--- ai_generation_date: '2026-09-30' ai_model: gemini-3-pro-preview audiodharma: talks: - date: '2021-03-26' mp3_url: https://audiodharma.us-east-1.linodeobjects.com/talks/13197/20210326-Gil_Fronsdal-IMC-guided_meditation_63_receptive_to_what_appears.mp3 speakers: - speaker_name: Gil Fronsdal speaker_url: https://www.audiodharma.org/speakers/1 talk_start_time_seconds: 0 title: Guided Meditation (63) Receptive to What Appears url: https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/13197 video_unavailable: false location_city: Redwood City, CA video_unavailable: false youtube: id: RCWp_Iz1d8g imprecise_upload_date: '2021-05-04' title: Guided Meditation (63) Receptive to What Appears upload_date: null uploader_str: Insight Meditation Center uploader_url: https://www.youtube.com/@InsightMeditationCenter youtube_url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCWp_Iz1d8g --- # Guided Meditation (63) Receptive to What Appears - [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 (63) Receptive to What Appears](https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/13197) My warmest greetings to all of you from Redwood City, California, at the Insight Meditation Center. The topic for much of this week is an important insight—probably one of the most important insights for people doing Vipassana[^1] practice, and what we see in the teachings of the Buddha. This is the insight into the inconstancy of experience. Inconstancy means that in the moment-to-moment experience we have, there is a lot of arising and passing, appearing and disappearing, which is hidden from us if we dwell in the ideas of what is happening. Ideas have a constancy to them. In our imagination, we perhaps have an image of something, but that image is not really current with how things are always changing. This inconstancy is a repetition of new things appearing. They disappear, or they get replaced and superseded by other things that arise. For this meditation today, I would like to emphasize the appearing of experience, the arising of phenomena that we perceive. Many things appear in awareness without any choice or wish on our part; they just appear. If there's a sound in the environment where you are, chances are some of those sounds—the creaking of a building or traffic outside—are not something you willed or planned on having. It just arises; it appears in awareness, and then there's a recognition: there is a sound. A sensation happens on your cheek; it wasn't there before, and now it has appeared. It was not planned or engineered; it just appeared, with no choice on your part. But there it is. The initial appearance of many of these things is effortless on our part. We don't have to make any effort to make them appear. So, as we sit and meditate, there are many things that will simply appear in awareness. Settle back and just watch and observe the appearance of things. You don't have to worry about how long it stays, and you don't have to worry about seeing its passing away. In the course of the meditation, many of the things that appear will in fact disappear. They will be there for a while, and then they will pass away. There may be some things that endure—don't worry about that. For this meditation, we will stay with the breathing. That is the beat or the base that we keep staying at: being with breathing in, and breathing out. As we do that, within the breathing itself, we can be aware of new sensations arising. They might not be new; they might be similar to what happened on the last in-breath or out-breath, but still, we are there not necessarily to experience new things arising, but just _that_ things arise. Arise, arise, arise. Things appear. There can be a cascade or a rapid sequence of many little sensations that arise on the in-breath, then the out-breath. Just rest and stay with the breathing. Stay close and intimate to the breathing. Then, as you do so, gently, in your peripheral attention, as things arise—a sound, a sensation in your body, a thought—see it as something that is arising. If your thinking is incessant, then notice how the pixels of thinking appear in the structure of your thoughts. If you think in words, different words appear and disappear. If you think more in images, the images change and new things appear. Just be as sensitive as you can to appearing, appearing. You might even gently use the label "appearing, appearing" as a simple reminder to stay here. Don't strain. Don't actively look so much as settling back and allowing. It is like you are giving space for things to appear, for sensations and experiences to show themselves. ## Guided Meditation Taking a meditation posture, gently closing your eyes, and sitting here. Just right away, what appears? What shows up? What sensations, feelings, emotions, or even thoughts that didn't exist before, or weren't happening just before, suddenly appear? The sound of my voice appears. If you drop into your body, what appears? What sensations and feelings are there that you weren't aware of before? As you feel your body, if you feel the body's wish to relax—maybe the shoulders, the arms, the belly, the face—give in to that pull of relaxation. Allow it to happen. And as you do, new sensations may arise. If what arises as you are sitting here is unpleasant, don't worry about it. Even if it stays for a while, don't worry about it. This is a meditation about being open to the next thing that arises. The next thing that arises. If it is a presence that arises, don't hang on to it, because you want to be available for the next arising. If you find yourself straining or trying too hard to just be with the arising of phenomena, then relax and center yourself on the breathing again. Simple breathing in and breathing out. Then at some point, gently, not trying too hard, begin noticing again the arising of experience. It might be mostly in the breathing, or in the body around the breathing, or anywhere where new things come into awareness. Just know it. Very simply know it as an arising and appearing, without any other need to label it or understand it. Just knowing it as something that is arising. Knowing that it is good to be aware of the appearing of experience in awareness as it moves through, as it appears and comes. In this small little sliver of time that we call the present moment, noticing what appears, and how it appears and changes. In the way that awareness operates, it tends to move around. Now aware of this, now that. Sometimes following the train of thought, or feelings. Things arise in awareness because our awareness has shifted, or shifts. Even when something is relatively constant, in the subtle details of awareness, our attention goes somewhere else and then it might return. It is anew, and what was before arises again in awareness. To be aware of change, of the arising of phenomena, of experience. As if your mind, your awareness, is wide and receptive and open, receiving whatever arises. Like the surface of the lake receives the raindrops. Or receiving the arising of sensations in your body like the bubbles that appear in sparkling water. ## Reflections As we come to the end of the sitting, recognize that new experiences and new things arise all the time for us. It is not so hard to understand. A new person appears, or calls, or emails. The email arises. Maybe we had eaten and we are satiated and full, and then at some point hunger arises again. We rest, we are well-rested, and then sleepiness arises again. But to see phenomena first and foremost as something that has arisen. To be right there in the present moment and see, "Oh, it just appeared. There it is." And to do so in a receptive, open way. To receive it in a liberated way, not entangled or caught up in it, but with an attitude that you could bow to whatever arises. You bow. Yes. And so, as you go through the day, new people will somehow or other come into your awareness. Maybe you'll see them, maybe they'll talk to you on the phone or send you an email. Maybe you can go through the day ready and open in the present to receive the next arising person in such a way that you could bow to them. Bow to them with a certain reverence, or a certain deep appreciation of their capacity to have emotions, thoughts, and feelings. Their capacity for goodness. They have a heart, a sensitive heart, as well as you. Give some care and attention to the first appearance of others into your life today, and how that is received in your awareness, in your heart, and your mind. Perhaps before the reactions and usual thoughts, ideas, and entanglements, act as if you could bow to everyone who appears. And the bowing expresses a wish: _May you be happy._ _May you be safe._ _May you be peaceful._ _And may you be free._ And then, may my receptive awareness of you always be ready to have those wishes. May it be that I contribute to it being so. May I live this day aware of the people who come into my awareness, living for their welfare, happiness, and freedom. May all beings everywhere be happy. May all beings everywhere be free. --- [^1]: **Vipassana:** A Pali word often translated as "insight," referring to the Buddhist meditation practice of cultivating a clear, direct awareness of exactly what is happening as it happens.