The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 - Rob Burbea's Digital Garden

#Talk [[The Way of Non-Clinging Part 2|The Way of Non-Clinging Part 2 🡄]] | [[2017 Eros Unfettered|🡅]] | [[Dilemmas and Delineations - How did we get here Part 1|🡆 Dilemmas and Delineations - How did we get here Part 1]] Series: [[2017 Eros Unfettered]] Transcript: [[0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3]] Transcript PDF: [[2017_0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3.pdf]] <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> ## Index _<a data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">Desire</a> (60) · <a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a> (57) · <a data-href="Eros" class="internal-link">Eros</a> (41) · <a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> (39) · <a data-href="Fantasy" class="internal-link">Fantasy</a> (30) · <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> (28) · <a data-href="Passion" class="internal-link">Passion</a> (23) · <a data-href="Letting go" class="internal-link">Letting go</a> (20) · <a data-href="Soul" class="internal-link">Soul</a> (15) · <a data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">Dukkha</a> (14) · <a data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">Insight</a> (13) · <a data-href="Mindfulness" class="internal-link">Mindfulness</a> (13) · <a data-href="Discrepancy-based processing" class="internal-link">Discrepancy-based processing</a> (12) · <a data-href="Love" class="internal-link">Love</a> (12) · <a data-href="Avijja" class="internal-link">Avijja</a> (11) · <a data-href="Hindrances" class="internal-link">Hindrances</a> (11) · <a data-href="Romantic love" class="internal-link">Romantic love</a> (11) · <a data-href="Conceptual framework" class="internal-link">Conceptual framework</a> (10) · <a data-href="Fabrication" class="internal-link">Fabrication</a> (10) · <a data-href="Perception" class="internal-link">Perception</a> (10) · <a data-href="Activism" class="internal-link">Activism</a> (9) · <a data-href="Metta" class="internal-link">Metta</a> (9) · <a data-href="Beauty" class="internal-link">Beauty</a> (8) · <a data-href="Emptiness" class="internal-link">Emptiness</a> (8) · <a data-href="Kusala" class="internal-link">Kusala</a> (8) · <a data-href="Mind" class="internal-link">Mind</a> (8) · <a data-href="Constriction" class="internal-link">Constriction</a> (7) · <a data-href="Dependent Origination" class="internal-link">Dependent Origination</a> (7) · <a data-href="Psyche" class="internal-link">Psyche</a> (7) · <a data-href="Retreat" class="internal-link">Retreat</a> (7) · <a data-href="Sexuality" class="internal-link">Sexuality</a> (7) · <a data-href="The Self" class="internal-link">The Self</a> (7) · <a data-href="Freedom" class="internal-link">Freedom</a> (6) · <a data-href="Image" class="internal-link">Image</a> (6) · <a data-href="Soulmaking" class="internal-link">Soulmaking</a> (6) · <a data-href="Attention" class="internal-link">Attention</a> (5) · <a data-href="Awakening" class="internal-link">Awakening</a> (5) · <a data-href="Delineations" class="internal-link">Delineations</a> (5) · <a data-href="Experience" class="internal-link">Experience</a> (5) · <a data-href="Personhood" class="internal-link">Personhood</a> (5) · <a data-href="Poetry" class="internal-link">Poetry</a> (5) · <a data-href="Cultivation" class="internal-link">Cultivation</a> (4) · <a data-href="Dimensionality" class="internal-link">Dimensionality</a> (4) · <a data-href="Divinity" class="internal-link">Divinity</a> (4) · <a data-href="Habit" class="internal-link">Habit</a> (4) · <a data-href="Imaginal" class="internal-link">Imaginal</a> (4) · <a data-href="Mode of mind" class="internal-link">Mode of mind</a> (4) · <a data-href="Papanca" class="internal-link">Papanca</a> (4) · <a data-href="Relationships" class="internal-link">Relationships</a> (4) · <a data-href="Spiritual friendship" class="internal-link">Spiritual friendship</a> (4) · <a data-href="Ways of looking" class="internal-link">Ways of looking</a> (4) · <a data-href="Zen" class="internal-link">Zen</a> (4) · <a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a> (3) · <a data-href="Happiness" class="internal-link">Happiness</a> (3) · <a data-href="Nature" class="internal-link">Nature</a> (3) · <a data-href="Vedana" class="internal-link">Vedana</a> (3) · <a data-href="Bodhisattva" class="internal-link">Bodhisattva</a> (2) · <a data-href="Chanda" class="internal-link">Chanda</a> (2) · <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Hermeneutics > Overview" data-href="Hermeneutics#Overview" class="internal-link">Hermeneutics > Overview</a> (2) · <a data-href="Kalyanamittata" class="internal-link">Kalyanamittata</a> (2) · <a data-href="Meditation" class="internal-link">Meditation</a> (2) · <a data-href="Music" class="internal-link">Music</a> (2) · <a data-href="Allen Ginsberg" class="internal-link">Allen Ginsberg</a> · <a data-href="Artificial intelligence" class="internal-link">Artificial intelligence</a> · <a data-href="Brahmaviharas" class="internal-link">Brahmaviharas</a> · <a data-href="Chogyam Trungpa" class="internal-link">Chogyam Trungpa</a> · <a data-href="Cosmology" class="internal-link">Cosmology</a> · <a data-href="Embodiment" class="internal-link">Embodiment</a> · <a data-href="Ethics" class="internal-link">Ethics</a> · <a data-href="Global warming" class="internal-link">Global warming</a> · <a data-href="Hermit" class="internal-link">Hermit</a> · <a data-href="Ignorance" class="internal-link">Ignorance</a> · <a data-href="Impermanence" class="internal-link">Impermanence</a> · <a data-href="Mahayana" class="internal-link">Mahayana</a> · <a data-href="Meaningfulness" class="internal-link">Meaningfulness</a> · <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Music > Jazz" data-href="Music#Jazz" class="internal-link">Music > Jazz</a> · <a data-href="Pain" class="internal-link">Pain</a> · <a data-href="Realism" class="internal-link">Realism</a> · <a data-href="Sangha" class="internal-link">Sangha</a> · <a data-href="Sigmund Freud" class="internal-link">Sigmund Freud</a> · <a data-href="Simplification" class="internal-link">Simplification</a> · <a data-href="Spirituality" class="internal-link">Spirituality</a> · <a data-href="Steadiness" class="internal-link">Steadiness</a> · <a data-href="Thich Nhat Hanh" class="internal-link">Thich Nhat Hanh</a> · <a data-href="Unfabricated" class="internal-link">Unfabricated</a>_ ## Paragraphs [[The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 -|bare list]] ##### Summary of part 1 and 2 **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 > ^1-1" data-href="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3#^1-1" class="internal-link">1-1</a>**: _<a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a> (11) · <a data-href="Experience" class="internal-link">Experience</a> · <a data-href="Fabrication" class="internal-link">Fabrication</a> (3) · <a data-href="Perception" class="internal-link">Perception</a> (3) · <a data-href="Dependent Origination" class="internal-link">Dependent Origination</a> · <a data-href="Ways of looking" class="internal-link">Ways of looking</a> · <a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3#t=00:00" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> Okay, so in the last part, in part two of this talk, we unpacked a little bit, outlined, laid out a different way of thinking about <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a> and this teaching of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Clinging" data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">non-clinging</a>, so that one is actually investigating the <a data-href="experience" class="internal-link">experience</a> of <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>, that movement of <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>, and times of more <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>, less <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>, even less <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>, becoming skilful at moving up and down on that spectrum. And opening up, through doing that, first of all, what that word '<a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>' means, and seeing that it, too, is a spectrum of very, very gross to very, very subtle, and using it as an entry point and a tool, a key for investigation into the <a data-href="fabrication" class="internal-link">fabrication</a> of <a data-href="perception" class="internal-link">perception</a>, the <a data-href="fabrication" class="internal-link">fabrication</a> of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Perception" data-href="Perception" class="internal-link">appearances</a>, the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dependent Origination" data-href="Dependent Origination" class="internal-link">dependent arising</a> of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Perception" data-href="Perception" class="internal-link">appearances</a>, and the investigation of seeming reality, the questioning of that reality through the mechanism of playing with <a data-href="ways of looking" class="internal-link">ways of looking</a> and <a data-href="fabrication" class="internal-link">fabrication</a>, centred on the concept of <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>. And opening up in that way, very deeply, momentously, the actual sense of existence (as opposed to trying to live without <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>, somehow live a life that's free of <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>, <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>, etc.). --- ##### Life without clinging is impossible, but there is also a second problem with the ideal of living without it **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 > ^1-2" data-href="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3#^1-2" class="internal-link">1-2</a>**: _<a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a> (4) · <a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> (2) · <a data-href="Fabrication" class="internal-link">Fabrication</a> · <a data-href="Perception" class="internal-link">Perception</a> (2) · <a data-href="Experience" class="internal-link">Experience</a> · <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> · <a data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">Insight</a> · <a data-href="Retreat" class="internal-link">Retreat</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3#t=01:55" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> And through that, we also saw that it actually, in a way, doesn't make sense to live without <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>, to try and live without <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a> and <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>, because <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>/<a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a> are actually elements, if you like, necessary for the <a data-href="fabrication" class="internal-link">fabrication</a> of <a data-href="perception" class="internal-link">perception</a>, for any <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Perception" data-href="Perception" class="internal-link">appearances</a> to appear, for us to live in the world, <a data-href="experience" class="internal-link">experience</a> a world. So in that sense, too, it doesn't quite make sense. But as I said, there's a second problem with this ideal of living without <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>. And in some ways, for some people, it will be very obvious. Maybe it's hard for them to articulate it, and certainly hard for them to square it and reconcile it with a more usual <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Insight" data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">understanding</a>, but the problem is obvious. For other people, interestingly, the problem and the difficulty here is not obvious at all, and that's interesting. I'll come back to that, actually, throughout this <a data-href="retreat" class="internal-link">retreat</a>. --- ##### Who would even want to live without clinging? **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 > ^1-3" data-href="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3#^1-3" class="internal-link">1-3</a>**: _<a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a> (5) · <a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> (3) · <a data-href="Activism" class="internal-link">Activism</a> (2) · <a data-href="Personhood" class="internal-link">Personhood</a> · <a data-href="Constriction" class="internal-link">Constriction</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3#t=03:08" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> But the second problem is, as I said, would we even _want_ to live a life without <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>, without <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>? And what would that look like? Have we actually thought out or explored what that would mean, what it would look like? What would such a goal, living without <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>/<a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a> - I'm just going to use the word '<a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>' for shorthand - what would such a goal imply and entail for the different domains or areas of our existence, areas and directions of our existence that we really care deeply about? So what would it entail, that kind of goal, and imply, for instance, for our <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Activism" data-href="Activism" class="internal-link">engagement</a>? Politically, environmentally, the world crying out for this. If I have this ideal, non-attachment, no <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>, no <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>, very even keel, what might it imply for areas such as <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Activism" data-href="Activism" class="internal-link">engagement</a>? Or even our own <a data-href="personhood" class="internal-link">personhood</a>, and the range of styles of, if you like, personality or persona or expression in the world? What does this rather simplistic and <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Constriction" data-href="Constriction" class="internal-link">constrained</a> ideal of 'living without <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>' imply for these areas? What would it imply and entail for art, and our relationship with art, making art? I've talked about all of these in other talks, so I'm not going to dwell very long on this. --- ##### Art, sexuality without desire? **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 > ^1-4" data-href="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3#^1-4" class="internal-link">1-4</a>**: _<a data-href="Music" class="internal-link">Music</a> · <a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> (2) · <a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a> (2) · <a data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">Desire</a> · <a data-href="Zen" class="internal-link">Zen</a> (2) · <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Music > Jazz" data-href="Music#Jazz" class="internal-link">Music > Jazz</a> · <a data-href="Love" class="internal-link">Love</a> · <a data-href="Romantic love" class="internal-link">Romantic love</a> (2) · <a data-href="Sexuality" class="internal-link">Sexuality</a> · <a data-href="Attention" class="internal-link">Attention</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3#t=04:55" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> But for instance, ==is it even possible to create a large form (say a long piece of <a data-href="music" class="internal-link">music</a>, or a novel, or a film or something, or a painting that takes a long time) without <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>, <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>, attachment, <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a>? Or training - the long, dedicated training it takes to develop that kind of mastery in spontaneity==, if you like, of the <a data-href="Zen" class="internal-link">Zen</a> calligraphist, or the <a data-href="Zen" class="internal-link">Zen</a> sword fighter, or the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Music > Jazz" data-href="Music#Jazz" class="internal-link">jazz</a> artist? What would this goal of living without attachment, without <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>, without <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>, mean for the way we <a data-href="love" class="internal-link">love</a> our families, family members, friends, deep friendships, <a data-href="romantic love" class="internal-link">romantic love</a>? What on earth would it mean for the realm of <a data-href="romantic love" class="internal-link">romantic love</a>, for our <a data-href="sexuality" class="internal-link">sexuality</a>? Even for food, and for the kind of care and <a data-href="attention" class="internal-link">attention</a> to detail and loveliness that some people bring when they prepare food, cook food, and share it with others, offer it to others. --- ##### Neither simplicity nor more Buddhist concepts is the answer **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 > ^2-1" data-href="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3#^2-1" class="internal-link">2-1</a>**: _<a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a> (7) · <a data-href="Letting go" class="internal-link">Letting go</a> · <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> (2) · <a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> · <a