Waking Up to What You Do by Diane Eshin Rizzetto

Author:Diane Eshin Rizzetto
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780834825604
Publisher: Shambhala
Published: 2008-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

Ever Changing, Ever Clouding

What becomes clear after we’ve observed ourselves in action around this precept is that the crystal clarity of the mind inevitably gets clouded over. This is quite natural. It’s the human condition. We may be able to cease the clouding caused by imbibing certain substances and engaging in certain activities, but the clouding of mind is inevitable as we go about our lives as thinking, physical beings. This is what people who rarely imbibe mind-altering substances or engage in other activities that cloud the perceptions learn from this precept. We need to think in order get from one side of a room to another to answer the doorbell, or to turn the pages of this book. As one Zen master reminds us, the pure, immaculate mind of Just This moment is clouded in the nanosecond of every thought. So in a certain sense, we become intoxicated every time we have a thought. Being that we need to think as functioning human beings, we are therefore always intoxicated. When we consume substances or engage in activities to alter our experience, we just become more “drunk”!

As well, our brains are drug factories producing thousands of substances that course through our bodies, regulating our moods and behaviors. Melatonin produced in a daily rhythm induces sleep. Adrenaline is produced in response to danger, which causes blood to be diverted to muscles in preparation for action, and an extreme level of alertness. Even drugs that we consume voluntarily often have their effect by virtue of their similarity to neurotransmitters, the natural chemical messengers that travel back and forth between neurons in your brain, carrying messages between the brain and the rest of the body. Endorphins are typically released in high dosages when we’re in some kind of pain and are well known as “runner’s high.” Seratonin release is associated with mood and is now used for the treatment of depression. These substances occur naturally but can also be manipulated by drugs, exercise, food, and, indeed, many activities we engage in.

So what are we to do? As my friend who found he must take barbiturates for his surgery learned, the purpose of this precept, as with all the precepts, is to cultivate the clarity that keeps us alert and present so that we more quickly catch our swings on the habitual patterns of our reactions. The value of working with this precept is not to try to clear the clouds away forever, but to come to understand that neither the clouds alone nor the clear blue sky alone is the fullness of life. They arise and fall away as part of being human. Our intention is to know them as best we can and to not be attached to one or the other. Through our practice we can have opening experiences, when all thinking and the dream of self falls away completely, but the phone will ring, the kids will need to be picked up at school, bills need to be paid, more dirty dishes appear in the sink, and we’ll have our reactions to them—the clouds will reappear.

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