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      title: 'Guided Meditation: Effortless Awareness'
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    - date: '2022-05-02'
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      speakers:
        - speaker_name: Gil Fronsdal
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      talk_start_time_seconds: 2162
      title: "Dharmette: Satipa\u1E6D\u1E6Dh\u0101na  (67) Abiding in Effortless Awareness"
      url: https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/16194
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location_city: Redwood City, CA
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  title: 'Guided Meditation: Effortless Awareness; Satipatthana (67) Abiding in Effortless
    Awareness'
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# Guided Meditation: Effortless Awareness; Dharmette: Satipaṭṭhāna (67) Abiding in Effortless Awareness - [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: Effortless Awareness](https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/16193)

So, good morning everyone, and good day. Hello. We're coming here to the last week of the series on _Satipaṭṭhāna_[^1]. And my preferred translation of the word _sati_[^2] is awareness. Awareness maybe is a little bit ambiguous term for some people. It's a multivalent term, meaning it can have different meanings for different people. One of the meanings that it has for me, that pertains to my practice and understanding of this text we're doing, is a form of awareness, a form of attentiveness that, when established, has an effortless quality to it.

There might be effort to stay in the flow of the river. If you kind of go off to the side and get caught on the bank on the left side, you maybe push off or you kind of paddle a little bit to stay in the middle of the current. Or if there's some boulder in the way as you go down on the left, you kind of make sure you stay in the middle. So there's a little bit of effort involved, but it's clear that the effort involved is not to be aware. The effort involved is letting go of what interferes with awareness.

Some of the things that interfere with a crisp or clear awareness—really feeling we're present—is there's a lot of thinking. Thinking is not the problem, in a sense; thinking is the distraction from that awareness. We don't have to then condemn thinking or stop thinking. The art of it is to kind of turn it around and let that discover that awareness. Return to that awareness, being aware of the thinking.

So it's a little sleight of hand. You're preoccupied in thinking, you're caught in your thoughts, and then rather than doing anything against the thoughts, judging them, or trying to get away from them or do something, it's discovering the kind of knowing of thinking. The awareness, the recognition that has a kind of ease to it, a quietness to it, a naturalness to it, maybe an effortlessness to it. Effortless in the sense that it's not something that we do, but rather it's something that is done by our psychophysical system. Something that's done by, maybe we say, the mind. It's as if it's the awareness that you can't turn off; you can only be distracted from in waking hours.

It's always operating. And luckily it operates when we're distracted sometimes, because you might be lost in thought, but you have just enough awareness to see that as you walk down the sidewalk you're about to run into a person pushing a stroller with a baby in it, and somehow that comes into awareness enough that the system takes it into account. You weren't really seeing anything consciously, but somehow that awareness was there.

So, I don't know how accessible this will be for you today, but perhaps for the sitting today, maybe there can be little moments where you can appreciate this. Little moments of maybe being in awe of it, inspired by it, that we have this capacity. Or maybe there'll be moments where you can't understand why this is a big deal. Why is it so important? Because we have important things to think and to do, and we have to get on with it, and just to do something where we're not applying ourselves can seem like, "What's the point?" But we do apply ourselves mostly to get out of the way, to stay in the current, to place ourselves back in the current. And then allow this awareness to be there and to carry us. Maybe it's the current, the river of our present moment experience. Or maybe it feels like there's a river of awareness itself that flows through the experience of the present moment, something like that.

So, assuming a meditation posture. And just as you're here, even before you close your eyes, if they're not closed, what comes into awareness effortlessly? What do you become aware of that you're not directing your attention to focus on, or it kind of comes into peripheral vision? Maybe what comes into awareness that there was no plan to have that be there. Just there, without planning or directing attention. A sound. A particular body sensation. If your eyes are open, a particular sight object.

It's possible that almost seemingly immediately after something comes to awareness, unexpectedly and effortlessly, the mind kicks in with effort, directedness, and reflection. That's okay, but see if you can, even for moments, recognize and appreciate when awareness seems effortless or undirected as it knows something.

Now you might gently close your eyes. And with this kind of receptive, open, maybe seemingly effortless awareness—the closest you can to doing it without doing anything more, or fixing anything, or changing anything—become aware of the tensions in your body, the places where you're tight. Places that we usually relax during these meditations, but don't relax them. Just let them be in this field of awareness. And let them appear in whatever way they want to appear in the different parts of the body. Maybe without attention centered on any one of them, but just gently in its own way floating between them.

Notice any tendency to want to relax the body. And that desire to relax the body, let that just be one more thing that awareness knows, without needing to do anything. Awareness does not need to do anything at all except be aware. If you need to do something, experiment with just being aware of the feeling of that need, letting it just exist in a field of this effortless awareness.

And maybe as if you're pulling the curtains on a window and now see the landscape outside, kind of like you're pulling the curtains for your breathing. The landscape is the body breathing. And what part of breathing, experience of breathing, comes into awareness effortlessly, unplanned? The particular sensations of the in-breath and out-breath don't last. When one ends, what's the next sensation that comes into awareness?

