Our last class was part of a two-part series on vulnerability and intimacy and freedom.

And I began the last class with a kind of mythological tale of a dragon who removed its scales

and in so doing, moved open to the vulnerability of removing his scales

and discovered in the presence that was there a deep loving connection.

He transformed.

And so I'd like to begin tonight by again in a way of definition saying,

well, what is vulnerability?

I mean, every one of us has a sense about it.

And in that sense, there's a kind of, we're unprotected at those moments

and at the mercy of forces beyond our control.

And it might be the vulnerability of aging or the vulnerability of sickness

or the vulnerability of feeling that others might leave us or reject us. It might be the vulnerability

of our finances. We're at the mercy of an economy beyond our control. It might be that we're in some

situation outdoors and it's the vulnerability of being in weather that might be that we're in some situation outdoors and it's the

vulnerability of being in weather that we, as we're finding on the planet, that is

unpredictable and can cause havoc in our lives. So vulnerability expresses itself

through emotions. Every emotion we have underneath its vulnerability,

whether it's the craving or the fear or the anger or the shame, there's a vulnerable sense of our being

underneath it. And when we start reflecting, we get it that all beings, it's universal. All beings are vulnerable. If you come into existence,

there's a sense of separateness, I'm here, the world's out there, things are uncertain,

and this being is going to die. We get it, that this being is going to die. So there's

like around the corner something that we're really concerned about.

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