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17 DAY TWO

PRELIMINARY

First and foremost, I would like to remind you once again of the motivation. The reason why one would like to learn, analyze and meditate on the Lamrim stages is that one would like to obtain the ultimate level. It may be a very long shot for some people, but that doesn't matter. If you have the long shot, the far-reaching goal, you're bound to have whatever is in between, too. It's like driving from Detroit to here; you have cities, like Brighton in between; and though you did not aim to go to Brighton, you pass through. That's why your goal should always be set at the maximum that you can get.

The Buddha recommends that our goal be total enlightenment, the total awakened state, because in the awakened state you have every possible way of helping people. You don't have many limitations. There you have a tremendous capacity for helping people almost effortlessly. That's why we said the enlightened level is extremely important. Not only are you yourself free of all negative karma, and causes of negative karma, or neurosis, you'll also have a limitless ability to help or lead other beings to that level. Not only your own friends and family, but even going beyond that. That is actually the

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most important motivation. Really. So once again I would like to remind you of the motivation.

Every day you use the motivation, you not only set it for your whole life, but also particularly for this week, and especially for the day. When you say, 'for this day' every day, it is very helpful. There are zillions of stories I can tell you here — who did what, and how that motivation helped, but I cut them out. We have a tremendous subject to cover, so I intend to make the teachings concise. What is traditionally taught for months, every day from twelve until eight or nine, we have to cover in seven days, and that also in a two hours session a day only. So I'll try to be on the points. And if you find it's a little dry or boring, should I say, 'excuse me' or just 'that's what it is'? That's going to be the dosage anyway.

Also, in the discussion group or at the dining room table or wherever, you can discuss among your friends whatever your thoughts and questions and your need for clearing doubts are. It is a great opportunity, because the sangha here is not an ordinary sangha. There are a lot of people who have put in a lot of time, a lot of people who have a lot of knowledge, a lot of people who have experience — all of them are available. Making use of them is a great advantage. But only you can do it, no one else. Among the sangha, if you just look at whoever is sitting at your right or left at the table, some of them have very good experience and can answer your questions, however, they're not going to volunteer. So, it is okay to ask questions. (I hope so, I hope I get permission from them.) You can ask questions about anything, and make the best use of every opportunity that' s available to you.

Before I go and explain, I would like to tell you the sort of preliminary things that we do. They are extremely important. Whether the actual practice that you do for the 'until I'm fully enlightened', will be successful, depends on the preliminaries that you do during the teaching, though we made the traditional No or three hours' preliminaries into ten or fifteen minutes. We try to make it as short as possible, yet we do it according to the tradition.

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What is Lamrim?

The subject that we are going to deal with here is traditionally called Lamrim. Lam means 'path' or 'way', taking an adventure or making a journey. The second word, rim, really gives you 'what follows next'. So Lamrim you could call a highway to enlightenment. It's okay to have a highway to enlightenment, but you need the direction. If you want to go from here to, say, Ann Arbor, if you take 23 South, you're not going to get there; you're going to land in Toledo. Likewise, here you do need the direction. This is the direction, which will lead you to the enlightenment.

Now the real question is, "Am I sure, if I follow this path, I'm going to reach the enlightenment level, which I admire, or want, or I'm interested in?" Buddha keeps on telling us,

I was just like you before. You and me were equal. And I worked, gained experience, and gained this stage where I am now. I am here to share my experience with you, and if you follow that, no matter who you may be, you will get the same result as I did.

Buddha shared that, and a number of disciples then followed that, and reached that stage. So there's no reason why we, any of us, cannot reach where all these people who tried, reached. There's no reason why we cannot, unless we don't try enough, or are not interested enough, or maybe really don't care. Or even if we care and are interested, we might still have a fifty-fifty mind. The traditional Tibetan teachers give the example of a needle with two points. If you try to use such a needle to stitch something, where are you going to get with it? So, to make a difference to our life, not only this life, but also future lives, or, in other words, when you really want to stop the pains, the suffering, the misery, once and for all, you really have to be single-pointed. At least you have to give yourself the opportunity to develop. That's what's important. Very important.

So for these seven days we will try to be totally focused on Lamrim. The discussions will be on the subject, and even the presentations1

1 The retreat had some very practical presentations, e.g. how to set up the altar.

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are related to this, so everything you're going to get reminds you: Lamrim, Lamrim business. In that way, we try to focus. That's very important. If you don't focus, if you're sort of half-hearted, nothing is going to be achieved. You know it, I know it, we all know it.

