--- ai_generation_date: '2026-10-13' ai_model: gemini-3-pro-preview ai_prompt_hash: 964013ba audiodharma: talks: - date: '2020-05-15' is_meditation: true mp3_url: https://audiodharma.us-east-1.linodeobjects.com/talks/11389/20200515-Gil_Fronsdal-IMC-guided_meditation_unmoving_mind.mp3 section_slug: guided-meditation-unmoving-mind speakers: - speaker_name: Gil Fronsdal speaker_url: https://www.audiodharma.org/speakers/1 talk_start_time_seconds: 0 title: 'Guided Meditation: Unmoving Mind' url: https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/11389 video_unavailable: false collapsed_sections: [] location_city: Redwood City, CA video_unavailable: false youtube: id: HGe6EbQ3POU imprecise_upload_date: '2021-05-04' title: 'Guided Meditation: Unmoving Mind' upload_date: null uploader_str: Insight Meditation Center uploader_url: https://www.youtube.com/@InsightMeditationCenter youtube_url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGe6EbQ3POU --- # Guided Meditation: Unmoving Mind - [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, everyone, and welcome to our weekday sitting here at Redwood City, California, here on this Earth. As an introduction to the theme today, a kind of final talk on the Second Noble Truth[^1], I want to mention that what we do with our mind is sometimes influenced by the metaphors we use. For example, I have a tendency to use the word "deep" or "deepening" in reference to meditation. Meditation can go deep. I had a very deep meditation, for example. Some people might refer to the same thing using metaphors of height, of higher states of consciousness. Maybe I like "deep" because I associate it with having roots deeply embedded in the earth. But awareness is neither high, nor deep, nor shallow. Awareness, in and of itself, just is. We also use metaphors of movement for awareness of the mind. "My mind wandered off, and then we bring it back," or we direct our mind, or place your mind on your breathing. These are metaphors of movement, but the mind doesn't ever move anywhere. It's always in the same place. There's a certain way in which we believe the metaphors. The metaphors are useful, but they can then also influence how we think about the mind and limit our experience of the mind and what's possible. So when sitting in meditation, sometimes it's useful to let go of all the metaphors that we use for the nature of awareness and what the mind is, and to appreciate that in the freedom of the mind, the mind doesn't move. It doesn't lean forward, even though it might feel sometimes that we're reaching out for something or pulling back from something. That might be very subtle movements of the muscles in the body. Awareness, the simplest form of knowing itself, doesn't move at all. It's a kind of lack of movement that maybe is inspiring. It is like clear, unmoving air in the early morning over a very still mountain lake. The air around is just completely still, full of potential and alive in a certain way, but there's no movement in the air. The mind can have this vitality in its non-moving nature. It's not frozen or limited; it's more unlimited. To sit physically upright is a metaphor for the mind. When we sit upright, we don't lean towards something, we don't collapse, we don't lean away from anything. We're not trying to get anything, we're not trying to resist anything, but rather just sitting upright, just present in a dignified, clear way without being for or against anything. It's what the body can do in meditation. As the body is, it's pointing to the possibility of the mind also having a certain kind of vibrant stillness, where the mind doesn't give in to desires or leaning into the future. The mind doesn't give in to pulling back or resisting. The mind just is; awareness just is. If anything, awareness has more of a receptive feeling than it does an active going out or pulling away kind of experience. ## [Guided Meditation: Unmoving Mind](https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/11389) With that as an introduction, if this makes sense to you—and if it doesn't, you don't have to worry about it—it's about taking a posture. It can be any posture that works for you, either literally because you're sitting upright, or figuratively, taking a posture where you can be psychologically or spiritually upright. There is a little bit of strength in the body or intentionality, like, "Yes, I'm taking this posture. Yes, this is the posture for meditation." Say yes to this uprightness that feels itself connected, maybe even rooted to the place in which you're meditating. Feel rooted, with your bottom against your seat if you're sitting in a chair or cushion. If your feet are touching the floor, feel the clear, definitive contact of the feet here. Then rising up, or coming out of this place of contact with what supports the weight of the body, feel a clarity of presence. Yes, here the body is. Perhaps it's helpful, especially if you're sitting upright, to open up space between the last vertebrae of the spine and the skull. Open that space by lifting the back of the head ever so slightly up and tucking the chin down and back. And then below that openness, feel the spine and the back ribcage. Feel the spine all the