--- ai_generation_date: '2026-10-04' ai_model: gemini-3-pro-preview audiodharma: talks: - date: '2021-01-04' mp3_url: https://audiodharma.us-east-1.linodeobjects.com/talks/12694/20210104-Gil_Fronsdal-IMC-guided_meditation_simplicity_with_breathing.mp3 speakers: - speaker_name: Gil Fronsdal speaker_url: https://www.audiodharma.org/speakers/1 talk_start_time_seconds: 0 title: 'Guided Meditation: Simplicity with Breathing' url: https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/12694 video_unavailable: false location_city: Redwood City, CA video_unavailable: false youtube: id: Oor2uP8r9KE imprecise_upload_date: '2021-05-04' title: 'Guided Meditation: Simplicity of Breathing' upload_date: null uploader_str: Insight Meditation Center uploader_url: https://www.youtube.com/@InsightMeditationCenter youtube_url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oor2uP8r9KE --- # Guided Meditation: Simplicity with Breathing - [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: Simplicity with Breathing](https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/12694) ## Introduction Warm greetings here on our Monday morning, and the beginning of a new week. In a sense, it is the beginning of a new year with these 7 a.m. sittings. I would like to begin with something that is quite simple, which is mindfulness of breathing. This whole meditation with breathing works best if we stay very simple with it. Simple is not simplistic. Simple is actually, in some ways, the most direct or the most effective way to pass through the journey of our full life. In the full spiritual life, sometimes the simplest tool—the simplest way of being—is what clarifies everything else around it. In Buddhism, there is something called the Mani jewel[^1]. The Mani is a kind of magical jewel; if you drop it into all kinds of things, it clarifies and purifies them. It is like medicine. The analogy would be dropping it into a muddy pond, and just like a simple little stone, the whole pond becomes clear. So, do not overlook the simple, humble, ordinary experience of breathing. We breathe more than we drink, more than we eat, more than almost any other activity we do. We breathe. It is our constant companion, and hopefully, our constant friend that accompanies us. To have a friendly relationship with breathing is to have a wonderful companion as you go through your life. ## Guided Meditation So, we will start with this simple experience of breathing. Assume a meditation posture that you feel might support you to have a certain intimacy with your body breathing. Adopt a posture that allows the chest to be a little bit more open and unrestricted[^2], and one that allows the belly also to not be crunched or limited. It isn't so much that we should pump or puff up our chest, but rather from the inside out, let it be a little more open and expansive. Ensure that the spine is as straight as is reasonable, so that the belly can relax and there is space for the belly. Let there be space for the movements of the diaphragm and the expansions of the lungs. And then, softly close the eyes. Breathing is a multifaceted tool. One way to use that tool is to take a few long, slow, deep breaths as you meditate. Not forcefully, but more—maybe in your language you'll use slightly different words—but _lovingly_. As if you're being nourished by a deep breath: slow, long, and deep. And then as you exhale—a long exhale—relax, settle, and let go into the body breathing. There is an expansion of the torso as you breathe in deeply, and that expansion reverses to a kind of gathering back in as you exhale. Then, allow your breathing to slowly return to normal. There is a kind of rhythm of breathing. I sometimes think of it as a massage from the inside out. It is as if the diaphragm or the lungs are[^3] doing the massage stroke, the kneading of the muscles. With that rhythm of breathing, scan through the body to see where, on the exhale, you can further relax the body. Softening the muscles of the face. Softening around the eyes. Softening around the jaws, maybe letting the hinges of the jaws relax, too. As you inhale, feel your shoulders, and on the exhale, soften and relax the shoulders. On the inhale, feel the center of your chest, and as you exhale, soften and relax that center. As you inhale, feel the belly expand. And as you exhale, allow the belly to sink or settle. On the inhale, feel your arms, elbows, and hands, and as you exhale, relax the arms and hands. Finally, do the same with the legs, softening the muscles on the thighs, especially the tops of the thighs and around the knees. And then, let go into your breathing, wherever the breathing is easiest for you to stay close to. For some people, it might be the air going in and out through the nostrils or the back of the throat. For some people, it is the movements of the chest. For some people, it is the movements of the belly—especially maybe an inch or so below the belly button, and maybe an inch inside the surface of the skin. Or it might be the whole breath body, the full range in which the body expands, moves, and is activated with sensations as you breathe in. Rest in the full bodily experience of the inhale, of the exhale. Breathing is not just a physiological function. It has its connections to the full range of who we are: our emotional life, our psychological life, our physical life, and the life we have with the world around us and within us. In a sense, breathing is the meeting place of what is most intimate within us with what is most _not_ us. It is the meeting place of what is most intimate and personal with that which is most impersonal, or not-self[^4], or greater than self. In a way, to honor the breathing, to respect the breathing, is to see if you can allow your thinking mind to become quieter, stiller. This allows you to give more undivided attention to the simple experience of breathing. Letting go of resistance, expectations, and measurements of how it is going. Letting go of concerns that are external to this moment here, breathing. Trusting mindfulness of breathing, trusting attention to breathing as the most significant thing you can do right now. It is a doorway to a new way of being. Just to be breathing is enough for these minutes. Perhaps you can trust your breathing more than you do your thinking. For these few minutes, your undivided attention is most valuable. Settling in more and more to the experience of breathing and the rhythm of breathing, rather than floating away in your thinking. If you are able to let go of your thoughts, ideas, plans, and expectations, it can be like every breath is a new breath, a new world, just now. A new world is born with the inhale. A new world emerges as we let go of what has been with the exhale. To stay close to your breathing can be a way of being fresh in the world, being close to seeing things anew and openly. Not carrying[^5] with us our ideas, memories, expectations, and judgments. ## Reflections As we come to the end of this meditation, you might consider a little bit how generous it is to be present for another person without your judgments and expectations—without the filter of your thoughts, plans, and desires. Treat each person you encounter as if they are a new world and a new person. Bring a freshness to seeing them and being with them. This freshness makes you a safer person for them—safe from your projections, judgments, biases, desires, and aversions. Just here, breathing, and fresh, with eyes to see freshly[^6]. May our ability to have the simplicity of breathing support us to enter into the world and relate to others so that we are safe for them. That no one needs to be afraid of us. May it be that our meditation supports us to offer the great gift of safety to others, and in offering it, that they may be safe from us. May we wish that all beings be happy. May all beings be healthy and safe. May all beings be free. May all beings everywhere have the freedom to breathe at ease. Breathe easily. --- [^1]: **Mani jewel (Cintāmaṇi):** A wish-fulfilling jewel in both Hindu and Buddhist traditions, often used metaphorically to describe the clarifying and purifying nature of spiritual practices. [^2]: Original transcript said "restricted," corrected to "unrestricted" based on context. [^3]: Original transcript said "aren't," corrected to "are" based on context. [^4]: **Not-self (Anattā):** A core Buddhist concept that there is no unchanging, permanent self, soul, or essence in living beings. [^5]: Original transcript said "caring," corrected to "carrying" based on context. [^6]: Original transcript said "seize freshly," corrected to "see freshly" based on context.