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

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So to offer you a few words about the practice, maybe that would support you through this morning,

is... maybe they would support you through this morning, is, I think it's fair to say that a fair

number of people, when they do mindfulness practice, they interpret it as being something

they're supposed to be doing.

And if that's the case,

and then sometimes just adding one more doing to a long to-do list that they have,

you know, at 10, 12, I'm supposed to know that I'm breathing.

And so you know that, and then you go on thinking,

we have other things to do too, right?

Like plan your dinner tonight. So off you go to do that, you know other things to do too, right? Like plan your dinner tonight.

So off you go to do that.

You're going to your two list, always doing something.

And so just one more doing, self-improvement doing, fixing things doing, getting away from things doing.

Mindfulness does have a doing that's part of it, but it's usually best to do it after you stop doing.

Mindfulness has a lot to do with not doing, and the reason for not doing is to create space, to create room in the mind, in the body, in the present moment,

for something to arise, something to create the conditions that welcome

some of the natural unfolding movements of breathing, of knowing, of the body, the heart to kind of unfold on its own.

We have amazing natural, we are amazing natural systems.

So I like to use the analogy of if you have a little, like, small cut in the kitchen from

nicking yourself with a knife, if you pick on that little cut, it'll get bigger and bigger

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