Hello, friends. Good to see you again. I hope you can hear me well. If not, please let me know or let Matt know in the chat field. I'm back from a week's vacation, so it's a delight to be with you again on our Tuesday late afternoon, early evening practice session together. So... I feel a little bit refreshed having what I would call a staycation. I didn't go anywhere. I got to stay home some more, but I did have a break from work and email and a chance to sleep in and read a little bit and have walks in nature and in the park and connect with friends over Zoom. So it was somewhat restorative. And... And I hope you all have a chance to also get some kind of vacation break during this particular time.

[01:10]

So if you are new to these practice sessions, a particular welcome to you. I wonder if there's anyone who is new, who hasn't come before, join these. Great. I see Cammie, and I'm not sure if anyone else had to kind of zoom through the different panels or fields. So it's a delight to be with you. Welcome again. And I'll just give a brief overview of what we'll do this afternoon or evening, whatever you want to call it. So we'll start with about a 25-minute period of meditation. And I usually lead in with a little bit of a guided meditation. beginning to it. I think for those who are new who might appreciate that. And then I taper off into silence. If you are kind of strictly someone in the Zen tradition where there's no meditation, you can just tune me out. It's just sound arising in your mind field. And so don't grasp onto the words.

[02:12]

And then after the meditation at six o'clock, I'll offer what I call a Dharmet. a brief Dharma encouragement. So they'll go about 15 minutes or so. And then after that, open up the floor or the room for all of you to share what's going on for you right now in terms of your practice. Is there something you want to bring forward either in relationship to what I shared in my Dharma or just in your life in general? Something about practice that you'd want to ask about or to share in some way. And then the The intention is to wrap up around 6.30. Sometimes we go a little past that. Please do what you need to do to take care of yourself during this time. And yeah, again, it's a delight to be back with you all. I'm going to take a sip of tea. I'm going to mute myself while I call.

[03:15]

Don't worry, it was a drinking cough, not a virus cough. So let's get into our meditation this evening. So please find a posture for you that will help you to kind of be upright, alert, and yet relaxed. So whether you're sitting on a cushion or a zafu, you're sitting in a chair, your wheelchair, if you need to lay down because of your body condition, please do what you need to do. You feel a sense of subtleness, but also alertness and alignment, a sense of kind of a lengthening in the spine. And what I'm going to do is ring the bell. And ring the bell three times to start the period of meditation and then once to end the period of meditation. And please just give yourself over in this meditation to both kind of a physical and a mental posture that's attentive and yet relaxed.

[04:28]

So here's the bell or a Zoom bell. So now allow yourself to become aware of, to connect with, and relax into your present moment experience. This is an invitation to gather your attention from wherever it's been occupied.

[05:37]

particular worries or concerns or busyness, and allow it instead to abide now in the momentary experience of being here, just being here. Maybe letting bodily presence be the prevailing ground of your experience. feel the embodiment of being. If it's helpful, you might wish to use the breath as a touchstone or an anchor for mind's attention, allowing awareness to Gently accompany the natural rhythm of breathing in and breathing out.

[06:45]

Noticing the full cycle of breathing. And breathing in, being ready in-breath, and breathing out, being ready out. expressing as awareness of the breath. Then focus it on the felt sense of the breathing of the breath in the body. So it's not a mental activity, it's an embodied experience that you're coming in contact with, relationship to, feeling what it is to be breathed by the body, to allow the wisdom of the breath to breathe you, which means there's nothing you need to do.

[07:57]

So bring rest in awareness of the breath. find it helpful sometimes in order to kind of deepen my concentration and a sense of stillness, is to actually focus the mind to the point where the in-breath transitions and turns into an out-breath, to allow the mind to pause in that space of transformation. Breathing in, being aware of the in-breath, And at the bottom of that in-breath, notice that brief pause before Sunami mysteriously, in its own accord, the in-breath turns into an out-breath, and there's an exhalation.

[09:02]

And then at the end of the exhalation, again noticing there's a pause there, a space in which The out-breath, the exhalation, transforms and turns into an in-breath, an inhalation again. Remember exploring, becoming particularly aware of those places in the rhythm of breathing as ways to deepen concentration and stillness. you've noticed at any point that the mind has wandered from awareness of the breath or awareness of the present moment experience for whatever reason, maybe distracted by thoughts, a particular tension or sensation in the body, maybe something in the heart area or a particular emotion that is nagging at you, simply notice that this has happened.

