The following talk was given at the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California.

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Okay.

So, some years ago, maybe it's 2018, I think.

Gil and some others were kind of in the Spirok system,

we're asked to write some brief reflections on and see the ethical conduct.

And I wrote, you know, they just asked for a couple paragraphs, so wrote something.

And one of the Sangha members was asking about those words and so I thought to go back and revisit

them so I'll just read what I wrote and then say say a few words so I said, make of yourself a refuge for all beings.

The Buddha enjoins us to cultivate this radical heart, a cultivation expressing not

only Sela, but Samadhi and Panya too.

To be safe for others entails a path of self-discovery, humility, sensitivity, and willingness to be

softened by one suffering. Goodness ripens through a process of letting go, and letting go involves a measure of grief.

We grieve the harm done to us and the harm done by us.

We grieve the human condition, the indivisibility of life and suffering.

This process is autobiographical,

idiosyncratic and universal.

To be mindful of goodness brings love,

to be mindful of pain also brings love

that asymmetry is the miracle.

The more attuned we are to our heart and its instant

carmic reverberations, the clearer our ethical life will be.

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