This is an AI-generated transcript from auto-generated subtitles for the video Guided Meditation: Letting Go; Inspirations for Insight (5 of 5) What’s Most Important. It likely contains inaccuracies.
The following talk was given by an unknown speaker at the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California. Please visit website www.audiodharma.org to find the authoritative record of this talk.
Good morning, everyone. Good day, warm greetings. This is a sound check. While I’m waiting to hear from you, I just want to express my delight at being with this worldwide Sangha.
For those of you who tried out the homework, if you reflected on one action of body, speech, or mind yesterday, what did you notice? I would love for you to take a moment in silent reflection or perhaps to share that reflection, either now aloud or with others later, or by writing it down. Reflecting on actions of body, speech, and mind can be a lifelong practice. In the talk today, I’ll be talking a little bit more about bringing a perspective of lifelong practice into how we practice and how we live.
Some people are saying loving-kindness with a conversation with your son—wonderful. Some things, lots of things, can remain unsaid. Yes, that can be wisdom. I promise to look at the rest later.
I want to invite you now to settle into meditation. Take a posture that allows for receptivity, groundedness, calm, and kindness. Allowing the eyes to close, the eyes to soften, and the tongue to soften. Turning the gaze inward and softening inner speech, or perhaps even allowing it to slow down or stop.
Starting with a few deeper, slower breaths, and inviting a wave of relaxation down your body. Tuning into the context, the surroundings of the room. Being receptive to sound, sensation, warmth, or cool. The weight of your body taking your place, your seat on this earth.
Allowing the breathing to be natural and inviting the attention to rest on each breath. Inviting the attention, the awareness, to brighten on the in-breath and to let go, relax, surrender to the out-breath. Allowing the attention to be invited, encouraged to be here, immersing in the breath.
Noticing and appreciating any moments of ease, comfort, any soothing qualities of the breath, of being present. Allowing the attention to steady, to unify with the ease and simplicity of breathing.
If the mind is pulled away, it’s natural. Be kind and gracious with what minds do, and appreciate and welcome the return of awareness of this moment, this breath.
Noticing and appreciating any softening, relaxation, any sense of being soothed or pleasant sensations, no matter how small, in the breath, in your heart. Letting go with kindness, with compassion on the out-breath. Inviting present awareness on the in-breath.
If the mind is pulled away, allow the sensations of aliveness of the in-breath and out-breath to call the mind back here, now. Staying in contact with all the sensations of the in-breath to the very top, the fullness of the in-breath, and all of the sensations of the release of the out-breath, like stroking a beloved animal.
Perhaps noticing the still points, the pause at the end of the out-breath, and letting go into that, releasing before the natural arising with the in-breath.
As the mind begins to steady, if it does, inviting a letting go into the moment, a loving letting go on each exhale. Let go, let go, let go. Immersing, softening into the moment.
In the last remaining moments of our meditation together, notice, take in, and appreciate any softening, any peace, any steadiness. Savoring any little glimpse or corner of goodness. Reflecting back on these moments of meditation and gathering them up in your heart, in your body.
And from that place, offering, perhaps with an internal gesture, the sense of generosity, of letting go. Offering that goodness, those benefits, out into the world, to others your life touches or has touched.
May they be safe, happy, as healthy as possible, no matter what their condition. May they heal into peace. May they know ease, and may they be free. May our practice here together be a cause and condition for greater peace and letting go in our own lives and in all of the lives we touch, and all of the lives they touch, outwards and outwards, rippling. May all beings be safe, peaceful, and free of suffering.
Thank you for the sincerity of your practice.
I feel almost too calm to think or speak, but I guess it’s my place in our time together to speak, so here I go. First, just to say that if you would like to practice together more online, I’ll be offering a half-day through the Sati Center for Buddhist Studies on August 16th, I believe. You can go to their website for more information.
We have now reached the fifth talk in our series this week on “Inspirations for Insight: Stories and Myths from the Buddha’s Life” and how they relate to insight, freedom, and practice. This is indeed the last story of the Buddha’s life. It’s the story of his last teachings, his final words, and his last meditation.
As some of you may be aware, the Buddha lived to a good old age for ancient India. According to his own words in the ancient discourses, he was around 80 years old. He had been traveling and teaching on foot for 40 years, founding an order. In the months before his death, he knew he didn’t have very much time left, and he was very clear about his priorities. He traveled around emphasizing a certain teaching that I’ll get into a bit more later.
Then, in his last hours, he arrived at a little town and was a bit cloistered. He saw one or two visitors, and then when it was approaching the time for him to go, he settled between two Sal trees. The members of his order gathered around, and I think other lay disciples gathered around as well. He lay down and took the time to ask if they had any last questions, anything he needed to clear up. No one did.
