Winter Solstice: Welcoming the New Wind | Dharma Talk by Dr. Larry Ward

(Bell sounds four times)

Greetings beloved ones,
I hope you are doing as well as you can.

Be at this moment in time.

I'm Larry Ward, Dr Larry Ward,

and my pleasure to be with you
for the first time or before now.

This is a magical time of the year
in the northern hemisphere,

that has been celebrated
around the Earth for centuries,

from China to Japan to Europe,
and all the countries there.

The sun stands still.

I'm here in Querétaro,
Santiago de Querétaro, Mexico,

Peggy has already mentioned
the indigenous history here,

which is rich of many traveled peoples.

This is also part of the home
of the Mexican revolution,

which was just celebrated recently
for Independence Day.

A poem for you:

It's cold here now.

It may be colder where you are,

but we are here together.

The darkness outside our windows,

wrapping our bones with vastness,

that can mirror the dark inside.

The dark night of the soul, perhaps.

The absence of certainty.

But, maybe certainty
is no longer an effort required.

Dwelling in blessed assurance,
is my refuge.

I find it everywhere.

The sun is coming more, yes,
but it has never gone away.

Even in the center of black holes
we find light.

The path that's clear.

The Earth, the rhythm, is eternal.

In the ancient times,
it was encouraged to look within,

for the illumination
that already lived within you.

With light now shining, maybe, for you,
on this past year, at this precious time,

whatever your life has been,
as an experience this past year,

however sad, however painful,
however joyous,

it is your precious life singing its song,

smiling to you, in the dark,

a radiant light
that gets brighter in stillness,

and in celebration,

and in reverence,

and, oh yes, in the joy
that does not disappoint us,

the joy of liberation.

Let us continue, with the rising sun,
to shine our own light, everywhere.

One of the great qualities of light,
and dark, is they shine equally,

(Laughter)

and don't shine equally.

The dark is available
for everyone on our planet,

and so is the light.

It is full of equanimity,
dark and light.

Mirrors, some say, of one another.

Close siblings, others say.

Others focus on the paradox
they represent,

both outside of us,
and within us.

Crowle Young was of the strong opinion
that the future of humanity will depend on

how well we deal with the darkness
inside of ourselves.

I think it's not easy to embrace

all of our capacities,
all of our tendencies.

That requires a level of self-awareness
that can be, on a daily basis, excruciating.

(Laughter)

That is how I find it,

but I also find within it
that which was excruciating,

melting away, fading away,

in to the stream of ancient goodness
of which I am a part, with you.

This moment of the darkness,

in the old phrase,

has not put out the light.

This is an important practice
to remember within one's self,

as well as when we look
outside of ourselves,

in to the world we now live in.

Our nervous systems
are programmed by evolution

to remember what is most scary,
and most negative, the most,

(Laughter)

and for good reason: survival,

but because of that,
we tend to override what is not negative.

Our news media dwells on the negative.

Many of our conversations
dwell on what is not working,

and there's plenty not working,
and there's plenty that is negative.

What I'm trying to say is,

to remember what we pay attention to
with our mind, shapes our mind,

and from a neuroscience point of view,

we think it takes five times as much
attention on what is positive,

to balance one negative,

in terms of your attention
and it's impact on your neural structure,

and your nervous system biology.

This is why you can have
a whole great day at work, or at home,

and go out for a drive
and one person can ruin your day.

One moment, one expression,
one gesture, one comment,

conscious or unconscious,
that's not the point I'm trying to make.

I'm trying to make the point

of how much attention we need to pay
to what nourishes us, what cares for us,

what keeps our own fire alive within us.

We will not get where we want to be
in this world,

or we want our children or generations
to come to be,

of not just humans, but of all species,

to be without us taking a
bold evolutionary step,

in learning how to let down our defenses,

so that we can actually figure out
what to do together about the mess we are in.

This to me is part of
the message of the solstice.

