Dear Thay, my name is Bob and I live in Los Angeles. I'd like to talk to you about the nutrients you spoke of. In particular, a nutrient that I thought you left out, and that was air as a nutrient. In your travels that you've done throughout the world, perhaps you've looked at the skies and may have seen spraying that has been coming from high altitude aircraft. White lines that are crisscrossing even over cities, they are over Los Angeles.

These chemtrails spread, they become artificial clouds, there's an overcast that happens in Los Angeles, and we're getting less sunshine than we normally have had. What disturbs me is that there's been independent scientists with integrity that have taken samples of this residue and they have found aluminum, barium, and these are toxins to our health. And if we are consuming this air, this is very, very dangerous.

My personal concern is I have two fears. One is I'm very frightened by it because it means that my health is threatened, my loved one's health is threatened if we're ingesting this kind of toxin air. And also I'm angry that nothing is being done. The media says nothing. Politicians, senators are saying nothing about it or they're denying that something is going on with our skies.

And I have to cope with these two fears or two feelings in me daily. I'm involved with a group in Los Angeles to try to change it, but we're getting nowhere because there's mostly silence. And I'm asking you, what can I do as an activist in this area to cope with these feelings of anger and fear that I carry?

Anger and despair are two kinds of pollution. The internal pollution, if you have hate, anger, fear and despair, there is pollution inside and that will not help to reduce the pollution outside. People have the idea of happiness and they believe that without a lot of money, power, they cannot be really happy.

People believe that happiness is the capacity of consuming. When you have a lot of money, you consume a lot and you are happy. So these notions of happiness are very dangerous because we are destroying ourselves and the world by that kind of notion, idea about happiness. So the education system, there is something wrong in it. And we do not teach ourselves and our children how to experience true happiness.

So if you want to be a true activist, then first of all you have to live your life in such a way that can set an example to the people around. Your life becomes your message. And with that kind of life example, you can influence other people around you. And if you write a letter or protest, if you go on speaking with anger or with fear, that will not help your cause.

That is why look deeply and see the people who are victims of their notions of happiness, their wrong views about happiness, their way of life that destroys themselves and the ecosystem, you see that they are objects of your compassion. You are not angry at them anymore and you try to help them. To write an angry letter of protest is not as effective as to write a love letter.

Because when you are able to write a love letter, you touch the best things in the politician, in the leader, and you may wake them up and they may change their course, the idea of happiness. So we need a community, a Sangha in order to be able to do something. Alone, even if you are a very talented person, you cannot do much. Even a Buddha without a Sangha cannot do much.

So as an activist, if you want to change the world, you need a Sangha. You need people who have the same kind of insight, the same kind of purpose, the same kind of motivation, the same capacity to live a life that can be an example for the world. And then with such a Sangha, you will be able to do something to change. Otherwise you cannot find a way out of this situation.

That is why for me, to practice mindful living, to build a Sangha so that you have a collective energy supporting you, and then you have a means in order to promote your insight and offer people the way out, and save the planet and our own species.

[One sound of the bell.]