Tara Brach - My Religion is Kindness

Episode Date: May 5, 2010

2008-05-28 - The expression of inner freedom is a kind heart. This talk explores how we armor our hearts, and the pathways of awakening our natural capacity for loving unconditionally. The session includes an experiential inquiry that helps reveal the ways we create separation, and the possiblity of healing and freeing our heart.

Last week, as part of the Dharma talk, I mentioned one of my favorite expressions of the Dalai Lama, which is that he says, my religion is kindness. And he's not so interested in whether people are Buddhists or whether they're in anything is, which I like. But he really describes the whole expression of the holy life as if internally we're touching an inner sense of presence and freedom, the expression will be kindness in some form. And that the real hope for peace on earth is that that inner sense of presence

is really becomes more and more a living experience and there's a natural quality of harmonizing with others when that's there. So I'd like to talk about what's called the META, our loving kindness, and the Buddha described this as one of the divine abodes and the abodes are homes. And a divine home,

this is what's so powerful about that expression, is not a somewhere else place we try to get to. The divine abodes are actually the most awake and true and deep expression of who we are. So this practice of presence is to come home to this natural loving kindness that is who we are when we're not lost in our reactivity.

If you're not caught in fear, because fear is kind of the ground of the reactivity, you will naturally be kind. Fear keeps us caught in feeling in some ways separate and apart from. We're in a kind of story about a self that's threatened. And it obscures this realization of belonging, of really being part of this web and really cherishing. all the life that's here. So there are a few different, in the Pali script,

in the language of the Buddha, there's a few different descriptions of loving kindness, of Mata that are really sweet and shine a light a bit. And one is like a gentle rain that absolutely falls unconditionally on everything. We all know about conditional love. I mean, every one of us has had experiences of seeing in another being, a sense of feeling a connection and seeing goodness or feeling ourselves really opened up,

are seeing beauty and feeling this kind of surge of what we call love. And that's beautiful, and it's usually marbled with grasping and aversion and some conditionality, like if that person then criticizes us or doesn't cooperate, temporarily that love's obscured.

Meta, this gentle rain, is the very awake kind of love that arises out of a presence and includes everyone in all of life. It's all inclusive. So that's one of the descriptions of meta, like a gentle rain. The other is the word friendliness.

And I sometimes think if our entire spiritual path was, how can we befriend the life inside us and how can we befriend each other? And that word was our guideline because I think we instinctively feel in that word what it is. That quality of embracing, that quality of caring, of gentleness. So in Polly, another version of the word META

is friendliness, this warm-hearted expression of togetherness. The bottom line of loving kindness, the wisdom in there, is that we perceive connection. And when the mind perceives connection, the heart feels tender. That's the kind of the ground. And one of the ways I like to think of it is that when we're feeling metta, we're at home in the deepest truth of who we are. And there's this natural sense of belonging with each other. one of the stories I like to share as often as I can remember is Andreas Shah writes about a Bektashi Dervish. This is a Sufi story who is respected for his piety and his holiness.

And when anybody asked him how he had become so awakened, he answered, I know what is in the Quran. That was his response. It's like, it didn't matter who was asking. asking how they frame the question. I know what is in the Quran. Strange response. So finally he gave this reply to a new person, an inquirer in the coffee house.

And then somebody that was always there in this story is called an imbecile. Asked, well, so what's in the Quran? Nobody had asked that. And here's the response. In the Quran, said the Bektashi, there are two pressed flowers and a letter from my friend Abdullah.

That's it. The scriptures are like leafs in the winds, and what really matters is the quality of loving presence that we share with each other. That friendliness, that deep friendliness, that kind of holiness of heart. This is the way Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote about. He said the happiness of life is made up of minute fractions, the little soon-forgotten charities of a kiss or smile, a kind look, our heartfelt compliment. I know from my own life and walking through so much with others that at the critical junctures, whether it's at the

births or the deaths or the sicknesses or the marriages, the deepest prayer we have is to love well. In some way, and I don't mean well like do a good job. I mean really love from the deepest truth and the deepest presence that we know how really inhabit that loving so the inquiry tonight is how do we connect with that loving presence and um that i'd like to do is kind of in two parts and one way of describing it is the way that we connect with loving presence is out of an inquiry of what is separating me right now from loving. In other words, you can stop in any moment when you're with someone and say, how right now am I creating a sense of separation? It's very revealing. Now, let me say that you might tweak that language a lot, but there's an inquiry that has to do

