in this preference. The potency of this dynamic is the potency of the opportunity to practice. When you get very angry at something, that's a statement about your belief system. That is telling you, this is very important to me. Normally we just go with the reaction to the anger and let the relationship stay for granted. But our practice is to look at the relationship, to look at the wanting or the not wanting, to look at the anger or to look at the desire. It's the relationship to the object. We are given circumstances in our life. We can change them, some of them we can change and some of them we can't change. But the relationship to the circumstances of our existence, we can awaken to.

[01:03]

And that's what calls forth the Dharma, is the awakening to our relationship to the circumstances of our life. So what do you think of that? Sounds good. Right, sounds good. I think that seeing that this mind is Buddha and no matter what it is, it's not just what we like that's Buddha and what we don't like that's something Right.

[02:14]

And then that opening is like the image I was using earlier. It opens up to this more peripheral stuff. And also it almost turns it backwards. Because if we can convince ourselves that getting stuck in preference or getting stuck in anger is a great opportunity to practice, That's like turning our usual way because our sense of practice is freedom from desire, freedom from anger, some sense of coolness, some sense of original space, spaceness. So this is a way to bring into our own commitment a mechanism that will draw us out of that furious momentum towards potent desire or dislike, to bring in something that right there in its heat we can say, this is an opportunity to practice.

[03:30]

There's a certain sense in which things. So in the way I've been talking about it, the logical consequence of what I would say would be that we make it more interactive, we make it more fluid, we notice it as it comes together.

[04:46]

So what happens is it comes together and it becomes reified, it becomes solid, it becomes an entity, it becomes a demon. And that's as it processes along, as we take for granted the relationship, as we take for granted that I really want this, then that's taken for granted and I move on to how to get it, right? But if I'm looking at, or if I'm really afraid of this, If I take for granted, I'm really afraid of this, then the next question is, how do I get away from it? Or how do I live with this thing being so fearful? Yes. But if we can look at the relationship, then there's possibility. There's this possibility that

[05:47]

I can see in the relationship what is in this moment. There's fluidity, there's possibility, there's acknowledgement of arising conditioning, there's possibility of change, there's engagement in the Dharma of impermanence. What I'm getting from what you're saying is, whatever that is, let's say some strong passion or something, letting it live in a very big context. Letting it live with the sense that it's going to change also, or that it's fluid, or that you're responding and relating to it. It's not something that's just activated and off and running. Well, I think there's two dynamics to what I'm saying. And one is coming to awareness.

[06:51]

and seeing this is a relationship I have that is my reality. And if we can get close to that, other things become possible. If that's lost and buried and just there as an assumption, then this is a fearful thing and I've got to figure out how to live with my fear or how to get away from it or what to do. So that's... And so how do we get close to that embedded fear? And we get close to that embedded fear by calling forth the fact that the potency of our engagement in life is an opportunity to awaken. It's like we take the usual approach and we turn it on its head.

[07:59]

So we take the person who has difficult circumstances and we say how fortunate they are. And we take the person who has comfortable circumstances and we say what a pity. I hope their life becomes more difficult. And sometimes it really seems that way. You know, sometimes some people come to practice and they're just so smart and so together and they just breeze along and they sort of breeze in and they breeze out, you know? And you sort of wonder, well, maybe I don't need to practice or... They just weren't challenged enough, you know? So from this reverse position, if your life isn't difficult, you're in trouble.

[09:01]

As Suzuki Roshi would say, when you have a problem, you have a way to go. So this is something that we can contemplate on, that we can have available So when the passion and the heat and the fury and the dread come up, something in our heart can say, this is the potency of awakening. This is the the wellspring of Avalokitesvara's compassion. This is what allows life to come forth vibrantly, fluidly, illuminating and awakening. This is where Avalokiteshvara's compassion fits into our practice.

[10:06]

Our practice is based on compassion, but where is the compassion in sitting here and not sitting over there? Where is the compassion in coming up to someone and saying, why aren't you at a lecture? And for us, compassion is in acknowledging this very stuff of human existence, the very ways we get stuck and producing unstuckness to bringing forth the path of liberation that literally allows us to live. Okay, thank you.

[11:04]

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