the name i gave to this class is the bodhisattvas creativity and
freedom

and i propose last week and this week
ah well as same thing that the but the creative mind
is compassionate toward this objects and plays with them or but the creative mind plays
with the objects which is compassionate towards
so i'm
the way i play sometimes is to say the same thing over and many different ways
the creative mind is the door
to freedom
and peace and bliss

the creative mind is the is the path
a practice
of a fully lived and fully meaningful life
putting a negatively ah if we if we don't term if we don't realize this creative mind our life is less meaningful and healthy
and free
then it could be if we realize this
mine
creative mind
hi even thinking about the creative mind and i think
one thing i feel is that if if you think of the creative mind in terms of persons then like a human being i think a human being a can sometimes
be inhabited by this creative mind and sometimes lose touch with it so it's not exactly as a person
it is his upper create a person isn't created if they lose his mind
so it's possible that some noted creative minds have lapses
i hesitate to mention a particular people but i've heard of some amazingly creative minds
and i think that when they were the when the weather when the person that i think of some some people who seem to be inhabited
vivek by a very creative mind and i i believe rye i'm under the i'm practicing according to the understanding
that when that creative mind inhabited their human being
they were compassionate towards the field of their creativity
they were compassionate towards the paint brushes
the colors the canvas
and in that compassion they played and we and then and in that compassion in a playful compassion in the compassion of play they were free
and happy
and i've heard about these people then you know turning toward some other these people
apparently not being compassionate towards some objects and i feel that at that time when in the areas that they weren't compassionate we do not celebrate their activity
but there they do not seem to be artists
there that when their playfulness was not compassionate when they shifted from for example paints and shapes and when they shifted to people
and if they continued to play if they're play wasn't compassionate we don't celebrate that as a work of art
so i think it's possible for people in some realm
to open to the creative mind in other words helping to the compassionate mind which plays
and in that realm
the creative meaningful life is
realize and then they lose it and other realms
so the body soft phase is one who aspires and and some of these people i get the impression that that was okay with them that they didn't mind that in this area there are creative and that in their family life they weren't
our in their business like they weren't or in relationship to other creative beings suddenly to stop being compassionate and playful and got selfish and stingy and impatient and and unethical and
and then people don't say that was like so beautiful the way that it that way they related to the other artists know but some of them did the body sought aspires to the welfare of all beings the bodhisattvas aspires to compassion towards all beings all objects of their awareness
aspires to be compassionate to them and play with them all
but he sought of spires to have every interaction with every being to be peaceful and free of any obstruction the peacefulness and freedom
they don't attain that are all of a sudden it's a gradual process but that's their aspirations so the body sought for is not one who's
passionate one area and not intending to be a compassionate and another
their intention is their vow or promise is
to be compassionate towards all beings
all phenomena all experience
and i that but they're not just being compassionate towards things and being playful for them to free themselves
from the
unhealthy life that's not creative
they're doing it primarily for the for others
and that actually helps them
be compassionate
and make their play real creativity
huh
another way of talking about this that i was using green gulch
ah last few weeks is the principle is
this principle is an immersion and x
immersion in whatever immersion in any object
is freedom from not object
immersion in suffering is is freedom from suffering immersion and delusion is freedom from delusion immersion in addiction is freedom from addiction
immersion in the false
is the path of freedom with her in our all the false
and most diverse have plenty of false
most diverse the way we see things is not true
we see for example others as existing suffer from us
immersion in the appearance that other people are not only not us but separate from us immersion in the false appearance that other beings have a life that separate from our life but the life of others suffer from my life immersing ourselves in that false new
will free us from that false view
an immersion means
being compassionate
towards the boss
being compassionate towards the appearance that somebody's life is not your life
being compassionate towards the appearance that you can live without someone that you can have a life without this person
be compassionate to that
and if you can be compassionate with it
then you can play with it well excuse me if you can be compassionate with it then you can relax with it
and if he can relax with it he can play with it if you can play with it you can understand it you can be ocean if you can play with it you can enter into creativity with it and if you can enter into creativity with it you can understand it and if you understand you can be free of it all the obstacles to creativity
