we don't do it in yoga room so much but in other assemblies we start by
doing a verse which includes
praising the merits of confession and repentance
ah praising confession and repentance as the pure and simple color of true practice
the true mind of face and the true body or face
and as you may know sometimes confession and repentance ah involves feeling sorrow over our
oh and actions
but still even though it's not fun
usually it is a really wonderful practice
and so tonight i want to start by saying that i got feedback that
when i brought up christopher columbus in the first class but i did not
note and acknowledge
that history reports
extreme cruelty on his part towards indigenous peoples
he was even fired from his job by the spanish government because they were so cruel
and so yeah he was
he is reported as a very cruel person
and yet i noted
on something wonderful about his
his explorations
and how his explorations maybe can encourage us in explorer
and and to be kind to everything we discover
unlike he was so please is please listen to my confession and repentance i'm sorry if my not noting that
was in any way painful or harmful for you
and also tonight i i want to it also be careful because i want to bring up some difficult things and am i will try to do so carefully
so i won't start again a with our praise
of compassion
praise of great compassion
in the text that we study last summer
the name of the chapter that the text is it is called worship and offerings
and part of the worship is to worship
loving kindness and worship and praise compassion we didn't look at that part of the chapter
we went straight to the section on compassion
so i would i would say in accord with ancient voices that compassion is
the main cause
a buddhahood
and it's also the main effect of buddhahood compassion causes buddhahood and buddhahood his compassion
it's a compassion
which
protects
all beings
who are living
in prison
of cyclic existence of birth and death
buddhahood put his compassion protects all living beings who are trapped in the prison of karmic consciousness and suffer there

and the word i want to be careful of is the word prison
it's a very harsh word terrible word not about it's about a terrible situation
but
from certain points of view we are
we are entrapped in karmic consciousness
we are imprisoned in our
mental constructions in our dualistic mind and we suffer there
and compassion is
due to a suffering beings
to help us deal with this prison and every inhabitant of this prison
in such a way as to protect beings and to liberate beings
who are in prison

we are in the prison of
mentally constructed phenomena which appeared realistically
compassion is the cause of non dualistic understanding of this dualistic mind we live in
so i i used the word ah carefully i hope i didn't shock you but i do feel myself
to be kind of in a prison
have a mind that has mentally constructed the illusions in it that has meant that has socially constructed
grace and it that has socially constructed
hierarchies and caste systems and racial systems in the mind
i live in a world like that and i wish to practice compassion there
to protect myself and other beings from the pain of this world and to liberate beings
from the afflictions
of our mind and the afflictions of our society created systems
ah some of your heard this teaching before it's it's a rather or know what hard to accept teaching which is
ah the encouragement
to develop
a feeling
of affection and cherishing
towards all beings

and one of the ways to generate this affection and this cherishing of every living being
is too
imagine
that they have been
our mother our mothers
they have been are excellent mothers
and even our mother has been our mother
from beginning last time
we have been mothered
in many forms with great compassion
and everyone has served as our mother
i just put that out there as outrageous first exercise is to imagine this about everybody
if we can accept this and see this and think about this
then the next step in developing appreciation and cherishing of all life
is too
open to all the kindness that everyone has given to us
in our beginning less past
great kindness
great sacrifice for our welfare
has been offered to us for inconceivable yawns we have been protected and cared for
and the mothers have done this for us of course other people have done it too
people have not only been our mothers they've been our brothers and our sisters or aunts and uncles
but focusing on the great kindness and love of mothers and feeling that kindness and that great
was to bring us to this point where we can remember it and use it to generate a sincere cherishing of all life
and then the third point to concentrate on
is to discover the wish
to be as kind to others and to appreciate others as much as they have at times appreciated us
not mentioning that people who also been cruel to us
but some people have protected us from cruelty have given us their life to protect us from cruelty
we have received so much kindness that we have managed to continue to evolve
towards buddhist compassion
this cherishing this affection is a for each living being is
it's necessary to really wish
all beings
to be happy
so there's loving kindness of would really wishing all beings be happy because we really do appreciate them
we are really grateful to them
so we really can wish them to be happy and that then makes possible for us to
feel compassion for them which is one step beyond wishing them to be happy it's wishing them to be liberated from suffering