We are much in the dark
about one another,

because mostly all we know
of one another,

we don't know,
about one another.

We know about stories,
about one another,

but we have often, most often, never met,

as unique species on this planet.

The dark represents also
what is not there, what is absent.

As you think back over your last year,

almost your last year,
in this calendar framework,

what is not there any more in your life?

No blame, no judgement,
just what's not there?

What is absent?

What has faded in to the ocean of time?

What have you already let go of?

In the best sense of letting go:
as not clinging to.

That's one of the practices
I've been doing with myself this last week

and will continue into the new year.

I have a birthday coming up next month
—that's not meant to be an announcement—

but I've been experiencing
that I still have potential.

I have present potential.

And so one of the questions
I'd like for you to meditate on for yourself,

during this time we are in, is:
what is your present potentials?

What do you still have
the capacity to bring in to this world?

However small doesn't make a difference

because what we know
from the Huayan tradition of Buddhism

is inside the very small
is the very large.

How else could a buffalo boy from Vietnam
become Zen Master Thích Nhất Hạnh?

And inside every small person,
every human being,

every plant, animal and mineral,
is the very large: even in a speck of dust.

This is the light that's available,
in the darkness,

where we can see,
where we can touch,

windows of illumination in to our precious life,
in to our experience,

but also I know,

thinking about what's absent
in your life now

may bring up grief, sorrow, anger,
fear, joy, gratitude, peace, enthusiasm:

the whole spectrum of human emotion
flows through all of us, all the time

—every molecule of it—

and sometimes
these molecules dance together,

sometimes they dance separately
and become very dominant,

in our experience of being human,

but it is all our experience
of the miracle of a precious life.

I don't know how many of you have ever heard
of the work on the dark night of the soul

by John of the Cross.

I don't mean to go Catholic on you or anything,
but it's a text I'm familiar with,

that I've studied and taught,

and this,

a lot of us have this understanding confused,
that the dark night of the soul

(Laughter)

is because you're getting closer to the light.

(Laughter)

It's not that the light's going out,
it's that it's so bright, it looks dark.

And so whatever suffering
you may be in at this moment,

I may be in, and we are in together,
it's important to know that it is:

1) Impermanent

2) It is empty of a separate self entity.
It does not exist by itself.

My suffering does not exist by itself,
and neither does my joy.

And knowing this, I am able to live free.

without being stuck in comparison,
though I notice differences,

without being stuck in aversion,
while knowing there are things I prefer.

(Laughter)

without being trapped
in the prison of ignorance,

meaning, in myself,
there is beloved community,

and because there is
beloved community in me,

there is beloved community in you,

there is beloved community between us,
and all beings.

Earth, sky, air, water, sunshine.

Oh boy, we can't do
without any of these (Laughter) things.

How could we forget them? It is so easy to forget,
in the "modern world."

We're so busy going nowhere
that we forget how precious our lives are,

and sometimes almost until it's too late.

The solstice is a time to remember
that we need not fear the dark,

once we are able to recognize
the dark in ourselves.

We need not fear the light,
once we can recognize the light in ourselves,

it's just so often hidden,
and buried so deep within us,

when it's on we don't even recognize it.

Take good care of your light.

One of the wonderful qualities
of light in particular

—I'm thinking of a candle—

you can light one candle
and then light another candle

off of the flame of that other candle,
and neither candle is diminished.

We can share our own light,
and it does not diminish the light.

It does not diminish our light.

If we could just learn this one thing
as humanity...

I'm thinking of

—one of the books in the new testament is coming up—

the Book of John,

and all the other testaments
are all stories about Jesus

and the miracles and all of that
—the crucifiction etc—

but the book of John
raises a different question

if all the other books in the new testament
are pointing to Jesus,

saying that's it,
that's the way,

that's the dude,
as my mother would say,

(Laughter)

the book of John says "Well who are you?"

The issue is not
that the light is over there.