our obstacles of compare our arbor are objects of compassion so anything that's interfering with your creativity
if you practice compassion towards would interfere with your creativity if you practice compassion towards what seems to be hindering you from a meaningful life
and you really immerse yourself compassionately with that thing that's hindering you from come from creativity and peace and happiness
and you can relax with this thing that's basically a big problem for your happiness and big problem for other people's happiness do if they have similar problem such similar obstacles and then you can start to play with it
and then you can enter into a creative relationship with what's hindering you from being creative
i often use example you know what do i know
by i use example anyway
michelangelo had this big obstacle
call it a huge slab of marble which was hindering him from making this sculpture called david
you know the thing that was standing between him and the sculpture was as block of marble and among other things
i don't know what are you know that was the mit for him that i think that was the main problem of the marble he himself i i get the feeling had almost no maybe i who knows nor laziness but movie he did maybe had laziness and he was compassionate with his own laziness and he was so compassion with whole laziness that he played with his laziness as
he was created with his laziness
he played with his laziness if he hadn't me he played with it i say he played with it i say he was created with any laziness he had and he was like one liberated from laziness person
he may have been lazy like some of us but he was free of it how did he get free of it
i've been compassionate towards it and immersing himself in it
and then this piece of marble was also kind of like and something had to be compassionate towards he had to be generous towards it had a careful of it can you imagine can it be careful of it yet bells to be careful of the dust that came off while he was working on it
maybe i mentioned you before he he ha
he had like in all like like we do now so like a
tarps all around the statue
and then he had what water was spraying on 'em all the time to wash the dust down
so for long time he was like working in this shower
lot of obstacles but i think he was compassionate towards them
and i think he was playful
and i think he entered into that space and i think it was understood the marble and is laziness or whatever you know whatever other things he had their that he was aware of that he was being kind to and playing with so this procreate a person works with their own stuff
and with marble and plants and animals and other human beings they work with all that stuff if it's a body sought for they worked with all that stuff no exceptions
or rather they aspire to and when they when they attempted to cross somebody off the list this person i'm not going to be compassionate with this person i'm not going to be packed i'm not going to be compassionate with them but then they know that that's not what they promised to do
and there's a pre part of being kind is to be ethical
i'm part of ethical is not across anybody off the list
not to say anybody's less important than you or your works of art
and it's possible that all these beings were like really in interfere with you accomplishing anything
and all the beings who interfere with the accomplishing anything or something something or anything or everything they're all actually
the objects of your compassion and they're all opportunities to for creativity and freedom
so last week how many people who are not here last week one two before
so last week i propose this which i just said oh you mean i noticed it
the process of trusting
relaxing
playing
creating understanding are realizing and
freeing liberating today i'm expanding trusting
and calling it also immersion
trusting as immersion and immersion means being compassionate
towards the object means being generous and ethical and patient and enthusiastic
and then you can
relax and be calm
with whatever including be become with the obstacles
two
playfulness
be kind be be kind
this of relaxation
when you with the things you feel like you can't relax the kind to them be kind to them and then be kind to them and be kind to them and be kind to them until you finally feel like okay
i can relax with this
and then when you can relax with it you can come down with it and when you can come down with it
so the relaxing
and then
yeah the relaxing
how the relaxing
the relaxing is the traditional buddhist practice of concentration
relaxing and calming down is what we call concentration
and you can and you can you can relax and calm down with things if you're kind enough to them you can come down with them
are you will come down with them you will be calm with it when you're really com you'll calm down with things
so first is trust compassion
immerse yourself in what it is on tell you feel so kind that you really feel like okay either you can say okay i've done my job basically i can relax with the situation i've done all i can do all that can be done has been done for the moment so now it's time to
relax take a rest
calm down
and now that i'm calm now the wisdom part can start and the wisdom part starts with being playful
again if somebody suffering and you're not really kind to them
maybe not there you or they may not feel comfortable with is getting playful
if somebody's suffering and you're not really they're immersed in their suffering and they don't feel that they may feel funny they may not be ready for you to be playful
but they or you when you really immersed in their suffering
then there can be some playing
