This is an AI-generated transcript from auto-generated subtitles for the video Guided Meditation: In the Light of Non-Distraction; New Vision (4) Confirmation of the Practice. 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 perhaps goes without saying that a session of meditation is a session of practice. Buddhist meditation involves Buddhist practice. And one of the great moments, or moments that happen repeatedly in doing Buddhist practice, is having some kind of experience that confirms the value of the practice. So that a person knows for themselves, this practice is good, this practice works. And not only in some kind of small way, but it’s confirmed how profoundly significant and invaluable this practice is. And it can be profoundly inspiring, so that no matter what circumstance we’re in, we know we have something we can do. Even if we’re confused, even if it’s uncertain what to do in conventional ways, at least we can bring the practice into what we’re doing, what’s happening here.
And so, in talking about the practice, it involves a deep confidence in a few things. Deep confidence in not being distracted. Deep confidence in being undistracted. And it’s a deep confidence in not making it worse. Deep confidence in not bringing to bear on the situation any unwholesome attachments, any unwholesome behavior, speech, or states of mind, activities of mind. To not be involved in anything that fits under the category of greed, anything that fits under the category of hatred or ill will. And to not complicate the situation by having doubt or having some kind of indecisiveness, confusion about what can be done. We might not know what to do practically, but we always know we don’t have to sacrifice or give up our practice to be present, to be here, to be open.
And so one way of understanding this, that makes it a little simple, is to appreciate when we’re not distracted, the moments we’re not distracted. That we can just create an empty, open state of awareness. We can turn on the light of awareness and let it shine on whatever is happening.
It’s equivalent to having blackout curtains covering a greenhouse. When we’re distracted, it’s like having a blackout curtain on. And the plants don’t grow without the light. What can grow is mold and disease in the plants. But if the blackout curtains are pulled aside, then something can grow, and the mold begins to dry out, begins to fade away, and the beautiful plants in the greenhouse can then thrive and grow in the sunlight.
So, in the same way, when we’re distracted, it’s a little like covering something over so the light of awareness can’t shine on it. And then what’s unwholesome and unhealthy tends to grow. Distraction feeds more distraction. Distraction fed by unwholesome motivations strengthens those motivations. Distractions fueled by fear strengthens fear. But if we shine the light of awareness on the distracted mind, on the fear, on the desires, the aversions that exist there, they begin to dry up or fade away. And in that light, what is wholesome grows.
So in this meditation, have confidence in being undistracted. You’ll still be distracted. Your mind will still wander off. But then remember to come back, to shine the light of awareness on what’s here. Sunlight doesn’t interfere. The sun is not concerned whether plants grow or not. It just sends its light without any desires, without any interference. In a sense, the sun just shines its light. So in the same way, shine the light of your awareness on what’s happening within you, unconcerned with what you’re seeing, and see what shifts.
So, to assume a meditation posture, adjust your posture in such a way that there’s some feeling of being intentionally present with your whole body. Maybe even if you’re lying down, to adjust your spine, envision your shoulder blades, the positioning of your head, maybe the positions of your hands, your arms. So there’s a feeling of being more intentional, more deliberate with a posture of attention.
And then gently closing your eyes.
As a way to awaken a greater attentiveness, a greater embodied awareness, gently take some fuller breaths, as if the sensations that come into play as you breathe in are the awakening of embodied awareness. And then the sensations of exhale are riding sensations of relaxation, softening.
And for a few more breaths, deliberately breathe deeper and notice the natural awareness that shines its light, as available, to feel and sense the sensations of the body breathing. And letting that awareness continue as you return your breathing to a normal breath.
Breathing in, then letting awareness shine on the quality and sensations of your thinking mind. And as you exhale, to relax the thinking mind.
And notice also if there’s any mood or emotion that seems to be the fuel or the source of your thinking. And shine a light of awareness on that without being disturbed by it or needing to do anything about it. Just notice the mood, emotion, attitude.
