--- ai_generation_date: '2026-10-24' ai_model: gemini-3.1-pro-preview ai_prompt_hash: 2d625dd6 audiodharma: talks: - date: '2021-03-07' is_meditation: true mp3_url: https://audiodharma.us-east-1.linodeobjects.com/talks/13097/20210307-Gil_Fronsdal-IMC-guided_meditation_sam_dhi.mp3 section_slug: guided-meditation-samdhi speakers: - speaker_name: Gil Fronsdal speaker_url: https://www.audiodharma.org/speakers/1 talk_start_time_seconds: 0 title: "Guided Meditation: Sam\u0101dhi" url: https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/13097 video_unavailable: false collapsed_sections: [] location_city: Redwood City, CA video_unavailable: false youtube: id: 7tpTe8LhBk0 imprecise_upload_date: '2021-05-04' title: 'Guided Meditation: Samadhi' upload_date: null uploader_str: Insight Meditation Center uploader_url: https://www.youtube.com/@InsightMeditationCenter youtube_url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tpTe8LhBk0 --- # Guided Meditation: Samādhi - [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: Samādhi](https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/13097) Welcome to the meditation[^1]. I'd like to begin with a little analogy of what happened a few days ago in a park. There were people flying little remote control airplanes over a field, and there was one drone helicopter with four propellers that was zipping around in the sky. It was a curiosity to see it, but it was very hard to follow. I would see it for a moment, and then it would zip away in a very jagged trajectory and path. My mind was active and busy looking and searching; it was a lot of work. At some point, the helicopter started coming back to where it was going to land, and I could start seeing it again very easily without having to search for it. There clearly was a spot on the ground where it was going to land—a little round disk. It went back and forth a little bit, looking to be close to that spot above it. It was easy to watch it glide and slide back and forth, and nice to see its gentle movements. Then it came to a place just a few inches above the disk, completely still, hovering in the air. It was such a pleasure to watch it hover. It was a little bit of a thrill, just defying gravity and being really still right there. I felt a certain kind of joy and delight, and my mind got really still. _Oh, what's happening here?_ Just being still with that hovering. Then the helicopter landed, got still, and settled[^2] on the ground. I could feel my mind just get still. The little bit of thrill, or the hovering feeling in my mind which was a little bit of energy, rested. Something in my mind went, _Ah_, and rested there. This is an analogy for samādhi[^3], for the development of this wonderful thing called samādhi—sometimes translated as concentration, and by some translators as serenity. If your mind is a helicopter, sometimes it is zipping around, and it's hard to even find it. Wherever the mind goes, its trajectory is not so clear; it jumps around. For a mindfulness practitioner, it can be a lot of work: _Where did it go now?_ Finding it, keeping up with it, remembering to look for it, and being present. But as we start getting more settled in meditation, the mind doesn't flit around so much. It begins to still. It may not quite be in the present moment here, but maybe it's with the breathing some. It's in the territory, moving back and forth, getting close in and out. Sometimes you're there, sometimes you're not, but it doesn't go very far, and you kind of know where the mind is. It is just looking for its landing spot. Then, at some point, it's really there in the present moment—here in our experience, in our body, maybe with our breathing. It just hovers a little bit. It feels so good to have a certain kind of stillness, but also to have a hovering feeling of just being there. It's a bit of a thrill, and it's wonderful and delightful. And then it doesn't go anywhere, except it settles further down onto the landing spot. For the mind to land here in the present moment, on a landing spot on the ground where it's still, peaceful, and unmoving, allows our mind to come to a deep rest. It just rests there. It's not searching for anything, it's not chasing anything, it's not bouncing around. Even the delight of finally being in a spot hovering settles as we come down[^4] and are just here. Stillness, quiet, peacefulness, and settled here. One of the descriptions of samādhi is a settledness of mind. The mind is settled, and the deeper the settledness is, the stiller the mind becomes. It is a stillness that's not just a stillness of a particular spot within us, but as if everything is still because the awareness has become still. ## Guided Meditation Instructions Assuming a meditation posture, that can be both your landing spot here in this body, and your helicopter, your mind, here. If your mind is dashing about after this thought and that thought, just know that you also have the remote control to direct it back to its landing spot. Gently, lovingly, still letting the mind know: _Come back. Come back home. Be here. This is where rest is, this is where safety is. You don't need to flit around so much._ Maybe one of the remote control signals for the mind to settle down is taking a few long, slow, deep breaths. Take a deep breath, about three-quarters full, without any strain on the in-breath. Then take an exhale that's maybe twice as long as usual, again without any strain. An exhale where there's more letting go at the end of the exhale, more release at the end of the exhale. Then