with recognizing the conditioning at play that in some way is creating a sense of me here, you there and we're not together. That conditioning is in play. And if we can begin to wake up and investigate that, we're not caught in it. Does that make sense? So that's an inquiry. I'm going to ask you to actually explore through the week. And those of you that can make it next week, we can talk more about it. But I'm going to speak a little more about it, like this question, how am I creating separation and if you're not with another person but you're feeling any suffering how am I creating separation from my own heart right now the description of the human predicament that I sometimes describe is that we're wearing a space suit and that each of us in some way has has entered this world

and experienced the kind of violations where we haven't been understood we haven't been seen we haven't been accepted or loved. And so just like when your body is wounded, you develop a scab, we have this space suit. And it's our set of defenses, and it's our set of presentations in a world that might not receive us well. And if you stop and investigate,

most of the time when you're with somebody, there's some sense of trying to get that person's approval our affection or something. There's some way that we're fashioning ourselves that's different than being spontaneous. And it's because whether it's the culture or more specifically with our parents, we got messages

that made it feel unsafe to be natural. I remember one story I heard a little girl had discovered putting blue paint and red paint together what happened. and she was really excited, and her mom said, well, when your daddy comes home, you can show them. And so her daddy came home, a very busy stockbroker,

came home on the cell phone and stayed on the cell phone. She's tugging at his legs going, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, you have to see my picture. And she follows him into the living room. She follows him to the kitchen where he's getting some water. Daddy, Daddy, you've got to see what I drew. And he's just saying, Melissa, just cool it for a minute, and he's on the phone, still making deals or whatever,

finally gets into his office, and she's still tugging on his trousers saying, Daddy, Daddy, and he said, Melissa, what are you doing down there? And she looked up and she said, Daddy, I live down here. But I was thinking of that when I was working, I was at a retreat

a few weeks ago with somebody who was in an interview who was talking about how he doesn't like talking about himself really to other people because deep down he really does not trust and anybody is interested. And how men

Many of us on some level are uncomfortable sharing because we got a message early on that either we weren't important or that just somebody was too preoccupied, too caught in their own fears or busyness, that we didn't matter so much. So we built, we develop a space suit to protect us from that real pain of feeling we don't matter so much, or that we'll be hurt. and then what happens is that we also scan and all we see it we come to think of ourselves as that space suit we forget who we are we're the defenses the fears the strivings to get approval and protect that's our sense our story of ourselves and what we see in others are their spacesuits we see people we see their persona we it's like we're looking at each other and we pick up all the stuff about their mask and we pick it up very quickly

quickly. We can sense other people's fears and their insecurities and we can sense the way they're putting on or faking or are proving. But it's not so easy to just see right through and just sense who's looking out. And the condition is deep and it's most strong with the people we're closest with. As much as we love them, we very much are in a space suit reactivity to each other. This is a story that I love that Natalie Goldberg wrote, wonderful writer. She says, my parents are visiting me at my new home in Santa Fe. It's cool late June afternoon and we're sitting on the porch. Amazingly, we're not eating.

We're just staring straight ahead at the high adobe wall 100 feet in front of us. We're sitting in a line. I'm in the middle. Hey, Nat, my father begins. What is meditation? Well, it's hard to explain. And then because I'm young and still incredibly foolish, I have a brilliant, daring idea.

You want to try? And before they can answer, I run into the house and get a bell. Accutriments, I think. It'll make it official. Okay, when I ring the bill, you just sit and feel your breath go in and out at your nose. If your mind wanders, just bring it back gently to your breath. We'll sit for ten minutes. Okay, they both say, suddenly eager, this will be fun,

and they wriggle in their chairs to compose themselves. The bell sounds three times when we settle into this most ordinary thing. breathing next to each other. My father's on my right, my mother's on my left. I cannot believe this is happening. Here we are all paying attention. The ten minutes feel spacious, luscious, and forever. The shade is cool.

We're all quiet. This must be what heaven is. The time is up. I ring the bell once to mark the end of meditation. Well, how was it? I asked. Did you have a lot of distractions? My father shrugged his shoulders. What's the big deal?

Well, did you discover how much you think? Was it hard to concentrate? Nope, I didn't have a single thought. None, I asked, surprised? Not a one. Well, did you feel peaceful? Not particularly. It was like how it always is when you don't talk.