data-href="Metta" class="internal-link">Metta</a> · <a data-href="Brahmaviharas" class="internal-link">Brahmaviharas</a> · <a data-href="Hindrances" class="internal-link">Hindrances</a> (2) · <a data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">Desire</a> · <a data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">Dukkha</a> · <a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a> · <a data-href="Habit" class="internal-link">Habit</a> · <a data-href="The Self" class="internal-link">The Self</a> · <a data-href="Activism" class="internal-link">Activism</a> (2) · <a data-href="Personhood" class="internal-link">Personhood</a> (2) · <a data-href="Love" class="internal-link">Love</a> (3) · <a data-href="Romantic love" class="internal-link">Romantic love</a> · <a data-href="Sexuality" class="internal-link">Sexuality</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3#t=06:24" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> So if we have this idea, 'living without <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>,' how then are these areas, these domains and directions of our being and our existence, our life today, how are they then related to and viewed? What is implied about them? Certainly if I have too simplistic an idea of "just drop <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>, just <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Letting go" data-href="Letting go" class="internal-link">let go of everything</a>," that kind of thing, what then is implied about all that? But also if I kind of piece together and fit together a collection of other <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> concepts, and differentiate between them - attachment, <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>, <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>, _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Metta" data-href="Metta" class="internal-link">mettā</a>_ and the _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Brahmaviharas" data-href="Brahmaviharas" class="internal-link">brahmavihāras</a>_, this word that I used, _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Hindrances" data-href="Hindrances" class="internal-link">hitacchanda</a>_, the sort of well-wishing, but also <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a>, for decreasing <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dukkha" data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">suffering</a>, we could say, in ourselves and hopefully in the world. If we differentiate also, the <a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a> outlined <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a> to <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Hindrances" data-href="Hindrances" class="internal-link">sense pleasures</a>, <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a> to views, <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a> to customs and <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Habit" data-href="Habit" class="internal-link">habits</a>, <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a> to <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="The Self" data-href="The Self" class="internal-link">self-view</a>. If we bring that collection of concepts to bear on all these themes and areas and directions of our life - <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Activism" data-href="Activism" class="internal-link">engagement</a>, potential <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Activism" data-href="Activism" class="internal-link">engagement</a> of our <a data-href="personhood" class="internal-link">personhood</a> and the range of styles of <a data-href="personhood" class="internal-link">personhood</a>, art, family <a data-href="love" class="internal-link">love</a>, friend <a data-href="love" class="internal-link">love</a>, <a data-href="romantic love" class="internal-link">romantic love</a>, sexual <a data-href="love" class="internal-link">love</a>, <a data-href="sexuality" class="internal-link">sexuality</a>, sexual expression, food, all that - how is it viewed, if it's either viewed very simplistically, or through this collection of sort of more traditional <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> concepts? How would those areas be viewed? --- ##### "All of it is delusion", really? **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 > ^2-2" data-href="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3#^2-2" class="internal-link">2-2</a>**: _<a data-href="Passion" class="internal-link">Passion</a> · <a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a> · <a data-href="Avijja" class="internal-link">Avijja</a> (5) · <a data-href="Personhood" class="internal-link">Personhood</a> · <a data-href="Steadiness" class="internal-link">Steadiness</a> · <a data-href="Freedom" class="internal-link">Freedom</a> · <a data-href="Romantic love" class="internal-link">Romantic love</a> · <a data-href="Sexuality" class="internal-link">Sexuality</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3#t=08:13" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> All those domains, our endeavours, our efforts, our <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Passion" data-href="Passion" class="internal-link">passions</a>, our <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Clinging" data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">clingings</a> and attachments within those areas, some would say, "Yeah, all that's <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Avijja" data-href="Avijja" class="internal-link">delusion</a>. All of it's <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Avijja" data-href="Avijja" class="internal-link">delusion</a>. It's deluded to be engaged and get riled up about these things. <a data-href="Personhood" class="internal-link">Personhood</a> is complete <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Avijja" data-href="Avijja" class="internal-link">delusion</a>, and certainly anything that doesn't look like the picture of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Steadiness" data-href="Steadiness" class="internal-link">calmness</a>, of unruffledness. Art, waste of time, really, unless it communicates something about the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Freedom" data-href="Freedom" class="internal-link">end of suffering</a>. Family, all right - granted, it's important biologically, and we owe our parents and that sort of thing, but basically it's an attachment. It's <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Avijja" data-href="Avijja" class="internal-link">delusion</a>. <a data-href="Romantic love" class="internal-link">Romantic love</a>, off the scale as a <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Avijja" data-href="Avijja" class="internal-link">delusion</a>. <a data-href="Sexuality" class="internal-link">Sexuality</a>, just defilement. Food too." --- ##### "Some of it is delusion and the rest can be fit into concepts", really? **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 > ^2-3" data-href="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3#^2-3" class="internal-link">2-3</a>**: _<a data-href="Avijja" class="internal-link">Avijja</a> (2) · <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> · <a data-href="Metta" class="internal-link">Metta</a> · <a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a> (2) · <a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> · <a data-href="Chanda" class="internal-link">Chanda</a> · <a data-href="Hindrances" class="internal-link">Hindrances</a> · <a data-href="Freedom" class="internal-link">Freedom</a> · <a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a> · <a data-href="Relationships" class="internal-link">Relationships</a> · <a data-href="Love" class="internal-link">Love</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3#t=09:05" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> And some people would basically hold that. They would answer yes, it's <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Avijja" data-href="Avijja" class="internal-link">delusion</a>. Some would say in response that, with those other <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> concepts that I outlined - attachment, _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Metta" data-href="Metta" class="internal-link">mettā</a>_, <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>, <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>, _<a data-href="chanda" class="internal-link">chanda</a>_, _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Hindrances" data-href="Hindrances" class="internal-link">hitacchanda</a>,_ till the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Freedom" data-href="Freedom" class="internal-link">end of suffering</a>, etc., the different kinds of <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a> that <a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a> outlined, and maybe throw in John Bowlby and those kind of people, and the talking about healthy attachment of the infant and mother, the necessity of the sort of evolutionary programming of that kind of healthy attachment - and they would say, "Yes, that's adequate. There's nothing missing in that. We can explain our <a data-href="relationships" class="internal-link">relationships</a> with all these areas, if we are engaged, if we have different personalities, if we are engaged in art and family <a data-href="love" class="internal-link">love</a> and all that stuff, it can be explained with all those concepts. Some of it will be <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Avijja" data-href="Avijja" class="internal-link">delusion</a>, and others can be fit into it as concepts. It's adequate as a net of concepts." --- ##### For some people, a couple of Dharma concepts are adequate, for others definitely not **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 > ^2-4" data-href="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3#^2-4" class="internal-link">2-4</a>**: _<a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3#t=10:23" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> And others will be _screaming_. [laughs] Something in the being will be screaming, "No! No. It's not adequate. No. Something is missing." I'm going to come back to this, as I said, and say more about the difference of opinions and views on this, why some people hold the simplistic view adequate, why some people that net of - I don't know - six or seven <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> concepts will be adequate, and for others, no. This is quite interesting to me, why some people it's very clear that it's inadequate, and for others it's clearly adequate. We'll come back to that. --- ##### Constraints on the kinds of desire or fantasies that are allowed **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 > ^3-1" data-href="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3#^3-1" class="internal-link">3-1</a>**: _<a data-href="Activism" class="internal-link">Activism</a> · <a data-href="Personhood" class="internal-link">Personhood</a> · <a data-href="Love" class="internal-link">Love</a> · <a data-href="Romantic love" class="internal-link">Romantic love</a> · <a data-href="Sexuality" class="internal-link">Sexuality</a> · <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> (3) · <a data-href="Mindfulness" class="internal-link">Mindfulness</a> (6) · <a data-href="Embodiment" class="internal-link">Embodiment</a> · <a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a> · <a data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">Desire</a> (4) · <a data-href="Fantasy" class="internal-link">Fantasy</a> (2) · <a data-href="Image" class="internal-link">Image</a> (2) · <a data-href="Awakening" class="internal-link">Awakening</a> · <a data-href="Constriction" class="internal-link">Constriction</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3#t=11:16" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> But of those areas that I talked about or named - <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Activism" data-href="Activism" class="internal-link">engagement</a>, <a data-href="personhood" class="internal-link">personhood</a>, art, <a data-href="love" class="internal-link">love</a> with family, friends, <a data-href="romantic love" class="internal-link">romantic love</a>, <a data-href="sexuality" class="internal-link">sexuality</a>, food, etc. - what of those areas, and what of those directions, and what is allowed there, and what is allowed to be involved, and what is given place, given genuine place as part of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dharma" data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">the path</a>, as we're _conceiving_ <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dharma" data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">the path</a>? And not just in the sense of, "Oh, yes, be <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Mindfulness" data-href="Mindfulness" class="internal-link">mindful</a> of everything, so <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dharma" data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">the path</a> includes everything. If you're doing art, you're just <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Mindfulness" data-href="Mindfulness" class="internal-link">mindful</a> of you're doing your art, <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Mindfulness" data-href="Mindfulness" class="internal-link">mindful</a> of the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Embodiment" data-href="Embodiment" class="internal-link">body</a>, <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Mindfulness" data-href="Mindfulness" class="internal-link">mindful</a> of, I don't know, if you're painting, how does that feel, etc., <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Mindfulness" data-href="Mindfulness" class="internal-link">mindful</a> of the movements of getting too tight, <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>, <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a>, in that process." But something, even if we say it's included because <a data-href="mindfulness" class="internal-link">mindfulness</a> should touch everything, there's still a constraint on the kinds and directions of <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a> that are allowed. ==There's a constrainment of the idea of what's allowed in terms of <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a>, and also of <a data-href="fantasy" class="internal-link">fantasy</a> and <a data-href="image" class="internal-link">image</a> of what <a data-href="awakening" class="internal-link">awakening</a> looks like, what kind of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Desire" data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">desires</a> and involvements an awakened person has, and therefore what we're moving towards.== So it's <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Constriction" data-href="Constriction" class="internal-link">constrained</a> conceptually and by <a data-href="image" class="internal-link">image</a>, by <a data-href="fantasy" class="internal-link">fantasy</a>. --- ##### Fantasy of the Buddhist path **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 > ^3-2" data-href="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3#^3-2" class="internal-link">3-2</a>**: _<a data-href="Fantasy" class="internal-link">Fantasy</a> (8) · <a data-href="Activism" class="internal-link">Activism</a> (2) · <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> (4) · <a data-href="Zen" class="internal-link">Zen</a> (2) · <a data-href="Mahayana" class="internal-link">Mahayana</a> · <a data-href="Thich Nhat Hanh" class="internal-link">Thich Nhat Hanh</a> · <a data-href="Sangha" class="internal-link">Sangha</a> · <a data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">Dukkha</a> · <a data-href="Freedom" class="internal-link">Freedom</a> · <a data-href="Awakening" class="internal-link">Awakening</a> · <a data-href="Bodhisattva" class="internal-link">Bodhisattva</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3#t=13:08" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> This is a kind of side point right now about <a data-href="fantasy" class="internal-link">fantasy</a>, but as you'll see if you stick the course, and you might have heard me say this before, that <a data-href="fantasy" class="internal-link">fantasy</a> is anything but a side issue when it comes to this whole area. I'm just going to mention this now, and we'll come back to it in a much more integrated way in the rest of the course. But notice: when such areas as <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Activism" data-href="Activism" class="internal-link">engagement</a> or art _are_ considered part of a <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dharma" data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Buddhist path</a> or <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dharma" data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma path</a> - for instance in some forms of <a data-href="Zen" class="internal-link">Zen</a>, some arts are part of the whole form, they're part of the practice; or in some traditions, often <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Mahayana" data-href="Mahayana" class="internal-link">Mahāyāna</a> traditions, <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Activism" data-href="Activism" class="internal-link">engagement</a> is seen and considered just part of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dharma" data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">the path</a>, for example in the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Thich Nhat Hanh" data-href="Thich