Hi,
Crystal.
So,
Oh,
And I'm glad,
Yeah,
To invite love and kindness to someone.
It's a really nice way to end our practice,
Our meditation practice,
With just a little loving kindness
Or a little tonglen,
Dedicating our merit.
A really nice way to come out of our practice,
Our meditation practice.
So I'm glad that you appreciated that as well.
And thank you,
Richard.
I am doing much better,
Much better.
We're down to a little Band-Aid.
I still have all the other Band-Aids,
So I'm covering up all the other things.
But yes,
They're all healing.
All the sutures are coming out on Friday.
So thank you.
Thanks.
Oh,
And Emma,
Oh,
Good,
You were there on Sunday.
Okay,
Great.
And hi,
JG.
Hi,
Frederica,
Good to see you again.
Okay,
And I see you popping across,
Mary.
Okay,
So at this point,
We just open up for any questions
To see what's going on in your practice,
Where you might be struggling,
Any questions that we even have
From our last Sangha meeting,
Talking about maybe beginning again.
We also talked a lot about self-forgiveness
As a big part of beginning again,
Because often we struggle beginning again
Because we're so hard on ourselves.
We just can't let that go.
We can't let the judgment go
That we lost our,
That we were mindless for a moment,
Or that we,
Again,
We had a judging thought.
We had a comparing thought,
A jealous thought.
It's okay,
It's okay.
Everybody does,
Everybody does.
The problem isn't having the thought.
The problem,
The challenge is the judging ourselves for it,
Because we just stay lost in the judging.
So again,
Begin again,
Coming back.
This is our practice of letting go of the judging,
Forgiving ourselves,
And coming back,
Coming back,
Giving ourselves a break.
We are so hard on ourselves.
So,
So hard on ourselves.
That's,
I mean,
Gosh,
That must be 90% of our practice,
Is just learning to be kinder to ourselves,
Learning to forgive ourselves for being human,
Right?
For making,
You know,
Just making mistakes,
Right,
Just being human.
Oh,
I'm really glad to hear
That you're using the forgiveness prayer,
Mary,
Yeah.
Yeah,
And to say it every day,
To say it every day.
Yes,
And Crystal,
You're absolutely right.
It's saying,
It's saying those words every single day,
The words of forgiveness.
And as many of you know,
I've said it so many times,
So I probably won't repeat it unless there's someone here
That doesn't know it,
The Buddhist forgiveness prayer
That I say before every meditation.
It's part of my practice,
As I sit down and say it.
I've been saying it for years.
Forgiveness is,
If Crystal,
As you said,
If it's something we just do a weekly here,
We do it a quarterly there,
Like it's not getting through.
Okay,
Sorry,
So I'll say it again,
Mary,
Here,
And I'm sorry,
Because I know I've talked about it a lot
On this class as well,
Because clearly I think we need forgiveness.
Clearly that's a theme that keeps coming up.
So the prayer is,
For anyone that I have harmed,
Either knowingly or unknowingly,
Through my own confusions,
Fears,
And desires,
I ask for your forgiveness.
For anyone that has harmed me,
Either knowingly or unknowingly,
Through their confusions,
Fears,
And desires,
I forgive them.
For anything I am not yet ready to forgive,
I forgive myself for that.
And for all the little ways I harm myself,
Negate,
Doubt,
Belittle,
Judge,
And criticize,
I forgive myself for that too.
I mean,
They are just the most beautiful words
That acknowledge in the first verse,
We all need to ask for forgiveness.
I think that's part of also the judgment,
Like not even wanting to acknowledge
That we've done things that have been harmful.
We all have,
We all have.
If you're human and you've spent any time on this planet,
We all have,
We've all done it.
And then in the second verse,
Extending forgiveness to others,
Because we've caused harm,
So others have caused harm as well.
And then that third verse,
Which is so important,
Because sometimes there is something
That's just too big for us to be able to forgive yet.
And yet if we forgive ourselves
For not being yet ready to forgive,
We are still practicing forgiveness.
So we're opening our hearts still,
And that's what we need to do.
That's where the wisdom and compassion is.
We need to open our hearts,
Even if we're just forgiving ourselves
For not yet being ready to forgive.
We're still practicing forgiveness.
And then the fourth verse,
Because we are so hard on ourselves,
All that judging and belittling
And criticizing and doubting,
Right?
Yeah,
I mean,
It's just,
It's relentless.
It would,
You would be shocked
To get a printout at the end of the day
Of all of your thoughts.
You would be shocked and horrified.
First of all,
We all would be.
But you would also just look and go,
My God,
Look at how cruel,
How vicious I am to myself,
How unforgiving I am,
How hard I am on myself.
Right?
And so by saying these words over and over,
And that's why I said,
And before every meditation,
I say two prayers,
The prayer of St.
Francis
And the Buddhist forgiveness prayer,
Because they are both beautiful words that help.
Also just bringing us into the meditation,
Like coming into your meditation,
It's nice to do a prayer beforehand.
Or just say some nice words if you have,
Or chanting something,
Right?
To kind of,
Just as a nice transition
From whatever you were doing before
Coming into your meditation.
But every time you say those words,
You're planting a seed,
And planting those seeds of forgiveness,
And watering those seeds of forgiveness.
We need to,
Because then you will find
When you least expect it,
You'll be hanging on to something,
You'll be angry at someone,
And then all of a sudden,
And just all of a sudden it will come up
And you'll think,
Oh,
I've harmed people too.
I've disappointed people too.
We've all disappointed people,
Right?
And we think,
Oh man,
Maybe I can just give them a break.
Maybe they've got a lot going on.
Maybe they're human too.
Maybe I can give them a break.
Maybe I can at least let go of my anger towards them.
Maybe I can't forgive yet,
Maybe I'm not yet ready to forgive,
But I can forgive myself
For not yet being ready to forgive.
So those words just,
They seep in,
They seep in.
Oh,
And I'm so glad to hear,
Frederica,
That you've been using the prayer
And it feels like it's helping.
And I've got that prayer in the,
We have a small sangha group on my teacher's page
And it's maybe a few quotes back
Or a few comments back,
But it's in there.
I put it in there a few weeks back.
And I,
Yeah,
I agree,
Angela.
It's beautiful,
It's beautiful.
I don't know who,
I've never been able to find the origin of it,
But,
And I don't even,
I mean,
It must've been eight or nine years ago
That I came across it.
And I just thought,
Man,
This is what I need.
