Speaker: Kate Dobbertin. Kate explores how self-cherishing creates samsaric experience and separates us from the freedom of pure perception. Samsara can be understood not as a set of circumstances, "how things are" but as the result of relating to reality through the perspective of a solid, separate self. Viewing ourselves and the world through the lens of a small self distorts and limits our perceptions of reality. Clinging to this self also leads us to become distracted by the concerns of the material world and attached to the belief that protecting this self will free us from suffering. Yet attachment to this small self is actually the source of our suffering and the obstacle that prevents us from experiencing the pure perception of the unseen world that is within our reach at every moment. The effort and insight required to shift our perception is not necessarily comfortable, but it is the only way to free ourselves from a samsaric relation to experience.