Our Conditioned Awareness
by Michael Mamas

In this video, Michael Mamas discusses our conditioned awareness. There’s the story of these two monks, walking from one temple to the next. They came to a stream and needed to cross the stream. There was a lady there and she needed to cross the stream too: “Oh no, how can I cross this stream? I have these high-heels on, my silks and everything, how am I going to get across the stream?” The older monk picked her up, carried her across the stream, and set her on the other side. And then the monks went on their way. The younger monk was just brooding, hanging on to it. He was angry, stomping, and just made for the longest time. Finally the older monk turned to him and asked, “What’s the problem? What’s going on?”

The younger monk said, “You picked up that woman and you carried her across the stream, and we’re celibates, we’re monks! We’re not supposed to even touch a woman and look what you did!”

The older monk looked at him and said, “I carried that woman across the stream. You’ve been carrying her this whole time.”

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