That's why human beings talk. Nothing's happening otherwise. I turned to my mother. Well, I was aggravated the whole time about your friend. She must think I'm awful. At dinner the night before, my mother had blurted out that she thought the chapters of my name. novel were awful and my friend Francis, who was there, told me later that my mother was jealous.

I had confronted my mother that morning and she apologized profusely. I don't know what came over me. Your chapters are lovely. Let's try again, my mother says, this time I'll do it right. Should be a warning signal. I just started to explain there's no right or wrong, but instead just said, okay. This time I want to ring the bell. My father grabs a stick. He ceremoniously hits the bell three times. We are sitting for two and a half minutes when my father suddenly belts out, Hello, Dolly, well, hello, Dolly, it's so nice to have you back where you belong. Anyway, while ringing the bill continuously to accompany himself. Buddy, please. My mother tries to interrupt him, struggling to reach across me to grab the bill,

but my father won't stop. He's having a ball. I'm the only one still staring straight ahead at the blank adobe wall still attempting to notice my breath. I decide right then and there that I don't have to save my parents. They don't count as sentient beings. They're in another category entirely. So I share Natalie's story because it's so human that we have with the people closest to us some expectation of them being a certain way so that we can feel. feel good or feel happy. And our love gets somewhat, our hearts contract when others don't cooperate.

And the reality is that life often doesn't cooperate and people rarely cooperate on some level. And so that if we really want to discover that deep quality of metta, in some way we have to come to terms with the little twists in our heart and the fear and the hurt and the anger and the stuff that comes up when people aren't

the way we expect or want or think they should be. In some deep way, we can't really discover the freedom of our heart unless we can truly allow ourselves and others to be how they are, unless we have to be able to see past the space suit, past the mask and accept who's there. So the Buddha describes both the power of our basic conditioning, to want people different, to want ourselves different to react, and our capacity of our heart to wake up and see past the veil and really rest in a very liberating kind of loving.

So as I mentioned, the inquiry is, how am I creating separation? And usually it comes down to three different ways, and one is called the ways of attachment, that we're wanting things to be a certain way. So we create separation any time we have an expectation or a demand that another person is a certain way or that we're a certain way.

And we mostly do that all the time, have those expectations and demands. I mean, I'm just in a phase where my son just last week graduated from college. And I watched in the months leading up to it how many ideas I had about what he should be doing next. And it's turned out fine, but I just watched, you know, I love him from a very deep, unconditional place. And also I have all these conditional feelings that have me

tighten up when he doesn't make the calls I think he should make to pursue to da-da-da, you know. There's a physician, a woman who described driving her daughter to kindergarten. This is a little earlier on in the process. And the little girl picked up her mother's stethoscope and was handling it with all this care and curiosity. And the mom's going, oh, be still my heart. Because she could feel this secret wish that her daughter would have this interest and be drawn to medicine. So the little girl brings a stethoscope to her mouth and says cheerfully, welcome to McDonald's.

May I take your order? So it's completely natural that in our story of self, like here's how I should be to love and accept myself, and here's how the people around me should be. It's totally natural. And it can lead to enormous pain when, as I mentioned, we don't, our own body, mind, emotions don't cooperate with what we think should be the case. and certainly other peoples don't.

So then we become possessive, then we become disappointed, and then we become controlling. And you can't be controlling and loving in a very deep way at the same time. That doesn't mean the love's not there. It means you're not inhabiting the fullness and the wisdom of that love.

So that's one way. How do I create separation? I'm expecting, I'm controlling, I'm wanting things different. The other way is the aversion, the pushing away that happens when things aren't going our way, when our need for safety or love or respect feels violated. How do we create separation? We play and replace stories of what's wrong with you or what's wrong with me.

If you want to have a real crash course in how we get totally identifiable, with the space suit self and create distance from others, it's resentment. It's the different levels, whether it's the slight judgments are the very deep, deep feelings of rage and betrayal. It's resentment. But it starts very, it can be very quiet. It can be just this in our mind that we're evaluating people and judging them and thinking something's wrong. I read about in the University of Colorado, one professor did some research, and he took a number of different countries, and he took random samples of their literature, and he scanned for how much of the language had ways of evaluating and judging people, classifying people in certain ways and judging them.

So that's how much language in the literature was judgmental, and it correlated directly with how much violence in that country directly. Judgment is violent. It's a violation of our inner life when we put ourselves down. And it's a violation of another and it's in the field. How do we create separation? We tell stories of what's wrong and we believe them. It locks us into that space suit self and it creates the other as other.

