May You Be Happy, May Your Dreams Come True
May You Be Happy, May Your Dreams Come True. It’s so great. I got so excited while that was happening.
One of my meditation teachers used to end each of our interviews actually, I‘d have my hand on the door ready to leave, and she’d say to me,“Remember, Sylvia, be happy”, and I‘d go out and I actually for a long time thought it was a salutation, like“have a good day”or something that yousay just in a routine kind of a way, and it took me a long time to realize that it was an instruction,“Be happy”, and not only that it was an instruction but that it was a wisdom transmission, that happiness was a possibility. I understand that happiness to mean the happiness of a mind that’s alert, that‘s awake to the amazing potential of being a person in a life, with a mind that’s opened, that sees everything that‘s going on, that sees my own life drama and the drama of life, and realizes what an amazing possibility this is, and with a heart that’s open, the heart that responds naturally as hearts do, in compassion, in connection with friendliness, with love, with consolation when it needs to, that that‘s the happiness of life, a mind that’s awake, a heart that‘s engaged, and that what I want to do this morning is share with you two practices, three practices, really, that are my current practices, that help me keep my mind in a shape where I remember that that’s a possibility.
But, the first thing I want to say is congratulations, to everybody- to the graduates, of course, but to their families and the faculty and the administration and the founders of Stanford and everyone and everything else that has gone into making this event merge at this very moment. I have photos in a very old photo album of my father graduating from the City College of New York in 1934, and there are pictures of him posing in his cap and gown, but also my grandfather and my grandmother and my mother to whom he was engaged at that time, also posing in his cap and gown, and the truth is, when I was young, I was a little embarrassed about that. I felt a little bit shy about the fact that my grandparents, immigrants to this country who didn‘t speak English and hadn’t gone to school at all, were presuming to wear a cap and gown. But you know, now I look at those photos and I think that they‘re exactly right, that everyone should have been wearing the cap and gown, that my grandparents each did whatever jobs they needed to do in order for my father to be able to not take a job, to go to school instead. The fact that they were all there at thatgraduation, trying on the cap and gown, had to do with the fact that my mother insisted that my father, who did not like ceremonies, go to that ceremony. It also has to do with the fact that the immigration laws into the United States in the early 19th [sic] century allowed my grandparents and many, many other people to come and start new lives here. That photo also depends on a free education at City College being available to everyone. If I look at that photo I not only see my father’s efforts; I see everyone‘s efforts and everything that was part of the world at that moment conspiring to make those photos possible. Just as, everything in this morning is possible because of a zillion myriad causes. The thing that I find most exciting to remember is that no one does anything alone. Everyone does everything with the help of everyone who has ever been in his or her life and supported them in all the ways that we support, and with the help of a culture that supports. Everything makes every single moment. That’s so amazing to me. I think to myself, wow, the scripture line that came to me this morning as I looked out at all of you is wow, mana ra hama comaza. It‘s Jacob waking up from his dream and saying,“How amazing, how awesome is this world.”
In my life, when I think about what’s happening, it‘s sometimes tedious and sometimes wonderful, but when I think about life that is happening, that’s amazing, so what I want to do with you right now is I‘d like to do a mini meditation. You don’t need to close your eyes. It used to be when you said let‘s meditate, everybody would close their eyes and folded their legs in a certain way, sat up straight. You can sit exactly the way you are. In fact, I hope you keep your eyes open and look at this glorious day, look at the people around you. You can look just for a minute; look at the people around you. This is a looking meditation.
Look at the people around you. Some of them you know. Graduates probably most know each other. The parents and family, you can look at otherpeople and not know them personally but in this moment, know that you are sharing this celebratory moment of passage, this moment that could only happen because of zillions and zillions and zillions of causes of which you are all a part.
You know, if everybody could discuss with another, if we had a lot of time, what’s in your mind at this moment, what are your mind states, people would say, I‘m sure, delighted and joyful and relieved and maybe a little sad, actually, to be finishing, and maybe parents and family are feeling nostalgic about when they were young people starting out into their lives. Maybe you’re feeling anticipatory nostalgia about leaving Stanford before you leave, if you‘re leaving. Everyone’s got a mind full of an extraordinary array of human emotions, and if we look at each other, we don‘t even have to have little discussion groups to say how you are feeling. We know that that person, like me, is celebrating this moment together with me. We are human beings awake to this moment. It’s a gorgeous day that supports awareness.
I want to say that really what I think about when my teacher said to me,“Be happy”is be awake, be alert, stay in your life, stay present to it. She said at another point,“It‘s your life, Sylvia, don’t miss it.”That‘s been a very important thing.
Now I want-that, by the way, was the warm-up meditation. This is the real meditation.