It was a big part of my practice
Where I was really stuck,
Forgiving myself and forgiving myself
For the things that I'd done as a long time ago,
As a child,
As a teenager,
As a really,
Really,
What would you say?
Wild child,
I guess.
Not making it easy on my parents,
That's for sure.
And even kind of,
You know,
Going into my 20s
And it was,
It took,
It was really,
It was as much as I had been practicing
For so many years by then and meditating,
That it would be like,
Those would be the thoughts that get me.
Yeah,
Deji,
My soul sister there,
Wild also.
Yeah,
I suspect there's a few of us on here.
Oh,
Crystal,
That's beautiful.
The first 50 years of childhood is the hardest.
Yeah,
That's awesome,
I love that.
It is,
And we're so hard on ourselves.
We're so hard on ourselves.
And it was really like just saying that prayer
Over and over and realizing,
Like,
I do deserve forgiveness.
I do deserve forgiveness.
And even just for all the ways that we still continue,
We still make mistakes,
We still screw up.
We all do it.
We all do it and we're so hard on ourselves.
So the more that we can practice forgiveness,
Like,
It is just,
It just lightens everything for us.
It lightens everything.
We carry around all these burdens.
Like,
It's like we have this big rucksack on our back
And it's like we put all of these heavy,
Heavy stones in there for every little thing
That we've done,
You know,
Real or imagined,
Right?
Every little indiscretion.
And we just don't put it down.
And it's like everyone's carrying around these rucksacks.
Right,
And if everyone's carrying them around,
At some point,
Can we acknowledge,
Oh my gosh,
This is part of the human experience.
This is part of the human experience.
And to put that rucksack down,
We have to forgive ourselves.
And when we can forgive ourselves,
We can forgive other people.
But we have to be able to forgive ourselves first.
Rosa with us as well here,
Good,
Yeah,
Yeah.
And it is,
I think it's reassuring to hear that as well.
That,
I mean,
This is good for us to share this.
Like,
We kind of all,
It's so interesting,
The human experience,
How much we all,
Everyone kind of puts on this veneer,
Right,
Of course,
How we go out into the world,
Right?
I mean,
We put on clothing.
We do our,
You know,
Shower,
Right?
Try and look respectable.
I mean,
There's certain things that we do,
Of course.
But it's almost like there's also this kind
Of hiding this part of us.
There's always,
Everyone has like some kind
Of little secret part of us.
It's like,
Oh,
I wouldn't want them to know that.
I wouldn't want them to know that I'm not perfect,
Right?
Or not even not perfect,
But I wouldn't want them to know
That I've ever been unkind,
Right?
I've been unkind,
You know?
I wish I hadn't,
But I have been,
Right?
We've all done it.
You know,
I wish I hadn't gotten angry.
I wish I hadn't,
You know,
Acted out in certain ways.
Like,
Yeah,
But I did it.
And even when I say I wish I hadn't,
Because there's almost like,
There's a remorse towards it.
There's definitely a remorse.
But,
Of course,
I also understand
I couldn't have done anything differently
Based on those causes and conditions at that time.
That's how they were arising in those moments.
You have a stressful moment.
You kind of are short with someone,
Right?
All these things that are arising at that moment
That are just kind of pushing you to your limit.
And you have a moment,
Right?
You're not as kind and loving,
You know,
You're not filled with loving kindness in that moment.
And just all of a sudden,
You just,
You know,
Something comes out.
And then after that,
Right,
Then we just start beating ourselves,
Beating ourselves,
Beating ourselves.
And it's like,
There was nothing.
Those were the conditions that were arising in that moment.
It's not,
The problem isn't that it happened.
The problem is how we relate to it
And how we imagine it shouldn't have happened.
And so,
And beating ourselves up that
I shouldn't have done that.
I'm a bad person.
There's something inherently wrong with me.
There's nothing wrong with you.
You're human.
You're human.
And to forgive ourselves,
Right,
Begin again.
Forgive ourselves,
Begin again.
Fresh moment,
Fresh slate.
Because we can't progress on this path
As long as we still believe there's a part of us
That is somehow damaged,
That is somehow uniquely bad.
There's this,
I've never been able to find
The original story to this,
But I'd heard Jack Kornfield tell this story
Many,
Many years ago.
And I think he said he heard it on NPR
Where they had kind of set up this little experiment
At a subway station,
A train,
Underground train station.
And as people were getting off the train,
Someone was standing there and they were going,
Oh,
You're in,
You're out.
You're in,
You're out.
You're in,
You're out.
You're in,
You're out.
Just randomly pointing to people.
And people were just like,
I'm in,
Oh,
I'm out.
I'm in,
I'm out.
And then they had someone set up a little bit later.
So I guess they were kind of tracking
Who was saying you're in,
You're out.
Probably had some system.
Anyone who's red,
Say you're in.
Everyone who's wearing black,
Say you're out.
And then they would ask them,
Like 100 feet later,
They asked them something about the experience
Or how are you feeling.
I think it was kind of just how are you feeling.
And overwhelmingly,
The people that were told
You're in,
Oh,
I'm doing great.
I feel really good today.
And the people that were told you are out
Were like,
I'm just not doing so well today.
I don't feel really good today.
And what it was really showing was just this,
Like randomly,
We don't even know
What we're in or out about.
But there's almost this like someone saying you're out
Kind of gives us the sense of like,
Oh no,
They know the real me.
They know the real me is not worthy.
And we feel so badly about ourselves so quickly.
So quickly.
And I just think we're so susceptible to that.
And so when we make mistakes,
I think we're so susceptible to like,
Oh,
I'm such an idiot.
I'm such a loser.
And just to get lost.
We're always beating ourselves up
Instead of forgiving ourselves,
Self-compassion.
Oh,
Sweetheart,
You messed up back there.
Like,
Yeah,
You're human,
Right?
Remembering we're human,
We're human,
We're human.
The more we can forgive ourselves,
The more we can forgive others.
The less judgmental we are of ourselves,
The less judgmental we are of others,
Right?
The less harsh our languages,
Our internal dialogue towards ourselves,
The less harsh our dialogue,
Our internal dialogue
And our external dialogue is towards other people.
But you can see it starts with how we feel inside.
We are never unkind to another person
When we feel good inside.
We are only unkind when we do not feel good inside.
Hurt people hurt people.
And it's good for us to remember that
When we're on the other side as well.
If someone's harming us,
They're hurting.
They're hurting.
Of course,
We get ourselves out of the way,
We set a boundary,
Whatever it is that we need to do
If it's an unsafe environment,
But to not judge them.
To not judge them.
