--- ai_generation_date: '2026-10-31' ai_model: gemini-3.1-pro-preview ai_prompt_hash: 2d625dd6 audiodharma: talks: - date: '2020-06-19' is_meditation: true mp3_url: https://audiodharma.us-east-1.linodeobjects.com/talks/11569/20200619-Gil_Fronsdal-IMC-guided_meditation_meditating_with_beauty-1.mp3 section_slug: guided-meditation-meditating-with-beauty speakers: - speaker_name: Gil Fronsdal speaker_url: https://www.audiodharma.org/speakers/1 talk_start_time_seconds: 0 title: 'Guided Meditation: Meditating with Beauty' url: https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/11569 video_unavailable: false collapsed_sections: [] location_city: Redwood City, CA video_unavailable: false youtube: id: 3QqvVsK34_Y imprecise_upload_date: '2021-05-04' title: 'Guided Meditation: Meditating With Beauty' upload_date: null uploader_str: Insight Meditation Center uploader_url: https://www.youtube.com/@InsightMeditationCenter youtube_url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QqvVsK34_Y --- # Guided Meditation: Meditating with Beauty - [Gil Fronsdal](https://www.audiodharma.org/speakers/1) _This is an AI-generated transcript from auto-generated subtitles for the video above. It likely contains inaccuracies, especially with speaker attribution if there are multiple speakers._ ## [Guided Meditation: Meditating with Beauty](https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/11569) Greetings, and here we are for the next half an hour or so, to be present with our capacity for awareness. To be mindful of what's happening here and now. The point of this practice that we're doing is not merely to be present here and now. To be aware, to be mindful of your experience as it's happening, is the place where we can discover something very important. We want to be present for this lived experience to discover how the mind and the heart can be free, and, to say it a different way, to discover how this mind and this heart can be beautiful. One of the themes of this week is the idea of the microcosm: that in the small, subtle details of how we are, we can start learning how to be in a way that can apply in the macrocosm. We train ourselves in the small details of meditation and in the small movements. Relatively small—it maybe feels big sometimes in meditation—of the mind wandering off in thought, getting lost in thought, perhaps sometimes distracted. There's an opportunity there, if we're to be present, to address that, to meet that in a way where there's freedom. Or, more to the point today, there can be a sense of beauty in how we're aware of that and how we relate to that. That beauty has a lot to do with the absence of being critical, judgmental, having any kind of ill will of even the mildest form, having any kind of greed for something, or insistence, or a kind of desire that has a neediness in it, or expectation, or an attachment to how things are supposed to be a different way, how they _should_ be a different way. And the absence of any delusion—delusion has a lot to do with how we interpret the experience.[^1] To not have those things operating is like beautiful, clear air or beautiful, clean, pure water, where the pollution is out of the air or the mud has settled in the water. There's a kind of beauty in that. So you might see today how you can experiment in small ways. Begin the process of seeing what is your intuition, what is your feeling for, what is your sense of mindfulness itself being beautiful. Mindfulness itself has a quality of the absence of attachments, absence of ill will, absence of delusion. It's a kind of a quiet, silent mind, a clear mind that knows what's happening. And it will have some qualities that are related to generosity, to love, to care. Not because those are activated, but just that in that openness and that presence, the absence of hostility and attachment, there's something really beautiful that exists there. So I'd like to suggest that you try to feel your way into, even imagine your way into, that little corner of your mind, of your heart, that you might sense there are little hints of beauty. Let that be a reference point for how you work with a distracted mind. You're not giving in to it, but you're meeting it with beautiful mindfulness. Begin again with your breathing in a way that feels beautiful, it feels nice. There are no waves creating agitation in the mind, no upset. It just feels beautiful to be in touch with it. It feels wonderful to be in touch with this beauty. I like the word tenderness. This beautiful sensitivity of mindfulness, of awareness. Of course, the mind will wander away. Maybe you can cherish, value, and love when you wake up to the present moment. In that present moment, find how to be with what's happening in a beautiful way. That's very, very simple; it doesn't require a lot of thinking. It's almost like the absence of thinking. Then, with that sense of a little hint, a little piece of beauty, perhaps you can linger there. The mind wants to stay there. The mind finds its home in its own beauty. So, begin by feeling, sensing your whole body. Feeling, sensing the global experience of the body. Whatever way the body reveals sensations of any kind: how they flow, pulse, come and go, glow, vibrate. Any ways in which they're comfortable or uncomfortable. And perhaps taking a few long, slow, deep breaths right in the middle of all that. Relaxing as you exhale. Perhaps as you exhale, calming the mind. Maybe even a little bit quieting your thinking. Maybe there's a way to quiet and change your thinking so it moves towards being beautiful thinking. Thinking about the meditation, your breathing, your body here. Appreciative thinking. And then, with whatever degree of beauty you can imagine or feel or sense with awareness, let there be a beautiful awareness of breathing. If there is no beauty in your awareness, if there's harshness or discouragement, take the risk to assume that you can be aware of that in a beautiful way. That you can be aware of your difficulties with a degree of calmness, of ease, of clarity. Whenever your mind wanders off in thought and you recognize that, maybe that's when the meditation begins. That's where you have the opportunity to experiment with discovering how to be beautiful, bringing attention to how things are. It's all nature. So all the natural world unfolding within you. Can you experiment and discover how to be alive and present and aware, so the awareness of things has a quality of beauty, ease, openness? Discovering the beauty of the mind is not really a trying, if trying is doing and straining. It's more like a not-trying, letting go of the doing and trying. Trying to get something in the way that if you wanted to see the beauty of the natural world, you would step outside of your house, maybe look at a tree, or pull back the curtains. It's a beauty discovered by undoing, relaxing, allowing. The beauty of the mind is there in the mind. Perhaps you could have a small hint of it at least in the corner of the mind. There's a way of being mindful, being aware, that can be greatly appreciated, a source of appreciation. Just aware. And then, as we come to the end of the meditation, to once again see if you can intuit, imagine, feel, see with the mind's eye some quality of beauty, some quality of the mind that's a treasure, valuable. A way in which the inner life is a treasure. From this beauty that's possible within, to now gaze upon the world with that beauty. To gaze upon the world of people kindly. So the gaze is kind, the gaze is beautiful. And to consider this world with many suffering people, with many people who are alarmed, scared, angry, hurt in deep ways. To look upon all of it with a certain kind of beauty that allows kindness, compassion, and care, that doesn't sacrifice the beauty for our concern. And then to come out of the meditation now with the wish, with the orientation that you will live this day in some way or other with a kind regard for all beings. With a wish that somehow, in small or big ways, you might live in a way that betters this world, that supports and cares for some other people. Maybe even one. Maybe even that one is yourself. And maybe all it is is to smile with someone, to appreciate someone. May it be that coming out of this meditation, the meditation supports us to create a better world for all beings. May all beings be happy. --- [^1]: **Greed, Ill-will, and Delusion:** In Buddhism, these are known as the "Three Poisons" or the three unwholesome roots (_mūla_) of suffering. They are considered the primary causes of negative actions and cyclical dissatisfaction.