Never Disparaging Friends on the Path

Yesterday I had the very good fortune of being asked why we do a particular thing in our mindfulness community. My response was, “to encourage inclusivity, so everyone can participate without any kind of obstacle.” Inclusivity in this context wasn’t only in regard to life choices, gender, ethnicity, or race but specifically inclusivity of views. Inclusivity is a strong North Star for me, particularly inclusivity of whatever a person may be struggling with in their life.

Bodhisattva is a word in the mindfulness tradition that describes someone or something who vows to not turn away from suffering and instead, do their best to alleviate it. One of my favorite Bodhisattvas is named Never Disparaging Bodhisattva. Such a one sees the goodness inside living beings, no matter their backgrounds, dirt and grim and accepts them with an open heart, trusting that they know how to wake up and are in process. Never Disparaging reminds me of something Thich Nhat Hanh was famous for saying—right view is the absence of all views. The idea here is not that we shouldn’t have views, that’s recognized as impossible, we will have preferences, values, ethics, however, we acknowledge that others also have preferences, values, ethics and come from a background completely unlike ours. Their experiences are entirely different and we will support one another in waking up, we’ll keep our hearts open, our views open to include and listen to others. When we practice doing this, our ripple out is expansive.

Yesterday, our mindfulness community in Lake Tahoe had a beautiful opportunity to practice inclusivity of views and supporting one another on the path of practice. Never Disparaging Bodhisattvas hashed out why we make the personal decisions we do and managed to hold each other with love and compassion ~ our highest ideals. Supporting one another in this day and time, when so much division and hatred plagues our country and the world is the ripple that will heal our families and communities. Listening, trusting we are all growing in our awareness and understanding, that we are in process, learning how to be more open hearted and take care of those around us in the best possible ways, is our rubber-hits-the-road practice. I take a deep bow of gratitude for mindfulness community, for our practice, for my Never Disparaging Bodhisattva friends on the path, for a place where we can be accompanied, our suffering hashed out, understood and ultimately loved and supported.