--- ai_generation_date: '2026-10-27' ai_model: gemini-3.1-pro-preview ai_prompt_hash: 2d625dd6 audiodharma: talks: - date: '2020-09-16' is_meditation: false mp3_url: https://audiodharma.us-east-1.linodeobjects.com/talks/12107/20200916-Gil_Fronsdal-IMC-mindfulness_of_the_body_3_of_5_embodied_joy.mp3 section_slug: mindfulness-of-the-body-3-of-5-embodied-joy speakers: - speaker_name: Gil Fronsdal speaker_url: https://www.audiodharma.org/speakers/1 talk_start_time_seconds: 0 title: Mindfulness of the Body (3 of 5) Embodied Joy url: https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/12107 video_unavailable: false collapsed_sections: [] location_city: Redwood City, CA video_unavailable: false youtube: id: 5vtvEMa8FlA imprecise_upload_date: '2021-05-04' title: 'Dharmette: Mindfulness of the Body (3 of 5) Embodied Joy' upload_date: null uploader_str: Insight Meditation Center uploader_url: https://www.youtube.com/@InsightMeditationCenter youtube_url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vtvEMa8FlA --- # Mindfulness of the Body (3 of 5) Embodied Joy - [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._ ## [Mindfulness of the Body (3 of 5) Embodied Joy](https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/12107) So, in this topic of the week, mindfulness of the body, yesterday I pointed out that one of the benefits of mindfulness of the body is a sense of protection and safety. It's a wellspring of being ethical. It's hard to intentionally hurt other people—harm other people—if one is really centered in one's body, because then one has the information, the experience, of how that's also harming ourselves. And that there is another way to take care of ourselves and take care of the world that doesn't require us to harm anyone. Today, the emphasis is that mindfulness of the body also provides a means, a way, to experience some of the greatest joys and happiness a human being can experience. It's through being embodied that we release and open up to the wellspring, the reservoir, the capacity to experience embodied joy and embodied happiness. This is really spectacular because of how embodied it is. It feels really full and complete, and it can feel very stable. It's very satisfying because there's a satisfaction in all our muscles and all the marrow of our bones, as opposed to just a kind of mental excitement, mental joy, and mental happiness that might come more from evaluation, getting what we want, getting praise, or something that's exciting or interesting for us. There's nothing necessarily wrong with that, but to discover this capacity from within—this is what the Buddha said was so radical. When the Buddha taught in ancient India, there were plenty of religious traditions in his time that really mistrusted any kind of embodied, physical sense of joy and happiness. They associated it with sensual pleasure, which was considered a trap or an attachment. The Buddha, who understood the trap and the problems of clinging to sensual pleasure, discovered a non-sensual, embodied sense of happiness and well-being that can well up from sitting quietly and meditating. In the modern world, we might say that as we get concentrated, settled, and peaceful, and stress begins to fall away entirely and the body becomes very relaxed, and as we keep being more concentrated just on the breathing or just on something here, it releases endorphins or some kind of chemicals in our body that bring up quite intense, centered joy and happiness. We might say that, but to me, that seems very reductionistic. It misses the point of the deep, embodied sense of well-being, contentment, and satisfaction that can well up in this kind of meditative happiness and joy. It really comes into its own when we have the capacity for an embodied mindfulness, where there's a receptivity in the body for this welling up. As I said earlier, I think it's fairly revolutionary for our modern world that the happiness the Buddha advocated is a happiness that doesn't harm anyone. It doesn't require using a lot of resources or a lot of money to get pleasant experiences or to do exciting things. It doesn't require receiving praise from anyone, adulation, or becoming famous. It doesn't require having power, or the pleasure of power that some people are addicted to. Many of the normal places people look for happiness and well-being so often cause more suffering than they do happiness—if not in the short term, then sometimes in the long term. This is not to be critical of those things, but to have access to a deeply embodied, internal sense of well-being and happiness—some of the greatest kinds of joy and even ecstasy that are possible in meditation—that doesn't require anything outside to be different. It doesn't require money and all those other things. It's harmless to the world around us. To have that as a wellspring of meaning and purpose, to understand how deeply satisfying and meaningful it is, gives a life a sense of purpose. And it leads to a life of service, caring, compassion, and freedom. So it's not a selfish happiness. It can't be selfish, because selfishness actually squashes this free-flowing wellspring of joy and delight that comes from the inside. That's why it's such a revolutionary act for some people to begin experiencing this welling up of meditative joy. It requires an orientation away from the conceit and narcissism that some people have, but also away from a preoccupation with self and self-identity. Rather, it requires a willingness, a receptivity to allow a life force to well up and move through us. Instead of being in the control tower trying to control it, be it, prove