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

Please visit our website at audiodharma.org.

Hello and welcome to this Monday morning.

Welcome to participating in this

What in California is 7am meditation and this wide community of people.

All of you coming together.

So I appreciate that you're here and attending.

So one of the principles of meditation that's fairly well known is that we are practicing mindfulness awareness and concentration for the purposes of going from a more activated state to a calmer state.

Meditation is often associated with becoming calm.

Going from a stressful state to distressing and becoming peaceful.

But the story doesn't end there.

The purpose of becoming calm, the purpose of becoming peaceful, is not meant to be for its own purpose.

It's a nice thing to do for sure.

But it has a greater possibility, purpose.

And that is that when we are calm and centered on ourselves, centered in our body, centered in ourselves, when we're peaceful,

and awake with all the senses in the body, kind of a heightened sensitivity,

then that is an access point.

That's an entry point or possibility for a deeper form of intelligence, creativity.

Maybe some people would call it intuition.

Maybe some people would call it a more holistic way of thinking or considering or being attuned

to ourselves in this world.

There's a possibility of a profound form of contemplation, consideration, thinking,

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