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The greatest gift is the
gift of the teachings
 
James Baraz's Dharma Talks
James Baraz
I try to convey that the wisdom and compassion we are looking for is already inside of us. I see practice as learning how to purify our mind and heart so we can hear the Buddha inside. In doing so, we naturally embody the dharma and help awaken that understanding and love in others we meet.
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2022-04-07 Clear Comprehension: The Buddha's Teaching on Four Different Elements of Practice 48:53
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This talk explores the topic of Clear Comprehension (sampajañña in Pali) a powerful Dharma teaching on four different aspects of practice. In the Satipatthana Sutta the Discourse on the Four Foundation of Mindfulness, with regard to each foundation, the Buddha says the following: "Here, bhikkhus (practitioners), a bhikkhu (practitioner) lives contemplating the body in the body, ardent, clearly comprehending and mindful, having overcome, in this world, covetousness and grief..." Clear comprehension means more than just having bare attention. Understanding and applying these four facets of Clear Comprehension can support a real deepening of our Dharma practice.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
2022-03-17 Calming the Anxious Mind: Skillful Practices for Anxiety 52:02
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Many people are experiencing stress and anxiety these days. Heartbreaking scenes of victims of the Ukraine invasion and other conflicts, potential escalation of war, political divisiveness or personal challenges all create an atmosphere of tension that is in the air. How can we use our practice to calm the mind and create space to hold it all without getting overwhelmed?
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
2022-03-10 The Dharma of Good Leadership 57:27
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When a leader has the welfare of the people as a priority the country prospers. When a leader cares only for themselves the country declines. This talk explores the Buddha's teaching on the qualities that make a good leader, the influence a leader has on the people and the story of an actual leader who underwent a transformation from a feared merciless ruler to one of great wisdom and compassion. We discuss how these teachings apply to our contemporary world.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
2022-03-03 Sad Heart, Breaking Heart: Working with the Invasion of Ukraine 58:10
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The news of the Russian invasion of Ukraine is particularly sad and disturbing Although there are conflicts like this happening around the world, an unprovoked invasion from one of the strongest military countries in the world into a European country that could feasibly escalate into another world war is deeply unsettling. We explore as a community how our practice can help us hold all the feelings that may be arising. Includes a 7 minute clip of Joanna Macy explaining her Spiral from her "Work that Reconnects."
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
2022-02-24 Your Practice is Not Just for You 60:30
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Your practice affects everyone around you. When you see your practice in this wider context, it evokes a whole dimension of inspiration and “joyful responsibility“ to cultivate wisdom and compassion within us. In this world with so much suffering—including the climate crisis and injustice in the world—more than ever we need to keep this in mind and see ourselves as “bodhisattvas in training“.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center :  February Insight Meditation 1 Month Retreat
2022-02-21 Guided sit with brama vihara (Retreat at Spirit Rock) 55:54
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Spirit Rock Meditation Center :  February Insight Meditation 1 Month Retreat
2022-02-18 Equanimity 61:28
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Equanimity is always the last on every list, which shows its importance as the culmination of the mind that can be with all things. Cultivating a balance and centeredness in the midst of our joys and sorrows, we can know the peace that the Buddha encourages us to experience.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center :  February Insight Meditation 1 Month Retreat
2022-02-15 Mudita Practice 48:27
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Mudita for a friend who is having great happiness, self, benefactor, and neutral categories
Spirit Rock Meditation Center :  February Insight Meditation 1 Month Retreat
2022-02-11 Awakening Joy: The Buddha’s Teaching on the Gladness of the Wholesome (Retreat at Spirit Rock) 62:14
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The Buddha taught that one should cultivate and, when possible, maintain wholesome states. This talk explores teachings on cultivating states of well-being and how to deepen them in our practice.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center :  February Insight Meditation 1 Month Retreat
2022-02-05 Loving the Moment: Opening to it All (Retreat at Spirit Rock) 63:07
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Being in the present requires us to open to all experience, the beautiful moments and the challenging ones. This talk explores essential qualities that help us not only accept the moment, but embrace and even love it as our true refuge.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center :  February Insight Meditation 1 Month Retreat
2022-02-04 Guided Bramavihara Meditation (Retreat at Spirit Rock) 42:23
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In order to open the heart and extend kindness and compassion to others we need to soften the places of contraction through practicing forgiveness. This guided meditation invites us to practice forgiving ourselves– our body, our mind, and our heart – and then extending it towards others as well.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center :  February Insight Meditation 1 Month Retreat
2022-02-01 Morning instructions: Focusing and unifying the mind 58:45
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A guided meditation on deepening concentration using the breath as the primary object.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center :  February Insight Meditation 1 Month Retreat
2022-01-31 How The Practice Unfolds: The Five Spiritual Faculties 63:32
