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

Please visit our website at audiodharma.org.

Good day greetings to this beginning of the week, Monday.

And as to begin on this topic of the theme,

even just saying good day to you and greeting you is a form of communication.

And humans have the ability of communicating with each other,

but we also have the ability to communicate to ourselves.

And to some degree, whenever we're thinking, we are communicating to ourselves.

There's some kind of communication going on.

We're telling ourselves a memory or a planning of an event or anticipating something or fantasizing.

And to think of thinking, whether we think in words or in images as a form of communication,

and then to consider how it's being communicated,

what's the choice that we are maybe unconsciously making for that act of communication?

Are we choosing a form of communication that is enjoyable,

that is the way we speak to ourselves in meditation,

the way that we think, the way that we create images and relate to them in our minds?

And is there some choice in how we think and how we engage in this inner communication,

so that the communication is done in a way that feels supportive, feels pleasant,

it's calming or settling.

And to begin today with that, using that choice,

often in meditation the emphasis is on letting go of thoughts and thoughts get in the way

and just stay with breathing or some object of meditation,

...