Guided Meditation: Unwavering; Dharmette: Right Effort (4 of 5) Growing the Wholesome

This is an AI-generated transcript from auto-generated subtitles for the video Guided Meditation: Unwavering; Right Effort (4 of 5) Growing the Wholesome. 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 December 22, 2022. Please visit the website www.audiodharma.org for more information.

Guided Meditation: Unwavering

Good morning, hello everyone, and welcome to our Friday meditation and teaching. Wait, today is Thursday. Tomorrow is Friday, so I'm already thinking ahead a little bit. [Laughter]

The theme for this week has been the Buddhist teachings on right effort^[1], and there are four of them. Today's topic is cultivating, maintaining, and growing wholesome states. I'll talk more about that during the talk, but for this meditation, I want to point to a very important wholesome state, a wholesome way of being that maybe is the foundation for the growth, the development, and the allowance of other wholesome states. And that is being unwavering.

An unwavering way of being in this world, in meditation. To be unwavering in our application of ourselves, our doing. Unwavering in our thoughts, unwavering in our mind and heart. In the body, maybe that's experienced as a kind of stability, to feel stable here. In the mind, maybe it's steadiness, to hold the course, to hold the mind steady on something. And maybe in the heart—I don't know what the quality of unwaveringness is for the heart. Maybe it's a kind of devotion, or maybe it's a feeling, an attitude of "yes" to being present, to being here regardless.

This idea of being unwavering as an important mental quality, the foundation, gives us a sense that cultivating wholesome qualities of mind doesn't have to be like all these wonderful things like love, goodwill, or compassion—which are very important, but maybe sometimes even a little bit forced or not so accessible. But if we can cultivate stability, steadiness, and unwaveringness, then that is the ground from which other wholesome states can grow. To be wavering, to be unsteady or unstable, that is the ground from which the unwholesome, unhelpful states of mind grow.

So for this meditation, we can focus on being unwavering, being steady and stable. When your mind wanders off in thought, as you come back to your breathing, come back and re-establish a stability of the body, a steadiness of the mind, and a settledness^[2] in the heart that says "yes" to being present. Stable, steady, settled, unwavering.

Assume a posture for meditation that allows you to feel stable in your body. It might be a posture that's a little bit more intentional, a little bit more engaged and active than a posture that prioritizes being comfortable. It's important to be comfortable up to a point, but it can be overdone, resulting in a loss of bringing the body into an alert stability that supports the energy of being present.

Gently close your eyes and breathe deeply. Relax the body as you exhale, with the idea that the exhale is moving to a stability of the body where your weight settles into the seat, or the place where your weight is supported by the chair, the bed, or the floor.

Let your breathing return to normal. Then, as you breathe a normal breath, is there some way that you can steady your mind? Kind of like you would if you were going to do a very precise movement, like threading a needle. Steady the mind. Let go of thoughts, relax the tension of the mind. Settle whatever way the mind is agitated in favor of where the mind is steady and stable.

And then, as you breathe, maybe on the exhale, just settle your heart. Almost like your heart happily responds to the pull of gravity to relax and settle, quieting the agitation of the heart.

If you find yourself wandering off in thought, or very much caught up in thought, you might go through these three steps on your way back to breathing: find some stability in the body, some steadiness in the mind, and some settledness in the heart. And with that, begin again with your breathing. With an unwavering attention to the next in-breath, to the next exhale, one breath at a time.

Chances are, if you're wandering a lot in your thinking, the mind has some agitation in it. It's wavering and unsteady. Relax deeply as a way of steadying the mind. Stabilize yourself here in the present moment with your body.

In the next couple of minutes before the closing, gently... can you be a bit more stable, settled in your body, so the body is more present, more aware of its embodied nature? And gently steadying the mind. The attention may be on itself, underneath your concerns, preoccupations, and agitations. Settling into a deeper layer in the mind where it's stable, quiet, and settled, appreciating just being aware, being conscious.

And settling the heart as if you feel reassured, safe. As if, for these next few moments, everything is good. All is good. The heart can rest for a few minutes, be content.

And from this unwavering stance of stability, steadiness, and settledness from deep within you, what wholesome quality seems to want to emerge? What goodness, what sweetness? What is it that wants to appear and flow, that is something enjoyable or appreciable?

To be stable, steady, and settled makes it possible to be more sensitive, aware of the world around us. To be with others and let their being register for us, to feel the connection that doesn't require words. In the presence of people that we care for, when we're settled, love might want to emerge, kindness, goodwill, delight. Settling back.

And then, ending this meditation by extending our goodwill out into the world: May all beings be happy. May all beings be safe. May all beings be peaceful. May all beings be free.

And may it be that inner stability, settledness, steadiness, that unwavering ability to be present, that we contribute to the welfare and happiness of everyone. Thank you.

Dharmette: Right Effort (4 of 5) Growing the Wholesome

Hello everyone. Welcome to this fourth talk on the four right efforts. Today's emphasis is on the fourth, being a focus on wholesome states of mind, or skillful, helpful states or qualities.

This is actually a very important part of the Buddha's teaching that, at least for me, was not really appreciated very much in a few decades of being a Buddhist and practicing. Perhaps like a good number of people, I had somehow become tuned into prioritizing the teachings on letting go. Sometimes it was indiscriminate letting go. It is very powerful sometimes, especially in meditation, to let go of everything, even the wholesome, because sooner or later everything needs to be let go of. No holding, even to the wholesome.

But it's possible to overdo it, and then not support the growth, the cultivation, and even the presence of beneficial states of mind, beneficial states of heart. If we allow them to be there, and just let go of them or ignore them, we miss that we can actually promote or make it possible for them to grow.

It is possible to become filled with well-being, filled with really good qualities. I was amazed and stunned when I started doing long meditation, lots of meditation, to discover how thoroughly saturated the whole body and being can be in particular wholesome states of being: joy, happiness, tranquility. The one that surprised me the most, I think, was equanimity^[3]. Equanimity was there in such a clear, full, embodied kind of way. It wasn't just some little policy in the mind to be equanimous; it was a way of being.

So, in the four right efforts, the first right effort is to prevent the arising of unarisen, unwholesome states—states that are not really healthy for you to have: thoughts, feelings, attitudes, motivations. If they're not there and they're not operating as a common part of your life, then, within reason, maybe make the behavioral changes and other changes that would prevent them from arising, these unhealthy ways of being.

The second right effort is: if unwholesome states of mind have come up, abandon them. This is the letting go part. How to abandon them healthfully is important. We are always using these four right efforts as a perspective, an analysis of what we're actually doing. So if we're letting go, is the letting go itself done in a wholesome way, or is it unwholesome? If letting go is being done with aversion, with conceit, with greed for something better, then it's not so wholesome, and it will kind of backfire in some way.

But if we're looking for how to do this in a wholesome way, it's a game changer. It's a very different way of being with it, and then there's not so much self-involvement, or conceit, or greed that comes in. Slowly, we begin to learn how there's a whole other source within that is the source of how to do things in wholesome ways, including this letting go. One of the things to discover is that letting go is something our heart wants to do if all the conditions are right. It's not like we have to let go, but we have to enable the letting go that is already there, that wants to happen.

The third right effort is to evoke, to bring about, to recognize wholesome states that haven't arisen yet, to bring them about. That also might involve behavioral changes: to stay close to things that inspire you, bring you gladness and happiness and steadiness, and to do the things that help you be more settled or stable in your life. Rushing around is not helpful; doing things in a steady, stable manner is much more helpful.

And then the fourth—this is dramatic, so it is comparable to the second right effort, to abandon the unwholesome states that have arisen—now it's to maintain the wholesome states that have arisen. Things that are good and going on, maintain them. Again, this can be done through behavioral ways. If you feel really happy and good, and just feel like this is unusually settled and peaceful, maybe it's not the time to get lost on the web or in the news, or start doing something that you know is going to just get you really angry. Maybe there's a way of maintaining it, keeping it going. Being careful not to lose it easily, to sacrifice it for some petty irritation that you want to complain about.

However, what I want to emphasize today is that this cultivating and maintaining the wholesome gets much more emphasized by the Buddha. Rather than simply one word of what we do—prevent, abandon, evoke—for the fourth right effort, there's a whole series of words, so you get a sense of the emphasis, the importance. Like maybe we're supposed to spend more time on the wholesome.