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The Five Spiritual Faculties in the Buddha's teaching give a clear description of the natural unfolding of practice unfolds over time. It also describes the process over the course of a month-long intensive retreat.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center :  February Insight Meditation 1 Month Retreat
2022-01-27 Remembering Thich Nhat Hanh 51:02
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The great Vietnamese Master, Thich Nhat Hanh, passed away on January 22nd at the age of 95. Thay, as he was known to his students, was one of the most influential Buddhist masters in modern times.We spend the evening exploring his teachings and honoring his spirit. A short clip of him teaching is included as part of the evening.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
2022-01-20 Equanimity with Uncertainty: Finding Balance in Difficult Times 51:13
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Equanimity or Upekkha is a highly valued quality in Buddhist teachings. It is one of the Four Divine Abodes, one of the Seven Factors of Enlightenment, one of the Ten Perfections and on a number of other lists. When highly developed it is the precursor to the experience of awakening. But what is equanimity? How can we cultivate it in our meditation practice? Even more, how can we access it in our daily life, especially in times like these with so much uncertainty, fear and sadness over the suffering in the world? We will explore various aspects of equanimity that can be pragmatically applied to our life off the cushion.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
2021-12-30 New Year's Gathering: Letting Go and Moving On 51:53
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As the year comes to an end, we mark and celebrate this transition point by reflecting on where we are in our lives and consciously get in touch with our vision for the coming year. The Buddha talked about the power of having Wise Intention and "Clear Comprehension of Purpose" to keep us facing in the right direction. As a community we can support each other through reflecting on what we've learned in 2021 and share a ritual to call forth our vision for the coming year.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
2021-12-23 Winter Solstice and Holidays: A Time to Keep the Heart Open 53:11
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When the days are shortest and darkness is all around, we have holidays to help us remember the light. In this talk we reflect on the heart practices of gratitude, forgiveness and love that help us stay connected to the light inside and around us.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
2021-11-11 Letting Your Heartbreak Open to Active Hope 53:05
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How can we keep open and stay engaged when our hearts are breaking and we just want to shut down? How can we cultivate a "no-matter-what commitment" as Terry Patten teaches? How can we develop "Active Hope" as Joanna Macy calls it. That is the topic of this week's exploration. The talk includes a powerful 20-minute conversation between Joanna Macy and Thanissara that took place a month before this recording.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
2021-11-04 Showing Up for Reality with Humility and Grace: Terry Patten's Last Teaching 50:16
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Beloved Philosopher, Teacher and Sacred Activist Terry Patten sadly passed away a few days before this talk. His last book, A New Republic of the Heart, is an inspiring teaching on how to face the global crises we are in. As he went through his own final journey he shared how one can face death with courage, wonder, grace and trust. It was a blueprint for how to meet the pain and sorrow of the world with those same qualities. This talk includes a powerful, clear, deeply moving clip excerpt of Terry's last teaching a week before he passed plus some of his teachings that have touched so many.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
2021-10-28 Am I Enough? 53:06
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A great Zen treatise says that someone truly enlightened is "without anxiety about non-perfection." It's no wonder that, with such impossible standards that most people hold themselves to, they always seem to fall short. How is it that others can so easily see our goodness while we're often the last ones to see our "True Nature"? The talk includes a short excerpt of Ram Dass sharing his primary practice to remember who we really are.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
2021-10-14 Letting Go of Knowing: Loving The Mystery: 49:08
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This talk explores the freedom that comes from letting go of our attachments to ideas. As the 3rd Zen Patriarch of China said, "Do not search for the truth. Only cease to cherish opinions." What benefit can there be when we truly let go of thinking we know how things really are?
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
2021-10-07 Emptiness and the Big Perspective 50:29
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The Heart Sutra teaching famously states: "Form is Emptiness Emptiness is Form." This liberating perspective is the gateway to understanding the inter-connectedness of all phenomena and the spaciousness and freedom that comes from seeing our place in the bigger scheme of things. The talk includes a recording of Apollo astronaut Rusty Schweikart's moving account of the profound shift he experienced upon seeing the Earth from outer space.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
2021-09-23 Seeing Beyond the Mask: Looking Past Our Assumptions 53:33
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In his teaching on the Four Noble Truths, the Buddha describes in the Second Noble Truth four kinds of attachments that cause suffering. One of these is attachment to ideas and opinions. We explore this topic of looking beyond our views and opinions that are causing so much divisiveness and separation in these pandemic days.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
2021-09-16 Anything Can Happen at Anytime: Working with Uncertainty 49:16
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We explore the topic of dealing with uncertainty. Although we never know what lies ahead, at this time the feeling of uncertainty is highlighted in a more acute way globally than ever before. What will happen next with the virus and its variants? Will people get vaccinated or will the anti-vax information continue to influence people's choices? What about climate disruption? Will we collectively wake up to the reality in time to keep from heading over the cliff of self-destruction? What does the Dharma offer us to wisely work with this unknown reality?
