue to loosen the strings?” asked the Buddha.

“Then the string will become so slack that it won’t make any sound” Sona replied.

“Then how do you make the strings sound harmoniously? the Buddha responded.

“By making them not too tight and not too loose” said Sona.

“And that is how you should practice meditation” the Buddha pointed out.

Now, raised as we are on fairly tales, many who hear this story assume that once one is not too tight, not too loose, we live “happily ever after” as if “not too tight, not too loose” was a permanent state of being. But any string player will tell you, that “not too tight, not too loose” is always a relationship to circumstances. If you tune in a room that is 70-degrees F and 30% humidity, and then move into a room that is 85-degrees and 75% humidity, you are going to have to retune!

We are always having to make adjustments to ever-changing circumstances. There is no such thing as balance so much as we are continually balancing. It is a dynamic process and relationship and to maintain this relationship requires vigilant mindfulness.

This is important to understand because otherwise the “middle path” may be misunderstood as equivocal, but it is properly understood as “upright, centered, and neutral.” The middle path requires us to investigate and penetrate life’s circumstances with as unbiased an attitude as possible (which is where a metacognitive aspect comes into mindfulness practice; we need to learn about and be alert to biases such as the confirmation bias in order to compensate and correct for it). In order to see clearly so that we can respond skillfully and wholesomely to life’s ever-changing conditions, we need to position ourselves in a stable, neutral, upright, unbiased attitude. Those of you familiar with the definition of yoga-asana may see some similarities here! From this stable, yet relaxed grounded position, we can investigate our situation from various angles, analyze what we discover (uncover), understand clearly (clear comprehension, as the satipatthana has it) and find a creative and skillful response. In this way, we can liberate ourselves from our conditioned, biased reactivity and move toward the skillful response.

The middle path represents the distinct perspective and way of Buddhist practice more common to humanism than to other religions. Buddhism lays great emphasis on human thought and action and their relationship to the environment, society and culture. It is concerned with the relationship between the changing conditions of the environment, society and culture and the thoughts and actions of the individual and groups and the relationship between these thoughts and actions and their consequences. It is an investigation into causality.

Through this investigation, the Buddha came to offer two main characteristics of the middle path: the teaching of Dependent Origination and the Noble Eightfold Path. Dependent Origination shows the process of causality, how phenomena and situations arise and pass away based upon myriad causes and conditions. The Noble Eightfold Path shows the way of practice as a response to Dependent Origination.

"The Tathagatha avoids the two extremes
and talks about the Middle Path.
When this is, that is; with the arising of this, that arises.
Through ignorance volitional actions or karmic formations are conditioned.

Through birth, decay, death, lamentation, pain are conditioned.
When this is not, that is not; with the ceasing of this, that ceases.
Through the complete cessation of ignorance, volitional activities or karmic formations cease. 
Through the cessation of birth, death, decay, sorrow, cease."

(Samyuktagama, Chapter 12)

"But isn't all yoga mindful?"

This has been asked of me -- usually rhetorically -- by students over the years more than once. And of course, I agree... all yoga should be practiced mindfully. Sadly, given today's commodified and mainstreamed practice of yoga as a "workout" or exercise regimen, we cannot simply assume that mindfulness is present in all venues.

But that aside, there is still a difference between yoga practiced mindfully and Mindfulness Yoga. Especially when what is being described as yoga is actually asana practice.

There's an old story about two zen students on retreat wondering if the roshi will allow them to smoke while on retreat. They decide to separately ask the roshi during dokusan. A bit later, one of the students notices the other one sitting in the garden smoking a cigarette. The student goes up to him and whispers, "Why are you smoking? The roshi told me I couldn't smoke." The smoking student asks, "What did you ask the roshi?" The other student responds, "I asked if I could meditate while smoking." "Well," the smoking student answers, "I asked if I could smoke while meditating."

Hopefully, anyone engaging in asana practice, if they understand the purpose of yoga, is doing it mindfully. That is to say, as they move into trikonasana, for instance, they are doing so mindfully, paying attention to what and how they are doing the posture. But as you can see, to say one is doing the asana mindfully is putting emphasis on the asana; mindfully is an adjective describing how one is engaged with the posture.

With Mindfulness Yoga, as the proper noun evidences, the emphasis is on the practice and cultivation of mindfulness through the vehicle of the posture. In mindful yoga, one is practicing asana mindfully; in Mindfulness Yoga one is practicing mindfulness in the posture. 

