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

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So good morning, everyone, and welcome. And for today's talk, I'd like to bring up a topic.

And the purpose of bringing up this topic is not to offer some definitive teachings on it

that comes to a nice, great conclusion,

but rather to inspire you, maybe, I don't know, provoke you is the right word,

but evoke in you,

reflection that you would think more deeply about this topic and how it works for you

personally. And I think it's a very important topic for us as individuals in our own

individual life, in our interpersonal life, in our societal life,

to really reflect deeply about this and understand how this works for us.

Because this topic I'm going to bring up, I'll name it shortly, is we probably all have, all operating with it,

but it's often unexamined and unconsidered. And so what I'm encouraging here is to take this topic

and really consider it how it is for you.

So the topic is, what is your theory of change?

What is your theory of change?

And so if you're involved in changing yourself, changing your family, your community, your society, your world, you're operating under some theory, some hypothesis, some assumptions about how change happens.

And I encounter a lot of people who want to see change,

but they've never examined their theory of change. They have a gut reaction, and they have some idea. Of course, this is how it should be. And so sometimes it's very aggressive.

Some people want something to be different, and their idea is to bark or worse and be hostile

to get what they want to be happen. Other people's theory of change is to fawn and to kind of just be very gentle and kind.

They're trying to get something, but they think this is how you get things, is to make something happen.

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