I didn't mention in this class that I request, if you know beforehand that you will not be coming to the meeting, that you tell me, either in class or send me an email or call me on the telephone and tell me that you're going to be missing. I'd appreciate that if you would. Nettie and Jeff told me last week that they weren't going to be here and they're not here. And today at Green Gulch I saw two of our group and they're not here either because they're staying at Green Gulch tonight, they're going to be up in the mountain, staying in

[01:05]

a cottage called Hope Cottage. But they told me that they noticed the difference when they were walking up the mountain to the cottage, if they paid attention to their breathing or not, and if they stood upright or leaned forward. They were practicing these practices as they were climbing the mountain at Green Gulch. And they were happy to make discoveries about posture and breathing in walking uphill. They did not mention walking downhill. And other people have also told me, outside of class, how they're continuing to meditate

[02:12]

on breathing and body posture during the week. Thank you for upholding the practice during the week. I would like to share some daily life things related to our meditation on breathing. One is that I met with somebody this week, a few days ago, in the early part of the week. And this person related a story, a history, a herstory of some important realization she

[03:15]

had about her life. And while she was telling this story, the words were coming out of her body, and the words were kind of steady, almost you might say uninterrupted. Word, after word, [...] after word. But I now have to stop talking. And now I can talk again. The reason why I had to stop talking was I ran out of air. And now I'm talking again. And since the last time I was talking to you, I was inhaling.

[04:18]

And now I'm exhaling, I'm talking to you again. I want to talk to you. I want to say things to you. But I feel supported by you to have pauses in my speech. Quite long pauses sometimes. I'm pausing on inhales, and I'm also actually pausing on exhales. I'm not using the whole exhale to speak sometimes. Sometimes I just use the beginning of the exhale, like now. Now I'm coming to the end of the exhale.

[05:25]

I feel that you allow me to talk to you like this. Is that so? And I allowed my friend to tell her story without her taking any significant inhales. I mean, they're all short. If you take short inhales, it's almost like there's no pause in your speech. Also, if I take short inhales, I will tend to make short exhales. Short inhales, short exhales, short inhales, short exhales. And in this way I keep talking almost indefinitely

[06:35]

with no perceivable pauses. I breathe between the normal space between words. I can do that. So can you, maybe. This person could. And she was telling me something really important, and I let her do it. I allowed her to basically have almost really no pauses between the words other than the amount of space necessary to stop the word and start another one. You may not be surprised to hear that I felt like she was speaking to me breathlessly. She was breathing, but she wasn't paying attention to her breathing other than just get enough air to say the next word. I allowed her to talk to me that way with no medium-sized pauses even between her words.

[07:38]

I felt she wanted to tell me this, so I let her. She seemed breathless and she seemed afraid, even though she was somewhat happy about what she was telling me. When she was done, I thanked her and I said that I was happy to hear what she had realized. She had realized something, but the way she told me was not very compatible with the realization. The next day, I called her and asked her if I could come and talk to her, so I went to see her. And I asked her if she wanted some feedback from me on the way she was talking to me the day before. And she said, yes, please. And I said, I felt that you were talking to me

[08:49]

and breathing very shallowly and very quickly, very short inhales, and I felt you were rushing in telling me your story. And she said, yeah, you're right. I said, I request when you're talking to me, and I allow you when you're talking to me, when you need air, to feel free to stop talking while you inhale. And then even as you start to exhale, you can wait a while before you start talking. It's fine with me if there's big pauses when you're talking to me. I would like you actually to not rush when you're talking to me.

[09:53]

And she received this feedback very graciously, and as we talked she practiced it. So I don't mean to make you nervous, but I do sort of try to watch myself when I'm talking, and watch my breathing while I'm talking. I'm trying to do that, and I'm happy to do that, and I feel blessed that I'm allowed to do that, that people allow me to do that, so that when I'm talking, and in spaces like that that you just saw, people don't say, what, very often. Do you understand?