Judge the behavior.
It's okay to judge the behavior,
Right?
To say like,
Oh,
Okay,
This isn't safe.
This isn't a good place for me.
But not to judge the person.
We've all screwed up.
We've all had a moment.
When we see these people,
And thank you,
Gary,
By the way,
Thank you for the donation.
When we see people having meltdowns,
Which are recorded all the time now,
Right?
And put on news or social media and YouTube and things.
I mean,
Someone having just their worst moment
And having that filmed,
Which I do find is just one of the most
I think it's just a really,
It's a symptom of a very unwell society.
That's our response.
Someone's having a meltdown and to film it
And to put it on,
You know,
To kind of try and ruin their lives in some way.
I mean,
It's just,
It's really indicative of something not right
In our society,
But we can look at it and we think,
Oh,
Well,
I wouldn't do that,
But probably,
Maybe we haven't done it in a public setting.
But we've all had those kind of meltdowns
And maybe not in that particular angry,
Screaming kind of tantrum way,
But we've all had it.
And I think it's important for us to not feel,
Not put ourselves up here and them down there,
But to be like,
Wow,
I can relate.
We've all suffered.
We've all suffered.
We've all suffered.
We need compassion.
Compassion with wisdom,
Right?
Setting boundaries,
Not hanging around if it's not safe,
Right,
Not thinking it's our role to fix everything,
Right,
If that's not the right time.
So,
But yeah,
I mean,
People are really pushed
Beyond their limits.
And we get pushed beyond our limits as well.
We get pushed beyond our limits too.
Okay,
I'm just going to go back here a little bit to see.
So Jim,
Yeah,
Meditation helps identifying
What's in your rucksack.
That's exactly right,
Jim.
Yeah,
I did for a client once.
She had all these problems and we wrote down,
Actually we painted her,
Maybe did magic marker
On all these rocks.
And I did put them in a backpack for her.
And I'm like,
Okay,
So every day,
I want you to put this backpack on.
And you tell me when you're tired,
And we had on there,
Partner doesn't do the dishes,
Like,
You know,
Leaves the chips out,
Like all these little things that she was irritated about.
In fact,
Most of them were irritated with her partner,
But it was like,
How long are you going to carry
This stuff around for?
And from Gary,
When I recite the Lord's Prayer,
I really think about every line in its meaning.
What a difference that makes.
Yeah,
It's a lot of work.
And I'm like,
Okay,
I'm going to do that.
And it's meaning,
What a difference that makes.
Yeah,
It really does make a difference.
Whatever dialogue we're running in our head,
Whatever thoughts we're having,
If we're having,
Again,
We're judging ourselves,
We're judging someone else.
We don't feel good,
By the way.
Of course we don't feel good when we're judging ourselves.
It doesn't feel good to judge other people either.
It actually feels terrible.
But we rarely pause enough to even experience it,
To feel it,
Because we're so disembodied.
We don't come in and feel enough.
But notice,
When you're judging someone,
When you're comparing yourself to someone,
When you're racing off to the next thing,
Your mind already there,
It's really important for us to notice
How we're feeling inside.
So in all the ways that our mind,
Excuse me,
That our thoughts are,
You know,
That kind of self-referential dialogue
That's always going,
Noticing just how unpleasant it feels,
And saying something like the Lord's Prayer,
The Buddhist Forgiveness Prayer.
I mean,
There's so many beautiful words
That we can be saying to ourselves
That help open our hearts
Versus closing down our hearts.
And there is no wisdom in a closed heart.
No wisdom at all.
No wisdom.
You have to have your heart open.
And whatever is that dialogue is really determining
Whether your heart is open or closed.
Hi,
Ashlyn.
Nice to see you.
And hi,
Diane.
I see you popping across there too.
So,
Yeah,
I mean,
Saying,
If you can find some prayers,
Some words that speak to you,
And feel free to kind of change them a little bit.
I actually have made a little bit of a change
To the last verse in the Prayer of St.
Francis.
You know,
I've changed it to,
In dying to the illusion of the separate self,
We awaken to our true nature.
And in the last verse,
I think in the traditional something
About awakening to God.
And I just changed that a little bit
In making it a little more Buddhist.
But I love all of the words.
Like,
They're just beautiful.
Prayers are beautiful,
Beautiful.
It's like loving kindness.
I think it was at Crystal,
I guess you had mentioned that back there as well.
You know,
When we're saying words like,
May I be happy,
May I be safe,
May I be well,
And we're saying that about other people,
May you be happy,
May you be safe,
May you be well,
May you feel loved,
May you feel accepted and included,
Right,
It feels so much better
To wish someone to be happy,
To be safe,
To be well,
Than to judge them.
It feels so much better,
Right?
It is absolutely,
When we are judging someone,
It is indicative of how we are feeling inside.
We're not feeling good.
And when you notice that you are in that state,
You're judging yourself,
You're judging someone else,
Don't judge yourself for judging,
Right?
We're not doubling down on our judging here.
Either say the forgiveness prayer
Or even what we talked about the other day,
Putting your hand on your heart and just saying the words,
I forgive,
I forgive,
I forgive,
I forgive,
I forgive.
A thousand times if you have to.
You usually don't have to get past 50 times.
And it will just take you down that,
You break that train of thought
Of the judging,
Judging,
Judging,
Right?
And you just start walking down that path of compassion.
And then eventually with each saying just the words,
I mean,
It feels so beautiful,
I forgive.
But in the beginning saying I forgive myself
Or I forgive that person is a little like,
Nope,
Nope,
Nope,
I don't really,
I don't really forgive them.
Or I don't really forgive myself.
Because we're still a little in the judging.
So when we say,
I forgive,
I forgive,
I forgive,
You almost feel like your shoulders,
Like,
Oh,
You feel the rucksack coming off,
Like,
I forgive,
I forgive,
I forgive,
I forgive myself.
I'm human,
I make mistakes.
It's what we do,
It's what we do.
To seven,
You only needed seven of I forgive
And you were there,
Fantastic,
Gary,
That's awesome.
That's awesome.
You're doing very well today,
Ashlyn,
Thank you.
Yeah,
I mean,
It's just so beautiful to say I forgive.
And for those of you that have done,
And I have this all on my teacher page,
It's the mantras that I use.
And I use these five mantras in the beginning
Of our practice when learning to meditate.
Pointing out the ways in which we think,
We all think in this self-referential way.
Chasing,
Resisting,
Which you might recognize
Is all the ego,
By the way.
So chasing,
Resisting,
Judging,
Comparing,
And narrating.