[10:45]

And Nye's attention has wandered away. And gently redirect Nye's attention to where you wish it to be. Give it back to the breath with simply a wider open field of awareness. Once again, presence experience. Presence is the willingness to come back, to come back to whatever we're experiencing, and to feel it, to fully acknowledge it, to allow it to be what it is. meditation is described as a space of open inquiry.

[11:51]

So you might engage in the practice of inquiry by asking yourself, what's my experience now? And thoughts, and feelings, and body sensations. other phenomena such as sounds, smells, and pre-noticing, being aware of the full range of the experience. Even if it's unpleasant or unwanted in any way, noticing that. Staying close to whatever is showing itself to you, right here, right now.

[13:04]

Doing our best to meet it with an attitude of friendliness and kindness. You don't need to get involved in the content of the experience. You don't need to get involved in the content of the thoughts, of the emotions, or even the sensations, simply noticing them, almost like clouds passing through a wide open sky. Experience arises. makes itself known for a period of time, and then fades away. So be that knowing field that observes openly, receptively, with curiosity.

[14:13]

What is it that's being experienced? without identifying with the experience in any way, without having to fix it or change it or do anything else to it. Simply observe it as we would, observing clouds in the sky. the inquiry, what would it be to allow yourself to experience the experience that you're experiencing? What would it be to allow yourself to experience the experience that you're experiencing?

[15:18]

to allow experience to make itself known, to reverberate through you like a ripple through water or wind in the sky. And knowing you don't need to grab onto it or engage it in any way or identify with it or do anything. Simply observe. Whenever the mind gets caught, hooked onto a particular experience, the minute we notice that's happened is a moment of waking up. Ah, yes. And then in that moment, there's a choice. Stayed hooked or choose to redirect mind's attention back to where you wish it to be. Either on the touchstone of the breath, in the flow of the breath,

[16:26]

or simply in a more open field of awareness itself. Sky back awareness. The practice is to keep bringing awareness intentionally back to the immediate experience. And you abide in this immediate experience as awake presence. for the rest of this period of meditation, resting now, and just simple, open awareness, silence, and stillness. Thank you, everyone, for sitting together in this way.

[30:01]

Take a moment to adjust yourself, and I'll transition into the Dharmet. During my staycation this past week, as I said, I had the opportunity to take a number of long walks in nature. which is not something I get to do too often these days due to shelter in place. I was going a lot to Golden Gate Park into the headlands. So it was really nice to be able to be in that part of San Francisco again. And on my walks, a particular poem came to mind for me that is one of my favorites. It's by Mary Oliver. And this particular poem is titled Summer Day. I've imagined that a number of you are familiar with it. I often incorporate this poem as part of a walking meditation exercise that I lead during summer retreats at Tassajara.

[31:07]

So I kind of take people through the wilderness to a grassy space in the mountains next to the creek. And I share this poem with them. And then I have them kind of do an exploration and silence of the wilderness around them, just really taking in nature and trying to see nature with new eyes, with the mind of Zazen. And then we walk back to the retreat hall and do a debrief. So I thought I would share this particular poem with me, with you all, because I would typically actually be at Tassajara about right about now. So I'm kind of missing Tassajara, the fact that I can't go this summer. And I know in the review as well, I'm missing the opportunity to go. So this is the poem, Summer Day by Mary Oliver. Imagine yourself in a grassy field in the middle of that Mentana wilderness.

[32:11]

Who made the world? Who made the swan and the black bear? Who made the grasshopper? This one, I mean. The one who has flung herself out of the grass. The one who's eating sugar out of my hand. Who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down. Who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes. Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face. Now she snaps her wings open and floats away. I don't know exactly what a prayer is. I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down into the grass, how to kneel in the grass, how to be idle and blessed.

[33:16]

how to stroll through the fields, which is what I have been doing all day. Tell me, what else should I have done? Doesn't everything die at last and too soon? Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? I'll read it again. Who made the world? Who made the swan and the black bear? Who made the grasshopper? This grasshopper, I mean. The one who has flung herself out of the grass. The one who is eating sugar out of my hand. Who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down. who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.

[34:21]

Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face. Now she snaps her wings open and floats away. I don't know exactly what a prayer is. I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down into the grass, how to kneel in the grass, how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields, which is what I have been doing all day. Tell me, what else should I have done? Doesn't everything die at last and too soon? Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? Leaves you with a provocative question, yes?

