0:05

I want to be able to see your faces. I

0:07

also want to be able to read what's here, my

0:10

note. We'll

0:14

work it out. This

0:20

is some time ago, this would have been like maybe

0:24

two, three years ago. Maybe

0:30

two, over two years ago.

0:33

I was with a yogi who was talking

0:36

about her aspirations for practice, aspirations

0:38

for her life. And

0:42

when she spoke about them, it

0:47

was as if her aspirations and her

0:49

intention to live into her aspirations for

0:51

life and her practice filled

0:53

her with just

0:56

a lot of dignity. It

0:58

was very powerful to see. Actually,

1:02

I want a little more light because I want to

1:04

be able to see you. But

1:08

then you really see

1:10

me. That's

1:15

not enough. There's

1:18

no in between. You'll

1:21

get used to the top one. I'm

1:23

sure. We'll be fine. Aspirations

1:31

for life, aspirations for practice.

1:35

Her name's Roberta. Beautiful,

1:38

beautiful. She was just, she was filled with

1:40

so much. It's as

1:43

if calling

1:45

on her aspirations in that moment filled

1:47

her. She was regal. She

1:50

was beautiful. And

1:54

As you can tell, it left a mark on

1:56

my heart. Lot

2:00

about the power of our aspirations.

2:03

Wind howls us to do anything,

2:06

especially something worthwhile. The has a

2:08

meaning for us, but is also

2:10

challenging like coming to treat even

2:13

if it's just one full day

2:15

of practice. Six A lot of

2:18

courage to. Do it What causes

2:20

to them. Cause.

2:26

Some serious. Why

2:29

has called to. To

2:32

this practice. To

2:35

been here this weekend. To

2:41

stick a moment's. Notice

2:44

what images are rise for you?

2:47

What word? Sensations

2:50

in the body as she reflect

2:52

on. Not just what

2:54

brought you here to this retreat,

2:56

but what are your aspirations for

2:58

your life? Aspirations

3:04

for practice. What

3:15

is is that Your heart. Your

3:18

mind, lungs to live in to.

3:28

And now sits feals. Organic

3:33

to you, Feel

3:36

free to just name's here in

3:38

the hall. What

3:41

is it that you want to listen? To. It

3:44

consists do this. Popcorn

3:47

style. What

3:51

brought you here? For

3:54

your aspirations for your life. Practice.

4:00

And were among dharma friend so there's no.

4:02

Need to be shy. Have that you?

4:04

you. My

4:07

articulate your aspirations differently.

4:10

And sure, they're very similar. Sets.

4:20

Up Thank you. I

4:22

longed to live with. To

4:25

be a safe space and or refuge for all

4:27

of les. Close.

4:35

Clarity and some past two

4:37

years of Seth Claritin confessed.

4:42

Any other bases. Present.

4:48

Love them! I

4:50

know there's more cosy all year. Community.

4:57

Community. Connection relationship.

5:02

Case. E S

5:04

P. The Buddha

5:06

said a lot about that. Now

5:12

they're just coming. This is crazy. What

5:15

else? Melissa.

5:19

Sense of self. Truth.

5:31

Our your daughter. Freedom.

5:40

Perspective. Patients.

5:44

Com to par me. Center.

5:53

Strength. Any

5:56

other. Nothing.

6:00

Now. I'm.

6:10

In contempt. Non

6:16

does this. Thing

6:18

we need Our. Embracing

6:23

what in. I

6:26

can't stop. Your. Creativity.

6:33

And flexible. He's

6:36

are so beautiful. Be.

6:42

Maybe this will be the top of a homemade.

6:45

Sudan. That.

6:48

We want to listen to. These.

6:50

Beautiful, wholesome holidays

6:53

he. Embracing

6:56

what in. Kindness.

7:00

Been ten Ten. Non

7:04

divisions. Allow

7:08

these. Qualities to land in

7:10

your heart, to land in your

7:12

body. Flexibility.

7:19

Suspect. Patient.

7:27

See. Her.

7:37

Freedom. Community.

7:47

Since.

7:52

Since it's so. crazy

8:02

aim, best,

8:11

clarity, confusion,

8:20

strength, nothing

8:25

left out. These

8:36

aspirations, these

8:40

longing, in

8:42

my opinion, are

8:44

an expression of what Gil Franzdale

8:46

calls biological imperative

8:49

for freedom. Gil

8:52

is an insight teacher in our community

8:56

and this is what he says about this

8:58

biological imperative that you've

9:00

spoken to so directly.