The goal we are looking for, the spiritual goal, is something very different from what we are used to. In this country, when you talk about a spiritual goal, what picture do you normally get? Go to church every Sunday? Or just be nice and good, have a little bit of caring? That's all very good. We're used to that type of very limited spiritual goal. But the Tibetan Buddhist tradition comes out and tells you, " Hey. That's not good enough for you, it's not good enough for me." Why? We can go way beyond that. Our goal is a very strong goal, with no limitations. It's a total awakened state, the state of Buddhahood. And we are all capable of achieving it. It's only the obstacles. The only obstacle you can get — at least for the people who are in this room today — is within you. Apart from that you have every possible opportunity you need; it is here. That's the important thing.

But then, can you do one single little thing only and hope to get to the enlightened level? You cannot. One single little effort is not good enough to be able to get to the enlightened level. You need a variety of things. Why must we have a variety of things? Because the negative thoughts that we have also have no limit. There are so many different bullets they can shoot, anytime. At the beginning they may use some kind of rifle bullet. So you can quarrel with that, and you can overpower them. Then suddenly they pick up a cannon and start shooting with that. So you suffer for a while, you're stuck for a while, but sooner or later you'll overcome even that cannon shot. Then they'll pick up a bomb and start throwing bombs on you. You struggle with that, you survive, and you'll overpower that, too. At the end of that, they'll be totally exhausted, finished; no more bullets or anything to shoot. At that time, you have obtained the ultimate stage.

These thoughts are very tricky, you know. They sort of shoot at you the bullet that you can't even refuse. Because they talk to you about you. You yourself. That's why you cannot refuse them. To overcome those, training of mind, the way you can reach the ultimate

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level, is very important. If you are brilliant, and you find your way to reaching total enlightenment by yourself, it is absolutely fine, no problem, I'm not objecting. But for most of us it is safer — less risky — to use a path that somebody has already discovered, tested and proved to be right, rather than to be a guinea pig. This is the reason why the Lamrim has been discovered, tested, and has worked for millions of people. So we're recommending that you follow that. But if you want to be a guinea pig, it's also your choice. Make sure of where you're going to land. A great teacher, Gendun Tenzin Gyatso, says about this practice:

This is not false, invented Dharma, because it is the pith of authentic oral teachings. This is not foolish talk, because it comes from classical texts by the great forerunners. This is not a shimmering mirage, because saintly scholars and adepts have tested it. This is not a perilous cliff, because it is the highway to the highest enlightenment.2

Whatever spiritual path you follow, make sure that that path is capable of delivering whatever you want it to. That's how you choose. Whatever spiritual path you are following, you have to put a lot of time into it. This is not some kind of rush supermarket shopping trip. No. If this were a rush supermarket shopping trip, you wouldn't really have to spend time or energy. You'd know what you wanted and where to pick it up, so you could do it in five minutes. But it's not.

It is a journey which makes a difference to ourselves. A journey that makes us a better person, day by day, week by week, month by month and year by year. This is the progress that you make. At the end of that, we would like to see [that] each and every one of us is fully enlightened: inside absolutely a buddha with your own features outside. That is the change that we are looking for. If the word 'buddha' feels foreign to you, then say totally enlightened, but with the physical look of yourself, with your usual blue jeans, and blue jean jacket.

2 Pabongkha Liberation in the palm of your hand, beginning of Day Ten.

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This is also important. The more you develop within you, the more you have to be humble, usual, rather than trying to be somebody. One of the great teachers, I think, Gungtang Konchok Tenpey Dronme has said,

A wheat stalk that doesn't have much grain in the ear, when it grows, stands up straight.

A stalk that has a lot of wheat in there, doesn't go up like that; it bends down.

Likewise, humbleness is the external sign for development inside. A lot of people will spend years, or even their whole life, saying prayers, saying mantras, writing, becoming a scholar, or whatever, but the actual effect did not take place in their mind. They were like stalks standing straight. If you look in there, there's nothing; you can hardly get one or two tiny little grains. The other one, when it's fully developed, has a lot of wheat in there. This is one of the external signs which indicates the internal development. I like to share that with you, so you know it.