And so I give the mantras in the beginning
When I teach people to meditate.
Like,
What is it that you're doing
That's taking you out of the present moment?
We all know,
Be present,
Right?
And let go,
Be at peace,
But we're so used to holding on
To our judging and our comparing
And just this running narrative in our head
And chasing and resisting.
It's like,
Yeah,
I wanna be present,
But I can't let go of this.
And yet it's still not even,
We haven't quite identified what it is.
And so I have a mantra for each of these for each week.
It's peace is not chasing,
Right?
You notice your mind is ahead of your body
And you can just say the mantra,
Peace is not chasing,
Peace is not chasing.
And you'd say it in the meditation
Because often we do that in our meditation.
We're chasing,
Wanting to get to the bell.
And by saying peace is not chasing
And now bringing a spotlight on it,
It's the chasing that's taking you away from the peace.
Right,
We're so convinced that,
No,
If I could just get to the end,
Then I'll be peaceful.
And it's like,
Oh no,
It's the chasing.
That's why I'm not peaceful.
And then we let go and then,
Oh yeah,
That's right.
It's not chasing,
It's here.
We just notice we're doing it,
We're going about our errands.
You know,
That to-do list,
That never-ending to-do list
That we always,
You know,
We always have a never-ending to-do list.
And you notice how we start getting one thing done
And the second,
Then the mind's kind of racing.
Well,
If I can get this next thing done sooner
And then I can save time over here
And,
You know,
Blah,
Blah,
Blah,
Right?
We kind of keep carrying on.
And the mind already 10 steps ahead of the body.
And then we go,
Remember,
Oh,
Peace is not chasing.
Oh,
It's not chasing,
It's not chasing.
We come back and we let it go,
We drop it.
And it's the same then with the resisting,
Right?
We're standing in line,
It's a long line.
And we're irritated because it's going really slowly.
Or,
And I use this example all the time,
You know,
We're in the 10 items or less lane
And someone's got 15 items,
Right?
And we're,
Oh,
I can't believe they're doing that.
And we just start saying to ourselves,
Like remembering the mantra,
Because if you say the mantra many times in your meditation,
Oh,
Peace is not resisting,
Peace is not resisting.
Oh,
Peace is not resisting.
I'm resisting right now,
That's why I'm not peaceful.
And then you let it go.
And then you're at peace again.
And so all of the,
So peace is not chasing,
Peace is not resisting,
Peace is not judging,
Right?
So noticing that,
Oh,
Yeah,
It's not judging.
Right,
Peace is not comparing,
Right?
We get so lost in the comparing,
But no,
They've got more than me,
They're more successful than me,
Right?
And we get so lost in that.
And it's like,
We so think,
Well,
No,
If I just had what they had,
Then I would be peaceful.
And then we go,
But oh,
But peace is not comparing.
And we drop the comparing.
And we go,
Oh,
Now I'm at peace again.
Yeah,
The peace is in the not comparing.
And then we come back into the present moment again.
And it's the peace,
There goes my mom and Maria,
Can all wave to them.
They're going to lunch.
And yeah,
So if it's peace is not narrating,
Just that innocuous way in that we're constantly
Talking to ourselves through our day,
As though we wouldn't know what to do.
And so saying these mantras over and over,
Saying words that,
Again,
Help point us
Into the ways in which we keep taking ourselves
Out of the present moment,
Are very helpful,
Like prayers,
Right?
And then,
Oh,
Sorry,
Well,
You did miss,
I'm so sorry,
I see you did miss the meditation.
I'm sorry,
We start with the meditation,
And now we're in the Q&A portion,
I'm so sorry.
So saying words,
So another word,
So I was just gonna say,
So saying words
That help point us in the right direction.
Someone wrote for me on a rock,
Peace is forgiveness,
That I have here
Sitting out in my foyer.
And it's just beautiful just to see those words,
Peace is forgiveness,
They're synonymous,
Peace is forgiveness.
Peace is this moment,
Right?
Peace is this moment.
And sometimes we need to hear the words.
Ah,
Peace is this breath,
Peace is this breath.
Peace is this breath.
And we're just standing in line,
We're stuck in traffic,
You're at the doctor,
You know,
Whatever it is,
And you're just,
You feel that resisting,
You feel the chasing,
The judging,
And you just,
Ah.
You know,
You can just say like,
Oh,
Peace is not judging,
Peace is not judging.
You could even just say,
Oh,
Peace is this breath.
Oh,
That's right,
It's this breath.
And it's just this breath,
And it's this breath.
So to keep using words,
Right,
So thought,
Thinking is not bad,
Thinking is not our enemy.
We often get confused with that when we're told,
You know,
We should be more present.
Yes,
We should be more present.
We can use words that help guide us
Into the present moment,
Right?
And not all thinking is bad,
Right?
It's the self-referential,
The ego,
The separate self,
The beating ourselves up,
The judging other people,
The wishing I was somewhere else,
The thinking I'll be complete if I get over there.
There's nothing on the other side of this moment.
There is nothing on the other side of this moment,
And yet we keep convincing ourselves that there is.
And so we can use words to keep bringing us back,
To keep bringing us back.
So mantras,
I mean,
Of course,
There's the Sanskrit mantras that really bring you
Into that transcendent state.
But I tend to use English-based mantras
Because I wanna point you,
This is what's going on.
You're judging,
And you don't feel peaceful.
And so you can see it and go,
Oh,
Yeah.
I mean,
That's where you have the insights.
When you see,
You're like,
This really doesn't feel good.
We so think it feels good because we don't really feel it.
We don't really come in and feel.
But you keep saying those words,
Peace is not judging,
And you know you're judging,
Or you were just judging,
And you're like,
Yeah,
Peace is not judging,
Or not comparing,
Or not chasing,
Or not resisting.
And then you might even just say,
Oh,
Peace is this moment.
Peace is beginning again,
Right?
A theme for our meditation and for our last Sangha talk
Is beginning again.
Thank you,
Ashlyn,
I appreciate your words there,
Thank you.
They're resonating,
That's good,
That's good.
And I'll just offer again,
And I know sometimes,
I know I did this a few weeks ago in our Sangha,
But I also count the mantras on my hand.
And this is a technique that also just helps
Remind us again,
Like sometimes we can be
A little fidgety with our hands or our fingers,
And we're standing in line and we're kind of,
You know,
We're kind of irritated.
And so it gives us something also to do,
Another anchor,
It's another anchor for our minds.
