--- ai_generation_date: '2026-08-23' ai_model: gemini-3-pro-preview audiodharma: talks: - date: '2021-03-16' mp3_url: https://audiodharma.us-east-1.linodeobjects.com/talks/13138/20210316-Gil_Fronsdal-IMC-mindfulness_of_breathing_55_abiding_in_harmony.mp3 speakers: - speaker_name: Gil Fronsdal speaker_url: https://www.audiodharma.org/speakers/1 talk_start_time_seconds: 0 title: Mindfulness of Breathing (55) Abiding in Harmony url: https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/13138 video_unavailable: false location_city: Redwood City, CA video_unavailable: false youtube: id: qnD1QVQzpcg imprecise_upload_date: '2021-05-04' title: 'Dharmette: Mindfulness of Breathing (55) Abiding in Harmony' upload_date: null uploader_str: Insight Meditation Center uploader_url: https://www.youtube.com/@InsightMeditationCenter youtube_url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnD1QVQzpcg --- # Mindfulness of Breathing (55) Abiding in Harmony - [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._ ## [Mindfulness of Breathing (55) Abiding in Harmony](https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/13138) So, the 11th step of mindfulness of breathing is: breathing in, one concentrates; breathing out, one concentrates the mind. This relates to the whole topic of samadhi[^1] in Buddhism, a word often translated as concentration. We're spending more days on this step because samadhi is such an important foundation for the final steps of mindfulness of breathing, and we don't want to rush through this. Ideally, you're coming along a little bit, following just enough, getting a sense or feel for what these steps are about, so that you have some inner reference point for what we're doing as we continue going on. Even though the next steps more classically describe deeper and deeper states of meditation, these 16 steps are also relevant well short of deep states of meditation. We can go through them even in relatively ordinary states and recognize little shifts that represent these different states. I'm hoping that by going slow enough, you can follow along, so we're spending more time with samadhi. I've already said some of this, that the word in these 16 stages for "concentrate" has also been translated as "steady," and I like to translate it as "unify"—to unify the mind, steady the mind, or stabilize the mind. The verb _ādahati_[^2] means to place something. It's like placing the mind, placing awareness on the object that we're focusing on, placing it on the breathing. I love the expression "landing," just landing on it gently. Like a little helicopter or drone, or like a bird that comes in, almost stops in the air an inch or so above the ground, and then just lands. We come right in there, we land, settle, and place ourselves. I'm very fond of using the word "compose" or "composure," as we're composing ourselves on the breathing, and that samadhi is an act of composing ourselves. The word "pose" also means to place or to stand someplace, so we're taking a stand and resting in there. To settle, to steady—these are all words associated with samadhi. Now, samadhi itself is often translated as concentration, but it more generally means meditation, or a state of mind that we're in. That can be many different states where we're quite settled, steady, and peaceful. I wanted to read you from a very early commentary where it defines samadhi. It's a wonderful list, a whole series of little definitions: "Samadhi means embracing. Samadhi means completion. Samadhi means single-pointed. Samadhi means unconfused. Samadhi means unscattered. Samadhi means undisturbed. Samadhi means unperturbed. Samadhi means liberation." And the next series is particularly nice: "Samadhi is seeking harmony. It is acquiring harmony. Samadhi is receiving harmony. Samadhi is grasping harmony, taking hold of it. Samadhi is entering harmony. Samadhi is going along in harmony. Samadhi is lightening up in harmony. Samadhi is being lit up in harmony. Samadhi is harmony, welfare, and happiness." It's a wonderful list, this idea of harmony, evenness, or balance. The word is _sama_[^3] (s-a-m-a). You get a very different feeling for samadhi from these kinds of descriptions than you would if you were just told that samadhi is one-pointedness of mind. When you talk about these absorption states, jhāna[^4], sometimes the way that they're talked about implies an intensity and a kind of laser focus. People really try hard to get into it, not realizing a big part of this samadhi is letting go, relaxing, and settling deeper and deeper. For these jhānas, these absorption states, the verbs related to them are entering the states and abiding in them. This idea of entering is a beautiful image. We're not looking to zero in or force ourselves to be in a state, but rather we're entering into it. I like to think of entering into a sacred area, a sacred piece of land or a temple, where we enter with some reverence, respect, and care. How we enter is an important part of the entering. The two verbs are to enter and to abide. It means that we take time to just linger in those states, to reside in those states. In whatever kind of samadhi states or good, nourishing states there are, we abide in them so that we can be conditioned by them. There's a reconditioning process that happens through meditation. As we go through life, it can condition us in all kinds of negative ways, and meditation is to undo that. The conditioning that comes from greed, hatred, and delusion is very different from the conditioning that comes from generosity, love, and wisdom. Some people have even said that samadhi is a kind of re-parenting if parenting didn't go so well for us growing up. It has a very deep and profound impact on us if we allow ourselves to be nourished by it, which requires abiding. Dwelling in it, so that we can really let the goodness of these states seep in and affect us. If we're in a hurry to get more and more concentrated, we're not going to allow the nourishment to recondition us, open us, and soften us in a way that's useful on the path of liberation. I thought I would also read to you a list of the things that the Buddha encourages people to abide in. In the modern United States, there's often discussion about _being_ rather than _doing_, and meditation is a chance just to be. I don't think the Buddha would quite say it that way. Rather than being, he talks about abiding—which is maybe very closely related. But he's always talking about abiding in something that's wholesome and good. Not just being angry or fuming. If you just abide in that, it has a negative impact if that fuming, resentment, and anger are just simmering along. That's a whole different topic about how to be wise with things like anger. But with the Buddha, it's abiding. Here are these states of abiding the Buddha talks about: - Abiding in safety. - Abiding in fearlessness. - Abiding in a mind free from the hindrances[^5]. - Abiding in equanimity. - Abiding in contentment. - Abiding in pleasure. - Abiding in happiness and gladness. - Abiding in happiness without moving the body or uttering a word. - Abiding in loving-kindness. - Abiding in compassion. - Abiding in a mind like space. - Abiding in the Dharma[^6]. - Abiding observing impermanence. - Abiding in stillness. - Devoted to a pleasant abiding here and now. (Samadhi states the Buddha often describes as a pleasant abiding here and now.) And then, abiding in the Four Foundations of Mindfulness[^7]. Now, it's very significant that the wording is "abiding in the four foundations." It doesn't say "practice the four foundations of mindfulness," it says "abide in them." - Abiding in bliss. - Abiding in emptiness. - Abiding in peaceful liberations. - Abiding in the supreme goal. To abide, one has to be patient. I think of abiding as being very closely akin to being in a receptive state. We abide, we're patient, we're not in a hurry, and we're in a receptive state to feel the goodness of all these states, all these ways of being that can happen. We're talking here about the 11th step of anapanasati[^8]. Of course, when we sit down to meditate, there are times when these states are not available, and we are angry or agitated. To sit down and say, "Just sit there and abide in these good feelings," simply doesn't work. We learn to practice with the first steps of anapanasati that really support us in the challenging states of being that we can experience in daily life. But as meditation proceeds, at some point the goodness, the nourishing feelings, and the beneficial sensations are here, and the Buddha encourages us to abide in them. When they arise in samadhi—in these states of harmony, subtleness, steadiness, and unification—we are really here in the present moment. We feel that in the present there's a kind of harmony, joy, well-being, and gladness. With all these possible different flavors of goodness that might be there, whatever the flavor of the day is, there's a very important place to abide in it. Receive it, let it nourish and fill you, and let it penetrate and permeate yourself in some way. To dwell in these states is not to be thinking about them. It's not seeking, planning, expecting, wanting, and holding on to things. It's just simply abiding—allowing them to be there, basking in them, enjoying them, breathing with them, and breathing through them. This mindfulness of breathing always has the breathing as a reference point. Breathing in and breathing out, we're always using that as a support, a guide, a grounding, a pointer, and a way of staying in these different steps. Now we're staying with the breathing, abiding in these states, abiding in the present moment in a pleasant state here and now. The word in Pali is _viharati_[^9]. It is related to the word _vihara_[^10], meaning a monastery, a place where monks and nuns reside. For the rest of the day, the next 24 hours, you might have this word "abide" or "abiding"—_viharati_, _vihara_—as something you keep close by. Maybe you write it on a sticky note and have it with you or post it someplace. See when in the day it's beneficial for you to pause and abide with what's happening. Especially when there's a goodness or something nourishing, really take it in. Learn to abide and learn to be nourished by your abiding states. Thank you. I will continue with samadhi for a few more days until we get to the 12th step, which is liberating the mind. And that's only the 12th of the 16 steps. So thank you all very much. --- [^1]: **Samadhi:** A Pali term generally translated as concentration, meditation, or a state of unified, steady, and peaceful mind. [^2]: **Ādahati:** (Original transcript said "adati", corrected to _ādahati_ based on context). A Pali verb meaning to put together, place, or concentrate. [^3]: **Sama:** A Pali word meaning even, equal, level, or harmonious. [^4]: **Jhāna:** A Pali word referring to deep states of meditative absorption or profound concentration. [^5]: **Five Hindrances:** In Buddhism, the five hindrances are negative mental states that impede meditation and the arising of wisdom: sensory desire, ill will, sloth/torpor, restlessness/worry, and doubt. [^6]: **Dharma:** A key Buddhist concept with multiple meanings, often referring to the cosmic law and order, the teachings of the Buddha, or the phenomena of reality. [^7]: **Four Foundations of Mindfulness:** The core Buddhist practice of mindfulness, which focuses on four domains: body, feelings, mind, and dhammas (phenomena or principles). [^8]: **Anapanasati:** The Buddhist practice of mindfulness of breathing. (Original transcript said "unempathy", corrected to _anapanasati_ based on context). [^9]: **Viharati:** A Pali verb meaning to dwell, abide, or reside. [^10]: **Vihara:** A Pali and Sanskrit word meaning a dwelling place, often referring to a Buddhist monastery.