So I can get a little cozy. I'm going to begin with a mythological kind of teaching story.

Some of you might remember this is a Scandinavian story where a king and a queen had fallen on some really hard times.

And it was kind of dicey financial trouble. And they needed to raise some money from the dragon's hoard.

And when they went to ask for that money, the dragon requested a small thing and returned their daughter.

So you probably heard these stories before they went to the princess and said, well dear, we've decided I'm the proper betroth for you and you're going to be married to the dragon.

And she was a resourceful princess. So although she was frightened and tearful, she had an instinct of who could help her. And she went to this woman that lived at the edge of the market place and found her surrounded by a dozen or two children and grandchildren and poured out her story.

And so the woman said, so you want to marry the dragon? And she said absolutely not. And she said, well here, I have a way that you can do this and I think it will be safe.

Here's what you have to do on your wedding night. So she whispered a little to her ear and then she sent her on her way.

But the first thing she said is you have to get a number of wedding gowns, ten in fact. So the wedding day comes and all the people in the court were there.

And the court were there and the big celebration is a little tough but they retired and went to their bridal chambers. And the dragon turned to the princess and said, well dear, isn't it time for us to consummate our wedding?

And the princess responded, yes, my dear husband, but for me to do so I must remove my wedding gowns is that not so? Absolutely my dear, he says.

She said, I'd ask a small favor from you in return and that is would you not remove a layer of your own so as to be more pleasing to me?

And so she took off her wedding gown and he had worn a few decorative things on his dragon body and he took them off. Okay fine.

To a surprise, she noticed she had another wedding gown on. So she took that one off and his dragons are used to taking off their scales.

You know like reptiles they have to shed here and there. He he peeled off another thin layer. Oops, she had another dress.

So she took off each wedding dress. He had a peel off his dragon scales and his dragon claws had a deeper and deeper into his own flesh and his own skin.

And on the eighth wedding gown, she took off the dragon was down to taking off parts of himself that were stuck in his form began to change.

And on the ninth, they changed more remarkably. And then when she took off the tenth ground by the time the dragon had pulled off so much dragonness that what was left as is often true in such stories was, handsome prince.

And so she took the advice from the old woman from beyond the marketplace that had dozens of children and grandchildren and continued a night of wedded bliss.

So this is really everything about this practice of meditation and really the whole spiritual path that we're on.

And as often it's described as just letting go and letting go and opening and opening and what we're letting go of has been kind of stuck to us or identified with it for a long time.

So it's not often easy.

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