- 
Dear Sangha, 
- 
We're very privileged. 
- 
We have an opportunity 
 to practice sitting meditation.
 
- 
Maybe the practice of sitting 
 meditation is very, very ancient.
 
- 
We don't know when it began, 
- 
but it's said that Buddha Vipaśyin
 who lived 91 kalpas away ...
 
- 
That is a long time. 
- 
One kalpa is 3.2 billion years, 
 so you can't imagine that 91 kalpas;
 
- 
very long time. 
- 
But, he also practiced sitting meditation, 
- 
and maybe, in the place 
 where you are sitting now,
 
- 
all those millions of years ago, 
- 
somebody else was sitting 
- 
and practicing meditation 
- 
and maybe they made the
 deep aspiration, that in
 
- 
millions of years to come
 somebody else would be
 
- 
sitting there and practicing 
 meditation
 
- 
so if you like you can 
 make that aspiration now
 
- 
and this will ensure that in the
 future people also have a
 
- 
chance to site in meditation, 
 whether its in this lifetime of the planet
 
- 
or whether its in another lifetime
 of the planet.
 
- 
In the Buddhist teachings, we are
 able to
 
- 
to expand our perception of 
 time, so that it becomes very, very
 
- 
very large. 
- 
Not Synced Now days when people talk about
 the planet Earth, they talk in
 
- 
Not Synced terms of 4.5 billion years. 
- 
Not Synced That is the time that the Earth
 is said to have been in existence.
 
- 
Not Synced We know that this is not exactly
 correct because that is the time
 
- 
Not Synced when the Earth manifested.
 But before that it had been
 
- 
Not Synced in existence, in different forms,
 it came together for that manifestation.
 
- 
Not Synced But, anywhere that is what we learn
 in school that the Earth is 4.5 Billion
 
- 
Not Synced years old. 
- 
Not Synced And, we also learn that if 
- 
Not Synced all the causes and conditions 
 were good, the Earth will be there
 
- 
Not Synced for another 7.5 billion years. 
- 
Not Synced That seems very little when 
 you compare with 91 kalpas
 
- 
Not Synced of Buddha Vipaśyin