Josh of Dharma Punks, New York, your friendly local Buddhist pastor, Dharma teacher, counselor.

Just filmed for two hours giving all these talks for a Buddhist magazine.

So, I'm hoping that my voice lasts and that I give you your money's worth.

But that's okay, because you're not charged anything.

Everything I do is by donation only.

So if you want to keep me going as an enterprise, the way to do that is Venbo

Dharma punks with an ex-NYC.

Everything I do, the counseling and the teaching is just supported by you, by the people.

So of course, evolution gave our species an important gift.

We developed these massive frontal lobes that allow us to think and to reason,

but also to appropriately keep in check our fear and our aggression. it's our ability to find safety in numbers through

bonding with others, allowing us to hunt and to gather and to share resources and build shelters

together and organize defenses that we build safe environments and so deeply wired into us.

Extremely influential regions of the brain are the ongoing expectation and drive towards

connection with others.

From birth, our core drive isn't just survival, it's bonding.

We need to develop those resonant interpersonal relations where we feel seen, and protected and nourished and delighted in

so that our nervous systems can be regulated back into homeostasis.

Homeostasis is that state in the body between being hyper aroused in a state of constant threat detection and reactive and shut down, depressed or unengaged, disconnected, exhausted.

There's this narrow band where we connect, where we feel safe, where we feel curious, and where we can be creative, where we can be confident.

So we need to connect with others to get to that state. Nervous systems, human nervous systems do not regulate into this state of safety on their own.

Human beings are wired, especially a region called the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex,

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