9:06

He says that somehow the depth,

9:11

the core of what this Dharma practice

9:13

is about, it's

9:15

not up to you. Something's

9:19

going to be working through you

9:22

and it's nothing mystical. It's

9:25

not like coming from

9:28

outside. It's a potential,

9:32

a possibility that lives in

9:34

your own heart, the

9:38

biological imperative for liberation. Just

9:44

read that over and over again. Something's

9:48

going to be working through you. It's

9:52

nothing mystical. It's not

9:54

coming from outside. It's

9:57

a potential, a possibility.

9:59

that lives in your own heart.

10:03

A biological imperative for liberation.

10:09

Deep, a biological

10:11

imperative for freedom. But

10:16

how do we live into that? So

10:20

I was here

10:23

on retreat. Joseph

10:25

Goldstein was teaching. I

10:28

think he was offering META. It

10:32

was the retreat right before COVID. It

10:35

was circulating, but we hadn't

10:38

shut down anything yet. So

10:41

it was the February right before

10:43

we went into lockdown. It's

10:48

a different time, right? It's always

10:50

different times. So

10:52

Joseph is here and he's talking about

10:55

META. And he says, you know, we

10:57

could characterize practice as

11:00

learning to love no matter what. I

11:04

was really surprised at that characterization. That

11:08

we could think of practice as learning

11:10

to love no matter

11:13

what. And

11:16

this yogi raised their hand

11:19

and they said, that's beautiful, but

11:24

how do I do that? Such

11:27

a beautiful question. I

11:30

think the person who asked this

11:32

question, and I feel like this

11:35

yogi asked it on behalf of all of

11:37

us. I think it's a perennial question

11:39

that we all have. How

11:42

do we live into our aspirations

11:45

of perspective and

11:48

freedom and community and clarity

11:50

and compassion and

11:53

living for our dear ones? And

11:55

nothing left out. And

11:58

embracing what is, how do we live? into that. I

12:02

think she was aware of this yogi. I

12:04

don't know how they identified, but this

12:06

yogi, I think they were aware of

12:09

the obstacles that can get in the

12:11

way, or what seems to be in

12:14

the way, of living

12:16

into our aspirations. Because

12:20

we are such soft.

12:25

Yes, we're strong and resilient,

12:27

but we're also soft, vulnerable

12:31

beings. We

12:34

have these heart minds, these

12:36

eyes and these ears and nose, the

12:39

tongue, the body that are

12:41

so sensitive and they're meant to be

12:43

sensitive. We're meant

12:45

to know the world through

12:48

attuning to and resonating with the

12:50

world of sights and sounds and

12:52

smells and tastes and sensations of

12:55

the body and moods and emotions

12:57

and thoughts, our own that

12:59

of others. And

13:02

if the world of

13:05

the senses was all pleasant,

13:07

all pleasurable, all pleasing, this

13:09

would be a heaven realm.

13:12

That's not. It's

13:15

a dukkha realm. And

13:18

we all know dukkha. The

13:23

Buddha talked about it as unsatisfactoriness.

13:29

Some people like to translate it

13:31

as stress. We

13:34

all know the stress of

13:36

loss, of

13:39

body that's starting to age. We

13:43

know the stress of sexism, of

13:47

discrimination, class discrimination. We know

13:50

the stress of sorrow and

13:52

blame. We

13:55

know the stress of living in a world that

13:57

has way too

14:00

many wars occurring.

