Greetings.

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Namaste and greetings, my friends.

It's really lovely to have you with us for this next part of the series on contentment

and contentment as this inner freedom of realizing well-being right where we are.

So I'd like to start by responding to some of the questions and misunderstandings that

arise around any consideration of contentment.

And some imagine contentment as being this kind of dissociation from the world, a dreamy

floating that's above and beyond life's difficulties, you know, kind of the image of a cow contendently

munching on grass and of meadow or something like real translike.

And actually true contentment involves a full presence with the life that's right here

within and around us.

And it doesn't mean we don't experience difficult emotions.

It means we're okay with feeling whatever is arising.

So by way of example, this week, inner contentment for me has not blocked me from feeling alarm

and grief for those in Afghanistan, for those in Haiti.

It hasn't stopped me from feeling fear or concern for a dear friend of mine who has brain

cancer.

It hasn't stopped me from feeling kind of bogged down by my own physical discomfort.

I've been dealing with a sinus infection.

So contentment enables us to be okay with these arising of grief or fear or pain with

...