So if you,
Using your thumb as your pointer
To the top of your pinky,
That's always the first count.
So peace is not chasing the middle of your finger,
Peace is not chasing the crease,
Peace is not chasing.
And then you just go to the top of the next finger,
The middle,
The crease,
Top of the next one,
The middle,
The crease,
Top of the next,
The middle,
The crease,
And then start back again.
So it's 12 points,
And it's just when you're kind of
Saying it,
Like,
Oh,
Peace is not chasing,
Peace is not chasing.
I saw what was happening on there,
Right?
Oh yes,
I can see it's happening right now.
And you let go,
And you're letting go
Based on insights and wisdom,
Seeing for yourself that peace is not chasing.
So the next time when your mind starts up again,
And is so convinced that if you just got that promotion,
You'd be so happy,
Or if you just had a new partner,
You'd be so happy.
If you just had something else just wrapped,
You'd be so happy.
And it's not to say that these,
Maybe you've got a problem in a relationship,
And it would be nice to have that relationship resolved,
Or it would be nice to have the promotion,
Or a new partner,
Or a new car,
Whatever it is,
Right?
But they're fleeting moments.
They're fleeting moments.
You get the promotion,
Yay,
It feels good.
It feels good,
But it doesn't last,
Right?
After a while,
It's just a job with more stress,
Probably because now you've got more responsibility,
Right?
Or you get the new partner,
And they're great in the beginning,
Because isn't everyone great in the beginning?
And then after a while,
It's like,
Oh,
Maybe they're not perfect either,
Because nobody is.
Nobody is.
And nobody can complete us.
It's one of the challenges we find in this kind of,
Oh,
If I could just find this new person
That would save me,
Right?
They would complete me.
They would be the ones that would complete me.
And in the beginning,
We meet someone,
And we imagine that,
You know,
We impute all these qualities on them,
Because it's new,
And it's exciting,
And we're attracted to them.
And we don't see any of the red flags,
Of course,
Because everything's just cute and adorable at that stage.
But we're so convinced that person's going to complete us.
And then six months later,
When they're not completing us,
Once all the dopamine's worn off,
Once all the newness is worn off,
Right,
We think,
Oh,
You've changed,
Or I need someone else now,
Instead of thinking they were never gonna complete me
In the first place.
Maybe I shouldn't put all this pressure on them.
Maybe I should allow them to be imperfect as well,
And just see if there's a good relationship here or not.
So all of these ways that we're always thinking,
There's something outside of us
That somehow is going to make me feel complete.
It's not.
It's the separation,
It is the thought
That I need something outside of me to be complete,
Makes me incomplete.
It is simply the thought I need something else
Makes me feel incomplete.
And then in the absence of that thought,
I'm complete again.
It's only in a thought,
A very believable thought,
Because we believe so wholeheartedly in our thoughts.
We believe our thoughts are real.
We believe the little me at the center of those thoughts,
The little avatar that we create,
The little me,
Right,
That's gonna be happy
When I get over there,
Right?
There is no over there.
There is no over there.
You can only be happy now.
You can only be at peace now.
You can only be at peace now.
And so Ashlyn,
Just saying you're feeling
Like you need a partner to be complete.
It's not that there's anything wrong
With wanting to have a partner.
There's nothing wrong with that.
There's nothing wrong with wanting to be promoted.
There's nothing wrong.
There's nothing wrong with wanting something.
Because I think sometimes we take that
A little too literally.
I should never want anything.
I think that is too literal and we can kind of,
Seep over into nihilism.
And I think,
You know,
We have these lives
And we wanna have these experiences
And I think it's okay to want to share your life
With someone if that's what it feels like you would like.
Or the promotion or the holiday,
Whatever it is.
Just being very clear,
They will not complete you.
Nobody can complete you.
No experience can complete you.
No external experience can complete you.
Only you can complete you.
When we ask the question in the meditation,
What is it that you want more than anything else
In the world?
And I asked you to look inwards,
Right?
Because we all say,
If I were to stop on the street
And say,
What is it that you want?
Most people would say,
I want a new partner,
I want a new job,
I want a new car,
I want a million dollars in the bank,
I want all of these things,
Right?
And it's like,
Okay,
You want all these things,
Why?
What do you think those things are going to do for you?
Well,
They're gonna make me feel good.
Oh,
So that's what you really want,
Is you wanna feel good.
You wanna feel peace or joy or love,
Connection,
Right?
And we could also even just sum that up,
You wanna feel complete.
You feel incomplete,
You have this idea
That there is something outside of you
That's going to complete you.
But you are not incomplete.
It's simply the thought.
And because we focus on these external things
And we spend all of our time racing to get there,
Right?
Missing all the peace,
The joy,
The happiness,
The feelings of connection that's here right now,
Missing it all,
Because we're so focused on getting over there.
And then only to be disappointed later
When it's like,
It didn't quite complete me,
So I better focus on the next goal.
It was just the wrong person,
It wasn't the right timing,
It was the wrong promotion,
It's the next one,
The next one,
That's the one that's gonna do it,
Right?
And so we just,
We're kind of on this hamster wheel,
Constantly chasing and chasing and chasing.
And it's like,
Just hop off the wheel.
It's okay to say,
Yeah,
The promotion would be nice,
I'm working hard and I wanna push,
You know,
I want,
I would like to,
Maybe you would like
To have a little bit more money,
Maybe you would like to have the experience
Of being the VP or the director,
The manager,
Right?
No problem,
No problem.
Or again,
The partner,
Whatever it is,
No problem.
As long as you know that whatever it is
That you are moving towards,
It will not complete you.
So you can enjoy where you are right now,
Being complete,
Being whole,
Knowing the peace that is always present
And doing the things that you need to do to find a partner.
And even,
And we'll just use the example then,
Ashlyn,
I'm gonna use the example just of a partner.
When you feel complete and whole inside,
And then you meet someone,
It's,
You come together in a way that's just,
Or let me put it this way,
Sorry,
Let me start with,
If you feel incomplete inside and you believe
That you need someone else to complete you,
When you meet someone,
You will try and squeeze them
Into this model that they are the one.
And we have this way of making someone seem better
Than they really are,
Avoiding all the red flags,
Because we're so convinced they're the one
That's gonna complete me.
Don't,
You know,
Don't take this dream away from me.
Even when some of your friends say like,
Oh,
I'm not sure they're the right one.
You're like,
No,
No,
No,
No,
No.
Even though you know inside,
You're like,
I know it's not,
But I really wanna make him the one.
We make bad choices.