[11:00]

The space which you just observed, some people say, what, what, say something. Can you imagine that? Does that make sense? And if they do, if they want to, I will adjust my breathing, and have smaller spaces between my words, if that makes them more comfortable, I can do that. But usually people let me have spaces between my words, or between the sentences which I speak. And I allow them the same space. I support that. Another story is that several years ago,

[12:09]

I was on the radio, a program called Forum, and the moderator's name is Michael Krasny, and I think we were talking about monasticism, or some topic related to spiritual discipline. And in the breaks, when other people are talking, about KQED or whatever, the people who were on the program could chat with each other, unaudited by the radio audience. And he said, I didn't think he was necessarily speaking to me,

[13:12]

but he said, we were talking about silence, right? And he said, but of course silence is deadly on the radio. And you can imagine the reason, because if you're listening to the radio and it has silence, you think, well maybe the radio isn't working. Maybe I lost the signal. Yikes! Or if you're on the radio, you think, if I stop, people will panic. Or they might change the channel. I've got to keep it going so they'll stay with me. So when I was talking, and not talking, maybe a lot of people turned to another channel. It is a different way of living

[14:30]

to be mindful of your breathing while you're talking and be mindful of the length of your inhales and exhales when you're talking and to notice how you feel when you make short inhales, short exhales, short inhale, short exhale, how that feels and how the talking goes when you talk that way and then to observe what kind of conversation it is when you you could say breathe more deeply or breathe with awareness of your posture and when you actually maybe exhale more fully and then not only do you need to inhale, you don't need to inhale deeply

[15:35]

if you exhale deeply. But you can. If you exhale deeply, you can inhale deeply. But you can also exhale deeply and inhale shallowly and then shallowly again and again and again or you can exhale deeply, inhale shallowly, exhale shallowly, inhale shallowly. Lots of possibilities. But it's pretty hard to inhale deeply if you don't exhale deeply. Try it and see if I'm right or not. Try it. Try it. I have not noticed myself any problems

[16:36]

in the practice of watching my breathing in relationship to my speaking. It hasn't caused any trouble. The main problem I have is remembering to notice. That's hard. But when I pay attention things seem to go quite well. And also if I watch my breathing and posture when other people are talking even if they're not giving themselves space to breathe between their sentences. That's my... Those are my daily life, some daily life reports from me to you. While we were sitting

[17:38]

I was thinking of telling you a story an encouragement from one of the ancestors of this tradition. His name is Korun Eijo. He's the second ancestor in the Japanese transmission of this lineage. And he said one time trust everything... He didn't say this actually. He said it in Chinese. This is an English translation of what he said. I'm pretty sure he didn't speak English. This is an English translation. Trust everything to inhaling and exhaling.

[18:41]

Leap into the treasury of light and don't look back. I thought of that while we were sitting and I didn't say it because I thought it was too dramatic and powerful. I didn't want to disturb your sitting. But now I've told you. I hope it's okay that I told you. Now that I've told you you might be able to remember this and think of it when you're sitting. Trust everything to inhaling and exhaling. You could add a then or an and

[19:51]

or not. Trust everything to inhaling and exhaling and leap into the treasury of light or the treasure house or the storehouse of light. Leap into wisdom and don't look back. Don't look back. Look forward? Look forward maybe? Or just don't look back, don't look forward. Just trust everything to inhaling and exhaling and leap into the treasury of light and don't look back and then trust everything to inhaling and exhaling

[20:54]

and leap and don't look back and trust everything to inhaling and exhaling and leap and don't look back. Why would anybody look back? Well, before you go you might think well, after I leap I might want to check to see if everything is ok or, you know, can I get home or whatever. You don't jump into the treasury of light and stay there and you don't try to go back from where you went you just continue the practice and if there is going to be more breathing trust everything to the breathing again and leap again. So I think it is possible that we could be walking around in our life breathing

