The morning after the Red and White Essence Level 1 Intensive last weekend, I met with the resident practitioners. Their questions about the teaching were at a much more specific level and practical level than most of what we talked about during the question and answer periods in the weekend. The difference of course, is that these people had taken the teaching several times. It reminds me of the intensity of the learning process. It really is the experience of leaping from one way of thinking to a new one while creating the neural pathways to perceive in these new ways. At first it is quite a foreign process. I am reminded of my learning the Tibetan alphabet. It seemed so strange to me and I had no reference for it. Going through the process of being illiterate again and barely being able to find the correct syllable was a painstaking process. Learning the view of non-duality and a teaching as comprehensive as the dharma teachings can feel like this too. It can feel like nothing is being said or like it goes in one ear and out the other. The best thing to do is to be patient, receptive and open. This learning is not only linear, it is also through transmission. Knowing doews begin to dawn and suddenly, just like learning the alphabet, it is so apparent and familiar that you don't even remember having had such exertion in putting it all together. In those first few weeks of learning the alphabet, if I skipped ahead from where I was I would find it overwhelming to consider how possibly all those things could fit together in a simple way… Gradually by remaining in a step-by-step mentality, it all fell together. These teaching are a paradigm of the non-dual view. Many facets of this are taught in our work. To begin to see in this way happens both suddenly and by and by. Be patient. Have a sense of humor.

In honor of that learning process, here are some important things from the weekend for you to re-consider and continue to digest, a review and highlight.

"...it goes right to the heart of unraveling the ego-
the teachings which are most difficult not to forget,
distort or rationalize away."

Some people who have little experience in long-term monogamous relationships had a hard time connecting with the significance of this teaching. That’s fine, not everything we receive now is needs to be understood now. It will take on more significance in the future when these issues arise. If, for example, we have never considered ourselves to have faults, or aversions, then of course, it will be difficult to connect with these teachings, since they require that we come without self-deception. In the Buddhist tradition, we acknowledge reality as it really is, rather than attempting through our view to make it as we would like it to be. Suffering, confusion and dissatisfaction arises because of our attempt to manipulate reality into what we'd rather it be rather than relate to it as it is.

Another obstacle that came up last weekend was getting full and feeling like we cannot take anymore- this is actually a very good sign. It meant that you are beginning to feel the boundaries of how much energy and concentration you can contain. Our habit at such a point is to back off, renounce what is making us feel that way and go rest. However this is not always the best way to approach. We can instead digest the energy at hand. We can expand our container. This is the purpose of the Inner Yogas like the double breathing practice, to digest energy and make space within us. It is a crucial habit to develop to relate to energy directly rather than avoid the friction of doing so. This will gradually expand our container so that we can tolerate more intensity and concentration. Every time we get "full" it is an opportunity to expand our container.

I often hear people who are a regular part of our teachings say that they do not attend a teaching if they have already attended a retreat of that topic before. This is equivalent to saying after a one-night stand, that there is no point in seeing the person you slept with again, since you have already "had" them once. It completely disregards the point of relating with someone- the depth of relationship. In the same way, hearing a teaching once and then feeling complete with it is a misunderstanding of how teachings could work in our school. We don't avoid going back because we have "had" the teaching once, we go back because we have had the teaching once. The teachings that are given repeatedly are given repeatedly so that the students have an opportunity to keep studying the teachings from the point of view of increasing experience with their lived meaning. It offers the opportunity to reapprache the teaching from the point of view of having actually worked with it and discovered real questions and areas of blindess. The retreats are always unique, even when they are on the same topic, since most of the students attending are growing more and more advanced in them. And yet at the same time they are presented in a basic and fundamental way that anyone can get. Returning to the teachings has provided many students the opportunity to realize that they had completely misunderstood the teaching and now can see the teachings, and their own mind in a new way. The Red & White Essence teachings are part of this paradigm, every retreat is part of this paradigm. Non-duality is a view that must be introduced then experimented with, and re-addressed repeatedly because it goes right to the heart of unraveling the ignorance we don't even realize we have. Those are the teachings which are most difficult not to forget, distort or rationalize away.