Many of us come to our practice with some degree of suffering. Our regular ways of dealing with life may be creating stress, or we feel a wanting, that something is missing as we engage in our capitalistic society.

While yearning for something is not in itself bad, we need to examine where we are looking for it. Rather than trying to just get from here to there or to become something we are not, can our practice help us become more genuine and experience our essential self?

In this talk, Pamela shares that delusion is at the heart of our grasping and aversion, because we still believe something we get or attain will alleviate our dissatisfaction. It is the falling away of this fantasy that is the gift of spiritual practice because it can lead us to being at peace in our lives.

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Pamela Weiss is a dual-lineage Buddhist teacher in Soto Zen and Theravada, and the author of “A Bigger Sky: Awakening a Fierce Feminine Buddhism.” She sits on the Spirit Rock Teacher Council, and teaches through San Francisco Insight, San Francisco Zen Center and Brooklyn Zen Center. Pamela lives in San Francisco with her husband and little dog, Grover.