Accomplish your
visions.
Persevere in your ambitions.
Only then can you negate
Visions and ambitions.
Some say that one should not have ambitions;
they equate these with greed and lust. However,
some ambitions are the result of curiosity and
inner desire. They are individual interests, like
wanting to know about a certain subject or wanting
to achieve goals. As long as they do no harm to
others, they should be exercised rather than
suppressed.
—365 Tao
It seems that whenever I have a question, the Tao has
the answer, especially if it is late at night. In
thinking about how to tie together this final issue of
Letter of the Law, as well as wrap up three years
of law school, I turned to one of my favorite books:
365 Tao, Daily Meditations, by Deng Ming-Dao.
"Fulfillment" was the word on the top of the page for
today. It stared gently up at me as I opened the book and
began reading.
All at once, "fulfillment" struck me, and the message
came crashing home. "Whatever you want to do, do it to
the fullest," advised the Tao. "Go ahead," it encouraged,
"no one should hold you back from achieving your
life’s goals."
Sounds simple enough, especially for those of us about
to graduate. Upon careful reading, however, a caveat
emerged: in exercising our ambitions, we must "do no harm
to others." How striking to read these words after all
the hubbub over the Graduation Pledge, which asks us to
investigate and take into account the social, ecological,
and cultural consequences of any job offer we consider.
To me, the Tao and the Pledge are birds of a feather:
taking a vow to consider the social, ecological, and
cultural consequences of potential job offers is the same
as taking a vow to consider how my actions will affect
others.
Both the Pledge and the Tao, whether or not you agree
with either, offer a reminder to be mindful, and to try
not to harm others as we pursue our ambitions. As Rob Roy
Smith writes in his article in this issue about the
Church of the Earth, all we must do is live responsibly,
and responsible living includes minimizing harm to
beings, while simultaneously looking for ways to
improve.
This issue contains many ideas and suggestions on just
that subject: ways in which we may improve both ourselves
and our world. Erich Paetsch looks back at his seven
years at Lewis & Clark and encourages us to improve
our school by listening, thinking, and acting together as
a community; alum maximilian guides us through a focused
mind exercise to promote clarity; and Peter Kirkwood,
writing of his travels in the Himalayas, offers a
perspective on the ways law school can change people, and
urges us to take time to reflect.
As we approach the end of the school year and the next
millenium, I’d like to leave you with one last
image. Picture yourself riding a wave—a tumultuous,
unpredictable, foamy, giant, spewing, frolicking monster
ocean wave. Picture yourself perched on a surfboard on
the crest of that wave, balanced, alert, ready for
anything. Then picture yourself being carried by that
wave smoothly through graduation, into the next
millenium, and right smack dab onto the glorious shores
of fulfillment.
—Alexandra West, 4/28/99