and then the western part starts and then we can enter into the creativity and once for their and this wisdom part then we start to understand and then there's freedom
ha
some people think in some people may be think of the color blue or the color white or a stone
they may think that these things are delusions are
obstructions to their compassion
they may
but but maybe some people don't but most people find various kinds of addictions and delusions
a problem for their compassion most people don't even think of being compassionate towards blue
but in this course i would suggest that we start to be mindful about being compassionate towards the color blue
if only that you know start with the easy stuff
blue blue shirt t-shirt blue rocks in black clothes start with that that's why ask you when you're sitting you know nobody was bugging particularly besides me and so when you're sitting here quietly can you be kind towards the objects or awareness can you be kind
i actually thought i wouldn't say for sure i'm being kind but i felt kind of like kindly towards the sound of that train
did you hear the train sound of it i felt why i'm really good a bunch of being kind of that train sound
here are here we are you know
came all way over to berkeley to be kind of that train sound so yeah be kind to colors became to sounds be kind of smells
in other words don't skip over any object every object see if you can be compassionate towards everything you see here think and already than you think to even if you think negative things even if you see think thoughts which are kind of like unethical
if you ever think any unethical thoughts
i've lately i've been can have been using the word for ethics another word for ethics is just or justice if you think any unjust thoughts if you see any injustice in your mind or injustice outside practice compassion towards injustice
be generous towards injustice
be just
towards injustice be patient with injustice
and of course be patient with impatience
injustice and stinginess and an impatience are obstacles
could be seen as obstacles to creativity but really they're not actually obstacles the opportunities to develop the compassion which will make it possible to relax with these obstacles
so we don't usually think of a color as an obstacle we think of ill will as an obstacle or greed as an obstacle
but they're only obstacles if you're not been kind to them but they're not really obstacles there only seem to be obstacles when you're not doing with them what you need to do in order to be creative
so
painters actually find colors in a major obstacle they have like being problems with them because they sometimes are impatient or ungenerous with the colors that are available you know i wish i had different colors which had i'm looking for a different read and i don't have it
and i'm feeling kind of impatient and stingy and
on the verge of slandering the colors i've got
i'm not saying you have to use a color that you don't want to use i'm just saying if you'd can't find the color you want and your kind towards the colors you have you'll do a work of art before even get to the color you want
i'm i get again like an addictions a lot of people with see addictions as as problems but again
if
if we can be compassionate towards the dick addictions and a by addictions i mean basically things that make us veer away
the tendencies which make us veer away from being present
in our life situation
and we need to be present in order to like be compassionate towards what's here so the addictions are the things which make us veer away from take care of this
so again part of being compassion as to have the courage to not veer away
and part of having the courage to not veer away is having the courage to face veering away
human beings have a hard time being in the middle of their life
because we're surrounded by extremes existence and non-existence self and others
i was talking to somebody recently about ah
being open and relaxed on one side as for kind of setting stream know
the extremes are around a being open and relaxed so what are the extremes around or open and relaxed the extremes around open and relaxed are
in attention and not caring that's one extreme and the other one is carrying too much
are giving too much attention
those extremes human beings generally speaking live in overwhelm up too much attention and not enough attention and be open and relaxed is in the middle of them but in the middle of those two things are much more intense than on the extremes
and people often go to like carrying too much
are not caring much at all
to avoid the intensity of neither of those
being ethical or just means to be careful to be full of care but just be full of it not over not overflowing not leaking care just like right to care
you care
and that's hard it's hard for us to have the courage to be there because his attention between caring too much and caring too little
if you care too little
people we care about may have a problem with us
so are afraid of that which
if we care too much did i say you care to little that care to little renda said i care if we care too much people will cause uptight you know tense region
inflexible
and we don't want that
fine
we don't want to don't but having neither of them is more intense than having making either those mistakes takes more courage to be in the middle of the to and be open to both faults and just they'll count to one of them
make it to choose maybe rich one for maybe making fault me for that but the camp home you for that i'm only half wrong in the middle you can be both double wrong or trip or wrong quadruple wrong there's no limit to how wrong you could be if you're in the middle
