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audiodharma:
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        - speaker_name: Gil Fronsdal
          speaker_url: https://www.audiodharma.org/speakers/1
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      title: Guided Meditation:Yes
      url: https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/14035
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    - date: '2021-08-18'
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      speakers:
        - speaker_name: Gil Fronsdal
          speaker_url: https://www.audiodharma.org/speakers/1
      talk_start_time_seconds: 1917
      title: 'Dharmette: Faith (3 of 5) Faith as Love'
      url: https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/14036
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location_city: Redwood City, CA
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  title: 'Guided Meditation: Yes; Faith (3 of 5) Faith as Love'
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# Guided Meditation:Yes; Dharmette: Faith (3 of 5) Faith as Love - [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:Yes](https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/14035)

Hello everyone, and welcome to our meditation.

There's an important distinction that we make in mindfulness practice, and that is the distinction between the experience we're having and the subjective way in which we know that experience. So, the "what is known" and the "knowing."

It's probably fair to say that much of the time people are involved in what they're experiencing, and this could include what they're thinking, what we're feeling, the emotions we're feeling, or the thoughts we have. Anything that can be the object of attention is what I'm calling the experience. And then there's the attention that knows it, the awareness that knows it.

In mindfulness practice, that attention, that awareness, that mindfulness over time becomes stronger. At first, if you hear an irritating noise outside, and before practice you might just be irritated and ready to write a letter to the mayor of the town that something needs to be fixed, the noise is so irritating. And then over time, you learn that you can be mindful of it, mindful of the irritation, and let go of the reactivity. Over time you learn that you can just be mindful of it; there's no reaction, just aware of it, mindful of it.

Then you might over time notice that your mindfulness becomes more acute, more sensitive, more able to kind of really stay present in a strong way for the sound. As that mindfulness gets stronger, then the mindfulness itself becomes something that's valued. The awareness itself becomes valued and recognized: "Oh, this is valuable, this is important." In fact, the awareness of the sound—it's maybe still an unpleasant sound—but that recedes in importance. You're not denying that it's unpleasant, but what seems more important is the fact that you're aware. Awareness becomes like a jewel. The capacity to be attentive, the capacity for being mindful, becomes like a jewel, like a precious thing. It becomes almost like its own experience. So rather than awareness only being aware of other experiences, awareness itself becomes the experience. And it just feels so that there can be a rightness to that, or a goodness to that, or a joy to that, freedom to that, in the knowing itself, in being aware.

Over time, that awareness begins becoming freer of self, of my ideas of being the agent, the one who's doing, the one who's the victim, the one who's the engager. It's just like awareness itself doesn't need so much baggage around "me, myself, and mine." It becomes this kind of thing that is just so, as I kept saying, a jewel. So there's a whole journey that can go on in mindfulness practice in our relationship to how mindfulness is experienced or operates within us.

Somewhere along that line, along that journey, mindfulness, awareness just becomes such a welcome thing to do, to be mindful, that there's a wonderful little one word that can be used that sometimes can really spark a little delight or joy or welcoming or receptivity, or really put us in the present moment in a wonderful way. And that is to say the word "yes." Whatever you're mindful of, say "yes."

It isn't that you're saying yes to the experience so much. Some experiences might not be nice; it isn't like you're condoning, valuing, or approving of what the experience is. But rather, you're saying yes to that receptivity, that welcome quality of awareness that's there to meet that, that holds that, that's aware of it. "Yes, it's good to be aware of it. Yes, I can be aware of this. Yes, let me hold this in awareness." And this wonderful little word "yes" can kind of be a cleansing agent to cleanse us of our reactivity, or all the extra baggage we carry along in our relationship to what we're being mindful of. And maybe it will put you into a place of more simplicity and clarity, and without being entangled or reactive to what's there. Just yes to being aware of this. So if that's nice for you, you could try this today. And if it doesn't make sense or it doesn't work for you, please by all means don't do it.

So sitting upright, or meditating in a posture that works for you. And relaxing your eyes. For some of you it might mean closing your eyes, some of you it might mean half closing the eyelids and gazing down at a 45-degree angle. And taking maybe three long, deep breaths.