[35:32]

Consider for a moment. What is it you plan to do with this one wild, precious life that has been given to you? It's a powerful, demanding question, isn't it? It's one that I find requires courage, diligence, honesty, and great patience to stay with a particular line of inquiry. When you ask that question, do you notice, did any of your minds go blank for a moment? Kind of resting in an open space and not having an immediate response? How was it to be in that open space? of not knowing. And I appreciate how this poem encourages a mind of curiosity, a mind of not knowing, but at the same time evoking a sense of reverence, awe, and joy, and the simple beauty and complexity of a mere grasshopper.

[36:38]

And the way in which the poet brings us into a realm of, you could say, worship, of of overwhelming gratitude for the mystery and the potential of our life, including our human life, through her observation of this small insect. I think it's reasonable to say that this question of how we live our life, how we actually live this life, not what we think about it, not what we say about it, but how we actually live it, is at the heart of practice and what matters most. It lies at the heart of every deep spiritual inquiry that we have, and most likely at the heart of why we came to Buddhist practice in the first place.

[37:45]

This question is the foundation of what we call in Zen the way-seeking mind, the mind that seeks to be fully awake to our true and boundless nature, the path of freedom, the path of liberation. When we live from our Buddha nature or our awake nature, we are living as the same nature, that made the swan, that made the black bear and the grasshopper, as well as the sugar cube and the green grass. And just like the grasshopper, there really isn't anything special we need to do to express our true nature. We just need to be who we already are. and see the ways in which we are blessed without having to prove or do anything, even in the face of our impermanence.

[38:59]

Now, I think it's reasonable to say that the grasshopper in Alder's poem isn't occupied with the question of what do I plan to do with my precious life? The grasshopper isn't so worried about waking up. or the so-called great matter of birth and death. She is simply actively engaged with her daily business, eating sugar, washing her face, floating about. She's not being self-reflective and all spiritual about what's going to happen to her. She's probably not even cognizant of her eventual death. She is simply expressing Wholehearted and body-living now. Completely present. Without any sense of duality or self-cherishing that's arising in her small being. That might call into question her value or her existence, her place in the world.

[40:08]

None of that dualistic mind. Simply wholehearted being. the activity that she's engaged in. And it's nothing special. Just being. The particular form of meditation or zazen that we practice in Soto Zen is called Shikantaza. which is the practice of just sitting. It's translated. Chikintasa is doing nothing other than sitting, silently and overtly, observing experience, whatever it might be arising for us. Thoughts, feelings, body sensations, other phenomena, sounds, without attaching to them, without engaging them.

[41:16]

We're not moving, not trying to fix or change or do anything with our experience. Not even seeking a special experience. Not even seeking enlightenment. There is no enlightenment. There's no place you can go to be enlightened. It's simply being completely what you are in this moment and seeing, waking up to that being in its completeness. So just sitting in our meditation. And as we do, allow ourselves simply to soften into being. Being with a full range of experience without resisting or moving away from what's happening. Regardless of whether it's pleasant or unpleasant. That's why we're starting at the beginning of the meditation. Can we just be with what it is? Just be the presence you already are, and let everything else be as it is.

[42:27]

So Zazen is taking the posture of an open, upright, receptive mind, a mind in which all thoughts and phenomena arise and pass, just like clouds, through the sky. You could say that shikantaza is the presence and the space in which the fear that the small self feels at the recognition of its fundamental groundlessness can be met, fully met. And it's met with vast, spacious, compassionate mind of Buddha. What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

[43:36]

When Myogen Steve Stuckey, who is a former abbot of Zen Center and one of my beloved teachers, when he was in the process of dying from pancreatic cancer a number of years ago, a dharma heir of his asked him the question, when students of the future ask about your dharma, What shall I tell them? And he paused and he gave the question some thought. And then he said, Endless inquiry. Not turning away from reality. And when you do turn away from reality, stop and resume. Endless inquiry. In his book, Zen Questions, Taigenden Leighton is also in the Suzuki Roshi lineage and is a teacher in Chicago at Ancient Dragon Temple, has this to say about Zazen as being a practice of endless inquiry.

[44:47]

He writes, Zazen is a question and inquiry. Even when sitting quietly, gently, at the core of our sitting is the activity of questioning What are we doing in Zazhen? Each of us have some question that somewhere back there was behind our wanting to engage in this Buddhist meditation. What question has led you to face the wall in Zazhen or to study the self in meditation? What is this? What is this self? There is a question that we each have to explore. The point of this practice of questioning, however, is not to discover an answer. Just as we do in Zazen, we aim to sit upright, centered, with ease and restfulness in the midst of inquiry. And yet there is some problem, some question, something we are looking into.

