Great. Thank you so much. It's such a delight to be here. I was here, uh, a little bit for this conference, wisdom 2.0. So it was, it was kind of nice coming back into the same room and just. Just sort of settling. So, um, I, as, uh, you doubtless know I'm a meditation teacher and it's very funny now when I'm introduced that way because I came back from India where I'd first gone to study.

Uh, I went in 1970 and, and came back in 1974. And in those days I'd be at a party or some social situation and people would say to me, what do you do? And I'd say, I teach meditation. And they would kind of go, oh, that's weird. Occasionally somebody would say to me, oh, did you meet the Beatles when you were over there?

I'd say, sadly, no. They went when I was in high school. And now all these years later, after so much more significant research and, uh, science and, and kind of a re languaging of the whole process, the most common response I hear when I say teach meditation is I'm so stressed out. I could really use some of that.

Although my favorite response, which I also hear sometimes is My partner should really meet you. That'd be really good for them. And these days even, uh, going beyond the context of stress, people see meditation, I think rightly so, as a kind of capacity building, as a way of finding resourcefulness and, uh, kind of an innovative energy within themselves.

Sometimes I hear. The response, which concerns me the most, which is, oh, I tried that once. I failed at it, I couldn't do it. And then what follows is some description of what people expect. , I should be able to stop all my thinking. I should have a completely blank mind. I should have only beautiful thoughts like doubtless everyone else in the room is having.

I should, uh, be able to keep sleepiness completely at bay. I should find perfect peace within the first hour, whatever it might be. And, and that of course, concerns me because we say we believe very strongly you cannot fail at it. It's impossible. Because the essence of, of the meditative process is changing the way we relate to everything.

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