Namaste and welcome
in Buddhist
cosmology
there's a term that I think is really
powerful and it's called the realm of
the hungry ghosts. It's a psychic
realm and it's a description really of
us in certain states and it's the
beings inner depicted with these narrow
narrow necks and these huge bellies which
really are reflecting this endless
desire for satisfaction and this
incapacity to ever really be satisfied.
the grasping and addiction that we we
get caught up in so it's really that
that space of living in that chronic
sense of something's missing I need
something more to be okay and i was
reminded of this term because last
weekend on Saturday night I spent about
15 or 20 minutes walking through a Sands
Casino in Pennsylvania and you might
wonder what was i doing in a casino and
I was at a wedding and a lot of
the guests were in that hotel
so Jonathan and I decided we'd just have a
sociological experience of our culture
so we wandered through and the most
notable thing to me - and it was packed on
Saturday night - was that nobody was happy
there was
either this intense focus on being
pumped up and this wanting you could
feel or this kind of deflation or angry
or in some way defeated
there was very little eye contact
possible
I mean even couples that were there they
weren't there together really you know
one of them was on the machines and it
was the land of hungry ghosts and it
sounds extreme but when we're honest we
realized that for many of us we live
with a kind of non dissatisfaction - a
kind of a disappointment that our lives
aren't turning out the way we wanted and
there's a sense of never arriving like
we're trying to get somewhere and not
and we're not there
so can this hungry ghosts can have a
whole range of degree, but along with
that is that we have then patterns again
chronic patterns on how we are trying to
meet our needs and we use all these
different substitute gratifications
whether it's sugar, or approval seeking or
our possessions and as we know, when
we're doing that it's temporary fixes
you know we feel we're on a roller
coaster we feel better for a little bit
but then the need is back there again so
we have a lot of this hungry ghost
energy that runs through many of us. Some
of you might remember one of my favorite
kind of little essays on this kind of
thing is called inner peace
if you want to achieve inner peace you
need to finish all the things you
started so I looked around seeing all
the things i had started hadn't finished
so today,  I finished one bottle of gin,
bottle of red wine, a pint of Ben and
Jerry's, my prozac and a large box
of chocolates. You have no idea how good
I feel.
and how short we live that will be. So
this hungry ghost energy its fixates on
substitutes
but it can be really tenacious I
remember a line from Woody Allen where
he says, "i love this old watch
you know it was my grandfather's. When he
was on his deathbed, he sold it to me."
I've shared that when i was in high school
my introduction to buddhism was
basically you need to let go of your
attachments and not be caught and
desire and I thought that meant that
desire was bad and it was quite a number
of years till I came back around to
Buddhism. But it was a misunderstanding
and it's one that I see in a lot of
people. You see the teachings are not
that desire is bad, in fact desire goes
hand in hand with existing. There's no
existence without desire you wouldn't be
here if it weren't for desire
really and filling desire can be
temporarily pleasant and not having to
fill can be temporarily unpleasant but
it's being caught
that's the suffering. ok?
it's the caught part of it - it's
where there's a hook
and we're going to look in our
lives where we have that hook where
there's a sense of I have to have this
to be happy.
I have to have this to feel okay
if life doesn't cooperate in
this way
it's really not okay
when Thai forest monk Ajun Cha - very very
well known - inspired a lot of this
generation's teachers in
the Western
in Western Buddhism - it was known that
he'd walk around his monastery and when
he see one of the monastics looking like
they're having a hard time he'd go up to
them and say, "you must be very attached."
and that was his comment you
must be very attached and then the
invitation would be okay where's the
hook so I do think of our attachments
and addictions when they reach the in a
very strong locked in way as a flag and
as a flag
it's really a flag that we've left home
it's a flag that our attentions energies
are fixated outside ourselves and in
some way we've we've pulled away from
our own awareness and our own heart and
if we can pay attention to where were
stuck where most stuck if you can like
really get it this is where I'm hooked
and if we're willing to pay attention to
deepen our attention than that very
place of stuckness the hook actually
becomes a portal to a very profound
transformation and freedom and that's
that's the promise
so so this class what we'll do is we'll
there'll be an inquiry and to where our
attachments are addictions constructing
our life force
where for each of us and again it can
get very very subtle
the more you've been working on the
spiritual path and deepening
attention the more you find more and
more very very subtle heart attack
places where there are some holding on
I think the best nutshell summary that
was given a freedom is that to cling to
nothing nothing at all whatsoever as
line as me
our mind so it's a non clinging
it's a very alive one for me the
particulars of talking about attachment
addiction because my mother was an
alcoholic and she stopped drinking when
I was I think 18 and then that became
her life work working in the field of
alcoholism
I had an eating disorder when I was
younger
I've had siblings and friends having
every kind of possible addiction we can
think of
it's through the years working
with students and as a 
therapist.
