We Are Made For These Times

45:01

45:01

We Are Made For These Times

by Natural Dharma Fellowship

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4.9

Type

talks

Activity

Meditation

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Everyone

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474

In excerpts from a two-part talk titled "We Are Made For These Times," NDF's Lama Liz Monson discusses how we already have what we need to liberate our contracted and frozen self-focused "me-me-me" energies so that we can skillfully respond to these challenging times from the essence of our innate true being. A recording of the guided compassion meditation that Lama Liz discusses here is available as "Handshake Practice Meditation With Introduction."

Emotions Buddhism Community Interconnectedness Ethics Love Compassion Inner Strength Vajrayana Buddhism Community Care Love Essence Compassionate Presence Emotional Permission Emotional Protection Emotional Energy Connection Emotional Reactivity Bodhisattva Spirits

Meet your Teacher

Natural Dharma Fellowship

Springfield, NH, USA

Meet your Teacher

Natural Dharma Fellowship

Springfield, NH, USA

Transcript

This morning, I wanna talk about where we can turn within ourselves for the resources that we need to live well with and for each other in this period of time that we are facing into. You know, When we're standing on the threshold of the possible demise of our democracy, When we're right in the middle of the breakdown of our ecosystems, Our climate patterns. As a society, It seems that on some level, We no longer really appreciate the values of kindness and care and compassion, Or just being a good person. You know, We live in this commodified culture of mass distraction, Addicted to our devices, Our entertainments, Our belongings. Many younger people are living these days almost entirely in virtual worlds. And so there is a kind of a really profound, I think, Sense of disconnection from our innate interconnectedness with everything and everyone, And particularly with the natural world. There's a kind of separation from what is sustaining and nourishing, Which includes community and relationship and sources for moral living and ethical reflection. And so here we are then, We're kind of stranded in this groundless and really unknown condition. We don't know what's going to happen. There are lots and lots of projected models of this and that, But we don't know for sure. That's a very powerful place to be, In such a deep state of groundlessness and not knowing. At such a time, How do we live well with and for others? And that phrase, Live well with and for others, I need to make sure that I attribute that to where it comes from. It comes from a French philosopher named Paul Ricoeur, Philosopher on ethics. It's kind of his statement, The kind of quintessential statement on what it means to live an ethical or a moral life is to live well with and for others. And then the unpacking of that, What does that mean? So what does that mean for us? When we're faced with the challenges that we're faced with, How do we want to conduct ourselves? How do we develop a relationship, Not only to what's unfolding in the so-called outer world, But also to our own reactivity, Our own fear, Our own apprehension and rage and sorrow? How do we develop a relationship to who we are that is productive in this period of time? And that is in harmony with why we were even born to begin with. Why are we here? You know, This is one of those huge questions and a question that often does take many of us towards a spiritual path. Why are we here? And I would present to you that we are here because we are in our basic essence, We were made to respond to exactly this kind of time, That we have what it takes, We have what we need to live well with and for others, Even if everything we know breaks down. Everything we care about is lost. We still have what we need to be together in connection, In kindness and in care. Every one of us has that capacity, That ability. Every one of us can be in a relationship with ourselves to start with, We've got to start there. A productive relationship to the self, Not a relationship where we look at what we're feeling and we just feel like we can't do anything because we're paralyzed by the depth of our emotion, The strength of our emotion or our fear or all of the thoughts that are just churning, Right? Which make it very difficult to act in a clean and clear way. We are made for these times, Why? Why would you say you are here at all? Why are you on the planet at this particular time? And from the point of view of the Buddhist path and particularly from the point of view of this branch of the Buddhist path, Known as the Vajrayana, We are living in a time where the conditions are the most conducive to rapid and complete liberation, To complete freedom. Because freedom, Liberation can't happen unless all of the conditions are in place. And you might think, Oh, Well, You know, What I need then is I need a peaceful spot, A quiet place in the wilderness where my basic needs are taken care of, Where all I have to do is