Marta, thanks much for your inspiration. You have my gratitude. 1000 smiles and hugs. Conrad

 Thank you so much Xiaoshan Pan for your uncommon wisdom. I am grateful.
Conrad P Pritscher

. I greatly agree with him when he says thinking that compassion, patience, and rationality are good will not produce those qualities just by thinking they are good.  I agree that anger, jealousy and competition are our enemies.  People who are angry, jealous and competitive can more easily remind us to be patient and compassionate. I do not wish to be irrational but to put rationality on a level with patience and compassion is not a good idea.  Some angry, jealous, and competitive people use rational statements to delude others about the value of competition etc. I love his smiling and laughing and I believe they are contagious. I frequently laugh and smile because there is much to laugh and smile about. I understand relatively little about our mysterious universe and my increasing lack of desire to understand much of what I experience makes me smile and sometimes laugh. If I were with you now I would be laughing and smiling. Thank you for the opportunity to respond. Warm and kind regards to everyone.

 Robin, your life is perfect. The human perfection may be thought of as "broken." As I see it, is not the breakes but are attitude towards the brakes that can help us be peaceful or not. Warm and kind regards.

 Thank you Christine for your courage. Warm and kind regards.Conrad

 Jeff Foster said everything. I just emailed this article to several friends and I said I can't think of anything else to say.
I believe what he said. I often forget what he said in my daily living. If I kept what he said in mind, I would live more in the present and be more peaceful and joyous more frequently. With X.Pan I am in awe.Thank you for the opportunity to respond.  Warm and kind regards to everyone,

 Thanks for your kind words Peter. 

 Sharon Salzburg is great. I love what she said. I find, after many many years, that I'm becoming a little more patient with my impatience. Every day I say a few sentences one of which is: "May I be patient. May I be able to bear and forbear the wrongs of others." It may be useful for some to hear that I have been working on being patient for 40 or 60 years and only recently have I begun to accept some of my impatience. When I'm in the now I am more patient. I am better now at accepting that I am not often in the now. Thank you for the opportunity to respond. Warm and kind regards to everyone

 This Fronzdal article is outstanding. After reading this I feel I  fear my fear a bit less. Fearlessness  means that it is easier for me to accept myself as I am with my flaws, more easily. Many of my experiences with others include fear and fearlessness. I fear that I will not be liked if others found out who I really am, and on the other hand, I find some acceptance that it's okay not to be liked as much as I want to be liked. Sharon Begley, Reuters science writer, and psychiatrist Schwartz say: “Through mindfulness you can stand outside your own mind as if you are watching what is happening to another person rather than experiencing it herself….Mindfulness requires direct willful effort, and the ability to forge those practicing it to observe their sensations and thoughts with a calm clarity of an external witness….One views his thoughts, feelings, and expectations much as a scientist views experimental data - - that is, as a natural phenomena to be noted, investigated, reflected on and learned from.  Viewing one’s own inner experience as data allows (one) to become, in essence, his own experimental subject.” Through using their idea, one can be highly afraid yet calmly say to themselves in a semi-unafraid manner: "I notice I'm afraid."

 My first impression is that it's if you are loved do when you are young, you can more easily love (be kind to others) as you grow older. My parents and family and environment where great as I was growing up and I believe this helps me to notice how great little things in life are. Noticing that I am one with everyone and everything helps me to treat others the way I would like to be treated. Meditation has been helpful for me to be more aware of my present experience. After practicing for many years, I still find that I am imperfect and somewhat selfish. when I accept that I have a tendency to be less selfish. I was a baby in the family for eight years and I notice, at times, I'm still somewhat babyish today. If I can accept that, I notice I can be somewhat less selfish – – less babyish. Present awareness is the key. Thanks for the opportunity to respond. Warm and kind regards to everyone

 I forgot to mention that if one notices one is faint of heart, that may be a condition for them to become less faint if that is what they wish to be. I do not know how faint in the sense the author is using the term relates to being no one going nowhere. Being no one going nowhere may be like noticing one is not  separate and that one is somewhat like a hologram,one with everyone and everything.

