I often begin a period of meditation with this welcoming of myself, intentionally turning towards an attitude of friendliness and cultivating this attitude of welcoming, allowing, inviting as we arrive together Cultivating friendliness towards however I'm showing up today.

Allowing the me that is present, not the one yesterday or the one that I wish was here.

Whoever's here right now, welcoming with this attitude of friendliness.

as much as possible.

And then allowing the awareness to be felt in the body.

Really inviting the sense of relaxation perhaps allowing the shoulders to move back and down, relaxing the neck, the chin.

Yeah.

My

[bell ringing] Beginning our practice together by intentionally welcoming yourself.

Allowing yourself to be here however you are in this moment.

Welcoming this body, this heart, this mind with as much friendliness as possible.

And as you arrive, inviting this attitude of both connection and alertness, as well as relaxation.

[exhales] So perhaps taking a few deep breaths if that's available to you.

Inviting a letting go of any extra tensions you may be carrying from your day.

To talk about, um, generosity.

And I wanted to talk about generosity specifically as an antidote to fear.

Um, and I wanted to start by, uh, sharing a story of my own, really seeing clearly some of the habit patterns that are not so pretty that I have in me about, um, you know, kind of this, you know, sometimes w- I, like, I, I really am grateful when I have this image of myself as a certain way, and then even though it's not very pleasant, I can be like, "Oh, I thought I was this way, but I'm not." So, um, I wanted to share this story about after I finished the two-year program, the community Dharma leader program that I've spoken to you about, 'cause I'm now currently one of the teachers in it.

It's a two-year training for becoming a Dharma leader.

And so I thought that I would travel to Thailand, 'cause I'd only practiced in the United States, and I really wanted to get a, a better understanding of what it was like to travel to a country that was Buddhist.

And, um, and so I was gonna pr- be practicing in a number of monasteries and, and Viharas and the, with the, um, the bhikkhunis, both the women, the nuns and the, and the, um, monks.

Thank you online people.

You're always so prompt.

You know, there's the little box and it goes in and so thanks you.

And it's one of the beautiful things actually about being in person and so I hope so for those of you who are there online at some point you can find your way here to Spirit Rock perhaps.

And, uh, it's one of these things about humans is that, you know, we, we kind of wander around and we get distracted and we see something and it's actually part of, uh, you know, the beauty of this human body, heart, and mind.

So thank you all.

[laughs]

So, uh, so this place that we, you know, the self is so small, then we're thinking, "Oh, you know, what am I gonna do?" And then you're like, "Things are going terrible." I know I'll get a new blank, right? Haven't you had that thought? Like, "Well, what's the things-- things are going really bad.