now in prison some people some of the people who are in prison with us are like guards
and accurate prison officials
and some people are
our sworn enemies of us
in prison there if they they will tell us i am your enemy
and without training
we might not care about their suffering these people who are cruel to us and wanna be cruel the future we might not care about their suffering
other people in prison with as
cruel to us and don't do anything good for us either
they don't really care about us
and so we might not care about them
women i wish them ill but we might not really wish they're happy cause they they don't seem to wish us to be happy
and then there's those who do wish us to be happy who are our friends
and those people
when they suffer
we can't bear it
it's horrible it's the worst is like the worst

the bodhisattva practice of compassion depends on us
cherish and all these beings the enemies the neutrals and the kind ones to develop somehow equanimity towards them
not hating the enemies and not being attached
to the kind ones to the ones we already really do cherish
cherishing without attachment
and of course cherishing without hatred
so this to work when be this is the work i must do in prison with all my fellow prisoners
in this world in order to sincerely on a protect them in any way i can
whatever's happening whatever suffered in your hand have i want to protect them from it i want to find a way to do an appropriate protective response and also to find a way
to liberate them

and if now i cannot
do this exercise
ah
maybe i can do it somewhat maybe i can
wish some people happiness and wanna protect some people that's good
and then licked the question is to explore and experiment with this instruction to give it a try
i personally feel yeah that is very difficult to do in some cases
but i think it's worth a try
and i think it's worth a try with everybody
and if you have resistance to i easily understand that
also some new people have shown up i want to acknowledge that tracy has come welcome tracy
and gene has come welcome gene
so that's the kind of
the astounding teacher that i wanted to offer you
an astounding opportunity
to experiment and the hypothesis is that if we do these exercises of equanimity
of letting go of attachment to those who are kind to us and hatred towards our enemies
and then we actually do this meditation on on mother and on the benefits and on the wish to return the kindness
the hypothesis if do these practices we will be able to practice loving kindness towards everyone and we will be able to practice compassion and that this is the cause of buddhahood
and the effective buddhahood
so is assembly if you're shot please express your shock you have questions please give them
we need your questions renewed your input we need your ah the results of your experimentation

jean
good evening good evening so nice to see you thank you thank you for your
motivation
i'm
struggle
with
deep relationships with those who are in all the categories you mentioned they are not in a single category they are in the category
l and
i'm not sure about the words to find a way to liberate them
oh
i feel like it is it
two ways if i need to be liberated pain and i'm wondering if you can help me
be in my body with this process so that i can be with them when they move when they move in a one day i'm my enemy and then there my most intimate
him
when i'm able when i'm able to see them as they are
and these categories shift
can you can you
oh
help me sit with this
are you wanna things you said was helped me be in my body yeah be my body

how's your body now
i'm i'm with you i'm with you but my body is working hard
i broke my wrist and
no
that's just a distraction i think the others are more primary you know
well oh
your risked his party or body
yeah your knees party or but my knees part of my body and i am
i'm doing a lot of work to
i'll be in my knee
yeah i'm down i'm so grateful to all of you in and many other people who are allowing me
a to give my need the attention that is calling for to give it the rest
to give it the ice
to give it the medications the anti inflammatory medications and sometimes the pain medications to give it to rest to give it to exercise
i have been really
working on being in my body and particularly in my knee and the rest of my body also has been set has been saying okay
you can student give you give the near lot of a lot of attention and will support you to do that
even though you're not giving us as much attention
as you might otherwise
so i think your wrist is
yeah i encourage you to really be with your wrist
i have a question have a question for you at

