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

Please visit our website at audiodderma.org.

Discover that it turns out not to be so easy. So it can be helpful to

discover or to look into or investigate or be curious about what is it that's getting in the way

with more freedom and ease and peace, these kinds of things.

So part of the finding our way to more freedom and ease is

running about what gets in the way.

So I'm going to start with an analogy,

and that is this analogy that the Buddha gives of when it rains. Actually, in my mind I'm thinking of the monsoon season in India.

There's a, you know, I'm thinking of the monsoon season in India.

There's a, you know, when it rains on the hills,

it's just natural that the water rolls downstream

and it goes from little rivulets, maybe to streams, to rivers, to the ocean,

it only goes one direction, right? It only goes downhill, of course. You don't need me to tell you this. We all know this. It's like this, it just goes downhill.

But when we think about rivers or streams, often what we notice is that there's a bunch of boulders or even banks or you know something that's in the

way it's not like the water just goes straight down in the most efficient

infest way that only exists in amusement parks, right?

But instead, you know, the river is encountering these boulders

and then turning and encountering maybe fallen

maybe fallen branches in the tree trunks

and moving around them in this kind of way?

It's not a problem that the boulders are there. It's not a problem that the tree trunks are there. It's just what the water is encountering as it's continuing on its way downhill.

...