Most people when they start getting real
with themselves find that they're hooked
on something. So it becomes part of our
honesty in ourself awakening to get well
what is that what's going on
just out of curiosity I'm gonna do a
hand raised thing happen if you feel
like you kind of know your primary areas
of attachment or addiction you're kind
of on to yourself on that can receive
our hands
for those that are listening for fists
like to share this with those that
aren't in the room
how many feel like you're consciously
working in this area like you're really
kind of trying to undo and loosen up
yeah ok that's interesting
so as I mentioned there's different
degrees and so the first question let's
just to ask is what actually is desire
because it's considered this universal
energy that all life desires to exist to
flourish and I remember some years ago
probably at four or five years ago I
read a really interesting article in New
York Times science section that
described help
mathematically perfect the balance
universe couldn't exist in other words
of matter and antimatter were exactly
equal they cancel each other out
ok but this is there was one of those
demonstrations in the famiiy National
Accelerator lab where they create that
they created a little mini universe and
and show how what happened right after
the Big Bang and they feel in collisions
that there is a slight about bias of
certain elements in the electron to its
charge opposite
so there's this cosmically my miss
killer leaning towards attraction so
that rather than cancel each other out
existence happens now my understand
doesn't go any deeper than that but it's
to me what with the intuition is is that
formless being wants to manifest
it's like the ocean wants to have waves
and that the ocean knows itself through
the appearance of waves
that's my favorite way of describing it
to myself that it's an intrical part of
this whole universe that we awaken
through for that through perceiving
uniformed receipts than the ocean
perceives itself to the ways we perceive
what we are this awareness and love
through forms
so it's an organizing principle and
desire takes on different dimensions of
aliveness it takes on the dimension of
the desire for food to connect with food
and the Material Plane to be alive and
sex and self-esteem and feeling safe and
feeling bonded and self-realization and
awareness itself there are different
dimensions of desire
what we yearn for so what turns desire
into attachment
in other words where where is that where
do we get some hooks and stickiness in
here
the latin word for desire is de sitter
ra and it means away from your star
so when there is desire there's some
sense of being away from home and a
longing for homecoming and that feel
that feels kind of intuitively true that
I think of it that this r star is the
energetic source of our being the
awareness that's the source of our being
and we have a longing to come home to
our true nature to really rest in our
wholeness
so each dimension of desire from gross
toques increasingly subtle express are
the expressions of aliveness from the
gross to the more and more subtle from
wanting food to wanting the enlightened
experience of awareness itself
now the hook if our basic needs are not
met for basic needs for food for
security for bonding or not met then our
attention narrows and fixates desire
becomes fixated desire intensifies and
the more on net needs the more we get
fixing it until we call it
attachment our addiction and some
examples of this that they've seen with
chimps that when there's poor bonding
then the young chimp grows up not only
to be very aggressive but that'd be a
binge eater
ok just it just that's what it is that's
the sub
to do gratification that's a primitive
reward system and then with fruit flies
and i found this from an article called
sex and alcohol on a very small scale
male fruit flies deprived of sex may
turn to alcohol as a source of pleasure
they did an experiment where they had
two groups of mail
fruit flies and one had sex the other
was deprived of sex
it's cruel cruel experiments era and the
sexually deprived meals overwhelmingly
selected the boozy brew they were given
to either a normal mush or Rosie are a
boozy mush and they drank four times as
much as they're sexually satisfied
brethren
I love the way they write these articles
under head but you get the idea that and
and so you say okay so the unmet needs
so what are the characteristics of
attachment or suffering and there's a
feeling of lack some things on Matt that
something's missing
and there is a mental delusion as to
what will actually bring satisfaction
and happiness that's where we hook onto
substitutes that give temporary relief
for pleasure but don't really solve the
problem
ok and uh and then when we grasp
ok so there's a feeling of need a
misperception of what's going to work
and then a grasping onto the substitute
just a comment on this delusion
because it's really a pervasive feature
of our psyche that we have ideas about
what will bring us happiness and we're
regularly wrong
it's really interesting lottery winners
are ultimately no happier than
non-winners this everybody at the so
that sense because you know it really
didn't matter whether they're going to
win or lose
in terms of their happiness quotient
it's not right away it takes some months
to read it
come back to your happiness set . as
they described it paraplegics are
usually as content as people can walk
we intense we anticipate good things
happen
like a job offer a raise or even having
a child make us happier and that bad
things will make us more measurable and
it's true we have spikes but it evens
out
so then we look at all so what are our