Nhat Hanh" class="internal-link">Thích Nhất Hạnh</a> <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Sangha" data-href="Sangha" class="internal-link">Saṅgha</a> and other Saṅghas - that when they _are_ considered part of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dharma" data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">the path</a>, although these areas are articulated or explained (or _try_ to be articulated and explained) as having to do, or in terms of, decreasing <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dukkha" data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">suffering</a>, or <a data-href="freedom" class="internal-link">freedom</a>, or whatever, or <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Awakening" data-href="Awakening" class="internal-link">liberation</a>, actually there is <a data-href="fantasy" class="internal-link">fantasy</a> and <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Fantasy" data-href="Fantasy" class="internal-link">mythos</a> and a whole sensibility wrapped up in their involvement. In other words, there's a whole <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Fantasy" data-href="Fantasy" class="internal-link">mythos</a> around the <a data-href="Zen" class="internal-link">Zen</a> art. There's a whole <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Fantasy" data-href="Fantasy" class="internal-link">mythos of the bodhisattva</a>, and the engaged <a data-href="bodhisattva" class="internal-link">bodhisattva</a> who is willing to get riled and get dirty, and on the street, on the avenue, etc. There's that <a data-href="fantasy" class="internal-link">fantasy</a> and <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Fantasy" data-href="Fantasy" class="internal-link">mythos</a> wrapped up. --- ##### "This is what a bodhisattva does" **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 > ^3-3" data-href="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3#^3-3" class="internal-link">3-3</a>**: _<a data-href="Allen Ginsberg" class="internal-link">Allen Ginsberg</a> · <a data-href="Chogyam Trungpa" class="internal-link">Chogyam Trungpa</a> · <a data-href="Bodhisattva" class="internal-link">Bodhisattva</a> · <a data-href="Fantasy" class="internal-link">Fantasy</a> (3) · <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> · <a data-href="Awakening" class="internal-link">Awakening</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3#t=14:53" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> I think <a data-href="Allen Ginsberg" class="internal-link">Allen Ginsberg</a> and - was it <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Chogyam Trungpa" data-href="Chogyam Trungpa" class="internal-link">Chögyam Trungpa</a>? I can't remember. Sitting, cross-legged, meditating on the railroad track in front of the approaching train that was carrying a nuclear warhead, I think, to its silo in - I want to say Colorado or somewhere, back in the days of the Cold War.^[Allen Ginsberg was part of the _Rocky Flats_ Truth Force, a non-violent anti-nuclear group formed during protests at the _Rocky Flats_ Nuclear Weapons Plant near Golden, Colorado during the late 1970s. He studied meditation under Chögyam Trungpa, and was arrested while doing sitting meditation on the railroad tracks outside the Rocky Flats plant as a train was due to arrive bearing missile materials. See _The Allen Ginsberg Project_, "1979 Allen Ginsberg Reading in Toronto (Plutonian Ode & other poems)," [https://allenginsberg.org/2015/02/1979-allen-ginsberg-reading-in-toronto-plutonian-ode-other-poems/](https://allenginsberg.org/2015/02/1979-allen-ginsberg-reading-in-toronto-plutonian-ode-other-poems/)] "This is my practice. This is what a <a data-href="bodhisattva" class="internal-link">bodhisattva</a> does." There's, wrapped up in that, actually more than one <a data-href="fantasy" class="internal-link">fantasy</a>, but it's somehow connected and made a <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> <a data-href="fantasy" class="internal-link">fantasy</a>, a <a data-href="fantasy" class="internal-link">fantasy</a> of what an <a data-href="awakening" class="internal-link">awakening</a> person does, what they engage in, what they look like, how they feel, what they do. --- ##### The problem is when fantasy is regarded as a problem **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 > ^3-4" data-href="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3#^3-4" class="internal-link">3-4</a>**: _<a data-href="Fantasy" class="internal-link">Fantasy</a> (10) · <a data-href="Letting go" class="internal-link">Letting go</a> (3) · <a data-href="Conceptual framework" class="internal-link">Conceptual framework</a> · <a data-href="Image" class="internal-link">Image</a> (4) · <a data-href="Hermit" class="internal-link">Hermit</a> · <a data-href="Nature" class="internal-link">Nature</a> · <a data-href="Love" class="internal-link">Love</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3#t=15:38" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> We'll talk more about this. <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Fantasy" data-href="Fantasy" class="internal-link">Fantasies</a> are actually also involved in the <a data-href="fantasy" class="internal-link">fantasy</a> or the idea of "<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Letting go" data-href="Letting go" class="internal-link">let go of everything</a>," that seemingly simple, pithy teaching. Actually, usually there's not just a <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Conceptual framework" data-href="Conceptual framework" class="internal-link">conceptual structure</a> behind that, underpinning it, but there's also a whole <a data-href="image" class="internal-link">image</a> and <a data-href="fantasy" class="internal-link">fantasy</a>. Could be several. Maybe it's the <a data-href="image" class="internal-link">image</a> "<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Letting go" data-href="Letting go" class="internal-link">let go of everything</a>," and we hold that as an ideal, but it's also a kind of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Image" data-href="Image" class="internal-link">iconic image</a> for us somewhere. Maybe <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Hermit" data-href="Hermit" class="internal-link">the hermit</a>, simple man, simple woman, living close to <a data-href="nature" class="internal-link">nature</a>, wandering in the mountains, in the breeze of the air, and they're being light and fluid, because they're <a data-href="letting go" class="internal-link">letting go</a>, light and fluid as the breeze, as the mountain stream that they sit beside. There's a beautiful <a data-href="fantasy" class="internal-link">fantasy</a> wrapped up in that whole <a data-href="image" class="internal-link">image</a>, maybe other <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Fantasy" data-href="Fantasy" class="internal-link">fantasies</a>. And as I've said plenty of times in other talks, the way _I'm_ using that word, '<a data-href="fantasy" class="internal-link">fantasy</a>,' <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Fantasy" data-href="Fantasy" class="internal-link">fantasies</a> are not a problem. Actually, they're necessary. ==There is the necessity of <a data-href="fantasy" class="internal-link">fantasy</a>, the inevitability of <a data-href="fantasy" class="internal-link">fantasy</a> when we care deeply, when we <a data-href="love" class="internal-link">love</a>, when we're attracted. The problem is when the <a data-href="fantasy" class="internal-link">fantasy</a> is unconscious or regarded as a problem.== --- ##### Sometimes our fantasies about the Dharma are inadquate, e.g. what it says about romantic love **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 > ^4-1" data-href="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3#^4-1" class="internal-link">4-1</a>**: _<a data-href="Fantasy" class="internal-link">Fantasy</a> (4) · <a data-href="Psyche" class="internal-link">Psyche</a> · <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> (2) · <a data-href="Metta" class="internal-link">Metta</a> (5) · <a data-href="Romantic love" class="internal-link">Romantic love</a> (4) · <a data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">Desire</a> · <a data-href="Kalyanamittata" class="internal-link">Kalyanamittata</a> (2) · <a data-href="Spiritual friendship" class="internal-link">Spiritual friendship</a> (4) · <a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3#t=17:13" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> So conscious <a data-href="fantasy" class="internal-link">fantasy</a> is very much a part of our lives - well, unconscious and conscious. But we can make them conscious, and we can recognize, as I said, the necessity of that and the place of that for the <a data-href="psyche" class="internal-link">psyche</a>. I'm going to talk much more about this. But sometimes the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Fantasy" data-href="Fantasy" class="internal-link">fantasies</a> that we have that come out of our <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> background and <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> set of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Fantasy" data-href="Fantasy" class="internal-link">fantasies</a> or ideas are actually inadequate. So the idea and the <a data-href="fantasy" class="internal-link">fantasy</a> of _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Metta" data-href="Metta" class="internal-link">mettā</a>_, for example, being what is adequate for <a data-href="romantic love" class="internal-link">romantic love</a> ... I'm saying that the wrong way. When we care about and are involved in or seek <a data-href="romantic love" class="internal-link">romantic love</a>, as so many practitioners do, of course, who are not monastics (and actually even some people who _are_ monastics), when that is present, and if we try and think of it, "What's happening here? Why is this <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a> justifiable?" "Well, it's _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Metta" data-href="Metta" class="internal-link">mettā</a>,_" or, "Well, it's _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Kalyanamittata" data-href="Kalyanamittata" class="internal-link">kalyāṇamittatā</a>_. It's <a data-href="spiritual friendship" class="internal-link">spiritual friendship</a>. This partnership is basically based in _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Metta" data-href="Metta" class="internal-link">mettā</a>,_ and it's <a data-href="spiritual friendship" class="internal-link">spiritual friendship</a>, and that's what my <a data-href="romantic love" class="internal-link">romantic love</a> relationship, my marriage, is." I mean, certainly I would hope, we would hope, I think we would all hope that _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Metta" data-href="Metta" class="internal-link">mettā</a>_ is a basis, or at least a component of <a data-href="romantic love" class="internal-link">romantic love</a> and <a data-href="spiritual friendship" class="internal-link">spiritual friendship</a>. It's beautiful. But is that _all_ of it? Does that actually suffice? Does that truly, adequately psychologically represent what's happening? And am I then going to say, "Oh, it's _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Metta" data-href="Metta" class="internal-link">mettā</a>_ and _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Kalyanamittata" data-href="Kalyanamittata" class="internal-link">kalyāṇamittatā</a>_, <a data-href="spiritual friendship" class="internal-link">spiritual friendship</a>, and just <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>, basically"? Does that suffice as an explanation? --- ##### When I stretch a limited conceptual framework over things I care deeply about, the whole structure will snap **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 > ^4-2" data-href="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3#^4-2" class="internal-link">4-2</a>**: _<a data-href="Conceptual framework" class="internal-link">Conceptual framework</a> (2) · <a data-href="Fantasy" class="internal-link">Fantasy</a> · <a data-href="Romantic love" class="internal-link">Romantic love</a> · <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> · <a data-href="Cultivation" class="internal-link">Cultivation</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3#t=19:25" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> Can I have a Conceptual framework, can I form, can I open to a Conceptual framework and a fantasy that, actually, romantic love becomes part of the path, and not just in those kind of simplistic terms? The concepts, if I try and stretch too small a set of concepts over the range of things that we deeply care about, the whole structure will snap. It's not adequate. It cannot support it. It cannot nourish those areas that we really care about, _if_ we really care about them. <div class="admonition quote"><div class="title">❝</div><div class="content"> Can I have a conceptual framework, can I form, can I open to a conceptual framework and a fantasy that, actually, romantic love becomes part of the path, and not just in those kind of simplistic terms? The concepts, if I try and stretch too small a set of concepts over the range of things that we deeply care about, the whole structure will snap. It's not adequate. It cannot support it. It cannot nourish those areas that we really care about, if we really care about them. </div></div> --- ##### 3 distinctions, divisions, directions (for "clinging") **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 > ^4-3" data-href="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3#^4-3" class="internal-link">4-3</a>**: _<a data-href="Delineations" class="internal-link">Delineations</a> (3) · <a data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">Desire</a> (4) · <a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a> · <a data-href="Kusala" class="internal-link">Kusala</a> (6) · <a data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">Dukkha</a> (2) · <a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a> (2) · <a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> (2)_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3#t=20:04" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> So we can make all kinds of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Delineations" data-href="Delineations" class="internal-link">distinctions</a> between <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Desire" data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">desires</a> of different kinds, etc., and all kinds of divisions - for instance, those that are what the <a data-href="Buddha" class="internal-link">Buddha</a> would call '<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Kusala" data-href="Kusala" class="internal-link">wholesome</a>,' _<a data-href="kusala" class="internal-link">kusala</a> (_in other words, they lead, either in the moment or eventually, to less <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dukkha" data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">suffering</a>), or '<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Kusala" data-href="Kusala" class="internal-link">unwholesome</a>.' So we can make that distinction between <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Kusala" data-href="Kusala" class="internal-link">wholesome</a> <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Desire" data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">desires</a> and <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Kusala" data-href="Kusala" class="internal-link">unwholesome</a> <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Desire" data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">desires</a>, <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Kusala" data-href="Kusala" class="internal-link">unwholesome</a> ones being ones that actually lead to more <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dukkha" data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">suffering</a>. That's one distinction. But actually, there are all kinds of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Delineations" data-href="Delineations" class="internal-link">distinctions</a> - <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>/<a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>, like we said. But what if we made another distinction, based on what I want to get at, and actually say there are **three, if you like, directions or levels or <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Delineations" data-href="Delineations" class="internal-link">distinctions</a> between <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Desire" data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">desires</a>, <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Clinging" data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">clingings</a>, <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Craving" data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">cravings</a>**, whatever? --- ##### 1. desire for sense pleasures (mindfulness) **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 > ^4-4" data-href="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3#^4-4" class="internal-link">4-4</a>**: _<a data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">Desire</a> (6) · <a data-href="Hindrances" class="internal-link">Hindrances</a> · <a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> (3) · <a data-href="Letting go" class="internal-link">Letting go</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3#t=21:00" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> **(1)** So