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

Please visit our website at audioderma.org.

Good morning.

So I'd like to build a little bit on what I talked about earlier.

There's a notion of aligning with the present moment, with what's happening.

I think all of us know this, that's part of mindfulness practice, but it can be interesting also to notice

what is it that we're doing if we're not aligned with the present moment?

What are the subtle ways, maybe even not so subtle ways, in which we are turning away from

not actually being with our experience?

An experience of seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, tasting?

Of course, thinking is an experience also, so easy to get lost in the contents,

but maybe to instead focus on the other five senses as a way to really be present

for what's happening.

And we might ask, why? Why do we want to do this?

I'll say a few things.

One is, it turns out that this is a way that really does support some tranquility,

some ease, some stillness, because inherent in not being with what the moment is

bringing is a little bit of agitation.

Sometimes it's really subtle, this sense of like, errr, I wish it were different.

In a way that maybe we, it's not even vocalized as real words,

but instead is there a way in which we can notice that when we are aligned,

and there's less of this, contention, less of this,

...