common substitutes what it what are the
things that most of us get hooked on and
I won't spend a long time on it because
you know they're mostly that when we're
missing some sense of security
our bonding maybe we'll go for
accumulating well they're overworked and
proving ourselves or maybe you know it
will be on physical beauty or social
status or power
there's a little line that says when
women get depressed they eat or shop and
what manner to press the attack another
country and how so one of the most
pervasive false refuges our substitute
gratifications I think of them as the
same thing is this never-ending effort
to try to improve ourselves
- and it's not not the kind of improve
ourselves of you know if you can really
sensing the creativity and the knowledge
we longed for but really a kind of like
from a deficit I need to be a better
person kind of striving
there's a there's a cartoon I've always
loved that has a dog on the
psychiatrist's couch and he's saying to
the psychiatrist you know it's always
good dog this and the dog that what is
it ever great dog
and that's what goes on in US
this is part of the hungry ghosts that
so wanting to feel like we're good
enough
I mean if we're honest how many of us
are really content and feel better
enough
again I'm not talking about the kind of
impulse to manifest our true potential
that's not what I'm talking about
talking about the kind of internalize
standards we have that make us think we
should always look better do more be
more
now I've been naming socially condoned
substitute and of course we all know
that the more they
there's unmet needs the more we get
hooked on substitutes that are really
really quite harmful in an over way
whether that is a binge eating or drugs
alcohol sexual compulsions gambling
ok they're really difficult because to
work with because and they also at their
genetic tendencies toward some of these
because the more we do it the more they
create a whole cycle biology and us to
keep them going and summer purely
biological addictive
so again but they're all unmet needs and
like the chimps and like the fruit flies
we can blame ourselves but it's
conditioning we can say my lack
willpower and I'm a bad person and we're
going to talk about how we do that but
it's conditioning
so let's look at the suffering that
comes from attachment because some of
its really obvious like the suffering of
losing a job in a marriage because
you've been drinking too much for using
cocaine but there's all different levels
one level of the suffering is that we
really don't get satisfied that the that
there's never that sense of enough
you might ask yourself how many moments
in your life
there's really not feeling like well you
know I could die right now I mean this
is the fullness and the enoughness this
is it
there's not that sense so there's that
we can't get no satisfaction thing that
it's like always wanting more story of a
man on a California beach and deep
prayer and says out loud
lord please grant me one wish and the
spy clouds over and booming voice comes
well because you've tried to be faithful
grant you one wish
so the man says please Lord build me a
bridge to Hawaii so i can drive over
anytime I need two beautiful sights and
alleviate the stress in my life
Lord that you know that's a very
materialistic kind of old request think
the logistics
you know to reach the to go over the
Pacific the concrete and steel would
take and so on
very resource-intensive anyways take
some time to think of another wish
so then thought about for a long time
finally said lord I wish that I could
understand women
I want to know what women really want
how women can really be made happy and
after a few moments God said you want
two lands on that or four lands that
have
you know the acing that one drink may
make you feel like a new person then the
new person has to have a drink
all right so it's like that wanting
begets wanting is the idea and the the
typical metaphor is it's like drinking
salt water to satisfy thirst
so that's one level of suffering we
don't get satisfied the second i refer i
alluded to a little bit before which is
that along with be hungry ghost energy
of wanting we have an aversion towards
herself for that
how many you have noticed the shame or
self hatred that comes along with the
want in mind how many of you have
noticed that
okay it's a little harder to raise your
hand for in the Buddhist tradition we
call it the second arrow the first arrow
is i want i need i'm not satisfied and
second arrow is I'm a bad person for
wanting and needing and feeling I'm not
satisfied it's the self aversion we pile
on very very notable as part of the
addiction cycle you know eat too much
feel really really bad about yourself
feel like such a bad person and feel so
miserable that you eat more and then
feel bad about yourself and it just
keeps fueling the cycle
ok so that's one other level of the
suffering is the self version and then
the last level on on them is when we're
at our casino and we're really waiting
to win or wanting to win and not quite
there yet and it might be because we're
seeking the approval are we're trying to
in some way get something we don't have
a job or whatever we're not present
it's kind of like we're leaning forward
wanting the next moment to contain with
this moment does not
and this is the heart of the suffering
that comes with the hungry ghosts with
wanting mind with addiction with
attachment that we can be present
we're on our way somewhere else and how
many moments of our life
this is some sense we're on our way to
something rather than this moment counts
second this right now listen this talk
are we on our way to the hub of the talk
