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

Please visit our website at audioderma.org.

So welcome, welcome. It's nice to see you all. It's nice to practice together.

And tonight I want to talk a little bit about this phrase that I heard a number of years ago

and then recently I heard it again.

And it's attributed John Wellwood, who is a psychologist as well as a Buddhist practitioner.

And this phrase is about the practice, is about waking up and growing up.

It's kind of this interesting idea, like that waking up, right, enlightenment, awakening.

You know, this piece and freedom, like going in that direction, but growing up,

like maybe working with all those issues or things in our life that maybe are...

Well, I like this expression that Jack Cornfield uses, this unfinished business of the heart.

These things that maybe still need a little bit of metabolism, or I don't know what they need exactly,

this idea that practice is both.

We can't just do one without the other, even though, of course, many of us come to spiritual practice,

maybe kind of secretly hoping we won't have to work with that kind of stuff.

Some of the difficulties, some of the really difficult stuff.

And we sure we don't have to at the beginning, but as our practice unfolds,

you know, our capacity to be with whatever is difficult really grows.

And so then we're able to be with or understand or hold all the difficulties in a different way.

So there's a poem that talks about this.

Well, I'm interpreting it to talk about this.

I don't know what the poet's intention, I'm not sure what her intention was,

...