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

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And great. So hello everyone. Hello and welcome to Happy Hour. So before we begin, a couple of announcements. One is that as the year 2023 comes to a close and as the new year

2024 will start pretty soon. There will be a transition so I will

step back from leading the Fridays. I'll only be leading Mondays and Wednesdays. So I'll be

stepping back from Fridays and Bruni Davia is going to step in and each Friday's happy hour.

So delighted to welcome Bruni and please welcome her when you see her this Friday on a couple of days and she'll be going forward.

Oh, Harley asked who's the third party this this is being sent to it's just you two we'll always do this but this is the new version of Zoom so

it's asking you to accept it so Zoom has has changed, nothing has changed about happy error. It's just being sent to, it's being streamed online on YouTube. So no reason to, yeah yeah to the Zoom change change so no worries. So okay so with that

and then one more announcement is that I will be away, I'll be the East Coast teaching for the next few weeks, so I will be out for a while, so you'll be great hands with with a wonderful group of substitute teachers.

So, so with that, now let's transition to practicing together.

So as the year is coming to a close, it's a good time for reflection, especially a reflection around kindness.

I had a conversation with a friend the other day and a good dorm friend and we were reflecting on

as you go to bed every night to perhaps consider contemplate whatever your state

of mind is whatever your state of heart is, if I didn't wake up tomorrow morning, if I didn't wake up tomorrow morning.

If I didn't wake up tomorrow morning, and the theme relates to rebirth, death and rebirth, because in some ways,

23, the year, the old year is dying, the new year is being given birth to.

So along the same lines if whatever my state of mind is, whether I'm filled with mecca and kindness for others, myself, the world,

whether there's brightness in my heart and mind or whether there's anger, resentment.

What is this the state of mind that I wanted to,

if I didn't wake up tomorrow,

is this what I wanted to be what I remember, what I go to bed with? There's a sense of

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