[21:56]

and trusting our body to breathing and trusting breathing to our body and we are actually like living here together with the body that is breathing and with the breathing body and completely being with that and then leap into the light and then breathe again. This light could be integrated into our normal breathing process. This leaping could be integrated so that we go we are in the realm of having a body and breath that appear we totally engage it we leap beyond it and then we re-engage it fully and leap beyond it into wisdom and then re-engage it and you can do this while you are sitting

[23:00]

I say you can and I say you may and I say please excuse me for talking like that if it shocks you Now I want to just tell you another little poem I don't know if that was a poem that I just said I will try to look it up to see if it was a poem but Koen Ajo did write a poem a poem which I think of quite frequently and it goes something like this most something like this I don't know

[24:07]

something like this lump of flesh or this lump of flesh how much most bestial of humans am I most bestial of humans am I this lump of flesh walking 40 years in Chinese fashion walking in Chinese fashion means walking like we are doing during the walking meditation walking like this walking with the breathing walking with the posture and the breathing the breathing posture, walking doing that for 40 years this lump of flesh today I touch my nose anew he wrote that poem, something like that

[25:19]

I would say he didn't say it but I would say walking in Chinese fashion attending to this breathing walking body I leap into the light and from the light I touch my nose anew with this practice I live in the light of wisdom and then I touch my nose anew and I also inhale anew and exhale anew our life is refreshed it's starting over because we wholeheartedly walked and breathed sat and breathed stood and breathed so this wholehearted

[26:20]

presence this ardent awareness of posture, breathing sets the stage for leaping into wisdom and we don't stay there and we don't go back from there and our life goes on and we breath again and we keep breathing until it's lunch time or dinner time or breakfast or whatever we keep breathing after we leap into the light we keep breathing, we breath again we breath freshly, we have a body again and it's breathing and the breathing has a body and we do that until the bell rings for lunch and then we have lunch and we have lunch freshly

[27:20]

because we're trusting everything to this body breathing we're trusting everything to taking care of this body and other bodies to take care of this breathing and other breathing giving everything to this which includes being aware of all the subtleties of this all the subtleties of the different lengths of breaths and the different postures this is our thing and it's not that we had to go some place to have this be our thing, it always was we're just waking up to it, we're just taking care of it we're just taking care of it or what we've been doing all along but we had to train for quite a while to trust everything to breathing in and breathing out and some of us haven't quite got there yet

[28:25]

we haven't quite got to trusting everything to this and if we haven't got there part of getting there is being patient with not completely trusting everything to this breathing body to the body's breathing not trusting everything to this relationship but maybe remembering can you remember the instruction? Do you remember it now? Trust everything to inhalation and exhalation leap into the realm of light and don't look back trust everything to inhalation and exhalation leap into the realm of light the womb of light, the treasury of light and don't look back, again and again

[29:26]

again and again live in this body breathing completely learn to live here completely learn to appreciate the whole opportunity of the moment and watch the leaping that will naturally happen and then don't look back and see what comes next which I don't know if it will be inhale or exhale or, like I said, a bell a cry for help I don't know what it will be the Buddha said that this kind of meditation sets the stage for the path to nirvana the path to peace and in the Zen tradition we're not primarily focused on

[30:28]

doing what will take us to nirvana we're more concerned with what will take us to nirvana that we don't grasp we know how to get to nirvana this is how but we don't stay there we're ready for lunch so we actually can go to nirvana very easily this way it's always right there inseparable from our breathing in and breathing out it's always right there it's not the slightest bit separate or different from our breathing in and breathing out it's not the slightest bit different from birth and death where we breathe in and out so we realize that when we totally trust the breathing in and breathing out we realize nirvana

[31:31]

and we don't look back to birth and death and we don't look back to nirvana we give up and move forward into when we're in nirvana we move forward into samsara to realize nirvana again to perform that they're the same we perform that they're the same we perform that peace and freedom are the same as agitation and bondage we perform that they're the same how? by trusting everything to our breathing life we have a chance here to enact the identity the non-duality of freedom and bondage by taking care of our breathing so fully that we leap into nirvana

