--- ai_generation_date: '2026-08-21' ai_model: gemini-3-pro-preview audiodharma: talks: - date: '2020-11-24' mp3_url: https://audiodharma.us-east-1.linodeobjects.com/talks/12485/20201124-Gil_Fronsdal-IMC-guided_meditation_mindfulness_of_feelings.mp3 speakers: - speaker_name: Gil Fronsdal speaker_url: https://www.audiodharma.org/speakers/1 talk_start_time_seconds: 0 title: 'Guided Meditation: Mindfulness of Feelings' url: https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/12485 video_unavailable: false location_city: Redwood City, CA video_unavailable: false youtube: id: qvvo99_RA0s imprecise_upload_date: '2021-05-04' title: 'Guided Meditation: Mindfulness of Feelings' upload_date: null uploader_str: Insight Meditation Center uploader_url: https://www.youtube.com/@InsightMeditationCenter youtube_url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvvo99_RA0s --- # Guided Meditation: Mindfulness of Feelings - [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: Mindfulness of Feelings](https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/12485) So my warm greetings to all of you, and sharing my happiness of being together and having a chance to meditate today. I believe it's a wondrous, wonderful thing for people to meditate together. It's hard for me to imagine that I would have gone very far with Buddhist practice if I hadn't been practicing in community and meditating with other people. So, thank you for this. One of the valuable ways of staying present is to recognize how we lose our present moment awareness, how we lose attention in the present when things are either pleasant or unpleasant. In conscious and unconscious ways—subconscious ways—we will get pulled into worlds of pleasure, pleasantness, and comfort, and pulled away or pushing away things which are unpleasant, painful, and uncomfortable. So in this meditation practice, at some point I'll suggest that you bring your attention to this simple phenomenon of not exactly what is happening, but rather the ways in which what is happening is pleasant and unpleasant. Just see if you can notice, based on that, the reactions you have, the "for and against" that might happen. Take a meditation posture that's a combination of being alert and also has some pleasantness to it, something that has some degree of contentment, coziness, or subtleness, and the balance of alert and comfortable, alert and relaxed. For people who are new to meditation, maybe it takes a while to discover, or for the body to adjust itself to a meditation posture so that it starts feeling comfortable. But it's one of the great gifts of meditation to find a meditative posture that at least for a while will feel like home, feel like, "Oh, I'm here. So happy to be here in this posture again." And then to close your eyes. As a way of turning your attention inward into your body, you might take a few long, slow, deep breaths. Deep breaths that don't leave you winded, but that are comfortable for you to take. Breathing in deeply, and then as you exhale, just let go if you can of all things outside of meditation. See if you can let your concerns and thoughts drift away like bubbles or balloons drifting off into the sky. Allow yourself then to settle more and more into the embodied posture, the embodied experience of sitting, and then to let your breathing return to normal. Generally, tension in the body is uncomfortable or has some degree of unpleasantness, and relaxing that tension has some degree of pleasantness or of relief. You might scan through your body to see where there are places of holding or tension that might be relatively easy to relax and soften, maybe relaxing on the exhale. And if you can do that, maybe noticing how it goes from the unpleasant side of things to the pleasant side of things. It doesn't have to be dramatic. There are micro-muscles in the face that sometimes are held tense all the time, so it's a habit that we don't even know is so constant. But maybe imagining that the muscles of the face are pulled in too tight to the skull, and that finally they can fall away and rest in the skin that holds them. As you exhale, relaxing the muscles of the face. Imagining perhaps that you're holding your shoulders away from mother earth, and this mother earth, the gravity, is inviting us, welcoming the shoulders to come closer. As you exhale, you respond to that request, that invitation, relaxing the shoulders to the pull of gravity. And imagining the belly feels safe and content. Everything is okay, and so the belly can relax and release, soften, and maybe hang forward and out as you exhale. Perhaps imagining the whole body is like a block of ice, and then as you exhale, the body melts, softens, and becomes more fluid. And then bringing your attention to your breathing, and to begin just following the body's experience of breathing. Gently opening and opening and opening to each inhale and each exhale, experiencing it in the body, one after the other. Noticing if there's anything pleasant about the experience of breathing. Don't worry if there isn't, but if you notice anything pleasant—it could just be a short moment during the exhale, or during the inhale, or between the inhale and exhale—be sure to feel that pleasure each time you come to that part of breathing. You're allowed to feel the pleasure as a way of staying interested and connected to breathing. And as you're sitting with your breathing, different things will get your attention, maybe peripherally, maybe strongly. Whatever it is that comes into your attention, notice whether it's on the pleasant side of things or the unpleasant side, or is it in between, to really neutral? Take the time to notice this feeling tone[^1] it has, pleasant or unpleasant, and then return to your breathing. Maybe noticing the pleasant and unpleasant, and breathing. Opening to the breathing, the embodied experience of breathing. Staying with your breathing, and doing so with some simplicity—simplicity and continuity. And if anything gets your attention that's not the breathing, notice whether it's pleasant or unpleasant. Noticing pleasant and unpleasant in your experience, and in doing so, maybe also notice the mind's reaction to that, the way the mind might be "for or against." Keep it that simple, without analysis or probing further. Clearly recognize how it is, and begin again with your breathing, without getting pulled into the world of "for and against." Recognizing that feeling is there, and beginning with your breathing again. ## Reflections And then as we come to the end of the sitting, feel within you, remember within you something that's quite pleasant because it's healthy. It's a form of happiness and well-being, a place that's cozy or healthy, a place of freedom. And this ability, whether you can feel it now or not, to have a deep sense of well-being, to not be struggling "for and against," but to be free. And then turn your attention to others, and see if, as much as this would be wonderful for you, how wonderful it would be for others to experience the same thing. It might be quite wonderful for you for other people to have this happiness. They are more likely to treat you well, and then maybe you're more likely to treat them well. May it be that our practice brings us to greater and greater health, happiness, and well-being. And as we become happier, to wish it for others as well, to support others so they can have a sense of well-being. And may we live our lives supporting the well-being of all beings, ourselves and others. May all beings be happy, may all beings be healthy, and may all beings be free. --- [^1]: **Feeling Tone:** Often a translation of the Pali word _Vedanā_, it refers to the affective tone of an experience, specifically whether it is sensed as pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral.