This is an AI-generated transcript from auto-generated subtitles for the video Guided Meditation: Infinite Patience; Samadhi (40) Deep Contentment. 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. Welcome to this meditation.
One of the parts of the art of meditation, the skills of meditation, is to have an infinite patience. The closer we get into Samadhi1, the more patient we need to be—not patient because it’s not going well, but because it becomes more and more important to simply set the course and to stay on the course as if you’re going to do this forever. You’re settling in, with less and less orientation towards accomplishing, doing anything; less and less orientation around having desires for something or escape from something; less and less trying to make something happen.
This way of practicing is useful all along to a certain degree, but it becomes more and more important the quieter and stiller the mind becomes, because the slightest little desire, the slightest little pushing and wanting, agitates or interferes with the Samadhi itself.
So, assume a meditation posture, taking a little bit of time to be careful and caring about the posture you’ll meditate in, almost like a ritual of arriving here. Part of that ritual might be to gently close the eyes, and as they close, to have the gaze turn inward, as if there’s a homecoming here.
Gently, in a way that feels really nice for you, take some fuller breaths with the whole torso, just enough to feel full or satisfied with breathing in, and then a longer-than-usual exhale—slow, steady, steadying yourself in your seat, in the place that you’re meditating.
Breathing in, relaxing on the exhale, and letting the breathing return to normal. For a few breaths more, let your attention travel around your body to places of holding or activation, and on the exhale, gently relax. It might feel good to pause at the end of the exhale; sometimes the body can relax more in that pause. A pause at the end of the exhale gives you a chance to feel the global body a bit more and allow more letting go in the body.
Then, letting the breathing return to normal. With a normal breath, on the inhale, feel the thinking mind. Feel it, if possible, with patience, acceptance. Just to feel it and know it, as if you’re saying hello. And then on the exhale, to relax the thinking mind.
Feeling the thinking mind, feeling the whole mind on the inhale, and on the exhale, to settle, steady the mind on the breathing. Orient the mind towards the breathing, organizing the mind for the whole mind to be centered on breathing in and breathing out. As if there’s a light from the back of the mind that directly settles on the breathing.
Feeling the body’s experience of breathing, and feeling it, being aware of it in a gentle steadiness. Not fixating the mind, but a gentle massaging of breathing in the body, awareness with the breathing, a gentle flow and orientation.
Feeling whatever sensation, whatever feeling there is in breathing that feels sweet, pleasant, enjoyable. It might not be with the sensations of breathing directly, but it might be a feeling of being cozy or at home around the breathing, like the body around breathing is a nest where breathing settles and moves.
As we enter Samadhi, there might be the kind of subtle, sublime feelings that come with quiet creativity, a kind of cozy feeling of intuition. Maybe a kind of subtle, sublime feeling of listening to very reassuring music that somehow touches us deep inside.
Breathing in the middle of it all, holding the course steady, content to be with the breathing as if forever, in infinite patience. Remembering there’s no need anymore for desires or aversions, simply accompanying breathing.
And to evoke a little bit of pleasure or joy, delight in this steadiness with breathing, you can turn up the corners of your mouth just enough to elicit some pleasure, joy, lightness, openness, to support the patient accompanying of each breath.
There can be something satisfying with sitting, meditating quietly without desires and without aversions. A cozy patience to accompany breathing continuously.
Taking a few moments to feel deeply within. Deeply within whatever else you normally feel, is there something that feels satisfying, that feels sweet or beautiful, that feels cozy or an at-homeness? Or maybe a sense of ease or peace, calm. Gently let yourself feel, receive the influence of this deeper sense of well-being, however subtle it might be.
And imagine that it has no edges, that in some way the well-being, the deeper feeling, is open wide to the whole world. An open transmission on which can travel your goodwill out into the world. And may these words represent your own goodwill, your own well-wishing for others. And may you cherish your capacity for goodwill.
May all beings be happy. May all beings be safe. May all beings be peaceful. May all beings be free.
And may we each stay close to the deeper place within from which goodwill can flow. May this practice we do help us spread well-wishing, goodwill, and friendship out into the world.
[Music]
Thank you.
Welcome to the continuation of this series of talks on Samadhi. I think we’re now on the 40th talk. What I hope is that these guided meditations that go along with it and these talks, more than teaching you techniques, more than teaching you how to do Samadhi practice, it’s pointing you to feeling something meaningful and satisfying.
The normal state that people live in involves some kind of tension, some kind of stress. It might be a low level, and it might not be recognizable by people that they’re living with stress and tension because it’s become normalized. It’s expected; it’s just how it is to be in the world, how it is to be a human being. The person might have a reference point for something that calls stress or being tense that’s some kind of serious level or quantum leap above their normal state, but still, people often live in this normal state. What that means is that the thinking that comes from tension also has become normalized, also seems just as this is what it is to be a human being. And we’re supposed to do this, or it may even be almost invisible that we’re constantly chattering, talking, having conversations, remembering, reviewing, planning.
But to enter into Samadhi is to drop into some place that’s below any level of tension or stress that we can experience. And in a sense, we are now in Samadhi, dropping below the stress level of our life, the tension level. Sometimes the stress and tension continue to be there in the body and heart or someplace but have now moved a little bit to the periphery because we feel at the center, or underneath it all, a place where there is no stress, there is no tension, there is no operating on clinging desires, pushing desires, needy desires. That are there without any kind of hostile aversion, pushing away, wanting it to be different. It’s like we’re dropping into much more of what can be a natural state of who we are when there is no tension, when there is no stress at all in the system.
