---
ai_generation_date: '2026-09-16'
ai_model: gemini-3-pro-preview
audiodharma:
  talks:
    - date: '2021-01-13'
      mp3_url: https://audiodharma.us-east-1.linodeobjects.com/talks/12732/20210113-Gil_Fronsdal-IMC-guided_meditation_guided_tour_of_breathing_2.mp3
      speakers:
        - speaker_name: Gil Fronsdal
          speaker_url: https://www.audiodharma.org/speakers/1
      talk_start_time_seconds: 0
      title: 'Guided Meditation: Guided Tour of Breathing (2)'
      url: https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/12732
      video_unavailable: false
location_city: Redwood City, CA
video_unavailable: false
youtube:
  id: _RxfV7XHB2I
  imprecise_upload_date: '2021-05-04'
  title: 'Guided Meditation: Tour of Breathing (2)'
  upload_date: null
  uploader_str: Insight Meditation Center
  uploader_url: https://www.youtube.com/@InsightMeditationCenter
youtube_url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RxfV7XHB2I
---

# Guided Meditation: Guided Tour of Breathing (2) - [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: Guided Tour of Breathing (2)](https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/12732)

Good day, everyone. Warm greetings, and I am happy to be here with you today to share this practice of mindfulness of breathing. In some ways, mindfulness of breathing is maybe a microcosm or a bridge to the fullness of our life. Breathing is at the center—it can be seen as the center of it all, the nexus of it all, the crossroads of it all. If we sit at the crossroads, everything comes by. If we sit at the nexus, everything somehow is related to that, and there's a way of understanding or seeing everything else more clearly.

Some of you, I'm sure, have all kinds of concerns that you bring with you to the meditation today—things that are happening in your life and important things that you're thinking about. To really enter into the world of breathing and to have some continuity and concentration on the breathing helps shape or organize the mind. It helps it become more incisive, more creative, more intelligent, and capable of really addressing the issues of our life. But to do that, it really helps us realize that for now, we're not going to actually pick up the issues of our life. This is not the time. We're preparing ourselves to be in a better place to do it later. With that kind of idea, maybe it's easier to put some things aside for these minutes that we're here with the breathing.

This bridge or microcosm of breathing is multi-dimensional. There are many aspects to it. There's what I call the horizontal dimension, which is what we did yesterday with the guided tour of the breath—the spreading out through the body of what moves and is impacted physically as we breathe. There's a vertical dimension, which in my vocabulary means to go deeply and experience the particular sensations that come into play in breathing. To really feel fully a particular expansion, letting go, falling, pressure, release, smoothness, or jaggedness—to really feel that in some acute, tender, or intimate way is what I call the vertical dimension. Then there's a time dimension, which is continuity over time, like really experiencing unbroken attention to breathing and unbroken appreciation of breathing. Then there's the mind dimension: the nature of the awareness that is aware of breathing, the nature of the mind that somehow comes into play with breathing and is nourished or shaped by the breathing, and the mind that shapes the breathing. There are all these dimensions and all this richness in the breathing.

For today, I would like to explore the dimension of time and the depth of the vertical dimension. We will do another guided tour of breathing, but this time it's a tour of breathing through time—the time it takes to breathe in and the time it takes to breathe out. That might not be so clear yet, but it will become clear as we do the meditation. It also involves some of this vertical dimension of really feeling the sensations themselves and the uniqueness of the different sensations that come into play as we're breathing. These exercises we're doing in the morning are all ways of getting you more and more familiar with this world of breathing, hopefully so a little bit of it sticks and becomes second nature. Then, when you do breath meditation, you have this landing place, interest, or entryway to a deeper way with your breathing.

Assume your meditation posture and settle yourself in a little bit. Close your eyes. Maybe take a few long, slow, deep breaths. The long and the slow can be the beginning of feeling the time dimension, the continuity through time of just being with one in-breath and one exhale. Deep inhale, long, slow, and relaxed. And a long, slow, relaxed release with the exhale.

Then let your breathing return to normal and take a few more moments to settle in. One way to do that is to feel the weight of your shoulders. Let the weight and the gentle pull of gravity support the release of tension and holding in your shoulders, allowing the shoulders to be heavy. Feel the weight of the elbows, letting them be heavy and somehow released.

Maybe you can feel the weight of your ribcage, your ribs, and the subtle, gentle pull of gravity on these bones, your chest releasing to the pull of gravity. Maybe you can feel the weight of your belly. If your belly is held tense or tight, notice how it is a little bit of a holding back from the pull of gravity. Feel the weight of your sitting bones, the weight of your torso on your sitting bones, on your bottom. Feel the weight of the whole body as a way of grounding yourself in your body, feeling the substance of the body and whatever solidity there is. There's a kind of definitiveness in being here in this body.