And I think we settle too much because we don't see
That we don't feel worthy inside.
If you feel incomplete,
If you feel separate,
If you are believing this avatar,
This ego,
The separate self as who you are,
Then you do not feel worthy.
That's one of the traits of the ego.
There is the sense of lack and I need something outside
To complete me,
So I'm lacking.
I should just be grateful for any crumbs
That are being thrown my way.
Right?
Right?
You know,
It doesn't matter that he doesn't really treat me
That well because I should just be grateful.
No.
If you're complete and someone's in your life,
A new partner,
And they're not treating you well,
You're gonna say this isn't working out
Because I didn't need you to complete me.
But if you feel incomplete and you're with someone
And they start treating you poorly,
You're gonna hang on for dear life
Because they treated me so well the first three weeks.
If I can just get back there,
We're so convinced of that.
No one can complete us.
So much of the problems in relationships today
Is everyone's looking for someone else to complete them.
And so you put so much pressure on this other person
First of all,
Like my God,
I mean,
We can't do that to people in a relationship.
It's not healthy.
So we put so much pressure.
And then when things start to fall apart,
You know,
The disappointment,
The grasping,
The clinging,
Like why people stay in bad relationships for way too long.
Like just who would I be without them?
Right,
This kind of,
This identification with them
That's so strong,
Right?
The identification of our ego of being with them
That I need someone if I can't be on my own.
So whether it's needing a new partner,
Needing a new job,
Wanting the latte,
Wanting a new holiday,
Wanting,
It's okay.
I really do,
It's okay to want these things.
Like not spend all your time wanting them.
Like it's okay to say like,
Yeah,
That'd be nice.
Yeah,
Let's see if we can,
You know,
Do some things towards it.
But not grasping and clinging at it
Because these things are not going to complete us.
They're not gonna complete us.
That's why we come to spiritual practice,
Right?
We feel incomplete.
That's why we judge ourselves.
It's why we compare.
It's why we think happiness is over there,
Right?
Because there's some part of me that's not right.
And I need something outside of me
In order to get whole again.
And what we're coming to here is in realizing,
Oh no,
You are already whole.
But it's this identification with this little avatar,
The ego,
That has you convinced that you're not.
And you believe that,
You believe the little avatar
More than you believe your reality,
That you are perfectly safe and okay.
That you have enough.
I mean,
Anyone who's on this call,
I would think,
You have internet,
You have a computer or phone,
Right?
Some way of being on this call.
You have the time,
The inclination to be on this.
You have good conditions,
Right?
You may not be living in a mansion,
Right?
Lots of miserable people living in mansions.
Lots of miserable people living in mansions.
Right?
Nothing wrong with the mansion,
But the mansion cannot complete you.
Right?
If we have enough,
Like,
Okay,
Great.
Know that,
Be present,
Be here.
Notice,
So for Ashlyn and for anyone else,
If you notice you're a little bit more
In the kind of chasing something,
Wanting something,
Use that mantra,
Peace is not chasing.
Peace is not chasing,
Peace is not chasing,
Peace is not chasing.
Notice so that you're more aware of that mind movement.
Because we're so locked on the object,
So locked on it,
Like laser focused on it.
We really 100% believe,
No,
If I just got that,
I'd be happy,
And it's like,
But look how unhappy you are right now.
Oh,
I didn't even notice.
I was so focused on it.
I didn't even notice how unhappy I was right now.
But then you're saying the mantra,
Peace is not chasing,
Peace is not chasing,
And you're realizing it,
Yep,
I'm chasing.
And then the chasing drops out,
The chasing mindset drops,
And you're like,
Oh.
Oh,
Yeah,
Peace is the absence of chasing.
The absence of it,
It's here.
It's here.
It's not in the new partner.
Not that there won't be some joy
Or some fun and excitement with it,
Yeah.
Right,
There is in the beginning of a relationship.
But I think the more we come even,
I almost wonder how much joy and excitement
There really is in the new relationship,
Because there's so much grasping at it,
Wanting it to be the one,
That we can't even enjoy that.
We can't even enjoy that.
Right,
I've gotta know that this is gonna be the one.
Gotta get this locked down.
And so there's that nervousness,
That fear,
So there's the desire and the fear,
There's,
Of course,
Desire and fear,
Two sides of the same coin.
Desire,
Fear,
Chasing,
Resisting,
Right?
Right,
Those same two mind movements.
Two sides of the same coin.
So we really don't even enjoy,
Or maybe you're working towards a promotion
And you're working really hard
And you're working on some extra projects,
But there's so much grasping and clinging at the promotion.
You're not even enjoying where you are,
Just kind of the pushing yourself a little bit,
Extending yourself a little bit.
Just where you are in this moment,
Because it's all like,
You've gotta sacrifice it all
For this one thing in the future.
That fleeting happiness that comes and goes.
The praise,
It comes and it goes.
It's so fleeting.
It is so fleeting.
We don't push it away.
Of course,
Praise is helpful.
Praise and criticism are good social cues
That we can take to know like,
Okay,
That was a good thing.
That was good.
Right,
Not to be like,
Oh,
Good,
Like,
You know,
Kind of not to,
Not to buy too much into it.
I'm good.
Just,
Okay,
That was a good thing to do.
Yeah,
That's good.
It's a good cue,
Good cue to know that.
Right,
But not to chase that praise.
The ego is insatiable.
It's never enough.
Never enough.
And then you're just desperate,
Walking around hoping someone's going to praise you.
To again,
Convince you you're a good person
Because you don't feel like a good person
Because you believe more in that thought created me,
The ego,
The separate self,
The little avatar.
You believe more in that
Than the reality of just what you're seeing
And hearing and touching and tasting
And smelling,
Our experience.
Right?
Thank you,
Frederica.
Thank you for your words there.
So,
Yeah,
Use the mantras.
Find some prayers that you like and say those prayers
And just adapt them to how it suits you.
Adapt them to how it suits you.
Say some prayers before your meditation,
A really nice way to go into it.
Use the mantras.
You can go on my teacher's page
And you can find all the mantras.
All those teachings are on there.
You know,
To keep pointing yourself,
To keep pointing yourself into the ways
In which you're taking yourself out of the present moment,
Into those habitual ways that we are trying to
See through the lies of these stories,
The lie that I will be happy when I get over there.
99% of the happiness is coming
From the absence of that thought
Because you got there
And the thought went away for a moment.
There might be some joy and some kind of excitement
Around the promotion or the new person,
But 99% of it
Is the absence that I'm lacking something
Because for a moment,
These two have met up.
