--- ai_generation_date: '2026-09-29' ai_model: gemini-3-pro-preview audiodharma: talks: - date: '2021-04-02' mp3_url: https://audiodharma.us-east-1.linodeobjects.com/talks/13230/20210402-Gil_Fronsdal-IMC-guided_meditation_68_giving_attention.mp3 speakers: - speaker_name: Gil Fronsdal speaker_url: https://www.audiodharma.org/speakers/1 talk_start_time_seconds: 0 title: Guided Meditation (68) Giving Attention url: https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/13230 video_unavailable: false location_city: Redwood City, CA video_unavailable: false youtube: id: Rp2zVtAZ3Rs imprecise_upload_date: '2021-05-04' title: 'Guided Meditation: Giving Attention' upload_date: null uploader_str: Insight Meditation Center uploader_url: https://www.youtube.com/@InsightMeditationCenter youtube_url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rp2zVtAZ3Rs --- # Guided Meditation (68) Giving Attention - [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 (68) Giving Attention](https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/13230) ## Introduction Warm greetings to everyone. It feels wonderful that we're gathering here for our meditation together. I just saw a message that I think one of our members, Jay, is having heart surgery today, so we wish Jay well and hope that it all goes well. We sit here holding all of ourselves, everyone in our hearts, including those going to surgery and having challenges today of all kinds. Perhaps this final step of mindfulness of breathing is very closely associated with generosity. I'll talk more about it during the talk. When we remove an obstruction for someone—like say we open a door for someone who can't do it themselves—removing that obstruction, just opening a door, is an act of generosity. If someone has a splinter in their foot and they can't get it out themselves, it's an act of generosity to get some tweezers and remove the splinter. So the removal, the letting go, the stepping away from those movements of the mind which don't serve us, can be seen as an act of generosity. This is not an indication of aversion, pushing things away, or some negative thing about anything in a sense, but rather it's just such a healthy thing to remove the splinters of our life, to remove the ways that we harm ourselves. We have a clearer sense of that harm, even the subtlest forms, the more settled and peaceful we become in meditation. The more meditation feels like a place of freedom, love, peace, integrity, and wholeness, the more quiet and still the thinking mind becomes. The more we recognize movements of generosity, we recognize the splinters that we can take out. Letting go of thoughts doesn't so much come from aversion, but comes from, "Of course, let me help out here. Let me let go of these thoughts, these ideas." When we get contracted or caught in desires and aversions, of course, here it's a generous thing to do. It doesn't have to be done with the obligation to let go. It doesn't have to be done with hostility towards what we're letting go of, any more than opening a door means we are hostile to the door, or pulling out a splinter means we are hostile to the splinter. Rather, it's an act of generosity. ## Guided Meditation So to sit today, maybe with a spirit of generosity. To begin with posture, the posture itself, the care we put into our posture. Maybe rocking around, swaying a little bit, making small adjustments can be seen as the beginning of meditative generosity as we give attention to our body, to ourselves. We might take a few long, slow, deep breaths, and as we settle in, maybe even it's a giving in. A generosity of letting go of tension, letting ourselves give ourselves the goodness of being stable and settled here. With a feeling of generosity, of care, of goodwill towards oneself tenderly, maybe as you exhale, relax the body. Perhaps softening in the belly. Perhaps softening and relaxing the belly with a reminder to the belly, "It's okay." As you exhale, relaxing in the heart, a generous feeling. Even if the heart aches or is challenged in some way, to hold it with generosity, goodwill, compassion, and allowing the chest and the heart to settle and relax. Relaxing the shoulders, maybe even moving the hands a little bit if it frees up the shoulders and the elbows a little bit. And as an act of generosity to your face, which has muscles which are working for us all day long—one way or the other those little muscles are expressing themselves—generously give those muscles a chance to rest. "Thank you for your service, and now you can rest," relaxing the face. Then offering your attention to the breathing. As if attention is a gift, a precious gift that's worth giving, giving over to the breathing. As if the body breathing loves the gift of attention. And if you notice yourself thinking, caught up in thought, lost in thought, see it as an occasion to be generous. To give up your thinking, to let it go, so that you can return to a way of being that's more intimate, more connected here and now. A way of being present that is more satisfying than being lost or caught up in thoughts. Generously returning yourself to yourself in the letting go of thoughts, opening the doors of the heart and the mind, pulling out the splinters in the heart. So as we sit here today, if it can help you become quieter, more focused, more present, you might practice giving away your thoughts, giving up, letting go, releasing, relinquishing—all as movements of generosity. Generosity perhaps associated with a deep quiet place inside of you. Let go of your thinking generously. In letting go of them, you can return to some intimacy and peace, some sense of stillness here that's better than being lost in thought. Giving yourself the gift of that better. ## Dedication of Merit And then as we come to the end of the sitting, if it is in fact a form of generosity to give yourself the chance to settle in, come to a place here in meditation that clearly feels like it's for your own welfare and well-being, then consider that this generosity towards yourself can simultaneously be a generosity for the world. If you settle in such a way that the best qualities of who you are come to the forefront or are not eclipsed, then the world can also benefit from these good qualities of yours. This begins perhaps with generosity: being generous to the world around you. Not necessarily generous with things, but generous with your attention, your heart. Generously letting go of the obstructions inside of you to have a clean presence with others, to offer them the best of who you are. And if we offer the best of who we are, then we benefit others while we benefit ourselves. We are benefiting ourselves while we benefit others. When we give the best that we have, coming from a good place, then we benefit as well, we benefit further. At the end of a meditation session or a Buddhist event, there's a dedication of merit[^1]. It's understood that if you give away your merit, you produce much more merit for yourself. If you can, in a clean, appropriate way, offer the best of yourself to others, the best in you can grow. May it be that any of the benefits that we receive through this meditation today, that we remove the obstructions from, let that be shared with the world around us. May all beings be happy. May all beings be safe. May all beings be peaceful. And may all beings everywhere be free. --- [^1]: **Dedication of Merit:** A traditional Buddhist practice where the positive energy, goodness, or merit generated from spiritual practices such as meditation is freely offered for the benefit and awakening of all beings, rather than kept solely for oneself.