Fifth Maxim: Develop the Body and Mind

This tip looks at the 5thof thesix maximswhich have been suggested as ethical preparation for climate catastrophe.  The authors, David Schenck and Larry Churchill, believe that we are heading towards social collapse due to the unstoppable consequences of Climate Change and that the trauma of losing so much of what we take for granted – like food, water, social stability – will lead to huge levels of stress and mental illness.  My purpose in writing these tips is to tease out some links between these maxims and the Dhamma.The fifth maxim advises us to train the body and mind. Here’s what they say:Learn breathing exercises. Develop the physiological capacity to deal with despair. Despair isn’t just psychological, it’s physiological. Learn skills for getting beyond ego—not just the cognitive limits of ego, which many are at least familiar with pondering, but the emotional and physiological limits of ego.Training the mind is central to the Dhamma. The first verse of the Dhammapada tells us that all our suffering is mind-made:Speak or act with an impure mind -Suffering follows, just as the wheel of the ox-cart follows the footsteps of the ox.Speak or act with a pure mind -Happiness follows, as surely as our shadow follows our footsteps.Although the body plays a central role in the Buddha’s teaching, it is always as a means for training the mind. In a similar vein, the six maxim authors aren’t advocating fitness for its own sake, but for the sake of dealing with despair. Thus their advice has many resonances with the Dhamma:Breathing exercises:The Anapanasati Sutta lists a number of breathing exercises. These start with mindfulness, knowing when we’re breathing in and when we’re breathing out. They include the kind of yogic breathing exercises David and Larry are indicating e.g. using the breath to calm the body and mind, to develop pleasant feeling, to gladden the mind & develop concentration.The need to deal with despair: Despair was what fuelled the Buddha’s quest for enlightenment: his early life of luxury was rendered meaningless once he realised that this would end in sickness, aging and death. His whole teaching, he said, could be reduced to a simple statement:there is suffering and there is an end to suffering.Having transcended his own despair we can be confident that the Dhamma will teach us to do likewise.Develop the physiological capacity to deal with despair:The Buddha’s first attempts at spiritual development started with deeply concentrated forms of meditation. Seeing these gave only a temporary respite from despair he went on to practice strenuous asceticism. On the verge of death from starvation and hardship he abandoned this approach, accepted a bowl of rice-milk and went on to discover his own path to liberation. Taking the rice-milk indicates the need for physical energy in order to make his spiritual breakthrough.  While body building isn’t lauded as a virtue in his teaching, he encouraged people to maintain good health e.g. to do walking meditation so asto develop energy, health and aid digestion; to eat healthy food like rice-gruel so as toenjoy health, strength and a comfortable abiding.Ego limitations manifest not only cognitively, but emotionally and physiologically:In Dhamma terminology, we suffer because we cling to the wrong view of self. This suffering manifests as emotional burdens like greed and aversion, which have physical aspects – for some it might be muscular tension, for others headaches, stomach upsets, breathing difficulties.Getting beyond the ego:This is one way of describing the teaching on ‘Not-Self’. Believing there is a substantial core to the person we call ‘me’, we suffer when things go wrong for us – when we get blamed or mistreated, when we fall ill or become incapacitated, when we lose those we love. The Buddha does not deny the suffering, or the fact that it is happening to the person I call ‘me’.  Caring deeply for that person, he would respond with compassion, while knowing the suffering as unnecessary, based on mistaken identification with body and mind, with the person called ‘me’. All our practice is aimed at seeing through this illusion, so as to gain the peace and joy of liberation.This penultimate maxim resonates well with the Buddha’s teaching. Despair will emerge for all of us as we witness the increasing impact of climate change on nature, on vulnerable communities as our own food supplies and social structures grow ever less reliable. Can we take the coming storm to heart, prepare ourselves as advised in the 5thMaxim? If we care for our body as the necessary basis for learning the Dhamma, train body and mind according to the Anapanasati and other suttas, we will be ready to let it become part of our path to the end of suffering.When despair becomes widespread in society, those of us who can meet it mindfully will become ever more important in preserving hope, preventing a decline into chaos.