When participating in a retreat like ours, the most significant obstacle is not the pain in your leg but your ego. However, attempting to escape from it or suppress it only deepens the entanglement in ego– judgments, hatred, and reactive responses, qualities that are contrary to mindfulness. Then, what should we do? According to Ven. Yamashita, we should move to “dimension X,” a realm where the ego cannot survive. This dimension X, known by various names in many traditions within and outside Buddhism, coexists within you alongside your perceived identity.

This is the Dharma talk from the second day of Me as Blue Sky retreat followed by a question and answer session.