you can make mistakes in any in multiple different dimensions but if you lean over to this side your money making this mistake
when you make mistake you make that mistake when you're not make any mistakes you can then you're vulnerable to all mistakes so again when you're in the middle when you have the courage to be in the middle
you're right you're you're in a place where you can relax and then when you relax and open up that's when you're most vulnerable
people think of concentration you know noise like focusing on something is not that's not really when it is it's giving up distraction
it's being open to all kinds of mistakes rather than this one or that one
if you're making this mistake or that mistake than the dozier distractions from being in a place where you're open to all mistakes
when you relaxed and open you're ready to make any mistake
and you might
who wants to be there
the bodhisattva wants to be there
and an order to be there we have to be really kind
the kind with ourself with having a hard time be the being there be kind to ourselves was they scared to be that vulnerable again vulnerable to what
unlimited mistakes
when when you're in the middle there's no mistake you couldn't make
again when you're leaning way over to the left is fairly it's pretty likely you're leading to the left but it's it's going to be more difficult to lean to the right than it was when you're upright when you upright you can lead to the left in a in up in many many ways
you can lean forward in many many ways you can lead but he caught left left by forward and forward by right and backed by left in backpack you understand when you're balanced you can be off there's no limit to the way she can be off
and you're totally vulnerable to being off when you're not off
who wants to be there the body sought for why
the benefit all beings while their benefits because everybody's afraid to be there
where's that place that's the place of the bodhisattva as to place of life
that's where life really is
that's what buddhists it
like you said buddha's sit in the midst of fierce planes that's where buddhist so what are the flames the plans of infinite error
that's where they said
that's where creation happens isn't a place where there's no mistake you can't make
it takes a lot of courage to be there whereas encourage going to come from it's gonna come from come from being compassionate
from be generous and full of care and patient and then he's going to come from thinking about
how cool it would be to be in the middle of the flames
how wonderful it would be to really be fully alive and show other people how to do it
but it isn't just going to this places there like do whatever i want no it's more like i can make unlimited kinds of mistakes but i'm actually trying to be careful so i dare to be in the place of unlimited number of mistakes
i had the courage to do this because i think it's really really good
and now that i'm here i also know i would like to calm down and this extremely vulnerable place of and i'm also vulnerable to this balances is not like can i can i make any kind of mistake but even my that situation is constantly changing so i'm an only
vulnerable and fragile so the way i'm vulnerable isn't going to stay the same the next moment a different kind of infant of vulnerability
and again so fragile and an invulnerable so
nah i'm here
well
can i relax or now this is the this is a place where actually know i can think about how good it would be to relax in this in the middle of this extreme intensity intention
i really need to relax here now
and then can i play with this
because again when you when you're bound to than what can i play well
playing here is really great
like that i think i'm the i've just started a guy you know what's his name
was his name pierre
pierre petite ha
petite mr petty
what's his name petite it's a little a little french guy who walked between the two twin towers
you know he got out there and the guy played
ah philly petite philip petite he got out there and he played
was he happy by any chance
was he free
was he vulnerable was he kind i say he was kind was he kind when the police got him was kind of police i don't know about that
but i feel that he was very compassionate when it got up another thing and i feel that he was very concentrated and he was very vulnerable and i think he relaxed
the senior seen pictures i'm doing it lying down on the thing of them
and then was it was a kind to the policeman who are calling him in
pretty when he was on the think when he was on them when he was on the rope i think he was kind to them when it got off the rope at or know how it did
but i think he was kind with him and i think he was playing with them and i think that they didn't mind they're almost opened him being playful
so anyway i came to mind
borisov as aspire to this kind of balance
with compassion and playfulness and understanding what life's about and freedom
and so part of what i invite you to do is bring up anything you think doesn't deserve compassion bring up anything you think isn't a good opportunity to work with that as an as as a way to enter into creativity
and i have some examples myself i'd buy brought up some i welcomed me to bring up your doubts your reservations
your the year
yeah you doubt you're not sure anything in any any realm you don't trust compassion
and if anything you think
yeah anything that's hindering you from relaxing
and if you feel relaxed then i tell me if you feel if you feel relaxed and and unable to play like to hear about them so that's what i'd offer you tonight
and again
and again that's what i asked you tonight
it look like you have a headache lisa
are you okay
yeah okay with your pain
right you're immersed great great