So his last words, and I’m paraphrasing of course, were: “Make of yourself a light, a lamp, an island. Look for no other refuge.” And then right after that, he said, “Make the Dharma your light, your lamp, an island. No other refuge.” In other words, take refuge in the practice, take refuge in the teachings. He did this without appointing a successor; he very pointedly did not name a successor. The teachings, the practices, the ethical framework that had developed within his time with this Sangha—those were his successors.
Then, for his final meditation, he entered into samādhi1, systematically going up and down through all of the jhāna2 and the immaterial jhānas or immaterial bases, which Gil covered in the last weeks. Then he went back down, back up, and entered the fourth jhāna, which is deeply peaceful and equanimous. It was from there, it is said, that he released, he let go into the final nibbāna, parinibbāna3—unbinding and death.
In this story, the trees beside him and all of the trees in the area went into bloom out of season and scattered their petals down, I think about knee-deep. It’s quite something, you know, this beautiful scent. If we take this as a mythic element, just like in the story of his awakening, flowers here are linked to inner beauty and ethical virtue. So that’s a very brief version of this story.
What might contemplating it offer in terms of supporting and inspiring insight? Well, first, the Buddha repeatedly and presumably intentionally gave a specific teaching in the weeks before he died, when he’d already realized it was time to let go of his life energy. I’m summarizing here from the Dīgha Nikāya4 16: “Concentration that is samādhi, fortified with virtue, brings great benefits. Understanding fortified with samādhi brings great benefits and great fruits—that is, insight. And a heart fortified with understanding becomes completely liberated.”
That’s a summary based on Nyānamoli’s5 translation. I think it’s significant that this is the theme that he expounded in his final days. To summarize the summary: virtue is a basis for concentration, beneficial samādhi, which supports understanding that yields insight, which in turn supports complete freedom and liberation. His meditative process then demonstrated and refined that teaching.
It’s an understatement, perhaps, to say that the Buddha lived a life of great virtue, and this supported his capacity to easily access jhāna near death. At death, in particular, the Buddha chose the fourth jhāna as his final release. The tradition teaches to this day that the fourth jhāna, or even less than full jhāna, is the best departure point for insight. That kind of peace, that kind of equanimity—it may be for a split second in the middle of a storm, or it may be a long period of calm, relaxed equanimity.
The process of letting go, of dissolution, is important for insight and for liberation, and the Buddha demonstrates this for his total unbinding at the moment of death.
To bring this into our contemporary world, as a hospital chaplain, I had the profound privilege of being in the presence of a number of people dying. It changed me. Those who can enter samādhi states at will at death are rare, but less rare and just as beautiful are those who have done their inner work, who have served the Dharma selflessly or served others, who have lived true to themselves ethically, who have cleaned up any messes in their lives, at least in their hearts, and let go at peace. It’s palpable when you’re in a room with someone in that kind of peace.
Perhaps one way to summarize this from a Buddhist perspective is to again paraphrase the Buddha’s last words: Make of yourself a place of safety, a refuge for yourself and others. Allow yourself to be a light, a lamp, an island. Let the Dharma, let the practice and the teachings, be your lamp, your island, your refuge. Refuge in the practices of ethical and meditative cultivation and of a generous heart.
Keeping death in mind in life can serve as a reminder of what’s most important. What do I want to look back on eventually? It becomes very easy to make certain decisions. In other words, to be peaceful in the dying process, it’s helpful to live in such a way that one can reflect back and feel at ease.
This supports insight, it supports wise relationship, it supports a vibrant, loving, peaceful, contented life.
In summary for this week, the Buddha’s example can inspire each of us to insight and living well by cultivating simplicity and contentment; by cultivating wise nourishment and a learning mindset with whatever arises in our lives, hearts, and minds; and by cultivating mindfulness, non-contention, kindness, and honest self-reflection.
May this path support you in a life of peace, love, and ease. Thank you for your kind attention.
Samādhi: A Pali word for a state of meditative concentration or absorption. ↩
Jhāna: A Pali word for a state of deep meditative absorption, characterized by profound stillness and concentration. ↩
Parinibbāna: A Pali term meaning “final nirvana” or “nirvana without remainder,” referring to the death of an enlightened being like the Buddha. ↩
Dīgha Nikāya: The “Collection of Long Discourses,” one of the five major collections of the Buddha’s teachings in the Pāli Canon. ↩
Nyānamoli: Bhikkhu Nyānamoli (1905–1960) was a prominent British Theravada Buddhist monk and translator of Pali texts. The original transcript said “Nyanamole.” ↩