Kevin Griffin: Right Livelihood

So everybody hello welcome Yeah, you know this monthly class been going on a long time it used to be in person but these days just online And You know I I approach this Into somewhat casual way which is I guess the way I approach my teaching and I don't and when I say casual I don't mean Serious, but I just mean somewhat informal So I do have plans for a talk this evening Not that Informal but You know, I was just thinking like all these people. I mean this class tends to bring people that I don't know Whereas some of my classes are filled with people I do know so You know when I see faces I don't know I'm thinking They're coming here hoping to get something and I hope I can give something that will be useful, you know Obviously, you know, I've had this interest in blending Buddhism and Recovery and you know initially more the 12 steps in the lot, you know since You know, I sort of started this work. It's moved more Just kind of the Buddhism and recovery but still interested in the steps But you know, I also recognize like people come here For meditation and then I'll be guiding a meditation in like a minute or two as soon as I find it Can quiet myself down? And and actually I'll talk a bit about meditation too and it's role In the in the path Because sometimes I think we it's Particularly in the West that we sort of Over emphasize meditation in in the in Buddhist practice. So anyway, I won't know I'll start going into that right now, but I'll guide a meditation for 20 minutes or so and Then Talk a little bit more well a lot more The thing I'll start with my bell which means I have to switch my setting to make it be so you'll be able to hear the bell otherwise Otherwise zoom likes to suppress the sound of the bell Settling back into a comfortable posture. You can close your eyes or lower your gaze Really not a time we need to look at the screen Probably have enough of that time in our day as it is No, turn the attention First to just how you're holding your body the alignment and posture You want to be comfortable but also quite alert so we don't want to let the Energy drop maybe by slumping or leaning over Although if you need to lie down, that's that's perfectly fine Usually if I practice meditation lying down I do so with my eyes open Just because of the tendency when you get relaxed to fall asleep So we turn the attention first just to the general sense of the body You can feel your body sitting and we spend so much time in our heads and sort of outward focused that to That to stop and just feel Your existence here as an organism can be quite a different experience almost surprising our body carries a lot besides just the weight of the flesh but the the feelings and Emotions the events of the day the stresses So as you turn to the body the sense of softening and kind of ease gentleness bringing some awareness to the breath the breath can act as a calming agent for the system The nervous system as we let ourselves have nice full breaths not straining but just Making sure we're not Holding or tight around the chest or the belly We give space for the breath and we can feel the breath and the body As this energetic system not feeling Or conceptualizing Particular parts of the body or particular sensations, but just if you can have a bear awareness Without a story that reacting whether it's pleasant or unpleasant or neutral feeling Can make the breath Or the focal point of your attention Either paying attention to the touch of air at the nostrils With the movement the Diaphragm and the abdomen fear awareness is at the nostrils you're feeling the touch of air Coming in going out The breath and the abdomen is felt as a movement expansion and contraction Rising and falling our practice is very simple to just Feel feel the breath can be a little difficult at first to do this or not used to Bringing mindfulness to our breathing and even so even if you are The mind tends to move That's natural the movements of mind are part of our practice not not a distraction Divergence but something that we integrate into practice being aware of thought at any time you lose contact with the breath or thoughts take over just to when you realize that's happening to Acknowledge that see what Thought is and then come back Just takes a moment To see the thought to return we usually Attribute all our thinking to just a busy mind will say I think too much to meditate We're tired to meditate with all those thoughts and to an extent. That's true But oftentimes if we look a little more closely, we'll see that the thoughts Are driven by some feeling some mood some emotion Something we can feel in the body stress or anxiety sadness grief anger Irritation these underlying feelings often Inject energy into the thinking mind And then it appears to us that the thinking is the the problem the creating distraction or busyness When we tune in especially using the breath tune into the body tune into the underlying feelings You might find out that there's some other engine driving those thoughts We can turn to these feelings can open to them Can breathe with them we can bring an attitude of kindness and ease to them And this isn't always the right strategy something to explore Times it's We're helpful to keep it simple stay with the breath notice thoughts We don't want to go looking for trouble in meditation and we have to learn to Use our discretion. We're getting flooded With feeling We draw back open the eyes Take a deep breath Recognize that you're okay Our minds can be unruly It's up to us to Detain them a bit if we can The art of meditation involves to some extent Intuiting it's a wise way Responding to this moment sometimes it's helpful to open our awareness To have a sense of things just moving through the mind but other times We want to narrow the awareness focus very closely on the Sensations of breath and it's really only through practice and experience develop some sense of When and how to be in our practice when to move to openness when to Tighten the awareness there isn't a right way to meditate Each moment presents a different challenge is to work with those challenges gain some Agency over the way your practice unfolds Much of it is not under your control because our minds aren't under our control That doesn't mean we relinquish any Responsibility we don't try again. We have to work with our limitations and yet Make an effort I couldn't help but notice that the Are the offerings from spirit rock seem to be like it's okay to be overwhelmed and digital detox and it's like One wants to say to the world are you okay? I'm not sure the world is okay, but