You're watching the river of experience in the breathing. It's like watching the little waves on the top of the river that go by, watching all the different sensations. Putting aside needing to do anything, accomplish anything, in favor of appreciating whatever way there's a naturalness in awareness, in whatever way once in a while it seems that awareness operates without direction, and without you doing the awareness, just aware.

Yeah, you don't have to give any concern to how you're not doing today's practice, not managing to do it. Only kind of begin again, noticing how it is working. Maybe its clearest time is when a sound, or a sensation, or a thought arises uninvitingly, unplanned. It's just there in awareness, in that first moment. It's there effortlessly.

And what happens to the naturalness or the effortlessness of awareness if you make a very small half-smile with the corner of your lips?

Resting in awareness, as you would rest in an easy chair, rest back into a soft mattress, is resting in awareness. And then whatever way you can, appreciate the naturalness of awareness, the effortless quality that can be there. The way that awareness could operate without directing the mind or doing awareness. And in that natural awareness, in and of itself, within itself—not within you—is there any attachment, any fear, any aversion, or clinging? Is there a place of awareness, a way of being aware, that is absent of clinging, absent of attachment, absent of being for or against?

And what we're focusing on here is the awareness itself, not what awareness knows. The awareness might know attachment, it might know clinging. But the simplicity of that awareness, which is there even when you're not trying to be aware, in and of itself, is it free of attachment and fear?

And those of you who can sense something like this, take one last moment here in the meditation to appreciate knowing a place within free of attachment, free of clinging, free of fear. And to the degree to which you can be aware without attachment, without fear, without asserting yourself, let that attention move now towards the people in your life, in your neighborhood, places of work, family, friends, strangers, people in stores you go to. And perhaps this simple, natural awareness can be a clearing, a clarity through which your kindness, your love, your friendliness can flow outwards to them.

May the clarity of awareness allow us to love more freely, and in that love, as an expression of that love, may we wish well for others.

May all beings be happy.
May all beings be safe.
May all beings be peaceful.
May all beings be free.
And may we contribute to that possibility.

Thank you all.

And while I drink my water, if some of you would like to write what the meditation was like for you, or how well or not well you could tap into this idea of natural or effortless awareness. And I'm sure that for some of you it didn't work, and those comments are just as valuable as those that it was useful for. And then those comments maybe will help me kind of know how to direct my little dharma talk.

## [Dharmette: Satipaṭṭhāna (67) Abiding in Effortless Awareness](https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/16194)

So thank you all for the comments I'm seeing, and the ones that are still coming. I'll read them all at the end when we stop here, and so I appreciate looking at them then. But for now, I'd like to say a few words.

We're coming to the end of this many-weeks teachings on _Satipaṭṭhāna_, the title of which I like to translate as the ways of establishing, the four ways of establishing awareness, the establishments for awareness. And the emphasis, what we're trying to do here, is not understand so much these areas of our life—that's certainly part of it—but we're also establishing awareness, and then we're abiding in that awareness. And that awareness involves a clarity, involves being able to remain in the present moment.

That ability to remain centered in the present moment is often associated with concentration, to be concentrated and focused here and now. But often with concentration, for many people, they assume that concentration is kind of a laser focus, or a tightening of focus onto something. And the way that I understand _samadhi_[^3] here is that it's an undistractedness in the present moment where our whole being starts getting gathered together to be aware here and now without the distractions.

To do this well comes at the end of a long period of doing _Satipaṭṭhāna_ practice. And it might, for some people, they might get the hang of it quickly, some people it might take years and years. You'll see in a moment it might take them seven years to develop it to some degree. But one of the nice qualities that happens is as we get some sense of the naturalness of awareness, or the effortlessness of awareness, or the way that we can practice letting go of the distractions from awareness, but then abide in awareness. Awareness is not something we do, it's something that we allow for, something that we stay in, and abide. It's like staying in a current in a river.

And you're floating down the river, and—I said this earlier, but this recording might live differently from what I said—so floating down the river, and you can stay in the current, but if it looks like you're going to veer off the current into an eddy or into the side of the river, then you make a small adjustment to come back into it, and then the river carries you. So the effort at some point becomes not an effort to be aware, but the effort to avoid being distracted, being caught in something, and then come back. Be here. Come here.

At some point, there starts to be a recognition that in this awareness, this awareness itself, in and of itself, there is a kind of freedom. There is an absence of attachment, of clinging, maybe fear, anger, hostility, even desires are absent in this awareness. Even healthy desires, we can still have them. All these things still exist, but we start taking up residency in the awareness. We don't have residency in our anger, residency in our fear. Those things can still exist to some degree, but we're not prioritizing them. We're not giving them undue attention and importance. They can be there and we can take care of them wisely, but we realize we're not them. We're not identified with them. And if we want to identify with anything, we identify with this awareness that we can't do, that just is there.

But more importantly, though, is that we start seeing how this awareness is free of clinging. And knowing that this exists, that this possibility is there, is a fantastic knowing. Oh, it is possible to be free of attachment, amazing! I get a glimmer of it, I have a hint of it, but wow, it's possible to be free of jealousy, of judgmentalism, of cynicism, of craving, of avariciousness, of all kinds of things that are absent in that place. And it's possible to live in the world effectively, established and abiding in this place. To know that is to know something really important.

