Legendary Buddhist Teacher Joan Halifax Shares the Practices You Need to Stay Present and Quiet Fear

Editor’s note: This interview was originally published in the October 15, 2023 issue of The Sunday Paper.

It’s been the kind of news week that’s prompted many of us to want to turn everything off—to get away from it all and go to a quiet place, literally and figuratively. 

For Roshi Joan Halifax, founder and abbot of Upaya Zen Center, going to that literal and figurative quiet place comes easier than it does for most. For starters, she spends most of the year at her hermitage at 9,400 feet above sea level. In fact, that’s where we video chatted with her this week. “I’m hyper connected here thanks to Elon Musk and Starlink,” she told The Sunday Paper. “Elon Musk is one of my lesser favorite people—but nonetheless I thank him every day, because the internet speed is really fast here.”

This tracks with Roshi Joan’s commitment to both contemplation and action. After all, one can’t tune out the heartbreaking news while also doing the kind of teaching and activism work she does. Yet to stay connected to what’s happening in the world and to oneself takes practice, says Roshi Joan. “It takes getting fundamentally grounded, so you can see clearly.” 

We asked Roshi Joan how she is getting grounded right now, and how all of us can learn to do the same.

A CONVERSATION WITH ROSHI JOAN HALIFAX

With everything happening in the world, what are you doing personally to try to stay grounded and calm?

Well, I've been a practitioner since 1965—I’m 81 now—which means I have a half a century of practice behind me, and it really makes a difference. Also, I live part time in a small hermitage up at 9,400 feet. 

For people who are in the world of everyday life-ness, what is really important at this point is to find ways where one can get grounded, while at the same time knowing how important it is for all of us to work for the ending of violence and for engaging in issues related to social and environmental justice.

Last year, I was with His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, at a meeting of young youth leaders around issues related to compassion. His Holiness kept emphasizing the importance of altruism and compassion as a way to actually metabolize one's own sense of futility, of helplessness, and of fear. 

What is one way we can metabolize our own sense of futility, helplessness, and fear right now?

By doing beneficial things for others in a genuine way, not a privileged way. Maybe you don’t just give money to the homeless shelter, but you become part of the cook team or go down to the homeless shelter and serve meals. 

Maybe you can't stop the wars, but you can do your part to not contribute to fear-based psycho-social energy that is pervading our country and the world. Serving others, serving your community, is one way to do this. 

It’s also important to find others who share the same values, and where people can talk about feelings in an honest way, without judgement, so they’re able to reflect on what their experience is. 

Another factor I think is important is what I call self-stewardship. In our workaholic society, where our egos are identified with productivity, it's very important for us to steward our own well-being. I'm not talking about self-care in terms of going to the spa, but rather having the kind of awareness of what our limits are, of what our capacities are, and to engage in activities that are fundamentally life affirming. 

To do that, we must care for ourselves just as we would take care of a child or go to the doctor. Self-stewardship is essential for us to be civil citizens in a world that is so highly fragmented. 

It's easy to get caught up in social media and the news cycle, but it sounds like what you're suggesting we do is find practices that bring us home to ourselves to help tamp everything down before we act…

It's not so much tamp down; it's actually having the perspective that being in a constant state of anxiety disallows us from seeing what's happening clearly and keeps us from responding in a healthy way.

How do you recommend those of us without your years of practice begin to get grounded, so we can respond more often than we react?

The real first step is reflecting on the fact that we are bent out of shape, so to speak. We are stressed, anxious, suffering. It’s why many people come into contemplative practice: They recognize their own suffering and their desire to get out of that suffering, not by bypassing but by using their difficulties as a way to enhance the strength and depth of who they really are. 

How can we be both contemplative and take action?

Well, I don’t think we can take skillful action without being a contemplative, but that's my bias as a socially-engaged Buddhist.  

In the mid 60s, when I was a Civil Rights worker in the anti-war movement, I met Thích Nhất Hạnh. And it was a life-changing encounter. I was morally outraged about what our country was doing, not only in Southeast Asia, but also in relation to the egregious discrimination that was part of my own background as a Southerner. 

When I met Thích Nhất Hạnh, first I recognized my own suffering from moral outrage. And boy, it is in everybody's face right now around what's happening in the Middle East. And it should be about what's happening in Ukraine as well. And it should be in relation to what's happening with our environment. But chronic moral outrage is completely disabling. Moral outrage can wake us up to take action, but to be caught in the grip of it is really toxic. 

I see contemplation and action as intricately integrated. In other words, if you're going to engage either in social action or in social service—say, being engaged by feeding the unsheltered, or working in the prison system or with refugees at the border, whatever community that you choose to serve—being contemplative doesn’t mean staring at your navel. What it means is being very aware of your own somatic affect, your own physical experience, your emotional response to what is happening, and also your view. And that takes a kind of conscientiousness, to be very self-aware of your biases and reactivities. In order to do that, we go back to the beginning of this conversation: It means that you're fundamentally grounded, so you can look clearly.

How do you get grounded, and how do you recommend those of us without your years of practice learn to get grounded right now?

First, gather your attention. Learn how to bring your attention to a single object. Having the capacity to bring your attention to this moment, as it is, without judgment is a very important skill. Generally, this is called mindfulness. That’s the beginning. 

Next, realize your motivations and intentions. It's very important to remember why you care, and not to put that aside. The sense of meaningfulness, of purpose, the hurt that you feel seeing the incredible suffering in the world? That's why you care. You want to end that suffering, or address it and do something useful to alleviate suffering.

There’s also value in knowing your own physical, emotional, and mental responses to stimuli—to the shock of what happened this week in Israel and Palestine. Notice how you’ll tend to take sides. Your tendency toward polarization is likely strong. And indeed, if you go into the deeper roots, it has to do with your own sense of threat, and looking for safety. Yet polarization is not going produce safety at a very pragmatic level. Being able to attune to what’s happening in the Gaza is mind boggling; it's just so painful and tragic. And, it's important to not turn away from the sense that this is affecting you. In fact, you can actually use that to identify with the suffering of others and to bring the best of yourself in addressing that suffering.

This is a process. Now, it’s not to say I don’t fall off the wagon. I saw His Holiness the Dalai Lama lose his temper. I've seen Thích Nhất Hạnh lose his temper. I felt very edified, thinking Oh, they’re human! 

When we go over the edge, what allows us to climb back up from the rocks below is knowing we have the strength to show up again. 

Our practice is showing up again and again and again, even though we lose our way.

Roshi Joan Halifax is a Buddhist teacher, Zen priest, anthropologist, and pioneer in the field of end-of-life care. She is Founder, Abbot, and Head Teacher of Upaya Institute and Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico.