--- ai_generation_date: '2026-09-06' ai_model: gemini-3-pro-preview audiodharma: talks: - date: '2020-05-27' mp3_url: https://audiodharma.us-east-1.linodeobjects.com/talks/11456/20200527-Gil_Fronsdal-IMC-guided_meditation_letting_go.mp3 speakers: - speaker_name: Gil Fronsdal speaker_url: https://www.audiodharma.org/speakers/1 talk_start_time_seconds: 0 title: 'Guided Meditation: Letting Go' url: https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/11456 video_unavailable: false location_city: Redwood City, CA video_unavailable: false youtube: id: h14L_iql_-0 imprecise_upload_date: '2021-05-04' title: 'Guided Meditation: Letting Go' upload_date: null uploader_str: Insight Meditation Center uploader_url: https://www.youtube.com/@InsightMeditationCenter youtube_url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h14L_iql_-0 --- # Guided Meditation: Letting Go - [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._ ## Introduction Warm greetings from a very warm place today. It'll be hot here in Redwood City. There are two ways of understanding the practice—many, many ways, and I don't want to limit it to this, but two very significant ways—and that has a lot to do with letting go. Specifically, what we're letting go of is our clinging, our grasping, our attachment to things. That doesn't mean that we're necessarily letting go of things, but just the grasping of it. As I have sometimes pointed out, if I'm clinging to this bell striker, I can let go of it, and it falls away and maybe makes a big sound. I could also let go of the clinging to it this way, with an open palm, and I don't lose, drop, or break the thing that I'm holding, but I'm no longer clinging to it. If it wants to fly away, it's welcome to do that. I'm not holding onto it, but I'm still here holding it. So, there's one thing: letting go. The other thing is what we let go _into_. If I let go of my clinging to the striker like this, I could also let go into the open hand. There's no clinging, but there is the open hand, with the sensitivity of the open hand. The most sensitive part of the hand is the fingers and the palm, and I can let go into that sensitivity. I can let go into that openness. If I now love that sensitivity, that openness, that ease of an open hand, and I grab it to hold onto it, I've lost it. In letting go, this path of the eight[^1], this path of the Four Noble Truths[^2] has a lot to do with deep letting go, liberation. The Buddha's message was the deep, very deep letting go of craving, of clinging. The tradition talks about it mostly in terms of a great absence, but it's not really an absence of nothing, and it's not an absence of something. We can let go into something that's really good. This kind of letting go is not nothing; it's not a loss of all things, it's a loss of all clinging. As we sit here today, you might want to practice letting go. As you let go, let go into that absence. Let go into what's there, and that openness of the palm, the openness of the heart, the openness of the mind. Don't try to make anything of it, don't try to hold onto it. Just allow it, and just continue to let go. Let go. ## [Guided Meditation: Letting Go](https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/11456) So, taking a meditation posture and closing your eyes. We begin letting go by letting go into the body. Take some deep breaths, and as you exhale, letting go of the thoughts and concerns of the day if you can, and letting go into the body. Allow yourself to dip into the body with awareness, as you would dip into a refreshing pool of water or into a cozy warm bathtub. The body has a lot of different kinds of sensations: some pleasant, some unpleasant, some painful. But what happens if you let go and open widely to your body? A wide, global awareness of all that's there—the pleasant, the unpleasant, the difficult, the comfortable. Let go of your thoughts enough that they become quieter. A quiet awareness dipping into the body. Perhaps as you exhale, you can let go of the thoughts that have come back, or at least let go of the clinging to them. Let go. Soften around your thinking as you exhale, and let go into your body. Let go into the openness and softness, the support of your body breathing. In any ways in which you're holding on or resisting, see if you can open the grip of the heart, the fist of the mind, so it holds whatever is present kindly and openly. In the softness of the mind, the softness of the heart, let go of the clinging, the holding on, the wanting, the expecting, and allow whatever's there to be held with support. If it wants to fly away, allow it to fly away, but let go into the openness of mind, the openness of heart. Let go into the openness of the body that can receive all things. Keep letting go. Keep opening up. And if need be, let go of letting go. Let go of the clinging to letting go, or that needing to let go. Just let go in a relaxed way, to whatever way you can. Maybe every exhale, letting go, and letting go into the openness. If you let go a lot, you might notice the pull back into holding or being preoccupied with something. Just for these minutes, see if you can keep trusting letting go. Entrust yourself in being opened, not clinging or holding onto anything. Letting go. Why not let go? Why not for these few minutes trust there is nothing whatsoever you need to be holding onto, or be involved in, or think about? Just let go so that you can let go into the openness, the softness, the receptivity, the deeper sensitivity of our being. As we come to the end of the sitting, you might now also continue to let go, but let go into whatever is inside. Whatever place inside where there might be some evidence, hint of tenderness, love, compassion, a sense of caring, a gentleness. Let go into your love. Let go into the place that cares[^3]—a place of inner sensitivity, perhaps where the heart sings, or a certain kind of delight, or certain kind of sweetness of kindness, tenderness, love. As you exhale, let go of your thoughts, let go of concerns, and let go into a place within where there's some love. Perhaps letting go into it so it becomes brighter, so it can open up and maybe glow or be bright. And then now bring to mind what you'll be doing today, or the next day or so. The activities, the people you have contact with, talk to, email with. What would it be like to be resting in this place of love when you decide what to say and what to do in a relationship to them? What if this place inside is the reference point for how to be in relationship to other people? May it be that if we can rest in our love and our sensitivity, if we can let go, may it be that we're actively, inspiringly living for the welfare and happiness of all beings, ourself included. May it be that for this next day, that in some small or big way, that we make the world a better place for others. May all beings be happy. May all beings be safe. May all beings be healthy. May all beings be able to meet with their open love. May we be each other's friends. --- [^1]: **Path of the Eight:** A reference to the Noble Eightfold Path, which is an early summary of the path of Buddhist practices leading to liberation from the cycle of samsara. [^2]: **Four Noble Truths:** The foundational framework of Buddhist teachings, outlining the nature of suffering (dukkha), its cause, its cessation, and the path leading to its cessation. [^3]: Original transcript said "the place that scare", corrected to "the place that cares" based on context.