We're doing what we can So Yeah, the world can use recovery. I think it's whether it's addicted to something or not so again welcome and I've been this year I Set out to for this class to follow the four noble truths and the Eightfold Path and And so the first four months were the first four or the four noble truths and Then the fourth noble truth is the Eightfold Path so from May onward we've been working through the Eightfold Path and this month we're on right livelihood And before I really get into it right livelihood. I want to talk More generally about the Eightfold Path which As you know Obviously many different components to it that are involved with meditation certainly but also with the way we live and our ethics and morality and then the The wisdom factors right view right intention and And There even talking about them separately is Maybe not the best way to Approach the Eightfold Path It's a it's an integrated path that the elements the factors we call them the eight factors are Are Co-dependent you know they all depend on each other They don't stand alone and this is where I mentioned before that you know meditation sometimes gets over emphasized So there are three elements in the meditation aspect of the path right effort right mindfulness right concentration and we'll be starting on those next month with right effort but as I say that they and and you know oftentimes people just pull mindfulness out and treat it as kind of the path or a path and And that really misses the point of the Eightfold Path That all of these pieces need to work together you know we can be really mindful and really good at meditating and And you know our our work lives can be you know a wreck Our relationships can be dysfunctional We can Know how a real like misunderstanding of the path wrong view So so meditation alone doesn't Sort of act as a Program or a healing It really needs this whole Combination of factors and Bikubo de who's a great Teacher a translator of the early Buddhist texts He has a great book that I've drawn on quite a bit called the Noble Eightfold Path And when he introduces what are called the seal of factors the ethical morality factors Which is even that term? Even those terms ethics and morality doesn't quite capture them, but they cover the precepts and And speech and livelihood He says that in the context of the path these factors are Important for mental purification He says that even though they they also have an important role to play in terms of how our lives play out Carmically like if you're you know behaving in a wholesome way or an wholesome way That That's almost second for the in the Eightfold Path that's secondary the idea of mental purification, which is a sort you know in these terms terms is a little lofty for me but Really speaks to a kind of healing a kind of cleansing of the mind that Remember sitting with a Korean Zen master a long time ago who's who said Every day we Wash our bodies, but we clean our bodies, but where do we clean our minds? And again, we think well that means meditating, but you know if the rest of your life is a wreck it's kind of hard to meditate and So so each of these factors has to be cultivated. I know for myself in recovery a lot of time was spent on really developing Livelihood because I Lived a pretty irresponsible life as a musician and and didn't really have any You know I had no money. I was really Pretty much broke when I got sober not even pretty much I was broke when I got sober and You know eventually I realized oh, you know fantasizing about being a rock star is not a you know a life plan and and Something you know in AA where I got sober You know I kind of started to learn about humility and and the idea of just being a worker among workers as we say, you know and I'm realizing that You know That finding dignity in work. I think whatever it was and I and I did some You know I did a lot of like driving in LA deliveries and Takes that You know we're not glamorous When I when I finished and I went back to school which was also developing livelihood and when I finished I wound up getting a master's degree in creative writing and Once again sort of had these lofty ideas of how I'm gonna be a novelist and That didn't work out And and when I got out of graduate school, I I took a temp job doing data entry and You know it was just a really that was a really interesting experience because I know before I got sober that would have been like Really annoying to me. I would have just done it as long as it took me to you know, I Don't know get out of town or buy an ounce of weed or something but you know I I I stayed with it and You know I start it was a big project that PG&E was doing you know And I showed up the first day and there were maybe 20 25 people doing data entry By the end of the week about half of them were gone at the end of a month. There were about three of us left and I Realized oh just showing up this thing they taught me in the program It really works and I gradually gained some authority and a role round up writing a manual for the database and and Then learning to be a technical writer and you know through just showing up and And being willing to do things that a lot of people would kind of look down on So, you know, I remember Some years ago when I was just beginning to take some leadership roles in this Community meditation community. I was co-leading It's called a Kali on a meter group which is a Spiritual friends Kali on a meet us means and so We would meet every two weeks and just get meditated together and kind of pick up a Dharma theme and discuss that and There was a woman in that group who was a single mother son was like six years old and And she had been a she was a very serious practitioner but before she Had a child became before she came mother. She had done right. She would do regular retreats And she said to me one day after our meeting. Oh, I feel like my Practices so You know Week now I've sort of lost my practice because I can't go on retreats and She was in nursing school and I said well This isn't the time for you to be going on retreats here But that doesn't mean your practice isn't thriving. You're you're cultivating right livelihood. You're cultivating loving kindness By taking care of your son. There's these are really important factors of the path to cultivate Don't think of it in just this narrow way as I was saying we often do that. Well, if I'm not meditating a lot I'm my practice is bad and That You know was sort of a moment for me because I I Listening to her I had that Realization that now she's she's working her program or practice very