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

Please visit our website at adioderma.org.

So, I'll wait one more minute. So I'll begin with the teaching that the Buddha gave to his son, Rahula.

And he said,

Rahula developed meditation that is like the earth.

For then, agreeable and disagreeable feelings and sensations will not take charge of your mind.

Just as when people throw what's clean and unclean into the earth, feces, urine, saliva, pus, or blood,

the earth is not horrified or humiliated or disgusted by it. In the same way, agreeable and disagreeable feelings and sensations

will not take charge of your mind when you develop meditation like the earth.

So if you haven't, take a comfortable and alert posture and gently close your eyes.

I'll just guide for the first few minutes.

So arriving here in this body at this time

on this earth

setting

setting aside

any concerns, any thoughts you may have to set it aside for later.

being fully here, centered in our bodies.

Now begin with taking a few long, slow, deep breaths.

And with each exhale, allowing the body to relax a little more deeply

to settle into the chair or the ground, into the earth.

Just allow things to just settle. I'm I'm I'm

I'm

...