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

Please visit our website at audiodderma.org. Yeah, good morning everyone. Welcome to I.

I am seeing. Yeah, good morning everyone. Welcome to IMC and to our time together.

And I'd like to begin with an ancient analogy that Buddhist analogy and that is that of

using picking up a quail little bird and bringing it to safety. And the idea is that

the analogy is that you don't want to hold the quail too tightly and you don't

want to hold the quail too loosely. So neither forcefully nor relaxly, neither it stress or strain, and not with hesitation or kind of complacency

or something.

But that's it was just right. complacency or something.

It has to be just right, just between those two.

So in the same way, the Buddha says that when we make effort in doing Buddhist practice, that should be kind of like holding that quail. So neither too much effort or too little,

neither straining nor being lax or laxadagical, neither stressful or complacent.

So just finding it just the right way. And so in this analogy what you're doing is less

isn't really highlighted, it's how we do it that's being highlighted.

And this is one of the principles of Buddhist practice that more important than what you do,

it's how you do it.

And the how you do it then guides actually what you do.

It's so that you do the thing which is ethical or appropriate or helpful, healthy.

And so the how we do it is so important that one of the principles in some Buddhist teachings is that

the goal of the practice should contain qualities purpose of the practice is the goal of the practice. So for example if the goal of the

practice is to be peaceful then you should find some sense of peace in how you do the practice and you don't get to peace by

straining or struggling or being in conflict with something you find some way to be peaceful in the practice.

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