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ai_model: gemini-3-pro-preview
audiodharma:
  talks:
    - date: '2020-10-27'
      mp3_url: https://audiodharma.us-east-1.linodeobjects.com/talks/12321/20201027-Gil_Fronsdal-IMC-guided_meditation_meeting_the_sage_within.mp3
      speakers:
        - speaker_name: Gil Fronsdal
          speaker_url: https://www.audiodharma.org/speakers/1
      talk_start_time_seconds: 0
      title: 'Guided Meditation: Meeting the Sage Within'
      url: https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/12321
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location_city: Redwood City, CA
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  imprecise_upload_date: '2021-05-04'
  title: 'Guided Meditation: Meeting the Sage Within'
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  uploader_str: Insight Meditation Center
  uploader_url: https://www.youtube.com/@InsightMeditationCenter
youtube_url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2dcSH4t0U4
---

# Guided Meditation: Meeting the Sage Within - [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: Meeting the Sage Within](https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/12321)

So warm greetings for our meditation session together. To evoke an image for the meditation, for the kind of presence and mindfulness that is possible with mindfulness meditation, and also a little bit of an introduction to the theme of the Eightfold Path[^1]:

Imagine that you're going to visit a very wise person who you're confident has really important things to tell you. The person is old and sits quietly in his comfortable chair and doesn't say much. Then when this person does speak, he speaks quietly, and it's clear that as you approach and sit with this person, that you have to offer your full attention to the person. You don't know when the person will speak, and the person probably won't say much and won't say it repeatedly. The person really needs to feel that you're really there and present and attentive, and fully present for the encounter.

And then at a time when you are really present, really there, then to your surprise, the person says something to you, some piece of wisdom that maybe even sets you free of some of your suffering.

So the wise person in this allegory is yourself. And the person visiting the wise person is yourself. That in mindfulness meditation, we're visiting ourselves. We're coming to meet ourselves and to offer a very full, present-moment attention to really be able to listen, to feel, to sense, to experience what is really here.

And we don't know when the wisdom will come. We don't know how quietly it'll be spoken or revealed. But what we do know is that we have to be present. We can't be wandering off lost in fantasies and thoughts. But we bring a kind of reverence, a kind of care, a kind of love to really encountering, really just feeling and sensing and being intimate with our lived experience, our embodied experience.

It's best not to sit waiting for the wisdom to come, because waiting interferes with the full attention, and it's best not to try too hard, because that interferes with the fullness of attention. But here we sit to meet ourselves, and there definitely is wisdom to be found here in yourself. You are both a wise person and the visitor, and we begin by being the visitor, and the wisdom comes in its own time.

So to begin, taking a posture that for you is attentive. And for many people, that means to sit up a little straighter, almost as if you're going to be attentive with your whole torso. And perhaps there's a way of rotating your head and neck a little bit, or tilting your head sideways, rocking it sideways back and forth, and then slowing down and seeing if you can find a way in which the head, the neck feels aligned.

So the vertebrae in your neck participate in feeling a little bit alert. And one way to do that is to lift up the top back of your head just a teeny bit to create a little bit more space between the last vertebrae and the skull. Another way of saying that is to tip your chin down slightly. Tuck it in and down, and gently close your eyes.

And with care, maybe even love, taking a few slower, longer, deeper breaths, as if each breath is to be savored, enjoyed. Breathing in deeply and filling the torso, the lungs with air. Feeling the torso expand, rib cage stretch. Maybe even a movement of lifting in the shoulders. Maybe with a deep in-breath, there's even some feeling of expansion in the back rib cage.

And then as you exhale, a long, slow, gentle exhale. Almost as if you exhale with a feeling that could be expressed in the sound _ah_ here. And as you exhale, to let something, anything that you find in your torso, to relax and to settle. Maybe even allowing the settling of your weight, of your torso, so it settles downwards into the pelvic area. And then letting your breathing return to normal.

And part of a useful, skillful attention is to relax. Tension interferes with open, settled attention. So to relax what's possible to relax easily. Maybe as you exhale, to soften the muscles of the face. Maybe as you exhale, to soften the shoulders, relax, release the shoulders. Perhaps releasing down through the arms as well. And then exhaling, softening the belly. Maybe the belly will hang forward and down.

And perhaps also, as a way of softening and relaxing in the chest, something can release, let go. And some people find it useful to also relax the brain, or relax whatever tension or pressure that's felt around the forehead, the temples, behind the forehead, in the general area where the brain is. Maybe softening, relaxing. Maybe the image of spreading the mind wide like a wide, still lake, where the waves in the lake settle and get quiet. So allowing the mind to get quieter and quieter.

And then to continue this process of meeting yourself as if you're coming to meet a wise person lovingly, become aware of your breathing. Become aware of how the body experiences breathing, the life-giving process of the body taking in air, exhaling. The breathing is a doorway to a deeper and deeper connection to oneself. The experience of breathing is always in the present moment.

And the task is to allow, devote the mind to be in the present moment too. One way to do that is to be in harmony with the breathing, to be aligned, to be intimate with the body breathing. Offering the kind, careful, devoted attention that you need for attending, being with a wise person. Here, one breath at a time.

Attention is always being given to something. Sometimes it's given up, surrendered to distractions, and sometimes it's given over to, offered to being present for our lived experience. To really be cognizant, recognize, to know this is happening here, to be here for yourself, your lived experience, body, breath, feelings, mind. Just here, as if you're going to meet the wisdom that's here as well.

## Reflections

And then coming to the end of this sitting. Once again, imagine what it would be like for you, how you would approach a person who you respected a lot for their wisdom and their compassion, and you had a chance to sit with them. And someone maybe who was old or very quiet, where it made sense for you to offer your full attention and care, and a certain kind of respect that yes, this is a wise person.

And as I said in the meditation, to imagine that that person, the wise person, is you. And how would you approach yourself? How would you meet yourself? And now as we come to the end of the sitting, maybe, just maybe, it's wise to approach everyone that you meet as if they too are wise. That if you bring kind, respectful attention to really be present, to listen fully, to get to know someone fully, in that kind of attention that you bring, maybe there's a chance that that person's wisdom can surface, that person's goodness.

If we see people as wise and good, even if some of their behavior is otherwise, maybe we're helping their wisdom, their goodness to come forth. And so may it be that what we learn about how we can meet ourselves with respect and attention is something we then can use to meet others with respect and attention.

And may it be that whenever we meditate, that at the end of the meditation we reflect a little bit on how the meditation can support the world around us. And it isn't that we're giving up benefiting ourselves, but we benefit ourselves greatly when we turn the benefits of meditation around and offer it to others. It's a way of strengthening and developing what has begun in meditation. And what we strengthen and develop in the world with others will come back and support you the next time you meditate.

May this practice we do bring happiness and welfare and safety and freedom to others. May all beings be happy. May all beings be safe, and may all beings be free.

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[^1]: **Eightfold Path:** The Buddha's foundational teaching on the path to the cessation of suffering, comprising right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.