[45:54]

How do we practice with this question? There's not just one way to do this, because we each have our own version of this question. But we must recognize that there is a question. How do we live this life? How do we take care of this world? Face the poems that we each have in our life. The poems that we share together. So what is it to sit and zazen as if it was one continuous open question, moment after moment? What is sit and zazen as if you truly don't know what you would do with your life, as if you may never know? Can we be that willing to live without answers, to live the inexplicable,

[47:04]

to suspend any understanding or ideas we have about what is practice and our life and simply come into direct relationship with ourselves and with reality as it manifests in this moment. So this type of questioning gets below mere answers and gets into our skin. our nerves, our bones, our marrow. It touches what fundamentally animates us, what brings us to life. Staying in relationship to inquiry is staying in relationship to beginner's mind, to the unknown, and to the mind of Buddha. Will you live your one wild and precious life?

[48:13]

Now. And now. And now. So I'll wrap up with one of my favorite quotes from Maria Rilke. another beloved poet. He writes, be patient toward all that is unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves. Do not seek the answers which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday, far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing, live your way into your answer.

[49:20]

Okay, I think I'll end there and open up the floor to see if there's anything you would like to bring forward regarding either something I said in the Starmet or your own practice or how you're trying to live the open question of your life, and we'll go from there. So I think Matt will put the instructions about how to raise your hand in the participant field, and then I or she will identify who has the hand raised. I see May, May Zhu. Hello, May. Hello, David. I hope you enjoy your vacation. Thank you so much for the offering. Wow, it's actually, I have four questions. One is, you mentioned a while ago, you mentioned inquiry, meditation, and then Zazen is different.

[50:25]

But today you mentioned actually Zazen is a question, is an inquiry. You know, I'm curious, you know, That then, to me, is drop everything. We just constantly bring back, bring back. But inquiry seems to be very focused on certain things, very concentrated on certain questions. I don't know. So yeah, what's the difference? That's one. And then the other three questions regarding- Can I answer that one first? Please. It's easy for me to track the questions that way. So there's two aspects of inquiry. There's the directed inquiry of asking a cognitive question, right? That really asks literal question of what is this or what's happening now to use the words, to use the mind to direct a particular question to the experience, right? So that sometimes helps us to focus the mind, you know, in some way.

[51:32]

what is happening now, you know? So that's kind of a directed question. The other one is an open inquiry. So directed inquiry, what's the nature of this experience? That's one way of doing meditation. And then there's open inquiry. And traditionally, Zazu would be more of a Shikintaza, would be just open inquiry, which is basically the space. So, you know, for example, if I ask you now, are you aware? Wow. For a moment, the mind pauses, right? There's a space. And then maybe at some point, the words will come forward. Well, yes, right? But before those words came forward, what was that space? So to rest in that space, this is what, you know, this other aspect of open inquiry, to rest in the space itself, right? not to grab onto an answer, not to say I have to get to a yes or no, right?

[52:38]

Not to have any expectation that an answer will even come because in many ways, the answer is already in that open space. Are you aware? What knows is aware itself, right? Well, I feel like that open inquiry is almost like open a door. Exactly. So those two types, directed inquiry, which you can ask, what is the nature of this? And then open inquiry, which creates the space to be awareness, to rest those awareness. Thank you. Is there one more question? Yeah, I will condense those three to one, basically regarding the breathing. And then... you mentioned the pulse between inhale and exhale. And then I think there's definitely a very profound biology reason for this, right?

[53:44]

There's a pulse there. And then I've been hearing Deepak Chopra a long, long time ago. He visited our company. So about, he particularly mentioned this pulse so-called illness, it's basically you. It's our true self. So I just wanted, because you pretty well talked about pause. I think that was really important. Then my question regarding that pause is, do you, I often, I also be recommended or suggested to breathe like a belly breathing, which is if I inhale, I consciously pause. okay, consciously pause and make my belly, you know, get larger. And then when I exhale, and then my belly will, you know, will press, right?

[54:44]

And then, so my question is, do I let my conscious to... to get involved with this phenomenon. Or I just convert that, let it be, whatever, you know, this breath want to breathe longer or shorter, you know, just a real concrete practice from your experience. That's it. Thank you. My experience is that all these breath exercises... you know, these meditations, they're all forms of helping the mind to settle, to concentrate, to come to focus in stillness, to be in direct relationship with the present moment experience. So it's a way of kind of collecting the mind, you know, it's usually all over the place, right? Collecting it, directing it, having it settle on something that's consistently available to you, which is the breath.