The third way that we create separation is our inattention. We get preoccupied and we forget to pay attention to the field of what's between us. And it's very natural. It's not, again, it's not something to get down on ourselves before, but if we're feeling separate and distant, it may be the way we're creating separation is we're lost in our thoughts, our preoccupation, our busyness, and we're not being intimate.

So it can be quite poignant when we look at how we move through our time with each other, with the people closest with us. It can be very poignant if we begin to investigate with that question of, are we really close? Are we being intimate? Or is there some way habitually that I'm creating a distance, creating separation? So I'd like to do a brief reflection with you, so this isn't just ideas. and so you get to kind of explore that

with a relationship in your mind right now. So if you will, just let your attention go inward. And as you do, this is the words of Steve at Vincent-Bennay. He says, life is not lost by dying. Life is not lost by dying. Life is lost minute by minute,

day by dragging day, in all the thousand small, uncaring ways. And this is uncaring towards our inner life. life and the world around us. So let yourself arrive by in this pause taking a few full breaths and feeling yourself here, feeling your body. Invitation is to choose a relationship where your intimacy matters and where you might want more awareness and more closeness. It might be with your child, with a parent, partner, friend. So this is a relationship. where you don't want time to pass in the thousand uncaring ways.

You might choose a person where there's not a lot of trauma with that person, where you're not caught in a huge reactivity, because that's more complex and layered. And you might bring to mind a kind of typical situation where you both get stuck, where there's in some way a lack of a sense of connection. And if it helps to just visualize, that situation and as if you're watching a movie, stop at the scene that really kind of

where you feel most caught in that trance of separation, where you're really in some way reacting and not able to feel a sense of your heart open. And so the inquiry really is, you know, how am I creating separation right now or what is causing separation, how is that happening? It's kind of an investigation. For those of you familiar with rain, this is bringing rain to relationship. And you might sense, am I, is there some way I'm grasping, that I'm hooked on an expectation that this person be a certain way, that I'm grasping for attention, I'm grasping to get something, to prove something, or maybe you're more aware of how you're pushing away,

pushing away with blame or resentment, withdrawing to defend, deceiving, controlling. Just noticing the behavior, the activity. And you might sense from inside the place that's really stuck what you're believing about yourself and the other person that keeps you in some way pushing them away or grasping is it that they don't care? Are there you not lovable?

Something bad will happen if they don't change, that you'll be rejected or taken advantage of? There's always some story, some belief that's part of the feeling of separation. Maybe they don't care as much as I care. Part of how we keep separation is that we don't sense the belief that's there, that we just believe it rather than seeing the belief.

belief. Sometimes it's very core that I'm just not lovable. And you can sense with the belief what's the feeling in your body when you're believing this? Is it fear or hurt? Perhaps the most basic inquiry is to sense what you're needing. What is this place in you that's creating separation most needing? What is that place most need? If we can't sense the need, we will keep on creating separation. Is it needing attention, love, acceptance? The beginning of waking up out of separation is to sense these feelings, these needs, these beliefs,

and respond to the need. So you might see if right this moment, you can feel what that place is needing, and it might be in the most basic way, loving presence and offer what's needed or at least have the intention to offer inwardly what's needed and sometimes we do this by gently placing our hand on our own hearts and feel that the energy of love of presence of acceptance can move through your hands into your own heart so you can address that need if you haven't done this before you might experiment it's very powerful to

You send a message inward. One Hawaiian healer said, I'm sorry I love you to the parts within that were causing separation. I'm sorry I love you. And the I'm sorry is not an apology. It's I'm sorry I care about this suffering. What happens when in some way, this is the beginning of compassion of loving inwardly, you send a message of care to the part that has a need. and sense how that part could be soothed.