The issue is that the light
that was over there

is trying to tell you the light is here.

(Laughter)

The light is here in you,

and you over personalized it,
you missed the message.

So it's not an issue for me
as a Buddhist teacher

to not recognize
my teacher Thích Nhất Hạnh

who recently passed away,

but it is for me to remember

—I've been asked, oh, many years ago,
what does Thích Nhất Hạnh think

about this or that
because I spent so much time with him

and I always said, and I still say:
I don't know, ask him.

If you want to know what I think
about something, ask me.

My point is, this: we are the light.

If we are, or have been, practitioners
in Thích Nhất Hạnh's tradition, wonderful,

in the other tradition, wonderful,
no tradition, wonderful,

nevertheless we are all continuations
of his emphasis on wisdom

and compassion and action in our world.

This time of the year
many of us start to think about,

well, what we did wrong in the last year
—where we blew it—

where the bowling ball
didn't go where we wanted it

when we let it go down the alley.

That happens, in human life.
No justification—it just happens.

So how do we begin anew?

How do we let go of our mistakes
and not let them define our future?

One of the ways that

—well there are many ways
in different spiritual traditions
to do this symbolically—

but what I've been learning to do
—is from multiple sources in Buddhist history—

is to

—I don't talk to Larry
about the mistakes I have made

unless I am in the company
of other beings—

and I mean that energetically.

So when I want to talk about
how much of a schmuck I've been

in the last year,

before I do that, before I go there,

I have a meditation where I call in
my avatars, my archetypes, my mentors,

living or dead, fictional or real,

and I surround myself
with their energy and support

recognizing my present potential
in the moment

and then and only then
am I able to truthfully acknowledge

that I've been terrible in this last year
in communicating with people individually,

that's correct,

(Laughter)

but now, having said that,

and you're my holy beings
at this moment as my witnesses,

I am able to see the light of my way forward,
step by step, person by person,

and it's not that many people
I need to catch up with, communicate with.

Maybe that's true for you,
maybe it's a family member

that you've been out of touch with,
you need to reconnect to,

you need to share your light with.

The whole point
of the bodhisattva vow in Buddhism

is to share our light,
to generate our light,

to care for our light,

so that we can share it with others,

and that sharing
does not have to be verbal.

This is very important, to me.

The sharing of light is, first off, energetic,
because that's what light is.

And you know this, you've experienced it,

you've been with people,
when you were with them

you felt enthusiastic, calm, clear

or maybe there are people you've been with before
and you find yourself being very calm, very relaxed,

or others—it could all be one person—

other people you are with
and all of a sudden you're able to laugh again.

All of a sudden, joy starts
way down in your stomach

and bubbles up through your throat.

Know who these people are in your life,
and take care of that relationship.

Share the light,
but also be able to receive it.

So many of us have been caught
in the self esteem complex,

of being "less than"

we are not able to recognize,
even see, our own light,

or the power of our own light
of compassion and wisdom and action.

The other thing that I want you to notice
about what has been absent in the past year

—this is at a deeper level somewhat—

when you think about this past year

can you remember when your mind
was not occupied with greed,

even for a moment?

And if you can, you should rejoice,
because all you have to do is repeat that.

(Laughter)

If you've had a moment in this past year,

when you are not preoccupied
with the energies of hatred, or aversion,

even only for a moment,
go back, remember the moments of that,

what did it taste like,
what did it smell like,

what did it look like,
where were you,

what colors were in the room,
people in the room,

what activities where going on.

Savor that moment and internalize it.

Take care of it like a plant,

like a small bird
you want to take good care of.

Nourish that non-hate,
nourish that non-greed,

A story about Martin Luther King
in his last days came up for me just now

and I heard this from Andrew Young
—we were out at dinner one time—

and on the morning Martin was assassinated
he had woke up before everyone else,

got his pillow, 'cause everybody slept in the same room
for safety reasons,

so Ralph Abernathy was there,
Andy Young was there, etc.