just relax and practice. And then, You know, Like the yogis of Tibet did for thousands of years, Right? Undisturbed by the outer world. But what the Vajrayana is saying is no, Actually the conditions that are the most conducive to freedom are exactly what we are experiencing now. When emotion is high, When reactivity is very powerful and strong, And when things as we know them are changing in a dramatic way, When it's very groundless and unclear what's going to happen, Those are the conditions that the Vajrayana says are the most conducive to waking up. And when I say waking up, What I mean, Waking up meaning manifesting our deepest nature, Manifesting what we were made to be, Which is a bodhisattva in the world who can bring care, Can bring compassion, Can manifest simply by being who they are, Kindness, And really manifest whatever's needed in any given moment. That we have that capacity, That is our birthright. That's how the Vajrayana understands it. Actually, That's how the whole entire Buddhist path understands it, Whether you're in the Vajrayana part of, You know, School of Buddhism or not. We are already a bodhisattva. We're an aspiring bodhisattva. Now we need to enter the bodhisattva path, Fully enter, Fully enter, Right? We need to mature to the point where we manifest this innate dimension of who we are, A being of care, A being that is awake, Alive, Wise in terms of knowing what's necessary and compassionate in terms of being able to express care. So how, How are we gonna manifest as we really are? What force can we call on within ourselves that is powerful enough, Potentially powerful enough to change this trajectory that we find ourselves on globally, Nationally, Socially, Politically? There's a lot going on out there in this world that nobody's advertising. The media is locked into certain patterns and ways of sharing and topics to be shared. So all of the good work that's being done on our planet in terms of the climate, In terms of social justice, In terms of working with our democratic systems and our ways of being in harmony with each other, That work is not highlighted. We don't see the news about that. But the reason I'm saying this is because it's very important that we look beyond what the surface level of the media would like to brainwash us into thinking is the only thing happening and see that there's so much more going on, That there is a lot of energy that people are putting forward to face into the situation as it is and to creatively, Powerfully work with the conditions that we find ourselves in. So now we have a chance to do that too. We all have a chance to do that. And we do that, We begin, We begin, Continue, And follow all the way through on the personal level. But all the way along with that, That personal level is continuously conjoined with the communal level, The larger level. And yet we do have to do the work ourselves as well. We have to, Or we can't really be interconnected with the larger communal world of energy that is seeking to shift this kind of directionality that we find ourselves facing it. In my mind, There are two things that are absolutely necessary. The first is to forge, To create, Easeful and liberating relationships with our own emotional experience, Our own emotional distress. That's the first that I think is absolutely necessary. And the second thing that I think is absolutely necessary is the creation of communities of care and kindness and insight, Communities. And that is what I'll talk about a week from Monday. And today I'm gonna continue to talk about how do we develop an easeful and liberating relationship with our own emotional distress? Because if we are caught in our emotional distress, We cannot be effective in manifesting who we really are in the world. So we have to start right here. We have to start right here with what we feel right now. In all of its intensity, In all of its struggle, If there is struggle, There isn't any other working ground than what is right here, Right now in our immediate experience. So this is where the promise of the Vajrayana comes in. Now I'm not saying, By the way, These other traditions don't also have powerful and liberating techniques for working with exactly what we need to work with to actualize who we deeply are. But what the Vajrayana is known for, And the Vajrayana, Again, It's a branch of Buddhism. It developed slightly later than some of the other forms of Buddhism you see in the world. And the Vajrayana Buddhism is the Buddhism of Tibet, The Buddhism of the Himalayan region. This is the Buddhism of the Vajrayana. The Vajrayana teaches that at a deep level within us, You could say our basic substrate of our being, There is an essential part of us that is inherently open, Awake, So it's awake, It's spacious, And it is kind, It is loving, It cares. This is said to be the essence of who we are, The deepest essence of who we are, The nature of who we are. Soknyi Rinpoche calls it essence love. Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche called it basic goodness. The Mahayana traditions of Buddhism call it Buddha nature. This deep, Caring capacity that has always been present within us, And its energy that is always emerging, It is constantly emerging from within. This energy that motivates us, That propels us into our lives, That emerges usually in distorted forms, Such as emotions, Thoughts, Feelings. Now, Not to say there's anything wrong with thoughts, Feelings, And emotions. The point is just that when we experience that energy, Let's say the energy of fear, The energy of fear rises up inside of us. You can feel what it feels like when you're afraid. It may be different for all of us, But let's say, For example, There's a feeling of kind of a hollowness in your gut, And a kind of shakiness throughout the physical body. You just feel kind of, You're gonna explode or run in a million different directions, This kind of fear, Intense feeling of fear, The energy of that, Or it could be anxiety. Sometimes anxiety can feel that way too, Right? When that, Let's say, When that energy comes up, We have a lifetimes old habit pattern of freezing that energy, Freezing that flow of energy into what we label as fear. We label it as fear. We label it as anger. We label it as grief, Right? We immediately latch onto the energy. We freeze it and we other it. We make it something separate from us in a certain sense. So as the energy, So this is what's meant by energy. Energy is when, I mean, Really the way that the Buddhist tradition describes this is that energy is part of every experience we have. We are always experiencing energy because that's what we are. We're a being of space and energy. Energy is always moving. Energy is always changing. Energy is always rising and dissolving, Rising and dissolving and changing and moving. But we freeze this energy that is always arising in ourselves. We freeze this vital healing energy by reacting to it. And we set ourselves up in different kinds of relationship to our energy. Three primary relationships. Either we're attached to what we feel and we want to hang onto it, Or we have a lot of aversion to what we feel and we don't want to feel it, Or we don't care. It's just not important enough to us to bother, Right? It doesn't matter. And then we further reify those feelings, Those energies by telling them, Attaching them to storylines, Attaching them to lots of storylines and rationales and justifications, Right? So instead of just a pure flow of energy moving through and out, We get stuck. We get caught up. We freeze it all. And we contract around our feelings, Around our energy. We kind of get stuck in this reified little me, I, Me, Mine world. And I don't like that feeling and I don't want to feel that. And, You know, It becomes this whole little thing. It's all about I, Me and mine. Or even if it's a lovely feeling, We contract around it because we don't want to lose it. Oh no, I have to feel this. I got to keep this. I can't lose this. That process where we latch onto our energy and we reify it, We freeze it, And then we attach stories to it is ego's most skillful and subtle means of keeping us focused on the self, Living in a very self-centered world. It's a very subtle mechanism that has been operative in us for many lifetimes, But it keeps us self-centered, Self-focused. And not about anyone else. It's just about me. And, You know, I don't want to feel that. And I want to feel that. And I'm caught up in this. And I got this storyline about how bad and terrible I am. And I can't do that. Or how that person did this to me. And there we are. We're just in this little samsaric realm. It's not very pleasant. But left alone, Allowed to unwind naturally in their own time and space, These energies that we call emotions can manifest as skillful and caring responses to the world. That is the promise of the whole Buddhist path. That is why we're here, Is to begin to allow our innate energy to flow freely and skillfully into the world. I mean, It sounds so wild, Right? It sounds like, What? No way. How could that be the case? How is that possible? I've seen it happen. Well, Here, Think about it this way. Think about how much energy you feel when you get angry about something. Especially if you get really angry about something. Think about the kind of energy you feel. Now, Normally when we get angry about something, There's a lot of story about it, Right? I'm angry because blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah. And then we feed that anger by just going, Do more blah, Blah, Blah about it. What if we just stuck with the feeling of the energy and kind of bracketed the storyline? Let's just take that out of the picture for a moment. Imagine how much energy is freed up that could motivate us into action in the world, Into some kind of way of being a benefit. That's a tremendous amount of energy that comes up when we feel something like anger. And it's got a lot of force to it, A lot of power to it. What if that force and that power were allowed, Not to act, I'm not talking about acting out our anger, Okay? Let's be really clear here. It's about letting ourselves be moved by the energy that naturally arises within us in appropriate ways, In appropriate ways. Remove the storyline from the