This is an AI-generated transcript from auto-generated subtitles for the video Guided Meditation: Steadiness; Samadhi (13) Steady with Breathing. 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 welcome. It’s delightful to see the names in the chat and recognize many of them and many of you. So, hello.
To assume a meditation posture. Sometimes I think of the posture of meditation as one that kind of frees up or opens up the front of the torso, so it’s easier to breathe. The chest is not collapsed, we’re not collapsed in such a way that the belly is kind of crunched up, but rather there’s a feeling of being open in the chest. Maybe the belly is open and expansive, so that as you relax the belly, soften the belly, the belly hangs forward, it’s not pulled in.
And maybe feeling the belly, the soft belly, as you breathe in deeply, feel the gentle expansion, pressure pushing outwards or downwards that happens in your belly as you breathe in. And how after a while with the in-breath, maybe that expansion and pressure in the belly helps lift up the rib cage and helps expand the torso around the ribs.
And then discovering how you exhale, how the body exhales. A long exhale. Is it first from the chest that contracts, or the belly, or both together? On the exhale, relaxing and softening the whole body and letting the breathing return to normal. And with a normal exhale, soften the body.
And then to settle in, in a simple way, to the experience of breathing. Maybe to a place within which is the centering place, the gathering place. Maybe at the end of the exhale where something shifts and the inhale begins.
If you’re with a friend who somehow is challenged by something and needs support, but the only support they need is just to know you’re there, and you put your hand on the top of their back, just keep your hand there so they know they’re being accompanied. Your hand stays there, steady. In the same way, the hand of awareness is placed gently against the back of breathing. So it’s not a frontal piercing of attention to the breath, a strain, but coming from behind and coming up and being there to feel and sense in a gentle way, to let the breathing know you’re there for it.
And then keeping the hand of awareness with the exhale, so you’re accompanying the exhale through the whole length of the exhale, however short or long it might be. From the beginning to the end, you don’t lose contact.
Experimenting with a steadiness through the whole length of the inhale. And then accompanying the exhale, not pushing it or demanding anything from it, but keeping the hand of attention there, in touch with the whole exhale from beginning to end.
And then both the inhale and the exhale, a steady attention to the whole inhale, followed by a steadiness with the whole exhale.
Staying close to the simplicity of awareness of breathing, not making it a big deal or a project. A simplicity of attention that stays steady, intimate with the full experience of breathing in, breathing out. From time to time, letting there be a settling of the whole body into the breathing.
And see if you can not be interested in your thinking. You don’t have to listen to it or attend to it. Let it recede to the background. It’s not important for these moments of meditation. And instead, to trust being with breathing, trusting a steady attention that stays with the whole length of the inhale and the whole length of the exhale, over and over again.
And if it’s helpful, you might be counting the breath to keep you there.
The more fully you can fill awareness with breathing, the less room there is for thinking.
And if there’s any way it feels as if you’re holding yourself back from the breathing, relax that holding, so it might feel more like you’re entering into the experience of the body breathing.
And then as we come to the end of this sitting, to whatever degree you can, appreciate a steadiness of attention here with the breathing, with yourself, with the body, with being aware itself. Even if it’s a challenge, is there some way that you can appreciate a continuity of awareness? The kind of continuity of awareness you would offer to a friend if you’re listening to them, to their challenge that they’re describing and need to talk about. A continuity of being present so they know that you care through how you listen.
And may it be that the way that we learn to attend and be present for ourselves in meditation, may it support us in our ability to listen well to others, to attend to others so we can understand them better, know them better. May it be that this practice that we do supports us in our ability to be attuned, be considerate, be respectful of other people, so they feel our respect through how we are aware of them, how we listen. And may it be that how we listen to the suffering world is medicine to any feeling that people have that they’re alone, unattended, uncared for. May we live in such a way that we contribute to all beings being cared for, being respected and listened to.
May all beings be happy. May all beings be safe. May all beings be peaceful. May all beings be free.
And may our ability to be present for others contribute to their well-being and freedom.
So hello and welcome to this series on Samadhi1. On Monday, I talked about Samadhi as simplicity. Yesterday, as Samadhi as settling, subtleness. And today, as steadiness. A steady attention to the present moment, a steady attention to the experience we’re having that we’re really settling on.
And this idea of steady attention is closely connected to the idea of a continuity of attention, continuity in the present moment. And the idea is to hang out with the breath so we get absorbed, so we get more engaged in it. Some people find this hard to do because they expect that somehow they’ll find in the breathing something wonderful, like there’s a key there or some pleasure there or something profound there to be found if they keep looking at the breathing. That the breathing is a solution.
The real kind of warmth and beauty and delight of Samadhi is not found in the object that we pay attention to, but in the subjective experience of being intimate or connected or steadied, absorbed in the experience we’re having. So we don’t want to look for the solution in the experience of breathing, but something happens in the interaction between us and breathing, us and the object of concentration. In the way in which we attend to it—the steadiness, the subtleness, the simplicity, and the continuity of attention that is more continuous than the continuity of being lost in thought.
So, to kind of stay and rest there. One of the things that can support this steadiness and continuity of attention is the wise use of our imagination. Sometimes, if we have the ability to imagine in a nice way, in our own way, that some form of imagination brings us connected and inspired and kind of riding along with the breathing, it can be easier to have the continuity.
So I’ll offer you some examples, and the idea is that you find an example that works for you. Something I did in my early years of practice was imagining that my in-breaths and out-breaths were like the slow, gentle movements of the wings of a large bird. Breathing in and out was the way the wings were going up and down. And sometimes with the exhale, if it was all extended, it was like I was gliding along in the wind. And then I would lift it up again and let them go down. There was something about this for me, this imagery of being in the high, high sky and gently, the breathing being intimately connected to, you know, associated with the wings flapping, that got me really engaged, the continuity staying right there with it.