 In the past I thought I knew what inquiry means. Now I do not know. In the past I was afraid of not knowing. Today I am much less afraid of not knowingand often cherish not knowing. What I understand by "releasing the constructed world while remaining conscious" is simply being open to what is. My noticing what is can change from moment to moment. The only constant I see is change. I have written about functional discontinuity. If a teacher provides conditions whereby a student becomes somewhat perplexed or stuck, and provides conditions of freedom and a responsive environment, the student can then unperplex and unstick herself or himself.. Schools generally do not provide these conditions which facilitate open inquiry. a discontinuity, he focused on, can help one build a larger continuity. The largest continuity is noticing that one is one with everyone and everything. I believe inquiry must be open in order for it to be inquiry. To paraphrase Gandhi: There is no way to open inquiry. Open inquiry is the way. Some teachers think they can "use" inquiry to have students discover what the teacher or book wants them to discover. That is not open-ended inquiry. I now know that I wish everyone warm and kind regards. I know very little and am pleased about it. When I grow more, I will notice that I am not a separate I who inquires or even a separate I who does not know. As Lao Tzu said: "The way that can be said is not the way."

 Warm and kind regards. Thanks for sharing this with us. you will be fine.
I'm sure the entire wakin group supports you. Be peace.Conrad

 For me, attachment is a desire for some thing or event that is presently not happening as I think it should. By noticing and consciously limiting my desires I reduce attachments that are limiting to me.. I frequently find myself getting angry when other drivers on the road don't drive exactly as I think they should. My first reaction is anger and then I notice  what is occurring is simply what is that I am not accepting. If I consciously notice more of reality as it is, I will reduce desires and attachments and accept more of what is. Thank you for the opportunity to respond. Warm and kind regards to everyone..

 Thank you for your wonderful comment. I agree with you.

Warm and kind regards,Conrad

 Since we are all one, there is no difference between inner and outer and no difference between an individual and his or her surroundings. Paradoxically, one's harmonious state while connected to what surrounds one, can be peaceful even when chaos and war seem to be going on around one. Surprisingly, Ganoba's response to honoring the gill inside you reached me today and it applies as an excellent response to today's message. It reads: "Me, all of me. Life became a fun adventure when I started taking myself as an harmonious whole, fully attuned with the environment. With this I started accepting, even celebrating, all that was served on my plate. I started to see the value of everything irrespective of its size, shape and color. Now it is love all the way." How wonderful Ganoba. Thank you. Warm and kind regards to everyone.

 I forgot to add that Somik Raha recently found a Gandhi quote which stated:: "My notion of democracy is that under it the weakest should have the same opportunity as the strongest. No country in the world today shows any but patronizing regard for the weak. Western democracy, as it functions today, is diluted to fascism. True democracy cannot be worked by 20 men sitting at the center. It has to be worked from below by the people of every village."

 I have not had felt it deeply even though I strongly think I am a part of the universe that needs to be expressed..
I have recently written about: skin color: the shame of silence. I am white. My parents were born in Germany and I have strong anti-fascist feelings. The Nazis killed 6 million Jews. I believe my relatives in Germany at the time could do little about it because of the coercive troops of Hitler. I also have not felt it deeply but I have strong thoughts about a threat to justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, as Martin Luther King has said. I believe the 1% is now enslaving 90% of our US citizens. I also believe our country is moving closer to fascism. I am now writing about  that injustice and how schooling and university courses may be transformed to include students noticing their noticing while they are noticing.  Our schools and universities have become so enmeshed and specialized in training for jobs that we often graduate with many blind spots to our growing fascism. racism and sexism. Thank you for the opportunity to respond to this excellent work. Warm and kind regards to everyone..

 I agree that it is more important to swim through the days and honor the gill inside me then to figure out how it all works. wanting to figure it out is like wanting to be certain and as Richard Rohr said, wanting certainty is our original sin. I do not know what transforms my experience into sustenance. I expect it is my being open to notice; open to be aware of even what maybe temporarily painful. Just yesterday I noticed more of my impatience with events not happening as I thought they should. I noticed that I had desires I was unaware of at that time. As a result of that awareness I a am more open to going with the flow and to desiring less. I notice my desire not to desire is a desire. That I am gradually working on.. Thanks for the opportunity to respond. Warm and kind regards to everyone.

 Kristin, Hugs to you. You have my deep gratitude.Conrad