So our last talk was on the title of it was really the mystery of being, the mystery

of who we are and I want to continue that tonight, that theme.

And I'd like to do it by sharing a story, a personal story from this last week.

And as I sometimes share with you, I go for regular walks on the batomic, it's part

of my morning meditation and one morning Jonathan, my husband and I were walking together

and I spotted, he's the camera guy and I spotted ahead of us a beaver on a rock.

And I was like completely thrilled and he was clueless, he had no idea it was there

and I'm kind of snapping my fingers and going like that and of course as soon as I gestulated

wildly the thing went plunk and of course he ridiculed me for my subtlety.

The next day I was alone on the walk and I had learned my lesson and I kind of went

really quietly and sure enough it was there again and it must have heard me approach

because it went under but then it came up right by my feet, like right along the shoreline

and put its little claws around a piece of wood and so on.

So I was thrilled and I pulled out my iPhone which I happened to have and I'm wildly

grabbing shots and really excited and then I got enough and I just kind of stopped and

that's when I actually looked at the beaver.

That's when I actually looked into those eyes and I saw this brightness and this sentience

and in that stopping, in that pause, I felt this love for the beaver, like in my mind

I was like I love you and now I did, I wasn't under some false illusion that it was gazing

at me seeing my sentience and going oh and I love you too, it wasn't that, there was

a connection on some level but I was experiencing and probably on some other way but I felt like

I was seeing its form, its slicked fur and its little eyes and its claws and I was also

...