--- ai_generation_date: '2026-10-03' ai_model: gemini-3-pro-preview audiodharma: talks: - date: '2020-12-21' mp3_url: https://audiodharma.us-east-1.linodeobjects.com/talks/12646/20201221-Gil_Fronsdal-IMC-guided_meditation_appreciative_mindfulness.mp3 speakers: - speaker_name: Gil Fronsdal speaker_url: https://www.audiodharma.org/speakers/1 talk_start_time_seconds: 0 title: 'Guided Meditation: Appreciative Mindfulness' url: https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/12646 video_unavailable: false location_city: Redwood City, CA video_unavailable: false youtube: id: P7UhR0yXwhA imprecise_upload_date: '2021-05-04' title: 'Guided Meditation: Appreciative Mindfulness' upload_date: null uploader_str: Insight Meditation Center uploader_url: https://www.youtube.com/@InsightMeditationCenter youtube_url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7UhR0yXwhA --- # Guided Meditation: Appreciative Mindfulness - [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: Appreciative Mindfulness](https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/12646) Warm greetings. Welcome to our guided meditation. There was a monk from Thailand who came to Spirit Rock many years ago, and he would have these day-long retreats at the big meditation hall there. Maybe a few hundred people would be there for him. After everyone was in there, there were some times he would walk in and walk up the aisle to the front where he was going to sit. As he was walking in, he would exclaim in English—he didn't speak much English, but he knew these words—he would exclaim, "Happy! Happy!" And that would change the mood very quickly in the meditation hall. So here we are, and I don't know if you're happy or not, and whether it's appropriate to even get close to being happy. But we are here today, this week, to explore the territory of joy in meditation. Just a minute here. So, to take a comfortable posture. And as I keep saying, not _only_ comfortable, because if we focus too much on comfort, we may miss much of the training that Buddhism offers. The training to learn how to be free also when it's uncomfortable. And for that, we have to look and be present to, within reason, also with what's uncomfortable and what's difficult in our experience. But still, to sit in a posture that has some degree of comfort or allows you to relax. But also a posture that has some alertness to it. Joy has an energy quality to it. Sometimes it is said to be an uplifting energy, an uprising energy. And so the alertness, whether we're sitting upright, or even lying down, or standing, or sitting in a chair, whatever way you are that works for you, is there some way to sit so that it's not only about relaxing? There's some engagement, with some intentionality, and a posture through which, when it comes, there can flow joy, delight, gladness, and happiness. So then, to gently close your eyes and to take a few long, slow, deep breaths. And as you breathe in deeply, not too deeply, can you appreciate breathing? Can you appreciate your body? Not all of it, but maybe there's some part of being alive, breathing, that has a rightness to it, a goodness to it. The satisfaction could be a relief just to now finally be sitting down, finally to be meditating, putting aside all kinds of other concerns. And then to let your breathing return to normal. And whatever part of your body that's intentionally engaged—some people when they lay on their back have their arms to their side, but the forearms pointing to the ceiling, so there's some little effort to stay present, to notice when the arms start falling down. Or sitting in a chair or sitting on a cushion, some uprightness maybe in the spine. Spend a little bit of time traveling up the spine with attention, and making micro-adjustments to the spine so that the weight of your body feels like it's centered on each vertebra. Each vertebra is centered on the one below. Especially between the shoulder blades, gently pull the spine between the shoulder blades towards the front of the chest, even if it's just a millimeter or so. And that uprightness of the spine becomes like a pole that stays straight, but everything else can hang. So as you exhale, relax the shoulders, so the shoulders kind of hang. Relaxing the muscles that are connected close to the spine, down the tops and sides of your shoulders. The whole length of it softens and relaxes, down your arms. Maybe flapping your elbows a little bit to keep those areas loose and relaxed; loosen it up. And taking care that your hands are in a posture that doesn't require much tension or holding or gripping. And then allowing the belly to soften and relax. Kind of like the belly also falls away from the spine, relaxing the belly so the belly is received by the skin that holds it in place, where the belly softens downwards into the pelvic cavity. And perhaps you can soften the thighs, anywhere the thighs are gripping or tight. Releasing the thighs, the knees. And then moving the attention to the face. Softening the face, allowing the muscles to fall away from the skull. Letting the eyes be soft and cool, relaxed. Quiet, quiet eyes. And then to finally, as you exhale, relax the thinking brain. Whatever agitation, energy, or pressure there is in thinking—as if the brain is a muscle, soften and quiet the thinking muscle. And in whatever depths of your being that you can feel, reaching deep down inside of yourself, maybe to a place that is most precious, the place that is touched by the joys and sorrows of life. The place where maybe love is most sensitive. And as you exhale, relax around that. Relax any way