Our last class together, the theme was intimacy with our inner life.

It was really how suffering arises from the unseen, unfelt, and what I often call

unlive parts of ourselves, and that it's not until we become aware of what's

there and embrace it. And by embrace it genuinely bring presence to what we've

been running from, that we discover a kind of wholeness that really is the

equivalent of freedom. So intimacy with ourselves, opening to what we have

and open to, tonight, this class, I'd like to take this exploration and bring it

outward and explore, you know, what does it really mean to be intimate with the

other beings around us. And the same exact principle applies, which is if our

heart has shut down to an individual or a group of individuals, if in some way we

are discounting or rejecting, not attending to, not including in our hearts,

others, some part of the world we call other, we are not living from a place of

wholeness, it creates suffering. So I'd like to explore that really how we can't

be free if we're shutting anybody out of our hearts. And I find that when we're

rejecting others, when some way we're closed down to others, we're not aware

usually that it's creating suffering for us. That's not our awareness as our

attention's fixated on something's wrong with you. So we're not aware that that

fixation actually has contracted our hearts. Now there's a little more

likelihood that we're aware of, but when we get caught in a very strong kind of

cycling resentment, and sometimes we really get a God, I'm really caught in this,

and we can feel that it's squeezing us. And you might just reflect for a moment

to see if this is true for you. If you're aware of the suffering that comes with

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