14:05

And we know it because it

14:07

hits our very soft and sensitive

14:09

hearts and bodies and nervous

14:11

system. And

14:16

when we take in the world through

14:18

the six senses, through the six sense

14:20

gates, the sixth being the

14:22

heart-mind, it hurts

14:24

sometimes. And

14:27

when it hurts, there's another biological

14:30

imperative that kicks in. And that's

14:32

the biological imperative to avoid

14:34

pain. And

14:36

we all know the strategy is to avoid pain,

14:38

right? We

14:41

bury our head in the sand, we

14:43

brace in the body, we freeze

14:46

the body, we live from the neck up, we

14:50

pretend everything's okay. I have

14:52

an uncle who's very fond of saying, it is what

14:54

it is. And I

14:56

can hear the resignation, the

15:00

trying to distance himself from the

15:03

difficulty and just say like, you know, it doesn't

15:05

affect me, it is what it is. But

15:08

the truth is, it does. It

15:10

packs all of us. When

15:14

pain hits, we struggle with life,

15:16

we sometimes we get really aggressive

15:18

and confront it, we try to

15:20

control it, we try to will our way out

15:22

of it and negotiate. We

15:27

want to avoid pain and at the same

15:29

time, we want to be free. The biological

15:33

imperative to avoid pain and

15:35

this biological imperative to

15:38

live into our aspirations, this biological

15:40

imperative for liberation, for freedom. And

15:45

it can feel like these two biological

15:47

imperatives are at cross purposes with each

15:49

other. And

15:54

this is what was so poignant about this

15:56

yogi's question. She's

16:01

saying, how do I live into this? It's

16:05

as if this person was saying, I

16:09

want to be free, but

16:11

it's hard to be free considering everything

16:13

a human heart and body is susceptible to,

16:17

considering everything that a

16:20

human heart and a body goes through in a

16:22

lifetime. Did we

16:24

think we would ever live through a global pandemic? These

16:29

old collective

16:31

injustices, political

16:34

dysfunction and division, loss

16:37

of loved ones, deterioration of

16:39

health. But

16:42

these biological imperatives to avoid pain

16:44

and to live into

16:46

freedom, they don't need to live in

16:49

opposition of each other. They can

16:51

actually fuel each other and

16:53

support each other through

16:56

wisdom and compassion, i.e.

17:00

learning to love no matter what. Learning

17:05

to love no matter what is a potential

17:07

of every human heart. It's

17:11

a potential and it's actually the true nature

17:13

of a

17:15

heart when it's not occluded by

17:17

the different strategies that I

17:19

named and that we all know so

17:22

personally. And

17:29

we can grow

17:31

into these aspirations using

17:35

the biological imperative to avoid pain

17:39

gradually. We do

17:41

it gradually through wisdom,

17:43

through mindfulness, that's what you've been cultivating

17:45

all day. This

17:47

capacity to just know what's happening

17:50

while it's happening from

17:52

this non-judgmental open, sometimes

17:55

Sati can feel quite warm, interested.

18:01

alert, knowing

18:04

presence. And

18:08

we gradually grow into learning to love no

18:10

matter what through encouragement, not

18:14

making an enemy of our reactivity

18:16

to avoid pain, which just arises

18:18

because we just want to be

18:20

safe. We

18:22

want our loved ones to be safe. We

18:24

want to come by the basic necessities of

18:26

life easily. We

18:30

want to be healthy and be able to care for ourselves,

18:32

care for our loved ones, i.e. we just want

18:34

to avoid pain. And

18:38

then your activity comes. It's

18:47

just an innocent movement of the heart.

18:50

So there

18:53

are two

18:55

Brahma Vahara's,

18:58

these four

19:00

qualities of the heart. Some

19:12

of you are familiar with them, some of you may not be.

19:16

And they were actually around before the

19:18

Buddha was born. So

19:22

he came into the world and the Brahma

19:24

Vahara's were already a part of the spiritual

19:26

teaching. The

19:29

unique contribution that the Buddha

19:31

made to the Brahma Vahara's is

19:34

that he scooped them up, he

19:36

gathered them up into this path

19:38

of awakening, and

19:41

he even had a name for them in the Pali. He

19:44

characterized these four beautiful qualities of the

19:46

heart of Mehta, which we practiced this

19:48

afternoon, you practiced this afternoon with Roxy.

19:59

Roxy. The paddock chilling. economic.

20:04

All qualities that were first. And

20:08

the Buddha characterize. These for quality.

20:11

As Cheetos and was t. A

20:15

temporary liberation of mine. That

20:20

when the hard as actually spelled with

20:22

sees. I could

20:24

see new and experience of loving

20:26

kindness. And can be so

20:28

simple as just a mine that doesn't

20:30

have any Ill will enter. This

20:33

friendly doesn't need to be intense.

20:36

Doesn't need to be This

20:38

inquiry and experience elevated experience.

20:41

This is basic friendliness, basic human.

20:46

And compassion as president. This.

20:50

The heart putting challenge and

20:52

difficulty in pain and resonating

20:54

with this and then being

20:56

moved to alleviate that pain

20:58

if we. If

21:01

not medicating, Is. And

21:04

sometimes the way that we. Medicaid

21:08

or alleviate. The pain is just

21:10

simply bearing witness. Company

21:12

and someone through a challenge

21:14

or accompanying ourselves through some

21:16

difficulty. The can't change

21:18

the situation that we can actually. Decrease

21:23

that distress. By

21:26

bearing witness and being. A

21:31

temporary liberation of mind when the heart

21:33

is just. Resting

21:35

and sympathetic joy. And

21:38

celebrating someone elses good fortune.

21:40

They're beautiful quality, A

21:44

temporary liberation of mine. twins equanimity

21:47

as president and we're told me

21:49

and such was like holy intimate.

21:53

And balance. And we're

21:55

not taking sides. Are

21:58

not for or again anything when us

22:01

leaning into the experience of wanting more,

22:03

them when are pushing it away. Doesn't

22:06

balance steady. They are

22:08

receiving the experience. We're

22:11

not broken by the challenges

22:14

of life, and we're not

22:16

elevators intimate into some exuberance.

