Many of you are familiar with one of the archetypal teachings in the Buddha's story and it's

how the Buddha responded to his shadow side.

And the shadow side, the name of the shadow side is Mora, the God Mora, the God of greed

and hatred and delusion and fear and all the different things we struggle with.

So through the decades as the story goes, Mora would appear randomly at gatherings where

the Buddha was teaching.

And when Mora would appear the Buddha's closest devotee and disciple Ananda would kind of

freak out and go, oh no, Mora is here and get really upset.

But the Buddha would in this little colloquial, but he'd say, Chell out Mora, Ananda, it's

okay.

Then he'd address Mora directly, he'd say, I see you Mora, come, let's have tea.

That was his response.

So in a way, I think of this as one of the most remarkable expressions of the evolution

of consciousness, that our habitual way of dealing with the shadow side when we're operating

in a more reflexive mode is to fight it, to suppress it, to totally disconnect from it

or to act out of it.

And so as a pioneer in evolutionary consciousness, the Buddha's basically saying, no, I see you

Mora, come, let's have tea.

Okay, so this is the great shift and it's the two wings of awareness.

I see you Mora as the wing of mindfulness noticing what's happening right here.

Come let's have tea is that wing of compassion or heart that says, whatever's here, I'm

going to open my heart in my response to it.

...