i
understand how to i mean i'm
i don't speak rest and i don't speak me but i
on am able to
relate to rest on me but i have a sister for instance who
uses her body to hurt herself and i
i love her and i
it hurts me it it hurts me when she hurts herself and i
i'm i'm torn i'm torn apart by sir
the lack of influence i i can't share with her like i'm like you i'm i'm taking steps to help myself like i'm taking the pain oh i'm taking their therapy in i'm doing the exercises and i'm taking the
medicate and instead she uses her body to hurt herself and
do you are you
did you cherish her life yes do you wish her to be happy yes to wish her to be free of suffering yes
do you or your touched her deeply us so that's part of your job
is to be kind to your attachment to her because your attachment to her
will interfere with his other good things you're doing
yes and when i i don't mean didn't i mean be kind to your attachment but realize that that makes it harder for you to be on the job for her
in i don't know i don't know your sister so i'm not to touch to her
and if i don't have a positive influence on her i can just try again
but if i'm attached to her
and i and i'm trying to help her and she and it doesn't work doesn't seem to benefit her she doesn't listen to me i don't have any positive in him influence on her if i'm attached to her i might give up on her
oh i'm not i don't give up on her i i need help we want a new i need help him
what i'm saying i'm warning you yes you get torn apart by your lack of influence the being torn apart may tear you away from doing your job
can you can you help me be witness to her self inflicted pain
how can i help you
if i have if i have no influence but she is with me inflicting pain what do i do
what is there a way for me to be with her yes you can be with her even though she continues to harm herself
and you can wish her to be happy and you could wish that you can do something to help her even though you can't see anything right now
what you see you wish to you wish to help her and
you can't do her job of of her stopping hurting herself you can't do that but you can show her
that you're there and netted her shoe when she does that cause it does and you can tell her that without trying to manipulate her
you can learn
and she's trying to manipulate herself but what you see how are harming herself is what she's trying to do for herself

i i i understand i understand
i understand the
simple expression of being with her a being letting letting her know i'm feeling her pain
yeah you may not have to tell her she may be able to sense of that you there if she's suffering she may be able to tell that you are too
and what she's doing the way she's coping with it
you feel is not skillful so can you cope with your pain over her suffering in a skillful way that's what you wish to do
so she can see that
ah i

somebody has to teach her how to be with her pain
in a skillful where
you could be that person
ne
i only think of
dogan and
being present and i i met last beyond the
you don't have to go beyond that
being present compassionately present with your suffering print will protect her she will learn that from you if you can do that
so when
so when you are
there is so overwhelming yeah if you can be upright and present was being overwhelmed she can see that
because she's probably overwhelmed too but it sounds like she's not being upright sounds like she's trying to manipulate which makes it more overwhelming
you can store
a place of peace in the middle of overwhelm if you can find it for yourself
certainly learned in one lesson so you may have to be with her over and over for her to learn this
so
if you cherished her as much as i think you do you have a chance to do this extremely difficult work
but since you do cherish her and she is so precious to you and you do wonder to be happy than you can practice compassion for yourself in her presence
you can be there with your suffering to show her how she can be there with hers
this is a great teaching which can be offered
doesn't have to be anything beyond that in the moment

there isn't anything ought beyond it in the moment

oh
what i have loved or been attracted to about this teaching for decades now has been
and
the plain cat and mouse with this whole idea of not being attached and letting go of attachment and i bring it into conversations and i feel like i'm this little mini buddhists person when i talk about not being attached joseph and so this has been going on for decades and then
in general but then when you say tonight the job is to let go of attachment to the people i love it's like wait a minute that's a different story i'm willing to not be attached to a lot of stuff but it i just felt like it took my breath away when you said that an
ah yeah it seems excruciating it seemed to me it would seem easier to let go of my attachment a hating people that to let go with my attachment to my friends or my family the people i'm a care about so somehow i heard that
differently tonight and it some shot it's like a swatter my face in a good way in a good way but i'm surprised at my reaction and though i do do remember i did remembers i was thinking about saying the stoop was i remember fourteen years ago i came to you crying weeping crying in grief
in grief about paul's death and i said you know how could i ever get over this i love him so much and you said no it isn't it the grief is a function of love it's a function of attachment and i was like
old over the idea that all this grief wasn't because of how much i love someone who was good how i patched i was and that was a huge teaching for me which i continue to
benefit from
and watching you over these years go somewhere and my mind to think what kind of person wouldn't be attached to their family of course course we're gonna be attached it's not torture is not that you're not attached
it's such a go of it when every time you notice it
right well under designer is not that you're not attached it such your compassionate to the attachment you're not wallowing in it
you're saying all silly sweet
tracy you're attached to that darling little creature
like over the carver
no be devoted to her and like over the go of her and now you can be more more whole hardline modern attachment to the people we love undermines our love
the so not counterintuitive counterintuitive not to not be the person you are
and isn't kind of