[32:34]

without grasping it and we're also to have conversations with other human beings and to listen to them and listen to ourselves while we breathe one could say that I just said a lot of words and I invite you to offer anything you'd like to offer now I mean, you've been offering things all this time but if there's anything else you'd like to offer besides what you have offered

[33:37]

you're welcome to continue offering you're welcome to continue offering Sarah and Stephen Sarah no, I wasn't watch me I inhaled at the same time it worked really well no, just a second I can't do it well, I can do it, watch I just made bubbles in the water fortunately no water came in some splashed up on my nose

[34:39]

that's what I found out how about you? I'm going to try it I'm scared to hold my breath I don't think it's a good idea for me to hold my breath when I swallow the water I can hold it before the water gets in my mouth but when I swallowed it I had to let some air come in I could hold my breath and pour the water in the mouth and just hold it there but when I let it come in I started to let some air in with it when I'm putting into my breathing

[36:03]

I'm not able to be someone else at the exact same time it seems like some of the things either drop away or are radically changed by that presence with the breathing in the presence in this body here, now it does seem to be that way very good that's what I find and I think that's fine I don't try to stop people from crying

[37:06]

it's fine with me if people cry in my presence I feel very welcoming of crying it's ok with me if they're crying but sometimes while they're crying sometimes I ask them questions while they're crying sometimes, like I say what would happen if you sat up? sometimes people are crying, they're bent over so what would happen if you sat up? I'm not trying to get them to stop but they sit up and the crying changes quite a bit have you noticed what it's like to cry sitting up straight with your head like this? it's possible, but it's actually like it's much more like broadcasting it if you sit up like this you don't muffle it if you sit up straight babies sometimes don't bend over when they have their head up and they bawl try it that way

[38:09]

not that it's better or worse but sometimes it's so different that people just stop instantly they just go anyway, I sometimes ask that and then what about the breathing with the crying check it out crying is a great opportunity to meditate on breathing and also to meditate on breathing when you're watching other people cry it's really great great and it doesn't take you away from them at all I think it helps you be there with them if you're doing this and helps them be with themselves too check it out please check all these things out let me know what you find out

[39:11]

one more thing about the inhaling and exhaling I noticed that I have a pause after I exhale a lot of the time you mean before the inhale there's a pause between the end of the exhale and the beginning of the inhale I think a lot of people have that yeah yeah, a lot of people find that place really restful that space at the end of the exhale before the inhale she told it you heard her she finds it peaceful and restful I hesitate to tell you to go there and find that peaceful and restful thing but she said it, not me I wasn't trying to get you to go to that peaceful place at the end of the exhale and enjoy that peace

[40:17]

but she told you about it so now you know that there might be such a place I'm more like I'm more like trust everything to the inhalation and exhalation school which you might find yourself in this peaceful place at the end of the exhale but I'm not trying to get you to go to that place and have that peaceful thing but if you go there and you have it, that's fine I want you to be wholehearted as you go and wholehearted when you get there and if you don't get there, be wholehearted not getting there that's what I'm trying to emphasize so I would hesitate to tell you to do something to find that peaceful place I'm more like trust everything to inhalation and exhalation and trust everything

[41:19]

to that means that if you find yourself in a pause in the breathing process that you trust everything to the breathing process so you don't dwell there but you may discover like Sarah all kinds of little wonderful treasures in the breathing process all kinds of revelations about things you discover about it and I've been sharing some things with you too but I'm not trying to get you to have those things I'm just saying these are things I found out and I'm not trying to find them again see the difference? these things happen, but we're not trying to get them Steven? When we were sitting you mentioned breathing body and posture body yeah a bell

[42:19]

what kind of bell? this kind of bell? hanging bell the breathing body is the bell the breathing body is the bell yeah we're talking about here images we're working with images here yes yes Betsy Betsy blood pressure

[43:41]

laughing laughing It was real, it was breathing, it was breathing, that's what I needed to be doing. And so I just started practicing the breathing. And I would get to a place where I would stop. Before I started the course, I used to stop in the morning. And I would make myself breathe. And that was a short inhale, and an exhale was short, and just out, well done. And so I started just meditation,