22:18

Days over some pleasant

22:21

experience. Lava

22:23

flows through a and went

22:26

to steadily knowing. Are

22:30

responding appropriately. So when there's

22:32

a. Challenger Difficulties Compassion

22:35

arise. From

22:39

were just being with another been.

22:46

Or life here on the planet. Says

22:49

friendliness. A

22:51

We see someone's of goodness in a heart

22:54

is a move to celebrate. July.

22:56

A little one taking their first out from

22:59

there is just moved to. To that fills

23:01

the her. Temporary

23:04

liberation of the money. For

23:10

added these to these for bomb

23:12

have a hard to that have

23:14

been a real ballast. For me and

23:17

these four years. As

23:19

and compassion and equanimity. Have

23:23

discovered before I can even

23:25

genuinely all his answer like

23:28

a genuine expression. Of

23:30

Compassion and acronym Etti.

23:35

I have to have an honest direct

23:37

encounter with my reactivity. The part of

23:40

my mind I just want to tell

23:42

void pain and duck out. and

23:51

sometimes i can feel counter intuitive

23:53

the have an honest direct encounter

23:55

with what the buddha called to

23:58

go Because

24:02

sometimes we get caught in this thinking

24:04

of like, we've been practicing for such

24:06

and such for however

24:08

long and we

24:11

get impatient with ourselves. We see ourselves

24:14

still running certain patterns, still

24:16

running like patterns of

24:19

anxiety, afflictive mind state. As

24:22

I was saying earlier, the heart matures

24:24

on this path gradually. It's

24:27

a gradual process. In fact,

24:30

the Buddha characterized this path of awakening

24:32

or moving towards awakening as a gradual

24:34

path. He called it the gradual

24:37

path. And

24:39

our practice, there's a beautiful, beautiful

24:41

image of the suttas. In

24:44

the suttas there's this, through

24:48

the practice we're actually slowly

24:51

wearing away at

24:54

these reflexive habits of wanting to

24:56

avoid what's challenging, craving.

25:02

So it's a really beautiful, I wish

25:05

I could recall exactly

25:07

where it is, beautiful

25:10

passage. The

25:13

Buddha likens a rope that's

25:16

out in nature, the weather,

25:18

and through time and weather the

25:21

rope is being worn away. And

25:23

he likens that rope to our habits that

25:26

keep us connected to suffering. That

25:30

slowly the practice starts to

25:32

wear away at that

25:34

rope. And

25:37

until we've completely uprooted, greed

25:39

aversion and delusion, our heart

25:41

is completely liberated, we're going to

25:43

go through cycles of reactivity. It's

25:45

just inevitable. Especially

25:48

when we don't feel we have the inner

25:50

resources to meet the challenges and the

25:52

situation and the difficulties of

25:54

our times. So

25:58

we don't need to make an end. of

26:00

our reactivity because, as

26:03

I said, it just comes from this

26:05

very innocent movement of the heart, or

26:07

just wanting to be safe and avoid pain.

26:12

And our reactivity, just by

26:14

virtue of bringing mindfulness to it and

26:17

seeing it through a dharmel

26:19

in. I

26:23

was just recently supporting a

26:25

course with Interval Inaliyo. He's

26:28

a monastic and a scholar

26:31

of early Buddhism. He's

26:34

leading a year-long course,

26:36

and we're in the second, we just

26:38

completed the second retreat. And

26:41

he talked about seeing through the

26:44

details of our experience. I

26:47

thought it was a really

26:49

interesting phrase, a

26:51

way of looking at calling

26:54

on the dhamma as a support for us.

