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Thank you Dave 😊

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I am so happy you are offering this course for so many! Together we got this!!!

Thanks Brothah Dave!!! Reelin it in... consistently!! WE GOT THIS! TOGETHER

I’m actually on year seven right now. First year went by involuntary and then I realized maybe it was a blessing and I could be onto something so I told myself to remain on course and be faithful to a woman I MAY meet one day and show dedication before hand. After 7 years and seemingly a completely normal man in the eyes of society, maybe even above average in many ways it has made me feel a bit weird. I enjoy it. I enjoy the relationship I have with myself and the will power I know I have. But I feel a little bit weird about the way I entered into celibacy. I’ve thought about the monastery route after about 5 years but I’m unsure how to even go about it. I just thought it’s something I could challenge myself with and succeed. Whatever my perception of “success is”. Proud of you and your journey. Also proud you made it out 😂. But the fact you took from it and grew is what matters the most to me who is someone who is on year 7 himself. I’m thinking the way you delved into it was much more pure than I, but I’m hoping I can still take as much from it as you.

This is Brian H. of Wake Up SD bowing in. I'm glad you brought this issue to the San Diego Buddhist community and I appreciate your compassionate perspective. Many of us have been silent, myself included, despite following the issue closely and having strong feelings. I think there's sometimes a perception that speaking on issues that can be so divisive is unskillful or not "spiritual," though as you point out, the mindfulness trainings are very clear on this matter. I know I've wanted to raise the issue in our small SD Wake Up Sangha, but then I think that people are already so overwhelmed, and it's such a volatile topic, that I end up shying away from it. Since you got it started, I'll go ahead and add my thoughts and (hopefully) insights regarding a skillful response, based on my own deep dive into this topic as well as my personal experiences trying to transform the seeds of war and domination within. People want to know what they can do in a tangible sense and they are also largely overwhelmed by these big issues because they don't feel they have genuine agency. I also know that for me, there are a lot of very intense emotions in play that are difficult to practice with with fear chief among them. Without needing to place judgment on it, there is a lot of coldness and calculating craving for control and domination at the highest levels of power. This is perpetuated by craving and attachment to material resources that are afforded by being affiliated with the "top dog." I don't even believe that Biden has much power to unilaterally decide anything like this, to be honest, and I don't say that to excuse or defend him. If we look deeply and apply the principle of non-self, we see that war is a collective phenomenon; the network effect of our basest impulses for control, domination, power, and threat annihilation. We could easily be on the receiving end of that, and there are historical examples of people who speak out or interrupt the smooth functioning of the machine being targeted. That's scary, and I think a lot of people feel that fear: I know I do. In theory, Biden unilaterally has the power to end it as commander in chief, but I've noticed for a long time that no matter what president is in office, the bombs continue to drop and the defense industry continues to grow. It starts to feel as though things are not as they seem on the surface, that we don't have meaningful democratic input over what our military does, that perhaps not even the president does. That's not to say we can't change it-we can and must-but perhaps electoral politics is not the vector of change or agency we've been led to believe it is. I've given in to despair plenty of times. If you really take it in, it can be quite terrifying. There are extreme forces of violence and destruction that are unbound by democratic input from citizens through the existing political system. The people who we are told are in charge are, in some ways, a front for the monster behind the scenes. It's democratic window dressing on raw domination and predation. It's no wonder we're uncomfortable bringing it up and instead focus on building community and practicing. The "monster" I refer to, of course, is not supernatural, and it's not an evil we can annihilate. Nor is it reducible to any one person or group of people. In the language of some Native American traditions, it's Wettigo or Wendigo: a hunger that cannot be satisfied that has infected our civilization. It's an emergent network effect of our predatory impulses and our destructive, extractive relationship with Mother Earth that then spills out into our relationship with other humans because we are Mother Earth. The situation in Gaza is not separate from the environmental crisis and it's not separate from the mental health and addiction crisis. It's not separate from the catastrophic risks posed by technologies like AI or genetic engineering. It's not separate from an internet where our attention is the chief commodity to be captured through addictive algorithms. They are all different expressions of the same metacrisis: fundamentally, an orientation to the world not informed by spiritual principles based in an understanding of the interconnection of all life. We're all tied to it in one way or another through our separation, our trauma. We can get our agency back by encountering the monster within ourselves and healing, but I believe that is something that requires collective presencing as well as individual transformation and practice. How could it not, given that the very wound we're attempting to heal is our distance from one another? In other words, we do it together, combining our mindfulness energy and compassion to meet these extremely dense and overwhelming collective phenomena supported and protected. The principle of emergence works with love just as surely as it works for hatred; we can help birth a collective Bodhisattva. It's likely already taken root and is growing in us and our community. I know that many feel this, and I hope these words can help water it within you. As Thay said, the next Buddha is the Sangha. We cannot be silent on these issues, but we also have to be wary of lapsing into our own animal instincts with how we respond, to hold in our hearts that every person, even those committing harm, are fellow cells in the larger Bodhisattva body. I believe that when people feel they have the ability to respond to these tragedies with genuine agency and love in their hearts, they will show up energized, because none of us truly want a world beset by war and domination, nor do we truly want a world where we are destroying our Mother. Not even the people profiting from and exploiting it most. As we know, that is an endless cycle of craving, attachment, and separation filled with deep suffering. The predatory is a part of our nature, but so is cooperation, generosity, and symbiosis. I believe we are in a transition away from the former because it's become out of balance. It's just a very rough transition that's thousands of years in the making. I could say a lot more, but I'm already getting into multiple-page-length essay territory, so I'll bow out for now. Deep thanks to anyone who listened to my share. 😅🙏🕊

