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

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So, hello and welcome to this continuing series on Insight.

And this is been a central part of Insight meditation.

And these last maybe, this is the 10, 12, 13 days.

The focus has been on insight into not self, and I underscore the word not.

Because sometimes what's taught is the Buddha said there's a no self.

There is no self.

He never said that.

The only time he referred to this idea of there is no self. He never said that. The only time he referred to this idea of there is no self,

he did it to denounce it, to say that this just brings suffering, the idea to hold on this,

there is no self. But so I haven't really completely addressed this topic of how the Buddha presents not self. But what I have been doing all these times is trying to point out how much selfing activity our minds are involved in, how much we impute, how much we build,

make up, assert, overlay, create, ideas about self. So, conceit is kind of one of the big ones.

There's nothing inherent in life that requires a human being who walks a planet to have conceit,

but that can be quite strong and intense, and it's possible to not have that conceit.

Conceit is an extra addition.

And so a lot of this selfing is an activity of the mind around this notion of self. Self-criticism, shame, embarrassment around me, myself, and mine.

And so to look in all these different ways, activities of selfing that we do, and understand

when we're doing it unnecessarily, when we're doing it in ways that cause us suffering, cause us pain,

when we do it and cause other people suffering and pain.

This is part of the function of insight meditation and seeing all the extra, all the creativity

and creating a self, building a self, making itself, defending itself, and how much of that

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