In our last class, it was really on the theme of intimacy, and Zen Master Dogen's very

well-known teaching that to be enlightened, to be free, is to be intimate with all things.

And I've always loved that word, intimacy, that sense of that to be intimate, we really have

to sense a belonging with whatever we're intimate with, a kind of a oneness, a deep familiarity,

attenderness. And so the inquiry from the last class is really what awakens that kind of intimate

connectedness. And we spoke about the single factor that makes it possible, which is our capacity

to pay attention. If we can pay attention well, if we can pay attention fully, there is a quality

of connectedness that emerges. And in the Buddhist tradition, there are four key domains where we

train that attention. And these are domains, they're called the Brahma-Viharas. Brahma is the

king of all gods, and Viharas is the dwelling place, or are abode, the home. And so it really is like

the home of God, or the home of our own awakened heart-mind, these four places. And they are love,

compassion, joy, and equanimity. So what I'd like to do for these next four weeks, probably four

weeks, sometimes I'll start, I'll do one, I'll realize I need to do another week on it, but we'll see,

is explore how these places of training or heart-mind can really arouse that intimate connectedness,

how they allow us to be intimate with all of life. And we'll start with the first one, we'll start with

loving kindness, but just to say that each of these qualities is an innate expression of who we are.

It's already our nature, when we're relaxed, when we're open, when we're not in reactivity,

there's a natural expression of love, of compassion, of joy, of equanimity. I sometimes think of

all this Huxley, because there's so many of his, what he wrote that became real teachings for me,

about one of the greatest wasn't a writing, it's what happened as he was dying. And he was

dying of throat cancer, and he was surrounded by his family and some students, sort, you know, people

that were younger, that really admired him. And one of them asked him what he had learned,

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