This gives rise to deep feelings of satisfaction, relief, well-being, and joy. Each person is going to experience this differently, but sometimes it comes along with the kind of feelings you would have if you were peacefully creative, maybe writing poetry or reading poetry, or maybe peacefully, quietly involved, absorbed in a very simple craft or very simple playing of music, where there’s some kind of almost emotional feeling that wells up or is there that feels effusive and spread through the body.
It isn’t that we can so much make this happen in Samadhi, but it begins to show itself because it’s there. It’s almost like it’s always there underneath the tension, underneath the stress. It’s kind of like a treasure house within that’s waiting to be opened. It’s important not to think that the treasures are too fantastic, important not to look for peak experiences and dramatic feelings of Samadhi. It’s actually better to have it be a kind of very deep contentment, a deep satisfaction, a deep “aha, this is good to be here.” Like you’ve gotten really cozy in bed, and now you’re safe, now it’s good. Nothing has to happen, nothing more has to be done, nothing has to be said. And now, this is good.
To be able to recognize that, so we can move towards it or settle into it in meditation, so we can recognize that this is important, this is valuable, it’s a treasure. Because sometimes the orientation is so strongly towards thoughts and tension, stress, that is often driven by the desire to be safe because we’re afraid, the desire to want something because we feel insufficient in some way, or we just want more pleasure or something. To no longer be attracted to that, no longer be hooked into it or be mesmerized by desires and aversions, and to settle quietly into a much deeper sense of contentment, a deeper sense of satisfaction.
At some point, we start seeing that having any desire, or when we see that desires, aversions, and thoughts are actually agitating the mind, keeping us separated from this deeper place that’s satisfying, this deeper connection to breathing and the underlying peace or joy or well-being in which breathing occurs. We see that thoughts and desires are agitating it, then it’s easier to just let those go, let those become quieter, kind of let the mind become stiller and quieter, let the heart be more settled.
But we might need to see that certain kinds of activities of the mind are not so satisfying, or maybe a little bit alienating, a little bit keeping us away from some deeper satisfaction, so that it’s easier just to let it float away. There comes a time when the desire to not have those desires is too much to have, and so it’s almost like we just learn to leave it alone. We have desires, we have aversions, we have thoughts, and there comes a time when it just feels like the best thing to do is just leave it completely alone. Don’t be involved. It recedes to the periphery, it’s not being reinforced. Maybe it floats away, maybe it’s kind of quietly in the background, but in the foreground is where the action is: the action of contentment, the actions of deep satisfaction, deep immersion in this lake of Samadhi.
In this space of Samadhi, there can be pleasures, there can be pleasantness, there can be joy, there can be a strong sense of happiness. Sometimes people feel rapture in these states. But the idea is to somehow be at ease in the middle of them. Don’t push for anything, don’t try to pump anything up. Just try to be at ease and allow, make space, allow it to be there. Let each thing of this well-being kind of have space, breathing room to live the way it wants to live. Sometimes these states get stronger, sometimes they fade away. Don’t have an agenda, but hold it steady.
What happens as we go through this approach stage is the steady staying here becomes stronger and stronger. Sometimes it feels almost like we’re clicking in, and when there’s a kind of a shift, boom, now we’ve really arrived. Boy, are we ever here now with this experience. And it doesn’t feel like there’s any movement to get distracted or wander away. Sometimes that is a very slow, steady movement that we slowly settle into. We don’t see it almost coming until we find ourselves in a state where we’re now really here. If there are thoughts, it’s only thoughts that are pleasant, nice, good thoughts about what’s happening in meditation, about the experience here, and that supports us to be with it.
And very, very quiet. To some people have the experience we’re locked into this now. Sometimes it’s just really like we’re at rest, where now we’re really rooted here and now. So the fruition of this approach stage is, because we’re so patient, so willing to just stay here and be here as if forever, that the desires to be anywhere else begin to fall away. And the familiarity with just staying here with the breath, staying one breath after the other, inhale, exhale, riding the breath, staying with it continuously in an easeful way—at some point, we’re rooted, we’re there, we’re not going away for a while.
And then, without exactly desire, we’re allowed to enjoy that. This is where the art of enjoyment is an art. Enjoy it in a way that helps the mind be quiet, without thoughts, with fewer thoughts, calm. And then just stay there. You can feel that having thoughts takes you away from it, but you’re allowed to be there in that well-being of deep Samadhi. It’s actually part of what we become rooted in or connected in; it supports us to be right there in the practice.
So whether you understand what I’m saying now and you have any reference point in your own experience or not, I think it’s good just to hear these words, hear these descriptions, so that you can recognize it or appreciate it or be inspired by it. So some characteristics, some qualities of this can actually be there all along in your practice, in your meditation, even at times when you are much more restless and filled with thoughts. This is the orientation, this is the simplicity of it.
And so we’ll continue on Monday. And on Monday, we’re going to start going into some of the characteristics of when the Samadhi really becomes clear, full Samadhi, which in our tradition is called Jhāna2. And I’m not expecting you to be in Jhāna, but some of the qualities and characteristics of it are useful to know, even when you’re not in Jhāna.
But in the meantime, if you feel like any kind of ongoingness, momentum that’s happening for you from this Samadhi series, I would recommend that you be sure to meditate this weekend, through the next two days, so that there’s some continuity through the next two days that you can pick up with or continue into Monday when we start again.
So thank you very much, and I appreciate your attention, your being part of this journey with Samadhi, and I look forward to continuing. Thank you.