way down to the lower spine and down to the sitting bones. There might be some movement, vibration, or a teeny bit of swaying in the body. That's okay, but in addition, you might feel the inner stillness of the body that's also there. With that stillness as a reference point, ever so slightly adjust your posture so that you have a feeling of being balanced—not leaning forward, not leaning back. Not leaning into the world, not pulling back from it. Just here. At the beginning of the inhale, relaxing into the inhale, allowing it to happen. Feeling the movements of the ribcage as you breathe—front ribcage and back. Maybe the movement of the belly. While the experience of breathing is often one of movement, there might also be, in the middle of that movement of breathing, in the middle of the body, a stillness. Something which doesn't move. Movement and non-movement together. Non-movement that maybe even highlights the movement. Movement that highlights the non-movement. Also, as you exhale, relaxing the thinking muscle. That relaxing is also an opening up more fully to the experience of breathing. See if you can feel or sense whatever stillness there might be in the mind. Even if there are thoughts and activities of the mind, perhaps also within it, there's a place where the mind is rooted, upright, and still. Not leaning forward or leaning back. Not going out, not pulling back. When the mind so-called wanders off, there is no need to bring the mind back. Just open up to the awareness that's already present to receive again the breathing. No need to direct the mind or move the mind back to the breathing. Open the mind to receive the experience of breathing again, letting the mind be still. It is a certain kind of vibrant stillness where the mind does not reach forward to want something, or pull back to avoid anything. Where knowing just knows, awareness is just aware, and where the mind just is, allowing all things to happen within it. But the mind itself doesn't have to move. Maybe it's a little bit like there can be waves on the surface of the ocean, but the ocean floor is still, quiet, and peaceful. In a sense, the ocean floor holds and allows for the movements of the waves, but the ocean floor doesn't move because of it. Whenever you notice your mind moving, going towards or away from anything, it's okay, but use that as an occasion to relax, to open, to allow the mind to rest in an open stillness and open awareness that receives or allows experience to appear. If you notice the mind is moving—moving towards holding on to thoughts or pulling away—see if you can let the mind, the awareness, be at rest, relaxing the moving muscle. There's nothing you have to accomplish or do except to allow the natural awareness of the mind to know and experience this moment. What's really happening in the obvious and simple ways of now? We talk about the past, the present, and the future. The present never moves. The present moment is never going anywhere or coming from anywhere. This present moment is unmoving, a timeless present that's coterminous with the mind, with awareness. The mind also doesn't have to move. As the present moment just is, so can the mind be. One of the things that gets the mind to move is pleasure and pain in the body or anywhere in the senses. If there's pleasure or pain, that's what your mind is reacting to. For the last few minutes here, perhaps you can just let the mind be still and quiet. Receptive, allowing without moving towards or away. Something that causes the mind to move or get agitated is wanting something to be a certain way, or wanting something not to be a certain way. If you find yourself doing that, it's okay, but see if you can rest back in the quiet, still awareness that is also here at the same time. The unmoving mind is also here. Allow yourself to rest there. ## Reflections As we come to the end of the sitting, often we live our lives where our mind is active on the surface of things, the surface of the mind. The ability to sit quietly, calmly, and tap into the stillness of the mind and the stillness of the heart—which is part of the fullness of the heart and the fullness of the mind—gives us the opportunity to meet the world and respond to the world from the depths of our mind and the depths of our heart. It is the place where there is tender care, the place where there's feeling with the world. May whatever connection you have with yourself—your deeper connection to stillness, calm, and a sense of freedom—be something that you stay close to and return to as you go about your day today. It can be the source of how you care for the world, how you make the world a better place for a few other people today. Maybe in simple ways, you can be kinder, listen better, be a little more generous with your attention, your smiles, and your care[^2]. May it be that our meditation today serves the welfare and happiness of beings everywhere. May our goodness spread outwards across the world. --- [^1]: **Second Noble Truth:** The second of the Buddha's Four Noble Truths, which identifies the origin of suffering (_dukkha_) as craving or grasping (_taṇhā_). [^2]: **care:** Original transcript said "career," corrected to "care" based on context.