Hi, thanks for coming to tonight's class. My name is Josh and I've been the guiding teacher

of Dominic Punks in New York for the last 18 years and yeah, I am a Buddhist pastor everything I do is practitioner member supported in the

sense that you're all members anyone my work the Benmo is darma punks and why see and there's also a paypal button and a Patreon.

Thanks for all that.

Thanks for your consideration.

And tonight we have a talk that is one that I think lines at the very epicenter of the

darma understanding core of the Buddhist teachings.

We'll be talking about the darma

and the middle path from the perspective

of what could be called integrative or dialectical thinking.

And while those terms my sound at first unfriendly or challenging, I hope, with the explanation I offer, humbly offered to you that it will make sense and it will become something that will be immediately of value.

So in life there are dilemmas that can seem irreconcilable.

Contradictions that seem like there is no way forward.

And these dilemmas can lead to stasis,

can lead to an inability to come up with a way forward. We can feel indecisive.

A couple of examples,

we might hate our job,

yet need it for the income and there might not be any present work alternatives

that can create an intractable conflict in our life.

We may want to be environmentally responsible

yet find life empty without traveling.

We may yearn to have a child but not presently have a partner

...