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

Please visit our website at audioderma.org. So hello everyone and welcome to this Monday morning and the beginning of a new five-part series for this week.

And what I'd like to talk about is what maybe provisionally we can call, kind of the central or core teachings as I've come to emphasize as a teacher

that come to emphasize as a teacher that every teacher has a particular way of

teaching perspectives from which to teach, that maybe because of what works for the teacher or what they've seen supports other people or maybe it represents some of the core values

the teacher has.

So as a teacher I have ways that I teach and I have kind of core or central aspects of my teaching or assumptions or underlying kind of premises that from which I

teach or emphasize. So since some of you have been listening to me for a long time, I thought it might be nice for me to try to explain, at least for this week, five different kind of fundamental orientations that I bring with me as being a teacher in my

teaching and maybe some of you will recognize how I teach and why I teach what I do because of this kind of explanations that I'll give this week.

So, um... that I'll give this week.

So one of the most fundamental orientations I have, which maybe it comes as no surprise, because it's in some ways it's emphasized

a lot in Buddhism, is to focus on suffering, Dukk and the end of it.

And there's a simplicity to that orientation.

And of course, Duke, our suffering is complicated,

so it certainly can be complicated to delve into it at times.

But that's the orientation that the fundamental

purpose of the darma is to end suffering.

And so there's a, so if there is a,

so if there is, you know, orientation is to, to only point to the end of suffering, but point to real study and

learn how to effectively be present for suffering, to see it, and know it it and work with it.

And it makes the darma much more simple and kind of streamlines it.

There's a lot of wonderful spiritual goals, spiritual

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