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

Please visit our website at audiodharma.org.

So, good morning and welcome.

And I appreciate the chance to be here today and more point and even more of the appreciation

that the theme of the week is appreciation.

So, for this meditation, I'd like to suggest that one of the purposes of meditation, mindfulness meditation,

is for us to understand ourselves better.

And if there's too much emphasis on relaxation or having particular experience of concentration,

or even to emphasis is on somehow diminishing the amount of suffering we have,

all those are fine, but if they're done at the cost of not really understanding oneself well and deeply,

then some of the ways in which our mind or hearts behave or act or function

will continue to operate subconsciously or in ways we don't understand because we don't understand ourselves.

And we won't necessarily understand what our needs are very well or what our challenges are,

that we have to somehow live a preventive life, preventing our suffering rather than responding to our suffering

or trying to reduce it once it's there.

So, this is a task of understanding.

And what is it that you don't understand about yourself that sitting quietly can make known?

Not to analyze or think about this question, and not to analyze and think about whatever understanding that comes,

but even just the attitude that what we're doing here is making ourselves available to understand ourselves in a deep way.

And so, part of what's helpful for that is not to come with a lot of preconceived ideas,

not to come with preconceived attitudes about ourselves, about what we're doing,

any preconceived tendencies to judge in any kind of negative, but also positive ways.

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