Let me take a moment here to tell you about our Vipassana sitting yesterday.. It was high with our two teachers that are practically never there, because they seem to be always in some other country teaching retreats. Michelle started the talk after the 45 minute meditation led by Steven Smith. Michelle quoted Suzuki Roshi. "Enlightenment is following something until the end". Of course the theme was impermanence. If we follow something to the end we let it end and notice the impermanent nature of phenomena. Then Steven added this adage. Attachment disguises impermanence. What does this all mean to you folks? How many of us have experienced very unpleasant mental states in our lives and worked through them with out going on antidepressants. Once you decide to use those meds you get stuck in taking them for long periods. Here is this country is has become a scourge. I know for sure if I was young a psychiatrist would have put me on them and my neurons would be altered maybe forever. I know someone gets terribly ill and cant stop throwing up when she tries to get off those drugs. Well the remedy for those unpleasant mental states is to use the power of attention to look at what is happening in the mind and body knowing it like everything else wont last. The is what our teachers were trying to get across to us in my view. Here is a ditty I composed that caused a lot of anger towards me on a poetry group. 10 people immediately left that group Grieving souls taking antidepressants Have you forgotten your Godly essence Stop wining a puling and stuck in self pity Consider what's offered right here in this ditty You believe that you are what you appear to be Thoughts and feelings and the memories you see What others have told you and the events of the past With successes and failures that never did last A body that's changing and decaying each day A self image that based on what others did say Grieving souls taking antidepressants All you have is your Godly essence.