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The following talk was given at

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the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood

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City, California. Please visit

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our website at audioderma .org.

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Hello. Yeah. Okay. Thank you.

1:00

So my question is, you know,

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knowing that nothing is permanent, how

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can we be fully engaged? What

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do you mean

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by nothing is

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permanent? That

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you mean that everything will

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end someday? Yeah. That's

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not a secret. That's

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been going on for a long time and

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people are living their lives anyway. I

1:40

mean, we can be doing the minimum

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thing and live, right?

1:44

I mean, we can just get

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by doing some things, but

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not do. Yeah. It's

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probably a little bit unfortunate

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that the Pali word, anicca,

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has been translated as

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impermanent. because it implies

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that means what you're saying, that

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everything ends. Sooner or later, everything

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ends. But that's

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a rather conceptual

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idea. It might be somewhat true,

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but it's like some things are in the future.

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And it puts us into the

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world of thinking, thoughts, ideas,

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what should happen, what it should

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do, when will I do

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it, will I be successful, will

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I fail? The

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the Pali word

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Anicha literally means

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not constant, not

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continuous. And

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so the difference is

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that daytime is not

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continuous, not constant. We

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don't have constant daytime

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on this planet. Days

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come, days go.

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Night comes, night goes. Meals

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are impermanent, we could

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say, a particular meal. A

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meal comes to an end. But

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a meal isn't... Meals are in

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constant. Meals come, meals

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go. Meals come, meals

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go. Sleep comes, sleep

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goes. Hunger comes,

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hunger goes. Weather

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comes, weather goes. And

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so there's something about the coming and

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going, the appearing and disappearing. And

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when we do mindfulness practice,

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we're actually putting ourselves right into

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the middle of the river of

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change, the river of how

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things are constantly shifting, coming and

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going into existence. And

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you can see that with your thoughts, that

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anything that you're focusing on in

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the moment, that will

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be there for a moment,

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maybe a minute, but

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certainly something will happen and

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it'll pass. It

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might reappear and it passes,

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it reappears. And

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after a while, in this

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mindfulness practice, we're

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trying to become acutely

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sensitive to how everything

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is constantly shifting

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and changing, coming and

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going, appearing and disappearing, so

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that we can float

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in it rather than

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resist the change so

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that we can stay

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close to the lived

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experience rather than being

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up in the world

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of thoughts will be

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pulled away from the

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world of change. And

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the world of thoughts can create

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the idea of constancy. I'm

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always going to be depressed. I'm

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always going to be. It's always this way.

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It's never going to be any different. We

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live in this world

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of ideas and projections

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and then the idea

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that, well, I'm going

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to die. Why

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bother do anything? There's

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some logic to that kind

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of way of thinking, but that

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puts us up in this logical

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mind. which actually pulls us away

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from the lived experience of right

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here and now. And

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the treasure of insight

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practice is to learn

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to trust and rest

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and love the stream

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of life as it's

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being lived. And once

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you're connected to that, then

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your thinking will change and

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it'll be much better. So

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I didn't answer your

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question directly. But in the

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way I did answer, is it okay? Yeah,

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thank you, yeah. Do

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have someone else? Questions

6:01

come, questions go. Hopefully

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there's a response. Hi

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everyone, thanks for the opportunity. I

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am fairly new to this, but I've

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always struggled with the question, maybe some

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people also struggle with, how

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do you balance between surrender

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and kind of being controlled? How

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do I balance between

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surrender and control? So

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it's a great question, and I think a

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lot of people are trying to find that. And

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so I'll offer you one. maybe

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kind of fun way

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to explore that because in

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my orientation I wouldn't

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answer that question. That's

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your task to figure out. So

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one way to do

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it is to experiment

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and see what the

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consequence is. Learn

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from your mistakes. Learn from what

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works. Try letting go

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of control and see what you

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learn from that. Try being in control

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and see what you learn from

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that. Each of them

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might have... What you might learn

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is that some circumstances you want

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to be in control and it's

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healthy and appropriate. Other

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circumstances it's better to let go of

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control and that's the best. And

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so you learn wisdom about when each

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of them is needed rather than having

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this dichotomy. It's one or the other.

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So you want to

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experiment and learn

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for yourself. So

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there's an expression

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that I like called

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action reflection, which

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means you act and then you

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think about it and learn from it.

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Action learning. You learn, what did

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I learn from this? So that's one way. The

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other way, which is closer to this

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practice here, which is also not giving you

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an answer, because you have

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to find the answer for yourself, is

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bring a lot

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of mindfulness to

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your desire to

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control, or your

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desire to surrender.

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And see, understand what's going on more

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deeply in you. For

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example, I'm not saying this is you. Some

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people are trying to control

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the situation because they're afraid. And

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what we do in this

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practice here, if we discover that,

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That fear is what we

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practice with. And

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that fear then has a chance to

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unfold, change, be understood in a

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deep way, so that there's no need

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to control. We find another way

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to do it. It could

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be that the desire to surrender. And

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again, I'm very careful. I don't know you, so

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I don't know if it's your situation. But

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I know that some people are

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highly idealistic, and they've read a lot

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of spiritual books that say the

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greatest thing you can do is surrender,

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just complete surrender to God, to

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the Dharma. And so I

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have to be a successful spiritual person, and

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that's what they're telling me to do. And

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so, wow, I've just taken these

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ideas, I believe them, I'm trying to

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be a good person by living

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up to these ideals. Wow,

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is this really how I want to live my life?

