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

Please visit our website at adioderma.org.

So welcome to beginning of the week as we continue this series on insight. And the three insights that are core to the insight meditation practice is having this deep observation, this deep clarity, deep

recognition of change, of stress, and of non-identification.

And I choose those words carefully as an alternative to some of the usual ways of saying,

talking about these three characteristics, three insights,

recognitions that we have.

And the focus currently is the second one, Dukka,

the deep recognition, the capacity to recognize, to perceive, to know, suffering, stress,

de-stress in such a way that we find our freedom in it.

We find ways in which we can grow spiritually and develop ourselves, rather than being overwhelmed by suffering,

finding a way a natural way in which the heart, the mind, the inner life can grow and develop into greater clarity, greater calm, greater care, love, a greater kind of sense of wholeness by how we

recognize how we're present for the suffering of our life. And this, of course, is not easy. And this is why now we're on this,

you know, we've done six months already now on Samadian insight to prepare the ground for a deep,

useful way of engaging with suffering.

And this long preparation is a way of having a deep respect of suffering,

the challenges of it, the difficulty of being with it,

but also the opportunities, the richness that's possible,

by bringing this practice into the middle of it.

In there is a teaching that goes back to the earliest time of Buddhism that says there are three types of dukkah. The word, the Pali, the ancient language, the word is dukkah, D-U-K-K-H-A.

And it's usually translated as suffering.

But in its core, it means pain, just a strong discomfort or pain that can be physical.

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