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

Please visit our website at adioderma.org.

I'll go ahead and get started. Good day to all of you.

It's so good to be sharing the Dharma with you again, especially this week.

It's been such a week of challenges for so many of us.

So I'm going to continue with the theme of knowing and not knowing.

And specifically, the topic will be investigation.

And investigation is sometimes referred to as the tool of wisdom.

So you might consider if we're walking on a scary ledge, high up on a mountain,

you know, one of the instructions I was given is don't look down.

You know, so instead of thinking how far down it is if I fall,

I can shift my attention to where we place our next step.

And that's a choice we actually make out of wisdom, right?

You know, we investigate what's in the moment.

We make that choice in the moment.

We understand our situation.

We don't look down.

We look this way.

And one way of describing wisdom is the clarity of mind that allows us to understand the situation and allows us to see which decisions we make are helpful and which are unhelpful.

In relation to the practice, it means making the choices that are helpful for a well-being and happiness.

In relation to Ledge, the choices that let us survive.

Investigation lets us see what choices lead to freedom towards freedom.

...