Allow the mind to rest in this body. The mind, which is often weary and overactive—allow it to rest, to relax. Release the mind so we're not holding onto it or driving it. Let the mind become relaxed and open. Spaciousness of the mind, spaciousness of awareness.

Then become aware of the movements in your body that come with breathing, maybe the more subtle places in your body that move first. Give yourself a kind of checking in to various places in your body that move as you breathe—in your back ribcage, the sides of your ribcage, and in the front. Let go of your thoughts and let go into the movement of the body breathing.

For the next two or three exhales, let go, relax, and release with the exhale. Gently and relaxedly let your exhale release more fully at the end of the exhale, so there's a little extra exhaling. Follow that exhale to the end.

Now, to start the tour of the breathing, become aware of the first sensation that indicates you're breathing in. You don't need to strain to do this. What's the first sensation that's obvious to you that the inhale has begun? What is this sensation? It's an exercise to be particularly attentive to the beginning of the inhale each time it begins, noticing what sensation it is. See if you can recognize the nature of the sensation. Is it movement, expansion, or pressure? Is it an initial experience of lightness, looseness, release, or a lifting? Is it a sensation that happens throughout your body, or is it a particular spot, small or large? Become aware of the beginning of an inhale.

Now become aware of the middle of your inhale. Between the beginning of the inhale and where the inhale finishes, somewhere in that middle, what is the sensation that shows itself? Is it still a movement, a different kind of movement, a different quality of expansion or pressure, smoothness, temperature, or vibration? In the middle of inhaling, are the sensations in a small spot or a broad area?

Now become aware of the last sensation in your body that indicates you're breathing in. There is no need to strain to catch the absolute last one. Whatever is the last sensation that's easy to recognize, that indicates you've come to the end of the inhale[^1]. Is there a stretching, a tautness? Is there a stopping of the expansion?

For the next few times that you inhale, see if your awareness can take in the kaleidoscope of sensations from the beginning, the middle, and the end, connecting these together with awareness. Have a continuity of attention through time with the whole length of the inhale.

Now become aware of the first sensation that indicates you're exhaling. What sensation in the body is easy to be aware of that lets you know the exhale has begun?

As you exhale, what sensation or sensations are most prominent in the middle of the exhale?

For the next few exhales, become aware of the last sensation of exhaling—the last sensations that come into play, appear, or are easy to know at the end of breathing out.

For the next few exhales, see if you can rest your attention on the full exhale, feeling the sensations of the beginning, middle, and end, and how they might ripple or flow through from beginning to end.

Now notice what the physical experience is like for you in transitioning from exhaling to inhaling. Is there a pause? Is there a feeling of directionality changing? Is there a change in pressure or tightness?

In the last 10 minutes or so of this sitting, we will sit quietly. See if you can keep your awareness alert and relaxed, resting with the sensations of breathing. Follow the stream, the river of sensations that cycles through, and the wheel of breathing in and breathing out. Stay with it continuously from beginning, middle, and end—inhaling, exhaling, and the transition between them.

See if you can have an unbroken appreciation of the full cycle of breathing. If the mind wanders off, just gently open again to the breathing, seeing if you can rest, appreciate, and take in the continuity through time of one full cycle of breathing, and then the next, and the next.

Gently take a few longer, slower, deeper breaths. As you exhale, exhale with an inner, maybe silent, "Ah," settling in and relaxing with the exhale. Then let your breathing return to normal.

Now open your consideration, your thoughts, your heart to the people of your life, and breathe with them. Stay connected to your breathing, breathing in as relaxed and open a way as you can, thinking about the people in your life that you celebrate, you appreciate, you're challenged by, or you're in conflict with. In all the different ways that you can be with others, take them all in, but breathe with it all.

See if you can let your breathing still have a quality as you exhale—"Ah"—so you're thinking about people but you're not caught in them. You're still connected to your breathing, as if you're breathing through them or with them, or through and with whatever reactions or ideas you have about them.

See if you can reach deep inside of yourself to a place that's tender, caring, and loving, and continue to breathe mindfully. Breathe through some place of tenderness inside, gentleness, and care. See if you can now extend goodwill towards those people in your life, whether you know them well, or just neighbors you hardly know, the people around you. Breathe with them; breathe with your goodwill.

May it be that this meditation we're doing connects you to an intention, a choice, a decision to be kinder to the world around you, to be more peaceful, more at ease with the world and the people around you. May it be that as we go deeper and deeper into the experience of breathing, it teaches us how we can be relaxed, open, and caring for others.

May this practice we're doing be for the welfare and happiness of beings everywhere. May all beings be happy. May all beings be safe. May all beings everywhere be free.

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[^1]: Original transcript said "end of the egg", corrected to "end of the inhale" based on context.