The more you are blowing your own horn, the more you're giving the signal that you don't have that much development within you. One time, in a retreat area in southern Tibet, there was a well-known teacher called Kelsang Tenzin Kedrup, in Dagpo. During his period, one of the Lamrim teaching traditions had almost died. Except for one old monk — of whom everybody thought, 'he knows nothing' — there was nobody left who had the living tradition of this teaching.

You know, when you hear the teaching from me you have obtained it, and when you share it with others, it will continue. That's what it is about. Books alone are not enough. If you carry the message from a book alone, then you don't have the lineage behind you, you're breaking the lineage. You may have all the information, but you do not have the living tradition.

So Kelsang Tenzin Kedrup said, " Well, if I don't take that teaching, it will be doing a lot of disservice for future generations.

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Even though this old monk doesn't know anything, I won 't mind. I'll take the teaching from him, so that at least we have the tradition continuously remaining." The famous Kelsang Tenzin Kedrup approached this guy who didn't know anything, simply knew how to get you tea and food, and said, "You are the only one who has this tradition, I could not find anybody else from anywhere from whom to take this teaching tradition, so would you mind, if you just read it to me? That will be enough. Then later, I can explain it more and give it back to you and everybody else." The guy replied, "No, no, no. A stupid person like me can never read that to you. You are the most learned, greatest person, and I am the most stupid one, I cannot do it." Finally, Tenzin Kedrup told him, " Well, if you don't do it, this continuation is dead. Do you realize that? Just read it to me, will you please?" So he said, " Okay, I'll try to read it to you." Then when the actual teaching came, Tenzin Kedrup was shocked, because he explained each and every point on a personal basis of development, introducing the obstacles, how to handle them, and what you get a consequence. Tenzin Kedrup kept on saying, "I was so embarrassed. Every time he was going into it more and more, I was becoming tinier and tinier."

FOUR EXTRAORDINARYQUALITIES OF LAMRIM

What kind of path are we going to practice? If we're recommended to use this Lamrim path, what is the difference between Lamrim and sitting down and saying '0m Mani Padme Hung' all the time? What is the difference between the Lamrim path, and meditating on Tara all the time? What is the difference between totally engaging in a service, and practice Lamrim? What is the difference between going into a three years' retreat and doing the Lamrim? What makes Lamrim different? Actually there are seven points. First, I'd like to talk to you about the four extra great qualities.

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1. The understanding of Lamrim reveals the non-contradictory nature of all spiritual methods

All the spiritual methods — we're not only talking about Buddhism, just all, — all the spiritual methods will not contradict each other and will help to deliver the goods to you. What you are really doing, is you are building up a fundamental structure. Within that, if you find a concentrated meditation — like the Zen tradition especially emphasizes sitting — you can simply pick that up and use it in your own journey. If you find wisdom, say you find some ideas here and there, you can pick each one of them up, and you'll have a place to fit it where you can use it. If you find mantra saying only, you can also pick that up and use it in your path. Even going to church on Sunday, or to the synagogue on Saturday, whatever you do, you can utilize each one of them; you'll know where it fits, so it's not contradictory. So whatever you pick up from whatever tradition, it will fit in your principle path without contradiction, without flying in the air.

Flying in the air means you don't have a base, you don't have ground, you fly here, you fly there, and you don't get anywhere. With a grounded spiritual path, you fit everything in without contradiction, unless it is some kind of wrong path. These sorts of things are always there. But as long as it is good in nature, based on enlightened beings' development, you can see everything without contradiction. Lamrim makes you capable of that. That is the first quality.

2. The understanding of Lamrim makes you aware that every teaching by any great master can be taken as personal practice.

This is almost the same as number one. Any statement or teaching from any experienced person, any such information given in the form of a book or spoken, any presentation from art, music, poetry, song, dance, or whatever, you can pick up and use within your framework. You can use it without losing your ground.

You see, it becomes very open; you can fit everything in it, yet you maintain your principal goal, your principal direction. Everything adds up onto that. That's especially the case with Buddha's teachings. The principle basic teachings were given in the Way of the Elders,

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formerly called Hinayana tradition. Actually it is the 'Self-liberating tradition.' If you look into the Lamrim, what we traditionally call 'common with the lower level' and the 'common with the middle level' or liberating yourself, is the principle of the Way of the Elders. Ultimately [your greater or Mahayana scope is] liberating everybody that becomes connected with you. All of them do not contradict each other, and Lamrim helps us to put them together. Whatever it may be, whether it's the disciplined way, or the crazy wisdom way, it is suitable to the individual. Without contradicting each other, they can be put together, adding up on each other rather than destroying each other. That is the second quality.

