We are nothing but Earth inlcuding all its elements, not separete from her/them, Inviting to honor, revere it, seeing clearly the interdependence. Inviting to shift from seeing Earth as a resource to recognizing it as our creator, sustainer, healer, and home. By remembering that we are not separate from the living world—but an expression of it—we cultivate humility, gratitude, ethical responsibility, joy arises from a deeper sense of belonging, inspiring both inner transformation and compassionate care for all life.

Q1 A few questions for some clarification regarding the three kinds of suffering and suggestions for meditation. 06:22 Q2 My mind often worries more about other people than about myself. I've heard you say that we take care of other people as we take care of ourselves. But I think sometimes we spend more time taking care of other people than taking care of ourselves. Can you elaborate on this? 13:28 Q3 Could you speak on skillful versus unskillful thoughts. 18:05 Q4 Can you speak about centering and arousing good mental qualities at the time of a migraine or brain fog or when the attention is very jumpy. 21:11 Q5 Is there a wise and skillful way to transform a life in pursuit of the fulfillment of big desires and pleasure i.e. lust and wealth into a spiritual practice? 27:22 Q6 How how can I practice non- self in other people's projections of me? 28:58 Q7 Who is the witness, the one being aware? 43:31 Q8 I get glimpses of the sensing presence and awareness, but as soon as it happens I get conscious of it and make it into an object. Then I get frustrated and start to make all kinds of ideas about awareness. How to allow longer glimpses? 42:30 Q9 I feel I have quite a lot of calm and not grasping, choices awareness kind of mind. Sometimes I experience negative stuff being flat, withdrawn and indifferent why does that happen? How do I develop my practice in aliveness and compassion?

We begin by reviewing briefly last week's session, including how contemporary practice can expand the traditional focus on ignorance to include contemporary psychological and social perspectives on further dimensions of ignorance, including our initially unconscious social conditioning. We look again briefly at how the Buddha related both to caste and to women's roles in the sangha, and the basic of social conditioning, including how this is related to "in-groups," "out-groups," and "implicit bias." Most of the talk is devoted to suggesting the basic ways that we can explore and transform social conditioning. We focus on the main supports for such practice, including working with groups and guidelines, knowing the history of a particular form of conditoning (we give the examples of gender and race), using different forms of inquiry, mindfulness in meditation and daily life (including being mindful of the judgmental mind, anger, sadness, shame, etc.), the heart practices (including the importance of self-love, compassion, forgiveness, and joy), and other practices, such as involving ritual. The talk is followed by discussion.

Margaret is the author of the just released book, Quiet Strength: Find Peace, Feel Alive, and Love Boundlessly through the Power of Equanimity. In this she leads in an exploration on this key quality that is so needed in these times. As a therapist, Margaret facilitated psycho-social support groups for cancer patients and their loved ones for over 30 years. She has led research studies on the impact of contemplative programs, co-developed the Compassion Cultivation Training with Thupten Jinpa at Stanford University. Margaret is the founder of Compassion Corps, a program which brings compassion programs to underserved populations around the world. She has been a meditation practitioner for over 40 years.

As mindfulness practice unfolds, our experience of dukkha (suffering, dis-ease) naturally shifts and changes. Compassion morphs to meet it. This talk explores five faces of compassion that are cultivated through our mindfulness practice: patience, capacity, humility, spaciousness, and not-self.

Instructions on cultivating compassion by starting small and gradually building to an expansive orientation of the compassionate heart.