For a moment,
They've met up.
But then a few minutes later,
You're driving home.
You just got the big award,
The big promotion,
And already the mind's on to the next,
On what next?
And not that there's anything wrong
With wanting to do something next,
But I need that high again.
I need to get a bigger award next time.
I need to get more validation.
I need to get more praise.
It's never enough,
Never enough.
That's what we're doing here
Is learning to see through
The lies that we tell ourselves all day,
Every day
That are taking us away from knowing the peace
That is here right now.
The feeling,
Because when you're at peace,
You are complete,
You're whole.
The moment you're not whole,
The moment you go back up into that separate self,
That story about me,
Me needing something
Or me needing to push something away
In order to be happy,
The moment you go up into that,
You're separate and incomplete.
But we so believe the thought,
So believe the thought.
We're gonna spend more time on this in a couple of weeks.
So we're taking a break for a couple of weeks
From this class and the Sunday Sangha.
Both of these classes are on Insight Timer
Because I'm traveling on Saturday.
My mom and Maria and I are going to Mexico City
For nine days,
So we're not gonna have class
For a couple of weeks.
And when we come back,
We are going to start the Ego Game series.
So that will be on the Sunday Sangha on Insight Timer.
The Tuesday format will still stay the same.
But we're doing a course I've done a couple of times
Where we really identify the ego
In all of its many characters and disguises
To just bring more awareness towards it.
Because we just keep getting sucked in.
We keep getting sucked in.
We don't see it.
We don't see it.
It's the master of disguise.
It comes in a million back doors.
And so we'll start with the first class
Back on Sunday,
February 4th.
We'll start with really understanding the ego again,
Like kind of breaking it down.
How is the ego arising?
And also,
I don't think that the ego is all bad.
It's not real.
It's not real.
It does not exist.
It is a thought-created me.
But there can sometimes be,
Sometimes there can be a little bit of a benefit in there.
Just a little bit,
Little bit.
Kind of put it like at 20 miles an hour.
Sometimes it can be offering something helpful,
Something that kind of needs to get our attention.
Problem is it's driving at 100 miles an hour
And it's just driving the whole thing.
And we're just believing it.
And so,
Oh,
Well,
What can I do?
I've got to start comparing.
I have no choice,
Right?
You know,
What can I do?
You know,
We kind of feel so helpless around it.
So really understanding though,
How the ego arises.
Because what we're trying to do is see through the illusion
That we are the ego.
It's not that we're killing or destroying the ego.
You cannot destroy something that doesn't exist.
But we are,
By seeing through it,
Learning to stop identifying with it.
That's probably what I would say is the death,
Is that,
Oh,
I'm not the ego.
I'm not the ego.
Oh,
Oh,
I thought I was.
This little wounded me that was criticized last week.
I so believed,
It was so upset.
It was so,
Felt so threatened,
So worried,
So frightened.
But when the thought went away,
So did the little criticized me.
What happened?
Right,
So really we're gonna go through each week.
We'll probably,
It'll probably take us
About 12 weeks to get through it.
I just cover,
Well,
We did nine,
Libby,
You're on the class,
Because we did this.
You did it with us the first time.
I just bring out nine characters of the ego,
Kind of nine of the big ones for us to identify.
Again,
There's still many,
Many disguises.
But we'll also kind of pop in with a few other classes
Along the way that just,
Again,
Just helping to really understand it better,
Understand how this process keeps happening
So that we can not be so,
Not just,
Not be so believing in it.
In that little wounded me when it's like,
I'm sitting here perfectly fine,
Right?
And to know that,
Oh,
Okay,
Yeah,
Maybe I made a mistake.
Right,
Oh,
I made a mistake,
Right?
And we can get so lost in the ego.
Oh,
I'm such a loser,
I'm such an idiot.
I can't believe I did that,
Right?
And then we're like,
Oh,
Oh,
Sweetheart,
Self-compassion,
Right?
That was embarrassing back there,
Right?
It's okay,
It's okay.
You're human,
Right?
We're just self-forgiveness,
Self-forgiveness.
Yeah,
And just to JG and Gary's point,
Yeah,
It's so sneaky,
It's so insidious.
We don't even realize we're walking around all day long
Believing,
I mean,
Literally believing this,
Like watching a different movie screen,
Kind of enough that we can get around and function,
But believing this other movie screen
Of this little wounded me that's not getting what it wants
And everyone else is getting what they want,
Right?
And just so believing that it's true
And it's like,
It's not even real,
But we've so identified with it,
So identified.
So I think that this'll be the third time.
I did it live,
We did it on a Sunday class years ago
And then I did it on a retreat last year.
And so it'll always be a little different
Every time I bring it out,
But it's a good course.
It really brings a lot of awareness
To the ways in which the ego is arising
So that it's not,
We're kind of pulling the veil back on
And going,
Take a look,
Take a look.
So it's not so sneaky anymore.
And just Gary,
To your point,
100% true,
Yes.
We are literally in a trance,
We're in a trance
And we're numb in that trance,
Right?
We're so,
This is kind of,
I can't remember who was saying it back here earlier,
But about like,
We don't feel anymore.
I mean,
We feel tight,
We feel tense,
We feel on edge
And we're reacting from those feelings.
The stories keep spinning from those feelings,
But we don't really feel it.
We're just in this trance of just uncomfortableness,
This like sense of unworthiness,
This sense of just something's not quite right.
Like we can never trust when things are going well,
Like,
Oh,
Something's gonna happen here,
Right?
It's like,
For those of you that used to watch Seinfeld,
That was my favorite show when George Costanza,
I can't remember all these things were going well for me.
It's like,
You know,
I know something's gonna go bad.
Like God would never let me be this happy.
Like he's just,
He cannot be happy.
Like he just cannot even allow the good conditions.
And I mean,
That's how we are.
Like we're just always walking around,
Like not trusting.
Like something's always missing.
Yes,
What's off,
What's off?
Let me go back and look for it.
And then we find something,
Oh,
That's right.
I forgot back there,
That person was unkind to me
Or I forgot this.
I wasn't included in something five years ago
Or I forgot,
Right?
And it's like,
We're just bringing up this stuff
To give more weight to this little unworthy me.
And it's like,
It's not even real.
And we've just become very numb because of this.
And we don't experience,
We don't really hear
Or see or touch or taste or smell.
We don't taste our food.
We're eating it,
Thinking about the next meal,
Right?
Whatever we're doing,
We're thinking about,
We're on holiday and planning the next holiday,
Right?