the first we could call, it's like, that <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a> for that piece of chocolate cake. I don't need it nutritionally. But I want it. [laughs] That's one level of <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a>, okay? **<a data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">Desire</a> for <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Hindrances" data-href="Hindrances" class="internal-link">sense pleasures</a>**, in that context. But then, actually, what we're talking about is not only <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Desire" data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">desires</a> here and <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Craving" data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">cravings</a>, levels of <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>, but also levels of investigation of <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>. It's important to investigate and have some facility with <a data-href="letting go" class="internal-link">letting go</a> of that <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a> for that cookie, or that chocolate cake, whatever it is, that cup of tea when I don't really need it, whatever. This is important, you know? That's one level and direction of <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a>, and it's one level and direction of investigation then. --- ##### 2. spectrum of fabrication (emptiness) **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 > ^4-5" data-href="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3#^4-5" class="internal-link">4-5</a>**: _<a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a> (7) · <a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> · <a data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">Desire</a> · <a data-href="Nature" class="internal-link">Nature</a> · <a data-href="Perception" class="internal-link">Perception</a> (2) · <a data-href="Fabrication" class="internal-link">Fabrication</a> · <a data-href="Ignorance" class="internal-link">Ignorance</a> · <a data-href="Ways of looking" class="internal-link">Ways of looking</a> · <a data-href="Avijja" class="internal-link">Avijja</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3#t=21:54" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> **(2)** But then there's what we outlined in part two of this long prefatory/preface talk, the whole use of, the idea of and the movement of, whether we call it **<a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a> or <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a> or whatever it is, <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a>, that whole movement, and exploring the subtlety of that, and how that unravels for us the <a data-href="nature" class="internal-link">nature</a> of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Perception" data-href="Perception" class="internal-link">appearances</a>**, the <a data-href="fabrication" class="internal-link">fabrication</a> of <a data-href="perception" class="internal-link">perception</a>, and what that tells us about reality, etc. So we're talking about really, really subtle levels of <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>, and a much more broad range of what '<a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>' means. As I said, ==_<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Ignorance" data-href="Ignorance" class="internal-link">avijjā</a>_ is <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>, this belief in the reality of something existing independently from the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Ways of looking" data-href="Ways of looking" class="internal-link">way of looking</a>. It's a <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>. I need to refine my practice until I can actually play with the spectrum, actually move that <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a> of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Avijja" data-href="Avijja" class="internal-link">delusion</a> up and down on a spectrum, and see what happens.== That would be a second level, direction of what we might call '<a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>' for shorthand, and the investigation. --- ##### 3. movement of eros (soulmaking) **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 > ^5-1" data-href="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3#^5-1" class="internal-link">5-1</a>**: _<a data-href="Eros" class="internal-link">Eros</a> (3) · <a data-href="Soul" class="internal-link">Soul</a> (2) · <a data-href="Passion" class="internal-link">Passion</a> (5) · <a data-href="Love" class="internal-link">Love</a> · <a data-href="Activism" class="internal-link">Activism</a> · <a data-href="Hindrances" class="internal-link">Hindrances</a> · <a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a> · <a data-href="Nature" class="internal-link">Nature</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3#t=23:08" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> **(3)** And then there's a third, if you like, level or direction, what we might call - well, I'm going to call it **the movement of <a data-href="eros" class="internal-link">eros</a>**. For instance, our <a data-href="soul" class="internal-link">soul</a>-<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Passion" data-href="Passion" class="internal-link">passions</a>. Obvious when it's the bigger ones: falling in <a data-href="love" class="internal-link">love</a>, or my <a data-href="passion" class="internal-link">passion</a> for my art, or whatever it is, my <a data-href="passion" class="internal-link">passion</a> for expression, my <a data-href="passion" class="internal-link">passion</a> for <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Activism" data-href="Activism" class="internal-link">engagement</a>. They can be huge. But this movement, what I'm going to call the movement of <a data-href="eros" class="internal-link">eros</a>, without, unfortunately, in this talk, explaining too much what I mean (that makes it a little bit difficult, but), there are _other_ movements that are not just about <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Hindrances" data-href="Hindrances" class="internal-link">sense pleasure</a> and relief. Not just about, either, unpacking this notion of <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a> so that it tells me something about the whole <a data-href="nature" class="internal-link">nature</a> of seeming reality. The movement of <a data-href="eros" class="internal-link">eros</a> and of <a data-href="soul" class="internal-link">soul</a>-<a data-href="passion" class="internal-link">passion</a> can be huge, marked, deep, or really quite subtle. <div class="admonition warning"><div class="title">WARNING</div><div class="content"> Much of the terminology used in the talk will only be covered in a later talk of the series </div></div> --- ##### Each of the movements has particular purpose **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 > ^5-2" data-href="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3#^5-2" class="internal-link">5-2</a>**: _<a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a> · <a data-href="Fabrication" class="internal-link">Fabrication</a> · <a data-href="Perception" class="internal-link">Perception</a> · <a data-href="Eros" class="internal-link">Eros</a> · <a data-href="Activism" class="internal-link">Activism</a> · <a data-href="Love" class="internal-link">Love</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3#t=24:18" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> So then the question becomes: what is required of each of these directions or levels of investigation? What is the purpose in relation to all three? The purpose of my investigation relative to that extra slice of chocolate cake or whatever it is, it has one. It has a range of purpose. It's quite limited where it can take me, also, as we've been saying. The purpose of my investigation of that whole concept, from the most gross to the most subtle, of <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a> and its relationship with <a data-href="fabrication" class="internal-link">fabrication</a> of <a data-href="perception" class="internal-link">perception</a> and apparent reality and world, that has a different purpose. And what is the purpose of my investigation of what we might call the movements of <a data-href="eros" class="internal-link">eros</a> - those things that I'm passionate about, whether it's <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Activism" data-href="Activism" class="internal-link">engagement</a> or art or expression in life or <a data-href="love" class="internal-link">love</a>, different kinds, whatever it is? ==What is the purpose? And what is the range of possibility of each, of what can be opened up and revealed and given to us, if you like, through each investigation?== --- ##### Nourishment, life, structure, vision, opening doors **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 > ^5-3" data-href="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3#^5-3" class="internal-link">5-3</a>**: _<a data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">Desire</a> (5) · <a data-href="Meditation" class="internal-link">Meditation</a> · <a data-href="Retreat" class="internal-link">Retreat</a> · <a data-href="Mind" class="internal-link">Mind</a> (2) · <a data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">Insight</a> (2) · <a data-href="Emptiness" class="internal-link">Emptiness</a> (3) · <a data-href="Passion" class="internal-link">Passion</a> (3) · <a data-href="Freedom" class="internal-link">Freedom</a> · <a data-href="Dependent Origination" class="internal-link">Dependent Origination</a> · <a data-href="Cultivation" class="internal-link">Cultivation</a> · <a data-href="Soul" class="internal-link">Soul</a> · <a data-href="Eros" class="internal-link">Eros</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3#t=25:41" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> Because I can look at my <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Desire" data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">desires</a> for chocolate or, you know, I'm in my <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Meditation" data-href="Meditation" class="internal-link">walking meditation</a> <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Retreat" data-href="Retreat" class="internal-link">on retreat</a>, and the <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a> says "tea," and then it says "tea" again or whatever, and I can feel that pull, the <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a>, the sense <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a>. I don't need that tea. I can look at that until the cows come home. I can spend a life looking at that level of <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a>. It won't be enough to open up that radical <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Insight" data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">understanding</a> of <a data-href="emptiness" class="internal-link">emptiness</a> that I was talking about in the last part of the talk. Nowhere near, nowhere near. Useful. Of course it's useful, but it won't open up that <a data-href="emptiness" class="internal-link">emptiness</a>. It won't tell me anything about this deeper movement of <a data-href="passion" class="internal-link">passion</a>, the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Passion" data-href="Passion" class="internal-link">passions</a> that I have. It's just the wrong kind and level of <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a>. Investigation specific to that is important, to have some <a data-href="freedom" class="internal-link">freedom</a>. Otherwise I'm just yanked around: just because the <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a> says "tea," I have to go and have a cup of tea. You know, of course that's important, but ==neither that chocolate cake investigation or the tea investigation, nor the deep investigation into <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dependent Origination" data-href="Dependent Origination" class="internal-link">dependent arising</a> and <a data-href="emptiness" class="internal-link">emptiness</a> that I explained, will be enough for <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Insight" data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">understanding</a> and opening out and giving <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Cultivation" data-href="Cultivation" class="internal-link">nourishment</a> and life, and structure and vision, and opening doors in the realm, in the direction, of the <a data-href="soul" class="internal-link">soul</a>-<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Passion" data-href="Passion" class="internal-link">passions</a> or the subtle movements of eros.== --- ##### Each of the three are different doors, directions, avenues **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 > ^5-4" data-href="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3#^5-4" class="internal-link">5-4</a>**: _<a data-href="Soul" class="internal-link">Soul</a> · <a data-href="Passion" class="internal-link">Passion</a> · <a data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">Desire</a> · <a data-href="Eros" class="internal-link">Eros</a> · <a data-href="Dependent Origination" class="internal-link">Dependent Origination</a> · <a data-href="Emptiness" class="internal-link">Emptiness</a> · <a data-href="Mind" class="internal-link">Mind</a> (3) · <a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> (4) · <a data-href="Letting go" class="internal-link">Letting go</a> (2) · <a data-href="Awakening" class="internal-link">Awakening</a> (2)_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3#t=27:14" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> ==And, conversely, the investigation of my <a data-href="soul" class="internal-link">soul</a>-<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Passion" data-href="Passion" class="internal-link">passions</a>, and my <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a> in relation to that, and that kind of <a data-href="eros" class="internal-link">eros</a>, whether it's really strong or much more subtle, won't be - it will actually tell me _something_ about <a data-href="dependent origination" class="internal-link">dependent origination</a> and <a data-href="emptiness" class="internal-link">emptiness</a>, _something_, but not enough for the full monty there, the full depth of that.== So each has its own - I don't know - door, direction, avenue. All important. But not the same. Can't just lump them all together. Noticing ease when I let go of something that the <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a> is <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Craving" data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">grasping</a> onto or wanting, when I relax <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>, is only the start. It's only the start. And as we said before, that <a data-href="letting go" class="internal-link">letting go</a>, and the ease that comes from <a data-href="letting go" class="internal-link">letting go</a> of something that the <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a> is wanting, <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Craving" data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">grasping</a>, that is not <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Awakening" data-href="Awakening" class="internal-link">liberation</a>. Or rather, that would be a very limited view of what <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Awakening" data-href="Awakening" class="internal-link">liberation</a> is, if it's just a state of ease because the <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a> is not <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Craving" data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">grasping</a> onto the things of the world. And it's not, as we said, a way to live. --- ##### Is there something missing in the way we categorize our desires and what we seek from them? **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 > ^6-1" data-href="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3#^6-1" class="internal-link">6-1</a>**: _<a data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">Dukkha</a> · <a data-href="Avijja" class="internal-link">Avijja</a> · <a data-href="Hindrances" class="internal-link">Hindrances</a> (4) · <a data-href="Happiness" class="internal-link">Happiness</a> (3) · <a data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">Desire</a> (3) · <a data-href="The Self" class="internal-link">The Self</a> (2) · <a data-href="Metta" class="internal-link">Metta</a> (2)_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3#t=28:34" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> So can we question all this? Is it, in fact, really ease? Is that _all_ that we really want? Is ease all that we really want? And if we're wanting something else, other than this relief from the _<a data-href="dukkha" class="internal-link">dukkha</a>_, are we just going to say that 'something else' is <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Avijja" data-href="Avijja" class="internal-link">delusion</a>? And from another angle, is <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Hindrances" data-href="Hindrances" class="internal-link">sense pleasure</a> or <a data-href="happiness" class="internal-link">happiness</a> all we seek from our <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Desire" data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">desires</a>? Is