26:57

So not getting caught up in the

27:00

content of our experience, but starting to

27:02

see through the details of it to

27:04

the process nature. So

27:08

just by virtue of

27:10

bringing mindfulness to our reactivity and

27:12

seeing through the content and

27:15

the details to the process nature of it, we

27:18

transform the reactivity and it actually

27:21

becomes a gateway to developing our

27:23

aspirations, living into our aspirations. So

27:28

our reactivity, when we relate to it in

27:30

an intelligent way, with

27:33

mindfulness and the dhamma, it

27:37

becomes the means by

27:39

which we cultivate beautiful, wholesome qualities that

27:41

you all have. Peace,

27:44

perspective, community,

27:47

right mindfulness, investigation, energy,

27:50

truthfulness, generosity, nothing

27:53

left out. And

27:56

these qualities carry us along on the

27:58

path. support

28:02

for us moving towards freedom and liberation

28:04

or whatever our aspirations or our longings

28:06

are for our life and practice. So

28:14

in my own practice I've found that before I

28:16

can even arouse compassion for myself

28:19

or another person, before I can

28:21

even learn

28:23

stand a quantumist amid

28:26

the just the conditions

28:28

of my life I need

28:30

to engage three fundamental practices. Patient,

28:36

self compassion and then

28:40

calling on my heart, calling

28:42

on my imagination to

28:45

really emphasize with

28:48

someone's circumstances through

28:50

using my imagination in a not

28:53

a moral way an ethical way. So

29:05

let's just look at how patients can support

29:07

us in being

29:09

with a part of ourselves

29:11

that just wants to avoid pain and

29:14

out of that comes reactivity. So

29:19

I'm actually going

29:21

to use an example of

29:23

hatred. I'm going

29:25

to continue to use it throughout this

29:27

talk because we can be so intent

29:29

on awakening and so

29:31

intent on living into our aspirations that

29:33

we shy away from some of these

29:36

more afflictive intense mind

29:38

state because

29:40

it's so antithetical

29:44

to where we're heading to

29:46

our aspirations and

29:49

we can shy away from

29:51

them not want to see them

29:55

dress them up as something else. The

29:59

Buddha gets us really clear advice on this. I

30:01

want to use this

30:04

afflictive heart-mind state of hatred as

30:06

an example. So

30:11

something happens. Some

30:14

sara, dukkha, some experience comes through the sense gates and some

30:20

reactivity of hatred arises

30:23

within the heart-mind. And

30:25

we're just asked to bring mindfulness

30:29

to that experience. This is

30:31

hatred. And we just allow ourselves,

30:33

can we actually allow ourselves to

30:35

know it and

30:38

to actually be mindful of it. And sometimes

30:40

the heart is like, no, it

30:43

can't. It's like, okay. In

30:46

that instance, can you allow the, make space for

30:49

the hatred to be there and

30:52

the resistance to the

30:54

hatred? Actually widen mindfulness to hold up. So

30:56

we broaden mindfulness to be aware of the hatred itself. And

30:58

we just allow

31:26

ourselves the resistance towards it. Or

31:29

sometimes there's not even resistance. So we're just

31:31

with this mind state. We just know it.

31:36

And this step of just recognizing whatever

31:42

mind states are present, but

31:46

just even hatred, just recognizing it, it's

31:48

a foundational practice. It's a part

31:51

of the four establishments of

31:53

mindfulness. These four establishments of

32:00

of just being aware of the body, feeling

32:03

tone, that basic

32:05

movement of the heart that

32:07

feels into experience like, oh

32:09

that's pleasant, that's unpleasant, that's

32:11

neither, neutral. Third

32:15

establishment of just knowing the

32:17

mind state of

32:20

hatred or some emotion could

32:22

be positive. Do

32:28

we, can we actually know these

32:31

moods and states that are flowing through

32:33

the heart mind, that

32:35

are fueling our words and our actions? So

32:37

this is from the Majjhima Nikaya, the

32:40

Buddha actually described how we practice with some

32:42

of these states, especially the state

32:44

of hatred. He

32:48

said, and how does one abide contemplating mind

32:50

as mind? How does one abide

32:52

contemplating a mind

32:54

state as a mind state? And

32:57

he says, here one understands a mind

32:59

affected by hate as a mind affected

33:01

by hate. So

33:07

we're just recognizing the mind state and

33:10

we're recognizing that these mind states actually

33:13

shape how we see the world,

33:16

how we experience the world. The

33:19

Buddha knew this over 2700 years ago. He

33:24

knew what Pali Vaygal calls

33:26

state create story. I

33:30

remember, I just

33:32

woke up one morning quite just in

33:35

pain. I

33:39

didn't recognize the mind state. I was

33:41

going about my morning, getting in my car, I'm

33:44

at a stop sign and there's

33:46

a huge truck next to

33:48

me and my window was rolled

33:50

down. And

33:53

as the driver hit the gas,

33:55

the engine made this like

33:57

warring sound out, the engine and

34:00

it just moved into my

34:03

body and it felt, there

34:05

was just this physical and psychic

34:07

pain. And

34:12

there was this eruption of anger. I

34:15

started violently rolling up the window and

34:17

then mindfulness appeared

34:19

in that moment. Very grateful.

34:22

It's like, oh, you're

34:25

reacting to this

34:27

sound with

34:31

all of this anger because

34:34

you've been in a foul mood all morning and

34:36

you haven't recognized it. Here's

34:39

this mood that's shaping how you're experiencing

34:41

the sound. Another

34:48

example I was working at Spirit

34:50

Rock, this was before I started teaching.

