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

Please visit our website at audioderma.org. So welcome, everyone.

everyone.

You know what, Jim, I wonder if the volume can be just a little bit lower.

I'm speaking as softly as I can. There we go. Thank you. It's a little bit better.

Nice to see you all here on a Monday evening. So tonight I'm going to continue on a series that I've

been doing. I think this will be the last in this series and it's perfectly fine if you weren't here for the earlier ones.

But this series is on like efforting or putting forth energy or having determination or

resolve or you know these types of things. or having an aspiration or

an aspiration and then moving that direction.

I'm just going to flush it out a little bit more on the talk tonight.

And I'm going to start with a story, a story that comes from the Suitas that is the literature from the early Buddhist

literature and this story is about Meghia.

He at this time was the Buddha's attendant.

Some of you may know that Ananda was the Buddha's attendant.

This was before Ananda.

So it was Meghi, huh?

And the attendant was somebody that would just take care of whatever the Buddha needed.

And I don't know exactly, but in my mind, was like when people were wanted to talk to the

Buddha maybe would be the attendant that would say well not right now they're talking to somebody else

why you come back in an hour or you know something like this. So Meghi was the attendant and one day he goes

for alms rounds which you know all of them did this is how they had food and how they supported themselves

...