Elephant Journal: Walk the Talk Show with Waylon Lewis

Paradigm Shift? Not so easily. This week, Waylon speaks about the responsibility all generations have to take steps to invest in kindness, honesty, and planet-saving actions such as avoiding plastic. It’s not the role of one, lone generation to solve the problems created by those who came before them. "One of my least favorite blind spots among Boomers, or older folks, is a sort of lazy nihilism where they say, ‘Oh, you know, the next generation is so beautiful and they’re gonna they’re going to change everything and save everything, and they care about our earth and everything will be fine.’ I feel like it’s a lack of accountability, a lack of responsibility, and they believe the next generation will fix everything we’ve messed up. It’s a fake way of blaming themselves without actually caring.” ~ Waylon H. Lewis

Waylon discusses what true richness really is, and reminds us all that our task in this lifetime is to keep our hearts open. It all connects when we keep our hearts open, and raw. " True richness isn't being a billionaire. True richness is being in a society where everyone is safe and can be joyful and can have success." ~ Waylon H. Lewis

Waylon discusses difficult (or not) relationships, the need for respectful honesty (with ourselves, and our loved ones), and the good news that challenging relationships can change, such as his with his own father. " I think a lot of us have difficulty with our mothers or our fathers or our country—whatever it is. So when there's a day celebrating them such as Father's Day, Mother's Day, Independence Day—we're conflicted. And I think it's good, as with funerals and eulogies, to be honest and critical, and respectful in our criticism, and, loving—all of it. I love the Irish wakes: say everything—be joyful, mourn, fully, feel it all, show it all. Be fully honest, but respectful and loving about it, and be bold enough to be critical. Most folks frankly don't share that view. But I think when we have that view, we're full-hearted in what we say. And we can honor that people grow..." ~ Waylon H. Lewis

Waylon discusses democracy, independent media, and how you can be a participant—if you care.  “We [Elephant] often criticize Donald Trump—and we're fine with disagreement and discussion. But we're not fine with hate or lies. That's our line. We're totally fine with people correcting us, or thinking differently. We're not okay with different facts. Facts are facts...because they're true! You drop an apple and it falls. That's related to gravity and to science. From a spiritual point of view, our approach is empathy, openness, learning, not holding on to trying to be perfect. And the most important word, I think, in the Elephant land is 'caring.' Often we get comments about how we're disrespecting the flag, or how we're not patriots, or we should move out of the United States—we get told to eff off or leave the country if we don't love it. Well, my love, like any healthy relationship, is rooted in (hopefully) honesty and the courage to be honest, in a respectful way—which is a journalism ethic.” ~ Waylon H. Lewis

This week on our longrunning “Walk the Talk Show” podcast and video series, Waylon discusses Buddhism and Sadness. Caring isn’t easy, but it leads to a beautiful, kind world that is easier on all of us. In a world where aggression is normalized, a soft, naive, joyfully troublemaking or curious heart is easily wounded, saddened, even depressed. Aggression creates further aggression. Kindness, with strength behind it, creates enlightened society. Everyday, little, ordinary moments are the best… ⁠

Waylon talks about Mother's Day and Motherhood with his own Mama, Linda, and his wife, Kelsey. They discuss the Buddhist perspective on Motherhood, the meditation practice of Tonglen (which traditionally starts with a Mother figure), and Kelsey shares how she likes to spend Mother's Day, while Linda shares stories of Mother's Day with Waylon when he was growing up. “I love you, mom—and Happy Mother's Day.  I appreciate that you gave me a love for nature and a love for politics—not being nasty, but caring about our environment, and decency, and honesty. And just caring. Anyone who has been unconditionally kind to your life, Mother's Day is for them, and hopefully that was your mom.” ~ Waylon H. Lewis

Waylon discusses and questions the very real exhaustion that comes with moving. He asked friends for advice on why that is and he's here with their answers, and a few of his own. "It's a letting go process, I guess you could say. It's a spiritual thing. But I think for me it is an exhaustion similar to like when you're in a museum—like in Paris, or Boston, or wherever—and you're looking at an exhibition. By the end of a couple hours on your feet, your brain is exhausted because it's focusing in and coming out, focusing in, coming out." ~ Waylon H. Lewis

Waylon discusses the idea of "stuff" as he goes through the process of moving out of the home he's lived in for 18+ years. A close friend shared that it wasn't Waylon's "life in that box" when Waylon shared a video of his Pod being taken away. Rather, his friend replied that it was "just stuff." "I replied that I half agree. Things are things, and yeah, if a fire consumes my house, I'm gonna run out with my wife and my dog and myself, and count myself lucky—right? Ultimately, our health and our corporeal bodies and minds and hearts are far more important than some cool lamp. At the same time, I disagree..." ~ Waylon Lewis Cheap goods devalue "things."  “Stuff” and "crap" is demeaning, cheap, it’s what you buy on Amazon. We're not defending crap, but things that we genuinely appreciate. We give things meaning through use and care and love, and we select things through training or searching for yun.   “When we own craft items, these objects in the Buddhist term give Yun—inherent richness—which contributes to a meaningful home and a meaningful life.” ~ Waylon H. Lewis 

Waylon discusses what we can do when we’re overwhelmed with overwhelm. He also offers a reminder of where Dharma (or expertise) comes from. (Hint: it’s not our ego) “We all get overwhelmed. We get overwhelmed by the news. We get overwhelmed by relationships. We get overwhelmed by stress around food, or money, or how we look, whether we’re popular or not, depending on what age we are, and what’s going on. Overwhelm is really just a lack of oxygen.” ~ Waylon H. Lewis 

Waylon offers a message to those in the United States: What to do now that he’s Tariffed you. "This isn't about hoarding, but this is about having a mindful, smart reaction. If you don't have to spend money preparing, save your money and hopefully we can get through this together. Panicking doesn't help but preparing in community does. Big love." ~ Waylon H. Lewis