So now I'd like to read the last part of this text that we were doing all these weeks, and it's kind of the conclusion to it all. And the Buddha says: "Practitioners, if anyone should develop these four foundations for awareness in such a way for seven years, one of two fruits could be expected for that person: either final knowledge here and now, or if there's a trace of clinging left, non-return." So if a person does this practice seven years, they can expect one of two results: final knowledge here and now, to in this lifetime attain final awakening here, is called final knowledge. And what it's a knowledge of, it's not knowledge about the cosmos and the inner workings of the mind or the details of physics or something. Final knowledge is a knowledge that the mind is without clinging. Wow! And to really know this—wow, this mind here has no clinging in it, amazing!

And what I was trying to point to today is we can get early hints of that possibility. So we know it's possible, as we develop awareness, as we find ourselves more and more aware, and don't confuse it with having clinging. It's a part of you that is free of clinging, it's a part of you that's free of fear, and it's found in the awareness itself.

And then it says, either after seven years you'll have full awakening, final knowledge here and now, or if there's a trace of clinging left, non-return. Non-return means that when you die, in this common Buddhist idea of rebirth, that you will not return as a human being, but you'll do the final work, the final liberation, finally letting go in this liminal space somewhere beyond your death.

And in seven years—the usual interpretation of this is that this means seven years that this is the primary occupation a person is involved in, doing this practice. So classically it's someone who can do this would be monastics, and really give their life over to it. And that seems pretty phenomenal. But the Buddha goes on and says: "Let alone seven years, if anyone should develop these four foundations for awareness in such a way for six years, they'll have one of these two fruits. Or for five years, or for four years, three years, two years, for one year, one of two fruits should be expected: either final knowledge here and now, or if there's a trace of clinging left, non-return. Let alone one year. If anyone should develop these four foundations for awareness in such a way for seven months, for six months, for five months, for four months, for three months, for two months, for one month, for half a month, one of two fruits could be expected: either final knowledge here and now, or if there's a trace of clinging left, non-return. Let alone half a month. If anyone should develop these four foundations for awareness in such a way for seven days, one of two fruits can be expected: either final knowledge here and now, or if there's a trace of clinging left, non-return."

So it seems pretty phenomenal to do this inner work in seven days. There are probably, in the billions of people that exist on the planet, there are people who are prepared and have a certain kind of capacity, potential, that maybe they can drop into a deep state and find their way all the way to the end. For most of us, this is not—if you don't attain final knowledge in that kind of speed—but it's possible to have knowledge of this, recognize that it becomes part of us. It's not complete, it's not the final, but we're well on the way. We've had an experience, we know this possibility of non-clinging. And to have confidence in it, to feel that it's valuable. It's one of the most valuable things a human being can do with this lifetime is to discover this place within, this possibility, or this—I don't know if it's within, it's just once you're in awareness, there's no inside and outside—where there's a freedom from suffering.

Then our compassion for the world knows how fully it's possible to help support people to become free of suffering. To have compassion for people who suffer and provide them with band-aids is great if there's a wound. I mean, I never want to not offer band-aids that are needed, and I celebrate the people who do. And to really know how thoroughly people can be freed of their suffering is to have this knowledge, an experiential knowledge inside of ourselves of this possibility. Then we can be a beacon, then we can point people, and then we can support people to the full potential to become free of suffering, the very goal of compassion.

The text goes on a little bit more, and then we'll stop for today. So it was with reference to this that it was said, "This is the direct path for the purification of beings, for the surmounting of sorrow and lamentation, for the disappearance of pain and grief, for the attainment of the true way, for the realization of Nibbana[^4]—namely, the four foundations for awareness." This is what the Buddha said. The practitioners were satisfied and delighted in the Buddha's words.

So that's the end of the text. And we'll have the rest, the next four days of the week, to kind of also finish up this whole text and sutta[^5]. And so thank you for today. And during this day of your life, maybe you can try to have a heightened attentiveness to when awareness operates without you directing it, you making it happen. The awareness where your ordinary self is not the agent for the awareness, you're just aware in a natural way.

So thank you and I'll see you tomorrow.

---

[^1]: **_Satipaṭṭhāna_**: A Pali term often translated as the "Establishments of Mindfulness" or "Foundations of Mindfulness." It refers to the core Buddhist practice of mindfulness.

[^2]: **_Sati_**: A Pali word meaning mindfulness, awareness, or retention.

[^3]: **_Samadhi_**: A Pali word meaning "concentration," "stillness," or "one-pointedness of mind." Original transcript said "somalia," corrected to "samadhi" based on context.

[^4]: **_Nibbana_**: The Pali term for Nirvana, representing the ultimate goal of Buddhist practice, the complete cessation of suffering and the extinguishing of greed, hatred, and delusion.

[^5]: **_Sutta_**: A Pali term for a discourse or teaching, typically attributed to the Buddha.