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

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There was some idea of the practice today.

One of the skills or capacities were learning through mindfulness practice,

especially in meditation, taking a nice meditation posture,

whatever it works for you,

and then learning to sit in the middle of the fire.

And that fire could be something that's very alive and active for you in the present moment within you.

Sometimes fire is associated with times of difficulty and maybe anger or grief or challenge,

but it could also be something that's celebratory.

And sometimes sitting in the middle of the fire means sitting in the middle of the fire of our world.

But the capacity to sit in the middle, not to be in the middle and be overwhelmed by it or be

oppressed by it, not be in the middle and run around like a chicken without a head,

but to be able to sit in the metaphorical middle of what it all feels like.

And so if it's all lots of agitation, lots of preoccupation, lots of strong emotions,

in the present moment, the idea is not to get rid of them or fix them or solve them, but the idea is to find some

literal or metaphoric feeling inside that feels like it's in the middle of it all. And to sit there

quietly and watch, sit there quietly and allow it to kind of be all around you without being involved in it, without being caught

in it, doing something, but learning to breathe there, just breathe quietly and simply. And maybe

because I did it recently, for a friend's car, I took the friend's car through the car wash and sitting there in the car wash

going through and it was, you know, a while to have the soaps, the soaps, soaps, and the brushes and

everything kind of is whirling around,

...