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

Please visit our website at audiodharma.org.

And I was reminded this morning of a little aphorism that we have, Buddhism.

It's three words.

Don't strive.

Arrive.

Don't strive.

Arrive.

So this relates to this practice of ours, mindfulness practice, meditation practice.

Striving is a very common thing for people to do because they have expectations, they have desires.

Some people are suffering a lot, they want to find a way out of the suffering.

And we have sometimes this idea, we have to really try hard and push and attain.

Some people strive because they're competitive.

They have to be the first person in the block to get to enlightenment.

And so they have to really push hard and, you know, as fast as you can, you know, I'm not there.

And some people want to be efficient, you know, and a really efficient meditation shouldn't take more than 10 minutes, right?

So sit down and just get it over with.

So a lot of these important things to do in life.

And let's get serious here.

And there are all kinds of reasons why people strive.

And there's been a lot of casualties in the world of meditation by people who strive.

And they get tight, they get tense.

...