that really what we're after, <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Hindrances" data-href="Hindrances" class="internal-link">sense pleasures</a> and <a data-href="happiness" class="internal-link">happiness</a>? Or some kind of shoring up of <a data-href="the self" class="internal-link">the self</a>, because <a data-href="the self" class="internal-link">the self</a> is fragile? Or is it ease, or _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Metta" data-href="Metta" class="internal-link">mettā</a>_? Does this suffice to sort of categorize our <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Desire" data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">desires</a> and what we're actually seeking from all our <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Desire" data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">desires</a>? Certainly sometimes we're seeking <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Hindrances" data-href="Hindrances" class="internal-link">sense pleasure</a>. I'll talk about this. Certainly sometimes I'm trying to get <a data-href="happiness" class="internal-link">happiness</a>. Certainly sometimes I want _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Metta" data-href="Metta" class="internal-link">mettā</a>_. Sometimes I want ease. What else? It's relatively easy to see that <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Hindrances" data-href="Hindrances" class="internal-link">sense pleasures</a> are not going to fulfil me. Is there something missing in the way I'm thinking about all this? --- ##### One basket for all directions of desires is not enough **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 > ^6-2" data-href="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3#^6-2" class="internal-link">6-2</a>**: _<a data-href="Letting go" class="internal-link">Letting go</a> · <a data-href="Habit" class="internal-link">Habit</a> (2) · <a data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">Desire</a> (5) · <a data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">Insight</a> · <a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3#t=30:29" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> We can hear this teaching, "let go, <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Letting go" data-href="Letting go" class="internal-link">just let go</a>," hear it, I don't know, a million times. [laughs] And then, decades later, it's still not somehow taken root or worked. [laughs] Why? We can say, "Well, it's a deep <a data-href="habit" class="internal-link">habit</a>, isn't it? <a data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">Desire</a>. It's a deep <a data-href="habit" class="internal-link">habit</a>." And yeah, that's true. But is it also because it's not enough in terms of our <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Insight" data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">understanding</a> of <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a>, of the range of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Desire" data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">desires</a>, the kinds and directions of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Desire" data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">desires</a>, and the levels of <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a>? The framework is not enough for us. We're trying to put it all in one basket, or several very narrowly related baskets, and actually it's not enough. We say, "Why am I not able to live without <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>? I've heard it a million times." --- ##### It's not only about having a basket of different practices **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 > ^6-3" data-href="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3#^6-3" class="internal-link">6-3</a>**: _<a data-href="Letting go" class="internal-link">Letting go</a> (4) · <a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> (3) · <a data-href="Ethics" class="internal-link">Ethics</a> · <a data-href="Global warming" class="internal-link">Global warming</a> · <a data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">Dukkha</a> · <a data-href="Passion" class="internal-link">Passion</a> (2) · <a data-href="Eros" class="internal-link">Eros</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3#t=31:41" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> So what about the directions, the domains of our life where "let go" does not take us to where we deeply want to go? <a data-href="Letting go" class="internal-link">Letting go</a> does not take us to where we deeply want to go. Not just within practice. Because also within practice, "<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Letting go" data-href="Letting go" class="internal-link">just let go</a> all the time" doesn't take me where I want to go. It may not. Probably doesn't. We need lots of approaches in practice, of which <a data-href="letting go" class="internal-link">letting go</a> is just one. But in the whole of my life, what about those directions, domains, where <a data-href="letting go" class="internal-link">letting go</a> is _not_ what takes me to what I most deeply want? I'm not talking here about, you know, the kinds of things we do which we can kind of acknowledge and accept as, "Well, I basically did that because of <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>. I had that extra slice of chocolate cake. I overate just a little bit because someone put this really tasty thing in front of me." Or, "Yeah, you know, every winter I fly to France or Switzerland or" - I don't know where they go in the States - "Colorado or wherever to go skiing. And yeah, if I'm honest, I don't really _need_ that, and I can kind of see, if I really look, that I sort of justify it to myself, because I say, 'I work hard, so I deserve a rest,'" and that sort of thing. But basically, if I'm honest, I can see <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>, in that case, has trumped <a data-href="ethics" class="internal-link">ethics</a> in terms of the carbon output and contribution to <a data-href="global warming" class="internal-link">global warming</a> and other people's <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dukkha" data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">suffering</a> in the world. If I'm really honest, I can see that's just a movement of <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>. I'm not really talking about all that. I'm talking about, as I said, our deeper loves, our deep <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Passion" data-href="Passion" class="internal-link">passions</a>, our longings, the movements of our <a data-href="passion" class="internal-link">passion</a> there, as well as - and I'll have to explain this in other talks - more subtle movements of <a data-href="eros" class="internal-link">eros</a>. Apologies for not being able to unwrap all that now, but it's coming. --- ##### Human beings want more than easeand peace **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 > ^6-4" data-href="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3#^6-4" class="internal-link">6-4</a>**: _<a data-href="Hindrances" class="internal-link">Hindrances</a> · <a data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">Dukkha</a> (2) · <a data-href="Pain" class="internal-link">Pain</a> · <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> (2)_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3#t=33:58" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> In these areas, is it ease that we're seeking? Is it just ease or <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Hindrances" data-href="Hindrances" class="internal-link">sense pleasure</a>? I mean, it might be ease that I'm seeking. Especially if I'm really struggling, if there's a lot of _<a data-href="dukkha" class="internal-link">dukkha</a>_, a lot of struggle, it can seem like yeah, basically that's it - that's what I'm wanting, you know? But to varying degrees - and again, this is something we'll come back to - to varying degrees we want, human beings want _more_ than ease and peace. ==We want _more_ than ease and peace - certainly, probably certainly, than either the kind of ease and peace that is just a matter of stress reduction, or coping with <a data-href="pain" class="internal-link">pain</a>, painful sensations. Even we want more than the ease and peace of the most profound kind, the most comprehensive kind. So look. See. Even within the <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a>, isn't it more than ease you want? Isn't it more than _that_ that you're looking for? Yes, there's ease. There's the ease of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dukkha" data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">suffering</a> that we're after. And what? If you love the <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a>, it's not just that.== --- ##### How do we reconcile "just let go of everything" with our deepest passions? **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 > ^7-1" data-href="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3#^7-1" class="internal-link">7-1</a>**: _<a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> (5) · <a data-href="Romantic love" class="internal-link">Romantic love</a> · <a data-href="Love" class="internal-link">Love</a> · <a data-href="Sexuality" class="internal-link">Sexuality</a> · <a data-href="Passion" class="internal-link">Passion</a> (2) · <a data-href="Letting go" class="internal-link">Letting go</a> · <a data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">Desire</a> · <a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a> · <a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> · <a data-href="Soul" class="internal-link">Soul</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3#t=35:44" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> And then, if it's something outside the <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a>, how do I integrate these two aspects and directions that I care passionately about? There's <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a>, and there's whatever else it is, art or something. How do I integrate that? Or <a data-href="romantic love" class="internal-link">romantic love</a>, or this person that I'm in <a data-href="love" class="internal-link">love</a> with, or whatever, <a data-href="sexuality" class="internal-link">sexuality</a>. If what the <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> means to me is just stress reduction, and some techniques for stress reduction, then this whole thing is not an issue: "Yeah, thank you very much. You've given me some techniques in the <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> I use to calm down, and to let go of this and that, and have a bit more ease, and then the rest of my life I just can have plenty of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Passion" data-href="Passion" class="internal-link">passions</a> and whatnot." But if we really love the <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a>, how do we reconcile, how will we reconcile, this "just <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Letting go" data-href="Letting go" class="internal-link">let go of everything</a>, drop <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Desire" data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">desires</a>, don't <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Clinging" data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">cling</a>," etc., "achieve the end of <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>," with the other movements of what we could call '<a data-href="soul" class="internal-link">soul</a>,' our other loves and <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Passion" data-href="Passion" class="internal-link">passions</a>? How do we reconcile it? How does it fit together? --- ##### Discrepancy-based processing (mindfulness-based cognitive therapy) **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 > ^7-2" data-href="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3#^7-2" class="internal-link">7-2</a>**: _<a data-href="Mindfulness" class="internal-link">Mindfulness</a> · <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> · <a data-href="Discrepancy-based processing" class="internal-link">Discrepancy-based processing</a> (2) · <a data-href="Mind" class="internal-link">Mind</a> (2) · <a data-href="Mode of mind" class="internal-link">Mode of mind</a> · <a data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">Desire</a> · <a data-href="Perception" class="internal-link">Perception</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3#t=37:08" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> In the world of <a data-href="mindfulness" class="internal-link">mindfulness</a>-based cognitive therapy, and actually spilling over from there into the <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a>, some people talk about this concept, term, called '<a data-href="discrepancy-based processing" class="internal-link">discrepancy-based processing</a>.' Basically, it means when the <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a> is in what they call a <a data-href="mode of mind" class="internal-link">mode of mind</a>, and the <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a> is in a mode where it notices the difference between where it _wants_ to be and where it actually _is_, something it <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Desire" data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">desires</a> versus how reality actually is. So, for example, very simple, there's a sensation of thirst, so there's a discrepancy - I don't want that sensation of thirst; it would be good to drink. There's a discrepancy between that idea of quenching the thirst, and the reality is, at the moment, there is no water. Therefore, I go to the tap or go to the well or whatever it is. The <a data-href="discrepancy-based processing" class="internal-link">discrepancy-based processing</a>, that <a data-href="perception" class="internal-link">perception</a> of differences, directs the organism to meet its needs, if you like, based on noticing differences and trying to minimize that discrepancy. --- ##### There is the idea that discrepancy-based processing is the opposite of mindfulness **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 > ^7-3" data-href="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3#^7-3" class="internal-link">7-3</a>**: _<a data-href="Discrepancy-based processing" class="internal-link">Discrepancy-based processing</a> (3) · <a data-href="Mindfulness" class="internal-link">Mindfulness</a> (5) · <a data-href="Attention" class="internal-link">Attention</a> · <a data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">Desire</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3#t=38:43" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> And that <a data-href="discrepancy-based processing" class="internal-link">discrepancy-based processing</a> is set in contrast to, quote, '<a data-href="mindfulness" class="internal-link">mindfulness</a>,' which is, in a certain way of teaching about it, <a data-href="mindfulness" class="internal-link">mindfulness</a> is just being with things as they are, accepting, paying <a data-href="attention" class="internal-link">attention</a> to, opening to, without wanting to change, without being interested so much in that discrepancy between how I would like things to be and what is. So these two things are kind of different gears, if you like - the gear of <a data-href="discrepancy-based processing" class="internal-link">discrepancy-based processing</a> and the gear of <a data-href="mindfulness" class="internal-link">mindfulness</a> - missing out, it seems, the fact that you can be <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Mindfulness" data-href="Mindfulness" class="internal-link">mindful</a> of a discrepancy and of the <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a>, etc., and of the movement, etc. But let's leave that aside. There's an idea of <a data-href="mindfulness" class="internal-link">mindfulness</a> as something that's, if you like, the opposite or complementary to <a data-href="discrepancy-based processing" class="internal-link">discrepancy-based processing</a>. --- ##### Discrepancy-based processing is useful, of course **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 > ^7-4" data-href="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3#^7-4" class="internal-link">7-4</a>**: _<a data-href="Discrepancy-based processing" class="internal-link">Discrepancy-based processing</a> (2)_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3#t=39:48" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> And it's acknowledged, in the way that they're regarding this <a data-href="discrepancy-based processing" class="internal-link">discrepancy-based processing</a>, of course it's okay at times. Why? Because it's useful. It's functional. It's instrumental in that, look, if I need a toilet built, I need to first recognize there's a discrepancy between what _is_ and what _should_ be for hygiene purposes or whatever. Or there's hunger, and we notice the discrepancy between that and feeling satiated and nourished, so that leads us to cook. Or again, framing it more biologically in terms of evolution, as would be a lot of people's want, to do that, recognize the discrepancy there's no food, therefore we need to forage or hunt for food. So it's useful, this <a data-href="discrepancy-based processing" class="internal-link">discrepancy-based processing</a>. It's regarded as useful, okay at times, as long as we don't get too tight, too excited, too agitated. --- ##### The "Mode of mind" is supposed revert to a more mindful stance **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 > ^8-1" data-href="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3#^8-1" class="internal-link">8-1</a>**: _<a data-href="Mode of mind" class="internal-link">Mode of mind</a> (3) · <a data-href="Ways of looking" class="internal-link">Ways of looking</a> · <a data-href="Mindfulness" class="internal-link">Mindfulness</a> · <a data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">Dukkha</a> · <a data-href="Discrepancy-based processing" class="internal-link">Discrepancy-based processing</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3#t=40:45" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> But otherwise, the so-called <a data-href="mode of mind" class="internal-link">mode of mind</a> - this idea of '<a data-href="mode of mind" class="internal-link">mode of mind</a>' is something a little bit related to what I'm calling '<a data-href="ways of looking" class="internal-link">ways of looking</a>,' but probably, I think, it's fair to say nowhere near as broad in the ranges and the diversity or the depth or subtlety of what can be involved in that. But otherwise, ==the <a data-href="mode of mind" class="internal-link">mode of mind</a>, the gear, the circuitry, if you like, should revert to a kind of more <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Mindfulness" data-href="Mindfulness" class="internal-link">mindful</a> stance, a kind of neutral gear, which will be more easeful of the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dukkha" data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">suffering</a> that's inherent in discrepancy-based processing.