Q4-20020209-Larry_Rosenberg-IMSRC-the_bhaddekarrata_sutta_reflections_on_true_solitude_4-8727 Leandr

Talk: 20020209-Larry_Rosenberg-IMSRC-the_bhaddekarrata_sutta_reflections_on_true_solitude_4-8727 Leandra Tejedor.json Start_time: 00:43:29 Display_question: Can you speak about the sensitivity, and vulnerability, that comes with practice? Keyword_search: dharma, sensitive, vulnerable, intimate, enlightenment, compassion, kindness, suffering, burned out, stressed, therapists, social workers, reactions Question_content: Questioner: (inaudible) Larry: Good question. Yes, that's a very good question. Dharma practice makes you more sensitive, in the sense of vulnerable. It also makes you stronger. Now sounds like a contradiction. You become more sensitive, because as you become more intimate with your own experience, you can really feel your suffering. The instructions, we're kind of rubbing your face in it. Come back to it, come back to it, but not in a blind way, in an unskilled way. We're trying to say there are ways to relate to what's happening to you. You do become more sensitive, because as the mind becomes more clear, it's like your glasses were all fogged up, and you didn't know it. You're starting to see, for example, one yogi who attained enlightenment was asked, well, what is this enlightenment that everyone's talking about? He said, well, the sky is blue. What did you learn from your enlightenment? He said, I learned that the sky is blue, and the grass is green. What, we all already know that, not really. Break_line: So, you do become more sensitive, and you become more sensitive not only to your own pain, but to others pain. That can help you relate to people, in a much more kind way, and natural compassion, and kindness, because you can feel that we're really all just one person. It's all the same. But in a sense, you're more vulnerable. So where does the strong part come in? When you start feeling the vulnerability of your own suffering. Let's say you realize just how much fear you have, how frightened you are of being afraid. Then awareness starts to work with that reaction, with that fear, so that that starts to get weaker. So, it's possible to be... to feel the sorrow of the world, even more than the average person, but not to be burned up. What are the... not burned up, burned out, stressed out, and all the rest of it? Break_line: The world is not going to change, at all. So, it's we who have to change. And there's an inner strength that comes from practice that enables you to be sensitive, but to not be overrun by your sensitivity, to what you're experiencing about you, and about the world. That may seem rather abstract, that probably does. And it has to be, because you have to find it out for yourself. You have to work with your own vulnerabilities, your own sensitivity, seeing you don't want to feel that. You don't want to be sensitive. And in the seeing of that, you learn that, well, it wasn't so bad. In a sense you learn your way, into being sensitive, and stable, so that you can… many therapists come to our center who are burnt out, and the practice helps them remain sensitive, but not being so burnt out. A lot of social workers, who are really in the front lines, with some awful conditions that are going on in the world, it is and paying attention to your reactions, that's crucial. So, start when you go home. It's no different than here. Start being sensitive to your reactions, to whatever. End_time: 00:46:56