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

Please visit our website at audiodderma.org. So good morning, day everyone, and welcome to our meditation. everyone and

today I would like to call attention to the statue of the Buddha that's

the statue of the Buddha that's behind me here.

The statues of the Buddha sitting in meditation this way are idealized depictions of the Buddha and in very

idealized. They are symbolic descriptions of something very significant.

And it isn't that we're looking at this to see the Buddha as it is we're looking at it to see

something about ourselves and what this posture represents is someone who has an inner peace and

inner tranquility and a confidence where the person is fully present in a dignified way without asserting themselves onto others, without demeaning others or wanting

something from mothers.

But in some ways,

has a certain kind of self-contained tranquility

or peace and confidence at the same time is available for others.

Usually these statues have the bit of sitting in meditation with his eyes only half closed or half opened

so that he's also available to the world to see it and look upon it and with a relaxed

gaze. it and so the idea here is that as we look on on a Buddha statue like this one we

have is to be able to somehow or other have it inspire in us

our own dignity our own dignity, our own capacity for inner peace and confident, our own sense of

self-respect. And so there are many ways in which we can feel that and many ways in

which we can express it physically. But the idea is if you would like to have that be

expressed in the posture with which you meditate. Sometimes there's four dignified postures

for meditation.

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