We all have great desires, for comfort, for success, for love, for enlightenment, for Buddhahood. As the desires come up, we strain trying to shift life into something other than what it is. And so the last thing we want is to be still, in absolute stillness, we become aware of our unwillingness to be what we are this very second. And that's extremely annoying. We simply don't want to do it. Zen master Rinzai said, do not spend even one thought in chasing after Buddhahood. That means to be ourselves as we are in each moment, moment by moment. It's all we never is all we ever need to do. But the human desire is to chase something. Then she asks, what are some of the things we chase after when we sit? And a student answers comfort. Another one says trying to stop thinking. Joker says we're trying to stop thinking instead of being aware of our thinking. Another student says having some sort of intense body experience, an altered state of consciousness and other says Peace. It says to be more awake, less sleepy, or to get rid of anger. Soon as I get rid of this anger, I'll be closer to Buddhahood. And Joko says, or we may remember some stretch of time when things felt good. And we're trying to regain that feeling. If we don't have one thought of chasing after Buddhahood, what would we be doing? So one answer is not clinging. And she says not clinging and willing to be student says who we are and where we are, yes. Who we are and where we are right here. And right now. When we sit, we're willing to do that for about three seconds. Then almost immediately the desire to move to fidget to think to do something else is there. In simplest terms, there are two kinds of practices. One is to try to steadily improve ourselves. We raise our energy, we eat better, we purify ourselves in some way. we force ourselves to have a clearer mind. People think that enlightenment is the result of such efforts. But it's not. Of course, it's good to eat rightly, to exercise to do what will make us healthier. And this effort to improve our lives to follow a path that will lead us somewhere can produce people who seem to be very saintly, very calm, very impressive. From the point of view of the second kind of practice, however, this notion of making ourselves into something different than Better is nonsense. Why? Because just as we are, we're fine. Since how we are doesn't feel fine, however, we are confused, upset and angry. The statement that we're fine just as we are doesn't make any sense to us.