== --- ##### Do we really want to have psychology without poetry? **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 > ^8-2" data-href="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3#^8-2" class="internal-link">8-2</a>**: _<a data-href="Letting go" class="internal-link">Letting go</a> · <a data-href="Realism" class="internal-link">Realism</a> · <a data-href="Artificial intelligence" class="internal-link">Artificial intelligence</a> · <a data-href="Soul" class="internal-link">Soul</a> (2) · <a data-href="Cultivation" class="internal-link">Cultivation</a> · <a data-href="Poetry" class="internal-link">Poetry</a> (4)_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3#t=41:34" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> Is that missing something? Are we missing something if we conceive that way? Is that kind of psychology adequate? How do you feel when you hear that? You know, apart from the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Letting go" data-href="Letting go" class="internal-link">illusion of non-doing</a>, receiving, being, and the <a data-href="realism" class="internal-link">realism</a> that's kind of hidden in there, as I touched on in the earlier talks, apart from all that, can you hear the language there is straight out of the language of <a data-href="artificial intelligence" class="internal-link">artificial intelligence</a> systems? The language of machines, robots. Human as very complex robot. That kind of idea, that kind of conceiving, how much <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Soul" data-href="Soul" class="internal-link">soulfulness</a> does it have? How much <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Soul" data-href="Soul" class="internal-link">soulfulness</a> does it support, <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Cultivation" data-href="Cultivation" class="internal-link">nourish</a>, allow? Where is the <a data-href="poetry" class="internal-link">poetry</a>? Does it have any <a data-href="poetry" class="internal-link">poetry</a>? And do we really want a <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Poetry" data-href="Poetry" class="internal-link">psychology without poetry</a>? What are the consequences of seeing ourselves that way? What are the consequences of a <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Poetry" data-href="Poetry" class="internal-link">psychology without poetry</a>? --- ##### Certain viewpoints cannot fan the fire **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 > ^8-3" data-href="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3#^8-3" class="internal-link">8-3</a>**: _<a data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">Desire</a> · <a data-href="Discrepancy-based processing" class="internal-link">Discrepancy-based processing</a> (2) · <a data-href="Cultivation" class="internal-link">Cultivation</a> · <a data-href="Beauty" class="internal-link">Beauty</a> (2) · <a data-href="Dimensionality" class="internal-link">Dimensionality</a> · <a data-href="Music" class="internal-link">Music</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3#t=43:04" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> Because if I just regard <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Desire" data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">desires</a> in terms of <a data-href="discrepancy-based processing" class="internal-link">discrepancy-based processing</a>, it's funny: "I want to kiss you. It's my <a data-href="discrepancy-based processing" class="internal-link">discrepancy-based processing</a>." [laughs] It has nothing to say, nothing enriching to say about my wanting to kiss you. ==It doesn't open that up. It doesn't <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Cultivation" data-href="Cultivation" class="internal-link">nourish</a> it. It doesn't bring water to it. It doesn't fan the fire. It doesn't bring out the <a data-href="beauty" class="internal-link">beauty</a>, reveal the <a data-href="beauty" class="internal-link">beauty</a>, the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dimensionality" data-href="Dimensionality" class="internal-link">dimensions</a> there.== What does it say about this <a data-href="music" class="internal-link">music</a> that wells up in me, that wants expression? So much that I'm willing to sit through all the toil, and the frustration, and the revising, etc., to make, to write a symphony or whatever it is. --- ##### How would I possibly justify art, when if has nothing to do with releasing suffering? **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 > ^8-4" data-href="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3#^8-4" class="internal-link">8-4</a>**: _<a data-href="Eros" class="internal-link">Eros</a> (3) · <a data-href="Beauty" class="internal-link">Beauty</a> · <a data-href="Poetry" class="internal-link">Poetry</a> · <a data-href="Dimensionality" class="internal-link">Dimensionality</a> · <a data-href="Spirituality" class="internal-link">Spirituality</a> · <a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> · <a data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">Desire</a> (3) · <a data-href="Kusala" class="internal-link">Kusala</a> · <a data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">Dukkha</a> (2)_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3#t=44:04" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> What does it say about the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Eros" data-href="Eros" class="internal-link">gaze of eros</a>? A gaze filled with <a data-href="eros" class="internal-link">eros</a>, imbued with <a data-href="eros" class="internal-link">eros</a>. It has nothing to say to address - it addresses nothing in that of real <a data-href="beauty" class="internal-link">beauty</a>, or value, or <a data-href="poetry" class="internal-link">poetry</a>, or <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dimensionality" data-href="Dimensionality" class="internal-link">dimensions of our existence</a>. Sometimes we can be oversimplistic as human beings, and especially in regard to <a data-href="spirituality" class="internal-link">spirituality</a>. Sometimes, you know, what can happen is a person can, for decades, kind of abide in and with an overly simplistic view in relation to <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a> and <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a>, these ideas. And okay, they might acknowledge, as I said, that some <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Desire" data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">desires</a> are <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Kusala" data-href="Kusala" class="internal-link">wholesome</a>, because they bring a reduction or they lead to, even eventually, a reduction of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dukkha" data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">suffering</a> for self and other. But other <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Desire" data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">desires</a> or movements just have no place. How would I possibly justify an abstract art painting? It has nothing to do with releasing <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dukkha" data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">suffering</a>. --- ##### Oversimplistic ideas not quite add up in relation to eros in our live **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 > ^8-5" data-href="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3#^8-5" class="internal-link">8-5</a>**: _<a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a> (3) · <a data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">Desire</a> (3) · <a data-href="Meditation" class="internal-link">Meditation</a> · <a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> (2) · <a data-href="Letting go" class="internal-link">Letting go</a> (2) · <a data-href="Retreat" class="internal-link">Retreat</a> · <a data-href="The Self" class="internal-link">The Self</a> · <a data-href="Mind" class="internal-link">Mind</a> · <a data-href="Habit" class="internal-link">Habit</a> · <a data-href="Passion" class="internal-link">Passion</a> · <a data-href="Love" class="internal-link">Love</a> · <a data-href="Eros" class="internal-link">Eros</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3#t=45:32" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> And then, what can sometimes happen if a person actually clings indirectly - although it _seems_ like not <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>, clings to an overly simplistic view of living without <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>, and a simplistic view in relation, in concept and relationship to <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a> and <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a>, is that we get to a place, after some years of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Meditation" data-href="Meditation" class="internal-link">Dharma practice</a>, where we're, you know, with <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a> and <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a>, we're kind of - we accept that it's there, and we kind of laugh at it, and we practise <a data-href="letting go" class="internal-link">letting go</a> sometimes, and sometimes <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Retreat" data-href="Retreat" class="internal-link">on retreat</a> we let go of a lot, etc. But basically, we fall back into a sort of, "Ah, well. <a data-href="The self" class="internal-link">The self</a> or the <a data-href="mind" class="internal-link">mind</a> is pretty wily, isn't it, in terms of getting its <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Desire" data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">desires</a> and what it wants? And it's a deeply ingrained <a data-href="habit" class="internal-link">habit</a>." Or there's a kind of cognitive dissonance that doesn't quite add up. It doesn't quite fit together, this teaching of <a data-href="letting go" class="internal-link">letting go</a> of <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>, and then our <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Passion" data-href="Passion" class="internal-link">passions</a>, and what we really care about, and my <a data-href="love" class="internal-link">love</a> for this man, this woman, or whatever it is. Doesn't quite add up in relation to the <a data-href="eros" class="internal-link">eros</a> in our lives. --- ##### Does discrepancy-based processing satisfy the depths in me?] **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 > ^9-1" data-href="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3#^9-1" class="internal-link">9-1</a>**: _<a data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">Desire</a> · <a data-href="Discrepancy-based processing" class="internal-link">Discrepancy-based processing</a> (2) · <a data-href="Soulmaking" class="internal-link">Soulmaking</a> (2) · <a data-href="Psyche" class="internal-link">Psyche</a> · <a data-href="Soul" class="internal-link">Soul</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3#t=46:51" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> With all of this, there can come kind of a status quo that just stays, a sort of stagnation of exploration in relationship to <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a>. What's happened there? Why? And again, we could ask, is it that - whether it's the concept of <a data-href="discrepancy-based processing" class="internal-link">discrepancy-based processing</a>, that kind of language and that kind of way of thinking or framing things or delineating things, or other ways - what do they serve, and is there something they _don't_ serve that's necessary for us? In the language I've been using recently, does it serve <a data-href="soulmaking" class="internal-link">soulmaking</a>? Does this idea of <a data-href="discrepancy-based processing" class="internal-link">discrepancy-based processing</a> serve <a data-href="soulmaking" class="internal-link">soulmaking</a>? Does it satisfy the <a data-href="psyche" class="internal-link">psyche</a>, the <a data-href="soul" class="internal-link">soul</a>, the depths in me? --- ##### Provision definition of "eros" **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 > ^9-2" data-href="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3#^9-2" class="internal-link">9-2</a>**: _<a data-href="Eros" class="internal-link">Eros</a> (7) · <a data-href="Sexuality" class="internal-link">Sexuality</a> (2) · <a data-href="Sigmund Freud" class="internal-link">Sigmund Freud</a> · <a data-href="Hindrances" class="internal-link">Hindrances</a> · <a data-href="Love" class="internal-link">Love</a> · <a data-href="Retreat" class="internal-link">Retreat</a> · <a data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">Desire</a> (3) · <a data-href="Psyche" class="internal-link">Psyche</a> (3) · <a data-href="Soul" class="internal-link">Soul</a> · <a data-href="Divinity" class="internal-link">Divinity</a> (3) · <a data-href="Soulmaking" class="internal-link">Soulmaking</a> · <a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3#t=47:47" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> And again, sorry, I'm not going to explain that term now. It's coming, or in past talks it's been explained. But just to say this. We use these words, '<a data-href="eros" class="internal-link">eros</a>.' Do we need another term? And I'll explain more fully in the next few talks what I mean by that, what we mean by <a data-href="eros" class="internal-link">eros</a>. I don't just mean <a data-href="sexuality" class="internal-link">sexuality</a>, although it includes <a data-href="sexuality" class="internal-link">sexuality</a>. I _certainly_ don't mean it in the way that <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Sigmund Freud" data-href="Sigmund Freud" class="internal-link">Freud</a> was meaning it, as just a seeking of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Hindrances" data-href="Hindrances" class="internal-link">sense pleasure</a>. I don't simply equate <a data-href="eros" class="internal-link">eros</a> and <a data-href="love" class="internal-link">love</a>, and I don't simply equate <a data-href="eros" class="internal-link">eros</a> with <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Eros" data-href="Eros" class="internal-link">life force</a>, as just <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Eros" data-href="Eros" class="internal-link">life force</a>. Very briefly (and this will beg more explanation if you haven't listened to other talks and teachings, but I hope to unfold it in the course of this <a data-href="retreat" class="internal-link">retreat</a>): ==<a data-href="eros" class="internal-link">eros</a>, a <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a>, a movement of the <a data-href="psyche" class="internal-link">psyche</a>, of the being, that opens, deepens, leads to <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Soul" data-href="Soul" class="internal-link">soulfulness</a>, <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Divinity" data-href="Divinity" class="internal-link">sacredness</a>, <a data-href="soulmaking" class="internal-link">soulmaking</a>, sense of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Divinity" data-href="Divinity" class="internal-link">sacredness</a>. Opens that out. A <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a>, a movement of the <a data-href="psyche" class="internal-link">psyche</a>, of the being, that opens out, deepens, enriches, complicates also, our sense of sacredness.