[55:48]

And then... The details are focused on particular aspects of the breath, whether it's the space between the breath, whether or not it's focused on the bottom of the inhale, all that is ways of just narrowing mind's attention more acutely, [...] focusing, focusing, focusing, to the point where there's no longer any dualism in the mind. The mind and the breath are one. So it's a technique to support experience of non-duality by having mind focus with a sense of non-separation so completely on the breath that there is no breath, there's no you, there's no anything. There's just the experience itself arising. And so that's how I understand all these techniques. And for many of us, it's very helpful and it takes a lot of practice to just settle the mind enough to stay with one thing, to stay with the breath, that single-pointed concentration, that still point, and that still point is the point of non-duality.

[57:00]

There's no you, there's no breath, there's nothing, there's just this, right here, right now. So we're training the mind through all this breath work to get to that place where it's subtle and still and quiet enough to just be presence. So that's shamatha, you know, a lot of the initial practice, shamatha, settling, right? And then from that place, we can do inquiry. What is, what is this? What is this experience? What is aware? That's often kind of a, way that they're kind of breath, focusing on the breath as a support. And, you know, Suzuki Roshi, you know, he gave the instruction. Some people, you know, people who practice with him say, you know, he gave the instruction to follow the breath, right?

[58:08]

And, but he also, you know, forgot to say, well, you can also just let breath to kind of settle to the background. right? And just be awareness, you know? So he does that elsewhere. But, you know, for many of us, just settling on focusing on the breath is the most helpful thing initially. For years, you know, I do. And whenever I begin meditation, Zazen, I start with the breath practice. Focus the mind. Let it ground me, right? And even at the end of your meditation, once you hear the bell, come back to the breath if you're in open awareness. allow it to kind of settle into this present moment experience in that way. So you can experiment with that. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Thank you, man. I see Anne, Anne Taze. There you go.

[59:09]

Hey, well, when you asked like what brought me to the wall, looking at a wall or I'm just looking at my computer now. But, you know, it's just how to be present in my moments without all these negative thoughts and emotions just, like, taking over, like, to feel my life, you know? And then we're talking about the breath over and over. You know, I'm a teacher, right? And, like, I really like my health. And I like my breath. Wow. Yes, I like to have my health and my breath, and I'm scared of losing that, for one thing. It's just, it's so precious. I want to, like, hold it and, you know, like, because it's really, it's really, like, making things better, you know, like, all these things that I am concerned about. And so, yeah, I always like to hear about this, like, all the things you said about

[60:14]

you know, how to get back to the breath, get back to the breath. And, like, I really noticed, like, I'm, like, in the process of listening to, you know, the Mary Trump book and everything. And I'm just, like, my mind was just, like, no, you know, you have to think about that and then about COVID. And then it finally started to, like, go through. And, you know, to just focus on that one thing is kind of a relief. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we all experience monkey mind, right? It jumps all over the place. It's occupied with all these other things. And it can be very disturbing, you know, particularly when thoughts, feelings, sensations, they get so big in us. The energy just kind of moves through us and we don't know how to, you know, necessarily work with that. So first, you know, it's kind of like training a puppy, you know? Like you get a new puppy, it's full of energy. He wants to jump over the place and chew on all kinds of things. You know, your shoes... thoughts, memories, your latest book you've been listening to, something like that. So we're training the puppy not to chew up the landscape, not to get caught on things.

[61:16]

So coming back again, giving it a touchstone or a bone, sit, stay, focus on the breath, that'll be your touchstone. And we do it over and over and over again. And as we do that in time, we train the puppy mind. to settle, to stay, to stay present, not to go chew on thoughts or memories or sensations and get disturbed and all that, right? And when we do that, in time, we notice there's space. There's actually space. And in that space, we're able to be with whatever experience that we're having without getting caught by it. So emotions, thoughts, you know, we're able to allow them to pass through our mind, pass through awareness without getting caught on them, being distracted, right?

[62:18]

And when we do get distracted, we notice, oh, that's happened, right? And we bring the mind back again, come back, stay, sit, right? And that training to stay, regardless of what's coming up in the field of experience, without getting caught, without getting turned in some way, without getting particularly agitated, you know, is beneficial. And it's a way of coming back to our wholeness, to a sense of sanity and well-being that's fundamental to what we already are. I hope that's encouraging in some way. Yeah, it is. I have noticed because I've I've discovered this online meditation thing. I'm on my summer vacation now, but I can actually feel it. It doesn't seem like the time is just slipping by so quickly. Thank you.

