This is an AI-generated transcript from auto-generated subtitles for the video Guided Meditation: Pleasure; Samadhi (21) The Path of Wellbeing. 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.
So welcome to our weekday meditations offered here from Insight Meditation Center. Today’s meditation is part of an ongoing series on samadhi1, and we come to a kind of a turning point now in this series where we’re now going to consider the role of pleasure in different forms as part of samadhi. So pleasure can take the forms of straight kind of physical pleasure, it can take the form of joy and happiness, gladness, and other qualities that come with pleasure.
So to begin, very simply, and maybe if you can suspend disbelief at your capacity to feel pleasure in meditation and to be open to recognize ways, maybe subtle ways, that there can be pleasure. And there can be pleasure at the same time as pain. And it has a little bit to do with how much or how little we prioritize certain sensations over others. And certainly, pain can be very difficult, and it can feel like almost a survival instinct to focus on it and try to manage it. And of course, you should try to manage it the best you can, and certainly never use meditation as a way of injuring yourself through pain. But there’s also an art to not being reactive to the pain, not being in the mind fixated on it in some kind of way, but to be open to the pleasure that’s also present. And so the pleasure can accompany the discomfort, the pain, emotional pain, physical pain there might be, and it creates a different context, maybe a different opening, an openness, maybe a calmer or kind of a freer relationship to it all.
So, to assume a meditation posture.
And to spend a little bit of time seeing if you can find a posture that somehow manifests both some degree of calm and alertness, that at the same time you enjoy, you appreciate, maybe because it’s familiar, your meditation posture. And to feel the gladness, feel the relief or appreciation of beginning meditation in this posture.
And as a way of waking up and relaxing at the same time, waking up the body, see if you can breathe somewhat fuller or deeper than you usually do, but to do it in a way that’s pleasant for you, you enjoy it. So to let the breath be fuller so that the rib cage expands, deeper so the belly expands, just enough, not more than enough, just enough so that’s a very simple, ordinary enjoyment, pleasure in breathing. And to exhale longer than usual, maybe mostly by relaxing at the end of the exhale so it continues. And maybe the letting go, the release of exhaling, is there any pleasure in that? Any pleasantness? Anything pleasant about the rhythm of breathing in and breathing out?
Sometimes the pleasure or relief can be that we’re no longer so caught up and involved in our everyday concerns. They might still be there, but it’s nice to be now in a posture and a practice where we can begin taking a step away from it. A step not away from ourselves, but into ourselves.
And letting the breathing return to normal. And I often teach spending time relaxing the body at the beginning of meditation. And as we do this, see if you can feel any sense of pleasure, pleasantness, enjoyment, relief in the relaxation. So that as you exhale, to relax the face, the eyes, the cheeks, the jaws. As you exhale, to soften in the shoulders. Sometimes it’s difficult to relax the shoulders, but to soften around any holding in the shoulders.
On the exhale, softening the belly. Sometimes that’s a little bit uncomfortable, but there can also be something pleasant in it, side by side from the discomfort. For this meditation, feel the pleasure.
And if it’s easy enough, on the exhale, relax, soften, open the thinking mind, the thinking muscle. And to feel whatever pleasantness, pleasure, relief there is in that softening of the mind.
And centering yourself on your breathing in whatever way is easy for you, feel your body kind of in a wide broadway, the global body. To feel where in your body there is some modicum of pleasure, pleasantness, comfort. And feel that comfort, feel that pleasantness as you breathe. It might be just a little spot someplace in the hands, somewhere in the legs, the lips touching, or it might be broad. It might be, in this instance, more like a radiance in the vibration, the hum of the body.
And then to feel your breathing within that, maybe feel within that context of pleasure.
And the idea is to breathe in an ordinary, normal way, no special effort to breathe in any special breathing technique. But within the normal range of breathing, there is room for slight adjustments in your breathing. To breathe more from the belly, more from the chest, more from with the nostrils, and maybe all of the above at once. See if you can find where in the cycle of breathing, where in the body, there is some degree of pleasure or comfort with breathing, no matter how small or brief.
And ever so slightly, just enough, can you adjust your breathing so that there is more pleasure, more comfort in breathing? Maybe a slight breathing deeper, fuller. Maybe not by doing it, but having there be a letting go near the top of the inhale so the inhale continues. Letting go at the end of the exhale so the exhale continues in a nice way.
And as part of breathing, the cycles of breathing in and out, let yourself be touched by whatever pleasure there is in breathing, whatever comfort, pleasantness, maybe joy, whatever sense of well-being is found with breathing, in the sensations of breathing, or radiating from them, around them.
And no matter how small the pleasure is, maybe your mind stays more interested in being absorbed in breathing, absorbed in attention to breathing, if you keep touching into what’s pleasant, what’s comforting in breathing.
If there is any pleasantness in breathing, as you breathe, relax the thinking mind into that pleasure, so the thinking mind becomes quieter and more content just to be quiet, attentive.
