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Okay so today we're going into Spokane. I'll be giving a talk at a church, and so
they say that whenever you're in a very busy environment where there's a lot of
sense (stimuli) that we should take care of our mind and especially guard our senses,
okay? So this whole thing of guarding the senses: so being aware of where we direct
our eyes, what sounds we pay attention to, what smells we're fixated on, what taste
we're longing for, what tactile sensations we're imagining and, you know, craving.
And just to be aware of where our senses go. So here we're talking specifically about
the five senses, because they're contacting the external world. But then also this is
going to affect the sixth sense, the mental sense and all the "nomtok" or preconceptions
that come up in our mind as a result of contact with a lot of external phenomena. So this
whole process of guarding the senses is a basic monastic practice that we do here at
the Abbey but especially because our environment here, we are out in the middle of nowhere
and, you know, you see the butterflies and the knapweed and, you know, and the deer and
whatever. And especially when we go into town there's the billboards, and there's the
Muzak and there is so many people and things like that. So especially to guard our senses
and be very centered and not let our eyes go all over the place, and our ears go all
over the place, and our imagination go all over the place. Okay, but stay very centered,
you know, with our breathing and with our motivation of kindness.
And then, the second thing to remember today is we're going to be involved in a church
service and a workshop afterwards so we have the opportunity to share spirituality with
people of another faith and this is a very nice wonderful opportunity because all the
various religions and spiritual traditions teach ethical conduct and teach kindness and
so to, you know, when we are engaging and talking with other people from the church
today, to talk about ethical conduct and to talk about kindness and, you know, we don't
need to get involved in talking about the specific I and the general I and the emptiness
of true existence and, you know, the six realms and these kinds of things and use a lot of
Buddhist jargon. But let's stay very focused on the things that our faiths have in common
because that enables us to connect in a very nice way with these people.
And especially the topic of the talk that I'm giving in the workshop in the afternoon
is forgiveness and so here we can talk about the Buddhist antidotes to anger and ways of
dealing with emotions, because that pertains very directly to the topic that they requested
that, you know, I speak about. So it's a day full of a different kind of practice for
us which is very nice.