Greetings.

We offer these podcasts freely and your support really makes a difference.

To make a donation, please visit tarbrock.com.

So Namaste and welcome.

This class is going to be looking at trance and waking up from trance.

And we're going to focus particularly on how the practice of rain weaves mindfulness

and self-compassion in a way that can really free us.

And in particular, free us from that, those stories that keep us feeling that we're small,

that we're separate, that we're not okay.

It's a primary version of suffering in our culture and elsewhere.

And I thought I'd begin with something that really grabbed my attention some years ago.

This was a high school students application to college.

I'm just going to read you parts of it.

It's an essay that a student wrote in response to that question.

Tell us about anything significant in your life.

Here goes.

He says, how can I describe myself?

I can tread water for three days in a row.

I woo women with my sensuous and god-like trombone playing.

I can pilot bicycles up severe inclines with unflagging speed.

And I cook 30-minute brownies in 20 minutes.

I'm an expert in stucco, a veteran in love and an outlaw in Peru.

...