After the Celebration, what?

When Zen master Yummon was asked by a student seeking the key to awakening, “What is Bodhidharma?” he replied, “A shit stick.” In those days people would wipe themselves with leaves or twigs or whatever was around. So, in today’s terms, Yummon would say that enlightenment is toilet paper (which might explain the rush to buy toilet paper at the beginning of the pandemic). We expect enlightenment to be something grand and elegant, something greater than our mundane life. But Yummon is telling the student that enlightenment is in everything, everywhere-without exception. Enlightenment is expressed in each small moment. This can be a challenging idea when considering all the things we find repellant and would rather not include in the context of bliss and enlightenment.

 This last four years have been an unending shit show. If Bodhidharma is a shit stick, then we must be facing a powerful awakening. Just as awakening is in everything, every action preserving democracy is, not just in the larger act of voting, but staying awake and contributing to our communities through our large and small everyday actions. Meditation and spiritual practices are not substitutes for diligence and speaking up. When I was in Burma I saw how a deeply Buddhist country, where even the generals meditate, can be intolerant and cruel. Simply sitting in meditation for a period of time does not necessarily make for a healthy community. Reciting the metta sutta is not enough, chanting and praying and studying the Abhidhamma is not enough. If we who are deepening our interconnectedness to all things do not put our calm to good use uplifting others in our communities our practice can easily devolve into selfish striving for a quiet that isn’t necessarily peace.

 January has been a real roller coaster ride as we watched the armed insurgency at the Capitol, the lawmakers who set about their task in spite of lethal threats and the swearing in of our new president. A dramatic end to a chaotic four years. Many of us were shocked into awareness these last four years by the rapid decline of decency and break down of the rule of law. The day was saved-but just barely. We were awakened to the realization that democracy must be carefully cultivated. We now know this in our bones. In the words of our poet Laurette Amanda Gorman,

 We’ve braved the belly of the beast

We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace

And that norms and notions

Of what just is

Isn’t always just-ice

And yet the dawn is ours before we knew it

Somehow we do it

Somehow we’ve weathered and witnessed a

A nation that isn’t broken

But simply unfinished.

 There is always work to do in our communities, whether it’s work that is large and dramatic like during an election year or whether it is the everyday work of making sure those in our community have enough to eat. Democracy is nurtured at the local level-city councils, local District Attorneys, ordinances, taking care of our neighbors and understanding the needs in our communities. As citizens it is our responsibility to voice our concerns, support neighbors who are in need and let others support us. This is the practice of interconnectedness put into action. Seeing the light in even a lowly shit stick, even the small action of repairing our neighborhood, is a beautiful, alive way to live. Stick by stick we nurture our awakening and our democracy.