--- ai_generation_date: '2026-10-01' ai_model: gemini-3-pro-preview audiodharma: talks: - date: '2020-09-22' mp3_url: https://audiodharma.us-east-1.linodeobjects.com/talks/12138/20200922-Gil_Fronsdal-IMC-guided_meditation_letting_go_into.mp3 speakers: - speaker_name: Gil Fronsdal speaker_url: https://www.audiodharma.org/speakers/1 talk_start_time_seconds: 0 title: 'Guided Meditation: Letting Go Into' url: https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/12138 video_unavailable: false location_city: Redwood City, CA video_unavailable: false youtube: id: QmDH7nnVPOg imprecise_upload_date: '2021-05-04' title: 'Guided Meditation: Letting Go Into' upload_date: null uploader_str: Insight Meditation Center uploader_url: https://www.youtube.com/@InsightMeditationCenter youtube_url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmDH7nnVPOg --- # Guided Meditation: Letting Go Into - [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 Warm greetings. Happy to be here and share this time with you. The topic for this week overall is mindful letting go. One of the aspects of such letting go is to let go with wisdom, with understanding—not to let go just because you're supposed to let go. One form of wisdom involves adding one little two-letter word at the end of _letting go_, and that is to let go _in_—well, maybe four letters: let go _into_. So that we let go and allow ourselves to then come into something new. It is kind of like if you're holding on to a diving board on a pool. You let go of hanging from it, and then you let go of the diving board, and you fall more fully into the pool. In meditation, at some point, it's possible to let go of thoughts, let go of preoccupations and concerns. And not just let go and that's it, but to add the _into_—to let go _into_ something which is good, something which is beneficial, something that supports meditation, but more importantly, supports the cultivation and growth of our inner life. To be in touch with the goodness of our inner life and contact it. For such wisdom, we have to have some contact, some understanding with what is really good, what is beneficial inside here. Then, when we let go of thoughts, it gives us the opportunity to let go _into_. There are many answers to that question, and probably each person will have a different one, but maybe that's what we'll explore today. ## [Guided Meditation: Letting Go Into](https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/12138) So, take a contemplative posture. A posture that you associate with connecting to an inner life—an inner life of the heart and an inner life[^1] of the mind. For this inner life, some people in the West use the word _soul_. The inner life is the wellspring where things like love, wisdom, and peace really become embodied. Take a contemplative posture and see if you can let that posture also express an openness. An openness in the chest, an openness and a willingness to be receptive, to be open, to allow. Sometimes that means to pull in the upper spine between the shoulder blades just a teeny bit, in a way that pushes forward the chest a teeny bit. Maybe even with your eyes closed, if you take a few deep breaths at the beginning of the meditation, do so into the chest. So that the chest expands right in the middle, and expands and spreads outwards to the side, and opens up. Take really deep breaths; really expand and stretch the front rib cage right in the sternum. Take a deep breath, and then as you exhale, settle into the bottom of your torso. Let all the weight of your body, the tensions of your body, relax into the sitting bones, the tailbone, the hips, the lower belly, the pelvic cavity. Take a deep in-breath to expand the chest, and a long out-breath to settle in. And then let your breathing return to normal. Part of letting go, an aspect of letting go, is relaxing. Relaxing is a kind of letting go; it is in the family. One of the things we let go into when we relax is a greater feeling of calm, or peace, or ease, or relief. But we also let go into receptivity, greater sensitivity, and openness. So you might relax the body. Relax the muscles of the face so the face is not guarded or drawing, but the face muscles are receptive. The face becomes more open. Relax the muscles of the shoulders and relax into whatever good feeling is there as you relax. Soften the belly, relaxing. There might be some good feeling in relaxing—more stability, more openness, receptivity, more peace. And those feelings might come along with being more in touch with fear, or anxiety, or some difficult emotion. For now, it's okay. For now, as you relax, let go into the good feelings that are there; they can hold whatever is difficult. Then, become attuned to your body breathing. If it's easy enough for you, feel or imagine that the in-breaths begin at the very center of your inner life. From there, the breathing expands outwards, fills the body with air, and on the exhale there's a kind of letting go. You're letting go back into the place where there's an inner life, an inner richness. The place where we can identify the quality of our inner well-being or inner challenges that we feel. Let the rhythm of breathing be a massage, a connection, a stroking of this inner life. If you find yourself caught up in thoughts, when you exhale, let go of your thinking and let go into the breathing. Let go into breathing with whatever warmth, or tenderness, or goodness you find within. Whatever calm or peace that's available. Letting go into a receptivity that receives the inhale. Letting go of thinking, but in doing so, letting go into what feels good, what feels right, what feels beneficial in this inner life, this contemplative life. Maybe even letting go into a kind of home within. Perhaps you can let go into an inner quiet, an inner peace, a stillness. Perhaps you can let go of worry and let go into a feeling of well-being. Let go of resentment and let go into tenderness. Let go of desire and let go into a contentment. Let go of distraction[^2] and let go into awareness—the living, vital awareness of things as they are. ## Reflections And then as we come to the end of the sitting, perhaps you can reflect on how letting go in daily life—in your life with other people, work and colleagues, neighbors, friends, relatives—how and what you can let go of. Not so you're deprived of something, but so you let go into an enhanced feeling of warmth, the friendliness of goodwill, of love. Letting go of the distractions from our goodwill, so letting go into goodwill. Letting go of what blocks our goodwill, and letting go into goodwill. Maybe just enough goodwill that we can view others with the eyes of care and love, wanting the best for them. May it be that what we learn in meditation about letting go directly supports us to live a life that benefits, in small ways and big ways, the world around us. May this meditation be a direct source for benefiting this world. Wishing that all beings may be happy. All beings may be safe. All beings may be peaceful. And that all beings may be free. --- [^1]: Original transcript said "her life", corrected to "inner life" based on context. [^2]: Original transcript said "destruction", corrected to "distraction" based on context.