34:52

I was working at Spirit Rock in the family

34:54

program. I had a

34:57

migraine, an intense, actually, you don't need

34:59

to qualify migraines, do you? They're all

35:01

intense and horrible. So,

35:03

this migraine, it's

35:06

the end of the day and all of the volunteers are

35:08

up in the upper walking hall. And

35:10

they're just talking about their,

35:13

just snapshots of the day of working with

35:16

children. So

35:18

much sweetness. And

35:21

by the end, very

35:25

distinct memory of

35:27

this intense migraine, you

35:30

don't need to qualify it for migraine.

35:35

And I was so happy. There

35:38

wasn't an anguish or an

35:40

agony around this migraine. There was

35:42

just happiness in the stream of

35:44

the mind. Again,

35:47

state creates story.

35:50

It shapes how we experience the

35:53

world. And

35:56

if we're not aware that these moods and

35:58

our actions, and emotions

36:00

are actually coloring how we hear

36:03

our partner or how we take in the

36:05

news, we will come to some basic assumptions

36:07

about the world that

36:10

may or may not actually be true. So

36:15

this third establishment, it's profound, it's

36:17

simple. We just know a mind

36:22

affected by greed

36:25

or happiness or

36:27

hatred as a mind affected

36:29

by greed, joy,

36:34

happiness, hatred.

36:38

We just simply know it

36:40

because most of the time we're not

36:42

recognizing these mind states and how they're

36:45

impacting and influencing our words and the actions

36:47

that we take. And

36:53

this gets built on in the third establishment of

36:55

mindfulness, or excuse me, the

36:57

fourth establishment of mindfulness. So the third was

36:59

simply recognizing mind states, mindful

37:02

of them. And

37:04

then in the fourth establishment, we're not

37:07

only recognizing the states, but we're seeing, okay, what

37:10

are some of the conditions that led to this

37:12

state? I

37:14

woke up in the foul mood. Oh,

37:20

this happiness is conditioned. I'm

37:23

here in this retreat setting around

37:25

all these beautiful volunteers doing this beautiful

37:27

wholesome work. They're

37:29

naming these beautiful moments and my heart

37:31

is resonating with that. This

37:35

happiness is conditioned. It's

37:37

shaped by the conditions and the circumstances that

37:39

we find ourselves in. The

37:42

fourth establishment, we really start to feel

37:44

into what are the conditions that

37:51

give rise to some of these

37:53

states? It's one way of characterizing

37:55

the fourth establishment. How

38:02

does one abide contemplating mind his mine

38:04

Sheer one understand some mind affected by

38:06

heat as a minds affected by hates

38:08

this a server through. Robertson's.

38:14

The Buddha called the third establishment

38:16

of mine. Actually, he called off

38:18

for establishment. Of mindfulness our

38:21

ancestral land. Our.

38:26

Native Land. Lease

38:29

for establishment that the body ceiling.

38:31

Tone mind dumb as you could.

38:35

Characterized Dharma This fourth

38:37

establishment. As.

38:44

Relating to our experiences with.

38:48

Wise. Effort and mindfulness.

38:51

And such a way that we

38:53

end up moving away from suffering

38:56

and towards awakening. For.

39:02

The Buddha call before stop wish

39:04

months our ancestral land. Gil

39:07

from Still likes to translated as are in

39:09

Need Of Lane. General

39:12

and Alia likes to use the

39:14

phrase our Home Turf Love that

39:17

the body ceiling tone. Heart,

39:20

mind, various states that arrive

39:22

within the her mind. These

39:24

thomas our homes, Her. Her

39:27

home for. And

39:30

usually in relationship to our

39:32

home turf body. Feelings,

39:35

Mindsets. Sama. Recently

39:38

caught up in our ideas

39:40

are views or opinions about

39:42

them. And

39:45

the Buddha with say look in relationship

39:47

to the first establishment and relationship to

39:49

your body. Don't

39:52

get caught up in your ideas about the body.

39:55

Your wishes for the body you

39:57

are the ways that we. Cause

40:00

rated to relate to our bodies Of relate

40:02

to the bodies of others. He

40:04

saying bring mindfulness. To this

40:07

this first establishment. Use

40:09

it as a means to arouse mindfulness,

40:11

and when you're around that mindfulness, use

40:13

that mindfulness as a lens actually understand

40:16

and get to know the nature. Of

40:18

the by. What

40:20

the true nature of the pie? Instead.

40:25

Of getting caught up in skin

40:28

color, Or gender or.

40:31

I my body's this and I wish it

40:33

were that and says like letting all of

40:35

that go Let all that Moscow. Mealy.

40:40

You saw team mindfulness to understand the nature

40:42

of the body and what's the new to

40:45

the body. Has

40:48

these different per. It's

40:51

not inherently sexually attractive. when

40:54

i heard this us like. Then

40:59

he has as Rock or

41:02

Roxanne mention this and today's.

