The following talk is given by Tara Brock, meditation teacher, psychologist and author.

So good evening. I'd like to begin this particular talk with a home from Mary Oliver.

It's called Little Dog's Rhapsody in the Night.

He puts his cheek against mine and makes small expressive sounds.

And when I'm awake or awake enough, he turns upside down four paws in the air and his eyes dark and fervent.

Tell me you love me, he says. Tell me again.

Could there be a sweeter arrangement over and over? He gets to ask, I get to tell.

So what a beautiful tribute to uncomplicated loving.

This is the second of a two-part series on unconditional love, on evolving our hearts.

And in the last class we talked about loving the life that's right here.

You might remember three Nursar Gadata, that wonderful Indian master's plea.

He says, all I plea with you is this make love of yourself perfect.

And it's really an invitation to commit ourselves to including our own being in our hearts,

to really cherishing the life that's right here with this understanding that it's only if we really open our hearts to the being, to the life, to the body, to the aliveness right here that we're actually open to our world.

So tonight we extended. It's these widening circles of belonging.

And because it's part of Earth Care Week, we'll really link this end to this deep recognition that if we are to act on behalf of our Earth, we have to feel our love and our belonging to the Earth, that we are the Earth.

That there will not be the energy to help heal and save our world if it's not out of loving.

So how to wake up that loving? So it's really inclusive, very embracing.

And this class will have a number of reflections, be more experiential.

And the ground of waking up loving is that it matters to us. There has to be some purposefulness, some intention towards it because it's so easy to get closed down and to not bring our attention to what really matters.

So we'll begin our first reflection really with aspiration. Does this matter to me? And if it matters, what's in the way?

So I'd like to start right in with a reflection and invite you to close your eyes.

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