It's very powerful to also, as you begin to sense that, sense the other person involved. And in the same way that you investigated the under the mask, the feelings, the wants, the fears, to sense what that person might need to be able to relax and feel less separate. The healing begins when we can pause and sense how am I creating separation

and sense the vulnerability that's there and the need and respond to it. Then we can also sense the other person's needs and respond to them when you're ready to open your eyes and come back. So this practice that the Buddha taught of Meta our loving kindness begins with this kind of courage and honesty

where we're actually saying, okay, how am I creating separation? And not in a way of blaming myself, but seeing the conditioning, seeing how we have our armoring, and sensing the need underneath and responding. It continues, though. There's one of the most beautiful ways, if you really feel like you want to awake in this capacity of heart to love unconditionally, is to set your intention every day,

to set your intention to wait. up loving presence, to wake up loving kindness. And then there's a way in which we begin to, in every relationship, there's a scanning to sense how we're creating distance, but there's also a scanning to see past the mask. Srinor Sargadatta, one of the great Indian teachers, describes this way. He says, when someone asks him, how do I deal the persistent sense of distance, he said, let go of every thought, but I am God and you are God. That's it. I am God and you are God. Now, when he says this, he's not saying that we overlook how a person might cause us injury,

how a person's hurting themselves, that we look through rose-colored glasses. It's part of this path to be awake and honest and real and see where harm is being caused and do whatever we can to stop the harm. but we have such a strong conditioning to see the personas and not see the goodness that the most powerful training and this is what I want to kind of know what I want to end on

is our capacity to see the goodness in other people and if you left here tonight with kind of two basic and I think of it as two wings of meta in a way and see how am I creating separation and can I see the goodness? You would have the tools that could liberate your heart. So I'd like to share a story and then we'll do a closing meditation. And this is a story written by a nun, Sister Helen Rosla. And it starts like this and I'll read parts of it. He was in the

first third grade class I taught at St. Marie's. All 34 of my students were dear, but Mark Eklund was one in a million. Very neat in appearance. He had this happy to be a live attitude that made even his occasional mischievousness delightful. Mark talked incessantly. I'd remind him again and again that talking without permission was not acceptable. But every time I'd correct him for misbehaving, he'd say, thank you for correcting me, sister. I became accustomed to hearing this many times a day. One morning, my patience was growing thin, and I made a novice teacher's mistake. I looked at him and said, if you say one more word, I'm going to take. your mouth shut. It was in 10 seconds later when Chuck blurted out, Mark's talking again. So, of course, she said, I walked to my desk, opened my draw, took out the roll of masking tape.

Without saying a word, I proceeded to Mark's desk, tore off two pieces of tape and made a big X with them over his mouth. I then returned to the front of the room. As I glanced at Mark to seeing how he was doing, he winked at me. That did it.

I started laughing. The class cheered as I removed the tape and shrug my shoulders. His first words, of course, were Thank you for correcting me, sister. At the end of the year, I was asked to teach junior high math. The years flew by, and before I knew it, Mark, was in my classroom again. Since he had to listen carefully to my instructions in the new math, he didn't talk quite as much as he,

ninth grade as he had in third. One Friday, things didn't feel right. We had worked hard on a new concept all week, and I sensed that the students were frustrated with themselves and edgy with one another. So the crankiness had gotten out of hand, and I had to stop it. So I asked them to list the names of the other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name. Then I told them to think of something that really touched them about their other classmates,

about each of them and write it down. It took the remainder of the class period to finish the assignment, writing the nicest thing they could say about another person. And they handed me their papers. Charlie smiled, Mark said, thank you for teaching me, sister, have a good weekend, and onward went. That Saturday I wrote down the name. of each student on a separate piece of paper,

and I listed what each person had said about that individual. A Monday I gave the students their lists, and before I knew it, the entire class was smiling. Really, I heard whispered, I never knew that meant anything to anyone. I didn't know others like me so much, that kind of whispering. No one ever mentioned those papers in class. I never knew if they discussed it with each other or their parents.

It didn't matter. The exercise had accomplished its purpose. The students were happy with themselves and one another again. again. That group of students moved on and several years later, after returning from a vacation, my parents met me at the airport. As we were driving home, mother asked me the usual questions about the trip, the weather, my experience. But then there was a lull in the conversation and my father said, The Eklunds called last night. Really? I haven't heard from them in years. I wonder how Mark is. Dad responded quietly. Mark was killed at war. The funerals tomorrow and his parents would like to see if you

could attend. I'd never seen a serviceman in a military coffin before. Mark looked so handsome, so mature. All I could think at that moment was, Mark, I would give all the masking tape in the world, if only you would talk to me. The church was packed with Mark's friends. Chuck's sister sang to battle him in the Republic. He stood at the graveside, and pastor said the usual prayers. As I stood there, one of the soldiers who acted as a pallbearer came up to me. Were you Mark's math teacher? He asked. I nodded as I continued to stare at the coffin. Mark talked about you a lot, he said. After the funeral, most of Mark's former classmates headed to Chuck's farmhouse for lunch. Mark's mother and father were there obviously waiting for me. He wanted to show you something.