[44:42]

and whatever my natural rhythm was, no matter if it was hyper or relaxed, just have patience. And so with her in the room, me worrying about trying to get that one lower for the second breathing, I have a lot to prepare. But I just trusted my natural rhythm. I didn't know what I was going to do with this course. It's the second time. But she doesn't believe it's the last. I didn't know. I had a lot of hard videos looking back at the last 20, 30 years. It's hard to, I think most people would have a hard time being aware of their posture with 26, 27-year-olds, and especially if you feel some responsibility.

[45:42]

If you're just watching them from another room through a one-way mirror, you might be able to calm down. But if you're actually in the room with them, and you feel some responsibility to take care of them, and help them find the way to a wholesome life and happiness, it's hard to be aware of your posture. But you might be aware of their posture. Being aware of their posture might help you become aware of your own posture. So you're so aware of taking care of them. But if you watch their posture, when you say, oh, I'm watching their posture, what about my posture? Oh. But again, the next moment, and then the breathing. How about the breathing? It's hard, but wouldn't it be great if you could?

[46:44]

Wouldn't it be great if you could? Yes? At dinner tonight, I was remembering being in about the second grade. And it seems that, I don't know how this came about, but I think people talk a lot about posture in the second grade. And I just remember being in the second grade, remembering some of the people that I knew, that I hadn't seen for 30 years. And just like the way second graders just sit at a desk, and just straighten their backs. Did they ever do that? They didn't do that. But you know, you give them a suggestion to see how their posture is. And you remember, it seems like they're just a little shits, just like. And that posture, just like uninhibited, to express their posture.

[47:46]

Whereas, you know, it might be difficult to adhere to a good posture, to not think of themselves as a whole. To try and blame, or try and do it for your life's good posture. But just that invention, what it takes to do that. Can I ask a question? What do you think I consider, in this context, this class, what do you think I consider to be good posture? Being aware of it. A posture that I'm aware of is a good posture. A posture that I'm unaware of is a missed opportunity. And also, the relationship between the breathing and the posture, I think, helps the optimal relationship

[48:50]

between those two is the good posture. When those two are cooking, that's a good posture. When the posture is not listening to the breath, and the breath isn't, when the posture is not appreciating what the breath is doing to it, then in some sense, it's a posture that's not being appreciated. And it needs appreciation to be fully what it can be, to realize its potential. It's dynamic, and the good posture is a related posture. It's a posture that's dancing with the breath, and realizing the dance with the breath. That's a posture that's realizing the relationship with the breath. It's a posture that realizes the way

[49:52]

the breath influences the posture, and the posture influences the breath. That's a good posture. Good in the sense of, that's a posture that brings happiness, and peace, and courage. And I would say that when that's total, it also brings non-attachment to body and breath. I noticed when walking last week, that at the beginning of Kinniman, it seemed so slow, like, wow, only one step per breath, and then I noticed by the end of even the short time, it changed, and it's like, wow, every single step, I mean, every single step I'm taking a breath,

[50:52]

and it's one, you know, every single breath I'm taking a step, and it's one breath after another, and there's so much going on, and it was really interesting the way time, the pace, the pace was the same, but the experience of it was so different. You know, when you first start doing it, it seems so slow, and then at one point, you step after another, this is fast. Yeah, thank you, yeah. It's vital. It's fresh. But at first, it's like, whoa, how did I get in this situation? How long is this going to last? Probably more than one more step. Some people compliment me by saying

[51:54]

that I'm not easily bored. Yeah, that you actually would think, oh, washing the relationship between walking and breathing? Like, okay. Not even like, well, this is interesting, more like, okay. You just do it until the bell rings, you know. But when you first start, maybe there's a flicker of boredom, like, whoa, I have better things to do in my life than walk slowly. I have better things to do than this. Whatever it is.