3. The true intention of the Buddha is made clear

If you have a basic structure, and a basic understanding of these stages, then you understand what the Buddha was trying to tell you. If you only keep on reading all the different sutras, over a hundred volumes, you will never understand what the Buddha is trying to tell you. That's true.

I'll give you one example about what Buddha did. One time, there was a king. When that king was a prince, he was sort of hungry for power. He didn't have time to wait for his father to hand over the power, so he organized a coup to overthrow the father. He arrested the father, put him in jail, and tried to torture him in whatever way he could. But somehow, the father wasn't bothered. His physical body was locked in, but he wasn't bothered. Then the son said, " Why doesn't he break down? What's the matter?" So he started cutting the food, doing all sorts of things, and the father didn't break at all. He asked, " What's going on?" " Oh, he's looking at the Buddha's place, across somewhere, and he's been looking there all the time." So he said, " Alright, build up bricks in the window and close the windows completely." The father was locked in. Somehow he got a little mirror stuck somewhere on a pillar, by which he had a way to get light in, so he could see what was happening in that Buddha's area, and that made him survive. Now the son didn't know anymore what to do.

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Then one day the prince's child had some illness, for which traditionally you were supposed to suck the blood. His mother said, "Now you have to suck that blood. You had the same thing. It's genetic. Your father did this for you, too." "Did my father really do that for me? Did he really save my life?" She said, " Yes." Then suddenly, somehow he realized he was making a big mistake. " Well, I have to release my father!" All the ministers were very fond of his father, and the moment he said that, they all started running, one after another, saying, "I'm the one who is going to release him." When everybody came running, the father thought, " Well, they are coming to kill me now." And he died.

So the prince, who was now the king, was so upset that he didn't know what to do. Finally he ran to the Buddha, and said, "Look. I have killed my father. What do I do now?" The Buddha said, "You have not only killed your father, you have also killed someone who is totally free of all negativities. Therefore, you have two unlimited negativities: killing your own parent and killing someone who is totally free. Out of the five unlimited negativities, you have 6vo. But," Buddha said,

The parents should be killed, and the retinues and the country should be destroyed, and if you can work hard, you can be liberated yourself. 4

That is what the Buddha taught him. The new king probably said, " You are joking." Right? But the explanation is, that if the Buddha had gone on telling him, "You have done two unlimited negativities and now you are hopeless and helpless," it would not have helped him at all. Instead of that, he diverted the attention of this particular fellow's depression or sadness to somewhere else, to thinking, " What is Buddha trying to tell me?" That's one example of what we call 'skillful means'. The true skillful means is this. Not how some people interpret it today, in different abusive attitudes. That's not skillful.

4 To be found in the Dhammapada Ch. 21, and in the Lankavatara sutra, book 3, pg. 3 (in The Lankavatara Sutra transl. By Suzuki, it is Chapter 3, LVIII.

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When the Buddha said, "The parents should be killed," he was not talking about your mom and daddy. He talked about the ignorance which creates all sufferings, and the attachment which gives all help to the sufferings, as well as the anger or the hatred which makes sure the sufferings are alive. That's what he meant by saying, " The parents should be killed; the country should be destroyed."

Lamrim enables you to understand these things; that's how it helps you. In normal American language, it will ground you, it makes you heavy, solid, stable, focused, centered, all of them. It gives you a sense of direction. Lamrim really gives you the unshakable direction, an unshakable path. Wherever you see anything whatsoever, you can pick it up, and fit it in. You'll have the capability of using every spiritual method that was ever presented. If it's a right one, any spiritual method ever presented can be fit in to this.

