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

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Maybe you begin just by listening to silence. And there might be noise,

might be noise to one side of you,

silence on the other. Might be silence as sound fades out dissolves It might be that you feel like you can even tilt the attention towards silence amidst noise. Thank you. And don't partition off the internal sound of your thinking as something special, just more sound. And then the sentence ends.

The loop completes. leads.

Before we get reabsorbed in another line of discursive thinking, there's quiet. Quiet. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Just let gravity work on us.

Like nectar settling to the bottom of a glass of juice, as Tignan Hans says,

we settle to Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Oh. Thank you. Thank you. So letting your nervous system unwind. mind.

That unwinding doesn't always feel good, but it should feel true. Something is coming home. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The more settled we become, the more on this truth of suffering. There is suffering.

Some of it can be alleviated. Some of it cannot. But it necessitates compassion It's the poignancy of having been born. Of efforting, struggling,

to stay alive, depending on the care of others,

to even make it through the first phase of our life. When we understand precariousness, we become deeply grateful for whatever goodness, stability there is.

And we cultivate compassion knowing that it cannot last. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. And perhaps feels right to bring someone to mind you know who's suffering. Thank you. Thank you. The We make vivid their suffering in our heart.

The textures of their mind. We generate a very rich, detailed landscape, map of their pain.

And in this first phase, not the last phase, but this first phase, we feel the full weight of their suffering. Oh We practice becoming undefended against the depth of the suffering.

We practice recognizing ourselves in the other being.

We are of the same nature. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. This is not yet the practice of love.

This is

actually sensing a measure of empathic distress, just taking in their suffering into your body. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. and then now all at once,

now all at once,

...