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

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So get cozy, but not too cozy.

Just relaxed, but a kind of energetic openness to body mind. We've asked the question a million times.

What is it like to be human?

But with a kind of fresh interest, curiosity, we ask again. And sincerity is the willingness to be surprised by experience, by the moment, by life. We can never really anticipate when insight will arise.

So we just stay evenly suspended over this moment.

Breathing, relaxing, waking up.

Waking up. Thank you. You know, You know, You know, Thank you. Thank you. We emphasize tenderness and vulnerability, the intimacy with experience.

But what sometimes gets lost in that is the vulnerability is what confers power strength, courage. Braced against

pain, uncertainty, that yields a kind of brittle fake power, but really becoming porous to the moment.

Letting imperfections flow through.

This softens our heart, but deepens our fear. Thank you. Yes. You know, You know, Thank you. Thank you. Her heart undefended, body mind undefended against samsara, undefended against the intensity of the human condition, but undefended doesn't lose its center, doesn't misplace its strength. What doesn't bend breaks the song lyric goes. So yeah, flexible, fluid.

And that's what, uh,

permits strength.

Strength of our clarity, of our love. Just see if you can attune, attune to a kind of felt sense of your power. Thank you. You know, You know, You know, Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Oh. Oh. We cultivate a certain kind of courage in meeting this moment, knowing that the winds of feeling will blow, but they won't blow anything over. The energetic openness conveyed in our posture,

the openness of our chest.

Come what may, I make my heart available to the moment. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Aristotle said between recklessness and cowardice lies courage. So find that meeting this moment. And You know, You know, You know, You know, You know, Thank you. When you ain't got nothing, the lyric goes.

Got nothing to lose.

Darmically, meditatively, maybe we say when

you claim no territory, nothing to defend. You surrender the somethingness of your being up to awareness. There's no more defensiveness, but a lot of confidence.

But a lot of confidence. Thank you. You know, You know, You know, You know, The

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