anger. It's not anger anymore, It's energy. It is powerful energy that could be directed wherever it needs to go. It's only the label anger and the storyline that make it into something that is potentially destructive. Because it's then coming out of an impulse to either, Who knows, Right? Cause harm in some fashion. But if we can change our relationship to these energies as they arise, Right? If we can change the relationship from one of grasping, Trying to push away or just being indifferent to one of openness and permission and care, Then we can unleash the power of essence love within ourselves into the world. We could do that. We can do that. That's what we're doing, Actually. That's what we're doing on the path. You may not think that's what you're doing, But you are doing that. No matter what practice you're doing, You are beginning to allow yourself to return to who you really are, To manifest that, To become that, To remove what's in the way of that, Right? That's the path, Is to just remove the obstacles to manifesting fully as a bodhisattva in the world. And that power of essence love, That deep innate part of who we fundamentally are is life sustaining. It is healing. It is fearless. Not fearless because it doesn't acknowledge fear, But because it allows fear to be present just as it is. It allows the energy of that, Right? This is the ship that we need to sail the choppy waters of our current situation. We need to ride on the energy of our basic nature, Our fundamental nature. So this is where I say to myself, Why am I here? Where does the rubber meet the road? It's time to really do this work. Stop thinking about it, To really practice with whatever is here moment to moment to moment, Moment to moment to moment. The Vajrayana practices that many of you already know, All of these practices are ways that we are cultivating and maturing this innate capacity that we have to really manifest as what a human being is meant to be, Right? And any action that we perform in the world can be sourced from this bottomless well of care within us rather than out of our emotional reactivity. We'll still have, Believe me, Plenty of energy. Energy doesn't stop, Right? It just changes form. So the whole Vajrayana path, The Buddhist path, Is an alchemical process of changing what we see as negativity or difficulty or poison into what it actually is, Care, Kindness, Compassion, Skillful means, Insight. How? How do we melt these frozen energy into free-flowing care? The key to melting these frozen energies of our emotions and allowing them to flow in their innate nature is to turn towards them and welcome them just as they are. Some of you have heard this many times, Right? We've taught these practices many times. And somehow, Though, We don't do them as often as we could. We don't do them on the spot when we find ourselves caught in something that we're stuck, You know? We don't do them. And so what I'm trying to say here is, Okay, Everyone, Now's the time. Let's do it. What else are we gonna do? Where else are we gonna turn? Now's the time. I don't think we have a choice. This is how I feel. You may feel differently, But that's how I feel. If we wanna live well with and for others during this period of time and with and for our planet, Our planet needs us to come home really, Really badly. Let's hold our own difficult energy in a gentle, Loving awareness. Let these energies free themselves. Because as soon as we hold them and give them the space they need to just be within us, They free themselves. They unwind themselves. And by freeing themselves, They free us. We're no longer trapped by or paralyzed by our fear or our grief or our anger, Right? It's a different way of perceiving and being, One that's not narrow and contracted, But that is expanded, Right? Unified and compassionately present with whatever we observe, Whatever we experience. We have got to expand. We're never gonna make it in the contracted little world of me, I, Me, And mine. Humans, They're not gonna make it if we stay here. We need to practice being with and holding our own emotional energy. Some of you know how to do this. You know the practice that has been labeled handshake practice by Sokne Rinpoche and compassionate presence to feelings practice by John Makransky. This is one tool. There are many tools, But this is one tool that enables us to choose a liberating relationship to these congested energies, To allow them to flow. We have lots of tools in our toolbox. All of our Buddhist practices are tools that are allowing our energies to flow. But this one, I will say, Is genius. It is genius. If you really do it, It changes everything. It changes everything. So Vajrayana is very practical. You might think, Oh, No, No, It's very esoteric. No, It's not. It's very, Or exotic, It's very practical. It uses present moment experience as the working basis. It turns our focus into the depths of these energies, Into the depths of these energies so that we can rediscover their nature as free-flowing responsiveness to the world. When we do, When we turn towards this deeper dimension of our being, When we turn towards