we get it we can get attached to anything is normal
you know people get attached to i don't know what
the the person who the checkout person at the supermarket you know they get transferred to another store and you if your oh oh you didn't think you are getting attached to them but you are
it's just normal to that our body does the so as not it's it to let go of it not to get try to not to try to be human not to try to not be human
but to be rather a he sought for human who let go of her attachments and her hatred
and that makes you will make you more loving
tremendous you know you're already were making more loving
it purifies your love
very big teaching thank you

i read
hey gail
so tonight you said compassion is the cause and effect of buddha or buddha nature yeah he said buddhahood to cause of buddhahood and it's effective border in also compassion is the cause of compassion
and the effect of compassion
compassion one of the and we talked about last time one of the causes of compassion is compassion and also compassion is in effect of compassion
yeah well i i have a question about that as relates to a practice i have been engaging in lately witches is more than ever to try to be really with in my life in this moment and in your body yes
yeah and i've noticed a upon our investigation that my body and my mind are often saying oh no no not this oh not like that know i want to i want to make this different i want to make this better i wanna get to the future and so i've been real
really concentrating on
being with whatever is i know it's such a basic practice but as very challenging and actually it i feel like a dog but i'm doing it i'm circling and circling and circling until somehow magically sometimes i'm able to actually let go and be
with what is and myself and my body and everything and i've noticed that in those moments
compassion up my perception of compassion arises and a have a feeling a very gentle loving kindness and maybe you'll say now that i
maybe your say that the whole act was compassionate whether or not i perceived it but i was going to say that i can i can feel the effect of my effort but i can't feel how compassion was the cause because i was concentrating so hard on
it it
it didn't feel that it doesn't feel like compassion when i'm trying to let go
i don't think that trying to let go is necessarily compassion letting go as though mom
and i can be compassionate towards myself trying to let go but trying to liquor isn't isn't really the point it's letting go
and also when yours like you said when you are circumambulate in this i thought that was kind of compassionate you're manipulating you are just they're kind of honoring it
that seem compassionate and also seem like letting go just walk around
so i'm trying to like goes okay is just said is not the same as letting go near that makes sense and you can let go without trying
yeah yeah
but among if you did maybe you did
a maybe on occasion by magic
well it's interesting because effort i get confused on that issue i mean i feel like it takes me a lot of effort to do many of these practices on salon is a lot of work tube
the present and notice
notice how we feel to notice that we feel trapped
to know is that we feel enclosed by our mental constructions and was hung
it's it's a lot of work to be a work to keep being aware of that did not space out and to be aware of that and then also to remember
to be to cherish all life in this situation is a lot of work to be that mindful and then to to remember how this kindness and to remember to check to see if we are there yet to of wishing this being happy
enos and wishing this being to be free that is a lot of work however if we don't do any of that stuff will do some other hard work
are you know
which won't even mention from the terrible hard work will do
a thing you know fighting fighting and hating everybody in prison is a lot of work to
trying to you know hurt the other people who we think our enemies as a lot of work to
so either way it's a lot of work just that one way it protects beings and liberates bags and the other way
mrs the chance
but we are hard working beings naturally were ninety eight point six were cooking were warm we're working we're active creatures
so this path of compassion is a really challenging it really is as good to know that and then said to i want to i wish for it to wish to do his heart them
and never your answer yes i did now
the bake war

