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

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This idea of using poetry as a support for practice, just this recognition that

I think having malleability or flexibility in the way in which we support practice,

and I would say in which we approach or engage with anything in life is tremendously helpful.

Can't even be transformational.

If we're so used to thinking,

thinking, quote unquote, that we have to engage with our experience in one

particular way, and that really limits us.

Limits our experiences, limits our interpretations or ways in which we can work with,

whatever is arising in our life.

So my hope, my wish is, for these days working with poetry, is pointing to another way

than perhaps our usual way of engaging with, being with, interacting with our experiences.

And certainly our meditation experiences, our spiritual life, be anything.

And maybe part of the reason why I appreciate so much this poetry of practice days.

Some of you know that I was trained as a research scientist, spent years working in the laboratory, test tubes, white jacket, you know, the lab coat, gloves, you know, the whole thing.

And so I thought that life was just, you know, one particular way and

had it solved and became good at thinking through things. And then it was just with Buddhist

practice that I realized, yes, that's valuable what I had been trained to do, but it's not the only way.

In fact, to have this flexibility, to have this malleability is invaluable.

Not only have freedom in our lives, but to have a rich full life.

So with that as an introduction, I'll do a little bit of a guided meditation this morning

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