I don't have much to say about Thanksgiving that hasn't already been said. Like most American holidays, Thanksgiving has been neatly removed from the historical events that originally surrounded it. But that doesn't matter. What matters for every holiday, after the corrective lessons have been delivered, is how we behave, or what we do, or why we think as we think. How we belong, in short, to the community that we call ours and that we gather around us during these times. Holidays, however trying they are, provide us with good opportunities to assess ourselves and our places in our communities. To jump-start this assessment, I've listed here four quotations I've kept in my head for some time now. In short, they resound.
Refer to them throughout the holidays as needed.
- "Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity." (Simone Weil) Weil is speaking here about realizing the many opportunities for compassion and generosity that lie all around us, all day long. And it’s particularly true at holidays. With the advent of social media, however, we begin to feel that if we aren't liberating countries or curing diseases, the heroic stuff that crowds our inboxes, then we have failed in our mission, and all we have left to do is load up another plate of turkey. But liberating countries begins with liberating ourselves, and that begins with seeing everyone as deserving of a focused attention. No one is less important than anyone else, a lesson that lies at the root of all spiritual and ethical traditions (see point 4). And we acknowledge this with a focused attention as we pay homage to the life that we are witnessing in anyone that engages us in conversation. The lotus salutation from India bears witness to this as well, the physical gesture of two hands touching at the finger tips and thumbs, and a gesture that recognizes the mutual miracle two people share whenever they speak with one another: “We are alive, we are here, and we are human. We have far more in common than not, so let us remember this as we move forward together.” The holidays, in fact, offer us a target-rich environment for paying attention, in Weil’s sense of the word.
- "Because we ourselves have faults, we tend to see faults in others."(Gyatrul Rinpoche) We recognize in others those things that we have within ourselves. Both good and bad. After all, we know familiar territory when we see it. And this includes our faults. I know someone is misbehaving because I've spent a good deal of my time misbehaving as well. Now, the trick is to remember this little adage just as we start pointing out someone else's misbehavior—that's a tall order, but it's possible to do it, to accomplish it gradually. And tolerance grows from this practice (see point 3).
- "With patience and devotion, we must contemplate the state of suffering of sentient beings, and work to develop from the depths of our heart the wish that they be free of it." (His Holiness, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama) His Holiness has been saying this, or something like it, for as long as I’ve been listening to him. Unlike the other three quotations on my list, this one actually describes a practice, something you can do on a daily basis to develop compassion and altruism. You start by listening to your own inner catalogue of irritations, sorrows, sadnesses, and inconveniences: “It’s cold, and I don’t have a coat; I’m late, and I won’t get my work done; I’m ill; I’m very ill; my best friend is very ill; I miss my son; I can’t make my payment.” You get the point. Then you realize that everyone has the same problems, and many have problems that you would consider much worse. The point? Everyone is suffering as much as you are, and they care as much about themselves as you care about yourself. And so as a radical, mind-bending, unprecedented experiment, you spend five minutes each day contemplating this simple fact. And then spend ten minutes, when you’re ready for the next escalation of reality; and then fifteen. Again, you get the point. Soon, you’ve been introduced to life-as-it-really-is, and something magical has happened: you’re no longer quite as concerned with your suffering, you’re a better listener (see point 1), and you feel in your bones the freedom that comes from de-emphasizing your own problems and standing in solidarity with human suffering (see point 2). From this simple practice arises, “with patience and devotion,” as His Holiness said, both a profound sense of community and the wish to free the members of that community from their suffering. In those who have spent their lives working with this principle, this wish transcends nationality, religion, culture, and ethnicity. It’s why we call them saints, and give them awards, and get tingly when we’re in their company. We feel we are witnessing the authentic mind of compassion, and we see its seed, momentarily, within ourselves. And for that moment, everything becomes possible again.
- "And the King shall answer: So I say to you, inasmuch as you have done it to one of the least of these, my brothers and sisters, so you've done it to me." (Jesus, Matthew 25:40, King James Version, slightly updated) Maybe the most profound statement that Christ made, and certainly a sentiment central to all the major spiritual traditions, here is the core of the social Gospel. It is the central spirit that has rippled through the Occupy Wall Street movement, and it is why Wall Street is trembling. It is a statement of spiritual realignment, of changing our default settings from a concern for our own advancement to a concern for those who have been denied advancement. This is Christ’s statement of solidarity with the poor and with the social changes that such concerns dictate, and so it has a political component. Furthermore, it identifies the enlightened perspective with an acknowledgment of human suffering and poverty—poverty of the body, poverty of the spirit, and poverty of the mind. Poverty, plain and complex. And even more than that, the statement bristles with an intolerance for human suffering and the will to abolish it. Finally, It is an uncompromising and corrective statement about the nature of divinity and its presence within each of us—our most exalted human impulses are those that flash to the surface, sometimes in anger, always in compassion, at the sight of our brothers and sisters bearing the suffering that others have imposed on them. The holidays, a time of joy, offer us ample opportunity to recommit ourselves to ending human suffering. If we look carefully at the holiday landscape, we will see that great joy throws great suffering into graphic relief. We cannot miss the hungry child on the streets at Christmas, and so we transform that feeling of compassion, which might not arise as strongly in August, into a re-commitment to our practice of developing love and compassion for all sentient beings.
These quotations embody four of the most radical spiritual and socio-political ideas that I know of, so please use them with caution. They have toppled empires; turned back violent hordes; and established loving communities. Proceed with caution.
