Roshi Joan Halifax writes: Eihei Dōgen, for example, offered the great teaching on the Four Embracing Ways of a Bodhisattva: generosity, kind speech, benevolence toward all, and treating all equally. These four “embracing actions” are relational and social. They point to an ethic of care, inclusion, and interdependence that is important for us today. In this regard, we can also reflect on the realization of what our African sisters and brothers call Ubuntu: “I am because you are”… In other words, we rise through lifting up each other. This is the spirit in action of what Thich Nhat Hanh has termed “inter-being.”

In exploring in my own life and what I have learned from my own challenges, I have seen some other aspects of the Bodhisattva Ideal that might serve us to explore in this time. Here are five potentially enriching powers of the Bodhisattva, attitudes and practices that might assist in fostering not only individual transformation but also social and environmental transformation as well.

The first Bodhisattva power is to foster interconnected communities of integrity and care. This power is about inclusion, intimacy, inter-being, and moral character. As Thich Nhat Hanh has suggested, the coming Buddha is the sangha.

The second Bodhisattva power is the actualization of universal compassion. This power is about spontaneous, seamless, unprescribed responsiveness to the truth of suffering. As neuroscientist Francisco Varela has written “…one of the main characteristics of spontaneous compassion… is that it follows no rules.”

The third Bodhisattva power is that Bodhisattvas do not seek easy situations. This power is about what Roshi Bernie Glassman has called “charnel ground practice.”

The fourth Bodhisattva power is revolutionary joy. This power is about what the social psychologist Dacher Keltner has called the arising of “moral beauty.”

The fifth bodhisattva power is imagination. This power is about the generosity of the mind that is free from narrow views.

Universal Love / Compassion

Although anyone may come to this conclusion, adaptive types more often lead the individual to believe "we are all one family," one humanity, and we all have an intrinsic connection to one another as well as a shared narrative of joy/pain and a moral obligation to our fellow man. It believes powerfully in everyone's ability to make a difference and be a force towards that difference. It believes that if everyone lent a helping hand to everyone else, we would not need wars or conflict. Nobody would be left out, and by the simple fostering of goodwill, solutions would arise to any social problem, which translates more generally into good samaritanism. Taken to a deeper level, this can mean an advocacy for global peace and democracy. Adaptive types will tend to prioritize the group over any individual and will also see it fair and necessary for resources to be distributed more or less evenly. If called forth to serve, it will serve. It will heed the call to satisfy a personal value of goodness and to affirm their character and trustworthiness to the collective. Acts very much define this facet, and an adaptive attitude feels one only truly cares if one acts out that care in deeds and words, which also leads the adaptive person to be very verbal, and perhaps overly saturated, with its expressiveness to ensure the sentiment is communicated.

Adaptation

As the name implies, another quality of adaptiveness is adaptation -- specifically, the adjustment of oneself to meet any necessary social conditions. An adaptive attitude carefully tracks the energies of the social environment and intuits the acceptable protocol, then proceeds to blend into that energy. The adaptive person may wear many faces and switch between faces depending on the crowd they are in to adjust to the needs of each setting seamlessly. They may excel at Pickup Artistry and at reading the nuances of social and sexual energies. Moreover, while this can help them create a highly prosperous social network, it can lead to a somewhat vague or diminishing sense of self as they slowly lose their center to the many personas they have created for themselves. However, Adaptive Fe's adaptability is not limited to building personas and can also be directed to adjust as necessary for their ethical convictions. If one's relationships suffer from frictions stemming from one's behaviors or habits, Adaptive people will take measures to correct themselves, going through character transformations. Whenever they discover areas for improvement, they may remake themselves according to a higher image. The adaptive person will feel that they are prioritizing the ideal (often God) above themselves and submitting themselves to the requirements of the ideal.

Politeness

Following the aforementioned, adaptiveness is prone to manifest politeness and the automatic assimilation of social programming or etiquette to maintain rapport. Adaptive types will feel strong anxiety whenever they are out of step, and this feedback quickly unconsciously shapes their behavior. "That which will offend" is not said and sometimes not consciously thought. It becomes necessary to provide everyone with a smile and to be on good terms with all people. Adaptive people may be unable to stand the thought of having enemies or being disliked, which can be debilitating and restricting as they may feel they are always walking on eggshells. They may secretly resent always yielding and not showing their true opinions, even if this self-regulation was their choice. It may even be that non-standard or non-polite forms of expression are socially acceptable, given the right execution. However, the Adaptive person will not be the most daring to risk experimenting with alternative outcomes and will feel most safe following a known set of words and expressions. Over time, this can lead to psychological distortions and splitting of personality due to how the darker aspects of directiveness have been repressed and not given true representation or validation. Words are minced; criticisms are withheld. Moreover, this fragmentation of self can lead to intense volatility when the person falls under stress.

-Under Stress

Social Cowardice

Adaptiveness often manifests as cowardice, an inability to confront problems, challenges, difficult situations, or people. The most straightforward expression of this is lying. Rather than saying "no" to something one is being asked to do, an Adaptive person will lie and say they will do it even when they know they will fail later. They may downplay the negatives of something in order to retain a positive image or aggrandize their accomplishments to avoid losing face. When asked if they still love someone, they will say yes to prevent hurt feelings. When confronted and asked to explain, they will say nothing is wrong or will make excuses. This cowardice can become distressing and troubling to their lives, sabotaging many personal and professional relationships. They may not consider that they are damaging the situation rather than helping it through concealment and dishonesty. However, they will rationalize that their actions are for the greater good, even though fear is their truer motivator rather than a genuine wish to aid the situation or the people involved.

Martyrdom

Another negative effect of Adaptiveness is martyrdom. Like the aforementioned cowardice, Adaptiveness will often not have the spine to speak up for its own needs and will be prone to quietly taking abuse. They may be paid a very low salary but never ask for a raise or complain about their position. They may take on all church responsibilities and bury themselves in obligations to everyone else. If this behavior is neurotic, they will work themselves to an early grave for not knowing when to stop giving. At other times, their ideology may persuade them into this martyr behavior as they sacrifice themselves for a greater cause. However, Adaptive Fe's martyrdom is not always a result of heroism; it can sometimes be just as much a result of shame and failure. The Adaptive person may not feel they have the personal value or right to assert themselves due to low self-worth, which can cause them to take on the attitude that they "deserve" what is happening to them, that it is fair, and that they are in the wrong. In severe cases, this can lead to suicide, where what seemed like a perfectly kind, beautiful, polite woman is found dead from the excessive toll she incurred for living a life of emotional debt to herself.

Making Others Dependent

Transcending All Separations in Sound

 The energy of sound and its perception is an ancient force which has mostly been overwhelmed and replaced by visual energy in modern times. Today, people cannot often surrender themselves entirely to listening, to soaking up pure sound for its own sake, without meaning or pictures or associations, or to listening to each other wholeheartedly without judging.

It is intellectually…