So this is how it goes: "Practitioners take up and take hold of their minds, take hold of themselves, and generate desire, endeavor, and initiate courageous effort"—here we go—"for the maintenance, the non-forgetting, the frequent cultivation, the abundance, the development, and the fulfillment of wholesome mental qualities, states, and characteristics that have arisen."

Wow. I mean, that's quite a mouthful. Once something good has arisen in you, be careful. Don't lose it easily because you get caught up in your desires, your conceits, your agendas, your fears, and your rushing around and doing a lot. Take time for that. And then, are there ways to maintain it, keep it going? Again, it has to be done in a wholesome way. Not with expectation, not with demand, not with measuring your success, your failure, or your self-worth by their presence. Not in a way that you would be distraught if it's not there and feel like somehow you're a bad person. There's a wholesome way, a free way, a generous way, a relaxed way to be with all these things that has a sense of freedom in itself. And with that, to maintain it, to be conscious, aware, and choiceful about what we do, because that affects our state of mind.

For the non-forgetting—I love this one. Don't forget it, don't overlook it, don't lose touch with it. It's so easy to lose touch and forget the healthy way of being in the world: being attentive, being here in a full way.

"The frequent cultivation, abundance, development, and fulfillment." The idea of abundance, abundance of good qualities, the fulfillment of them. It can't get any better. This is dramatic language, and I think to me it's inspiring language. It could seem exhausting, like there's a lot to do, but it's not meant to be the kind of doing that is exhausting. It's a kind of doing which is fun, which is nice, which is relaxing, where the doing itself feels good.

And that's the art of this whole meditation and mindfulness: how do we do anything in a wholesome, healthy, beneficial way? That's the art that we want to discover and find. That's the key to Buddhist practice. Buddhist practice involves practice, but how do we do the practice in this wholesome way, nourishing way, inspiring way? We're inspired by it, it feels good, we like doing it. It's not automatic; we discover how to do it, but that's what we're working towards.

And then, overcoming the strong urges in the mind from fear, from desires, from duty or obligation, that override the healthy way of doing things. To stop doing things in ways which are not wholesome, that are rushed, that lead to something as simple as becoming unstable, unsteady, tight, and hyper-focused—losing touch, forgetting about this wholesome way of being.

This idea of wholesomeness, wholesome states of being that we maintain, can lift the bar kind of high if we rush to the idea that it has to be love and peace and these dramatic spiritual feelings. The foundational one that I think we want to remember, to always come back to and start with, is the wholesome sense of being stable here in the moment. A physical, embodied stability.

When unwholesomeness takes over, it shifts and changes the physical body and how we live in the world. We are not so settled. But when we're wholesome, the wholesome arises out of the settled body, stable... a settled mind, a steady mind, and a settled heart. If that's the first step in evoking the wholesome and maintaining the wholesome, maybe that's not so bad. Maybe that isn't so far out of reach. Maybe it's only ten percent more stable, ten percent more steady. But with that ten percent, maybe we don't make as many mistakes, we don't live as stressfully as we do other times. And that steadiness and stability, the sense of living a life which is unwavering, is the soil in which the wholesome has a chance to emerge.

And probably the more stable, steady, and settled we are, the more the wholesomeness, the appearance, the arising of it does it by itself. We don't have to do it. We just have to recognize it, allow it, not forget it, and support it to grow. Not be embarrassed, ashamed, or afraid of it. Don't be afraid of the goodness that's in you. Let it grow and let it become abundant. Maintaining, growing, and developing the wholesome within us.

So for today's homework: throughout the day, whenever you can remember—maybe set a timer, at least do it once an hour or something—see if you can emphasize a little bit more coming into a place of stability, steadiness, settledness. Find places we feel this. And then, when you do something, do it in an unwavering way from this place, and see if other wholesome qualities have a chance to follow and awake. It's almost like that stability opens the door. And through that open door, what wholesome things want to come from you? Maybe make a catalog of what wants to come. You might be surprised what's in there that wants to come out.

Thank you very much. For tomorrow, there will be a concluding talk on these four right efforts.