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

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So good morning everyone and welcome.

So one of the things that's helpful in life and in this practice that we do is to have a

reference point that helps us to see what is happening. that if it's one thing to have the currents of the mind,

that if it's one thing to have the currents of the mind just spinning along as if that's normal and sometimes we don't even

see how fast or how quickly our mind is spinning or we don't see what the mind is

doing and because it becomes normal or we're so

distracted or caught up in it that we don't see clearly what's happening. But if you have a reference

point you can see something. So one example would be it has happened to me once upon a time that of driving my car and then oh no the light just turned red.

I have to stop.

Do I really have to stop?

I have to stop.

So I stop and sometimes the red light is long.

Only then do I notice that I'm impatient.

Only then do I notice that I'm tense because I'm trying to hurry to get someone late for someplace.

The reference point of the stopping helps me

to really look and see what is happening here. And so for some people just sitting down to meditate and closing your eyes maybe and being still not moving is kind of equivalent to the red light and so oh now I know and sometimes

meditation then is a time to catch up to you oneself there's you know we have these emotions, we have feelings, we have concerns, and we're so busy we don't even

notice.

But when we stop, oh, that's what's happening. I was too busy to notice that I was sad. I was too

busy to notice that I was insecure and I was just busy trying to prove myself that I didn't notice the underlying insecurity.

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