And if you do feel any pleasure or have a soft mind that can feel the pleasure of the breathing in a way that is maybe similarly pleasant, gently count the exhales, so that the quiet, maybe whispering count quiets the thinking mind so you can better feel the pleasantness of breathing.
And then as we come to the end of this sitting, to feel, notice, is there any way that you are calmer than you were before, more settled, less preoccupied? Maybe a greater sense of being in touch with yourself? Is there something you appreciate about how the meditation has changed or shifted something for you? And is there something pleasant about the appreciation or what you’re appreciating? Is there some gladness that you feel, glad and content to be meditating? Is there any pleasure, pleasantness that’s grown in the course of the meditation?
And as you exhale, to imagine yourself settling back into a soft chair, easy chair, recliner, settling back down into that pleasure, pleasantness. And from there, gazing out upon the world, gazing upon maybe the people in your life, people in your communities, out across the land and across the globe with all its suffering and joys. And perhaps your ability to rest in a pleasant state is better for the world than for you to rest in an agitated state or a troubled state or an unpleasant state. At least for these next minute or two, whatever degree you can rest in pleasure, in comfort, in goodness, as you gaze with your mind’s eye out across the world, it’s medicine for the world.
And as you go forth into the day, may there arise from your actions, from your speech, and even from your mind and how it thinks, may there arise ways of relating to people that can manifest these kinds of words, these wishes:
May all beings be happy. May all beings be safe. May all beings be peaceful. May all beings be free.
And may we contribute to that possibility, at least locally and in small ways.
Thank you.
So hello and welcome to this 21st talk on samadhi, the phenomenally useful ability to be happily absorbed in an activity, absorbed as in a state of being absorbed, connected. And this is one of the gifts that can happen in meditation, and it’s a state that, as samadhi develops, that involves a lot of pleasure. Some of that pleasure can be experienced as gladness, comfort, some of it as joy, sometimes as happiness. Some people will describe it, when it gets intense, as a rapture and bliss.
When the Buddha was searching for a path to awakening, there is a story that’s told that he remembered being a child and being left in a safe place while the adults were doing the spring plowing festival in the field. And he was at the edge of the field under a tree—it’s kind of lovely that they record what tree it was, it was a rose apple tree—and somehow watching the events around him, he got very calm and settled and peaceful and, in a way that was noticeable, and felt a lot of joy and happiness. And then he entered into a state that was very enjoyable, and he remembered having that as a child as an adult. And he said, “Wait a minute, maybe this is the way forward. Maybe this is the way to freedom.” He had been doing asceticism, where he was denying himself and experiencing a tremendous amount of pain intentionally, and he had realized that that wasn’t going to lead to his awakening.
In ancient India, to feel pleasure was considered a little bit taboo among religious people, at least some of them, that somehow that was indulgent, somehow that was self-preoccupation of some sort. But he felt the quality of this pleasure of absorption was actually quite healthy and useful, and that it was onward-leading. It led to a kind of a deeper unification, deeper arriving here, connection here, and a deeper clarity that was going to allow him to do the work of coming to the end of suffering.
So we have here in Buddhism two things that might seem contradictory but are important to understand they go hand in hand. One is a very direct acknowledgment of suffering, suffering in the world and our own suffering. There’s not a turning away from it or denying it or pretending it’s not there or overriding it with some kind of even meditation. There is a kind of mature, serious, “yes, there is suffering.” And at the same time, an appreciation that there is a healthy pleasure, a healthy sense of well-being that we can cultivate and develop as a way of meeting that suffering, holding that suffering, finding a way through that suffering. And so how we can hold both at the same time is part of the art.
And one way to do that is to not be fixated on the suffering, not be overly afraid or concerned or trying to fix it or solve it. Maybe to understand that, at least in the context of meditation, not in the rest of our life, but in meditation at least, there’s something about our challenges, our problems, even some deep psychological suffering that we carry, that it won’t be solved, but it will be dissolved. And so it’s almost like better not to fixate on it, but let the discomforts and stuff be on the edges or in the middle of it. Without denying it, start, as we develop and get settled in meditation, more and more to feel the pleasure of meditating. Of course, this is not something someone can do when suffering is new and fresh or big, or someone’s new to meditation. But as meditation deepens and we have a sense of it, then we start opening up to the pleasure of meditation.
And you know, this is the 21st talk on samadhi, so there’s been a lot of foundation hopefully to lead up to this. If some of you are new to this, maybe by now you can start seeing a little hint, a glimmer of the pleasure that might be there, the pleasantness, the sense of well-being. And when the Buddha recognized it from his, you know, that he had it as a child, and now this is the way forward, he said, “I don’t have to be afraid of this kind of pleasure.” And again, because in his time people were afraid of pleasure, and sensual pleasure and all kinds of things, because it kept them trapped in the world and created more bad karma or some idea like that they had. And for him, it was revolutionary to discover that there is a kind of pleasure, a kind of well-being that is not a trap, is not a problem, but actually you don’t have to be afraid of it. You can embrace it, you can use that as an entry.