greening your name
isn't gets sir skillful means to suggest ah that everyone was once your mother that all beings were once your mother
in two people who had mothers who were cruel harsher even violent
i have not done that ever
but you didn't you suggest tonight that we might
benefit if i'm thinking at home for me to tell somebody else
that her mother was kind to them is different for me to say here's a meditation for you to see if you can do that with your mother and the person might say i can't
because my you know but i'm not telling them i'm not telling them the situation i'm telling them a meditation practice which they might say i can't do that
and then i would hopefully not pressure them to do that
so you're just suggesting that every being was once your mother might be a valuable meditation practice for some people
well it might even it might be valuable meditation practice for some people now
however i'm also saying something a little little stronger which is it's a meditation practice which we eventually need to do maybe not today it just it without without being able to see people that way it undermines our cherishing of them
so if i see someone and i think they're my enemy
i need something to help me how am i gonna be you know devoted to wishing them well if i see them of my enemy and i hate them
i need to get over the hatred this is part of the waiter to move from hating them to a to wanting to protect them and cherish them
but i'm not telling them anything about situation i'd chime showing them away the taken work with their own mind to free themselves from hatred and to develop the ability to cherish somebody
so whether your mother so this was not an assumption that mothers are by nature protecting and kind and nurturing and so on that was not in your mind know some mothers you know some mothers people feel
for good reason other enemies ah
so this is an enemy
hello wherever this enemy has been your unbelievably skillful mother at one point in the history of human evolution now they're not now there a cruel person who actually hate you and in is your mother
and and your job is know how to how can you cherish this life of this person who's your mother or not your mother who has been cruel to you and says yes i i hate you i want to hurt you they'll admit it
and you don't deny that so what are we going to do with those fellow inhabitants of prison how are we going to cherish them that's the challenge because we need to cherish them and appreciate their life in order to wish them well in order to be devoted to them or not saying this person is different from what you see
see
it's a meditation of in the
in the inconceivably complex evolution of our lives everybody has been everything to us at some point i get that everybody has been everything so every being has been my everything has been i beloved teacher has been my protest yes and also everybody even your beloved teacher
has asked us to have been a bad by person may have been a bad person to you yes yes and they should and if they're your beloved teachers they should admit that they've been a bad person to you at some point even though we don't know what it is it's possible
it must be so sometimes
i have been cruel to you in the past even if neither of us can remember it but also the evolution of our lives is that we've been very kind to each other beyond our cognitive reach even though right now it might not be kind to each other
and if right now we already appreciate were kind to each other and we already cherish each other than for the moment we don't have to do that practice we can just go right to work on helping each other but if
with dr somebody we have to do this exercise when we're ready
it's not for other people to tell us it's for us to try it on this is again an experiment try it on see what happens
i would just say that from my experience i wouldn't advise anybody to rush the exerciser the practice of trying to cherish those who hurt you don't rush it there it's a very subtle evolution to get wisdom about that and agree
three and don't rush it means don't overlook that you do not cherish them right you don't cherish them honor that feeling at your house right now what's it like not to cherish somebody let's look at that does the our
raffle thing yeah let's examine that let's experiment with that right
don't rush over that honor them
good good advice
good question
i work

ah
i don't know if i can explain this very well but this is kind of my homework report from last time so i'm because i i i i feel like i was really wandering in the weeds
last time we met in this way and on kind of embarrassed about it but i feel like you know something came out of it that i'd like to explore oh so you were talking about by here and in the scene just the scene and and the car nice just the cod nice including thoughts and a most
oceans and what came up for me was that emotions are particularly hard to deal with to just let them be themselves and the example that i can get it came up from me in that moment was agitation and
quite honestly i was hoping that you would say some magic word that would just make it agitation go away and he weren't cooperating
so there was there was additional agitation you know if ah
and then i found myself trying to calm myself and wondering if calming myself was a way to try to control the agitation or or not and used you suggested that would be a good thing to contemplate
yeah so on and i have i did sit with that for bit and there were a couple of things that came up
and one of them just the way that i was trying to call myself was really and had to do with can extending the excavation because physiologically i find it that can reduces the physical feeling of agitation which is kind of big sometimes
and that helped and then
as i was sitting in a couple of days later i remembered that in a new book entering the mind of buddha you have this image at the beginning of the patients chapter of which was which chapter by chapter on patients
of the buddha sitting in the midst of the flames
and i just started to visualize that image and it felt like that is something opened there was more space
there just more space and then
ah
then it seem like and wrote and then i remembered that you've actually said to me over and over a different times through the years when i presented that this feeling is difficult for me and as far as difficult you said that thought of that feeling is a being
and it's a being you have to take care of it generously ethically patiently that being needs care and somehow thinking like that again it just opens the situation it's like there's not just agitation there's also
you know a bit were at what somehow in that process it's like what i am becomes bigger than the gut agitation
oh
so that was worthy experiment went
and i are so
want to acknowledge that i'm sorry that i was gonna really wanting you to do something that you didn't do
i'm feeling
as tasting room bed anyway
i would appreciate any comments you have to make with that that was where the experiment went from me from last week and