Further, for me, what I coined Mindfulness Yoga is a form or approach to asana practice (including pranayama) based upon the buddha's instructions given in the satipatthana-sutta and the anapanasati-sutta. In Mindfulness Yoga, whether we are practicing slow-movement, restorative, yin or vinyasa-flow, the foundation for practice is the practice of sati, which is the word translated as "mindfulness." 

And to be absolutely clear, with the mainstreaming of "mindfulness," much of the practice of sati has been left behind: mindfulness is not the same as "bare attention." That is to say, it is not merely "paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally," as it is most often described by many contemporary mindfulness teachers.

Yes, mindfulness includes and is based upon such an orientation to the present moment: we observe what is happening purposefully, and without judgment or reactivity. But that is only to enable us to see clearly -- to have 'clear comprehension' (Sampajanna) of the present moment. If we judge or react, we are no longer seeing clearly, but rather through the filter of our reactivity.

But, we do this in order to then seen clearly the causes and conditions for the present moment in order to discern what and how we should respond. If the present moment is positive and wholesome, (which is a judgement, after all) then we are determined to continue nurturing the causes and conditions that led to the present moment. However, if the present moment sucks, if is is filled with duhkha and unwholesomeness, then we respond in such a way to cut off the causes and conditions and to not repeat them in the future.

Thus, the full practice of mindfulness is not atomistically looking at the present moment, but is doing so while remembering (which is the actual root of the word sati) what led to its arising. The practice of sati is relational, requiring memory and discernment as we move from conditioned reactivity to creative response. If one is living only in the present moment, there is no relationship possible. Relationship requires memory. Ask anyone who has a family member suffering from Alzheimer's if you doubt that.

So, with Mindfulness Practice as I teach it or in my upcoming retreat at Kripalu, we follow the various practices outlined in the two suttas I referred to above which includes observing and investigating breathing, the positions and activities of the body, the various parts and elements of the body, and the ultimate state of the body; whether the feelings arising are pleasant, unpleasant or neutral and whether arising physiologically or psychologically; all mental activity; and the fundamental categories of the buddhadharma.

Friendship With The Lovely...

"Ananda said: 'Friendship with what is lovely, association with what is lovely, intimacy with what is lovely -- that is half of the dharma practitioner's life.'

The buddha replied: "Oh, don't say that, Ananda. It is the whole of the dharma practitioner's life. One so fortunate with what is lovely will develop a skillful way of being, a thinking that no longer grasps at what is illusory, an aim that is concerned and ready, a contemplation that is unentangled and free. Association with what is lovely is the whole of the dharma-practitioner's life.'"

--- Samyutta Nikaya

I remember that though I had been interested in buddha-dharma for years, and had been practicing (mostly alone, but occasionally I'd sit with one group or another), I refrained from joining any sangha. And when a group of friends and I began to sit together in my apartment in Park Slope, Brooklyn, we jokingly said we were a group of "non-joiners." 

And yet, over time, despite my skeptical suspicions of group-think, and seeing how easy it was for such cultish dynamics to form, I have also come to see just how necessary "association with the lovely" is. 

Of course, humans being human, no community could or should expect to be free of tensions, conflict and disharmony. What makes a community a sangha and not just a group of people, is that each participant takes responsibility for their own reactions as well as for speaking up when s/he witnesses a dharma friend saying or doing something that seems harmful and using such conflict and tension for the general purpose of all members of the communities awakening.

Most importantly, perhaps, is that each participant in a sangha, rather then turning to others when upset with another member of the community, addresses that member directly, whether alone or in the company of another member as witness. And when some offense is brought to a member's attention, that member practices restraint of defensiveness, offers deep listening, and enters into the co-practice of restoration.

While there is no need to formalize this practice, the "Peace Treaty" created by the Plum Village community offers some guidelines for how sangha members can work with conflict. Of course, there is a caveat: I have seen the teaching of 'right speech' and 'deep listening' used in such a way as to create the tendency toward self-censorship, as well as the marginalization of dissenting opinion. Each and every sangha member must feel they can indeed speak up and out and be heard. The sangha must be willing to be changed by what comes out of any conflict.

This indeed is intimacy with the lovely -- though it may not always be pretty!

What Do We Know?

"Ananda said to the buddha: 'I think there has never been a teacher as great as you, nor will there ever be one as great in the future!'

The buddha asked Ananda: 'Have you known all the buddhas of the past?'

'No, honored one,' responded Ananda.

'But you are able to know all the buddhas of the future, then?' asked the buddha.

