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

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Welcome, welcome.

Welcome.

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you are.

And for those of you who are listening in the future,

welcome, welcome, those of you who are here online, welcome,

welcome. What a delight it is to practice together. It's such a beautiful thing.

So I'm going to continue on this series on the inner critic. Today's the fourth day, Thursday, talking about this and there's some going to guide us in a meditation that's gonna build on

some of the meditations we've been doing earlier in the week.

But if you haven't been there earlier in the week, that's perfectly fine also.

I'm going to point to something inside of us that it's hard to describe, but it has a certain amount

of maybe settledness or okayness even though there might be a lot of chaos and

difficulty and discomfort sometimes we can touch into something inside of us that feels the

amount of steadiness or wholesomeness, even if it's just a fleeting recognition of it or a sense of it rather than a clear description or clear ability to land on it like yes this is it.

And the dormat I'll be pointing to this as an alternative to this inner critic which can be so harsh.

And so I have such a big impact on our lives in a way that causes us to disconnect from our experience or in some kind of way.

Okay, so, well, that is an introduction.

I'd like to begin in this way where just bringing to mind somebody who or some creatures

doesn't have to be a person somebody who just kind of makes you smile a little bit in a very simple way not complicated we're not overthinking this just what feels a little bit delightful when you bring them to mind. We're using our imagination.

They're not chances are they're not right here in front of us that we can visually see them. But and maybe they are, maybe it's your cat or dog.

But if they're not, just bringing them to mind.

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