This is an AI-generated transcript from auto-generated subtitles for the video Guided Meditation: Inner Treasure; The Road Less Traveled (5 of 5) Being the Path. It likely contains inaccuracies.
The following talk was given by Gil Fronsdal at the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California. Please visit the website www.audiodharma.org for more information.
Hello and warm greetings from the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City. I’m here to give the fifth of these guided meditations related to the theme of The Road Less Traveled.
One way of understanding the potential of Buddhist practice is that it involves uncovering a treasure which is inside. We have an amazingly valuable jewel or treasure waiting for us, but mostly we’re too distracted to notice it, to know it, with the business of life or the survival of life. In order to discover it, it’s a matter of being quiet, being able to be quiet enough to listen with a silent mind or to feel with a silent space in the body. This treasure, in a sense, is shy, or it’s soft and gentle. So when there’s a lot of force and agitation or distraction or activity, it covers it over.
One of the reasons, I think, that a contemplative life—people who do contemplative practice—like quiet and silence is because it’s only there that we can really, perhaps for the first time, tap into this treasure that we have inside. To listen to this place of goodness that we have. One of the reasons it’s so important is that this treasure, part of its manifestation or part of its orientation, is to avoid causing harm. Because to cause harm intentionally is to live in a divided world, an agitated world, a loud world where this inner sense of integrity and wholeness cannot be known. So, to avoid harm, to avoid lying, to avoid confusing or clouding the mind or agitating the mind unduly, it’s a place where love and care arise from.
Of course, there are all kinds of love, but the love that contemplatives emphasize has a source deep within that is available to love impartially, to love all beings, to care for everyone, including those people that are our enemies or are difficult for us. So, this treasure that we have.
As we sit this morning to meditate, the orientation will be to listen, to feel below the level of the discursive mind that thinks a lot. And maybe that mind doesn’t quiet so much, but perhaps we can choose not to orient or focus on it, but rather let it kind of recede to the background so that some deeper connection can occur.
So, assume a meditation posture and gently close your eyes. With your eyes closed, feel your posture from the inside. See if your body itself, your meditative body, your contemplative body, wants any adjustments to your posture that help you feel more connected, more alive, more attuned here in this body.
And with that, the idea that in a manner that allows the body and mind to quiet, to settle, to be known, to be recognized, so something can relax. Take a long, comfortable inhale, feeling as much as you can of your body, and an extended exhale, relaxing as you exhale.
At the end of that extended exhale, let there be a moment, or even an instant, that you wait to breathe in, just long enough that it quiets the mind around the interest to breathe in, without agitating the mind.
And then letting your breathing return to normal. And again, for an instant or a moment or two, to pause at the end of the exhale. And in that pause, see if you can let there be a quieting of the thinking mind, a settling into the bottom of the breathing.
And as you inhale, relax with the inhale, as if you’re making room for the inhale to be complete.
And then letting your breathing be normal. And now, on the inhale, feel the thinking mind, allowing it to be as it is. Just know the agitation, the energy, the manner with which you’re thinking. And on the exhale, soften and quiet the thinking mind. Relaxing any physical tension that might be associated with thinking.
And then centering yourself on your breathing, feeling and sensing the quiet, soft place inside. Maybe the place where breathing begins and ends, or maybe a place within that is itself quiet, free of thoughts and ideas, but filled with a goodness, with a calm capacity for care and love. The shy place within that can feel the difference between something which feels wholesome and unwholesome, feels nourishing for us and not nourishing.
As we approach the end of the sitting, now listen or feel, sense for that quiet place within that is a treasure, that is the source of well-being, goodness, the orientation towards non-harming, non-greed, non-hatred.
And maybe it’s only an intuition of this quiet source within, a place of a quiet attitude oriented towards what is wholesome, oriented to what is free, free of all attachments. To let the thinking mind become quiet in the way you would if you were listening to a faint sound far away. So let the thinking mind become quiet as you listen or feel for what’s deep inside.
And then bringing this meditation to an end, to find within an attitude of goodwill, kindness, gentleness, care for the world beyond your body, for the people in your lives, the strangers, the neighbors, in your communities and around the world. To open the heart to be big enough to include all beings.
May all beings be happy. May all beings be safe. May all beings be peaceful. And may all beings be free.