our difficult feelings and the energies that arise within us, When we hold who we are as it's changing, When we can do that, We discover an innate protection that when we can connect to essence love within us, To our own capacity for love and kindness, That protects us from the downward spiral of despair and outrage and fear and depression. It is a protection. When we directly experience that source of love from within, Then the genuine wish for others to also have love and care and happiness arises, And it transforms not only our own mind and body, But also our world, Our homes, Our workplaces, Our wherever we go, Into environments of care and protection. So experiencing love and care protects us from our own habits, Our own worst tendencies, Including the ways that we tend to reduce others and our understanding of the world into these very conceptually-based ideas and these limiting, As Lama John always says, Limiting thoughts, Reducing others into objects of want, Objects of need, Not seeing them as full beings in their own right. Coming from this part of us that is already awake, Already in a profound state of kindness, We then can sense and respond to others and to the world with a much more accurate and skillful approach because we see them in their fullness and in their suffering, And we know how that feels. Start with your own energy. Let's work with what we have right here. We don't have any other place to start our work. From there, We can then expand into any other kind of activism that calls to us. We're all going to participate in a different way. We all have different skills, And we all have different inclinations. The more you connect with who you fundamentally are, The easier it is to find where you will be of most benefit and how, But start with alchemizing, With transforming this frozen, Contracted way of being into its nature, Its open, Free-flowing, Compassionate capacity to hold this whole world in our arms, To love it, To appreciate it, And to not let it slip away. We can do that. I believe that. Last week, I talked about how uncovering our innate nature as a source of essence love, Of basic goodness, Is crucial to being able to face forward with kindness and care and wisdom, But I think it is equally important to recognize that our future is entirely dependent on each other, On our interconnectivity, And on communities of care. This is not a time for self-focus, For self-obsession, For only operating within this tiny, Little me-oriented space, Right? When we do that, When we do that, When that's all there is to what is motivating us, Is what can I get, How can I be safe, How can I be okay, Then it's very unlikely that we will be able to bring any kind of sanity, Any kind of care, Any kind of expansiveness to the situation that we're facing. Instead, We're probably just gonna be perpetuating more confusion, More aggression, And more delusion, Focusing on the self and only on the self, Which is what we are deeply, Deeply habituated to doing over many, Many lifetimes from the Buddhist perspective, Is a way of not progressing, Is a way of not growing and maturing and opening and expanding wide enough to hold the enormity of what we're facing. Instead, This is a time for deep listening, For stopping and looking around and seeing, Right? Who is here with you now? Look around right now and ask, How can I connect? How do we all connect with each other here? This is what we have to start to do. It's a time for listening. It's a time for connecting. We may not really be quite ready or willing to absorb the fact that we have entered what one author has very starkly called the sixth extinction and we may not quite be willing to step into the truth of that situation and really believe that we really are there and that's okay, Right? We don't have to fully step there yet, But we may have no choice at some point and it's worth knowing that many people are already working very hard to explore the insights and the methods and the different stances that we as a species could take up in order to live well with and for others, Even in a time when our lives and what supports them breaks down around us. So as our country and as the world moves deeper into this time of dissolution and chaos, What do we really need? Nobody's going to drop down out of the sky and save us. What are we going to do? The formation of communities of care and kindness and insight, I suggest that this is where we need to turn and I'm not the only one suggesting this. Many, Many people are going in this direction, Are feeling the truth of this way of orienting ourselves to the world and to ourselves and to each other, That to have only a self-focused orientation is no longer sustainable or useful. Instead, It's profoundly destructive and dangerous and we've seen how that has played out, Right? For hundreds of years, We've seen how that has played out and here we are. And even if you look at the facts around this, Right? Today, We are bound together in unprecedented ways that alter our understanding and our experience of ourselves as being independent. The internet has woven this whole world together