And then letting the emotion be, centering yourself in the body, breathing. And for three or four breaths, see if you can get a feeling for a sense of being undistracted for one inhale and one exhale. Undistracted, open, receptive, as if the light has been turned on, the blackout curtains pulled aside as you sense and feel breathing.
And whenever you wander off in thought, whenever you’re distracted, see if you can, at that moment, appreciate that you’re not distracted. You know you’re thinking. And just imagine that without changing anything, you turn on the light more fully to be here, undistracted. Letting your light shine on whatever is present for you in the moment.
If you can be undistracted, meaning you can be aware of what’s actually happening without being for or against it or fixing it or making something different happen, what happens? What unfolds when you, in a sense, get out of the way with an undistracted attention, with the light of awareness turned on?
And then as we come to the end of the sitting, imagine if you can being with other people, being with someone else, where all you do is turn on the light of awareness to be present with your heart, your mind. To have a presence of attention that is soft, easy, as the light is from the sun. Where you see people clearly, fully, without the filter of distraction, preoccupation, projections, needs and wants, aversions and resentments. Gazing upon the world softly, calmly, where the light of awareness allows us to see people in a way that it’s easier to wish them well. It’s easier to care for them or appreciate them.
May it be that this practice that we do allows us to turn on the light of appreciation, the light of seeing, of knowing others, so we can wish them well.
May all beings be happy. May all beings be safe. May all beings be peaceful. May all beings be free. May all beings be free from us, by the simplicity of our awareness.
Thank you.
So hello everyone and welcome to this fourth talk in the series titled “New Vision.” As the Buddhist practice matures, it provides us with a new vision, a new understanding of certainly what’s possible, but also what might be available here and now.
Sometimes people will have a very clear experience of freedom, of letting go deeply, of very clear feelings that something has radically shifted inside in a moment. Sometimes with an experience of freedom, of awakening. And sometimes there’s an orientation that with these kinds of more clear markers of maturation in the practice, the point is to have those experiences, and people are looking for that, wanting that.
But one of the very significant ways of understanding any deepening experience, or any significant, useful experience in meditation or in Buddhist practice, is that the experience confirms the practice. It confirms the process of coming together here with our attention, with our dedication, our faith, our confidence, mindfulness, concentration, the practice of ethics. It confirms that this practice that we do, the full scope of it, this growing, this dedication we’re doing, is good. It’s really good. It confirms its tremendous value.
And what’s nice about this word “confirmation” is that when we confirm the practice, we’re being pointed back to the practice. If we have some idea there’s an end to the practice and we get some experience, we can just kind of be in some kind of enlightened retirement, then we’ve got to kind of let the practice go. But a little simplistic saying is, “Before enlightenment, practice; after enlightenment, practice.” Just practice. Let your faith, your confidence be there to always continue the practice.
But the practice is not about a lot of doing. It has a lot to do with getting out of the way in a wholesome way, in a beneficial way, to know how to shine the light of awareness over and over again here in this experience. And to know where to shine the light of awareness—to shine a light of awareness on the experience that helps us to grow what’s wholesome. To shine a light of awareness on that which supports us to become more stable, more centered, more connected to the experiences we’re having.
Sometimes people have the light of awareness turned on, but they spend too much time focusing on the emptiness or the spaciousness that’s there. Which is certainly valuable to do, but to overdo it involves a disconnection with the fullness of our human life. To overemphasize a focus on freedom can oddly enough limit the fullness of our experience. These marvelous experiences of emptiness, of liberation, of non-clinging, as powerful and significant as they are, it’s possible to overvalue them, so that we’re not continually returning to turning on the light to our full experience and to being practicing with all of our experience.
