You, who are on the road,
Must have a code that you can live by
And so, become yourself
Because the past is just a goodbye…
— Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young, “Teach Your Children”
Every now and then, a few lyrics from a favorite rock tune (many years ago, when I was in college) pop up from my memory unbidden, as something to mull over. We are all “on the road,” after all — the road of life where we can never quite see around the next bend and the past is irretrievable — “just a goodbye” to be sure. But what “code” can we live by, in our fraught present moment? When anxiety levels worldwide are rising with the summer heat, due to the accelerating global (and local) effects of the climate crisis, along with the other crises that keep on afflicting us relentlessly — the COVID pandemic, Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, runaway inflation, creeping fascism at home and abroad, the ruptured global supply chain, all compounding the sinking feeling that our global civilization and even our biological support system, Gaia, may be coming apart at the seams — what can we “teach our children well”?
There are, of course, as many answers to this question as there are people to ask it. So I humbly offer my own “code” to live by, that I have gradually developed over many years, in the hope that it may be useful to some, as a whole or in part. (Feel free to improvise.)
The code I have developed can be summed up in the term “Dharma Gaia,” a bicultural (Sanskrit-Greek) pun coined by Thich Nhat Hanh on the Buddhist concept of Dharmakaya (Body of Dharma). It refers to a synthesis of Buddhist theory and practice with Western systems thinking, ecological healing, and social activism on behalf of our planet and all its living creatures, including ourselves. In a nutshell, the concept denotes the living Earth as the body of Dharma.
So what exactly is the Dharma? Etymologically, it derives from a the Sanskrit root Dhr meaning “that to which we adhere,”or “that which we uphold,” and it is cognate with the Latin word “firmus” as in words like “affirm” or “confirm.” So the Dharma is the firm ground upon which we stand, the indisputable truth. As the Dalai Lama has said, the Dharma can be defined as a principle, a precept, and a practice simultaneously. So this seems like a good place to start in developing a code to live by. Here is my own take on the Dalai Lama’s definition:
Principle: “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” –Martin Luther King, Jr.
Precept: “Take care of everyone, and abandon no one. Take care of everything, and abandon nothing.” –Lao Tzu.
Practice: “Breathe, Observe, Let Go” –the Buddha. (Reinhabiting the present moment)
Let’s unpack these a bit. The Dharma as a Principle, of course, has many different articulations in wisdom traditions all over the planet, but Martin Luther King’s formulation, in his Letter from Birmingham Jail, is by far my favorite. The “inescapable network of mutuality” is, of course, the living Earth — ultimately the entire universe as well — within which we are entwined in both space (“network of mutuality”) and time (“garment of destiny”). And “whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly” follows logically from this understanding, and is synonymous with the core Buddhist concept of Pratitya Samutpada or codependent origination, summed up as “This is because that is (and vice versa),” which is the foundation of the universal law of Karma (What goes around, comes around).
The Precept — the foundation of all ethical behavior — derives logically and inescapably from a clear understanding of the Principle (i.e. the “inescapable network of mutuality” where “whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly”). The most popular version of this precept, of course, is the Golden Rule — do unto others as you would have them do unto you. But I prefer Lao Tzu’s formulation — take care of everyone and everything, and abandon no one and nothing because this understanding of the precept includes, but transcends, the human realm to include our entire biological support system, Gaia. Like all good precepts, of course, it sets forth an asymptotic goal, for which we all must strive, knowing we will never fully achieve it.
For the Practice, I have used a simple injunction which derives from the Buddha’s Sutra on Breathing (Anapanasati Sutra) from the original Pali canon, as translated by Thich Nhat Hanh. In this Sutra — one of the earliest — the Buddha lays out sixteen guided breathing exercises to do in sequence, as an introduction to basic meditation practice. These start with simple awareness of breath (“Breathing in, I know that I am breathing in”) and proceed through awareness of body, feelings, mind, and objects of mind — the latter comprising the more advanced and subtle Buddhist teachings that are discoverable, through insight, from a quiet, peaceful mind. And the culminating exercise in the sequence is translated by Thich Nhat Hanh as follows: “Breathing in, I observe letting go. Breathing out, I observe letting go.” So this is the practice in a nutshell: Breath, Observe, Let Go. We breathe in order to observe, we observe in order to let go, and we let go in order to breathe. (Repeat as often as necessary).
So what? Many skeptics will ask, hearing this, something like the following: “What good does it do to sit there following your breath, observing and letting go of thoughts as they arise, when our planet is burning? Why should we teach our children that?
My answer in brief is that the net benefit of this practice — learning how to observe and let go of our thoughts and feelings rather than getting all tangled up in them — is exactly the basic skill we need to cope with a rapidly disintegrating world order, and a possibly dying biological support system. But to achieve this benefit, the practice must be grounded in a clear understanding of reality (the “inescapable network of mutuality”) and the ethical imperative that derives from it: to strive unceasingly to take care of everyone and everything — without attachment to success or failure — and to abandon no one and nothing. To practice, in short, universal compassion and equanimity, even with those you fear or despise.
How to Practice
A Principle and a Precept — even if accepted universally by major wisdom traditions all over the planet and supported by science and common sense — are useless — only words on a page — unless they are backed up by a practical discipline for actualizing them in one’s life. There are, of course, many such disciplines — thousands — amongst the religious cultures and wisdom traditions of the world. But many — or most — of these depend on prior acceptance of a culturally specific belief system — a set of presuppositions, hallowed by tradition, that you “have to believe” in order to engage authentically in the practice. Muslims, for example, are required to believe that “there is no god but Allah,” that “Muhammad is his prophet” and that the Qu’ran, transmitted by the angel Gabriel to Muhammad, is the “seal of the prophets” — the final and authoritative word of Allah. Christians are required to believe that Jesus was the “only begotten Son of God” who “died for our sins” and will come down from heaven on Judgment Day to judge “the quick and the dead,” sending us to eternal life in Heaven or eternal torment in Hell depending on whether or not we are “saved” (by becoming Christians and believing all of the above)…and so forth.
Dharma practitioners — to their credit — don’t “have to believe” anything. In contrast to the mandatory teachings of other charismatic founders of self-propagating religions, the final instruction of the Buddha to his disciples was not “follow me or be damned” but rather, “be a light unto yourself.” We are urged only to meditate — to breathe, observe, and let go — but even this is not a requirement for “salvation” or enlightenment — it is only a time-tested recommendation for achieving, sustaining, or restoring the equanimity that enables us to cultivate healthy attitudes like benevolence, compassion, and selfless joy — no matter what happens. Therefore, anyone, regardless of what he or she “believes,” can benefit from this simple practice.
So here, then, is what I would “teach our children well:”
— To breathe, observe, and let go, in order to alleviate any inner anxieties and restore their innate equanimity and benevolence, no matter what happens.
— then, to be well, do good work, and keep in touch, (Garrison Keillor’s sign-off from his morning radio program, “Writer’s Almanac”) which is the best generic daily agenda I have ever encountered, in that it cultivates the three essential survival values of all living things: health (being well), competence (doing good work), and resilience (keeping in touch).
— finally, to revisit the standing goals of a life agenda in loving service to Gaia , the “inescapable network of mutuality” in which we all participate:
Learn Gaia; Teach Gaia; Heal Gaia; Create Gaia.
— no matter what…