And Martin got up, grabbed his pillow,

and went over to Ralph Abernathy's bed,
and hit him on the head, and said:

"Ralph, wake up!"

"I'm not hating anybody today,
isn't it wonderful?"

And then he went over
and hit Andy on the head

and so around the room
saying the same thing:

"I'm not hating anybody today,
isn't it wonderful?"

Remember those moments in your life.

Mindfulness is recognizing
what is not there,

as well as what is there,

and this is what the dark and the light
teaches us at every moment.

And when in this past year
have you tasted the joy of beloved community?

Safe community.

Miraculous relations
with the natural world.

When have you tasted these experiences,
in this last year,

in the air,
in the wind,

touching the Earth
with your feet or your hands in the garden?

Just what a wonder it is, to be human
and be conscious of our humanness.

Our great challenge now of course is

how we be this consciousness altogether

in the sense of energy,
not in the sense of dogma,

in the sense of the light,
that never diminishes when shared,

not in the sense of social organization
—deeper than that.

In fact our social organization dilemma
is based on not having gone deep enough

in our understanding of our own humanness,
that's all.

In that sense it's not that complicated

(Laughter)

kind of a joke.

But every society in history
that has even had a moment of collective wellbeing,

that collective well-being socially

is reflected in a spiritual collective well-being
underneath that sociality.

Check it yourself.

Spirituality and sociality are not separated.

They're profoundly connected

just like our nervous systems
are profoundly connected

to our interactions with and in society.

So is our quality of consciousness.

Make sure you have the music around you
that helps you be calm,

be joyous, rejoice,
breathe easy, touch beauty.

Make sure you have the art around you,
even if it's only one picture,

that when you look at it
you have the sense of profundity of being human.

Your own present potential,
in the present moment.

Learn how to do things in the dark
that you've never done before.

Years ago we were in Korea at a monastery

that was known for training
the most successful abbots

for thousands of years.

It was way up in the mountains

and it was 20 below zero or more
most of the time,

at the time of year we were there,

and we lived there for a week.

But when we arrived we got a tour
of the monastery grounds,

and the abbot took us in to a building.

Inside that building was one room.

It didn't have any Buddhist statues,
no flowers,

it only had one object
and that object was a mirror.

And the abbot looked at us all in the eye
and said "advanced practice."

(Laughter)

This is learning how to look at ourselves
with compassion, not just looking for a critique,

which is how we've been trained

to see what flaws we have,
to see what our shortcomings are.

Always ask yourself,

"whose definition of shortcomings is this,
and where did this come from?"

or you'll hold yourself back.

It's great to see the number of people
around the world across the generations

who are doing things
we thought previously were impossible.

Twenty years ago whoever would have imagined
dear Greta Thunberg.

Who would have imagined that?

We can be thankful she had the courage
to come out of the dark in to the light,

and to share her light with the rest of us.

And there's millions of people around the world
ever day, like her.

Not just in ecological responsibility,

other areas of social, and economic
and political responsibility,

but we haven't quite had the systems
to lift these people up.

Um, yeah, I think that's part of what I'm saying.

We need to tell some good stories
about one another.

You know
we're a story making creature.

Of course, advertising is known this for years,
in their newly assigned research departments,

but we are story making creatures,
and our stories influence our behaviors,

so we need to be telling a whole lot
of new and different stories,

than stories of doom and gloom,
of greed, of hatred, and of ignorance

of the deep connection we all have
on this precious planet.

Tell them the stories,
write the children's books,

write new songs, paint,
dance, roll in the mud,

whatever you do
that can help us all remember

how precious this life is,
how precious every life is

and when we remember,
as our ancestors have remembered,

no matter their horror or difficulties,
—their suffering—the light still shines.

Entrust it.

But greet it in yourself every day.