Welcome to this fifth talk on taking The Road Less Traveled. The emphasis this week has been that there are two different operating systems within us. There’s the operating system that’s unwholesome and one that’s wholesome. Unwholesome doesn’t mean that it’s bad in and of itself, but rather it involves a way of activity of the mind that might even have good things in mind. It could be generous and loving in parts, but the way we engage in it has a kind of tension, or has attachment or clinging, or aggressiveness or anxiety connected to it. So there’s a quality to it which is de-nourishing for us rather than being nourishing for us, that is stressful for us rather than inspiring for us, that enlivens us in a wonderful and happy way.
So there are these two different systems that we have. And Dharma practice has a lot to do with becoming free enough, becoming settled enough, that we can start allowing this deeper system to inform us, to move through us, to carry us. These are all kind of passive verbs, in the sense that a lot of what we do is we get out of the way. We allow this organic movement to go through us and guide us.
I love the metaphor the Buddha uses for a particular state of samadhi1: that of a lake where there’s nothing coming in from outside to stir it up or to replenish it. When it rains and the ground is muddy, the mud pours into the lake and stirs it up. But here, there are no inputs like that. Rather, the lake gets refreshed from a deep underground spring, bringing pure, clean water back into the lake and filling it. In the same way, we can have this inner kind of spring that flows and moves us, that we don’t have to do so much, but we allow for.
When I studied Zen, part of the language there was that we don’t do meditation, we are meditated. We don’t do the practice, we are practiced. Somehow, we put ourselves in a good posture—in Zen, you sat in a very clear, upright posture—and then the idea was to do very, very little, but to allow some deeper movement to course through us, to be practiced by it. They have wonderfully grand language in Zen, where the idea is you’re not sitting to attain anything, but you’re sitting to be a Buddha, you’re sitting to be awakening. This idea that there’s something here that’s operating which is quite significant, that is sacred, that is wonderful, that is not the normal way of behaving and doing and trying to make something happen, is quite inspiring.
One of the core teachings of Buddhism is the Four Noble Truths. For people practicing mindfulness, in a sense, the path of mindfulness is complete with a deep awareness of the Four Noble Truths. The discourse on the four foundations of mindfulness ends in the Four Noble Truths. What’s significant about that is that the Four Noble Truths end themselves with the Eightfold Path2. And that Eightfold Path can be something that’s embodied within us. The ancient language is that we can be endowed with the Eightfold Path. Some translators use the word “possess” the Eightfold Path, but that’s a little bit too acquisitive. The idea is that it’s not something we do, but something that’s inherent in us, that flows through us.
This is a little bit different than how traditional Theravada3 Buddhism teachings are, where the emphasis is on the third Noble Truth, the truth of the cessation of suffering. The Four Noble Truths are: the truth of suffering, the truth of the arising of suffering, the truth of the cessation of suffering, and the Noble Eightfold Path. Usually, it’s translated as the path leading to the cessation of suffering, but it can also be the path of the cessation of suffering, what comes out of the end of suffering. The Theravada tradition kind of has the cessation as being the final, ultimate goal. And in doing so, I think it misses a very core part of the Buddhist teaching, which is how we live our lives.
Two weeks ago, I did this teaching from my translation of the Book of Eights, where the emphasis there is how the sage lives their life. There’s no emphasis on some final attainment of some ultimate state of mind or consciousness, but rather on living peacefully, living wisely, living happily. It’s attaining these qualities that’s important.
So the Eightfold Path in the teachings of the Buddha is understood in two ways. It’s certainly understood as a practice, as eight practices that we choose to engage in. That’s more for people who are beginning the practice, or for any of us at times in our life when we’re quite agitated or challenged. In all kinds of ways, it’s useful to have this practice to do. But the Eightfold Path is also what happens when we’ve settled enough and we can listen deeply, and we don’t have any agitation of suffering that gets in the way. Then it’s being Buddha, it’s being the Eightfold Path.
Someone asked a disciple of the Buddha in these ancient texts, “What is the stream, what is the current that we enter into when we become a stream-enterer?” And the answer is, “It’s the Eightfold Path.” We enter into this path, a stream, a current that’s flowing through us. The Eightfold Path has a lot to do with abstaining from anything which is unwholesome, and instead, what comes out of us is what is wholesome, from this deeper operating system.