train yourself nice
in the agitation their watches agitation

there will be no trying to make the agitation greater or lesser there were just be exactly that agitation
and when there's just an agitation and then justice agitation and then just as agitation each one a little different when as how it is
then you you won't you won't be in it yeah or outside of it
you want identify with produce identify with
god just be that's what it is an also that who you are
and then they'll be no here or there in between
but it's it's a very for most of us a very challenging practice to let the agitation
in the agitation they're just be the agitation we know how to add universe it's to it
to give that up can just really honor the thing and let the thing be in the just the thing this is the training
and also wishing wishing some for something in the wishing there just the wishing
and we should not wishing something
each of those your beings and when that believe just as being
then there's no here or there and between
in bahia learned it fast because he only had a couple more hours to live
so
i get more time you probably will get more time but don't don't lean on that time go to our efforts
thank you

low low cut this new in everybody in the community
i wanted to report on from that that i've been having about science
an experiments of compassion
and remembering gandhi ji and how he did experiments with truth
and he were experimented himself on him down
am
for this
early this month i celebrated for the first time i'm in a more aware way navaratri madness is the in the end celebration of the mother
a mother of all
without it
it was so complicated for me to understand and i appreciate how linda
set about the feminine and the mother and what if you had a trauma experience with your mother because i was really thinking about all those two before but this year i wanted to celebrate navaratri in the way that we celebrated the lotus sutra
and i thought that if my that was a real doorway for me too
kind of pushed back against on the science ah the imposition of the science and because the lotus sutra
if my contained if it is it's late
and so then if i will i'm going to do navaratri like the lotus sutra i don't have to think about it did the powers go out that the children get the car is it like the father he you know it's just a lotus sutra and so
i enjoyed make nature much more mother and feminine and whatever it is okay for that one report
and then
there was a there's a movie called dune that is about science fiction right now became a popular occurs in people
the remake of something on which becomes new and
it made me again think about the lotus sutra and how
myths are so compelling
when they're like in science fiction in the secular world but if you present a meth like navaratri or the lotus sutra all these people because people that i imagine they frown and they ask questions and it's not scientific and they want to know and they fight
and
this paradox is that is challenging for me because
it's if it makes me spend a little bit like go i get overwhelmed
yeah
i think that the full report
why you are just now why you're talking i thought
i would like to
discuss
and discourse and how the lotus sutra is a
isn't science experiment
a bodhisattva science experiment from two thousand years ago and the d experiments have been continuing up till today
up to right now it's a science experiment
yeah
what would happen if you had people think about these kinds of things
i think about how they're all going to become buddhas and how they've been for as for aeons is it is really kind of science fiction
thank you
thank you
i iq no thank you

you oh my like i wanted to offer something to on this discussion and during this class and then i wanted to offer that it and when earlier in the class you are speaking about science
it's and you are bringing some of the buddhist teachings to us i'm like the fourth entry in the a mid-length discourses i began to and also the story of my here i began to look a little bit closer to into our the the medzamor nicaea
and am i wanted to offer
my interest in the city batangas souter on the tenth entry in in day a middling these discourses am an apparently there's also a maha said the pajama suitor in the digger and kayak and
on
i thought it was very interesting am when i'm thinking about what is the mind of what is a scientific mind or what is a mind that sees or it looks like a scientist and how his arm our the buddhist teaching scientific on
there certainly seems to be methods involved in this in the buddhist teachings on it i was particularly interested in the city baton suit tire because it seems to offer that on there's a kind of a setting aside of something and it says them let's see
you know for those who are sort of like putting aside our covered covetousness and our grief for the world i'm kind of making a space for on to be mindful of the body and mindful of the body as the as a body and mind full
of our feelings as feelings
and mindful of our mind as mind
in mindful of mind objects and signs as what they are
i'm and so in this way there seems to be this also is kind of thumb
way that it opens to and arm equality and equanimity and regard to objects on whether it be on i know the object or soft out you know i'm mindful of doubt as doubt mindful of no doubt no
doubt it's just simply was it is i suppose it reminded me of the by hear our story in the scene
and then also or with this resonates this has resonated in various and and bodhidharma are studying a little bit of voted on as teaching in also do again with in in being upright there's a section called being on time
and am
you know ma'am
what it says here is you know when you're early there is no self who is early
there is just being early
when you're late there's no self who is late
it's just being late
and similarly when you're on time just there's no self who is on time
and in some way this
this way of seeing an
seems to make room for
play in make room for experiments exploration make room for on thing not holding tightly to things
and allowing there to be
i'm that you know what my my thoughts maybe our hype more like hypotheses about things rather than home the truth
and so i wanted to share that your exploration in light of our topic this class thank you so much
him and i thank you for allowing me that i'm of course i'm not quite sure the sunday baton of sutra is the foundations of mindfulness and i as i was reading i'm not really sure what is mindfulness you know i'm not really sure what is
ha
you know i don't feel particularly
like i know if that is on
where did the circus or mindfulness cross did you hear what the suitors up the sutra the i just remind from as hard as described mindfulness
one
i'm here law abiding you're contemplating
on the body as the body yes but how
so your body as the body and then hard to describe the mindfulness of that's that's their wedding the mind body just be the body but i think i'm not seeing that vegas was that your present okay you're in the present with it your ardent
your whole heartedly there and mindful is these are just different aspects of mine from us a to remember to watch the body as the just a body your ardent about it
your present with it you're right there in the present moment
and you're remembering to do this so the different aspects are the mindfulness cause the body of course always is the body in the body nor you're gonna be there with that
ardent
in the present micro and remembering to do