or to the end of the talk or what we're
doing later tonight or to the weekend
it's such a deeply grooved habit to have
some discontent and feel something's
missing and that we need something more
that we can skim over the surface and
not really arrived and and taking the
Sun satyr feel the wind on our cheek or
see the the gleam in a child's eyes are
here the child's laugh you know we're
not able to connect be right here which
is ultimately what desires want it
it's like we're away from our star can
we come back so it can't be happy and
the deep teaching here is that are real
the real way we need desire
the real way we find happiness it arises
from presence
the only place you can really be happy
as when there's an openness and
wakefulness and a tenderness right here
so the pursuit of the hungry goes
actually blocks present it blocks us
from feeling the light of our own spirit
the light of that star the word desire
away from our star the satisfaction of
desire is recognizing that our star the
late and love we seek is here in this
moment
and as long as we fixate outside
ourselves we can experience that at a ma
MIT conference there was a roomful of
scientists and addiction researchers and
this is a bill moyers who writes this
he's he's there and he's been asked to
speak and he says I have an illness with
origins in the brain but I also suffer
the other component of this illness
Sal cohoes and he told the gathered
researchers and scientists
I was born with what i like to call the
hole in my soul
a pain they came for the reality that i
just wasn't good enough that i wasn't
deserving enough that if you weren't
paying attention to me all the time that
maybe you didn't like manna the
conference room was as quiet as it had
been all day for us addicts he continued
recovery is more than just taking a pill
or maybe getting a shot
recovery is also about the spirit about
dealing with that hole in the soul
so this is the key that the healing from
attachment or addiction is really
discovering how to find the spirit
that's always been here but feels like
it's been draining out or empty
how to discover that star that's inside
us the light in our own heart because
when we do when there's a sense that
it's right here
there's still a natural play of desires
and we can enjoy when those particular
focus desires are mad and we can not
enjoy it when they're not but there's a
basic sense of contentment
there's not craving I love the was a
cartoon that as a picture of a dog who's
having a dream and a
as Zen dog dreaming of medium-sized bone
so the last part of our exploration
really is how do we shift when our
attention has been fixated as for most
of us we have our fixations you know
whether more money more food more
approval how do we shift from that
outward fixation
- really that light and warmth of
awareness that's right here
how do we undo the conditioning to
fixate out work and there's two steps
that we have to repeat ten thousand
times
you know that any master of anything
takes many repetitions and want us to
keep pausing in the midst
so that whenever you sense that the
hungry ghosts energy whenever you sense
ok going after approval here ok I'm
fixating on more money or status or
prestige or different body or whatever
it is
pause
there's a a a sponsor who describes the
sacred pause he says that it's worth you
know two years of meetings that just a
pause of 10 seconds
the amount of freedom that's possible
and of course it's not either are
because we need both
but that's the first step is that we
need to have that kind of commitment
that getting well these attachments are
running my life are keeping me from my
full life keeping me from feeling that
that light and that that soul force it's
here
pause be willing to pause now sometimes
you pause and then the next step is deep
in your attention
pause and deepen your attention that
means awaken these two wings we talk
about regularly of mindfulness and
heartfulness we pause and we say so
what's really happening here and we
bring a kind attention and sometimes
it'll work so powerfully that we can
absolutely change our patterning in that
moment
and sometimes we go back to the old
patterning but each time we repeat it
work on some level deconditioning the
habit
so let me give you an example of when i
worked with that that came in who is
very much that kind of sense of a hole
in my soul that something is really
wrong with me and she's basically so
everything I i do i fail at and I hate
myself and I'm ashamed of myself and
then I end up you know smoking too much
weed and drinking too much alcohol and
drinking was the worst problem she said
she'd gone to a new sheet to go back her
closest friends were really encouraging
her to go back but it was really she
just couldn't convince her to stop using
so I asked her to get right into it like
okay
in the moments when you have to have and
this is a really important inquiry to go
right into all right in the moments when
i'm really it really matters when
another person's thinking our I have to
have that bowl of ice cream or whatever
the false refuges what's going on inside
you that when I asked her she said it
was kind of like this heart-pounding
like she was about to get something she
really wanted like the anticipation of
the the satisfaction there's a shortness
of breath but along with that the
results are kind of a scared feeling
like I might not get it and then I asked
her to keep investigating as part of
mindfulness the wing of mindfulness is
to really invest again I said you know
the part that's compelling you
what is it so it feels like this clutch
in this heart-pounding what does it look
like
and she said it has a black piercing
