One of the most wonderful and well-known teachings of the Dalai Lama, something very regularly

that he says is that my religion is kindness. And when people hear that, it resonates, because

there's something in us that senses beyond any particular philosophy or religion or

way of thinking, if we just dedicated our lives to kindness, that was it. If we just, that

quality of friendliness and care, if we just dedicated our lives to that, there really would

be no need for so much of the ideas of the codes and the guidelines and the religions. What a world.

Many of you've heard me talk about my favorite bumper sticker, which is if you lived in your heart,

you'd be home right now, and people when they hear they smile and go, yeah, it's partly because

we know that, that in the moments that were really feeling our hearts, that feels like we're most

living in who we are, we're home. And it's such a sweet experience. So what I'd like to do

tonight, and it's going to be tonight in the next three classes, is explore what in Buddhism

is called the Brahma-Viharas, and that means the divine abodes, and the Brahma-Viharas are really

the expressions of freedom that come when we're awake, and they come in the form of loving kindness,

of compassion, of joy, and that includes sympathetic joy, joy for the joy of others,

and equanimity, and equanimity is that quality of balance and wisdom that actually makes possible

true love, compassion and joy. So now you know the map for the next four weeks, so actually next

week I won't be here, but the week after that, and then the two following. So we begin with loving

kindness, and we might call it love, or loving kindness, there's different words, but what I'd

actually like to do as is first to say that love and every one of these expressions are innate to us.

They belong to these hearts and minds, they're part of us, and we can either stay in our habitual

conditioning and have them be somewhat latent and somewhat expressed, or as we wake up, become more

intentional about having them flourish. So we're just going to be exploring through these weeks

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