so in a way the body in one when in the body to just a body that state is a state of mind it's mindfulness and that state is in the present and that state is ardent and that state rep
members
the body
just body
and this is an experiment we can do
move right moment
dk thank you
well
even rub and the community evening sonia
i'm the wanted to say something about the way i've experimented
ah with attachment or my understanding over the years and also on
this difficulty are seeing on everyone is seeing people as the good mother seem like you're asked us to interject it's credit is not the same as seeing them as the good mother okay it's seeing them the where they appear
and contemplating that they have been your mother or her that they have been this wonderful mother may be infinite times they also been other things but we're not thinking much fruits
what's not to see this person has been other than the hard to realize that they have been but they have done great kindness tourists
just like right now it may not seem up the world is been kind to you
but the world has been kind to us
but that not to deny that right now we don't feel versed afford it
okay so hire you
i didn't i didn't mean to see this person as something other than how they are right now
yeah i think that was
we're with the exchange with linda and in a gale
i think what i wanna say what i learned in my study of attachment
this particularly when i was working with the hospice
and what i what i felt i saw is that the attachment was
i'm two people are things that reflected or made me feel good
him and that if i'm if i was not depending on something outside myself to be okay then i could just be with what was and so the attachment was more like
attaching to have some persona or something
that i was attaching to wasn't about the other and i could kind of lead the other go if i could feel okay without
does it make sense
are you you can let go without the support you can let go without depending on the support outside
with the depending part maybe

another way to put it you can let go
if you realize that you don't actually possessed the thing in the first place
nor do i need them while you do kind of meat every what you are a sort of need everything the certain kind of need but but you don't have to you don't have to possess anything yeah so i need you but i don't need to be attached to you murphy
back to be a good friend of yours i need to notice or if i'm attached to you and let go of it and then i'll be a better friend and i'll continue to need you
all was need you
and what optional is being attached to you
maybe between you and me i'd have to
unpack i'm really into words i'd really have to unpack what need means
so we need means it means i depend i cannot exist without you in that way yeah i depend on you who i am depends on your mama by moment yeah but i don't have to attach to you for that function to for that wonderful function you're still supporting me no matter what i do
and attaching to you kind of like says you don't support me the earliest pardon me if i hold on to you but actually use portman whether i hold on to you are not
however if i hold onto i suffer and if i don't we can have a really good relationship
where i do where i depend on you and you depend on me
we depend on each other yes
attaching to watch each other is an illusion we can't attach to each other because since i depend on you you're not separate from me
so letting go of my attached to help me wake up to the truth of our dependable arising
of our mutual
co-creation of our life
i am part of me wants to keep turning up but i also want to ask you about the your no no no but i but i to ask you about the mother think as i've kind of turned it on its head yeah ll see what you are other people think i'm and
if i'm having difficult know i got any different able if i look at everybody on this screen and remember that they were once babies and when when we see babies were just like it
it's almost like you just immediately one a late
to whatever that is to them and that i look at them and i think somebody if it's my mother whomever my friend and somebody
change their diapers or somebody was there when they took their first step and i can kind of visualize that part i can almost grow into
appreciating that but i had but it for me it seems like it's easier to come when i look at all these faces and i just think what a sweet baby they were once
on it can integrate your story on its head maybe a little bit i don't think it does i think it's another possible technique for appreciating the preciousness of every life
i think for you that meditation i think maybe has the function of helping you cherish all these people
you know cherishing some people who you might not cherish unless you did exercise yeah so anything that helps you appreciate people i say yes that's good as studio on
i'm imagining people as babies i think is right properly well no no well alternately attack from he was turning on its head i think it's it's the same thing by an by another means
i'll take it thank you him because of the time i'm going to let the other thing goes for someone else can take space thanks for the gifted very much