evil eye and it's in the middle of this
dark shadowy shape
ok so that's what she had so I said okay
go inside that you know and since what
is that part really want it
she was asking that question is part of
a mindful investigation what is this
compelling place really want and she
asked and said it wants me to drink and
drink and drink and then I said well
what will that do what is it really
wanting what does it want the drinking
to do
well then I'll feel relief then I'll
feel better
it wants relieved and I said will ok
what will that do if you feel relief
dimensions at all then that part will
feel lovable
I can really relax and feel relief will
feel lovable
so I asked her can you give that part
some love right now part fulness
remember mindfulness and heartfulness
can you just
and she said I don't feel like I have
any love to give and so I asked her the
next step the heartfulness as well if
you don't have the left to offer
yourself and we often put her hand on
our heart and since you know loving
ourselves who might or what might in the
universe and she said well my my two
friends and that you know keep trying to
friends it
keep trying to get me to go to a and
also my mom so I said okay put your hand
on your heart and and let their love
come and so she did that for a while and
she said Let there love go right to wear
that that creature that you know it's
going to work her version of the hungry
goes to let it let it go right in there
to that part of you that doesn't feel
lovable and after a while she said ok
now I'm feeling more loving and and what
I said what's the creature like now
she's a well it's shrunken and it's
black is sad its glistening tears
that's to give it more than let it let
it have even more love and she's at all
my stomach's
loosening I can breathe real relief and
then she kept going a bit more but this
is what she did many around so I'm
giving you an example of what you get
every time she'd feel the urge to drink
she would pause and she would feel her
body and feel those feelings and since
that kind of compulsion part in her
and since what it wanted and offer love
and she said that sometimes it was
enough that the craving would kind of
come his cravings have a kind of you can
charge them they ride there is a vector
their eyes they have a peek and then
they fall away if you can wait long
enough you can wait them out
most of us can't but sometimes the
craving would come and go and she could
actually make a healthier choice and
other times she couldn't but over time
she started beginning to loosen the grip
also want to say she needed a a so it
wasn't this
I'm describing the inner work of
bringing the two wings but we also need
that relational field to support us and
for her it was quite important
I remember her describing her last set
on our last time i got together she had
at this point she was a sponsor and she
said she understood spirits
she said that she was driven to it to
have an experience he was driven to the
alcohol have an experience that's driven
to spirits but the real spirit she
needed was what she found when she
brought presence to her own heart and
that that evil eye that gleaming spirit
i was really her source of wisdom and
love this is her experience and not all
of us have such a the kind of
imagination that that can feel what kind
of a creature is represented some of us
do but we all have
of this is where the deep invitation is
is that our attachment and addiction can
be a flag to pause and deepen our
attention to what's here and if we're
willing if there's willingness we can't
well it you cannot will yourself out of
an addiction but if there's a
willingness to pause and deepen your
attention
you can begin to discover that rather
than the pad addictive habit that you
are a bitch to you can be just begin to
discover that that star you felt away
from really is here
it's in the presence it's right here
right here
I i began describing my little adventure
in the casino and I wanted to
acknowledge with you that when i first
went in there and was watching people
it was again it's like sociological
experiment and I had a add a whole layer
judgment and you might have picked that
up it just felt like it was kind of like
oh you poor things but it was from a
kind of superior like oh all the smoking
and alcohol and stuff I don't do you
know and I realize okay so this is a
second arrow I'm seeing suffering and
I'm having an aversion to the suffering
and judging it and and then I started
sensing wow it this is in in most of us
you know that we most of us have whether
it's the most overt like gambling and
slot machine or something else
keep trying to do the achievement that
will finally make us feel like we're
okay
whatever it is we have stuff and I could
so easily seeing myself through my life
you know whether it's how i've used food
or have some way sought to prove myself
or accomplished or be good and get
approval
all the different ways I've been hooked
and that shifted and so somewhere after
the first few minutes
I got this realization i really want to
have contact so i tried to I kind of
resolve to have some contact and there's
a few eyes that I you know I could have
contact with but mostly I just sent
mehta and i sent message to all of us
not like this high being floating
through is any metal but it's like to
all of us that are hooked on something
feel what we feel away from our star
were hooked on something
may we all trust the goodness and the
love and the aliveness and creativity of
our own beings may we
turn to presence not to something
outside ourselves so maybe as a way of
closing of just to say that we have a
habit beyond just the addictions and
attachments of not noticing what's
already here
