So I wanted to start tonight, the talk with a story that I've always loved and it is

written by Lauren Eisley and it starts once on ancient earth. There was a human

boy walking along a beach and there had just been a storm so there were

starfish scattered along the sands and the boy knew the fish would die so he

began to fling the fish to the sea but of course every time he threw one star

fish in another one would appear somewhere else and an old earth man happened

to be walking along and saw what the boy was doing and he called out you know

why are you doing this boy said well I'm trying to save the starfish getting

sirens in the background to give us a little more drama here save the starfish

the man said but your attempts are useless every time you save one another returns

off in the same one you can't save them also why bother trying why does it

matter anyway the boy thought about this for a while starfish in his hand he

answered well it matters to this one and he flung it back into the sea

there is something about the consciousness of being with anyone that or with

any being any creature including the life within us and really getting that

life matters to this being that when we get that each of us cares about being

alive there's immediately a resonance in the heart the core of most spiritual

paths that I've encountered is a hymnsa is this non-violence is this kindness and

it's unconditional it's a kindness to all beings it's all encompassing and in

the teachings of true refuge which are really the teachings of realizing our

true nature this capacity to care about beings care about life is considered to

be a key expression of our awakened heartmind this caring and yet if we

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