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

Namaste and welcome. I'd like to begin by sharing a story I heard when Romdos, who many of you might know as the author be here now, and a real icon in this generation's spiritual world,

Romdos was in DC 12 years ago, maybe more. He described how when he first started practice, when he first started praying and meditating and so on, it was probably 40 years before that, he said, I was filled with judgment, and craving, and anger, and impatience.

And now after decades of a whole range of spiritual practices, he says, I'm still filled with anger and rage, and craving, and impatience. He says, but the difference is now they're like these little schmoozes that kind of come and go, they don't cause me suffering.

And I really like that, because in a way it's our proverbial bad news, good news thing, which is that whatever the core issues, the challenging, difficult emotions you've been struggling with, whether it's feelings of insecurity or fear, or aggression, deficiency, whatever they are, it's very likely they'll keep arising throughout your life.

That's the bad news, so to speak. The good news is that if you continue to deepen your capacity for presence, for a kind presence, what arises won't cause suffering.

Instead of being the dragons, there'll be more like those little schmoozes that are there, and they can be uncomfortable, but they don't confine your sense of who you are.

And I think of this pathway of really spiritually awakening as we face the difficulties.

I think of Rilka, one of his most famous verses really describes it perfectly, and many of you probably are familiar with this one, but I'd like to let this be a centerpiece of our reflections together in this class.

Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act just once with beauty and courage.

Perhaps everything that frightens us is in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.

So the tonight's talk is titled from dragons to schmooze, and it's really about responding to vulnerability with love.

It's this path of spiritual awakening that comes as we relate to our humanness and the challenges with a wise heart.

We'll focus on the dragons of our inner life, and as I often do, I'll invite you to get in touch with some.

But to say up front that it naturally extends, which means that if we look at the violence in the world, and the hatred, the racism, the injustice,

if we look at it closely, how we relate to others as bad other, how others can become an enemy when they hold different beliefs and so on, if we really investigate, it only happens because we're unable to meet our own dragons, the aggression, the fears, with a quality of compassion.

And when we start learning to do that, when we start facing our fears, and sensing the vulnerability and feeling a quality of kindness, then we don't project badness onto others.

Not only that, said more positively, the more we open to our own dragons with compassion, the more we look at others, and even those that seem the most different, and see pass the differences to the vulnerability and the humanness and the goodness.

So this practice of how to meet the dragon is really, to me, the hope for peace on earth.

There's an understanding that the heart of Buddhism is compassion, and the heart of compassion is compassion for ourselves.

And by ourselves, we mean for the life that's right here, with the start right where we are.

So our first inquiry really is, okay, how are each of us relating to the strong and difficult emotions that periodically or frequently arise? How do we do it?

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