yes
saying
anxiety about anxiety

yeah

hmm
did you say that now you just have one each
you know

yeah or are also just take the other anxiety just sort of like squish it in together with the other one layered and make make a little making a more a more condensed or bigger ball of anxiety
okay so i got this ball of anxiety so you know we have been teaching about that you know turning away from this and touching are both wrong for this is a great ball of anxiety this is a great ball of fire
and if you turn away from it you'll freeze for turn away from that anxiety got the other anxiety don't push that away just bring that bring that in bring it on layered and with the other can now i got a nice a big fat ball of anxiety if you turn away from it you your freeze if you touch it you will get burned so how
can you be like stay close and which they who use it to keep warm
walk around it
stay close
and don't touch it
don't you know don't grasp
now the principal in this practice is
ha
how would you put it
immersion in the flow means you're not grasping anything in the flaw
so immature a immersion in of in the flow of anxiety there's no grasping of the anxiety and in the immersion with anxiety
you will find freedom from it
immersion right to the center of the anxiety in the center of the anxiety is where the artist sits is where the buddha sits with the artist in the middle of that anxiety and to get to the middle we have to meet it with are grasping it so sometimes i just
talked about walking around it but if you walk around it without grasping and you're actually in the middle of it
my friend anxiety i don't hold onto it if it goes away i say by
i say hello you say goodbye

hell that's kind of like not grasping at right that's kind of like
being respectful of it does kind of like not slandering it has kind of like not grasping at me
it's kind like welcome
and it's also kind like to help should be patient
and it also helps you get ready to like actually start play with them
that that attitude yeah so that's all that goes very well with that yes eileen

could you speak up eileen

yeah you might be right
well did you remember we we're for the early part of the class by any chance we're here for the early part of the class yeah i said it's not like you know look at the person you look at their performance so i'm proposing to you that when he was on the rope at that time he wasn't being a jerk i'm proposing that i'm pro
pausing that is selfish guy found a place to get a little break from being selfish
if you're right that he was like eighty two percent selfish in terms of like when he caught a anthropological study of him
i'm saying that when he's on the rope i'm saying that was an exception to his selfishness and i'm just i'm saying the bodhisattva wants to be on that rope all the time if you're on that rope all the time you're not going
to be unkind to your friends
but some artists do
we find a place which they value very much because they get it they get relief from their selfishness by their heart and then they don't have a vow
they don't tell people in i vowed to do this with you so the people don't say well you know you're not being compassionate to me your compassion it with your
with your rope in your bar and your connection with your colors and your music but you're not been kind to me i thought you said you're been practicing for everybody
the body such as oh sorry
it just as important for the body sought for to be balanced with his friends as it is to be balanced fourteen hundred feet in air
and so i'm i'm saying that there are examples of people finding this freedom and happiness
which i believe that has those qualities i just suggested
and then they get off the situation where they do not have a way to find that balance again they can't they can't find it in daily life
and maybe in some sense you might say they're worse than ordinary people who don't who haven't found it in one limited area
so i'm talking about the bodhisattva who is open to criticism
in all areas
including in all areas they're open to feedback on whether they're being compassionate in all areas because they want to play with all beings and if they're not being compassionate with the beings and the beings can't relax with them