And so if the light is on, then we’ll get the information. “Oh, now what’s useful is a practice of loving-kindness. Now, loving-kindness is what’s called for here.” “Oh, in this situation, I think I need to spend some time reflecting and thinking about the ethics. Where’s the non-harm in this situation? What choices do I make that reduce the harm that I might cause?” And to actually do reflection and contemplation. It might be that we feel, with the light of awareness on, that we know very much that we’re agitated. And it might be that given the circumstance and what’s happening next, what seems healthiest and most appropriate is to do concentration practices to settle and become more grounded. So in activities we’re going to do next, we can be more careful and more appropriate.
But one way or the other, as people mature in practice, they have greater and greater appreciation that practice is the center. Keeping practice—whatever you know, Buddhist practice is the Eight-Fold Path1—to keep that at the center of life. That might seem a little odd because there are important things to do in the world. We’ve been taught maybe that what’s most important is to always be helping people. What’s most important is to have a close, intimate relationship and have love for a partner or for our children or for our parents or something. That’s supposed to be at the center. That’s the most important thing.
So if a partner says, “What do you love most? What’s most important for you?” with the expectation that you’re going to say, “You are,” but if you say instead, “Oh, the practice is more important for me,” your partner might be crushed. Unless the partner understands that because the practice of honesty, of clarity, of compassion, of being present—this Buddhist practice, in whatever formulation it takes at any given time—that actually allows you to love more. And so with a partner or a friend, you’re not abandoning them or lessening your care, your love, your friendship for them. By putting the practice at the center, you actually have more room. You actually have greater love for them.
So you can come back to them and say, “Yes, the practice is most important. If you’d like me to shift that and make you the most important and the practice secondary, what’ll happen is that I’ll actually end up having less love for you or less time for you or less care or less something, less clarity about how to be in this relationship in a wonderful way. So, the trade-off is not exactly in your favor.”
There’s something about the practice that keeps us clean, that keeps us open, that allows the most wholesome parts of us to grow and develop. And it feels like that’s the source of life, even for ourselves, to practice. And so it’s fine to have the practice be the center of our life. And ideally, a friend or a partner who says, “You know, who do you love most, me or your practice?” and you say “the practice,” the perfect answer is, “because I’ve seen that as you practice, you’re actually more present for me. You’re more available. You’re less distracted, less caught up.”
And I’ve known people, family members who’ve said to someone, a relative or spouse, “It’s time for you to go on retreat again,” because they see how beneficial it is for them to be in the retreat, and they come back in such a much better place. So at some point, this confirmation of the practice is so strong that it’s like, this is the most important thing.
And one of the ways of understanding that some people have is that now they want to integrate the practice in all of their life. They ask the question, “How do I bring my practice to my life now?” But a more appropriate or more heartfelt version of that question, at some point in maturing in this practice, is not how you bring the practice into your life, but how you bring your life into the practice. Practice comes first. This cultivation, this growing, this dharma movement, this awakening movement, this freeing movement that the practice enables and allows and supports. That is the center of life. That’s the fullness of life. And now everything else can be folded into it. “Come here. Be in the freedom with me. Let me not go out to find how to be free there. Let me stay free and bring everything else into it.”
So maybe some of you have had experiences—small or great or intermediate—that involve something that shows you clearly the goodness of the practice, the rightness of the practice, how the practice is beneficial. Yes, this practice is beneficial. And as practice matures, that clarity becomes stronger and stronger until it becomes clear that practice is not something we do once in a while. How we live our life, the living of life, becomes inseparable from being on the path, walking the path, inseparable from the Eight-Fold Path.
So, confirmation of practice.
Thank you. And tomorrow we’ll do one more talk on this new vision, and perhaps this will be the conclusion of all these talks since January on samadhi2, insight, and the new vision.
Thank you.
Eight-Fold Path: In Buddhism, the path to enlightenment, consisting of eight interconnected factors or practices: Right View, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration. ↩
Samadhi: A Pali word for a state of meditative consciousness. It is often translated as “concentration,” “unification of mind,” or “absorption.” It is a state in which the mind becomes still, focused, and deeply absorbed in the object of meditation. ↩