it, apologize for oneself, show off oneself, define oneself, or justify oneself, we put all that kind of selfing[^1] aside and trust this welling up of goodness, this sweetest[^2] peacefulness that's possible here. In talking about this, and also in the guided meditation I did, I'm very aware that this is not really a meditation for someone who's brand new to meditation. I offer it here partly as a continuity of all these months of offering the 7:00 a.m. sitting, with the hope that the background of all that we've done so far creates a foundation that makes what I'm talking about a little bit more accessible. It doesn't have to be ecstasy, and it doesn't have to be dramatic. But learning to turn our attention inward and begin to be receptive, allowing, and attuned to the feelings of pleasantness, lightness, satisfaction, and contentment is key. That might start as little hints, but as we breathe, open, and settle more, it becomes bigger and stronger. It does require a mind which is undistracted. It requires a mind that doesn't fill the space of attention with its preoccupations, because there has to be room in our attentional field for these embodied experiences to surface and show themselves. It may be useful to think that our attention only has a certain amount of bandwidth. If we fill it with thoughts, memories, stories, and conversations, it leaves very little bandwidth left over for our body. In fact, it's probably like Zoom: if too much bandwidth is being used, something begins to freeze and you can't really keep going. To quiet the mind enough to allow for this lived experience, you might relate it to something you've felt before. Some of you may have had the experience of exercising, like going for a really nice walk somewhere outside, maybe on a nice cool day, and just feeling the vitality flowing in the body—the blood flowing, the vitality. It just feels so good to feel all these energies of the body flowing. There's a kind of deep satisfaction where those energies are flowing. It's related to that. That begins to be released when there is a lot of relaxation and alertness. We begin the revolution of re-centering ourselves on the lived experience from the inside out, as it flows and moves through us. There are different degrees and different characteristics of this pleasure, this sense of well-being that can well up from the inside. The reason I talk about it here during mindfulness of the body week is that the more we can be embodied in our practice—the more we attune to our body, make it a habit, and are familiar with the experience of the body—the more benefits come from it. Certainly, if there is pain (and there oftentimes can be pain and discomfort in the body), mindfulness of the body can be phenomenally supportive. It can allow us to respect the pain, find a way through it, and find our peace with it. But mindfulness of the body also makes room for this meditative joy, creating the capacity for inner joy and happiness to well up and come forward. I didn't know about this for many years when I first started doing Zen practice. In Zen meditation, it was actually discouraged, or seen as a little distraction, to have meditative joy and happiness as part of the practice. Maybe there's an orientation in that tradition sometimes to see any kind of leaning into joy or opening to it as a kind of attachment, a departure from the more ultimate connection to truth which Zen is supposed to emphasize. But when I was introduced to Vipassanā[^3] practice, I began to appreciate that this meditative joy and happiness that can well up is not only allowable, but it actually begins opening the door to greater and greater letting go. As you open up more and more, and get more and more settled in the present moment, wonderfully, the joy fades away. With the joy fading away, a deeper, sublime form of embodied happiness—a deep, satisfying feeling—wells up. Then, with time, that happiness also fades away. Rather than being a loss, it's really a fantastic gain, because this deeper, more satisfying feeling of peace, tranquility, and equanimity replaces it. To be so at home, feeling so free of conflict, not challenged by anything, but just feeling this beautiful sense of peace flowing in. At some point, that also fades away. It fades away into a deep letting go, a deep release. And that deep release allows us to experience the tactile touching of freedom, of liberation. So this joy and happiness that the Buddha emphasized is not meant to be an end in itself. It is not to be attached to, but it is certainly to be allowed. We should be receptive to it, and allow it to grow and develop so that it can keep morphing and transforming as the practice deepens into happiness, peace, and then freedom. ## Conclusion Mindfulness of the body. May your body be your friend. May you feel that your body is here really to support you, and that it has these treasures inside. If you take the time and give some of your attentional bandwidth to it, you can allow this deep healing and deep freeing of these positive emotions and feelings from deep within. Thank you very much, and we'll continue tomorrow. --- [^1]: **Selfing:** In a Buddhist context, "selfing" refers to the continuous mental process of constructing an identity or ego, which stands in contrast to the teaching of _anatta_ (not-self). [^2]: Original transcript said 'saddest', corrected to 'sweetest' based on context. [^3]: **Vipassanā:** A Pali word often translated as "insight," referring to the Buddhist meditation practice of seeing things as they really are, which often focuses on mindfulness of breathing, thoughts, and feelings.