right that's the bodhisattvas ways ordinary life
but it doesn't mean that they can do a little tight rope walking
you know they might not be very good but they could try
and they might you might find out that they have a hard time learning how to be compassionate to a tightrope that's four feet off the ground
you're welcome
yes nancy by the way can you hear me okay tonight

yeah
you

yeah
maybe you were
you thought you run a good path and then something came up and you felt discomfort or he felt insulted you felt perhaps not appreciated not respected
and that was uncomfortable
he felt that they're being patient with you are or maybe they were even acting angry with you
yeah your honking their horn at you being rude yeah so then it was difficult for you to to say thank you
yeah and it was difficult it was and you feel like you felt like they're being unjust yeah and it was difficult for you to find a just response to them
and so
i would say now try to be kind to yourself having
been somewhat unsuccessful being kind be kind here to your failure to apparent failure
it's of i'm trying to drive faster
without driving and i'm saying the how slow can i go without being irritating without but without being too difficult for people
so like you know i'm sort of tentatively tried for fifty five a night
not fast enough
fifty six
how fast would you say
hi
sixty five in sixty five molenaar zone so you you think that the kind thing to do as always will be at the speed limit
and if they're if they're tailgating me if i'm at the speed limit what should i do
what
get over

your greener
what is what do you advise me to
yeah i can give any advice right now
pardon
haha yes
a jeopardy question
this is a tv show or game
okay
you
given you suffer already something
what is that a devotion
what
the root of the word the word of the word addiction is to give yourself over to summer
yeah with the root of the word addiction is similar to the root of the word devotion of similar routes