Very well articulated personal response. There's not really another way to look at it anymore. I don't think your love will do much though, it's your understanding that helps the most. If everyone thought like you everybody would be demanding Biden or the US government to stop this, and not vote for him and blindly agree with this in the upcoming election just to stop Trump. And if you see it as your duty to communicate this and express this is in the best possible way, that's where your love would be used best, to communicate this matter of factly, in a non-divisive way, so different people can best see the common sense in it. Because you have been gifted with these experiences and this consequential perception.

Othering is pernicious. Sorry you had to witness 9/11 first hand.

Thank you David, I’ve been shaken to my core by this situation.

Strong View balancer 🌟

Good to see you, Dave! Thanks to the shout-out to Rock Blossom! BTW, that beautiful story appears in Radical Acceptance, by Tara Brach (pp. 74-74 - in the Unconditional Friendliness chapter).

celibacy should be for whole life not 7 years

Such a amazing energy!!! Thanks for sharing your experience, I Will suscribe to your chanel inmedsitly!!!

Where did you go to practice the Buddhist lifestyle and monastery? Ive been thinking about trying out a term of at least 6 months to a year in a temple or monastery. Thanks for any info.

Thanks for posting

Darkness beware

Hey brother! Wonderful surprise to see your video in my feed 😊 I recognize deep gratitude and happiness within me, after listening to your share. Your presence and openness offers me the gift of inspiration. Much love and many blessings. Until our next meeting🙏

Accept what is....cuz THIS IS IT!!

NAMASTE ❤

Ahhh, that soul quenching singing of the bell...many thanks, much more GRATITUDE! TOGETHER ❤ MAN, DO WE GOT THIS!!! *best core workout EVER*

Is this also seed retention like no fapping?

6:54 Thank you for this! I plan to share it with my online Sangha for Thanksgiving. I am in SanAntonio, Tx, they are in Albany, NY. COVID gave us the gift of each other. And now we can learn from you. Maybe all of us are really becoming one Sangha.

♥️🙏🏻 Grateful to hear your thoughts on this practice today. Thank you Dave!

I met you at Spiral Light on Saturday. I am in a point in my life where "when the student is ready, the teacher will appear". Im so glad i found your channel. Thank you! Lindsey

Embracing the beauty of the present moment, the impermanence and continuation of it all...ahhhhh, to accept what is and lean in to it...the truth truly does set one free! So much love and gratitude Brother Dave, dear Sangha 🙏❤

ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE 🙏❤

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So beautiful Brother Dave, thank you for this.

Return to the breath, come home...SANGHA RULES!!

This resonated Dave. I needed to hear this this morning, I’ve been flooded with with traumatic memories in meditative practices lately, yin yoga mostly. Love you.

Just did that intro to animal flow and man, what a humbling experience...I enjoyed that suffering so very much and am so grateful for these uncomfortable moments to grow and learn...so awesome!

I just LOVE IT!!! I am curious and enthusiastic about learning what I've been hiding from myself...bring it on!!! SIT and savor!

Call it what you will, it has saved me from myself and has allowed me to find the peace within myself so that I may create and perceive peace in the world! Sangha is where it's at!!! THIS IS IT! EAZY PEAZY! ❤

Thank you for this reminder brother Dave

Lately I have taken so much refuge in the teachings, in myself, transforming my suffering into a medium by which to create my life. There are no words, I say grateful, but the depths of that gratitude are unfathomable...life is so beautiful

So grateful...thank you Brother Dave

Downshiftin'...WE GOT THIS

The truth will set you free!! Thanks Brother Dave!

I never tire of this teaching. Love ya Dave.

Re-listened to this today, brother Dave. 🙏🏼 thank you

After your situational assessment, I’m guessing you realized that your (or someone else’s) life was not at risk. That’s huge. If the situation had been different, and your (or someone else’s) life was at risk, would Brother Dave have stepped aside for Sgt. Dave to step in? Glad it didn’t turn out this way. Happy you were able to maintain a safe environment (in and out) and the situation deescalated. Sounds similar to how I was trained as a nurse to deescalate situations inside mental health facilities, especially when a patient is acting out violently during a psychotic episode.

Just knowing you have the power to create that space btwn reaction and response is POWERFUL and blinding with love light!!

Thank you Brother Dave, I believe it does🙏🏼

The freedom to choose my response 🥰🙌✊️

Thank you 🙏 Brother Dave

THIS. IS. IT.

Needed to hear this tonight, Dave ….. thank you