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

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Welcome again.

So I'd like to build a little bit on what I offered as the practice note earlier,

and that was to just notice all the different ways in which we're saying

no no I don't want this to as a response to whatever is arising in the moment.

No, it should be different.

I wish it were different.

And this can show up in obvious ways,

as avoidance, not even noticing things, or just maybe touching on them and bouncing off.

It can also show up as you know just procrastination or maybe white lies we find ourselves trying to that we say trying to avoid things that are uncomfortable or maybe it's really subtle. It's just this little

closing down or tightness that we feel in the chest or the belly like mmm

maybe there's like this inner kind of this I don't like this resistance shows up so much in our life and maybe recognizing this is a part of the path to freedom because it turns out that freedom

is not having resistance.

Freedom is this recognizing,

oh, this is what's arising at this moment

and this is a appropriate response to it.

This is what's arising and here's a response to that.

As opposed to this way we're kind of getting trying to avoid or get shoved around or pushed around or you know there's this way in which

we're trying to dodge all kinds of things and I like this idea of kind of like being pushed around.

Freedom is not being pushed around because we feel like, oh yeah, that's uncomfortable.

I can be with that. Yep, that doesn't match my preferences. I can be with that.

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