The following talk was given at the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California.

Please visit our website at adioderma.org. So let's see, is that loud enough? Let's see, may it louder?

Probably the... Let's see, is that getting louder still? How's it going for everyone?

So for those of you who can't hear me,

there are hearing assistant devices

around the corner there in the outer hall.

So...

So... So, I'd like to mention the obvious that we're going to mention the obvious that we're kind of coming into an historical moment in this country that we're all participating in with the election on Tuesday.

And I wanted to say some words about that relevant for this times that we're in.

And I thought I would like to start where I've never started a Darmatalk before,

is start with a prayer. But then I thought I should introduce the prayer with another prayer,

or at least a poem. And the reason for this is that coming out of the meditation now,

it was so clear to me how meditation can provide us

with a radically different orientation for how to be in the world than if all, then it is if we're only

being pushed or led or by the world of our thinking. If we're only swimming in the labyrinth of

thoughts, the maze of thoughts and ideas and concepts,

there's a kind of a way in which there's no way out.

It's kind of an endless, you know, imagine the on-raps and off-ramps of a freeway that were just a figure eight.

As soon as you get off,

you're on again, and it takes you back and around and around, and there's no exit. And there's

rush hour traffic, and you're slowly making your way around and around. There's something about

getting caught in the world of thoughts, ideas, concepts,

...