another image of Zen, prominent in popular culture is that we can leave our challenging life behind and pop into a place of bliss and peace. Unfortunately, while that can ultimately be true, to uncover, it takes time courage and a willingness to be present even in adversity. I and of course, that adversity we will typically our lizard brain will respond with fight, flight, freeze or submit. And so those elements will come into play, especially with trauma, with dedication, perseverance and faith, it is possible eventually, to open to what is innate in all of us, profound peace, ease and an ability to seamlessly experience whatever comes along in life, regardless of how positive or negative it appears. So many new Zen students hear that part and don't realize that to reach that it's a long process that involves little by little, recognizing through insight where we are caught in rigid and conditioned ways of thinking and acting in a blog long ago, Bernie Glassman, the first Dharma successor of Maya zoomi Roshi Zen Center in Los Angeles, wrote, as writers and philosophers have already said, there's no language for Auschwitz. I can only add there are no thoughts either we are in a place of unknowing. Much of Zen practice, including many teaching techniques used by Zen masters, is aimed at bringing the Zen practitioner to this same place of unknowing, of letting go of what he or she knows. If you're working on a koan, you can't think your way to an answer. It's it's an experience, not something that you can think your way through letting go that she goes on is not so easy, but that is the ticket, letting go of thoughts, letting go of what we think we know based on our thoughts, behavior and past and future thoughts and behaviors. How do we do this? We cannot let go until we see where we're caught. And that's not what we usually think Zen practice is about. That's where zazen comes in, breath practice, the kind that she does, called susakhan, is especially effective in this endeavor, the practice in our daily life are amplified and enriched when we pay attention, because what a breath practice does is to require attention. It trains us in both attention and letting go. It's invaluable. It's so common to quote pay attention. Attention at certain maybe critical times, but the attention spoken of here is 24/7 fundamental presence, real presence, constant, ongoing presence. What that means is that loading the dishwasher, we focus on the full body experience of putting a glass in the place it belongs in the rack. We focus as we load each separate item into the dishwasher is the glass or dish or plate in a condition where the dishwasher will actually be able to clean it. And where are we when we place that item sunning on a California beach? Are we on automatic putting stuff in because we've done it so many times before. When we close the dishwasher and hit the start button, do we feel that motion and that sense of contact again when the dishwasher has completed its cycle? Are we fully present when we're unloading it and putting the dishes and pots and silverware away, or do we later realize when we're cooking and we reach for a utensil that is not where it's supposed to be because we absolutely mind it, put it somewhere else. I think also of working with children. Many people here have kids. Children require our attention. That's all they're asking for to be seen. Actually, that's what all we want to do. We all want to be seen for who we are. So when we greet a child, where are we about to tell them what they ought to do, not to do pick up this because, of course, those things are part of the training to be a grown up. But what is that little body, that essence? What do you what are we greeting? It's love, really. You know, we don't use that word love in Zen much we use compassion, which is the ability to be the other, we use loving kindness. These are the brahmaharas, loving kindness. People who have the experience of awakening will say that there is always love present. And this is this giving so with your children, with your partners, with your friends, or, I should say, our How present are we? Are we giving, or are we trying to take Zen practice is entirely about giving and in that giving, it allows our true nature to come through Sadhguru, who is a modern day guru, of course, Indian in India, there are two kinds of practice you can do in that particular tradition, like Ramana Maharshi, who am I? Is the koan really, because everybody has the sense of I am. You can't get rid of that. That's to be alive is to be am. But the other way is by devotion to the teacher. Now we don't have the kind of deeply enlightened, deeply, deeply Enlightened Masters and teachers that can give us the the grace aspect of of that practice. But what he says is, make your life an offering if you do not know how to become an abode of divine grace, which would be the abode of divine grace is to be in your two true nature. There are simpler ways of getting there. One simple way is to make yourself porous enough so that the grace of the Divine eventually enters you. If your every step and every breath is a process of giving you will naturally arrive at a state of union. So to go back here then talking about our children and our partners, it is this giving, the it doesn't mean it's all hunky dory either. You know, sometimes giving is very painful. It sounds picky, but all the rules and regulations of monasteries everywhere are there only to help things flow, but at least as. Importantly, to help us pay attention. For it is the most profound attention that is what will bring about the liberation we seek, and it begins with the most mundane things. And so that's why, in seshin, you know, we have so many opportunities to pay attention. They're not just when we're on the mat. We spend 10 hours on the mat. So not to discount that at all. But when you go to lunch, when you clean your teeth, when you do ever you do pay attention, it's so easy to coast along on automatic. We've done something once twice. We're going to do it many, many more times, and our body gets into gear, but our mind is wandering elsewhere.