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

Please visit our website at adioderma.org.

Good evening.

It's nice to see you all.

So tonight I want to talk a little bit about there's this way in which we can approach our meditation practice

in a similar way that we approach everything else in our life, everything else that we've done

with a certain amount of striving and just kind of

goal-oriented. I got to get this thing. I got to get more peace. I got to get more freedom.

I got to get more ease. Hurry. It's this way there can be a certain amount of pushing.

Of course we might say, of course we are, because this is a way in which we can

push towards other goals in our lives, whether it's professional goals or maybe there's

a time which is an academic goals or maybe fitness goals, you know, all these types of

things which we might do.

And we have a certain amount of striving.

But what's a little bit different with meditation practice

is that often with this striving,

we're not noticing that what's happening

is often there's this measuring that's happening.

Am I there yet? Have I gotten there yet? Am I peaceful yet? Is this easeful? Is the mind settled? Am I happy yet?

There's this certain measuring. And if there's measuring, that means you're not there yet. So there's always this

sense of lack. This is subtle. But at some of this can reinforce again and again, if we have

this sense, oh, I got to be somewhere else. I got to have some other experience. And then suddenly what's happening right then

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