Guided Meditation: Tranquility

This is an AI-generated transcript from auto-generated subtitles for the video Guided Meditation: Tranquility. It likely contains inaccuracies, especially with speaker attribution if there are multiple speakers.

The following talk was given by Gil Fronsdal at Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, CA on July 08, 2020. Please visit the website www.audiodharma.org for more information.

Guided Meditation: Tranquility

Good morning, and I think I have the technology set up a little more complicated today. We're going to be working with the breathing. That's what anapanasati^[1] is, where the simple rhythm of breathing in and breathing out is used as the through line, as the thread that goes through all our experience. It's kind of like the beat of a song that's always there, or the ballast of a boat that keeps the boat steady.

The rhythm of breathing, and the coming and going of breathing, can support the mind to both develop stability and also not to hold on to anything. In fact, this part of the stability of the mind—it maybe seems like a paradox—comes from not holding on to anything. It's when holding on to things, being preoccupied, churning away, ruminating on things, that the mind becomes more unstable because it has an unstable basis, an unstable foundation.

And so the rhythm of breathing coming and going, there's a continuity there. There's a constancy there that supports us. It's always there for us. And because the inhale disappears, the exhale disappears, it's like a wave coming and going. You can't really hold on to the breathing. And so it both provides us with this constancy, this stability, and a kind of massage or support to not get caught in anything. We still might have thoughts, there might be sensations, all kinds of things might happen, and we can be aware of them. But with the breathing kind of at the center, or the breathing as a support, as a foundation, it comes and goes. It's a little bit more difficult for the mind to get fixated or caught on its preoccupations and whatever's going on, the emotions that are happening.

And so it can be a gentling effect. It can be a nurturing effect. It can be a tranquilizing effect to do this. And for this meditation, I'd like to offer you something a little bit extra to pay attention to with the breathing, a particular quality of it. And that is the transition between breathing out and breathing in, the transition between breathing in and breathing out.

This is a place to bring just a little extra attention to. There are different things that might happen there. And so this is where you can literally pay attention to how it is for you, and it might change over time. At the end of the exhale, there might be just a very quick, automatic transition between breathing out and breathing in. Just breathe out, and then immediately the in-breath begins. That can be noticed, how one happens immediately after the other.

It might be that the transition is not so quick. It might feel more gradual; the exhale gradually ends, and the inhale gradually begins. Or it might feel like there's a pause between the exhale and the beginning of the inhale. Each of these has its advantages, each of these is part of what we can notice. But there's something about noticing that transition in a relaxed and open way without expectation that completes the cycle of attention of breathing in and breathing out.

And so we'll bring some careful, gentle attention to this as we go through the breathing.

Guided Meditation

Take a comfortable, alert posture, and gently close your eyes.

Perhaps taking a few long, slow, deep breaths. Full breaths, three-quarters full, and then as you exhale, a little longer exhale than you would just on your own. Breathing in deeply, and then relaxing on the exhale. Releasing and letting go.

Letting your breathing return to normal.

And on the exhale, you go through almost like a ritual of relaxing the body. And as you relax, see if you can feel some quality of tranquility or peacefulness in the area that you're relaxing. So as you exhale, relaxing the muscles of the face, around the eyes, the cheeks, the jaw. And if you're able to relax those muscles, is there any evidence, any little, even partial sense of tranquility as part of that?

Then as you exhale, soften the shoulders. Release the shoulders. And as the shoulders relax, is there any sense of greater calmness or tranquility?

As you exhale, relaxing the chest, the area around your heart. And even if there's agitation in that part of your body, if you're able to relax a little bit or soften, are there any even hints of tranquility, of calmness?

And then on the exhale, relaxing the belly, letting the belly hang forward or settle down deeper. Sometimes when we exhale, sometimes when we relax the belly, it can also support a relaxation of other areas of the body. You might, as you exhale, both relax the belly and see if you can relax at the same time, release the shoulders, the hands, the arms.

Release the whole body.

And then feel, is there any physical tranquility or calmness that you can pick up in your body as a whole? Even if you do feel something opposite to calmness, see if you can be attuned to that which does feel tranquil and calm. And as you exhale, relax with that calmness.

And then becoming more centered on the experience of breathing. And in relationship to breathing itself, is there any tranquility or calmness? Or maybe around the experience of breathing, underneath it, behind it, some feeling of calm or peace that's there associated with the breathing. And as you breathe, breathe with that calmness. Breathe with the tranquility.

And very calmly, without thinking about it too much, appreciate or notice how the physical experience of inhaling is different than the experience of exhaling.

And then letting go of noticing the difference between them. Let the inhale just be the inhale. Allow the exhale to just be the exhale. As if it's the only thing that's here.

And notice as you inhale, the inhale has an end. An end that fades away or an end which comes abruptly. Just notice and feel the physical experience of that ending of the inhale.

And then observe the transition to exhaling. Maybe a little bit like you're driving in a car on a flat road and then there comes a little hill, a little bump that you gently lift up, and then over the crest, and you go down. Ride the end of the inhale to the beginning of the exhale, the releasing.

And then the same thing for the end of the exhale, beginning of the inhale. Maybe like driving along and there's a gentle dip in the road, the car goes into the dip and then slowly comes up. Or maybe the transitions are sudden, almost like a switch that goes on and off. Switching from inhale to exhale, exhale to inhale. Both ways are fine. Gently observe how it is for you.

And perhaps in doing this careful sensing, observing, maybe you can feel a quiet intimacy with the experience of breathing. Feeling whatever calmness or tranquility that's here. A tranquility that allows breathing to be as it is, comfortable or uncomfortable. But you just follow along in this rhythm of breathing.

Seeing if you can feel any tranquility or calmness associated with any part of the breathing.

And perhaps you can notice any calmness that might be there in the transition between breathing in and out, between out and in. A calmness that's closely related to allowing. Allowing that transition to do itself with an intimacy, with awareness, breathing in, breathing out.

Calmly receive the inhale in the body. Calmly release the exhale. And ride along in the transitions between these. A continuous intimacy, tranquility, with your awareness of breathing.

If you find yourself involved in thinking, what happens to your thinking when you place the rhythm of breathing back in the middle of your experience?

And for these few minutes we have together, trust your breathing more than you trust your thinking. Center yourself on breathing in the body. Releasing into tranquility as you exhale. Receiving the inhale in your calmness as you breathe in.

Reflections and Dedication

And before bringing this to an end, scan through your body to notice what is it, and where in your body is there some tranquility, calmness? Even if there's places that are agitated, notice the places that are calm or quiet.

For a few minutes here, breathe with that tranquility. Breathe through it. Breathe along with tranquility, calmness, peacefulness. As if it's a gentle vapor that you can blow through your body, spread outwards throughout your whole body as you breathe.

And then as we come to the end of this sitting. Perhaps in a world that's so agitated, our calmness can be such that we don't fuel that agitation further.

May it be that we don't add to people's anxiety. May it be that we don't contribute to restlessness. May it be that we don't reinforce agitation of any kind.

And may it be that whatever goodness, benefit that we received from this sitting, may we dedicate it to the benefit of others.

May in our calmness, may our benefits and merit spread out across the lands so that all beings be happy. So that all beings might be safe. So that all beings might be peaceful. So that all beings might be free.

May all beings everywhere be free of all that oppresses. May all beings be happy.