His father said, taking a wallet out of his pocket. They found this on Mark when he was killed. we thought you might recognize it. Opening the bellfold, he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook paper that had obviously been taped, folded, and refolded many times. I knew without looking that the papers were the ones on which I'd list all the good things each of Mark's classmates had said about him.

Thank you so much for doing that, Mark's mother said. As you can see, Mark treasured it. Mark's classmates had gathered around us. Charlie smiled rather sheepishly, he said, I still have my list. It's in the top drawer of my desk at home. Chuck's wife said, Chuck asked me to put his in our wedding album. I have mine, too, Marilyn said, it's in my diary, and then Vicky and other classmate reached into her pocketbook, and it was right there. She showed everyone her worn and frazzled list. I care it with me all the time. I think we all saved our lists. That's finally when I could sit down and cry.

I cried for Mark and for all his friends who would never see him again. And I cried about the wonder of caring and expressing it. So I wanted to share that story because every one of us goes into a trance of feeling something's wrong with me or I'm not connected with others or others don't appreciate me. And our hearts are small when that happens. We've kind of disconnected from loving. We need each other to remember our goodness and to remember. who we are. And one of the greatest gifts that you can give to another person is to be a mirror

of that sacred goodness. That if we could pause and see, okay, this is the space suit playing out because there's an unmet need and that's fine. And sense how we can help meet the needs, but even beyond that sense who's there, that the person that's looking out at you is the same beingness, that same presence, that... same sacred presence that's looking out through your eyes, and that if we can remind each other of that, we come home to love in a very pure and a very beautiful way. Nikki Giovanni says, and if ever I touched a life, I hope that life knows that I know the touching was and still is and always will be the true revolution. When the

Dalai Lama says my religion is kindness. He's really referring to a very deep quality of presence that's so radical that it can transform this life on earth, that it can bring peace to this earth. And it starts, just as when we sit and get still with a gentleness towards the life within us. And then it continues when we begin to sense

habitually that we do create distance. Every one of us does it. And but because we want to be free, we want to love without holding back, we begin to investigate how we create distance and begin to offer that kindness to the place in us that feels insecure, unlovable. And if we can do that, we naturally begin to offer kindness to others and to let them know their goodness. If each of us in the next 24 hours in some way let somebody know that we saw their goodness, there would be a rippling out in the DC area that you might not be able to quantify but would be in a deep quality way affecting this earth if each of us did that. So let's sit for a few moments.

Give yourself this gift of pausing right now of feeling that, that natural longing to love more freely. That is the voice of love. That's the call of love to come home to what we are. To feel the presence that's right here. And if there's anything that feels difficult in your own body or heart right now, sense what happens when you offer a genuine kindness inwardly.

It could be just the whisper of the word yes, or it's okay. Or it could be a tight, a touch of the hand on the heart. It's a profound thing to begin to regard our own inner life with a genuine quality of tenderness. Profound. And then to bring to mind that person you were considering earlier where there's some distance and you'd like to be closer. And just sense that person's goodness. Sense the light in that person's eyes and what he or she looks like when she's happy. He's happy.

How that person expresses affection. humor, aliveness, and just the way you put your hand on your own heart or are energetically offer kindness within. Sense yourself offering, surrounding that being with kindness. You might send a message of words, a whisper of a prayer. May you be happy. May you be filled with loving kindness, held in loving kindness. May you be peaceful at ease. please, may you be free. And then sensing our shared heart here, the field that's here of care,

spreading out in all directions so that we close tonight with a prayer for this world, sensing the troubled spots that are all over, whether it's the Sudan, Burma, China, the people we know that are suffering and struggling personally, the creatures or species that are near extinction, the earth our mother with so much dis-ease and sensing that we could hold the earth in our lap

all beings everywhere in our hearts may all beings everywhere be filled with loving presence and held in loving presence and may all beings realize this love and presence as the very essence of who we are May all beings touch a natural and great peace. May there be peace on earth. May there be peace on earth.

May there be peace on earth. And in all places, may all beings awaken and be free. Amosthay. The teaching you have received has been freely offered. If you would like to contact the Insight Meditation Community of Washington to make a donation or to learn more about our programs, please visit our website at www. www.imcw.org.