I've added to my night time meditation

to imagine I'm sitting in the middle of my chair,
here in the office, Peggy's office, or mine,

and I close my eyes and I imagine a circle around me
of friends, and loved ones,

and then I imagine another circle
of friends and associates in my circle,

it keeps getting bigger and bigger,

until it goes beyond the human realm
in to the dogs I've loved before

(Laughter)

and on to other beings,
and the ducks I used to live near with,

and the deer,
and all of a sudden I know where I am.

So, learn how to create
a field of merit for yourself.

That's just a small example.

A field of goodness,

like people who are really good gamblers,

I've learned have the ability
to construct a mental palace of the cards,

and while the cards are changing
they're deconstructing the palace.

Note the 52.

That's quite a cognitive skill.

We must learn how to do the same,
with the palace of our hearts,

so that our light is never diminished,
never withheld,

because, remember,

sharing the light
does not diminish it in any way,

does not mine, does not diminish yours.

I want to end with a poem, another poem,

I know that for some of you,

you may feel like
your life is in fragments.

This poem is for you.

And of course
all of our lives are in fragments

(Laughter)

if we look at it that way.

The most beautiful lamp I ever saw
was made from pieces of glass

left on the floor at the end of the day
in the artist's workshop.

The pieces sparkled yet remained hidden

until seen as pieces
of a dance of colors and light.

With tender hands of a full heart,
reconstituted,

singing in the brilliance
of new wholeness.

Hey, you, on this day, look down
at the floor of your life, of your heart,

see the pieces of pain and joy
lying on the floor waiting for you

but do not be disheartened
because things are broken.

With tender care and patience,

take up these pieces,
with the hands of a full heart.

Take these pieces of your precious life
and beauty make.

Make beauty for yourself
and in doing so make beauty for us all.

So now if you could again
be as comfortable as you can

I'm going to lead a short meditation
on creating a field of merit,

it would be called,
in some Buddhist circles.

This is like the palace of the gambler,
though I'm not suggesting that,

this is learning how to construct,
in your own mind, a refuge,

that when you step in to it
both your heart and your mind find calmness,

find peace,
find nourishment, and potential.

So first begin to get in touch
with the sensation of your breathing.

Noticing the in breath,

noticing the out breath,

and noticing the in between breath.

And now see if you can relax a little more
in to that breath, circle, cycle of life.

Making sure your shoulders are relaxed,

your neck is not stiff or stuck
—it's fluid—

you can literally feel
the rising and falling of your abdomen.

And then imagine appearing around you
a circle of loving kindness.

People, plants, animals,

that may have gifted you
with loving kindness

in your experience with them.

Let the human faces and body shapes
become more prominent,

so you can offer them a smile.

Then around that circle,
mentors, teachers, guides,

pastors, preachers,
religious leaders, social leaders,

ecological leaders, around you,
lifting up your own good heart,

reminding you of your potential,
your possibility,

remaining still
in every moment of your life.

And further out in the circle, ?, bodhisattvas,
and Buddhists around you.

Mystical beings,

and a further circle out,

feel supported by the whole
energy spectrum of consciousness,

and let the light of that gathering
shine within you and on you.

Let the light penetrate yourself,

all your organs, bones, tissues,

neurons, muscles, toes, whole body.

And relaxing now in to the light,
without effort,

recognize the sensation of safety
you feel at this moment.

Now follow each breath,

each in breath, each out breath,

back to full awareness of where your body is
at this moment, at this time.

Move slowly as you look around your space.

The walls and windows
and ceilings and floors.

Notice your breath is still easy and calm.

This is just one example
of such kind of contemplation.

Please experiment and invent
as many as you can for yourself

so that you always have a sense of access

to what ? would call access to a floor in a building
that is the penthouse and not the virtual one.

Event though we live
on all these floors of consciousness,

learning how to access the penthouse
gives us perspective on all the other floors

as we practice our liberation.

Thank you.

(Bell sounds three times)

May the merit of this practice
benefit all beings, and bring peace.

(Bell sounds once)