we're so on our way that we really don't
see that that that what were longing for
us right here and we're going to we're
going to explore then a bit but I
thought maybe I could try just a little
bit of bringing the two wings to your
own attachments and see how that works
for you stick a moment to find a way to
sit because this is the key reflection
will be doing tonight that I think will
be useful and keep in mind that that
example i gave you with this woman
it took what it took a while like that
was probably 45 minutes we're going to
do something and maybe four minutes
so this is a template for you to explore
causing and deepening attention and in
the face of attachment so let your eyes
closed and sense if you know already
maybe you do have you don't some area
that you feel that you're hooked some
area of attachment that you that you
kind of can tell keeps you from being as
spontaneous as relaxed as really
trusting yourself and moving from your
potential and it might be something in
relationships where you are hooked on
getting approval or hooked on being in
control
being the best might be something at
work where you're really looking for
fame or attention are might be something
to do with substances to do with
accumulating more money and more
possession
it might be something to do with your
appearance could be the overt behaviors
like gambling or shopping or sex where
there's a obsessiveness around to
choosing one area
and see if you can focus on a situation
that illustrates that attachment that
lets you know you're hooked
do it
and for the sake of exploring and
investigating you might exaggerate so
that you really feel into the situation
how it is to really want what you're
wanting
how much it matters to you whether it's
I the wanting to be in control the
wanting for approval or whether it's a
wanting for chocolate
whatever it is what's it like when
you're wanting and as an experiment
right now let your body actually take
the position of one thing like play with
it a little you might find you're
leaning forward maybe your fist titan
let your faces expression be what is it
when you're really wanting something to
be a certain way and it's not okay if
it's not that way
so give yourself permission to like
really inhabit that find out what it's
like
you might feel where where the wanting
is most in your body
this is there a tightening in the throat
or chest or maybe the belly
yeah
just feel you're wanting self and notice
if there's a second arrow if there's
also a part of yourself that's judging
or wanting so whether you don't like
you're wanting self include that and
what you're aware of and sense how that
impacts the one thing
now imagine that you could step away
that you're wanting self
whatever that experiences is here but
you could kind of step away and you can
call on your high self right now is a
rich history like calling on the wings
of wisdom and heart calling on that in
you which sees through clear eyes and
has a forgiving and kind heart
so you can look through those eyes at
the wanting self
give yourself a little distance little
space just looking through the eyes of
kindness and understanding what does the
wanting part of you really want or need
you know if you could get that approval
or have that ice cream are be in control
or have your body the way you want
what would you really get
since what you're really trying to
experience through the particular
attachment and sometimes you have to ask
again like well if I got that
and what would I really be getting see
how deep you can go
how are you away from your star how are
you really wanted to come home
what is it you really wanted to come
home to
ok
for these last few moments from your
highest self that wings of wisdom and
love how much you communicate to the
part of you that's been stuck your
understanding your forgiveness
your care what in this moment will most
address the unmet need that's there and
you might experiment also as we often do
with touch because that brings a more
energetic intimacy in relating to your
inner life
can you communicate the forgiveness that
understanding of ok this is coming from
an unmet need
letting go of all blame that is a
necessary precursor to healing any
addiction is to let go of flame from
your highest self can you let go of
blame
can you offer very pure care and
understanding to the place in you
that's been attached and addicted to the
wanting cell
and as you offer your presence and your
kindness and your understanding
just sense your own experience of your
being right now
can you sense that star that that late
and tenderness right here
can you sense how this presence heels
that hold the soul allows you to come
home to what's really the source of what
you long for
the happiness we seek is available in
the moments when there's really no
clinging they're simply openness and
presents and ease
just feel as you imagine into the next
days and weeks to come
this invitation to let the flag of
attachment call you to pause to deepen
your attention and to shift from that
outward focus the substitute
gratifications to discovering the
presence is always an already here will
close with the verse from the Zen poetry
or con without desire
everything is sufficient with seeking
myriad things are impoverished plane
vegetables can soothe hunger a patch
drove is enough to cover this been told
body alone I hike with a deer cheerfully
I sing with village children
the stream under the cliff cleanses my
ears
the pine on the mountain top fits my
heart cheerfully I sing with the village
children
the stream under the cliff cleanses my
ears
the pine on the mountaintop
it's my heart
and thank you for your beautiful
attention
many blessings
