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Namaste and welcome.

I'd like to begin with a story. It's a classic story that I've heard from many, many different traditions.

But the common theme is that there's a monastery that has fallen on hard times.

It's mostly elderly monks and they're caught in their habits and their rituals and routines.

It's kind of a dying order. It does not have much possess or creativity or a live-ness to it.

And so, it disperited the head monk at one point went off into the wilderness to seek guidance from a well-known sage, a wise woman, who lived in solitude and a small hut in the deep woods.

And so, they practiced together, they meditated together, and he shares what's going on and she says, well, I don't have any advice.

All I can tell you is that the divine one, the bodhisattva, the awakened being, is living amongst you.

So, he returns and he tells all the monks, sorry, there's no advice, but here's what I found out.

So, what happened was in the days and weeks to follow the old monks pondered this and it kind of sparked their interest and their way of relating to each other started changing.

Kind of wondering, well, maybe it's you. Maybe you're the bodhisattva, and trying to look closer and pay more attention, noticing the light that came through each other and maybe the ways another was particularly patient or generous or kind.

And of course, something off-chance that they might be the bodhisattva, they started treating themselves with more respect and kindness.

And people that came by noticed the changing atmosphere, they kind of felt drawn to the radiance that was emanating from the monastery, and in time more and more asked to join.

And within some years, the monastery again became a really thriving order, filled with service and celebration and love.

So, what happened?

And what we can sense is that the sage basically told them the truth, the bodhisattvas living amongst you, and if you take it even more, a bodhisattvas and awakening being, they were all awakening beings, that's their potential, all of them.

And yet, the reminder helped them to begin to pay attention to that and nurse that and wake it up.

So, as individuals, each of us, and as communities, when we trust in our innate capacities, when we start sensing our potentials, that trust actually helps to wake us up.

And I love one particular line from the bodhisattvas teachings, where he says, I would not teach you about happiness and about your potential for freedom if it wasn't possible.

And what I love about that is really the gist of any spiritual path and the value of any teacher from any tradition is the capacity of that teacher or that path to remind us of the light and the love and the potential within us, or Buddha nature, or nature to awaken.

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