Wash the Feet

Kiss the Feet 

"Suzuki Roshi, I've been listening to your lectures for years," a student said..."but I just don't understand. Could you please put it in a nutshell. Could you reduce Buddhism to one phrase!"

"Everything changes."

Everyone, or very close to everyone has been betrayed. Betrayal is rooted in your desire for the other to live up to something either expected or agreed upon. When the other person or when you yourself do not come through you take it personally and feel betrayed. Idealists have a very hard time with letting go or continuing and living with Suzuki Roshi's nutshell. Composure and love for others is rooted in allowance and a recognition that "everything changes." When someone harms you are your roots of desire and expectation of them the cause of your suffering?

In some respects, everything lets you down eventually. Medicines of any kind eventually fail and the body betrays you. Friends and family die. You yourself age and get sick. The path of someone you love may take them away from you or their suffering may cause you harm. All of it is included in what we call "life."

Christ and Shakyamuni held a "no harm" policy towards others. How is that? How were they able to wash the feet of everyone, even those who betrayed them? No malice, no grudge, no harm, no envy, no revenge, no payback, no ill-will, no judgement...no lording it over anyone, ever.

Consider those you hold harm against. Consider letting go of the roots of wanting it otherwise. Consider washing their feet. Take your time, include everyone. Everything changes, it's not too late.

Often we feel hurt when someone or some institution fails to do something we feel is the good thing to do. Our views of what is fair and just and right run our life and so when we think or expect someone to see our way we suffer. Our roots are in the soil of desire and expectations and cause us to suffer.

The current Supreme Court cases on the legalization of marriage for all adults in this nation are rife with the possibility of hate and ill-will to arise. The root of the suffering is within my own being. I feel the edge of it. I feel the pain and sorrow of it. I do not blame the nation, the courts, those who have hated me or hate me now. Neither do I blame myself. The arguments showed me that there is discrimination and prejudice which are very difficult and painful things for those who hold such feelings towards me, a gay woman who is married. Could I wash the feet of those hate me? Those who hold a bias against me?

This morning, Marilyn, asked me to watch a video of another institution that discriminates against me. The video clip was of the Pastor of Saint Nick’s church, a man I respect and admire for his boldness and acceptance of diversity. He was asked a simple question by a TV reporter, “Do they (women) deserve a greater voice?”  “Yeah, I understand the tension for a woman today, but I also understand the struggle for the church today. This is 2000 years of thinking a certain way and so is God really asking us to change this, can we, do we have the authority?”

I was somewhat surprised at his answer because I had in my mind a view of him as someone who would say yes in a more categorical way. He didn’t. This organization discriminates against me in many ways, I am a woman and I am a gay woman who is married. Could I wash this man’s feet?

The practice for me and for you is to release your grasp on the myriad identities of who you think you are because they cause harm! It is as simple and as difficult as that! We need Buddha Eyes, Christ Eyes.

But what is really going on here is a problem of identity. When we cling to an identity of our self or others we head into a hell zone. When you are willing and able to release these leopard skins of who you think you are, you no longer are cooked up in the storms of prejudice, bias, and discrimination. In other words, although these prejudices are arising in these institutions, they are not personal although the little “me” identity wants to take it personally. If your wife or husband cheats on you, don’t take it personally. If someone betrays a contract, don’t take it up into your own heart. But this takes practice because we tend to take everything as though it is about “ME.”

The allure of the world is constant and one must be ever vigilant regarding this allure.  The maniac “me” wants to right the wrongs, make something happen, fix and repair and make a difference. It hops from branch to branch trying to find just the right thing to bring satisfaction. This bird suffers.

The little “me” is a mere shadow of the real, free bird above. It is to see from the perch of the high bird. The high bird no longer wants anything from the courts, the church, the institutions because the high bird is free of wanting anything in particular. The high bird is content. And this is where spiritual practice leads. This is where compassion, joy, kindness and equanimity live. But these feelings are often misunderstood. They take tremendous strength, courage and a lot of practice.