4. Harmful behaviors will automatically stop

The fourth quality is extremely important! Any heavy negativities that you indulge in will automatically stop. Somehow, you build the capability of knowing what is negative and what is positive. You'll also know that the negative and positive things happening are happening within our mind. Because of your mind you'll also know whether the action you take, physically, verbally or mentally, is right or wrong. Because of that, whenever you try to do something wrong, your consciousness will remind you, "Hey, what are you doing? What are you up to? What are you doing?" Even in your dreams. That is the quality. Some friend told me a while ago, "This thing creeps in." You'll find that wherever you go, whatever you do, when you start to make a big mistake, suddenly you'll realize there's a hesitation. Because of this information, and because of your meditation on that, you'll have that. It works that way. It is one of the best saviors for you. It is sort of a security, a sort of insurance.

These are the four great qualities, the four reasons why to practice Lamrim. If you find any other practice which can fulfill these four qualities, it's fine, great.

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What does Buddhist practice mean?

All the information, the teachings you get, you will be able to apply to the way you approach things, to your practice. What does practice really mean? First, learning; second, thinking, analyzing; and finally, bringing that awareness within you; and whatever you do, wherever you go, let it be with you. That is really practice.

A number of times, people here were habitually asking, " A friend of mine is dying, what can I do? A friend of mine has some kind of illness, what can I do? I have this physical, this mental problem, what can I do?" It is okay that you ask the question. Nothing's wrong. But, your daily practice, the path you're practicing, should be capable of taking care of everything. For purifying, for healing, for whatever purpose you need it for; it should be able to do it.

The great Tsongkhapa, the founder of the Gelugpa tradition, says that if you learn something valid like Lamrim, and after that, you look for some other small little practice, or some great secret whispered tradition, only valuable for you, nobody else, or any of that type of thing, it is no good. Tsongkhapa looks down on that tremendously, rather than thinking it's great. It's definitely a point to look down on. Why? Because here you have the essence of Buddha's experience, all of it coming to you, and you push that aside as scholarly learning, or just information. But when you have to do something, you begin to depend on a little 'dying hot spring' — you know, a little water that bubbles up with a lot of mud; you really have a great ocean here in front of you, and you can 't take from there and you dig a little [hole in the] sandy beach, and try to get some water out of that. A lot of people face that problem. That is because you are not connecting the subject that you study and the subject that you practice. You're separating them. As long as you separate them, it is a problem. You need to merge them. This is extremely important! Why are you spending your time to stay here, listening and learning? Because whatever you learn, and whatever you read, becomes your practice. Practice for you to develop, practice for others to develop, practice to help the dying people, practice to help the sick people, practice to help those who are suffering.

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If you cannot coordinate that, and you make a separation between them, you have the biggest problem. Traditional Tibetan teachers give you an example. Let's say there is a competition of horse racing. You keep on training your horse to run that race for a week or ten days or whatever it may take on one particular race course. And when the actual race comes, you go somewhere else, to a different track, where it looks nothing like it. Then it is a problem, right? It is the same thing here. You're learning, you're training, you're putting all your efforts in this, but then when you need to do something, you go and search somewhere else. It is just as if somebody happened to find a little water in a hole in the sand on the beach, [instead of going to the ocean.]. If you have to depend on that little mushy, muddy drop which you're going to get, [instead of clean ocean water], how pathetic it is! We have to see and understand that. You get everything you need from Lamrim.

So the Lamrim is, in one way, the huge openness that can accept and adopt everything in it. It is also a source where you can find guidance on everything you have to deal with. It is like the canvas board on which the artist can draw and which can absorb all different colors. It is capable of presenting the artwork in a form you can admire.

These are the qualities. If you are lacking in them, there is a problem. When you know you have a problem — only you know, nobody else will know — you take the opportunity here. You ask people. Normally people say you don't ask a question if you don't know the answer, but in Lamrim, it's the opposite. If you don't know, you do ask. For the person who has been asked, it's all right to say, "I don't know." Then ask somebody else. That way you can really open, you can discuss and get benefit.

Our mind is so rough. Traditional Tibetan teachings give you the example of the mind being a wild monkey. If you let a wild monkey loose in the temple, what will the monkey do? First, jump on the head of the Buddha, then come down and drink the water offerings and knock fifty per cent of them over, eat any fruit, cakes or tormas over there, and knock them down; then come down and throw off the flowers and make noise, all sorts of things. That is our mind. Our mind will

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definitely like to jump on the top, first thing, if you let it loose completely. "Me, I'm here!" As I told you, the stalk without wheat. So, the first thing is calming down, not being humble but 'get a grip.' The traditional teachers tell you:

In the springtime, watch. The peaks of the mountains, do they get green first?

