So maybe to say that there's an understanding about the spiritual path as a kind of

process of maturing and that in a kind of in the early phases of saying, oh I'm

on a spiritual path, I'm a spiritual person, there's a kind of a sense like we're

climbing up a ladder and trying to perfect ourselves, trying to become more

something, more wise, more balanced, just polishing ourselves up in some way, more

perfect. And that as the path matures, there's a sense that instead of

climbing up a ladder to be some better being, actually returning around to

really embrace this world, all parts of ourselves and all parts of all beings,

in all its messiness and confusion and mystery and beauty. So it's the difference

between a path to perfection and a path to wholeness. In a way, the more quickly

we realize that that the quest for perfection brings us nothing but heartache

and hassle, plus we hassle other people when we're on that track, and that there

is an incredible sweetness and open-heartedness when we sense that this

movement to wholeness, to coming into the fullness of what we are and

including other beings in that wholeness. One of the most direct expressions of

feeling whole of not excluding anything is joy. When we meet someone that's

pretty awake, that quality of joy, it's just there. There's not a grimness.

There can certainly be a sadness, what Chogium Trump calls unconditional sadness

because our world has so much suffering, but that's not as opposed to. There's

a joyfulness too that comes from really this vast space of including. So this

week and also next week, as those of you that are coming regularly know I tend

to, I've finally figured out that I can never cover whatever I think I'm

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