And so it’s easier for the mind to want to be present if what we’re being present for is enjoyable. Listening to really pleasant things like music, doing an activity that we enjoy a lot, it’s easier to stay present and show up. Meditation can be a little bit like that too, eventually. As we begin understanding ourselves, learning the art of being present, it isn’t a direct kind of sensual pleasure because we’re getting a massage or something. There starts to well up from some deep inner source a sense of rightness, a sense of relief, a sense of delight, a sense of pleasure that is not because of something good in the world that our senses are being stimulated in a good way, but is more related to something beginning to work in harmony. The harmony of breath and mind, the breathing is relaxed enough that it feels harmonious and easeful within us, an easeful breath, a relaxed breath, and an awareness that enjoys being there.
So start becoming more and more sensitive to the, maybe at first very subtle, sense of enjoyments or pleasure that seems to be part and parcel of the meditation itself. It might be a growing global feeling of a hum, a pleasant hum throughout the body. It might be a particular part of, almost like a little square inch inside of a square centimeter that just has, as we breathe, when we touch that centimeter of the breath or that little brief point, it just feels so poignantly delightful to feel that. Or it might be the whole exhale just feels so pleasant to exhale, but maybe not in a square centimeter kind of point, but maybe more like you can’t fixate the attention on that pleasure. It’s more there in the periphery, on the edges of the breath and the edge of the sensations of breathing. And so you better not fixate on it or look for it, but you kind of just allow it to be there as a nice supporting pleasure that provides a kind of biofeedback mechanism, where when that pleasure is there connected to breathing, then we’re on track. And that kind of encourages the mind, “Yes, stay there, keep doing what you’re doing, stay with the breathing, ride the breath, stay absorbed in the breath,” and allow that pleasure to be there and even allow it to grow as you’re there.
So sometimes that pleasure is a growing pleasure, is the tingling of the air going in and out of the nostrils that can get more and more intense. It could be the soft rhythm and the smoothness of an exhale in the chest or the belly. It could be the sensation of breathing in that, maybe the speed of it and the smoothness of it, if it is that way. It could be that it’s not connected to breathing itself, as I said, but maybe it’s more there kind of on the edges of it, just beyond the edges of breathing, there’s something that just feels comforting and nice, like a radiance perhaps.
So I don’t know how it’ll be for any of you. There’s many, many, many ways, maybe an infinite number of ways in which we can feel the pleasure that’s related to meditation. It’s not because it’s pleasant in the room or just the right temperature, but it’s really there because of the way in which we’re getting connected and present for the focus of meditation, the centering place, the settling place. We’re really involved in that process that it feels good, like reading a good book or being involved in a wonderful activity that we enjoy doing. So that kind of joy begins welling up.
So I’ll talk more about this this week. This week we’ll focus on this aspect of pleasure, and hopefully you can find something. And so you might, through the day today until we meet again in 24 hours, spend more time noticing the pleasures you feel in the activities you do. And maybe there’s ways you can drive in a pleasant way. You have to adjust something so driving is pleasant, maybe how fast you drive and all kinds of things, how you sit. Maybe there’s ways you can bring in more pleasure in how you cook or clean or whatever you’re doing. See if you can find and appreciate how you can feel pleasure in activities you do, and it might be better than the alternative if you don’t do that.
So thank you, and I have an announcement. So, partly inspired by what happened three years ago with this YouTube community, IMC is having a fundraising drive this week. Three years ago, we did a fundraising drive for Save the Children for the children and mothers and families that were suffering from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and we raised $70,000, which was fantastic. And we’re trying to do that again, this time for the Save the Children’s emergency fund, which is going to the places in the world where children are most in danger of starving to death, most hunger, homelessness, all kinds of great challenges. So this money will go to Gaza, to Sudan, I think to Syria, a variety of places in the world.
And I’m hoping that this community that we’re here inspired last time will continue to inspire the wider IMC community to participate in this fundraising drive. And so you can read a little bit more about it by going to the IMC website. And I had asked someone to post it on the chat here today, I don’t know if it’s appeared there, but if you go on the homepage of IMC’s website, there’s a banner at the top that takes you to the donation page for the drive. And also in “What’s New,” there’s a page which describes it.
So, this is one way that from out of our meditation community, we can benefit the world and to feel like we’re doing it together as a community. And the collective power is a wonderful thing. And it’s just a, I think a very significant, I don’t know if coincidence is the right word, but that we planned to do this before the US closed down the agency for International Development, where there’s now even more challenges in the world to get food and supplies and medicine to people in distressed situations. So to be an alternative to this has even more meaning now. So thank you very much.
Samadhi: A Pali word for a state of meditative concentration or absorption. It is a state of deep calm, stability, and unification of mind. ↩