[63:19]

I see Nika. Hi. Hi, David. I hope you're well. It's good to see you. Likewise. So I guess I kind of have two questions too, if you have enough time. The first one being, so you talked about the way seeking minds and how it leads to a wholehearted being and how we should always be doing an endless inquiry without that leads to not turning away from reality. And I kind of, you know, of course, I aspire to be those two things, but I wonder what that actually looks like or is in real life, like concretely. And I'm wondering if you can give an example of someone who is, you know, is living a wholehearted way of being and...

[64:24]

How do you know when we're not turning away, when we're fully not turning away from reality, especially, you know, as it relates to like the present environment? I just don't know how that looks like. So I'm wondering if you can speak more about that. Well, when I've noticed people who are able to live in that way, they have a sense of presence. You can feel their presence in a sense that they're grounded. You're fully here. They're completely engaged, right? And I don't know, there's a sense of they're in their bodies, they're in their beings. And there's a sense of delight and relishing and kind of a sense of joy that they exude in some way. I think of the Dalai Lama, for example. Thich Nhat Hanh, they have a subtle presence. You never have a sense of them being distracted or away from their body or away from their being or anything.

[65:30]

You just observe them. They're just there, fully engaged. Someone comes in front of them, asks you a question, they turn. They're fully connected to that person, fully receiving, engaging. And then when that encounter is done, then they turn to the next thing. And this is how people who knew Suzuki Roshi described him. you know, the way that they just felt Suzuki Roshi was always completely with them, you know, and just the way he was present in front of them, seeing them completely, they felt completely seen by them, right, completely seen by him, you know, so that sense of being known, right, when someone You feel you are known by someone because they see you at a very present way. So that's, you know, in a kind of very, you know, it's more of a felt sense.

[66:32]

So you can feel it with people. You can feel when people are with you and you can feel when they're not with you. You feel it in your heart. You feel it in your guts, right? You feel it in your being, the center of your being. There's something that says they're with me. We're together in this moment. We are presencing this moment together. So I would suggest just this kind of feel it out. And for yourself, feel when you're with someone or you're with a situation. Whenever you're doing, if you're driving, or if you're eating or, you know, I find simple household duties like, you know, washing the dishes, you know, or vacuuming the house. For me, it helps me to be fully present, just this activity. And I try to really make sure that my body is in it completely, that my mind isn't over here and my body's here, that they're one, that this non-dual kind of wholehearted, I give myself completely over to this activity.

[67:44]

And then study, when am I not feeling that? What are the situations that come up when I'm not feeling that wholehearted, whole beingness? Are there particular scenarios or circumstances or activities that are more likely to be disembodied or disengaged or not wholeheartedly present than others? And if so, you know, how do I change that? So that's... what I can offer at this point. I hope it's encouraging in some way. Yeah, it really is. Thank you. And I will start practicing that as well. Thank you. Thank you, Mika. And there was one other person that I think they had moved on. And I see it is past our usual time. So why don't we wrap up for this evening?

[68:46]

And I want to appreciate you all again. Thank you so much for your practice, for your inquiry, and for supporting each other by being together in this way. And I hope you find the inquiry of, or the process of inquiry, endless inquiry, a fruitful one for you. And until next week, take good care. Oh, I should mention just out of not so much self-promotion, but because it might be of interest to some of you, I will be co-leading a six-week course starting next Monday. Oops, echo there. Next Monday called Transforming Depression and Anxiety. Somehow I got muted and unmuted.

[70:01]

It's based on a workshop that I often co-lead with several friends and really looking at working with agitated mood states. So when we have the lowered or agitated mood states, such as anxiety or depression, how is it that we might work with them? I think Anne was kind of speaking in some ways to, you know, the ways that we might experience this kind of monkey mind and all these feelings come up. How is it that we can be with the experience that we're experiencing without getting more kind of tossed about by it? So if you're interested, you might want to check it out. It's listed on the website. That will be six weeks. We'll have a Monday night session, which is kind of a teaching session. And then the Thursday session is a practice session. So the Monday night will be an hour and a half, where we'll give you kind of a combination of guided meditation, some lecture time, some exercises that we'll do together.

[71:06]

And then the Thursday is actually a practice session where we'll sit together and then afterwards we'll share a little bit about how the practice with a particular offering that was made on Monday, how is that going for you? So anyhow, if you're curious, check it out. And in the meantime, please take good care of yourselves. So we'll see you all next Tuesday, I hope. Thank you, David. You're welcome. Thank you. Bye.

[71:47]

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