i sincerely appreciate you at calling forth the imagination
it's just i just love it it feels kind to use my mind in in an art that seems to asked me to have a non differentiation and certain and discourse of thinking but to use my image
donation
and if i truly am all beings imagining that these beings have been in a tender loving regard with me ah it it got it kind of all fits in into one
and i can i think i can do it it will i think it can really helped me appreciate all beings the way you did this i already appreciate all beings better for me you're having a redesign read
thank you
hey will complete the

ah good evening good evening
thank you for the wonderful teaching and last week
i mean needed to hear that
it it had i've heard that before but this time
it hit my ears in such a way that
it really landed on the place where i understood it
you're not you're neither here or are there are in between the are not with it or with are in it
it really made me realize that the creation of the i
in relationship to enter phenomena is just a few town
suffering causing exercise
was such a relief
it changed everything
so
life is so much writer and enjoyable
it's wonderful

thank you you're welcome

oh when you're talking now about our mutual support and about how we need each other what came to mind for me was the question of death and in particular because with
evening we just heard about it someone that didn't know what is very close to that but watch out
yeah i know if you can say of the moreover that so we need we do
you're all together in this soup few worse particularly talking to someone yeah idol thing i need to and need me for the whole but so then what about so men when you're not here anymore where i'm not here anymore how how
how is that how is that
you understand the question i think i do
it gives me a feeling well well then click the yeah

oh my
go in and no particular order my father is he might say no longer here anymore
suzuki roshi in a sense is not here anymore
in a sense
but ah they're not being here
it depends on you
the way they aren't here
is us right now this is the way they aren't here
and also the way we're here to way i'm here
depends on my father and depends on my father not being here
if he was here than it already been known to him being here but you're bringing up what about when is not
so he's not here
and who i am totally depends on him not being here
and who i am
totally depends on suzuki roshi not being here
if he was here that would be great
there will be suzuki roshi on his and his student right
there would be great
but
he's not here and this is what you have the person who have here
depends on sucre she not been here like if he was here than he should be given the talk he should be the teacher not me i should be listening like you but for me now to play the role of teacher
is because he's not here
and for me to be
if you know the grandfather of the family
for me to be the elder male of a number of families
i'm now the elder male of a number of families
depends on him not being here
so but that's the way he's here is me
being who i am and if he was here i would be a different person
and he would be too so yeah when we aren't here anymore the whole world will be what it is because we're not here
and right now the world is what it is because we are
because we are
but no matter what everybody depends on us
and everybody's the way they are because the way we are
and now we changed and were no person and now the world depends on this person
and the whole world changed and were this person because of the new world
this is the buddha's teaching of the pinnacle arising
as
as as offered tonight
but but i appreciate your question and cute with i know ah my father not being here is is who i am and of course it's who you are too but anymore simply you can see that i'm the oldest member in the family now
and i wouldn't be if he was around
yeah and just continuing with that are you said and you are and i am too because he's not here because you're are here with all of us in this way yes i wouldn't you know and then also it's if it's
check me when you mentioned to hiroshi that he
he is here also note i use your questions now and the way highest gear in the way my father is here is there is us where the way they are here
and that's that's what they want they want us to be who they are when they're not here that's who they are here is wonderful thank you and q thank you everybody ah be here next week i won't be here of he had used them but of the
the following just escaped
so please enjoy your experimenting with compassion get a booster
what is our intention equally extend to every being and place with the true merit of buddha's way beings are numberless i vow to save them
afflictions are inexhaustible i vowed to cut through dharma gates are boundless i vowed to enter them would away is unsurpassable we vow to become it

good night everybody
or