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
2021-08-12 The Buddha's Teaching on How Practice Unfolds: The Five Spiritual Faculties 54:11
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The Five Spiritual Faculties is a central teaching of the Buddha that explains how the practice develops and unfolds: This classical list of five qualities expresses both the importance of balance as well as a natural progression of development with one quality leading to the next.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
2021-07-29 Different Lenses, Different Realities 46:36
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When people ask, "How are you?" it depends on what lens we're looking at life through. The personal lens evokes a very different response than the societal one. This talk explores how we can hold different realities in our minds and hearts at the same time. Also the compassion that comes from understanding that each person has their own reality that makes sense to them.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
2021-07-15 Accessing Your Triggers for Insight 51:41
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Have you ever had a profound meditation experience and tried with frustration to recreate it?This is a common experience for many practitioners. Just as trauma can be triggered in our body and mind, the same is possible with positive experiences that we've gone through. This talk explores how this works and how we can access those profound moments and the wisdom that they've awakened in us.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
2021-07-01 The Buddha's Pithiest Teaching: Bahiya Sutta 55:59
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The Buddha's pithiest and shortest teaching, his teaching to Bahiya (Bahiya Sutta). Although only a few short sentences it was enough to result in complete Enlightenment.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
2021-06-11 Awakening Joy: Last Seven Wholesome States to Cultivate Joy 1:13:21
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Understanding the trajectory of developing wholesome states to awaken joy.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center :  Awakening Joy: Opening to Your Natural State of Well-Being
2021-06-11 Everything is held in Awareness 46:10
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Guided "Big Mind" Meditation to perceive Awareness as the space in which all experience arises and passes away.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center :  Awakening Joy: Opening to Your Natural State of Well-Being
2021-06-09 Including sensations, sounds and other objects in the field of awareness 46:29
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Working with the wandering mind and moving from one meditation object to another in meditation
Spirit Rock Meditation Center :  Awakening Joy: Opening to Your Natural State of Well-Being
2021-06-08 Three Wholesome States for Cultivating Joy 60:55
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Intention, Mindfulness and Gratitude are the three wholesome states that are the foundational practices to awaken joy
Spirit Rock Meditation Center :  Awakening Joy: Opening to Your Natural State of Well-Being
2021-06-03 Divisiveness in the Buddha's Community: The Quarrel at Kosambi 52:18
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One of the greatest challenges today in the US is divisiveness within the country. However, the Buddha faced the same problem right within his community! The Quarrel at Kosambi tells the story of his sangha dealing with a bitter argument that almost created a schism in the sangha. And the Buddha had a very difficult time trying to bring peace between the two factions. We will discuss this story and the lessons we can learn that can be applied in today's time.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
2021-05-27 Not Seeing Dukkha is Dukkha 51:30
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This talk is based on a teaching from Joseph Goldstein: "Not seeing dukkha is dukkha." It's humbling to realize that we are creating much of our suffering. But it's through clearly seeing this that we also create the possibility of truly waking up. We can change our whole relationship to seeing how we get caught by old habits and thought patterns from self-judgment to compassion and liberation.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
2021-05-13 Forgiving the Unforgivable: Angulimala Sutta (MN #86) 55:45
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Angulimala was a feared serial killer who was the scourge of the land--until he met the Buddha. We will explore his story and its relevance for our practice in learning to keep our hearts open to those who cause great harm. Why does the Buddha find it beneficial and how is this possible?
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
2021-05-06 Saying Goodbye: When a Friend Dies 60:25
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This past week James felt very fortunate to be with one of his dearest friends in his final days died. This talk explores that life passage. How can we say goodbye to a loved one and grieve fully with the understanding that death is a natural part of the life cycle? How can practice help us through that process?
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
2021-04-08 Death and Dying 57:42
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with James Baraz, Sylvia Boorstein
Sylvia and James will have a conversation about death and dying something they have both been recently practicing with in their personal lives.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
2021-03-28 Befriending Ourselves Daylong 4:26:41
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with Eve Decker, James Baraz
When we develop a basic kindness towards ourselves we not only learn to accept the difficult parts, but in the process embrace our humanity and see more clearly the beauty that's inside. As we do that we allow our goodness and True Nature to shine through. This becomes a gift to everyone we meet, a healing energy that awakens the goodness in others as well.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
2021-03-18 Honeyball Sutta: The Buddha's Teaching on Papanća 56:36
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Have you ever wondered how your mind can move from one thought to getting lost in a complex story without you knowing how you got there? The Buddha describes this process in his Honeyball Sutta (Majjhima Nikaya #19) where he explains the phenomenon of papanća or proliferation of thought. The more we understand this porcess and work with it as practice, the less we get caught up in the stories the mind creates.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
2021-02-25 Gratitude 52:46
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In the Mangala Sutta, the Discourse on Blessings, the Buddha teaches: "To be content and grateful is a blessing supreme." Gratitude is a particularly potent ally in awakening true happiness because it helps expand the mind as well as the heart. With a grateful heart we have a larger container and more space to hold the difficulties we encounter. When we pause to notice what we usually take for granted a new world of possibilities opens up. It's as if we've changed the station instead of being stuck on our own little "drama channel."
