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Guided Meditation: Radical Simplicity

A warm hello from Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City. We're here to meditate, and one of the important principles for meditation—mindfulness meditation—is to keep it simple. In fact, simplicity is one of the teachers for finding our way with mindfulness meditation. A wonderful Vipassanā^[1] teacher in India, Munindraji^[2], said that if it's not simple, it's not Vipassanā.

And so, this idea of simplicity—radical simplicity—has a lot to do with letting go of all the ways in which we complicate ourselves, our lives, or our situations while we're meditating. If we're too busy trying to understand something, to change something, to get away from something, or to attain some wonderful state, it's probably too complicated. If we're too much involved in being the agent—"It's up to me, and I have to do it," or "I'm the victim; things are happening to me, and they're not going so well"—chances are you're not getting simple enough.

Radical simplicity includes blissfully dropping away the concern with self. Surprisingly, it is possible to blissfully let go of any concern with self: oneself as a doer, the self as the experiencer, or the self as the victim of circumstance. While we're meditating, we can let go, and let go, and let go, just to sit here as simply as you can with what is.

It's almost as if simplicity is like a wonderful little, simple round river rock that you drop into a lake, and it just quietly settles to the bottom. It takes a straight line down to the bottom without any agitation, going back and forth, or concern with anything else, until it comes to rest at the bottom of the lake. Just let go until we come to a profound feeling of dignified rest, a dignified simplicity.

So, take a meditation posture that expresses some modicum of dignity or some modicum of embodied confidence. That dignity and confidence can then become—not a doing we do, but rather an embodiment. An embodiment that allows for a deep simplicity.

Close your eyes, and for a few moments here, don't do anything else. Don't do anything else but, in the simplest, most relaxed way, notice what's happening for you. Notice it in the most obvious ways. You don't have to go digging or searching to figure it out; it's almost like you pull the curtains and you see what's outside. You pull the curtains, and you see what's here in your experience.

And then, just sitting here without doing anything else, with simplicity: is there some way you can become more simple? Maybe you can't stop your thinking or stop how you're feeling, but can there be an inner simplicity in the midst of that? A place of maybe some modicum of stillness, of peacefulness, some modicum of ease.

And very gingerly, as if you're close to doing nothing at all, gingerly from the inside out, see if you can relax your shoulders on the exhale. Almost as if you're doing nothing at all, softening the belly. And as you do so—very quietly so as not to disturb anything—can you quietly soften the muscles around your face? Gently quieting the muscles around the eyes.

And then, as if you're using the slightest little effort—almost like just a suggestion—can you quiet your thinking? Just turn it down, and let the volume drop a notch or two. And also, as if you're almost doing nothing, can you delightfully quiet, soften, and still your heart?

As you're sitting here in your own way, without looking for anything dramatic or big—it could just be a hint—do you have a reference point for inner simplicity? Someplace inside, a reference point for, "Nothing needs to happen for these few minutes." Nothing is at stake in this place of simplicity within.

And then gently, simply, as if you're almost doing nothing, as if you come from a place of radical simplicity, allow the winds of breathing, the rhythm of breathing, to breathe itself.

If you find yourself involved in thinking, maybe letting go is not simple; it's too complicated. Maybe there's a way of just gently, simply, falling away from your thinking to disengage. Switch your interest from whatever you're thinking about to the simplicity within that is experiencing breathing.

Maybe the breathing experience in and of itself can guide you into a greater and greater simplicity of being. Radical simplicity, where just being alive is enough. It is as if simplicity is at the core of your being. And it's from that simplicity that we're being with our life, with no need to resist anything, attain anything, or understand anything. There is no need to refer anything back to ourselves—the ideas, thoughts, and concepts of self. Radical simplicity, where self-concern is no longer needed.

Notice when the mind gets complicated. There is no need to do anything or change that, but you may return to the place of simplicity. Someplace inside that is the home for being simple. And in that simplicity, there might be some sense of freedom—freedom from being concerned about anything. It's enough just to be breathing.

As you begin your exhale, let things be. Imagine dropping a round river rock into a lake. And as you follow the exhale to the end, that rock gently settles through the water. At the bottom of the peaceful lake, it is simple and peaceful. Nothing to do, and nothing to be. Nothing to change. The simplicity of being that includes everything.

As we come to the end of the sitting, perhaps you can allow your inner simplicity, an embodied tenderness, to open up to experience, to be available to the world around you. First, to the place you're sitting. There is no need to do anything or fix anything, but just an availability in your simplicity of being. And let that simple availability and openness extend outwards in circles: to your neighborhood, to your wider community, to the territory you're living in, to the watershed you're in, to the land you're on between oceans, and into the whole world.

For this next minute or so, allow yourself to be radically open, available, receptive, and radically simple. Nothing to do, and nothing to be. Just available. And without really doing much, except offering kindness, perhaps you can evoke a kind regard for the whole world. It is not complicated by needing to do anything, but just to hold the whole world in your kindness, your love, your compassion.

And then, as we come to the very end with this kindness and this simplicity, what might you do today that would express and manifest your goodwill, your kindness, your love, and compassion for others, while you stay close to this simplicity of being? May it be that you live this next 24 hours caring for the welfare of others as well as for your own. May we live for each other's welfare. May all beings be happy. May all beings be safe. And may all beings everywhere be free.