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

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Good evening. Welcome, welcome. Nice to see you all. Yes, you're welcome to move wherever you're welcome to move wherever you'd like to be comfortable.

And so tonight I'd like to begin by talking a little about this story.

Yes, I was, while I was meditating and I was thinking,

this Buddha has this sign, right, with one hand down.

And the story behind that is that,

whoops, is that the Buddha he had this idea that he wanted to sit and he was not going to move

until he became awakened after he had renounced had renounced all these indulgences

and asceticism, he had made up his mind,

okay, I'm going to sit and meditate

and I'm not going to move until I become awakened.

So with a tremendous amount of determination and resolve, he sits down.

So it's meditating.

Many of you might know this story and then Mara shows up.

Who is Mara?

Mara sounds like the is the microphone going in and out?

No, no, maybe it's just me. So Mara is tried to entice the Buddha,

to get him to not become awakened.

So he enticed him with things that he thought,

oh, there we go, this microphone,

I'm going to use another microphone. I think this, yeah, this

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