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b'A simple cake, a petite madeleine, expounded the dharma to French writer Marcel Proust. Some years later, Proust\\u2019s writings expounded the dharma to our beloved Natalie Goldberg who now expounds the dharma to us. While eating these \\u201csquat, plump little cakes\\u201d, Proust describes a mystical experience that \\u201cimmediately rendered the vicissitudes of life unimportant to me.\\u201d He goes on: \\u201cActing in the same way that love acts by filling me with a precious essence or rather, this essence was not merely inside me, it was me.\\u201d Marcel Proust did not forget his moment of awakening and continued to explore and write about it. In the same way, when we encounter Zen, we don\\u2019t stop. We keep practicing. Natalie says it this way: \\u201cMy understanding of Zen is you continue\\u201d.\\xa0This talk is a practice in listening to and receiving each other, the world, and Proust.
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