Another thing that I’ve done is sometimes I’ve imagined—and I’ve told this story many times before—but when I was a little kid, I loved going on a push scooter. And the way that a push scooter would work is that I would, with one foot, kick the ground to push the scooter forward, and then I’d ride the momentum until the momentum started to slow, and then I’d gently push again, ride, push. So for the meditation and breathing, the inhale was like the push, and the exhale was riding the momentum. And it just felt so good to ride that momentum to the end of the exhale, and then I would gently push with the inhale. And that imagery, doing it that way, kind of harnessed my imagination to help me be present, rather than the imagination taking me off to some other lands and times and things that were going on. Just like counting is taking thinking and using it for the purpose of being present, so there can be the wise use of imagination that brings you into the present more rather than taking you away.
The example I used in this last meditation of putting your gentle, safe hand on someone’s back or feeling someone there for you, holding you. Maybe you’re walking in an unsteady way in a place that is a little dangerous, and someone’s just there letting you know they’re there to catch you if you fall, they’ll take care of you, or something like that. So that might be nice, just right there.
It’s related to an imagination I used also many years ago when I was in college. I took a massage class, and the teacher taught us to, when you’re massaging someone, always have one hand that’s always connected to the person you’re massaging, so there’s no interruption to that and there’s no surprise of being touched again if you get some massage oil to use more of it for the massage. And so you always have that contact. So I found that a nice imagery sometimes of being with the breath in meditation: never lose contact, stay there.
But for some people, that’s not the right image. For some people, the bird flying is not the right image. Another image I’ve used—because I’ve been doing this for 50 years, so I’ve had a series of them—another one that I’ve enjoyed sometimes is thinking of the exhale as riding a slide. And I’m just kind of riding, going down like a little kid going on the slide, “woo,” you know, just riding the slide. And that kind of just kept me right there and it kind of made it kind of fun.
So you might have your own imagery that might work for you. I know some people have the image of breathing as being a big wheel, and that the sense of this wheel turning helps them stay with it, almost like the inhale and exhale are the turning of the wheel. And just that simple one keeps them connected and involved.
For some people, the imagination is not what’s going to help them stay steady and continuous with the breathing. There might be something interesting about the sensations of breathing, or more usefully, something pleasant about it, some pleasure that’s to be found there. For example, I find that I generally find the exhale to be more pleasant than the inhale. Sometimes it’s been the opposite. But to be sure to be there for whatever pleasant or satisfactory sensations are there in the cycle of breath, and then ride it, feel it, sense it. Some people find that they can get absorbed in breathing because they begin really tuning into wherever there’s some sense of pleasantness or pleasure in breathing. I’ve known some people who’ve adjusted their breathing just a little bit, just so it can be a little bit more pleasant, more enjoyable. Sometimes breathing slightly bigger breaths, sometimes relaxing the belly and softening somewhere in the body so some part of the cycle of breath is pleasant. And so rather than imagination to help be present, it’s the ability to tune into something that’s pleasant with the breathing and riding that pleasure, allowing oneself to feel the pleasure, taking it in.
And all along, this idea of steadiness and continuity of attention with breathing should be done without any strain, without any expectation, without measuring how well we’re doing. So, of course, we’re going to wander off. Of course, the continuity is going to not be continuous. And so, find a way to meditate so that the loss of touch with the breathing, the loss of staying connected and steady, is folded in as part of a healthy meditation. It’s not a problem, but rather, just, of course your mind’s going to do that. And then find a relaxed way to begin again, to come back again, to come back again.
Here also, I used the imagination. I don’t think at first it was a choice or something I thought about; it was just an image that arose as I was doing the practice. And that was that I learned to become, at some point in this practice, I learned to have a friendly attitude towards my breathing, to my thinking. I didn’t set it up as a tension or as a problem. But then if I found myself wandering off in thought, I wouldn’t tense up, I wouldn’t be critical, I wouldn’t see it as a problem. But the image I had was that there was a horse that had escaped the corral. And so the way to bring it back was to ride another horse and ride up right next to it, so being companions, riding together. And go along with the horse that escaped for a little while, and then take a big arc around, 180 degrees, to come back to the corral, come back to where we’re supposed to be.
And so that imagery came up as I would notice I was thinking, and I would kind of go along with it a little bit. I wasn’t going to immediately tense up or do something about it, just know I was thinking, accompany thinking a little bit, and then gently, with this idea, “Okay, come back, let’s go back, let’s make a big circle.” Not a jerk back, not a U-turn around 180 degrees and just jerk back, but just a gentle, long curve. And how long would that take? Maybe it took two or three seconds to do that process. And then when I came back to breathing that way, I was much more settled than I was before, at the beginning of wandering off in thought. And it was okay, here I am. And then, okay, let’s have continuity, let’s be steady here, let’s be committed in a loving way or absorbed in just the simplicity of this: simple, settled, and steady here.
So I hope these ideas give you something to find for yourself that supports you with this steadiness, continuity of attention.
And then I thought that an announcement to make is that this Friday, we will have a community meeting for those of you who can. I’ll post a Zoom link on IMC’s “What’s New” and in the IMC calendar. And also on Friday, I’ll post it here on YouTube in the chat. And then at 7:45, we’ll switch over to Zoom and we can have some period of question and answers, some discussion. We’ll do a breakout group so those of you who can, you can all kind of meet a few of the people who are part of this online sangha. So thank you very much, and I look forward to being here again tomorrow morning.
Samadhi: A Pali word that refers to a state of meditative concentration or absorption. It is a key component of the Buddhist path, often described as the unification of mind on a single object, leading to states of deep calm, clarity, and insight. ↩