We're on the date,
The first date,
Planning the wedding.
It's like we're never,
You get the new promotion,
You're already thinking of the next one,
Right?
Instead of just enjoying the ride,
Like there's ups and downs,
There's ups and downs.
Everyone experiences ups and downs.
Gain and loss,
Pleasure and pain,
Praise and criticism,
We all experience it,
Right?
And it's like when the ride's going in a fun direction
And everything's going your way,
Just enjoy it.
Have gratitude for the good conditions,
Enjoy it.
They won't last,
Right?
Don't grasp at them,
Don't make something out of it.
Oh,
Now I'm set for life,
Because how many times have we said that?
It's not you're set for life.
It's like,
Oh,
These are the conditions.
This is what's arising.
Yay,
The ride's fun right now,
Right?
And then when the ride gets a little mundane,
Right?
Oh,
Okay,
It's a little boring.
Well,
This won't last either.
It's okay,
Okay,
I've got a little extra time.
I can sit back and just kind of look at the world
And see how things are arising and passing away.
Isn't this what we say we need time for in our practice,
Right,
Practice just to be?
And when we have those moments,
We have the difficult person in our lives,
The relationship that's a little bit tense,
There's something going on,
And it's like,
Okay,
And this won't last.
This won't last.
I can practice forgiving myself.
I can practice forgiving them.
I can practice loving kindness.
Be okay,
Because I know this won't last,
Right?
And I wanna make sure that however I'm responding to this,
That I'm responding with wisdom and compassion,
But my happiness is not dependent upon fixing that.
Right?
Because that's what we tell ourselves.
Well,
No,
I just need this one thing,
And then I can get back to my spiritual practice.
No,
It's like,
Okay,
I can have some compassion
For what's going on.
I can have self-compassion,
Being with what is.
It's unpleasant,
Right?
Okay,
It's okay,
It's not gonna kill us.
Just being with what is here in this moment.
Right,
And this is the ride.
This is the ride.
We are the ride.
We are the ride,
And the ride goes up and down.
Sometimes it goes sideways.
Sometimes it does a little loop.
But we've gotta stop being on the ride,
Pretending that the ride should be somewhere else.
I wanna be on that ride.
I wanna be over there.
This is the ride.
This is the ride.
And to enjoy the ride,
We keep our mind in our body
As the ride,
Not pushing back on it,
Not believing there's a better ride somewhere else,
Because we're denying the ride that's right here.
The sense of completeness and wholeness,
And connection,
Right?
The connection that we wanna feel,
That we do not feel when we are lost in the ego.
We feel,
Oh,
I'm separate from everyone,
Everyone,
Everything.
It's such an isolated,
Such a feeling of aloneness.
And when the reality is we are,
Every single one of us is connected.
Every single one of you are making this call
Go in this particular direction.
Every word,
Gary,
JG,
Frederica,
Jim,
Ashlyn,
Wout.
I hope I said your name right.
Diane,
Richard,
Jim,
Rosa,
Crystal.
Going back,
Mary,
Angela.
I'm gonna keep going back.
All of you,
Frederica and Jessica.
Everyone,
All of you have made,
We are all connected in that we have created
This call together,
This dialogue,
Right?
You're affecting it.
You're creating it.
We're co-creating this moment.
And even if you haven't said anything,
In that way,
You've created something there,
Letting someone else's words come through.
We're all,
That's what the beauty of all of this is,
How it's arising in each moment,
How we are all arising connected in each moment.
That's what's so beautiful.
That's what's so interesting.
Not the little me that's not getting what it wants.
That's so boring and so painful.
It's so painful,
It's so painful.
So,
So we will,
While we're always talking about,
We spend a lot of time in these classes,
Of course,
Talking about what we're not,
The ego.
And then we've also spent many classes
Talking about what we are,
Understanding what we are,
Because it is important that we understand
What we are as well.
And I know everyone's at different stages
Of their practice here,
And some of you
Understand that a little bit better when I talk about
The fact that we are not an independent,
Solid entity.
We are a process arising in each moment
And changing moment by moment based on all of the causes
And conditions that are happening.
The weather,
The people that are around us,
Our biological processes,
What our dogs are doing,
What they're not doing,
What the scorpions are,
Oh,
I found a little baby scorpion in my bath the other day.
They're coming out now.
So we have a lot of scorpions down here in the desert.
So I always make a joke about like,
What the scorpions are doing could affect
Whether this call took place or not today
If I'd gotten bit by a scorpion just before.
So it was just a little baby I found,
Which means there's a mama somewhere around.
So,
But yeah,
I mean,
What the scorpions are doing,
What the snakes are doing,
What the birds are doing,
What the weather is doing.
I mean,
All of these things,
Right,
Arising whether we have this call or not,
Whether we have this meeting or not,
How we are arising in each moment.
All right.
Thank you,
Gary.
Thanks.
So,
But it's important we do understand the ego.
We really do because that's who we identify as.
Something solid and independent.
We are not solid and independent.
We are all a part of this tapestry.
You cannot not be a part of it.
You can think you're not a part of it,
But that's not reality.
It's not reality.
Okay.
With that,
I think we will end our meeting.
So I think I got to everyone's questions on here.
Oh,
And I just wanted to mention to Gary.
Sorry,
Yeah,
I'm down to a Band-Aid now.
So there's still,
You know,
I've got the sutures
And I still got all the sutures and all the other places.
So,
But down to a Band-Aid on my forehead,
I figured.
So didn't have to have the big bandage there
The other day again,
So.
And you're beginning again.
Excellent.
So let's all remember that.
Begin again.
Self-forgiveness,
Self-forgiveness.
Put the rucksack down.
That is part of our path is to forgive ourselves
For being human,
Right?
And thank you,
Richard.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
And nice to see some new faces here.
Thank you,
Diane.
Thank you so much.
And a lot of familiar faces.
So just a couple of weeks break
And then we will come back in a big way with the ego
And really just pull back the veil on it,
Help you to see it and understand it more,
More easily,
So.
Okay,
So thank you all.
Blessings to all of you.
Blessings,
Blessings.
Thank you,
Frederica.
Thank you so much.
So sending lots of love.
Thank you,
Sue.
Thank you,
Nancy.
So appreciate it.
Thank you all for contributing
And making this call what it was today.
So,
Right?
If it wasn't with you guys,
Like we would,
This wouldn't be happening.
So thank you.
Thank you,
Crystal.
Thanks so much.
Namaste.
May you all be happy.
May you be well.
May you be safe.
Namaste.
