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

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So, welcome to our morning meditation, and

I, in coming down here this morning, I felt kind of happy with the idea of what I'm going to talk about today.

And today I'm going to introduce the second insight, which is the conventionally in English we say the insight into suffering,

and why someone like me would be happy to come down talking about it when it could be a seemingly very depressing thing to talk about, maybe as part of the

message. So for today's meditation, I'd like to suggest four words that can guide you through

the meditation. And the four words that can guide you through the meditation.

And the four words are, don't make it worse.

Whatever you do when you meditate, don't make the situation worse for yourself.

And to go further with it, I'll do a little bit of guided meditation and set the stage for why this is so useful.

But track yourself, monitor yourself. A very important part of mindfulness is this self-monitoring. And so you know what you're doing. You know if you start thinking about things and having that train of

thought is not good for you. It's making a situation worse. If you're tracking about how you're relating

to the meditation practice, maybe you're straining or judging it, your experience, and you

can feel how it makes things worse. It makes you feel worse. It drains the energy or is difficult. And don't believe that you

have to have these thoughts, these attitudes, this way of practicing. Make an adjustment.

Choose to not make the situation worse.

At least kind of go back to doing what you're doing before you started to do that.

So, to assume meditation posture and gently close your eyes.

And in a slow, comfortable way, take some fuller breaths.

And as you, after you breathe in fully, comfortably, in a comfortable way, have an extended exhale, ride the exhale to the end.

And then to keep doing that for a few moments but as you exhale relax your body soften into here I'm I'm The and then to let your breathing return to normal

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