The following talk was given at the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California. Please visit our website at audiodharma.org.

So, welcome to this ninth talk on the ten protectors.

And this idea of their practices we can do that protect us and protect others implies that there is something valuable to protect.

And one of the discoveries through things like meditation practice and spiritual practices of different kinds,

and other ways of being in the world, we discover that there is a place within of well-being, a place of happiness or peace, a place of wisdom, a place that where there can be a phenomenally wonderful,

peaceful, caring for the world, even in the midst of great tragedy, that we don't have to sacrifice this valuable place within.

And so not sacrificed by the strong human tendencies for anger, for hostility, for hatred, for greed, for jealousy and envy, for self-righteousness, for, you know, to be cut up in anxiety,

to be caught up in fear, to be caught in ignorance. These are common human tendencies which tend to cover over, tend to restrict their obstacles for this deep place where wisdom and compassion can operate in a nourishing way and a healthy way.

So in there's a story that's told by the Buddha, kind of a fable, and he talks about that the ancient world, there are two acrobats, and the master acrobat and the apprentice, and turns out the apprentice is the name, and literally meaning the name, at least the way it appears to us who know a little bit of Polly, is a frying pan.

And so I don't know, you know, jumping out of the frying pan or something, why the name that that way, but maybe it's, you know, irrelevant to this, certainly irrelevant to the story perhaps.

But the two acrobats, and the master acrobat, and so the apprentice is going to climb up and do acrobatic feats, balanced on the master acrobat, maybe, you know, stand on one hand, or the strong master acrobat is going to hold up the, with one hand, the apprentice who will do various acrobatic feats.

On this one hand of the, of the senior, you know, acrobat. So, so the senior acrobat says, watch over me, and I will, and then we will both be safe, and I'll watch over you in that way we'll both be safe.

And the apprentice says, no, that's not how it works. I'll watch over myself, and then we'll both be safe, and you watch over yourself, and then we'll both be safe.

So, in telling the story, the Buddha said, yes, that's the way it is, but he doesn't quite, then he goes on to do teaching, which kind of little bit changes it, even though he says he prefers the, the instructions from the apprentice, but he says yes.

And the way that we protect others, by first protecting ourselves, is by practicing the four, cultivating the four foundations of mindfulness.

To cultivate our capacity to be aware in an embodied way, aware of our body, to be aware of our feelings, the feeling tones that we have, to be aware of our mind states, to recognize them and know them well.

And to be aware of the mental state, mental activity of the mind, that either creates tension, the tension of attachment, or releases that attention, that that tension, and reveals the beautiful qualities of the mind, the seven factors of awakening, the deep insight that leads to liberation.

And so, the mindfulness that cultivating those four foundations of mindfulness, that's the way we protect others.

And I suppose the protection, the way we're protecting others, we're protecting them from ourselves.

Remember, the analogy of the acrobat is, there are two people who are doing these amazing kind of interrelated interactive feats, exercises.

And for the people who are in direct contact with, in the ancient world of the Buddha, that was primarily where the influence and the effect that people had on each other was directly with each other.

There was no social media at the time of the Buddha, and the communication lines were all through people's oral contact with each other.

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