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

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Okay, so, a few weeks ago I was, I was leading a sitting group out of town and a dear friend you know a colleague

happened to be in the same place at the same time and she came to the

class and afterwards we were you know we were talking about you know just saying hi and talking and you know and I said I said something like yeah yeah, you know, during the meditation instructions I actually

teared up a little bit and she was just like, Matthew, you always cry.

And then on Sunday I was finishing an online retreat, you know, teaching, crying.

I was like, oh my God, I'm a crier, I cry, cry what I teach, what is the deal, you know.

And so I thought to give a talk about crying, the kind of different species of tears, darma tears and I've interrogated it myself. I've wondered, you know, like

what are these? I didn't cry today not yet stay strong I you know what what are

these tears about like is it's or are they appropriate you know like or and I've asked the question like okay

are they are they a kind of over disclosure or my tears a kind of burden in any way for others or the kind of messiness that others

must contend with.

Are my tears somehow manipulative,

you know, a kind of unconscious attempt to

do something your emotions to do something

to your emotional world.

Am I displacing something from my own private suffering and somehow the emotion in the teacher

seat is kind of a kind of placeholder for other feelings that are kind of alien to me in some way.

And obviously I can't I can't I can't I can't be sure you know but I don't think it's any of that actually.

Beckett said my words or my tears.

And I've read some research on crying the kind of the functions and the triggers of tears that varies a lot,

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