And then letting your breath return to normal. And then take three normal breaths, but do it so consciously, giving yourself over to those three breaths.

Then on the next exhale, relax as much of your body as you can. And the next two breaths, do the same.

And then settling in to the body's experience of breathing.

And as you get more settled in here, you might say to yourself softly, gently, "yes" to whatever experience arises for you. It could be a gentle, soft yes to being aware of the in-breath, or a yes to being aware of the exhale.

Rather than resisting anything, whatever you become aware of, mindful of, maybe the mental note can be "yes." Yes to being mindful of it, to receiving it in awareness, to your ability, your capacity to hold it in awareness.

If you're drifting off in thought, keeping up a regular pace of saying "yes" might cut through your thinking, might return you to being aware. But do so without self-criticism or disappointment, just a wonderful yes to being aware again.

Perhaps a "yes" also is a reminder to calm the thinking mind. Yes, it's good to bring the thinking mind to rest, to a kind of silence that allows for greater awareness.

And then as we come to the end of this sitting, whether you use the word "yes" or not, it's good to affirm awareness. Affirm any moment of mindfulness you have. Not actively thinking affirmations, but a deep inner appreciation, valuing of being aware. And with time, that affirmation, that appreciation allows awareness to grow, which is synonymous with the growth in our capacity to be aware, our capacity to hold in awareness any difficulty at all, any joy at all.

And this is one of the keys to freedom, is to make lots of room in awareness, so awareness has capacity to hold within it the joys and challenges, joys and sorrows of life.

To say "yes" to awareness for each thing that we're aware of helps us to become less and less entangled with what we're aware of, reactive to it, afraid, or desirous, or have expectations or projections, predictions. Yes, just yes to the simple being aware.

And then in the center of that awareness, there can be love, there can be generosity, there can be care for what we're aware of. To relax into awareness, and then allow our care for the world to come forth. Not as an obligation, but in a way that is personal for each of us in our own way, to be open in awareness so the joys and sorrows of the world resonate with our good heart. And so that we might be motivated to speak and to act and to think in ways that benefit this world.

May it be that the practice that we do individually, and all of us collectively, may it be for the welfare and happiness of all beings. May all beings be happy, may all beings be free. May all beings everywhere have the safety that allows them to discover the goodness of their own hearts.

## [Dharmette: Faith (3 of 5) Faith as Love](https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/14036)

So for this third talk on faith, I'd like to attempt to talk about the quality of faith that is akin to love, or related to something we might call love. Or that when we have faith in the dharma—faith—it's because something inside of us resonates with the dharma. Something inside of us, we recognize something inside of us that is maybe akin or represents the Buddha, dharma, and the sangha, the key objects of faith in Buddhism.

There is an intimacy that we develop with ourselves, or an intimacy we develop with the world, with the sensitive, tender awareness that we might have. And that intimacy can come with a feeling of warmth, of joy, of a deep sense of satisfaction.

Excuse me. And so, it's a love, or a joy, or a kind of a desire even, that's since ancient times misunderstood, that faith is a kind of desire. It's a desire to be close to something, it's a desire to live close to something that we have faith in, something that we find valuable. And if the dharma is found, or this intimacy with the dharma is found through meditation, then there's something about the desire to stay close to that—the tenderness, the intimacy, the warmth, the joy, the sense of well-being that seems to be somehow related to this. Faith is more than just a knowing, it's a knowing through experience. We know something because we experience it.

And so to love the practice, to love in a sense the dharma. Another way that this expresses itself, that faith sometimes takes the form of devotion, devotional practices, a certain kind of heartfelt emotive wanting to serve, wanting to be close to, wanting to offer ourselves in some kind of way to the dharma or to the practice.

In our Vipassana[^1] insight tradition, there's very little chanting and very little ritual. And people have asked sometimes, "Where's the devotion in this practice?" And a common answer that is given is that mindfulness itself is devotional activity. And of course, it isn't automatically, but as we develop this practice we start feeling that there's something really religiously or spiritually or sacredly vital or enhanced through mindfulness. That mindfulness, awareness itself, is something to be devoted to, something to love, to serve, to dedicate ourselves to with love or care or generosity.