letting your breathing settle down and quiet down, as if the breathing now can begin landing here in your body. As you exhale, soften and relax the body. Part of the relaxing of the muscles is to help the body come to a greater stillness. As we soften the muscles of the face and relax them, it's letting go of the activity of tension and holding. On the exhale, relax the shoulders. If the shoulders are being held up, it's activity and action that interferes with the deep settling into stillness. Do the same thing with the belly—softening, relaxing the belly. Sometimes there you can feel the greater stillness, sometimes not, if it's difficult to be relaxed. Perhaps there's some way to bring the entire body to stillness, to relax and let go in the hands, the arms, the chest, the legs. Then to begin bringing the mind, the awareness, home to the landing spot of the body breathing. You might not quite be there yet. You might be close by. You might fly by and come back, and circle around close to the breath but not quite there. That's okay; that might be needed to locate the place to land. You're with the breathing for a few breaths, or half a breath, and off you go again. Rather than being discouraged, be encouraged that this is part of the process of coming to landing. You are getting closer. Maybe less off in the distant sky flitting around, coming here to your breathing. Maybe for a while you hover over the breath, almost as if the in-breath is an upward draft that you catch and hover in, gliding on. The exhale provides support to glide along, slide along on the exhale. For the mind to really land in the breathing, the mind needs to become stiller. The mind needs to be quieter, which might be helped by relaxing the thinking mind. Relax any muscular tension associated with thinking, worrying, and wanting—tension that might be in the forehead or behind it, around the eyes or jaws, in a slight leaning forward, being pulled, or pulling back. A more subtle relaxation of the body that corresponds to a settling of the mind allows the mind to settle and get quieter. Feeling more into the breathing, the body breathing. What would it be like for you to be right there with the breathing, hovering over it gently, quietly, putting in just enough energy for your mind, your attention, to hover over the in-breaths and out-breaths? So the mind is not wandering off into thought so much, but is right there, breathing in and breathing out. Not so much like there's a laser focus, like you're in the control tower looking at the breathing, but more like the whole body is gently vibrating, hovering over the breathing or with the breathing. Right there, breathing in and breathing out. Hovering where there's a stillness and a tranquility, not a lot of movement. Then let the mind land in the breathing, to land in the present moment, so that the engine can go off and it has deep stillness, groundedness, safety. Having landed and stable here on the ground of the body breathing. A ground, the earth. A wide, expansive, and quiet earth where the mind can feel secure enough to be still, quiet, resting on the body breathing. Whenever the mind has wandered off a lot, come back to first hovering with the breath, with the breathing. Then with relaxation and letting go, land on the breath, land inside of it. Come to a stillness of mind in the middle of the moving experience of breathing. Finding a place of stillness within, and allowing the mind to become still, quiet, maybe even unmoving, together with the inner stillness. ## Reflections on Samādhi in Relationships And then coming to the end of this sitting, thinking about how samādhi operates in our interpersonal relationships. It is not a concentrated focus on others, but rather it's a deep settledness in ourselves. To be deeply settled without any fear or agendas, without any leaning forward or pulling back, without being pushed by desires or pulled by aversion—just a deep settledness. To be with others in this settled way. So settled that, of course, you'll be aware of the other person. You don't need to intently focus; of course you're open and available and aware of the other. From this settled, peaceful place, there can be a kind of deep love and positive regard, an offering of goodwill and of safety. A deep respect of others because you're not interfering with them or needing them to be different. You're simply settled with them, settled in yourself. This settled samādhi factor can give a wonderful perspective for how to be with people: with care, with love, with friendliness, with goodwill that is not so much work or an obligation or a transaction. It just is. May our ability to be still in meditation also be for the welfare and happiness of others. May all beings be happy. May all beings be safe. May all beings be settled in themselves. May all beings be nourished by an inner stillness and safety. May all beings know inner peace, and may all beings everywhere be free. --- [^1]: Original transcript contained a brief false-start and an apology to the YouTube audience for being muted on Zoom; this was omitted for readability to begin directly with the meditation instructions. [^2]: Original transcript said "atlantic got still subtle", corrected to "and landed, got still, settled" based on context. [^3]: **Samādhi:** A Pali word often translated as "concentration," "stillness," or "serenity." It refers to a state of meditative absorption or a deep, unified settledness of mind. [^4]: Original transcript said "come to town", corrected to "come down" based on context.