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

Please visit our website at audiodharma.org.

Good morning.

And welcome.

Nice to be back after being gone for a while.

So most recently I was at Spirit Rock teaching a week-long retreat.

And I'll be here this week and then I'm going off to teach another retreat next Sunday.

So it is a point for me to be back.

I appreciate so much the opportunity to do this teaching and to be with all of you on YouTube and see your names in the chat.

Thank you very much.

So during this week I'd like to generally continue with the topic of compassion that I've done the last few weeks that I've been here.

And as we begin today for guided meditation, I would like to suggest a way of beginning that may come as a bit of a surprise to mindfulness practitioners.

And that is to begin by thinking rather than putting your thinking aside and not giving it any role for this practice.

Begin with thinking for maybe a minute or two to think about how you are right now.

Not just how are you but to think about it.

What is it really and how is it and what might be a wise way of being with yourself the way you are?

What might be a useful way to practice?

Given how you are, what might be a useful posture to be in for meditation?

If your tense may be a more relaxed posture, if you're tired, maybe a more alert, a bright posture.

If you're aware of how you are feeling emotionally, what would be a useful attitude to have as you meditate?

So these are all questions you can ask yourself.

Questions that attune yourself to what's happening for you and how to meet it in practice, how to include it, or how to maybe even what to ignore at times because it's not really to the point.

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