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
2021-02-18 The Secret Ingredients of Dharma Practice 37:59
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One of the lesser known lists are four different qualities of heart, The Four Iddhipadas, that are present in people with differing temperaments, that are powerful motivators for practice.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
2021-02-11 Intention from the Heart 49:58
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The Buddha taught "Intention is karma". We will look at two manifestations of intention and how we can work with this powerful energy to increase well being.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
2021-02-11 Brahma Vihara: Equanimity 51:38
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Equanimity is the last of the 4 Brahma Viharas. It holds the other three--metta, compassion/karuna, and mudita--with spaciousness and balance. Equanimity reminds us to allow for life to unfold as it will. We can let go of control, which we never had in the first place, meeting life's up and downs with balance and the possibility of a wise, skillful response.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center :  February Insight Meditation Retreat: A Retreat for Experienced Students with James Baraz, Sally Armstrong, Kamala Masters, Andrea Fella, Dawn Scott, Bob Stahl, PhD, Louije Kim and Martha "Rasika" Link
2021-02-10 Guided Instructions: Incorporating Awareness as a Meditation Object (including Choiceless Awareness) 22:36
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Morning Sit with Instructions
Spirit Rock Meditation Center :  February Insight Meditation Retreat: A Retreat for Experienced Students with James Baraz, Sally Armstrong, Kamala Masters, Andrea Fella, Dawn Scott, Bob Stahl, PhD, Louije Kim and Martha "Rasika" Link
2021-02-09 Trusting Your Buddha Knowing 59:37
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With so many instructions and ways to practice, how do we know which is the "right one"? Similarly, with all decisions we need to make in our lives, how can we access the wisdom right inside?
Spirit Rock Meditation Center :  February Insight Meditation Retreat: A Retreat for Experienced Students with James Baraz, Sally Armstrong, Kamala Masters, Andrea Fella, Dawn Scott, Bob Stahl, PhD, Louije Kim and Martha "Rasika" Link
2021-02-05 Forgiveness 50:26
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An important support for metta practice is forgiveness that softens the contracted heart that is stuck in aversion or ill will. This guided meditation practice first focuses on forgiveness towards ourselves--our body, mind, and heart--and then opens to both asking and extending forgiveness with others.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center :  February Insight Meditation Retreat: A Retreat for Experienced Students with James Baraz, Sally Armstrong, Kamala Masters, Andrea Fella, Dawn Scott, Bob Stahl, PhD, Louije Kim and Martha "Rasika" Link
2021-02-04 Guided Meditation on Refinement of the Breath 48:10
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This meditation is a support for exploring the subtleties of the breath as an aid to deepening concentration.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center :  February Insight Meditation Retreat: A Retreat for Experienced Students with James Baraz, Sally Armstrong, Kamala Masters, Andrea Fella, Dawn Scott, Bob Stahl, PhD, Louije Kim and Martha "Rasika" Link
2021-02-03 Holding the Judging Mind with Compassion 57:36
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Our mind is habitually judging and comparing ourselves with others or against some unrealistic standard of perfection. Seeing this habit as part of the human experience and not taking it personally is an important part of our practice. We can learn to relate to it with wisdom and compassion that transforms it from being a personal problem to a wise understanding of the selfless nature of experience.
Spirit Rock Meditation Center :  February Insight Meditation Retreat: A Retreat for Experienced Students with James Baraz, Sally Armstrong, Kamala Masters, Andrea Fella, Dawn Scott, Bob Stahl, PhD, Louije Kim and Martha "Rasika" Link
2021-01-28 Anatta and Self-Forgiveness 49:00
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Do you ever give yourself a hard time if you've made an embarrassing mistake or have done something you regret? This talk explores how we can truly forgive ourselves with a thorough understanding of the Buddha's teaching on the selfless nature of who we are, otherwise known as Anatta, the selfless nature of experience.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley
2020-12-17 The Choice is Ours: Wise Relationship to Our Experience 49:07
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These days have even more ups and downs than usual. For many it's both a time of sorrow and a time of joy. The mind can easily get caught in the difficulties when it's contracted by stress. But our Dharma practice shows us we have a choice how to wisely relate to our experience.
Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley

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