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One of my first week-long retreats at the Insight Meditation Society,

there was a notice on the bulletin board, it was actually a little quote by Lily Tomlin,

and it was one line and it said,

self-knowledge is not necessarily good news.

So here we were dedicating ourselves to seeing who was here,

and of course from the ego's perspective, she's entirely right,

that what we discover under our more civilized persona when we're on good behavior

is all those reptilian tendencies to be aggressive and fearful,

and all those tendencies to try to grasp on to what will further us,

and jealousy, and judgment, and the whole catastrophe.

And one of the things we most start noticing as we're paying attention to the way our minds work

is that our thoughts are primarily focused on what's going to help me, what's going to hurt me.

It's like that fantastic little cartoon of the guy who's confessing to the bartender,

he says, I know I'm nothing, I know I'm nobody, but I'm all I can think about.

So of course if we're attending with honesty,

we'll also, in addition to all the judgment and fear and anger and so on,

sense this deep longing and intention towards loving and being loved,

and sense our compassion for others, and our capacity at times to give very quiet and touch into

peace. So it's not just that we tap into all bad news. One of the stories I've always loved

...