seriously, but just not the meditation end of it so So just to then bring it back a little bit to talk about right livelihood I think you know first of all, you know, I I've always been happy that the Eightfold path included livelihood because it speaks to The practicality of the Buddhist teachings. It's not just a lofty spiritual experience. It's something where you're meant to Bring your spiritual practice your mindfulness your Right view All of your loving kindness, you know your compassion into The practical realities of your day-to-day life You know I again, you know when I sort of started on the path I had these very sort of mystical ideas about it all being really exotic and and Yeah, it was before I got sober and livelihood was not Right. It was not balanced. It was not harmonious And and it didn't work the path, you know, my practice did not really Change my life So Seeing that This this practice includes our work is really important to me And I will say that You know, we live in a capitalist society that's very demanding economically and We can't all You know volunteer or Be mindfulness teachers or you know doctors You know, we're not all called to do What might look like the highest forms of service Many of us, you know wind up with jobs like I've had, you know, technical writing or data entry, whatever and The question for me becomes well, how do I how do I make this part of my practice Is it just because it's not You know, obviously spiritual does that mean that It's not not right livelihood And you can guess that I they definitely do not think that's the case I From words from Asen Yowenka the Great Indian Buddhist meditation teacher It says if the intention to play a useful role in society in order to support oneself and to help others I'm sorry if the intention is Word word if the intention is to play a useful role in society In order to support oneself and to help others Then the work one does is right livelihood And that that quote is in joseph goldstein's book mindfulness and He goes on to say In an exploration of right livelihood, there are also implications for our relationship to money and wealth In some spiritual traditions money is seen as either evil to be avoided or something quite apart from a spiritual life In the buddha's teachings wealth Rightfully gained is seen as a blessing that can be used for the benefit and welfare of others Two of the most prominent lay people mentioned in the sutras are visakha and adipatin Anadipindika the chief female and male supporters of the buddha They were both stream-enters well established on the path who used their vast wealth To both support the sangha and to spread the dharma as well as to take care of those in need An adipindika in fact his name Appears at the beginning of many many sutras because he Built a monastery created a monastery in sabbati for the buddha. So it often says at the beginning of a sutra Thus have I heard at one time the buddha was or the blessed one was in sabbati at Jethish grove anadipindika's park So his name is you know, I sort of lived For thousands of years because of his generosity and because of his success as he was a businessman who Joseph says made a lot of money and then Donated it So it it comes then as the the comment from Goenka What we can see is that What's really important In our work life is the intention behind it And this is where one of the first ways that we can see that the eightfold path works By the different factors operating together So when we bring right intention To our work, it means that we are Bringing an attitude of caring and of kindness of generosity Of support Um, we could just say of trying to do a good job And you know one of the things that when you when you look around the world and think about all the things that people do All the jobs that it Maybe I won't say all the jobs most of the jobs that exist in the world function as supports for the society at large so whether it's the you know store owner or the Garbage man or the lawyer or the doctor or the teacher each of us plays a role In supporting society Not that there's like oh, that's that's a bad job. You shouldn't have that job. That's and and We know that there are people Let's take a lawyer for example, you know a much maligned profession Something my father was a lawyer my oldest brother and when I was Young I always thought I would be a lawyer because that was what my father and oldest brother were and And I always thought of lawyering as something wholesome Where you were you know trying to help uphold and clarify the law And we see now that there are many great lawyers doing really positive work In particularly at this time in our society in our country And we see that there are some who are doing things that are very selfish and very harmful So again, it's the intention behind it You know another intention with work and a central intention is what's our intention around money? and Joseph referenced this in that piece that quote from mindfulness but You know, there are some people clearly who Work in order to make a lot of money and they're willing to do anything to do that And and they're willing to do do harm or to cheat or And there's this you know accumulation this and From a Buddhist view, you know What if you've practiced If you've meditated with your own mind and seeing how painful grasping is And you look at someone whose Whole purpose in life seems to be grasping More and more and more You see that even though they might have accumulated great wealth They are suffering by definition You know, it's very difficult to accumulate a billion dollars without greed You know and greed is one of the causes of suffering. It's not to Say that oh, I'm gonna sit around and You know practice meditation on you know compassion for the for the billionaires But it's just to recognize that that's not happiness you know and And you know and so often we associate money with happiness and yet Most people if you ask them, you know If money would actually give them happiness Although they'll certainly say well, they could really use it and they wish they had it I think I'd like I'd like to think most people recognize that if they if they take a moment realize that's not gonna Make somebody happy Now that's not to say that poverty Makes people happy at all certainly in the studies show that a certain amount of income certain, you know, sort of middle income Is is kind of the Ideal for happiness. So certainly we need To be you know, taking care of our basic needs at least and to not live in a in a state of stress But our culture kind of glorifies in the accumulation of wealth and po