SEPTEMBER: HOW WE INCLUDE ALL BEINGS

Welcome to September, dear friends. 

The turning of the season invites us to consider not only what we receive from life, but also what (and who) we sustain. The timely Third *Pure Precept calls us to widen the circle of our care until there is no one outside of it. The commitment is a call toward universal compassion - to embrace and sustain all beings.

The Bodhisattva's Prayer, by 6th century sage Shantideva:

May I be a guard for those who need protection
A guide for those on the path
A boat, a raft, a bridge for those who wish to cross the flood
May I be a lamp in the darkness
A resting place for the weary
A healing medicine for all who are sick
A vase of plenty, a tree of miracles
And for the boundless multitudes of living beings
May I bring sustenance and awakening
Enduring like the earth and sky
Until all beings are freed from sorrow
And all are awakened.

At the onset of hearing this, it can seem impossibly large, and you might find yourself asking, Really? Everyone? Even the ones who have caused great and undeniable harm? Yes. All.

We need to understand that this commitment does not ask us to like, trust, agree with, or remain in relationship with everyone and it certainly doesn't ask us to manufacture affection. More realistically, it asks us to examine the limiting idea that says we can place some beings outside our circle of concern.

When you sit with it, your heart will tell you that its capacity for care absolutely (even most especially) includes the hard stuff. Truly, its caring capacity will always be bigger. Consider how you experience this every day when you tune into the news. No matter how bad it gets out there, some part of you remains capable of caring. I find this limitless capacity of the human heart to be astounding.

I have had to sit with this myself. There have been people and circumstances in my own life where my first response was to draw a very clear line. I have wanted distance, justice, protection, and sometimes all three were necessary. Yet, I've also discovered that drawing a boundary around my relationship with someone is not the same as drawing a boundary around my capacity to care. I can choose not to participate, not to engage, not to reconcile, and still notice that some part of my heart remains concerned with what becomes of that person. That realization has and continues to humble me.

This is where the Buddhist teaching of emptiness (śūnyatā) can become practical for all of us. Emptiness does not imply that nothing is real, here, or matters. It means that we (and all things) are empty of a fixed, single, solitary, separate self. Everything we experience arises through conditions, causes, circumstances, relationships, and every historical happening that has occurred to make this moment possible.

How often do we reduce people to single words: cruel, dangerous, enemy… when in reality, all is far more complex? A quote I often return to from Pema Chödrön is, Any opinion you have is vastly misunderstood. What I hear in this is that our opinions are incomplete; they never contain the whole of what is.

In this way, embracing emptiness makes room for greater complexity without dismissing accountability. We can still name actions and behaviors as harmful or unacceptable. There are still consequences and a need for boundaries. At the same time, we can resist the conclusion that any human being is nothing more than the worst things they have done. Embracing and sustaining all beings is an active practice of making room.

Consider all the ways you may already care about the suffering of someone without placing yourself in harm's way. We can place someone in the field of compassion while maintaining a clear boundary. We can say, this behavior is not acceptable, while protecting ourselves and others from further harm. We can refuse a relationship when the relationship is unsafe. The Third Pure Precept is both spacious and practical. To embrace and sustain all beings does not mean abandoning discernment. It means doubling down, bringing compassion and wisdom together.

We make room by acknowledging that our hearts are affected. We do it without surrendering our boundaries. We exercise care without condoning. We honor that compassion does not require proximity. We make a point to remember the whole, even when one part of it is difficult to bear. And perhaps this is the practice: not to make our hearts feel something they do not yet feel, but to discover that the heart's capacity for care is already larger than the boundaries we have placed around it.

My friends, may each of us recognize our capacity to both hear and personally extend the call to universal compassion. May we know that this is the natural expression of our human hearts!

*The 3 pure precepts are often described as the heart of Buddhist ethical life. Unlike rules imposed from the outside, they are expressions of inner awakening itself. This is how wisdom and compassion naturally manifest in the world.

With gratitude,

Meg Lucks 

Getsu Endō | "Brilliant Moon, Circle of the Way"

Lay-Ordained Dharma Companion

Founder of The Heart Revival Center for Belonging

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*What is a bodhisattva (bo·dhi·satt·va) exactly? This ancient Sanskrit word points to someone who is actively aspiring and dedicated to shaking off the cobwebs of complacency so that they can live in their integrity, to the benefit of all that lives. Said simply, those doing their best to be good humans, to the benefit of all. In more traditional descriptions we hear things like "living awake", "heart-motivated" or "living in appropriate response". The traditions offer examples of these beings, portrayed diversely: as the archetypal ideal, the divine and even the earthly ordinary. Furthermore, they cross cultural bounds, names, genders and forms. This wide representation of possibilities is intended to inspire us and ultimately point us back to our great universal opportunity and responsibility of being human.