Lojong Practice Journal: Keep the Three Inseparable

The 59 slogans through a social justice lens

This week’s Lojong Slogan is ‘Keep the three inseparable’. The three, in this case, are mind, body and speech. This is quite suitable considering my blog post of a few weeks ago where I explain my understanding of how meditation is a practice of uniting body and mind.

What this slogan is saying is that we must act wisely in how we think (mind), what we do (body) and what we say (speech). All three should be oriented to the eightfold path — to conducting ourselves skillfully in all areas of our lives so we can be of the greatest benefit.

I could easily leave it there, as this is a pretty straight forward slogan, but I want to go a bit deeper as part of this is also understanding how we identify with ego, and how ego mucks up our ability to conduct ourselves wisely in a consistent way. This slogan, while it is straight forward to explain, is not so straight forward to practice.

Let’s begin with the mind. Our thoughts are often something we go to as our source of information, and yet, any long time meditator will tell you, our thoughts are incredibly unreliable. To dig into this let’s use a negative thought that comes up for me a lot: ‘I’m lazy’

So I ask myself, what’s my source of information? I’m a very productive person. I have a regular routine in the morning that involves twenty minutes of meditation and an hour of writing, as well as all that usual morning prep, all done by 8:30 am. I report only to myself and I am disciplined in this routine. I’ve also managed to design, layout and get a book published and delivered to a bunch of backers in a three-month timeline I set for myself. Oh yeah, and I produce a podcast and make a lot of art.

The only source of information that I’m ‘lazy’ comes from a thought that tells me I’m lazy. When I examine this thought, to get at the root of it, I find that it’s actually linked to an implicit belief I carry that productivity must be given monetary value in order to count. I have the humbling realisation that, despite the conscious belief that I’m a generous, socialist-minded individual and that’s what matters, I implicitly equate human worth with earning power.

Now, this might not sound like the result of ego, since ego is considered to be something that makes us feel good about ourselves or ‘bigs us up’ in some way. But ego isn’t so much about thinking we’re amazing as thinking we are unique and have an inherent existence. Ego tells me, because I’m ‘special’, I deserve something for that. Going off of what the society I’ve been raised in has taught me, I believe I need a certain income level that equates to my ‘specialness’. So ego tells me I am lazy because I have a minimal income, and whatever I produce in a month has no value under Capitalism.

A lack of external validation according to what we’ve been taught about human worth leads ego to plant a thought which has no basis in reality.

As we move onto the body, understand that we are speaking about the way we experience our body, as well as the actions we take with it. If our mind is aligned with what is real—in that our mind recognises interconnectedness and therefore understands that what we do matters—we will act skillfully. When our mind sees how someone else acting out of anger causes harm, even if we are justified in our anger and could get a thousand people to agree with us, we will refrain from acting out of anger ourselves.

We let clarity of mind inform us through anger that a boundary has been touched, but we use our body skilfully, in partnership with our mind, to remain calm and open and willing to relate to the person or people who struck this nerve. We realise that smashing the place down is retaliation and only leads to escalation. Acknowledging our anger and what it is communicating to us, but acting from a place of clarity, compassion and with the intention to be of benefit, is what will help the situation, and everyone in it, to heal.

In this way, when we see how mind and body communicate, and how we are component parts of any situation, we can speak wisely. We can choose words that include, rather than blame or attack. We can invite people to be called in, instead of calling them out. We ask questions instead of telling or dictating how people should change their behaviour. We can speak from the heart, to something much bigger than ourselves.

This is, as already stated, not an easy practice. I have rarely acted in ways in which all three are aligned, but on the occasions when I have, I can say that I honestly do not feel as though what I am saying, doing or thinking is ‘me’.

I find, when the three are inseparable, it is more as though I am a conduit for something much bigger than the sense of ‘I’ created by ego. Rather than thinking, acting and speaking from a place of ‘me’ versus ‘you’ I am thinking, acting and speaking from a place that acknowledges ‘us’. It’s a practice of recognising humanity, and seeing that animosity, apathy and fear have never resolved anything. It’s also recognising that such things are a mask over the tenderness of being human—the raw awareness most of us don’t want to look at because it means facing up to the facts: that we and the people we love will get sick, will grow old and will die.

But when I face up to these facts—when any of us does—even for a moment, we realise we are big enough for them. We can accommodate them much easier when we recognise that they are things we all face, regardless of our embodiment.

In short, to keep the three inseparable is to realise that all things are inseparable, and to think, act and speak accordingly.

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Originally published on Medium.

This is part of a series of posts I did to support my practice. They will always be free for everyone to read and engage with, but if you want to support me financially, that is greatly appreciated. Tips, paid subscription, and regular e-transfers* help me cover the costs of being a creative human being in the world.

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Thank you!

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