in which you're bracing yourself or holding yourself back. Soften deep inside. And then stabilize yourself on the breathing. As if the breathing is a good friend who will support you and walk your path with you, steady and reliable. Let your mind and your emotional life feel the goodness of just breathing in and out. The simplicity of that. Finding a place in the body where it is in fact stabilizing to feel the rhythm of breathing in and breathing out. It might be stabilizing in the belly, in the chest, or the back rib cage, or the air going in now through the nostrils. Or maybe it's most stabilizing to be aware of the whole breath body, kind of the whole experience of the body breathing in, the body breathing out. In our present-moment experience, there's always much more going on than our particular concerns and challenges and unhappinesses of the moment. As you exhale, can you open up, release yourself into a wider experience of the present moment than whatever you're preoccupied with? Open up the inhale and the exhale to a wider field of the bodily experience, to the wider field of emotions and concerns. And as you open up to include more, is there in your body and your experience any feelings or sensations that feel nourishing, wholesome, or have a rightness to them? Feelings that might make it easier to stabilize yourself on the breathing. To relax and center yourself with the help of what is nourishing or wholesome. It helps you to allow the mind to become quieter and stiller, so you can receive, sense, and feel whatever is here that's nourishing and wholesome. The goodness that lives inside of you. As you're sitting here, is there anything that brings you a sense of well-being, of gladness, or joy? Any sense of anything you appreciate or are grateful for? Not so much in the wider world, but just to be able to sit and meditate this way, just in relationship to you, your body, and being here. It could be as simple as appreciating the opportunity to be more connected to yourself for these few minutes, maybe the most self-connected way you'll be all day. Feeling, sensing, and being in your experience. What a good fortune to be able to do this. Breathing with your good fortune. Breathing with the goodness of this moment. Maybe as if your body is like a ball of yeasted dough, and as you breathe, the yeast is breathing and growing. And it's growing well-being, goodness, appreciation, joy, some sense of well-being. However small it begins, it can slowly grow throughout your body, supporting you to be stable and quiet. Not needing to think about things much, but rather just let the dough expand and grow throughout your body. Whatever there is that's for you right now that is good, sit with that appreciation of that goodness. It could be as simple as sitting in a place where the temperature is good, your body is at a good temperature, or a place where it's quiet for these few minutes, or that your body is holding up okay for these minutes we're meditating. Or that you don't have to be involved actively in the concerns of the day, or that so much of your physiology is working, even if parts of it are not working so well, a lot is working. Or that you're involved in a meditation practice in a meditation community that has a long, tried, and tested path to freedom, to liberation. So many people down through the ages have tasted for themselves the possibility of great inner freedom. What a great good fortune to be on this path. And to sit here with an appreciation, maybe even a sense of delight. And as you breathe, as if you're kneading the dough of appreciation and delight[^1] throughout your body. Like you're kneading water into flour, so the whole dough is equally saturated. And as we come to the end of this sitting, recognize there's an art to appreciation. There is so much more to appreciate in any given moment than most people allow themselves to experience. Without denying the challenges that also exist, mindfulness can help us, will help us, discover a greater range of things to appreciate here and now in ourselves and around us. And may it be that in whatever way we are centered and stable in the present moment, learning the value of pausing and seeing what's here, being attentive to the world around us and not consumed or caught up in our thoughts—may we develop our ability to appreciate others. May we take the time to just allow others to register more deeply, so that our bias, our old assumptions, our preconceived ideas of people don't predominate[^2], but we allow ourselves to appreciate what there is to be appreciated in others. Without forcing our appreciation on them, just allowing our warmth, appreciating eyes, or kind regard[^3] to float towards other people, in person and in our thoughts and imagination. People we know and people in our communities. And may it be that we experience greater joy in appreciating others. And may our appreciation of others spread a sense of goodness, safety, and support for all beings. May we live actively expanding the circles of appreciation so we can support others. We can live a life that's concerned with the welfare, benefit, and happiness of others. May our practice today support all beings. May all beings be happy. May all beings be healthy. May all beings everywhere be free. --- [^1]: Original transcript said "appreciation to light", corrected to "appreciation and delight" based on context. [^2]: Original transcript said "don't pray doesn't predominate", corrected to "don't predominate" based on context. [^3]: Original transcript said "kind regarded", corrected to "kind regard" based on context.