in a way that we never could have foreseen even 30 years ago. It's a different way of being that we live in now where all 84 of us can be here in this virtual space together from who knows how many different locations. And when we feel pain, We feel a global pain. We feel a suffering that weaves itself through all levels of both human and non-human levels. We're continuously actually bombarded by the energy of others, Which makes it difficult to find some kind of stability or clarity in a basic sense of self. And that's just a fact of how things are right now. We are so deeply interconnected. We always were, But we just didn't see it in quite the same way that it's so obviously displayed now. And you might say, You know, You might say, Well, A community of care, That sounds great, Right? But I don't see much sign of that. When I read the news, What I see is more of the same, More greed, More aggression, More confusion, More this, More that, Right? It's a pretty bleak picture. Part of the reason for that is that we're not used to looking for the good. We're not used to looking for care, Moments of interconnectedness with another where you feel seen, You feel heard, You feel accepted for just being who you are, Right? We don't tend to look for those moments. They happen a lot actually, But we just don't look for them because we've been taught to focus on the difficult or on the problematic experiences with other people or the challenging experiences. And it's not just a personal habit that we have, But this is a national habit. It's a global habit. And our media is always focusing, Almost always, I shouldn't say always, Almost always focusing on the negative, The troubling, The difficult, The downright awful. And then we do the same thing inside of ourselves. We focus on the parts of ourselves that we don't like, That we don't think are good enough, That we don't think are worthy, That we don't think can do what we wanna do. And we end up in a similar state as our world. We end up tense. We end up anxious. We end up contracted and into this little tiny reality that is just focused on I and me and mine. So we don't even recognize a point of view that believes or sees that the basic substrate of social wellbeing is love, Is the desire for others to have happiness and contentment. When this care for others is absent, Then it doesn't matter what kinds of policies we have, Whether we're aligned with one political party or another, Whether we have a military or not. When care for others is absent, Nothing can protect us from greed and aggression and ignorance, Nothing. So what is the responsibility then of the bodhisattva, Which is what we are all here, Aspiring bodhisattvas? I'm suggesting we're about to become entering bodhisattvas because there isn't any time anymore for aspiration. It is time to enter. It is time to do. What is the responsibility that we have as an entering bodhisattva? The responsibility we have is exactly, I love how John McCransky describes this in his book, Awakening Through Love. He says that we have a universal responsibility to rediscover our lives as a link to all others, To awaken the tremendous goodness hidden within us and to act from there. That that's our responsibility. I mean, Think about what that actually means. Think about your body, Speech and mind as a channel to other beings, Human and non-human, Not just human, Not just animal, But vegetal, Right? The life of this planet. We are linked to the life of this planet. And the Buddhist path provides us with all kinds of methods for stepping out of self-focused ways of being and for cultivating and expressing this innate openness, This innate kindness and care that is part of who we fundamentally are. That is the promise of the Buddhist path and its practices, That we can shift from an I-oriented worldview to an other-focused view. Think about, For example, Shantideva's work, The Bodhisattvacharyavatara, The Way of the Bodhisattva. If you haven't read this work, I highly suggest it. It's a tremendous work. It's a tremendously beautiful, Poetic supplication to himself to let go of self-cherishing and to open up, To expand large enough to hold the fullness of this life, His own life, And the life of those around him and his environment. Through these kinds of practices, These kinds of technologies, We start to rediscover ourselves and all others as intrinsically sacred, Not only as interconnected, But as sacred, Which brings us back again to this phrase by the Hopi elders that all we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration. I'll come back to the celebration part in a minute, But this is what the bodhisattva path is encouraging us to do, To take that responsibility to rediscover our lives as a point of sacred connection to all others, To step into the river of reality that is running through our lives and understand that we are all in this together. We have to let go of the shore and push off into the middle of the river and keep our eyes open and see who is there with you and celebrate. This notion of the river, The notion of the river here, It has two meanings, Two meanings. The