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

Please visit our website at audioderma.org. So good morning from the morning of California at Redwood City and hello to those of you in other time zones.

And we are here for the beginning of our new series for this week. And as a follow-up on the

hindrances, the topic will be the five faculties and the reason to follow up is that the five

faculties line up with the five hindrances in a nice way and our supports to do the very opposite that the hindrances do.

Whereas the hindrances obscure and hinder awareness and present moment attention.

Kind of immersing ourselves in our present moment experience.

The fact what's called the faculties support awareness, promote awareness,

support us in bringing forth our capacity to really be immersed in this present moment experience that were that meditation is about,

is about, mindfulness.

So, the first of these faculties is usually considered to be translated as faith in English.

I'll talk more about it later.

And it probably might not be the best translation for everyone, but it what gives support and strength to whatever the effort is that's needed for meditation.

Some people like to call it confidence.

So it's not about believing in something,

except for believing in the value of a particular kind of action.

And for this morning that action is a very unique thing that

sometimes not associated with action, which is meditation.

Maybe it's an activity that we engage in.

And even that activity means the ending

is stopping of a lot of our doing, physical, verbal, and even mental doing.

It's still, we're involved in an activity of calming, of settling, of quieting, of becoming still.

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