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

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So, hello again.

Welcome, welcome everybody.

In the short little few words that I said before the beginning of the guided meditation,

I mentioned that poetry sometimes helps us to see things in a little bit different way,

or maybe to see things that we wouldn't otherwise see,

poking into the crevices of our hearts and minds and shining a light,

and hopefully in a way that maybe has a sense of recognition like,

oh, yeah, I had noticed that.

So, there's a little bit about what this poem is like.

I will read the poem, or maybe I'll make a few comments before I read the poem.

So, I would say just in general, like this really broad brush about practice,

Buddhist practice, this has a few movements, you might say,

directionality towards greater understanding of both our self and others,

but as well as this movement towards greater ease and well-being,

and this movement towards the diminishment and elimination of suffering.

So, all these are happening together, this with practice,

and make another really big generalization,

I would say that there's these two primary types of practices,

like subsets of practice, and one is this cultivation,

the valabine building, strengthening,

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