'No, honored one,' Ananda repeated.

'Then I suppose you know my awakened mind completely?' the buddha asked.

'No, honored one. I do not even know your mind completely,' Ananda admitted.

'Then how can you make such a bold statement as that I am the greatest teacher that ever was or will be? It is much better to talk of what you know than to speculate foolishly,' the buddha told Ananda."


This exchange from the Majjhima Nikaya it a good one to keep in mind when we find ourselves so sure of our perceptions and opinions. We often seem so sure of ourselves when we impute motivations to others; and we can pontificate on the subjects we have very little experience in as if we have the deepest insight into them. This passage reminds us to be a bit more humble in regards to the confidence we hold for our perceptions and opinions.

The fourth precept includes this understanding, not to speak of things of which we are not sure, but there are actually very few things of which we are sure! Ananda says he does not know the buddha's mind completely, but truly, there is no one among us who can say we know our own mind completely! Both neuro-science and cognitive science shows us that much of what we do and think we think is guided by the unconscious and pre-conscious mind to which we have no access. We do things and then confabulate reasons. Perhaps only children, who openly admit they do not know why they've done something when asked why they've done it are completely honest. Bodhidharma, when asked by Emperor Wu, "Who are you?" responded "I don't know." 

If we too can remember that we often do not know, perhaps we can stay more intimate with our experience, maintaining an ardent sense of curiosity while holding a relaxed grasp on our perceptions and opinions? But we do love to speculate, don't we? Perhaps this exchange can help us remember to speculate wisely, rather than foolishly assert things to be that we truly have little to no idea about!

"Appropriate thinking" is the second of the 8-limbs of the buddha's eight-fold path. One actual practice to support appropriate thinking is to ask oneself: "Am I sure?" when we find ourselves asserting something as fact. And when we catch ourselves indulging in the idea gossip of speculation, we can stop ourselves and kindly ask ourselves: "What are you doing?" Finally, when we see we've given sway to foolish speculation -- especially as to the motivations of other's behavior, we can say to ourselves, "Hello habit energy!" 

The Four Reminders: Training in the Preliminaries

The first slogan of lojong is itself the first of the Seven Points of Mind Training: “First, train in the preliminaries.” This is often taken to refer to the foundational practice of shamatha-vipashyana. Additionally, there are other ways this may be thought and approached and it is important to do so in order to stoke our motivation for practice!

The first way one can approach this slogan is to consider “the preliminaries” as everything difficult that has happened in your life up to now. The heartbreaks, the disappointments, the illnesses, the losses and all such past and/or present difficulties are the preliminaries for you. Whatever nature they may be, we can use them to push ourselves deeper into both a re-appraisal of our practice and strengthen our resolve to dig deeper into practice.

Now, the difference between just coping with these difficulties and “training” has to do with how we view and relate to them. If we are serious about training, we need to own them. When we take precepts, part of the ceremony is Atonement or, as my teacher, Samu Sunim would say, “at-one-ment,” where we take responsibility for our karma. This “responsibility” isn’t to imply that you caused your difficulty (though you may have) or are to “blame” for it. Even if you are a victim and through no fault of your own, you are suffering or have suffered, taking responsibility means owning that it happened, owning it as the present stuff of your life. It’s what you are going to work with. Training in the preliminaries in this sense means not wallowing in your troubles, but rather to stop moaning and feeling self-pity and recognizing that — like it or not — this is your life and you are the one that must work with it as the very field of practice. 

Ways of doing this obviously include how you take your seat in sitting meditation, steadfastly refusing to spin out into fantasy, justification, and resentment, but also with therapy or couseling, journaling, sangha sharing, artistic endeavors and any other forms of reflective exercise. It’s about creating a pause, taking the backward step and acknowledging that the old way doesn’t work; that a new way of being in the world is called for. When I was growing up in NYC, every pizzeria had take-out boxes that said: “You’ve tried the rest; now try the best.” That’s kind of how I sometimes feel about this; I’ve tried to ignore or suppress and that didn’t work. Now there’s dharma.

A traditional way to deepen one’s motivation as a way of training in the preliminaries is to reflect upon four key points sometimes referred to in the Tibetan traditions as four reminders. I wrote a piece at my other blog, Zen Naturalism, that was somewhat critical of the way some other teachers approach the practice. As a naturalist, I reject the more transcendental, world-denying aspects of their approach. The following owes much to Norman Fischer's treatment in his book on Lojong, Training In Compassion.