Over and over again in these ancient texts, kind of embedded in a way that many people haven’t highlighted so clearly, are these two operating systems and this deeper connection to something deep. Some of the language of that depth is a distinction between that which is worldly and that which is dhammic or spiritual within us—the spiritual source. The idea of “source” is actually mentioned, where the word yoni4 is used. Yoni can be the source of life, and so for humans, it’s understood to be the womb. But there’s a way of attending, a way of knowing, a way of being present in this world, even a way of contemplation or thinking, which is not the discursive mind, not this mind of attachment, but rather comes from this deeper source, the yoni. Exactly how you want to translate yoni can be quite personal, but it is from this deep source within, this gestational place out of which can arise understanding.
More importantly for people practicing mindfulness, out of it can arise a way of attending, a way of being, of bringing our attention to whatever is there. So the very practice of awareness, of attention, of mindfulness, can come from these two sources. Many times, people who are new are practicing from the “control tower” source. And slowly, over time, we learn that the practice can well up from deep inside. It’s not so much something that we’re doing, but something that we are attuned to, something we allow for, something that flows or lives within us.
Ultimately, what lives within us is the Eightfold Path. And so we live in a kind of natural way, because this distinction is between what is natural and what is synthetic, what is natural and what is constructed by the mind, made up in a sense from our attachments and clinging. This natural movement of having a right view, or the complete view, or the view from the source; having right resolve or intention; having that complete view that comes from this source. In fact, the word sammā that’s translated as “right,” if you dig deep down into the dictionaries and into the ancient texts, it doesn’t quite mean right and wrong. Some people have translated it as “consummate.” It’s what is complete, it’s the complete expression of this deeper source that is available when we’re free.
So there’s right intention, right resolve, right attitude. There is right, or consummate, or attuned speech. There is right action. There’s a right lifestyle—sometimes this is called right livelihood, but that’s too narrow for what it is; it’s a whole lifestyle that we live that feels right or consummate. And then there’s this right effort, just the right way to make effort. And the goal explicit here is to have an effort that feels like we’re thriving, a feeling of abundance, an effort which feels like something is growing. Again, this very different language is possible when we understand that it’s coming out of this deep source. And then, right mindfulness and right concentration.
It’s remarkable that these deep things can be there. In Theravada Buddhism, we don’t say that we sit like the Buddha, being Buddha, as they say in Zen. But rather, we say sit like the path, the Eightfold Path. Be the path. Being the path is the culmination of this path that we’re on.
So I hope that this teaching this week has been meaningful for you, that it points you to some very positive and inspiring orientation about the human potential and what’s possible. And that in its culmination and its consummation, it has a lot to do with a wonderful way of living in this life that is free and generous, caring, and comes from this deep place that is our treasure that we have within. May you be filled with the wealth of your inner treasure. Thank you.
A couple of announcements. I will be here next week through the holiday, then I’ll be away for a week on vacation.
When I come back in the beginning of the year, I think it’ll be the 7th of January, the topic for the ongoing series—I don’t know how long it’ll last, but as in the last few years, I do a whole series of talks and meditations. I have been doing them on mindfulness and meditation, Anapanasati5 and Satipatthana6. Beginning next year, I want to do a whole series on samadhi, on concentration practice, something that’s often considered to be not part of mindfulness, but which I want to really integrate into the practice of mindfulness.
Finally, for those of you who would like, at this end of the year, to maybe make a donation to IMC, if you’re interested, you can read my end-of-the-year letter that I have on IMC’s website under “What’s New” and “Reflections from Gil.” Also, you’ll find a link to it on this YouTube page, underneath the video.
So thank you, and I hope these Solstice times bring you an abundance of inner light. Thank you.
Samadhi: A Pali word for a state of meditative concentration or absorption, often translated as “concentration” or “unification of mind.” ↩
Eightfold Path: The fourth of the Four Noble Truths in Buddhism, which describes the way to the cessation of suffering. It consists of eight interconnected factors: Right View, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration. ↩
Theravada: The oldest surviving branch of Buddhism, which means “The School of the Elders.” It is the dominant form of Buddhism in countries like Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar. ↩
Yoni: A Sanskrit word that literally means “womb,” “source,” or “origin.” In this context, it is used metaphorically to refer to a deep, generative source of wisdom and wholesome qualities within a person. ↩
Anapanasati: A core Buddhist meditation practice that involves mindfulness of breathing. “Ānāpāna” refers to inhalation and exhalation, and “sati” means mindfulness. ↩
Satipatthana: A Pali term that translates to “the foundations of mindfulness.” The Satipatthana Sutta is a key Buddhist discourse that provides detailed instructions on practicing mindfulness in four domains: body, feelings, mind, and dhammas (mental objects or principles). ↩