Tonight is the second of a four week series that I'm doing on what are called the

Divina Boads and the Pollywood are the Brahma Vaharas and these are considered the

dwelling places of Brahma, of God, of the divine and they really are expressions of

our own awakened heart and mind. This is what we experience, what we take refuge

in as we wake up and these four Divina Boads are loving kindness, compassion, joy and

equanimity. So tonight is compassion. Tonight we'll be exploring compassion and in all

of these states of heart, mind arise from a wise understanding which is we are

inextricably connected to each other. We are inextricably connected and when we

recognize that not as a mental idea but there's a feeling sense of the truth that

we belong, our love comes out in those flavors. Our wisdom comes out in that

flavor of equanimity. So I'd like to begin the compassion talk. Some of you

might remember this is one of my favorite little stories and it starts out a

while back, a dog, a tired looking dog wandered into my yard and he came in

through the door, followed me, went down the hall and he lay down on the couch and

he slept there for an hour. So my dogs didn't seem to mind and he seemed like a

good dog and I was okay with it so I let him nap. An hour later he went to the

door, I let him out. The next day he was back. He resumed his position on the

couch and slept for another hour. This continued for several weeks. Finally,

curious, I pinned a note to his collar and on that note I wrote every afternoon

your dog comes to my house for a nap. I don't mind but I want to make sure it's

okay with you. So the next day he arrived with a different

open to his collar. He lives in a home with three children in it. He's trying to

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