== A <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a>, a movement of the <a data-href="psyche" class="internal-link">psyche</a> that _opens_ the being, unlike <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>. --- ##### Wrapped up in the movement of eros is beauty **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 > ^9-3" data-href="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3#^9-3" class="internal-link">9-3</a>**: _<a data-href="Eros" class="internal-link">Eros</a> (5) · <a data-href="Dimensionality" class="internal-link">Dimensionality</a> (2) · <a data-href="Beauty" class="internal-link">Beauty</a> (4) · <a data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">Desire</a> · <a data-href="Soul" class="internal-link">Soul</a> · <a data-href="Divinity" class="internal-link">Divinity</a> · <a data-href="Meaningfulness" class="internal-link">Meaningfulness</a> · <a data-href="Passion" class="internal-link">Passion</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3#t=49:16" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> <a data-href="Eros" class="internal-link">Eros</a> always has something to do with depth, and with expansion, and with perceiving of <a data-href="dimensionality" class="internal-link">dimensionality</a>, and also with <a data-href="beauty" class="internal-link">beauty</a>. <a data-href="Eros" class="internal-link">Eros</a> always has something to do with <a data-href="beauty" class="internal-link">beauty</a>. And I don't mean by '<a data-href="beauty" class="internal-link">beauty</a>' just what is pleasing to the senses in terms of its sensual arrangement. We'll talk more about this later. Wrapped up in the movement of <a data-href="eros" class="internal-link">eros</a>, in these <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Desire" data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">desires</a>, these movements that open and deepen and expand the sense of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Soul" data-href="Soul" class="internal-link">soulfulness</a> and <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Divinity" data-href="Divinity" class="internal-link">sacredness</a>, is depth, <a data-href="dimensionality" class="internal-link">dimensionality</a>, <a data-href="beauty" class="internal-link">beauty</a>, <a data-href="meaningfulness" class="internal-link">meaningfulness</a>. And again, I'm not just talking about (necessarily) huge <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Passion" data-href="Passion" class="internal-link">passions</a>, although I'm including that. Also very subtle. It's the subtle movement of <a data-href="eros" class="internal-link">eros</a>, subtle movements of <a data-href="eros" class="internal-link">eros</a>. --- ##### How can we conceive of a clinging which opens towards what is deeply important to us? **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 > ^9-4" data-href="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3#^9-4" class="internal-link">9-4</a>**: _<a data-href="Relationships" class="internal-link">Relationships</a> (3) · <a data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">Desire</a> (4) · <a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> (2) · <a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a> (2) · <a data-href="Eros" class="internal-link">Eros</a> (3) · <a data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">Insight</a> · <a data-href="Psyche" class="internal-link">Psyche</a> · <a data-href="Conceptual framework" class="internal-link">Conceptual framework</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3#t=50:21" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> So we're talking here about <a data-href="relationships" class="internal-link">relationships</a> with <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a>, <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>, <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>, <a data-href="eros" class="internal-link">eros</a>, whatever words you want to use, <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Insight" data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">understanding</a> and relating to this whole aspect, area, these forces in our lives. I'm certainly not saying that every erotic <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a>, a <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a> of <a data-href="eros" class="internal-link">eros</a>, the movement of <a data-href="eros" class="internal-link">eros</a>, needs to be physically acted upon, needs to be made materially manifest. You know that, if you've listened to some other talks. But the question is, what does this movement of <a data-href="psyche" class="internal-link">psyche</a> need? What does it need? Where does it lead? Or rather, ==are there ways of conceiving, <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Conceptual framework" data-href="Conceptual framework" class="internal-link">conceptual frameworks</a>, <a data-href="relationships" class="internal-link">relationships</a> and investigations, that open otherwise closed doors for us? And doors that are deeply important to us, that it's deeply important to us to move through, because of what they open to, because of where they take us?== So this is really what I want to go into. How can we think about the whole domain and the different kinds of <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a>, <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>, <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>? How can we conceive of all that? What <a data-href="relationships" class="internal-link">relationships</a> and what kinds of investigations can we bring to bear that open this up for us, and don't actually keep certain doors shut that are deeply important to us? --- ##### Having constrained views can constrain our vision **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 > ^10-1" data-href="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3#^10-1" class="internal-link">10-1</a>**: _<a data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">Insight</a> · <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> (2) · <a data-href="Impermanence" class="internal-link">Impermanence</a> · <a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a> · <a data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">Dukkha</a> · <a data-href="Conceptual framework" class="internal-link">Conceptual framework</a> · <a data-href="Experience" class="internal-link">Experience</a> · <a data-href="The Self" class="internal-link">The Self</a> · <a data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">Desire</a> · <a data-href="Eros" class="internal-link">Eros</a> · <a data-href="Cosmology" class="internal-link">Cosmology</a> · <a data-href="Freedom" class="internal-link">Freedom</a> · <a data-href="Beauty" class="internal-link">Beauty</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3#t=52:05" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> Because, and I've said this in other talks in the last few years, some conceptual <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Insight" data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">understandings</a> of <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a>, some ways we're thinking about <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a>, even if we don't think we're intellectual - "Be kind, be present, and be with what is. Let go, because everything is <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Impermanence" data-href="Impermanence" class="internal-link">impermanent</a>, everything is in flow. Relax and try to live without <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>, and this will bring ease. This will decrease or even end your <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dukkha" data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">suffering</a>, if you can do that" - a view like that, for a lot of people (it's actually fairly common), a view like that, a <a data-href="Conceptual framework" class="internal-link">Conceptual framework</a> like that, whether it's articulated intellectually, verbally, or not, it will - as helpful as it will be to limited extents, it will also constrain our vision and our <a data-href="experience" class="internal-link">experience</a>. Constrain our vision and our <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="The Self" data-href="The Self" class="internal-link">experience of self, other, world</a>, time, of <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a> and <a data-href="eros" class="internal-link">eros</a> itself, for the whole <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Cosmology" data-href="Cosmology" class="internal-link">cosmos</a>, inner and outer. Will also constrain the kinds of <a data-href="freedom" class="internal-link">freedom</a>, the kinds of creativity, the kinds of <a data-href="beauty" class="internal-link">beauty</a> that are available to us. --- ##### We limit our experience through the ideas we are hanging on to **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 > ^10-2" data-href="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3#^10-2" class="internal-link">10-2</a>**: _<a data-href="Conceptual framework" class="internal-link">Conceptual framework</a> (2) · <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Hermeneutics > Overview" data-href="Hermeneutics#Overview" class="internal-link">Hermeneutics > Overview</a> (2) · <a data-href="Constriction" class="internal-link">Constriction</a> (5) · <a data-href="Dependent Origination" class="internal-link">Dependent Origination</a> · <a data-href="Experience" class="internal-link">Experience</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3#t=53:29" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> I said elsewhere, I think: we can have <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Conceptual framework" data-href="Conceptual framework" class="internal-link">conceptual frameworks</a> that actually end up constraining our sense of existence, our (what I might call) <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Hermeneutics > Overview" data-href="Hermeneutics#Overview" class="internal-link">hermeneutics</a> - the way we're actually interpreting our life, our being, this world, what comes to us in the senses. And through a limited <a data-href="Conceptual framework" class="internal-link">Conceptual framework</a> that isn't questioned, that isn't opened, that isn't adequate enough, rich enough, there's the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Constriction" data-href="Constriction" class="internal-link">constriction in the view</a>, the <a data-href="constriction" class="internal-link">constriction</a> in the interpretation of what I called the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Hermeneutics > Overview" data-href="Hermeneutics#Overview" class="internal-link">hermeneutics</a> of existence, and therefore, out of that, because of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dependent Origination" data-href="Dependent Origination" class="internal-link">dependent arising</a>, our experiences will also be <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Constriction" data-href="Constriction" class="internal-link">constrained</a>. And not just <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Constriction" data-href="Constriction" class="internal-link">constrained</a> because certain sufferings won't happen; <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Constriction" data-href="Constriction" class="internal-link">constrained</a> in all kinds of ways. We limit our <a data-href="experience" class="internal-link">experience</a> through the ideas that we're hanging on to, even when we think we're not intellectual and we don't have to think about all this stuff. --- ##### Can we question our views, refine them? **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 > ^10-3" data-href="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3#^10-3" class="internal-link">10-3</a>**: _<a data-href="Conceptual framework" class="internal-link">Conceptual framework</a> (2) · <a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> · <a data-href="Letting go" class="internal-link">Letting go</a> · <a data-href="Eros" class="internal-link">Eros</a> · <a data-href="Retreat" class="internal-link">Retreat</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3#t=54:34" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> So what I'm asking is, can we question the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Conceptual framework" data-href="Conceptual framework" class="internal-link">conceptual frameworks</a> that we have? Can we perhaps add to the <a data-href="Conceptual framework" class="internal-link">Conceptual framework</a> that is operating for us? Can we find out what it _is_, for a start, question it, add to it, extend it, deepen and widen it, refine it perhaps? Then it becomes interesting: what then, if we're open to that, what should the order of practice, of the development of practice be regarding the more traditional teachings about <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a> and <a data-href="letting go" class="internal-link">letting go</a>, and if we're going to open up this concept of <a data-href="eros" class="internal-link">eros</a> (which I will do, I hope very fully in this <a data-href="retreat" class="internal-link">retreat</a>)? What order? Should I do one first, and then the other? Or how does it work? How _should_ it work? --- ##### Some do not have a deep calling to explore desire more fully **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 > ^10-4" data-href="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3#^10-4" class="internal-link">10-4</a>**: _<a data-href="Letting go" class="internal-link">Letting go</a> · <a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> (6) · <a data-href="Vedana" class="internal-link">Vedana</a> (3) · <a data-href="Passion" class="internal-link">Passion</a> (4) · <a data-href="Soul" class="internal-link">Soul</a> (2) · <a data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">Desire</a> (3) · <a data-href="Eros" class="internal-link">Eros</a> (2) · <a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a> · <a data-href="Emptiness" class="internal-link">Emptiness</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3#t=55:30" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> Some people will need more practice, do need more practice, with just the simple idea of <a data-href="letting go" class="internal-link">letting go</a> of <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a> that I talked about in part one - gross <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>, slightly more subtle <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a> in their life - so that one is less chained to pleasant and unpleasant _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Vedana" data-href="Vedana" class="internal-link">vedanā</a>_, being led or dragged around by the <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a> that comes towards or away from pleasant or unpleasant _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Vedana" data-href="Vedana" class="internal-link">vedanā</a>_, sensation. And some people listening, you've already done a lot of that. And yet, you feel no particular need, no <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Passion" data-href="Passion" class="internal-link">calling</a>, no stirring in the <a data-href="soul" class="internal-link">soul</a> to explore, open up to other kinds of <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a>, or <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Desire" data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">dimensions of desire</a>, or this thing called <a data-href="eros" class="internal-link">eros</a>. And that's fine. Or _maybe_ it's fine. And some of you listening have already done a lot of what we could call the more prevalent or even classical teachings about _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Craving" data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">taṇhā</a>_, <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a>, and _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Vedana" data-href="Vedana" class="internal-link">vedanā</a>_, etc., and <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>, and yet you now feel, you're now at a place where you feel there is more. And there is a <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Passion" data-href="Passion" class="internal-link">calling</a>. The <a data-href="soul" class="internal-link">soul</a> is called, if you like. There is a deep <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Passion" data-href="Passion" class="internal-link">calling</a> to explore <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a> more fully, more richly, more carefully, more subtly and sensitively. Not just in the direction of <a data-href="emptiness" class="internal-link">emptiness</a>, but in the direction of what we're <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Passion" data-href="Passion" class="internal-link">calling</a> <a data-href="eros" class="internal-link">eros</a>. --- ##### Some hear the calling to explore eros more fully **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 > ^10-5" data-href="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3#^10-5" class="internal-link">10-5</a>**: _<a data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">Insight</a> · <a data-href="Freedom" class="internal-link">Freedom</a> · <a data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">Desire</a> (2) · <a data-href="Soul" class="internal-link">Soul</a> · <a data-href="Passion" class="internal-link">Passion</a> (2) · <a data-href="Eros" class="internal-link">Eros</a> (2) · <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> · <a data-href="Avijja" class="internal-link">Avijja</a> (2) · <a data-href="Letting go" class="internal-link">Letting go</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3#t=57:07" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> And yet others - there's another group: people who feel called, something hears this and says, "Yes! Yes," but there is not yet much <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Insight" data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">discernment</a>, much proficiency, much <a data-href="freedom" class="internal-link">freedom</a> in relation to the classical teachings of pleasant sensation and <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a>, and hanging on to views and opinions, and all of that. And yet, ==they can't postpone the <a data-href="soul" class="internal-link">soul</a>-<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Passion" data-href="Passion" class="internal-link">calling</a> to include an exploration of <a data-href="eros" class="internal-link">eros</a> fully, richly, deeply on <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dharma" data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">the path</a>. Can't postpone it. Not yet got all that more straight-ahead stuff figured out, but I can't postpone it either. Is that just the pull of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Avijja" data-href="Avijja" class="internal-link">delusion</a>, the impatience of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Avijja" data-href="Avijja" class="internal-link">delusion</a>? Not necessarily. There are some who actually don't do things in the order that a neat way of framing things might prefer. So be it.