first refers to this steady, Continuous flow of our own basic goodness. This continuously flowing energy that is emerging, Is unfolding from our basic being, The energy of care, The energy of kindness, The energy of appropriate responsiveness to what is needed. That river is always flowing within us and around us, Right? Always flowing. But there's another understanding to this, To what is meant by river here, Which you could say the second understanding is that the river refers to the karmic flow that governs our lives, The karmic flow of events and situations and causes and conditions and situations that kind of makes up the reality that we're moving through, That we're living through. And that when we can uncover, When we can discover, I should say, Perhaps, The inner river of compassionate energy that is flowing within us, It allows us to step much more easily into the karmic river, The river that we don't necessarily have that much control over, That we are somewhat at the mercy of, As are so many others, Right? The kind of collective karmic river that we are all swimming in or resisting in one way or another. But here, The wisdom that is coming to us is saying that it's okay to let go into that karmic river. It's okay because we can see when we connect to the inner flow of our own compassion, That we have everything we need to live well in this time. It is already here with us. We have what we need. We have a tremendous capacity to hold all beings in love and to engage in compassion and action in the world. And when we step into both of these rivers, Which I really think is what we're called to do now, And don't forget to look around and see who's there with you and celebrate, But when we step into these rivers, We discover that we really can expand enough to hold the fullness of our situation. In all of its tragedy, Its beauty, Its aliveness, We can step into this global shift that we are all experiencing, And we can join together with others who are also interested in engaging these practices and to form more and more communities and insight and love. And when we join with that karmic river, That larger karmic river, That means that we become willing to sit in the middle of the enormity of the situation without turning away, Without escaping. We accept on some level that things are what they are, That we are part of this flow at the same time as we act in whatever ways we possibly can to mitigate the damage, To mitigate the suffering that we and others will experience, To live well with and for others. If you think even about the word community, Come plus unify, It has to do with bringing together disparate things in a condition of harmony, Or you could say one definition is the quality of being made whole, Unifying. So while we may be very diverse on the surface, And we are, Right, We have different views, Different ideas, Different appearances, Different personalities, Different colors, Different values, From the Buddhist perspective, We are completely unified at the deepest level of our being on this level where we are non-dual with everything. Ultimately, From the Buddhist perspective, And not just the Buddhist perspective, Many indigenous cultures' perspective, That there is no separation between us and the world. And I think that's the direction we're headed. I really think that's the direction we're headed because community provides a sense of stability, A sense of home, A place where we can actually relax, Where we can transform, Where we can heal, And where we can celebrate, Right? How much can you really celebrate by yourself? Celebration happens with others. Celebration happens when we feel that collective energy of whatever it is. Maybe it's the collective energy of grief, And yet we celebrate within the grief because we're there together. Or maybe it's the collective celebration of beauty because we can appreciate, And the combined energies are so much stronger, So much more creative, So much more full of possibility than the single individual being. And even though on the Buddhist path, Yes, We do have to walk the path ourselves, Right? Only we can really do the work that we need to do, But we can do it with support. And when we feel supported, When we feel loved, We can face the suffering that we encounter, And that is being perpetrated in our world. And so I say, See who is there with you and celebrate. Celebrate. So we practice, We find and form these communities of care, And all we need is just that little push into the situation. And suddenly, If we're open, And if we're looking, And if we're interested, These communities of care are gonna start coming up like mushrooms all over the place. We may not be able to change what's going to come at us through this karmic flow that we are all part of, But we can change how we are in relationship to it. And we can do it together, And find that inner strength and that inner resilience, Because we can lean on the arms of our friends, Of our communities. We can share in the joy, We can share in the grief, We can share in the horror, We can share in the love. What else is there to do? What else is there to do?