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Let's go look at it even more deeply. Always

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looking, always going deeper and seeing

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what's going on. So

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the first is

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to learn by

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experience. And the

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second is just look more deeply at what's

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underlies, what's going on more deeply in it.

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Are these answers appropriate for you? Do you

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feel like you want to ask again?

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No, this is great. Thank you. Great.

10:02

This should probably be one for

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me to figure out as well,

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but what are your thoughts on

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free will like how much of

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it is just for this character

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is a little bit kind of

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programmed to do this Yeah, just

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stop there and how much of

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it do we actually choose? Yeah,

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but you know Yeah, that's I

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mean a lot of people have

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that question. It's a reasonable question

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Buddhism doesn't answer that question It's

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not interested in the question Why?

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There's no need to. Because

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it doesn't matter at the end. Sorry? I

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mean it's just a thought question because

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it doesn't really matter. Because

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I've always heard that's like the

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most important question. Oh, every, nothing

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matters. I don't think Buddhism

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would ever say that. Everything matters

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and for Buddhists. But

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that's not an interesting

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question. Gee, my

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one question, thank you. Well,

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you got an answer. I did it again. No,

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no, you got it. You got

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an answer. It

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might not be what you expected. But

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maybe you don't need the

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question. Yeah. And

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I was kind of looking for a question just to keep

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you talking too, so. Thank

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you. So

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I've had this, not

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exactly sure how to

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ask this. So

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sometimes awareness is like this

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refuge. Like

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this ultimate

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resting place.

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And then other times

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it feels a bit

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passive or cool. And

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I find myself really

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wanting it to always be

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the resting and the

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refuge and I'm wondering if

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that's something like to

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practice with or if that's

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just how it is.

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It's sometimes a refuge and

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sometimes Yeah, I don't

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think we can expect any

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static state to stay

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forever things are always shifting

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and changing including the

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quality characteristics of awareness and

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So, listening to your

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question, I

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appreciate them. And

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my inclination is

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that for you to

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look more closely

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at what you really

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mean by resting

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in awareness. Because

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it might not be quite accurate

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that that's what you want. It

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might be the easy interpretation of

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what you're wanting there. And

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what was the other resting

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and what was the other one?

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Where it feels more passive

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or cool. Yeah.

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So I would do the same thing there. Maybe

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the language, maybe the way you're

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telling yourself what this experience is, gets

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in the way of really seeing

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something deeper there. Trust

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both of them. Don't set them

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up against each other. That

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maybe trust both and trust

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being really attempt to really,

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like, see if you can discover

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some of the texture, the

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richness, the deeper qualities of these

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two things that you know

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of. And maybe you'll

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discover that it's actually somewhat

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different than the label you

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put on it. And

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you'll be maybe delighted

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by what you find in

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both cases. Thank

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you. Is it okay? Great.

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So, thank you. It

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was a lot easier than having to

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think up a topic to talk about and

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then try to make it up and

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make it come alive. So

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that was nice for me today. That says I

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didn't have anything. So

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thank you. So we're going to do that

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temple cleaning. And

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so Bhopal will ask for volunteers.

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And when you volunteer for something,

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you can go get started. The

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idea is to do it mostly

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in silence, unless you have to

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talk about the job. And

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I'll probably, if the

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power runs out of things

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to do, I'll make

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some suggestions. Okay,

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so we'll start

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off with how about

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two for vacuuming

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the meditation hall. One,

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two. What seemed to

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work well is one to run the vacuum, the

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other to move the chairs out of the

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way and then put them back in. Thanks.

15:14

How about one

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person to sweep

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the community hall? And

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then

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how about

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three

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people to

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clean the restrooms. One,

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two, and three. There's probably,

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there's so many people here, maybe

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one person upstairs too, and

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the other before then. One, there's

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one restroom upstairs at the top

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of the stairs. Okay, thank

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you. And

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then one person to take

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out the recyclables and trash.

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Okay. Then

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how about along

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with Kevin, about

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four more. Kevin plus

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four for outside. One,

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two, three, four, okay?

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And one to tidy up the kitchen, okay?

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And let's see, what

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did I miss? One thing

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we haven't done for a while is maybe

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someone could take a rag. I think there's

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rags in the accessible bathroom over there. and

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clean all the statues we

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have, and any other surface that

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surfaces don't usually get dusted

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or cleaned very well. You want

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to do that? Thank you.

16:41

Okay, one. So surfaces, you

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mean the ones in the community

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hall? Anywhere, anywhere. Once you finish all

16:47

the statues, whatever else around it. And

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then how about

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I skipped over the

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sweep the library and check the

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flowers for water. Can

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you do that? Okay, thank you. Okay,

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and then on

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the some things

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that we don't

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regularly do about

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cleaning the windows

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in the meditation

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hall and the

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windows in the

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shoe room. One,

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maybe we need two

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people for that, okay? And

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then someone who's brave

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to clean out their refrigerator.

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Be careful you don't

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throw away someone's lunch. But

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I'll try to come and look with you

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a little bit too, but things get left

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there a long time. And

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I think maybe you didn't assign anybody

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to clean the kitchen, right? I did.

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You did, okay. But that and

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then The last one

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would be the the

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room that's in the conference

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room here maybe you

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could take is there is

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there a second vacuum

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cleaner There one in

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the no, there's a straight there

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is a second one I don't know what exactly

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is If you you could vacuum that floor in

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there in the conference room that would be nice Yeah,

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it should pass the library in the

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corner there Yeah,

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I'll show you