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

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Hello everyone and welcome back.

Happy to be here.

And one of the profound opportunities or possibilities with meditation is to be aware,

as we sit in meditation, be aware of ourselves, be aware of sounds, the situation we're in,

from some place within that is not filtered by our discursive thinking,

and to be aware from there, but also to be aware of there,

to be aware of what's going on deeper than discursive thinking in us.

Discursive thinking can often color our perceptions, our experience of the world.

Whatever kind of story, idea, judgments, commentary we're making,

sometimes can be undermining us.

If it's depressing story we're telling, then the telling of the story repeatedly conditions more depression.

If it's anger, it conditions more anger.

If it's some attitude that I'm incapable or unworthy,

it kind of conditions us to feel that and be that more.

It's almost like discursive thinking is fuel to support any kind of negative thinking that we might have about ourselves or the world.

And it might be as some of thinking is accurate enough,

but for it to be the conditioning that shapes us can be often quite unfortunate.

So if we can somehow listen to our, listen deeper,

listen from a place that's not or perceive or to know or to feel ourselves in meditation,

to feel, to be embodied in our breathing,

...