[52:55]

That's called boredom. This is not what I should be doing. It's not that this is bad, it's not that this is evil, it's just a waste of time, this. And that thought, you could say is a waste of time, but even that doesn't have to be a waste of time. Even when boredom comes and says this is a waste of time, then you can welcome that demon, the demon of ennui. It's a big one. One could find this class really boring. The whole class is just about breathing. So what? Are you going to tell us something about it? Someone

[54:01]

listened to one of the recordings and she's a student of Baba Haridas who in times in the past he taught a lot, he gave lots of teachings on pranayama and there are lots of teachings about breathing. And I think some of these teachings might be kind of not boring. I mean some of these practices are not boring. And fortunately I don't know any interesting practices to do with the breathing. How can we be wholehearted about something that's not being worked up into being interesting but just happens to be what we're doing? That's a great challenge. How to be wholehearted about

[55:04]

our posture and breathing. So I'm trying to encourage myself together with you to really be wholehearted about this without pumping it up at all. Because we can't keep pumping it. It's not the way to go. We don't have to make it less interesting than it is either. Just be enthusiastic. We need to be enthusiastic about this. Enthusiastic but not because it's interesting. Enthusiastic because enthusiasm is necessary in order to benefit beings. We need enthusiasm about beings and what do beings do?

[56:06]

They make postures and they breathe and they think. Can we be interested in things even if they're boring? Can we be interested in people who are boring? And sometimes when I'm talking to someone I find myself bored and I'm quite interested that I'm bored and I often share the boredom with the person and I've learned to do that without insulting people. Why? I'm having this strange sensation of boredom. Do you have any idea what that's about? I don't say you're boring. I don't say that to people because I don't think people are boring. But I sometimes get bored when people are... well, you know, when people are what? What do I find boring? What do I find boring? What do you think I find boring? Yeah.

[57:08]

Huh? Maybe they want themselves to be different. I find that boring. Huh? Maybe you want them to be wholehearted. You're bored with their unwholeheartedness. Maybe I want them to be wholehearted and I'm bored with their unwholeheartedness. Then I've got boredom to take care of. Huh? I can take care of this boredom. Not try to get rid of the boredom. But deal with the fact that I get bored when people aren't being wholehearted. And not to get them to be wholehearted so I stop being bored, but for me to be wholehearted with the boredom. Yeah?

[58:13]

So you find that boring if you express your boredom? Yeah. As soon as I start talking about it the situation becomes considerably more wholehearted. But I think it becomes more wholehearted if I really am exploring the boredom rather than blaming it on them. I don't blame it on them because I'm also participating in this. But I do think that I have to yeah, I have to deal with it. And be awake with it. I want to be awake with it. So I want to get plenty of rest so I can be awake when I'm bored. Yeah? I've noticed when I'm bored

[59:15]

I listen to music. And for a while there's this louder nostril, bigger, stronger and it causes me more entertainment until you realize there's quiet, silence. Can we listen to repetition, a bell, or chanting, or even harmony while you take a deep breath? Can I have that little cushion please? Yeah, thank you. Well, you brought up music there and I've often told you that when I'm driving over to Berkeley to this class I might want to listen to some music on the way over. But I check to see what am I turning the music on for? Am I trying to distract myself from how I am? So, I study on the way over here I'm studying

[60:19]

when I'm driving over here I'm studying for the class. Whatever the class is, I'm almost always studying for the class when I'm driving over. So this class I work on my posture and breathing when I'm driving over. And if I'm going to turn the radio on what's the reason for turning it on? Am I turning it on to help the meditation on posture and breathing? If so, fine. But am I actually trying to do something more interesting than study the breathing body? Then I usually don't turn the radio on. I think it's kind of like yeah. And I don't want to be uptight about my meditation on posture and breathing. I just want to take care of my posture and breathing for all of you. I want to do that for you. I want to do the practice for you.

