And so what we repeatedly direct our mind to in the society is consumerism and materialism

and addictions of different kinds and what we direct ourselves to we get for better or

for worse.

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So we're coming toward the middle end of the retreat at this point and everything in

the room feels considerably more settled than still in the first nights. This evening

I'd like to speak in a way that addresses where we are now in our practice and also that

begins to address the movement of this mindfulness that we practiced and this understanding into

the world outside. And I'd like to do that as a balance or as a connection with the last

to evenings talks last night where Rodney spoke about silence and the silence that's outside

of time and the night before the characteristics that are just here to be experienced. Those

are away both of stepping outside of the past and future and just being in the present.

Another dimension of practice is the perspective that also teaches within time and one of the

central understandings for us to discover in ourselves is the power in the mind of conscious

intention or purpose within time. The sense of energy or intention in our inner life is

fundamentally neutral. If you study Buddha's psychology, the will to do is a neutral energy that can

be directed or shaped in skillful or unskilledful ways. So the Dhamma Pada versus of the Buddha

begins. Mind is the forerunner of all things. We are what we think or what mind creates.

Speak or act with an impure mind or heart and sorrow follows you and surely as the wheel of

the ox cart follows the oxen that draws it. Mind is the forerunner of all things. We are created

...