There’s a misunderstanding that mindfulness is about suffering. The truth is, mindfulness is about the end of suffering and how to go there. It’s optimistic. Given the moment, that seems like something we can all use.

Mindfulness originated with Siddhartha, who became known as the Buddha, which means, “awake.” The Buddha was many things including a phenomenal psychologist, who mapped the mind and then showed how to work with it to cultivate happiness, even in the most difficult of times.

Like all maps, the map of mindfulness can be layered on top of other maps, like the map of the legal mind. My question is, what happens when we do that?

Let’s go back to the very first mindfulness teaching, Setting in Motion the Wheel of the Dharma, and back to some early hypotheses about the legal mind. And see how the mapping looks.

What does it mean to approach each moment, each day, as if it’s the most ordinary day? How would it feel to do that?

And what if it’s not an ordinary day? What if it’s the day of a big trial, or your birthday, or the 500th Wake Up Call?

I’m learning that to practice mindfulness – to really practice, moment by moment, day after day – is to pretty much say: no matter what’s happening, practice with it. No matter how momentous, no matter how terrible, be there, and be kind. Be kind, be compassionate, be patient and generous – practice these, in each moment. Let wisdom float to the surface before saying or doing anything, any time.

I’m learning that the best day of life and the worst are ordinary and not different, with practice. And I’m learning how reassuring and comforting that is.

The Wake Up Call @499

Ten years ago, the Wake Up Call was an unlikely dream, of a place for those of us who were practicing both law and mindfulness, to be together. And here we are, at Wake Up Call #499.

Ten years plus, of exploring how these highly trained legal minds, and those of us who have them, can be different with, and benefit from, mindfulness. Howe we can be more effective. How we can be happier. How we can be of greater service to the world: more compassionate, wiser, more connected (especially more connected). How we can (maybe) inspire others to practice, and in doing that, change the cultures of our law firms and legal organizations. And in doing that, maybe, just maybe, slowly, change the world.

I feel so fortunate to be engaged in this lifelong endeavor with all of you, and grateful, too, for your company. And not just company, but courage and perseverance, in this endeavor and also in an unwavering commitment to change.

As Margaret Mead said so long ago, let’s all of us never doubt that we can create that change. As the Buddha said, let’s also not doubt we can be the change.