--- ai_generation_date: '2026-10-26' ai_model: gemini-3.1-pro-preview ai_prompt_hash: 2d625dd6 audiodharma: talks: - date: '2020-11-03' is_meditation: true mp3_url: https://audiodharma.us-east-1.linodeobjects.com/talks/12362/20201103-Gil_Fronsdal-IMC-guided_meditation_on_stillness.mp3 section_slug: guided-meditation-on-stillness speakers: - speaker_name: Gil Fronsdal speaker_url: https://www.audiodharma.org/speakers/1 talk_start_time_seconds: 0 title: Guided Meditation on Stillness url: https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/12362 video_unavailable: false collapsed_sections: [] location_city: Redwood City, CA video_unavailable: false youtube: id: 6kuXHVq0ek4 imprecise_upload_date: '2021-05-04' title: 'Guided Meditation: Stillness' upload_date: null uploader_str: Insight Meditation Center uploader_url: https://www.youtube.com/@InsightMeditationCenter youtube_url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kuXHVq0ek4 --- # Guided Meditation on Stillness - [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._ ## Introduction Good day, greetings from Redwood City. One of the inner qualities that's being developed through Buddhist practice—certainly Buddhist meditation practice—is an inner strength. One of those strengths is the ability to have a wonderful and peaceful inner stillness. It's the stillness where some valued part of ourselves can remain at ease and at peace, that can stay still without giving in to the forces of desire or aversion, without leaning into something or pulling away, without holding tight to something or pushing it away. In a lot of the thoughts that we have, if you pay careful attention to them, chances are what pulls us into them is desire of some kind, aversion of some kind, or fear of some kind. To be able to find a place of stillness—a place with a calm center inside from which we can observe without being for or against things—can develop into a strength. It doesn't mean we have no desires, or things that we want to be different, or things we don't approve of. It means that we can stay at rest within, without losing our wisdom and clarity. We have a place where we're not triggered by habits and reactivity, and we can engage with all that we do with a certain kind of peace, quiet, or calmness. There are times in our life where calling upon this strength is really essential. Part of meditation is actually preparing ourselves for that time when it really is important. To sit with an inner stillness that doesn't give in, that doesn't get caught up in the streams of desire, aversion, and fear—you will still have those, but it doesn't mean we have to leave our still, quiet place within. ## [Guided Meditation on Stillness](https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/12362) To do this meditation, we begin by having the body posture be one that supports some good quality of stillness. Not being frozen still, but a stillness that is soft, relaxed, and fluid. So, take a posture that allows you to be still, and also alert. Sometimes if we lay down, we can be still, but we might not stay alert for long, so be a little bit careful if you lay down. Some people will meditate lying down with their eyes open just to stay alert. Gently, if you're sitting upright, close your eyes. To appreciate the body being still, you might sway back and forth a little bit: sideways, forwards, and back. Then, slow down the sways until you come to a place of stillness. It is easier to become softly, fluidly still if you begin by really relaxing your body. I often find it useful to relax on the exhale, as there's a kind of release in the exhale. We do that sometimes in ordinary life; we might say, "Ah," when we sit down to really relax. Saying "ah" and then exhaling, it's in the same kind of way. As you exhale, maybe soften the muscles of the face. Imagine the face can be more open. Relax the shoulders, allowing the shoulders to hang freely, and the arms to hang freely from the shoulders. Then, soften in the belly. There's an art to letting the belly relax and be soft, maybe hanging forward and letting it settle down so there's a little more weight in the lower torso. That's a kind of ballast for sitting still. Let the whole body relax. Just let go of all the holding and tightness in your body. Tune into your breathing more fully, letting the attention on breathing have a light touch. Do not attack the breathing with the attention, but lightly touch and be with the breathing, as if awareness is a soft feather that's just brushing and caressing the movements and sensations of breathing. As you exhale, perhaps you can relax the thinking mind. Quiet and soften the mind that thinks, that wants, and doesn't want. Almost as if the mind is a muscle and you can soften it and relax it. Reassure the mind so it doesn't have to work so hard. Then, with a light touch, rest the attention back into the experience of breathing. While the experience of breathing changes and moves, expands and contracts, maybe more deeply than that, can you be aware of a place of stillness within? A calm, quiet place within, from which you can be aware of breathing. From which you can be aware of your present moment experience. A place of stillness that, if you rest there, you won't be so easily pulled into desires and aversions, wanting and not wanting, fears, and thoughts. If your mind is thinking a lot, notice the movement of it all. Maybe it's even a kind of energetic movement in your body. In contrast to the movements of the mind, can you tune into a stillness in the body? A stillness within. Take refuge in that stillness. It is a place where nothing needs to happen except to be aware of what is happening. Some people can tap into an inner stillness at the end of the exhale, allowing things to be still and quiet just for a moment before the in-breath begins. Some people can feel more of that inner stillness at the end of the inhale, just that moment before the exhale begins. Then maybe, throughout the whole cycle of breathing, you can have underneath it, behind it, or around the breathing, a feeling of fluid stillness and quiet. A place of rest within. ## Reflections As we come to the end of this sitting, I realize that it might be a little hard for someone new to meditation to appreciate the value of an inner stillness, or to see that this inner stillness can be the source of love. It is a love which is not pushed around by the winds of pleasure and pain, wanting and not wanting, praise and blame[^1], expectations of others, and neediness from within. This place of stillness and quiet participates with the world. It is in the middle of the world, but it is also not swayed by it or unduly influenced by it. From this place, it's possible to listen deeply to others and offer a compassionate presence free of our reactivity and our judgments. From here, love, compassion, and kindness can have an impartiality, an ability to be equal to all beings and not dependent on how other people are. There is a universality to it. May it be that our meditation practice today allows us to spend the day close to a stillness, a quiet, a place of rest and safety inside, from which we can look upon all things kindly. We can look with love, remembering that no matter how bad things become, the greatest gift to the world is our love. It is our contribution to a peaceful place, a kind place. May this quiet place inside be a source of strength, so that our strength is also conveyed to the world. May it be, on this day, that all the many, many of us who are here for this morning meditation may spread from us a quiet and nourishing love and kindness, because certainly, it's one of the things the world needs the most. May all beings be happy. May all beings be safe. And may all beings be free. Thank you. --- [^1]: **Eight Worldly Winds:** Describes four pairs of universal opposites that constantly buffet human experience, keeping us bound to suffering unless met with wisdom and equanimity: Gain and Loss, Fame and Disrepute, Praise and Blame, and Pleasure and Pain.