--- ai_generation_date: '2026-09-24' ai_model: gemini-3-pro-preview audiodharma: talks: - date: '2020-12-09' mp3_url: https://audiodharma.us-east-1.linodeobjects.com/talks/12543/20201209-Gil_Fronsdal-IMC-guided_meditation_everything_is_important.mp3 speakers: - speaker_name: Gil Fronsdal speaker_url: https://www.audiodharma.org/speakers/1 talk_start_time_seconds: 0 title: 'Guided Meditation: Everything is Important' url: https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/12543 video_unavailable: false location_city: Redwood City, CA video_unavailable: false youtube: id: VjX_Rn2mOgg imprecise_upload_date: '2021-05-04' title: 'Guided Meditation: Everything is Important' upload_date: null uploader_str: Insight Meditation Center uploader_url: https://www.youtube.com/@InsightMeditationCenter youtube_url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjX_Rn2mOgg --- # Guided Meditation: Everything is Important - [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: Everything is Important](https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/12543) Welcome to our meditation together. And as an introduction to mindfulness meditation and Buddhist practice, perhaps everything that you meet, everything that you encounter, everything that you hold, everything that you see, everything that you hear, is very important. When I was in college, I took a history class, and near the end of the term, preparing for the final or something, I asked the professor. I said to the professor, "So this little detail in history, this isn't really so important, so we don't have to remember it." And he looked at me very kindly and he said, "Look at me"—you know, like he looked into my soul kind of—and said to me, "Everything is important." That really stuck with me. Everything is important. So this idea that everything is important, everything is of value, and what it would be like to live if that was the case. Everything is of value. Everything is important. That you don't want to miss anything. And the idea is maybe everything in the moment, you want to really be there for it. It's one of the things I learned from Zen training, was this very idea: to meet each thing, every moment, as the important thing, as a valued thing. And in order to do this, the key is to be able to bring our attention to what's going on, to bring our attention to each thing as if it's the most important thing. Mindfulness practice can be seen as a training to develop such a capacity of attention. And to do that, it actually helps if we appreciate that what's happening to us here and now is valuable, is important, whatever it might be. That each breath is appropriate to meet and fully receive, and be present for as the most important thing, as a very important thing, a valuable thing. That every feeling, every emotion that comes along, is important. Every sensation, every thought, and activity of the mind. But as soon as we cling to it, as soon as we pick it up and get involved in it, resist it, ignore it, deny it, we diminish its importance, and we diminish ourselves in the process. We diminish our capacity to really offer full attention to this thing. So of course we can't do this for everything happening in the present moment, so we take our time, settle in, and we do it for what's most prominent. We do it for what's maybe most simple to train ourselves, to bring attention which is not scattered, not distracted, not swept up in thought, or swept up in reactions, boredom, the grass is greener somewhere else, there's more important things to do. Just here with this. Everything is important. You are important. And you are so important and valuable, precious, that it's important not to diminish oneself by being lost in thought, closing down with reactivity and clinging and resistance. So important to stay fully open here. And that's why we train ourselves in the training that everything we bring our attention to is important, maybe the most important thing of the moment. So to take a meditation posture, part of the art of meditation posture is to take a posture which is solid, like you're definitively assuming a posture of attention in whatever way that works best for your body. And gently close your eyes. And the thing that's most close and most intimate here and now in our direct experience is our body. Valuable, important in its own right. And to begin the process of meeting our body as the most important thing of the moment, you might take a few long, slow, deep breaths. As you breathe in deeply, feel your body as widely and broadly as possible, especially in the torso. And as you exhale, release and settle into your body. Exhale and come home to this body, relaxing the tensions that are kind of pulling away from the center. As you exhale, settling in maybe the weight of your body, all the way down into the bottom of your belly. And then letting your breathing return to normal. And as you exhale, relax further. Relaxing some of the tensions of the body is a way for the body to become whole. The body all works together, so no part of our body is closing down, or pulling away, or tightening in on itself. As you exhale, relaxing the face, relaxing the shoulders, relaxing the belly. Relaxing and settling the belly down to the very bottom core of it all. And then giving your attention over to your breathing, as if breathing is the most important thing. As if it's your very first breath. The inhale is the first inhale. Maybe as if your exhale is the last exhale. Something so important. And what's it like to give attention over to the breathing? Relaxed, open, maybe even loving attention, as if breathing is the most important thing. And if anything becomes compelling, take a moment to recognize it. Appreciate it as if it's the most important thing of the moment. It's so important you don't want to interfere with it, or latch onto it, or pick it up and get involved. So important, you just want to let it be itself, recognizing it as it is, with care and attention, and then begin again with your breathing. Whatever arises, don't dismiss anything, belittle anything. If it takes you away from your breathing, be content to be mindful of it for a few moments, and then begin again with your breathing. Because each thing in itself is important, you don't have to be trying to get something or get anywhere. In a sense, you already arrived where you need to be: here, offering your loving attention, your caring attention, to each thing. And it's the quality of your attention—relaxed, open, clear, present—that's the real way in which we discover each thing is important. As you're aware of your breathing, as you become aware of anything, relax your awareness too. Your awareness is also the most important thing. And don't compromise your awareness by straining, or pushing, or doubting. Relax and allow the awareness to do its thing simply, openly. In whatever way awareness is aware, that's enough. Awareness aware of breathing. Whatever is important calls on us to care for it, to have a sense of care. Both getting a sense of its value—we care for it—but also to offer our aid, our support, our goodwill for it. All things. Even if we put something in the trash. If it's important, that also, we don't toss it away. No need to use words like tossing or discarding, but rather we place it in the trash, not as an afterthought or an aside, but carefully and well so it can go on to its next stage of existence, to recycling or the dump forever, with our care and our intentionality. And for all people, all the living beings of this world, to take the time to let them be the most important thing of the moment. We can care for others as well. We can care for their welfare and wish for their happiness and well-being. Maybe there's some way in which seeing each person as valuable, important, where it becomes almost second nature for some part inside of us to care about them, to value and appreciate, so that there's goodwill, well-wishing. And if that well-wishing is a light bulb, turning on the light bulb of mettā[^1], of kindness, so that it radiates and shines out from us almost as a light, as a glow, as a care, a warmth. And as we come to the end of this meditation, to send out with our light, with our care and goodwill, with our attention, our well-wishing: that all the people that we know in our lives, may they be well. May they be happy, and safe, and healthy. May they be at ease in their life. And may those people that I encounter today, in person or in communication, or learning about them in some way through the news or some way, they are also important. Each living being has importance, and perhaps some aspect of goodwill can travel from you to them, some kind gaze. May all of you be happy. May all of you be healthy and safe. May all of you be at ease in your life. And then to turn that kindness and goodwill to yourself, that you yourself are also important. At times you're the most important person for yourself. You're the one that you're most intimate with, the one you know the best. And to wish yourself well, to aspire, to wish and work for your own happiness, you might say to yourself: May I be happy. May I be healthy and safe. May I be at ease. May I be free. And may it be that on this day, that you experiment living a life as if each thing is important. Each thing is something you can care for, and every person is someone who you can offer your goodwill. May all beings be happy. May all beings be safe, and may all beings be free. --- [^1]: **Mettā:** A Pali word meaning loving-kindness, benevolence, and active goodwill toward others.