Or the valleys, do they get green first? They also give you:

During the summer, look at the rainfall. Does the water remain on the peak of the mountain, or does the valley get the water? All the crops that you grow; wheat, barley, all this; do they grow better on the peak of the mountain? Or do they grow better in the valley.

I give you the examples, so that you remember them easily. The examples bring the actual message; that's why we joke, that's why we tell stories. That way we hope you will remind yourselves of these things.

THREE ADDITIONAL QUALITIES OF LAMRIM

5. It is the essence of all the Buddha's teachings, with nothing left out

The Lamrim has everything you need to become enlightened. The original Lamrim is the five-hundred-page Lam rim chen mo by Je Tsongkhapa. Then it was made shorter, by Tsongkhapa himself; the medium-size Lamrim, which is like two or three hundred pages. Then you have a short Lamrim, which is like ten, fifteen pages. Then, even shorter than that, you have the Foundation of All Perfections, which you read this morning, that's about two pages5. There are also a lot of other shorter and shorter ones 6, and then finally it's landed in a bookmark.

5 These are all by Je Tsongkhapa

6 For the Lamrim teaching traditions, see Gelek Rinpoche, Lam Rim Teachings, note 24.

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Even though you have these tiny little points here, at the size of a bookmark, the essence of all Buddha's teaching is included in it! If you have this perfected in you, you can pick up everything. Out of each statement here, you can write five books. It has the capability of really giving that. Yet, it is simplified, made a small, single bookmark which will be valuable for you. You can pull it out of your pocket and read it while you're waiting to go through the grocery line, or waiting in the parking lot, or waiting for somebody's phone call, or maybe when you're sitting on the 'throne'. It is really big stuff. It's not that simple. It is really big stuff. You will know how big it is when you develop.

6. Lamrim is laid out in such a way that it is easy to practice

That is the way and how the order has been set up — which is the same thing for all Lamrim outlines. The emphasis is: How are you going to help your mind? That is the main goal. Everything was built according to that. How can I help myself? How can I help my mind? All points were built in such a way that it's easy for you to handle them. It's not complicated. Traditionally, they will tell you that it's not complicated, 'not complicated' in the Tibetan mind. But in the West, everybody raises objections to 'two of this, and that, and five of that'. So, we avoided that, and made this shopping list. It's one after another; it is straight. Yet, each and every one of them affects the individual. So it is practice-oriented, easy to practice.

Can I help my mind? Sure you can. The experiences we have, the joy, the misery, the happiness, the sadness, and the depression, all of them are the manifestation of our own mind, truly speaking. You manifest your own mind, and you perceive your own mind the way you manifest it. True! Suffering is naturally empty. Pain is naturally empty. Joy is naturally empty. We create them, we manifest them by mind, and we perceive them accordingly. We perceive what we produce and then we experience it. That way actually everything is created, and everything is perceived. The culprit of that is mind. So really, learning is

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training your mind not to produce the suffering image. Training your mind not to perceive those.

The source of joy is also mind. The mind is such a thing that if you train your mind, if you suggest to your mind, the mind may accept your suggestion, if you can prove you are right. Some stubborn minds may refuse to accept, whatever. That is the exceptional mind. But otherwise, the mind will accept a suggestion, if it makes sense. Then, you can strengthen that by giving reasons. Therefore, you can help your mind. Lamrim is the key to how you can help your mind away from this ordinary human being level, full of anger, jealousy, attachment, pride, and a lot of buttons available in our body that anybody can touch. And if they push your buttons, you get hurt. Right?

Now, from the level where we are today, to being free of all the buttons, we need a journey. The way and how and what to do, and what next to what, that is Lamrim. That's how Buddha went. And these great Buddhist teachers all went through that. That's another quality they have.

7. It brings together all the Buddhist traditions.

This here is a pure Buddhist point. In India, there are different Buddhist schools. In the Lamrim the qualities of all the different schools and teachers have been put together. This third point may not be so relevant to us today, but the first two are very relevant: the essence message really has nothing left out of what you need to become enlightened yourself; and it is easy to practice, focused on helping yourself with your own mind. The Third one is that all information is there.

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Actually, these qualities are so important to see. When people have to choose their spiritual path, these qualities are a sort of synopsis of the benefits you can get out of it. They show you what this practice is capable of delivering to you. So, it is important.