The Four Reminders

1. The rarity and preciousness of human life. Human life is understood as the “realm” best suited for awakening. With seven billion people populating the world, and a projected increase in up to two billion more this century, human life may not seem so rare, but we have to consider that each of our bodies has trillions of life forms living within and upon them! Along with these trillions (multiplied by seven billion) are the microbial life found on every centimeter of the planet, all the insects and animals. So, when one considers just how many living beings there actually are, you can understand how rare it is to be born human.

And to top that all off, how rare and precious to have evolved to have a mind and consciousness with which we can experience identity, value, abstract thought and conceptualization, and aesthetic appreciation! The idea is if we deeply ponder this understanding of the rarity and preciousness of human life, we will be inspired to do something truly meaningful with our life: awaken in order to live fully, intimately. This first reminder can be pleasant and awesome to think about. The second reminder, well… maybe not so much…

2. The absolute inevitability of death. The hero of the Mahabharata says that the most amazing thing in the world is that people, seeing others dying all around them, think that death has nothing to do with them! Yes, I’m sure all of those reading this know they are mortal and will in fact die. And, yet if we’re honest, we’ll have to admit that in the deepest depths of the heart we somehow don’t really believe it; death just seems so remote.

Perhaps the most unnerving thing about the fact of our death is that we don’t know when it’s going to happen to us! Again, most of us, if we do contemplate our mortality, imagine ourselves dying of old age. For years, whenever I contemplated my death, I saw myself as an old, old, man. Yet, we know and see all-too-much evidence that death happens to people at every stage of their life. Thousands of children die each day from starvation alone! After a serious car accident last year that I am lucky to have survived, I contemplate more fully the reality that I can die at my current age as well.

As we age, time — which is always experienced subjectively — speeds up. What seems an eternity to a child, a month, passes so swiftly once we’re thirty, forty, fifty and older, that it seems we can actually feel time passing! This is happening now: “time swiftly passes by and opportunity is lost.” That is why contemplation of time enters into our practice at the beginning of the day with the Gatha of Awakening and the Gatha of Encouragement and at the of the day with the Evening Gatha . The inevitability of death and the swiftness of passing time are the second reminder designed to get us motivated to live fully awakening lives.

3. The awesome and indelible power of our actions. This is what is meant by the fifth of the Five Remembrances that ends: “There is no way to escape the consequences of my actions.” And this goes for all actions of the body, speech, and mind. And chances are we will never (can never) know the full measure of the consequences of our actions, though they may have extensive and significant impact on ourselves and others.

It can be eye-opening, humbling, and perhaps a bit overwhelming to consider that in every moment of our lives, we actually effect the world in both subtle and not so subtle ways. With this understanding, we can come to see that we are all collaborators in creating the world that we and all beings live within and as. This means: everything matters. There are no trivial, throwaway moments. This is not a dress rehearsal; it’s the play itself!

Contemplating this reminder, we can ask ourselves “How am I living? What kind of actions have I been taking and what kind of actions would I like to take? Am I contributing to the benefit of the world or am I making things worse through either action or inaction?” If we truly engage with such questions, we may find ourselves motivated to be more conscious and awaken through our actions in the world.

4. The inescapability of suffering. Sorrow, pain and suffering are inevitable in every human life, even the happiest ones. The buddha enumerated the variety of ways we suffer: We suffer loss, disappointment, disrespect, physical pain, illness, old age, broken relationships, wanting something so badly and not being able to have it, not wanting something and finding ourselves stuck with it. And then there’s the suffering of afflictive emotions such as jealousy, envy, grief, hatred, confusion, fear, anxiety, and a host of others too numerous to list! All this suffering is simply a part of life, not an accident or punishment. Given that this is so, what can we do to cultivate wisdom, compassion and resilience? Can we see ways to cultivate the conditions that can support us and prepare our minds and hearts for the pain we are sure to encounter? 

It’s not a matter of if but rather of when life will strike us with something painful, and the reflection on this certainty is designed to deepen our motivation to practice in order to prepare for such contingencies. We have insurance on our cars and hopefully health insurance for our bodies, but what about guarding and strengthening our hearts and minds in order to not merely cope, but perhaps flourish even in the full catastrophe we will find ourselves in from time to time?

These reflections are meant to create the energy of motivation, causing us to appreciate the seriousness of the human condition: “Great is the matter of birth and death!” They are meant to motivate us to live a life of awakening so that we can meet the gift and challenge that is our life, here and now. This is all training in the preliminaries, and you can see that we are never to stop practicing so.