i i think giving yourself over means
kind of like
a devotion that throws you off center
where you don't again there's a tension between taking care of yourself and taking care of the other
so you kind of like either take care yourself and not the other or take care of the other not yourself you can give yourself over to yourself excluding other you can give yourself over to other excluding yourself
you can betray yourself and give yourself over to the the addiction
but you can also get rid of the addiction
and be too rigid about yourself
so it's it's a constant balancing act
but i think also there's that the word addiction touches on something very essential to spiritual practice and people who have addiction problems i think are close to spiritual practice
which is means everybody's close to spiritual practice because everybody's got addictions
everybody's got some kind of leaning
ah away from the center
everybody's got some sense of like using something
other than being in the center to be happy
everybody everybody's tempted or
at risk of grasping something in the flow of creativity everybody's tempted to grasp objects rather than be creative with them but if your creative with objects
in are grasping them
and you have to be in immersion is necessary
in order to not grasp or when you really immersed you're not grasping
so then if you know you can be in the process you can be the addiction is also comes about by a creative process
it also is creatively arrived at and you can be in the creative process of addiction and if you're there in merced in and not grasping it
you're free of addiction
but that's seen it again it's like very difficult when somebody honks the horn at you
or yells at you it's very difficult to like not grasp something at that point a slap in the fish will do tend to grasp thing so we have to be we had to be
doing the the emerging practices all the time in order to be able to
not grasp when many sudden sudden insults com or sudden prison
if we're working with just ordinary things you know our ordinary friends then when are when our friends suddenly become extraordinary extraordinarily beautiful extraordinarily monstrous we have a chance to continue this immersion in the flow of creativity the the image
immersion in a creative relationship of not grasping what we're looking at
the main the main problem is a grasping of what we're meeting grasping at the people grasping of our pain grasping of our pleasure grasping of whatever that's the main problem and this practice gets us to the place of finally understanding the grasping is impossible that's what you
i understand when you enter into the flow and when you understand that you're free
but before we understand we have to like act like we would if we understood
if we understood we wouldn't grasp and if we learn how to not grasp pretty much and be playful than we enter into creativity and there we understand that there's no in creativity in the immersion in the immersion in the flow there's no way to get ahold of anything we understand that so at the
practice that first though i think now we we can't practices as fully before we understand his after
after you understand you will spontaneously you will effortlessly
not grasp before you have to work at it
in other words have to notice oops i'm about to grasp this position
but to grasp what is right like this is right
this is the right thing to do here okay you can say that that can be something in the flow but i you grasping it if you are forgive yourself you just made a mistake when have your grasp than anything it's a mistake whenever anybody else is grasping something it's a mistake but don't grow
asp they're that they're making a mistake
just say looks like they're making mistake who knows what's actually going on here but it looks like they're making a mistake that's what i think's going on and i'm going to like donate that to the red cross
i'm not going to hold on to what i think it's going on but i do have i do think something's going on
and i i have quite a few times in the past
grasp what i thought was going on and because i did in the past as a result of that i have an unconscious mind which is sponsoring
grasping things in the present
so if i do i want to forgive myself i want to be kind to myself in my grasping
and be kind to myself when i'm grasping
this good reasons for my grasping the reasons are many many many times of grasping in the past
i don't want to
in part of me doesn't want to but another part of me is sponsoring me doing it
and everytime i do it i might be a little embarrassed or very embarrassed but i'm not really mean to myself about it because i have a teaching which he tells me the reasons for it like laurie was saying he of know why you're doing it that helps you
be kind to yourself
when you're kind to yourself that has the consequence of making it likely more likely to be kind yourself again the next time you do something which is based on your past actions which were not that way
sesay

yeah

the thing about
wayne playing grasp grassy sir
tiffany's whenever you find yourself grassley that doesn't feel like a thousand
more evening as or slow
well you can you can pivot at the balance point
have you consciously try to find yourself developing the last point i guess com and during flow
striving to
and she gave a sense of balance there or as the balance just coming from being in the south
happy
we are in the flow already for in the flow
wherein the phone now not behind the plow we are in the flow so there's practices to find yours your best position in the flow and one of the practices called being upright or balanced
so we actually tried to sit upright in the flow if you're in the floor you not to like not sort of is not again it's not being balanced to try to not do anything in the flow that's another kind of grasping didn't want to grasp
you want to grasp not practicing compassion
and you don't want to practice cap and compassion but the instruction is practicing compassion and the flow will help you find balance and not attached to balance but we do want to have balance
because again it's a balance between these extremes where we tend to grasp
we're tempted to go in a direction of grasping one side of the story of our life
so balanced means not grasping so grab balanced in the phloem is another word for not grasping in the flow and we don't want to grasp not grasping we don't want to grasp balance
but that balance me is also you're allowing your along the alternatives
of the situation
you're welcoming the alternatives equally that's kind of balance yes

that's right that the balance is very fragile
and the playfulness fragile it just playfulness now
and again once we find it we we might feel it's value and then grab it
so once you find balance you my rabbit and sewage of grabbing illicit then if you don't grab it you get rewarded with being able to play if he grabbed the playfulness he lives it and also even if you don't grabbing loser you can lose it because you grab it and you can lose it because to permit it's better to lose because impermanent them because you grab it because if you lose it big
cause it's impermanent you have a chance to again meet it with no grasping but you don't get to keep it in any case
and again that's another thing to relax with is how fragile the how fragile the condition by which we enter creativity is

