So good evening, often on the last evening of the retreat, the place that we reflect

is really what's described as the bodhisattva path or the path of an awakening being. Sometimes

the path is described as three parts and the first is this, and they're not linear, but that

there's this realization. There's an intuition of the what we are beyond some small story.

And then there's the getting familiar that more and more moments it's, oh really, I am that,

that this conditioning's happening, and there's more resting in that. And the third part is called

embodiment, where our words, our actions, everything is live from that realization.

So I'm going to open the talk in a strange way by saying that in the bodhisattva path, it's really

the recognition that all beings, all beings, that what's looking through the eyes and

emanating through all beings is this one spirit. And we have a being on campus here who's the

emanation of the sacred and yet something we need to watch out for too. There's a copperhead. And

how is that for a build-up? That's been cited, I think last night, primarily over by Holly House.

And from what I'm gathering, these are not like aggressive fast-moving creatures as much as you

just don't want to step on it. So we're encouraging just to have a flashlight when you go back and

just so you just watch where you're stepping. And on some deep level, you can almost stay to the

copperhead too. So that's the opening of the talk. See where am I going to go?

So we've described this word namaste and it really means seeing the sacred or divine that lives

through all beings. And it really is our capacity. And there's a story that I wanted to kind of start

off with tonight that I've always loved. And Rachel Raman, who's a physician and a teacher,

describes that she describes a doctor, one of the leading East Coast medical schools,

and one of his patients was a homeless woman. And she would put all her possessions into shopping

carts and once a month she'd go bring her carts up the steep hill to his clinic. She'd lashed

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