Tara Brach

It's a oneness.

And I've never been proximate with, close with someone, you know, to spend time with someone when I couldn't sense it.

And it gets covered over in ways that allow for...

unfathomable, hurtful, cruel behavior.

So for me to know that, but also to look and see the goodness and remind others, it just calls it forward.

And I was talking with Father Gregory Boyle last year, who very much embodies the bodhisattva spirit.

Many listeners are probably familiar with him as an author, tattoos on the heart and other books, and his work with L.A.

gangs.

He created Homeboy Industries and this amazing community of loving, trusting, healing, being, serving each other and others.

with, made of people, young people, with this history of great violence.

Would have been very hard to see the goodness if you met them younger, rivals killing each other's friends and family.

So my inquiry to him, of course, is what made this possible.

And he said that there were two unwavering principles.

in their community.

And the first was that everyone is unshakably good, no exceptions.

And the second one is we all belong to each other, no exceptions.

And then he went on to say, well, do I think all our vexing and controversial dilemmas would disappear if we embrace these two notions?

And then he paused and said, yeah, I do.

I do.

So it's not so easy to remember that there's basic goodness because there's such strong conditioning in us to fixate on the flaws, on feeling separate.