To paraphrase Newsweek’s Jon Meacham on Brian Lehrer’s WNYC November 5th broadcast, “If there’s ever a time that we can feel sticky-sweet gooey sentimental puppy love it’s today.” Kumbaya-all-we-are-saying-is-we-shall-overcome-signed-sealed-and-delivered-Obama-is-yours!  USA work it out!  Wednesday I had a realization that for pretty much all of my adult life (I’m 27) I’ve been a walking, talking embodiment of disenfranchisement.  I’ve felt my values were not commercially valuable, my aspirations esoterically idealistic and the majority of my fellow men cynical and depressingly delusional.  Wednesday morning ushered in the possibility of feeling communion with more humanity in a real physical way then I’ve ever felt before.  And while we’ve just begun and there’s a lot of “okay yes we will” Americans must do in the following years, I’m thrilled about the prospect of looking to Barack Obama as a leader in the true sense of the word.  Lead me President Obama – I promise I’ll do my best to follow.
Cinnabun sentiments aside, I do find that giddiness, celebration and happy times, for me at least, offer some of the most intense challenges on the Buddhist path.  Those tingling, excited feelings morph into gripping anxiety about their inevitable departure faster than I can say Vladimir Putin.  As Ethan always says, it’s really easy and great to believe in impermanence when things aren’t going so well.  But that flying-high feeling feels so prime for a crash landing that I find myself chain smoking and writing songs with titles like, “Icarus Ascending.” I know that the anxiety about suffering is the suffering itself, but it seems so much harder to temper when it’s based on events that are essentially positive rather than negative.  Not getting what I want?  No worry, JJ – suffering exists.  Getting what I want?  Sweating time, Jonas – you know you know that all conditioned phenomena is subject to change.  Particularly the phenomena that is awesome and makes you feel great.  That phenomena is so subject to change its not even here any more because you’re so worried about it changing.
Therefore I was pleased that on Saturday, November 1st 2008 in HC Dharma class, our hearts beating like the liberal worried rabbits we were, we discussed one of my favorite teachings, a Theravaden teaching called the seven factors of awakening.  The Factors are divided into three categories – balancing, arousing and stabilizing.  The idea of the teaching is to coax all of these factors into balance and achieve the perfect (yet fluid) mix on the radio dials of your internal vibe.
The balancing quality is mindfulness – knowing what we’re doing while we’re doing it. The arousing qualities are 1. investigation of phenomena (What’s Goin’ On?) 2. Energy, (Let’s Get It On!) and 3. Joy (It’s On!).  The stabilizing qualities are concentration, (Stay On It), tranquility (Stay In It), and equanimity (or as my friend Robyn likes to say, “I’m in pain.  It’s really interesting”). 
When I took the refuge vow with Archarya Eric Speigel, (who tells Buddhist stories like a poet) he spoke of the moment when the Buddha was about to become enlightened and then has a moment of doubt: “What if nobody believes me?”  In response, the Buddha actively rouses an upsurge of confidence within him, places that infamous hand on that infamous ground and swears that the earth will be his witness.
While Buddhism is all about accepting things as they are, it also suggests that we may cultivate, rouse and bring forward helpful qualities that make present moment acceptance more possible.  The contemplation for this week’s class was to go through a checklist of those 7 factors of awakening, observing which faders on the soundboard of our experience were turned up or down.  As I’ve been working with this contemplation, I’ve found that simply taking a moment to think about the quality strengthens it within me.  In a way, remembering that joy is a factor of awakening makes it okay for me to indulge in some qualm-less, tender joy.  Likewise on the tranquility tip – right I’m *supposed* to feel calm – it’s not irresponsible, it’s encouraged!  So each time a tornado of anxiety threatens the blue skies of my own private Idaho I’ll try to prioritize those 7 factors over my trepidations of imminent doom.  Rouse my mindfulness, energy, investigation, joy.  Strengthen my concentration, tranquility and equanimity.  Pay attention, buck up and chill the hell out.
I’m sure Barack Obama would want nothing less.