and you're going to get that idea a bunch of
i can remember what it was yes

you were thinking about what
kindness yes

kindness and niceness intersect

oh

but actually

yeah you're being nice could be kind of a way to
ah support yourself in not meeting someone
i got this image or i just got this image of this movie where this white lady was saying to her black servant how nice it would be for the black servant to have her own bathroom
in in the house in other words she didn't want the black servant to use her family's bathroom so she made another one for her black servant
and she was she was talking about it as though she'd been really nice but didn't really feel like she was meeting her black servant
but she was kindly be nice if she could not notice her on kindness
so the there is a kind of nice we might use to be unjust to be dishonest
i grew being mean but in but we're being mean but nicely
and if if you're going to be mean i think it's fine to do it nicely but not nicely so you don't notice you're being mean
so another way to be nice would be to say you know i just have i know i kind of notice that i'm being cruel to you
and yeah
that was really crew what i said
it's kind of nice nice way to notice that i'm being cruel
but then i can say you know maybe nicely
and i'm sorry that i was that i'm being cruel
i really feel terrible that i'm being cruel to you please help me and then maybe the meeting starts to happen

if sometimes kind of has an edge
yeah sometimes kind of has an edge
but i think often kindnesses is actually kind of deception
a deception where it can be used as a deception but merely deceiving yourself
at you being nice so you don't notice that you're being cruel
and that's also the other part of it which is that which i didn't bring up yet but that maybe bring more next time is that in the playfulness i'll try to do this more next time in playfulness you can play by yourself
and again that's like some artists play by themselves are some children play by themselves solitary play i
and then lived and then there's parallel play
and then there's actual interactive play and so i'm leading up to is where you're you're actually
in your own realm you're being kind
and you're relaxed and you're playful and your understanding pretty warm things are going pretty well and then you come and get together with somebody else who's play pattern is somewhat different and you're gonna try to find a way to meet and overlap that that's the real place the body suffers work is not in their play
a place of they knew how to play
so one sense they know how to play and they want to teach other people how to play but they also want to learn how the other people are playing
and meet in the place where their play in the other person's play or a kind of like not just parallel but overlapping
so i think that principles what i'd like to bring out more next time
because i think it is possible to play by yourself i often tell the story of when i was eight
my parents note on maybe as nine my parents noticed that i was spending a lot of time playing alone
and so they had my ears checked
and them my hearing was okay so then they sent me to work
a doctor dr hansen so that i wanted to see dr hansen and dr hansen and i played together and he was to know more mature than me so he found a way to overlap with the child's play area
in a way that he could join and then that overlapping area
i had a good time i wasn't playing like i play with children or by myself it was different but lot of not a lot different
and before it and before every session he would say is there anything you'd like to talk about and i said no at the end of each session he says or anything you want to talk about i say no i never talked to him but anything the whole time
we just played together
and i travel all the way across a fairly large city by myself to see him i really like going to see him and playing with him
homage to dr hanson
the adult and child finding a place to to overlap
it's not easy sometimes for middle aged man to find a way to play with the boy lot of time boys or girls are they have other interests since and i can do is watch him but he found a way to play with me and i could actually appreciate his play with me made me
able to do things i couldn't do by myself
as the basic principle so when we find the overlapping play pay space we can play in a way that we cannot play alone
so i i
that's what i'm like that
ha
we got cities
on a cardboard you know we built we built a boats airplanes
and he hours and i got to take stuff home
my lip for my little brother to destroy
one of my beautiful planes he he sat on top of a set on top of a lamp and just melted all over the lamp
and i didn't hate him i was and i and i was
i was happy that i didn't you know that i understood he
just a little boy later i thought maybe he didn't have maybe maybe was more mature than i thought
but anyway he i don't think i think he was a good boy
so
so that's right i talk about next week is the is talk about the overlapping play which i hope we've already started
on this full moon i ate we dedicate the body sought first play
to the unborn nature of all be beings are numberless i've ah to save them delusions are inexhaustible ah to end them
dime on gates are boundless i love to enter them
as way is unsurpassable ah to become it