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

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Good morning or good day and welcome to our meditation time.

And as I usually do, I like to do a little introduction and then as a background or introduction to the meditation.

So, one of the central concepts for Buddhist practice, the practice we do, the meditation we do,

the way we engage in the Dharma is to distinguish between what is helpful and not helpful,

what serves us and what doesn't serve us.

And that begs the question helpful for what reason or serves us for what purpose.

And there's many ways to answer that from a Buddhist point of view.

But one way is that it leads us away from suffering and towards happiness.

And where the ultimate happiness is liberation, liberation from the causes of all suffering.

And these are away from agitation and moves us towards peace.

Where peace is the highest peace is again the freedom from suffering, freedom from all the agitation that produces suffering.

And then to love the Dharma is to love the practice and to love the practice of making this distinction and delighting in the opportunity to move in the direction of what serves us, what is helpful.

And part of the delight is to know that it's not just for our own sake, but we do it for the sake of others as well.

Whether we intend to or not moving in this direction towards peace, towards the absence of suffering, to the presence of happiness,

to the absence of greed, taking delusion to the presence of generosity and love and wisdom that of course is going to benefit the people around us.

So to make this distinction, and then one way of meditating, which is the proposal for today, is to imagine yourself as someone who sorts fruit.

And I've done this a little bit before, but imagine that there's a conveyor belt that brings gentle, relaxed flow, brings you maybe apples.

And that had recently been harvested, and some of them are clearly defective and can't be used for selling as fresh produce or selling as for applesauce or anything.

And some are useful, and we'll serve many people in feeding them.

And so you stand at the end of this conveyor belt, and the apples come, and the ones that don't serve are not helpful for human consumption, are used for other purposes.

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