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

Please visit our website at audiodharma.org.

So, one of the discoveries in doing meditation practice

is that some of us think a lot.

And that it can be a discovery because sometimes it's so easy to think automatically as if this is the structure of the universe.

It's like a fish, supposedly, doesn't see the water, it swims in.

So, we don't necessarily see how much we're thinking because as far as we know, we've always been thinking,

that's the way the medium through which we understand the world.

And because it's so automatic and we take many times thinking for granted,

we don't really investigate or see what we're thinking or what we're believing

and what the principles they were operating under.

And sometimes what we're operating under is fear.

There can be a lot of fear that people have.

So, a lot of the thoughts are somehow or rather rooted in fear, looking for safety,

trying to make ourselves safe, trying to understand something so we can be safe.

Some of them are based on desires. I want something.

Only if I get this, will I be successful or will I be affirmed, will I get approved by people?

And so, I need to kind of get a better job. I need to get a better education.

I need to get a better car. I need to be a better meditator

so someone will approve me that I have, you know, so I always desire

and wanting something is maybe the character of the thoughts.

So, as we begin meditating, there's not a mistake to be thinking in meditation.

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