41:05

That's him so long ago. The for

41:08

that kind of meditation office. She

41:11

mention this practice at the thirty two

41:13

parts. Sometimes.

41:16

It's thirty three if you insist. the brain.

41:19

Face thirty two parts. And

41:23

he starts in know that I

41:25

hear and bones and nails and

41:27

sheath and/and some other parts of

41:30

the body that aren't as appealing.

41:33

And then part of the body that

41:35

are pretty neutral and you recognize that.

41:38

The body. Actually,

41:40

neither Attractive. Or.

41:45

Unattractive. It

41:47

is. It's.

41:50

Just his. And

41:53

another basic practice of the first

41:55

establishment. singing

41:58

mindfulness to the body And

42:00

we start to drop into its elemental experience.

42:03

We were playing with this this morning, being

42:06

aware of temperature, whether

42:09

the hands are cold or warm, movement

42:15

in the body, tingling, pulsing,

42:20

the weight of the body, being

42:23

aware of a lightness

42:25

in the shoulders or the

42:27

heaviness of your sitting base, right? And

42:31

you start to recognize, huh,

42:34

this body is an elemental process,

42:37

but I don't have any control over,

42:39

have some influence. I

42:42

can't control this body, ah,

42:44

not self. This body's not

42:46

self. And

42:49

then he rounds out our contemplation of the

42:51

body, through

42:54

bringing in death

42:56

contemplation. So when I heard

42:58

depth earlier today, I thought you were referring

43:01

to that. And

43:04

we recognize that this body, time

43:08

limited, won't always

43:10

be here. And

43:14

this, when we relate to it, wisely can

43:16

support us in, how do I wanna live?

43:20

I ain't got much time. How

43:22

do I wanna spend my time? And

43:25

we don't know when death is gonna come. We

43:28

don't know when death comes knocking. Can

43:31

we live with that as a reality? Maybe

43:35

some of you know that the

43:37

monastic Venerable Inelio, in order to

43:39

keep death, this contemplation at the forefront

43:41

of his heart and his mind, he

43:44

has a skeleton and his little

43:46

kuti in the corner of his little kuti. And

43:51

he sleeps in a coffin. This

43:55

is someone who really Takes this

43:57

contemplation to heart. And

44:00

he says it says he's contemplation. Last

44:05

summer. And

44:07

he said it's us clarified my

44:10

values. I got really clear about

44:12

how I wanted to live my

44:14

life and I wanted to spend

44:16

my time and this is the

44:19

been who is dedicated himself to

44:21

being in retreat. Five

44:26

months at a force for he's in

44:28

retreat. Six days a

44:30

week to comes out to do scholarship. Sex

44:33

and emails and he goes back into

44:35

a treat for six days that when.

44:37

He's out of retreat when

44:39

he's in his. Months

44:42

of for trees season for like.

44:46

Five month. And

44:48

will come out again in the knees and for another

44:51

five months. What

44:55

would it be like if we walked with a

44:57

death as our company. Not

45:03

be afraid of are done. But

45:07

to be reminded. You

45:09

don't have as much time as we think we do.

45:11

we don't know in depth coming. Heartily

45:15

wanna live. How do

45:17

you wanna treat each other? How do we

45:19

wanna treat Or so. It's.

45:36

So we bring mindfulness to these

45:38

establishments. The. First establishment of

45:40

the bodies of forced out

45:43

dismiss the we have an

45:45

honest arrest encounter with the

45:47

body. The

45:49

feeling tone, Than mine states. the

45:52

town was. Resting And

45:54

our home turf resting And

45:56

our ancestral domain. And

45:59

by virtue. doing that we come into

46:03

I think what the Buddha calls our

46:05

inheritance or

46:08

birthright that

46:10

he describes at the beginning of the

46:12

Satipatanasuta. Actually

46:15

Roxanne alluded to

46:17

this in the morning instruction. He

46:22

says this is the direct path for the purification

46:24

of beings for

46:27

the surmounting of sorrow and lamentation

46:31

for the disappearance of dukkha and

46:33

discontent for acquiring the true method

46:36

for the realization of nibbana namely

46:39

the four Satipatanas. This

46:43

is a possibility for

46:45

our heart freedom from

46:47

lamentation sorrow pain dukkha.

