--- ai_generation_date: '2026-10-17' ai_model: gemini-3-pro-preview ai_prompt_hash: 964013ba audiodharma: talks: - date: '2020-11-19' is_meditation: true mp3_url: https://audiodharma.us-east-1.linodeobjects.com/talks/12465/20201119-Gil_Fronsdal-IMC-guided_meditation_open_awareness.mp3 section_slug: guided-meditation-open-awareness speakers: - speaker_name: Gil Fronsdal speaker_url: https://www.audiodharma.org/speakers/1 talk_start_time_seconds: 0 title: 'Guided Meditation: Open Awareness' url: https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/12465 video_unavailable: false collapsed_sections: [] location_city: Redwood City, CA video_unavailable: false youtube: id: EWKGLBIC1B0 imprecise_upload_date: '2021-05-04' title: 'Guided Meditation: Open Awareness' upload_date: null uploader_str: Insight Meditation Center uploader_url: https://www.youtube.com/@InsightMeditationCenter youtube_url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWKGLBIC1B0 --- # Guided Meditation: Open 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: Open Awareness](https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/12465) As an introduction to this meditation, I want to mention briefly a custom that I've had, and that is to be inspired by looking at old photographs of people. Maybe photographs that are well over 120 years old, so none of the people in the photograph are alive. But in a high-resolution, ancient photograph, sometimes I'm drawn to their faces, in particular to the eyes. Sometimes you see an expression of the moment on the face, and more impactful for me, occasionally you see a glint in the eye. You see a spark of life, of being aware, of consciousness in the eye. For a long time, I was drawn to these photographs not knowing why, and then one day I realized the reason. It was the recognition that the photograph was taken at a moment when that person was alive and conscious. That was their time to be aware, their time to be conscious, to be alive. And this is my time. As I was watching, I realized this is my time to be conscious, to be aware. And this amazing capacity we have to be aware, to be conscious, we often overlook because we're usually concerned with what we are aware of, what we're conscious of. But the mere fact that we're conscious—the complicated, perhaps sophisticated, amazing way in which the universe knows itself... if we are intimately arising out of this marvelous universe, somehow the universe evolved to form a consciousness that we are. And so, to sit and meditate, resting in that consciousness, appreciating it, trusting it more than trusting what we're aware of. Or more than fixing what we're conscious of, or adjusting it, or making something better. But rather, to tune into and open up to the very fact that we're conscious, and to feel, to sense, maybe even to be amazed at this phenomenon that only exists in the living moment of now. And this is our moment to be conscious. Maybe we don't want to miss it. So, take a meditative posture and gently close your eyes. Take a few moments to gently breathe more deeply and to relax into your body as you exhale. With a gentling effect, gently relaxing the shoulders, relaxing the chest and the heart center, relaxing the belly. Relaxing, yielding into the place that supports your body—the chair, your cushion, wherever your body is resting on. As you exhale, feel the support of that, and also perhaps soften, relaxing your face. And then, letting your breathing be normal, bring your attention to inside behind your forehead, between your ears—the place where we say the brain is. And feel whatever is there: any pressure, tension, feeling of substantiality, energy, agitation, feelings of spaciousness or stillness, or perhaps you feel nothing. But as if that part of your body is a muscle, as you exhale, can you relax the whole area between your ears? Maybe imagining that the whole area between your ears is like a lake with waves. And as the wind dies down, as the lake relaxes, the waves come down, and the lake spreads wide and calm. And then, without any sense of trying, in the space kind of between your ears, allow hearing to happen. Not that you're actively listening. If you find yourself trying to hear, can you relax the trying? Be content to notice the sounds that come on their own. If you find yourself thinking, perhaps you can let those thoughts go, or let them recede, so you can better hear. If any tension builds up in the hearing, as you exhale, can you soften and relax that? Kind of like you're just opening the windows of the mind for sounds to come. Maybe even without any sense of inside and outside. Sounds just appear. Sounds appear in awareness. And what arises? What sounds arise that you do not expect, do not manufacture, that arise effortlessly, without any effort on your part? If you are relaxed, awareness is aware without effort. If you let go of trying to be aware, awareness will be there. You will be conscious. And if now you open that awareness more broadly to include your body, without any effort or directing of the mind, just opening the windows to whatever experience arises in awareness. Letting go of thinking. Letting go of trying. Trusting it's enough to let consciousness operate on its own. If you find yourself thinking, see if you can let go of that in favor of open awareness. If you find yourself trying, let go of the trying. Let go of doing. Let go of all doing except allowing awareness to be open to whatever arises in it. With no inside, no outside, just consciousness doing its own thing. Consciousness being conscious. Letting go of the effort to think. Letting go of any extra effort in favor of allowing consciousness to be open, receptive. Consciousness doing its own thing. Being conscious with no effort from us. Distinct, quite distinct, from any effort you're making to be aware, or any effort you're making at all. There are things that come into consciousness effortlessly: a new sound, a new sensation that's unexpected. In the first moment, it's simply there. This is part of the miracle of consciousness, that experiences arise in consciousness without any effort from us. When the first unexpected sensation or sound arises in the mind, or even a thought, perhaps sometimes you can feel or recognize that it arises before your preferences, your ideas about it, being for or against it. When it just first arises effortlessly, stay close. Stay close to that effortless place where awareness operates, consciousness operates, without any effort on our part. And it operates better when we relax our effort. Let go of trying. Let go of thinking. And then, as we come to the end of this sitting, imagine that with effortless consciousness, awareness just allows things to arise and be there without reaction, without being for or against. Imagine that a person stands in front of you. Nothing is needed from you, but you allow consciousness to experience, to take in this person. And you're experiencing the person without your preferences, bias, fears, wants, and aversions. It's safe just to be aware; for awareness, consciousness, to be aware of this person. And what's it like to experience, to be with a person this way? And perhaps this open awareness of another... imagine that you're safe, nothing's being asked of you, but it opens a channel, opens a door for your goodwill[^1], for a simple form of friendliness, caringness, warmth, or a tenderness for this person. And then to bring up consciously and with some little bit of effort, ways of thinking about a person, having goodwill, having friendly thoughts, friendly sentiments and feelings, well-wishing for this person: _May this person be well, safe, and happy, and free._ And so as we end this sitting, perhaps there's someone in your life today—someone you'll meet, someone you'll communicate with, someone you'll read about in the news, some person, a stranger, someone. And maybe there's a way in which the meditation practice today can inspire you to be present in a little fuller way, an open way, allowing the person to be themselves, you just being conscious. And then maybe beginning to awaken your goodwill, your kindness, and care for this person. Your tenderness. It may be that our meditation practice today inspires us to explore how we can go into the world today to bring more friendliness, more care, more love, more kindness into a world that needs it, into a world that would benefit from much more of it. May our meditation practice today contribute to the welfare and happiness of all beings. May all beings be happy. May all beings be safe. May all beings be free. --- [^1]: **Goodwill:** In the Buddhist tradition, goodwill or loving-kindness (_mettā_) is a foundational practice of cultivating benevolence, friendliness, and well-wishing toward all beings.