[61:20]

And if the music can aid that and go with that and not be a distraction, then fine. But if I check and see it's actually just a nervous reaction that's why I want to turn the radio on. Or the news. Now there are certain stations which really have bad music and I didn't think of turning those ones on. There I wouldn't be doing it as a distraction but as an opportunity to be patient with it. But I don't do that to myself. I let the traffic do that. So I do kind of check out I do do that but sometimes I turn the music on to study the music not as a distraction. But usually I'm kind of like what's the word? I'm already challenged

[62:23]

quite a bit to be aware of my posture and breathing. I don't need to now also have the music to deal with sort of also. If I was really tuned into my posture and breathing then I think okay, now turn the music on. And see if I can continue. That's the way I would do it. When I'm walking around the house I'm challenged to walk from the kitchen to where I'm studying. I'm challenged to meditate on posture and breathing as I move around the house. I don't need the music also. I'm already challenged, I don't need more challenges. If I turn the music on to help me I don't need any help. All I need to do is my job. I don't need help to do my job. I need to do my job and when I'm doing it then maybe I turn the music on. I almost never get to the point where I feel like I'm aware enough so that I'm now ready

[63:27]

to take on more responsibility myself to turn the music on. If somebody else comes in the room singing, that's different. They're just giving me that gift or like if there's a pause in the breath, that's different. If stuff's given to me but I don't go to try to get more when I'm barely able to do what I'm already trying to do. I'm already challenged to do this practice. I'm already not completely consistent. I don't need to take on more myself but people do give me more and I accept that those people do bring me music. People do ask me to go over to listen to the music. So then I try to continue the practice while I practice with them. See the difference? So then on the way home there's another practice. The class is over so now what do I do then? Is my responsibility different after the class?

[64:28]

It is different. Am I planning for next week? Should I start now, right after class? I would say, well, yeah. But there is a time to listen to music and to work on your posture and breathing while you're doing music, listening to music. See how that goes. And it's hard, maybe. Because it's hard without the music. Yes? How does it help to save beings? How it helps to save beings? It is the practice of making your body

[65:33]

able to be of service, of best service. So again, I told you the story of the acrobat, right? So if you want to help people it helps you if you actually know where your feet are. If you're dancing with somebody it helps them if you know which foot has more weight. And also if you are aware of which one of your legs is carrying more weight that would help you also realize which one of their feet is carrying more weight or whether their feet are carrying equal weight. And if you find out that their both feet are carrying equal weight then you probably shouldn't try to move them. Because you'd have to get them to shift their weight a little before they could take a step. So being aware of your own posture and breathing will help you serve other beings. And then if you were able actually to leap into the womb of light because you're so wholeheartedly engaged with your posture and breathing now you would have confidence

[66:37]

in this practice and you could convey this confidence to them. Even though they're not ready yet they're not going to jump yet but you have confidence that this practice will take them to wisdom. And so now with that confidence you can show them how wholeheartedly you do the practice and how joyful you are with their level of participation with their breathing and how devoted you can be to them because you're coming from this light which is given to you because you are so wholeheartedly being the person you are the breather and the body you are. This is a story of how you can help other people become liberated from half-heartedness. I heard two stories recently

[67:42]

that encouraged me in this practice One this morning I heard there's a congressman I think in Ohio and he was somehow involved with a very large program in his district in the schools of instructing the children in mindfulness and mindfulness of breath and he talked quite a bit about this program and I could tell that he was talking from his own experience that this was his practice and I could even tell by the way he was talking on the radio that there was some awareness of breath and the interviewer asked him how that went over in congress and he talked about the difficulties of that

[68:43]

that he practiced that in the house of representatives He tried. I wonder if you can do a filibuster that way. I don't know, does anybody know if you're doing filibuster can you have pauses between your words? Between the words? Huh? But when you're not filibustering maybe you could do it. But it would be difficult. The other story I heard it was a short film about a 30 minute film that someone made interviewing about 4 or 5 people who have been involved in accidents while they were texting and have been responsible in some cases for people dying

[69:43]

and in some cases for people being severely changed in their lives I don't know maybe think about all of that.

[69:54]

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