== And if that's you, then somehow you'll have to figure it out on the way. You'll have to learn how to discern and differentiate between these different movements and kinds of <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a>, and <a data-href="letting go" class="internal-link">letting go</a> and dropping something, etc. And that might be more messy, if you're doing that at the same time as you're investigating and allowing <a data-href="eros" class="internal-link">eros</a> and fire and <a data-href="passion" class="internal-link">passion</a>. And it might not look so neat. Sometimes things are not so neat. --- ##### There are some who cannot wait **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 > ^11-1" data-href="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3#^11-1" class="internal-link">11-1</a>**: _<a data-href="Imaginal" class="internal-link">Imaginal</a> (4) · <a data-href="Papanca" class="internal-link">Papanca</a> (4) · <a data-href="Letting go" class="internal-link">Letting go</a> · <a data-href="Fantasy" class="internal-link">Fantasy</a> (2) · <a data-href="Simplification" class="internal-link">Simplification</a> · <a data-href="Attention" class="internal-link">Attention</a> (2) · <a data-href="Ways of looking" class="internal-link">Ways of looking</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3#t=58:52" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> It's the same with <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Imaginal" data-href="Imaginal" class="internal-link">imaginal practice</a> and _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Papanca" data-href="Papanca" class="internal-link">papañca</a>_: some need to explore the teachings about <a data-href="letting go" class="internal-link">letting go</a> of _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Papanca" data-href="Papanca" class="internal-link">papañca</a>_ and <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Papanca" data-href="Papanca" class="internal-link">complication</a> and <a data-href="fantasy" class="internal-link">fantasy</a>, and simplify, <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Simplification" data-href="Simplification" class="internal-link">simplify the mind</a>, simplify the <a data-href="attention" class="internal-link">attention</a>, and this teaching, illusory as it is, of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Attention" data-href="Attention" class="internal-link">bare attention</a>, because it will be helpful. It's helpful for them. They need that before they can explore what we mean by, in a way, good <a data-href="fantasy" class="internal-link">fantasy</a> or <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Imaginal" data-href="Imaginal" class="internal-link">imaginal practice</a>. And some have explored all that, and they feel ready for something new, this other dimension of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Imaginal" data-href="Imaginal" class="internal-link">imaginal practice</a>. And again, ==there are some who can't wait. They have to include and learn as they go along, through different <a data-href="ways of looking" class="internal-link">ways of looking</a>, different practices, trial and error (with the help, hopefully, of the teachers), but to discern between these different movements: what's _<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Papanca" data-href="Papanca" class="internal-link">papañca</a>_? What's <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Imaginal" data-href="Imaginal" class="internal-link">imaginal practice</a>? It's possible. It's absolutely possible. But in a way, parallel tracks are running concurrently.== --- ##### It's important to explore the whole range of clinging, to understand emptiness **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 > ^11-2" data-href="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3#^11-2" class="internal-link">11-2</a>**: _<a data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">Craving</a> (2) · <a data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">Desire</a> · <a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a> (2) · <a data-href="Fabrication" class="internal-link">Fabrication</a> (3) · <a data-href="Perception" class="internal-link">Perception</a> · <a data-href="The Self" class="internal-link">The Self</a> (2) · <a data-href="Dependent Origination" class="internal-link">Dependent Origination</a> (3) · <a data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">Insight</a> (4) · <a data-href="Experience" class="internal-link">Experience</a> · <a data-href="Emptiness" class="internal-link">Emptiness</a> (2) · <a data-href="Unfabricated" class="internal-link">Unfabricated</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3#t=01:00:08" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> Okay. So just to conclude this sort of long preface, if you like. Yes, yes, it's important to learn to let go of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Craving" data-href="Craving" class="internal-link">cravings</a>, of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Desire" data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">desires</a>, of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Clinging" data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">clingings</a> in life. That's really important. But so much more is possible than that. It's possible, as I said, to take up this notion of <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>, and actually explore the whole range of subtlety of what that means, and play with it, and learn to modulate it, and see what happens to the dependent <a data-href="fabrication" class="internal-link">fabrication</a> of <a data-href="perception" class="internal-link">perception</a> of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="The Self" data-href="The Self" class="internal-link">self, other, world, time</a>, etc., and unpack through that, or have revealed through that, the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dependent Origination" data-href="Dependent Origination" class="internal-link">dependent arising</a>, the <a data-href="insight" class="internal-link">insight</a> into the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dependent Origination" data-href="Dependent Origination" class="internal-link">dependent arising</a> of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="The Self" data-href="The Self" class="internal-link">self, other, world</a>, etc. Deep level of <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Insight" data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">understanding</a> <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dependent Origination" data-href="Dependent Origination" class="internal-link">dependent arising</a>. Deep level. Not just those examples of the cigarette <a data-href="craving" class="internal-link">craving</a> and the woman whose number I'd asked for, her phone number. Much deeper level. Talking about the whole <a data-href="fabrication" class="internal-link">fabrication</a> of this very sense of any reality at all, any <a data-href="experience" class="internal-link">experience</a> at all. Deep <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Insight" data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">understanding</a> of <a data-href="emptiness" class="internal-link">emptiness</a>. Deep opening of the being into states of less and less <a data-href="fabrication" class="internal-link">fabrication</a>, and eventually the <a data-href="Unfabricated" class="internal-link">Unfabricated</a>. What that tells me, what that gives me in terms of this beautiful, radical and extraordinary <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Insight" data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">understanding</a> of the <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Emptiness" data-href="Emptiness" class="internal-link">emptiness of all things</a>. --- ##### Soulmaking is important for and to the soul, so don't let go of it **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 > ^11-3" data-href="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3#^11-3" class="internal-link">11-3</a>**: _<a data-href="Passion" class="internal-link">Passion</a> · <a data-href="Eros" class="internal-link">Eros</a> (3) · <a data-href="Soulmaking" class="internal-link">Soulmaking</a> · <a data-href="Soul" class="internal-link">Soul</a> · <a data-href="Conceptual framework" class="internal-link">Conceptual framework</a> · <a data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">Insight</a> · <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> · <a data-href="Chanda" class="internal-link">Chanda</a> · <a data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">Desire</a> · <a data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">Dukkha</a> · <a data-href="Kusala" class="internal-link">Kusala</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3#t=01:01:54" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> So there's that possibility as we outlined. And there's also this possibility of something we're going to be <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Passion" data-href="Passion" class="internal-link">calling</a> <a data-href="eros" class="internal-link">eros</a> that is a movement that brings <a data-href="soulmaking" class="internal-link">soulmaking</a> (again, we're going to unpack that, if you're not familiar with these terms). Something that's important for the <a data-href="soul" class="internal-link">soul</a>, and it's important not to let go of. And actually, we don't completely let go of it. It's operating already. We want to understand that, explore it, develop <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Conceptual framework" data-href="Conceptual framework" class="internal-link">conceptual frameworks</a> and an <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Insight" data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">understanding</a> of <a data-href="Dharma" class="internal-link">Dharma</a> that can allow us to open to that, have its place, have the richnesses that it brings. So as I said, it's already there. <a data-href="Eros" class="internal-link">Eros</a> is already there. And I'm not just meaning by that this _<a data-href="chanda" class="internal-link">chanda</a>_, this intentionality or <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a> for reducing <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Dukkha" data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">suffering</a>, for what is <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Kusala" data-href="Kusala" class="internal-link">wholesome</a>. That might be one manifestation of <a data-href="eros" class="internal-link">eros</a>. I'm not just talking about that though. --- ##### The exploration of eros opens up our sense of the world **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 > ^11-4" data-href="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3#^11-4" class="internal-link">11-4</a>**: _<a data-href="Psyche" class="internal-link">Psyche</a> · <a data-href="Attention" class="internal-link">Attention</a> · <a data-href="Eros" class="internal-link">Eros</a> (4) · <a data-href="Fabrication" class="internal-link">Fabrication</a> · <a data-href="Clinging" class="internal-link">Clinging</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3#t=01:02:58" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> We need, the <a data-href="psyche" class="internal-link">psyche</a> needs, to bring <a data-href="attention" class="internal-link">attention</a> to bear so that it recognizes this movement, recognizes <a data-href="eros" class="internal-link">eros</a>, delineates it, perhaps, has a way of conceiving and thinking that's actually supportive to the <a data-href="eros" class="internal-link">eros</a>, supportive then to the totality, the integrated totality of what we conceive of as practice. Because that investigation and that movement of <a data-href="eros" class="internal-link">eros</a> also, just like the deep exploration of <a data-href="fabrication" class="internal-link">fabrication</a> through the playing with the spectrum of <a data-href="clinging" class="internal-link">clinging</a>, this deep and wide exploration, subtle exploration of <a data-href="eros" class="internal-link">eros</a> also, but in a different way, opens up our sense of the world radically, widely, beautifully. Opens up the whole sense of existence. --- ##### Movement of eros opens up our whole sense of existence **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 > ^12-1" data-href="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3#^12-1" class="internal-link">12-1</a>**: _<a data-href="Soulmaking" class="internal-link">Soulmaking</a> (2) · <a data-href="Soul" class="internal-link">Soul</a> · <a data-href="Retreat" class="internal-link">Retreat</a> · <a data-href="Dukkha" class="internal-link">Dukkha</a> · <a data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">Insight</a> · <a data-href="Emptiness" class="internal-link">Emptiness</a> · <a data-href="Eros" class="internal-link">Eros</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3#t=01:04:07" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> But, you know, _you_ decide what you want. You decide. Some people (and for very different reasons) don't want much depth or much <a data-href="soulmaking" class="internal-link">soulmaking</a>, much <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Soul" data-href="Soul" class="internal-link">soulfulness</a>. And for different reasons. We'll actually go into these different reasons as part of the <a data-href="retreat" class="internal-link">retreat</a>, because it's also quite interesting, what's happening there. But some people - and this needs to be respected - that's not what they want. They want some techniques of what we could call kind of self-help, really, and they want some ease, and they want a reduction in _<a data-href="dukkha" class="internal-link">dukkha</a>_, and that's great. That's important. Others, though, this opening of the sense of existence, these radical and remarkable openings that are possible in the whole sense of existence, not just of self but of the whole of one's sense of existence, the deep <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Insight" data-href="Insight" class="internal-link">understanding</a> of <a data-href="emptiness" class="internal-link">emptiness</a>, and the deep and wide and eventually all-pervasive movement of <a data-href="eros" class="internal-link">eros</a> and <a data-href="soulmaking" class="internal-link">soulmaking</a> - these, for others, are the most important things, the things they care most deeply and most passionately about. --- ##### You decide **<a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3 > ^12-2" data-href="0117 The Way of Non-Clinging Part 3#^12-2" class="internal-link">12-2</a>**: _<a data-href="Desire" class="internal-link">Desire</a> · <a data-href="Eros" class="internal-link">Eros</a> · <a data-href="Delineations" class="internal-link">Delineations</a> (2) · <a data-href="Retreat" class="internal-link">Retreat</a>_ <audio controls preload=metadata style=" width:300px;" controlslist="nodownload"><source src="https://dharmaseed.org/talks/40192/20170117-Rob_Burbea-GAIA-the_way_of_non_clinging_part_3-40192.mp3#t=01:05:28" type="audio/mpeg">???</audio> But it's not for me, I don't think - I don't think it's for me, I don't think it's for anyone - to tell another person what to want. So, as I said, you decide what you want. But still, we can investigate this whole question of <a data-href="desire" class="internal-link">desire</a> and <a data-href="eros" class="internal-link">eros</a>, and making <a data-href="delineations" class="internal-link">delineations</a> and <a aria-label-position="top" aria-label="Delineations" data-href="Delineations" class="internal-link">distinctions</a>, and see where that leads, and then decide whether we want to go where it leads or not. We can still investigate. It's always up to us where we want to go. This is a little bit what I want to go into on this <a data-href="retreat" class="internal-link">retreat</a>, a little bit of an introduction, and what we want to really fill out and expand and explore in the course. ---