"I'm gonna go out Dhamma fighting..."
Whit Hornsberger, who recently joined the podcast, is a yoga and meditation teacher deeply influenced by his time at the Mahasi center in Yangon and his engagement with the Burmese meditation tradition. He transitioned from a potential professional basketball career, through a life-altering injury, into a spiritual journey that led him to embrace mindfulness and meditation. Whit emphasizes that meditation should not only serve society but also deepen personal practice. He believes that integrating social engagement into meditation enriches the practice, making it more meaningful and profound. For Whit, this approach not only contributes to societal well-being but also enhances the depth and effectiveness of one's meditation journey. By fostering a connection between inner peace and external action, Whit suggests that meditation becomes a more powerful tool for both personal transformation and social change.
“What motivates my practice every day is not to benefit me, but to benefit others, and to do something that is bigger than just the individual self”
I think the biggest hindrance to receiving the gifts that the Dhamma has to offer through meditation practice is when our practice is all about us. ‘This is my practice.’ ‘I'm doing this for me.’ Because at the end of the day, the self, the construct of self doesn't want to do what it doesn't want to do. It wants to do what's comfortable. So, it's very difficult, I think, to get somewhere on this path when everything is about, ‘This is my spiritual practice, my meditation practice; I'm doing this for me.’
I say to practitioners, when you start to dedicate the fruits of your actions to others, and to society, and to the future of our species, and all living things with whom we share this planet, you will begin to see your practice, and the results thereof, expedite exponentially. We begin to break down the sense of separation, that I'm doing it just for me. For me personally, this is what I get the most joy out of.
When I look at the Dhamma, for me, what I saw in it and what inspired me so much to pursue it was not just that it was helping me heal. But I remember before I picked up that first book by the Dalai Lama, I felt very kind of lost in society. I didn't feel like I belonged here, almost felt alien, and then, and then when I started reading teachings of the Buddha, my jaw dropped. ‘Wow, there is this perspective out there.’ Then I kind of felt my whole life.
I say to people, I don't think this is the only path that can do this. It's just the path that I know the most, because I've spent the most time doing it. What motivates my practice every day is not to benefit me, but to benefit others, and to do something that is bigger than just the individual self. Typically, the conditioned mind just takes a myopic perspective that, ‘I'm doing meditation for myself’ or ‘If I'm doing it for other people, I'm not going to see these changes.’ Well, that may certainly be true. I say to students of mine and acknowledge to myself, I may not see drastic, palpable changes in the world in my lifespan, even if I'm given another 60 to 70 years. But I'm practicing today to plant the seeds within me that then spread through a butterfly-like effect to others for future generations.
It's not just about this generation. It's like the First Nation and the Aboriginal peoples of North America; the perspective they took, their environmental stewardship was not just for their lifetimes, but for future generations, both human and otherwise, animals, insects, plants, trees. So, for me, that's what motivates me.
A quote I sometimes share with practitioners, because there's this common thing, ‘Well, what am I going to do? I'm not going to be able to make a difference.’
Well, if we begin to see that the manifestation of our society, the injustices, the environmental degradation, et cetera, is a manifestation of, what are we now, 8 billion human minds living from this myopic perspective of being a separate self, that gives rise to the defilements of lobha, dosa, moha, greed, aversion delusion; when we begin to see that it's arising as a result of cause and effect, that it didn't just happen as a result of just a few bad apples that this is part of our history, then we begin to intuit through the law of causality, through our practice. ‘Okay, I might not be able to see palpable changes, but I know that if I plant the seeds here, and you plant the seeds there, and they plant the seeds there, that there is a chance in the future.’ And as a result, that radically motivates one's practice, because we're doing it for others, because we don't feel so alone.
As a result of that, the quote that I was just about to share, Mother Teresa said something to the effect of, ‘We can't all do great, big things, but we can all do small things with great love, great passion, and intention.’ If every one of us, not even every one of us, I don't think it will ever be every one of us. But if even a percentage of humanity could really begin to plant these seeds, and just reduce suffering on an individual level, of course that is gradually, over time, going to reduce suffering on a global level and begin to right the ship. If we have that chance. I'm gonna go out Dhamma fighting. I'm gonna do everything I can in this life, to live in line with the laws of nature, in an altruistic way. And whether I see those changes or not, that doesn't matter, because not seeing those changes palpably still motivates me just as much as seeing the changes in the people around me in the Dhamma communities, the Sangha.