46:51

So when I say being

46:54

with our reactivity learning to be with

46:56

it in an intelligent way not being

46:58

poetic the

47:00

Buddha was for real third

47:03

establishment of mindfulness can

47:06

lean in and actually know these

47:08

states without being driven

47:10

by them and this is where

47:12

we bring in patience. Inpatience

47:23

for me is this to

47:25

me it feels like the training ground of equanimity

47:29

where with these mind states

47:32

are really challenging, utterly

47:34

painful, indignation,

47:37

hatred and we

47:41

call on patience. I

47:43

was so happy to hear this as

47:45

an aspiration. Kanti

47:49

parami patience

47:52

that actually can be

47:54

with and know the discomfort

47:57

the ouch Of some of

47:59

these upliftive minds. The without letting

48:01

them breached the boundary as

48:03

of our her moving into

48:06

our words interaction. So

48:09

we know these days to me

48:11

make a commitment to know them

48:13

are also living in our living

48:15

in to our commitments as as

48:18

ethically. And

48:29

if so much more, the she. Shares

48:48

share this one piece. Around compassion.

48:54

And were coming from actually

48:57

learning how to integrate? Our

49:00

biological imperative to avoid pain as

49:02

a support for living and to

49:04

the biological. Imperative for freedom. Support

49:09

for that. Living

49:11

with compassion and equanimity. but before we can

49:14

even do that, need to have an honest.

49:16

Encounter with the Duke of

49:18

our lives, the pain in

49:20

the challenges of Arla, the

49:22

support for that is very

49:24

selfless. friend of mine from.

49:27

Other his patients as were

49:29

with. A

49:32

trade or indignation or whatever is a

49:34

rising for us are aware of it

49:36

without acting out on it. That's the

49:38

patience and we feel that how to

49:40

set the pain of him And this

49:42

is where the self compassion. And

49:49

the questions sometimes arises. What

49:51

isn't self compassion? just self

49:53

indulgent? i

49:56

really love less kristen

49:58

necessary She's

50:01

a professor of educational

50:05

psychology and a researcher and she

50:07

came up with this practice

50:10

of self-compassion, how three steps in it, self-compassion

50:14

break. And this is what she says, and I love

50:16

it. She says,

50:18

self-compassion, true self-compassion is

50:21

not the same as being easy on ourselves. It's

50:25

a way of nurturing ourselves so that we

50:27

can reach our full potential. It's

50:36

a way of nurturing ourselves so that we can

50:38

reach our full potential. Again,

50:43

the Buddha knew this over 2,700 years

50:46

ago, but now we have research, neurobiology,

50:50

letting us know that

50:52

when we meet ourselves and other people with judgment,

50:55

the subcortical region of the brain starts

50:57

to fire. It

51:01

thinks there is trouble and difficulty. The

51:05

brain gets unintegrated, i.e. the parts of

51:07

the brain aren't speaking

51:10

to each other, and

51:12

we react out

51:15

of that disintegration. But

51:18

when we bring in compassion, there

51:21

are these chemicals

51:23

called GABA chemicals. I don't know

51:25

what that stands for. They're

51:29

released into the subcortical region

51:31

of the brain. And

51:36

it's been characterized as when

51:39

it gets released, this

51:41

compassion practice that supports

51:44

the flow of GABA moving into the

51:46

subcortical region when there's reactivity. It's

51:49

characterized as, it's okay.

51:55

Calming that subcortical region

51:57

of the brain. Compassion.

52:04

It's okay. And

52:07

we know this when we

52:09

practice compassion. Hand on the heart,

52:11

hand on the belly. And

52:13

we feel our own soothing presence,

52:16

our own tenderness. The

52:20

Buddha didn't need neuroscience to tell him this.

52:26

And neither do we. We

52:29

can just trust the practice. Trust

52:32

the practice of patience, their

52:35

establishment of mindfulness, compassion,

52:40

to help us actually live

52:43

into our aspirations that you

52:45

so beautifully made. What's

52:47

in the evening where we started? Nothing left

52:49

out. Strength.

52:58

Clarity, compassion. Death.

53:06

Home. Presence.

53:09

Home. Presence.

53:14

Sense of sense. Freedom

53:16

and peace. Truth.

53:22

Community. Creativity.

53:26

Patience. Perspective.

53:30

Flexibility. Nondeviciveness.

53:34

Centered. Kindness.

53:38

Being content. Embracing

53:40

what is. So

54:01

let's just sit and let the word settle. That

54:36

somehow, the

54:38

depth, the core of what this Dhamma practice

54:40

is about, it's not up to you. Something's

54:45

going to be working through you

54:47

and it's nothing mystical. It's

54:50

not like coming from outside. It's

54:53

a potential, a

54:56

possibility that lives in your own

54:58

heart, the

55:01

biological imperative for

55:04

liberation. Thank

55:25

you for your care, your very

55:27

kind attention. You

55:31

have a period

55:33

of walking, until

55:35

about nine o'clock and

55:37

then we'll come back here for our last

55:40

sit together and some chanting. Thank

55:59

you for listening. To learn how

56:01

you can support the teachers and

56:03

Dharma Seed, please visit dharmaseed.org slash

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donate.