The Power of Practice: Stand Firm and Stay Grounded

Practical insights into how spiritual resilience can be cultivated. Margaret elucidates the difference between equanimity and apathy, encouraging a calm, engaged response to life's difficulties. She underscores the importance of compassionate action—urging listeners to care for themselves and others when the world feels bleak. Margaret also shares key spiritual principles, such as acknowledging suffering, confronting our own clinging and aversion, and standing up for our beliefs.

The ultimate goal of spiritual practice, as emphasized in this episode, is to foster inner peace and resilience while remaining actively engaged in the world around us. Margaret's message is clear: spiritual practice is not about achieving a perfect existence devoid of problems but about learning to be present and compassionate in the face of adversity.

{ Helvetica; **Speaker 00**: Hey everyone, it's Margaret Maloney and welcome to the Death Dhamma Podcast. We're just jumping in today because this is one of those shorter, weekly, motivational, inspirational, let's keep going kind of episodes. I've been reading this novel and part of it takes place in the 1950s in the United States, specifically in Los Angeles, and people, some of the characters have lost their jobs because they've been accused of being subversive. They've accused of being communists and anti-American.

And some of those so-called subversives are really in a place of despondency because they believe that any day now, the Russians are going to drop the bomb on the United States. So they have this attitude of who cares? Who cares what I do? Tomorrow we're all going to be incinerated. None of these things, nothing matters. So some of these characters who are artists and Bohemians don't really see the point of committing to any specific topic. Our focus is very much on the meeting place. The whole day's just going to be listening to each other, looking at each other's capitals like this or this or that in a way that I'm just trying to **Speaker 00**: Instead, we're just going to start caring for our company.

then when we come up, we might talk about the whole work or sometimes we're going to get to work. It might be piecework or we might be doing my own thing or going to a workshop and something like that could be just what we're just going to elicit per day. it? If I'm not going to try to be good human beings, then why should I bother? What good is all of this practice if I don't get my way, if I'm not going to have the outcome I want with my country, my life, my world? How does equanimity help me if I'm losing everything?

First, let's acknowledge that to be human, practicing in this world can mean that you will encounter doubt and discouragement, and to face suffering. And not seeing the point of your practice, you know, wondering why bother, or thinking why try to be a good human if everyone is not going to be a good human, well that's definitely a form of suffering. Some clinging to what you want, right? You're clinging to what you want your practice to be, or what you want the outcome of your practice, what you want to produce, and definitely aversion towards what you want your practice to protect you from.

Next, remember that there's nothing in your practice that absolves you from the problems of the world. Your practice doesn't give you some superpower over people and politics and natural disasters. Your practice helps you to dwell in the midst of all these things and learn to be unshaken. The Buddha taught out of compassion for us, and to teach us the way out of suffering. And the way out of suffering is not to make difficult things disappear. Sorry. It is to be with things how they are. Be with people how they are.

Be with the situation as it is. To have faith, yep. Even Buddhists have faith. Have faith in the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha. So keep your practice strong. Be honest about your clinging and aversion. Watch how events are bringing about the rise and fall of your emotions. Because equanimity is not apathy. It's Keep working toward that place of calm. And oh yeah, stand up for what you believe in. Take care of yourself, your loved ones, and help the unprotected. And remember, pace yourself. You've been listening to the Death Dhamma Podcast with your host, Margaret Maloney.

Thank you so much for being here. Come find me on margaretmaloney.com. M-A-R-G-A-R-E-T-M-E-L-O-N-I dot com. And until we meet again, may you be well, may you be happy, may you be at ease, and may you be free from suffering. Bye for now.

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