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

Please visit our website at audiodharma.org.

Good evening and welcome, welcome everybody.

Nice to see you all.

Today, I'd like to talk a little bit more about a topic that I introduced last week.

It's perfectly fine if you didn't hear last week.

But it's not unusual that when we're meditating, especially for a longer set, you know, 45 minutes,

we might notice there's this thought, there's this like narration, this inner dialogue or inner, I don't know, conversation.

Maybe that's happening. Something like, I can't meditate.

I've been practicing for so long and still, you know, here it is after 45 minutes.

When is this thing bell going to ring anyways?

Is she awake?

So at the same time, like, I can't meditate or what's my mind is out of control, or maybe at the same time, or not the exact same time.

But within the same minute there might be somebody like, well, I'm sitting up straighter than that other person.

I'm quieter than that other person or whatever it might be, right?

There's these ways in which we have these thoughts where we're comparing ourselves to others.

Sometimes we think that we're better, sometimes we think that we're worse, and sometimes we think that we're the same.

You know, however it is, it's pretty common to compare ourselves.

And it's also pretty common that in these comparisons we come up feeling not so good.

There's a way in which we're like beating ourselves up.

There's this inner critic that gets activated, and it can be pretty persuasive.

We seem to be pretty authoritative and pretty loud.

...