And so faith has so many different qualities, so many different aspects. But for some people, or some people sometimes, there is a quality that's akin to what I'd like to call love today. And I think we all know that the word love is very vague and covers a wide spectrum of emotions or feelings. And so maybe it's more like a koan, more like a question that I'm offering you, that if faith has a quality of love in it, or a characteristic of love—and love is very personal how this is experienced—what corresponds in you to what I'm calling love? For this warmth, this intimacy, this kind of place where we can feel like, "Yes, this is home," or "This is desirable, this is satisfying, this is something that feels like the warmest and tenderness, and forms of dedication, love, wanting to serve, wanting to be generous, wanting to care for." Maybe it's a kind of a caring kind of love; you want to care for this thing. So what do you have in yourself, where do you find yourself that might correspond to this? You might use very different words, but maybe if I'm using very broad terms, what specifically works for you? Or if I'm just giving you kind of a rough idea, maybe you have something that somewhat corresponds and you have other words for it.

And so it's a kind of love or faith or dedication, devotion, where the pull or the desire to practice, to live the dharma, to live with the precepts and ethically, just seems like a love affair. It seems like more of an expression of something that feels really good and right, a rightness to it. And that seems to be embodied, or seems to be heartfelt. It's not so much a cognitive belief or thought or idea that this is good; it's something that comes from feeling at home in oneself or settled here in the heart. And then the goodness of the heart begins to shine and move forth.

And for some Buddhists, this expression of what I'm calling today love in relationship to faith is most actively expressed in the refuges, in what's called "going for refuge." And I love this expression; the Pali word is to walk to refuge, but it can mean going as well, like in English. But going for refuge is kind of like entering into, being willing out of one's own free will in a sense, to go somewhere, to go in a direction. And this is the direction to go in: that which is most meaningful, most warm-hearted, most... something that we just feel so delighted by or pleased by or inspired by. So what I'm pointing to here is that faith sometimes has very strong heartfelt qualities to it, and it can be an aspect of the heart.

And so what does it take to be close to this, to allow for this to happen? And I think that one of the accesses to it is through being settled enough, having quiet enough. Not just less and less distracted, less caught up in desires and aversions, and really settled down, so that we're really intimate and present with our direct experience. So that maybe this word "yes" that we use for the meditation is an expression of that love. Yes to be here in awareness, to be here practicing the dharma, to be here in this ethical goodness that we feel. Not that we impose external ethics, moral rules on top of us, but we recognize the ethics that comes from a settled, clear, peaceful heart. And, "Yes, this is right. This is good. This is what I love. This is where I want to center my life, base my life on this." This is a source from which to live my life.

And what it would be like for you to live your life with a source for that life is love, dharma love. Not erotic love, not even love for friends, but some kind of deeper existential love, some way in which we're not afraid, we're not troubled, we're not anguished by anything. But all those things that cause anguish and trouble are held in a wonderful, growing capacity of the heart to hold everything. And there's an expression in our insight tradition[^2] that ended up a title of Sharon Salzberg's book called _A Heart as Wide as the World_.

So maybe that is one of the purposes of this deep heartfelt faith: is to have a heart that can hold all things, that is as wide as the world. And then to care for the world as a natural expression of that.

So thank you. And we'll continue two more talks on the word faith, the concept of faith. And then I thought that on Friday at this ending time we could switch over to Zoom, those of you who would like, and we could have more of a meeting. I could maybe answer some questions, maybe we can have some small breakout groups so some of you can meet, you've seen each other's names and it's been a while since we had this. And so I will post in a variety of places the Zoom link so we can have that meeting. So thank you all.

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[^1]: **Vipassana:** Often translated as "insight," it is a Buddhist meditation practice that involves clear, mindful awareness of one's direct experience.

[^2]: Original transcript said "in our sin in our inside tradition", corrected to "in our insight tradition" based on context.