--- ai_generation_date: '2026-08-17' ai_model: gemini-3-pro-preview audiodharma: talks: - date: '2020-11-19' mp3_url: https://audiodharma.us-east-1.linodeobjects.com/talks/12466/20201119-Gil_Fronsdal-IMC-eightfold_path_right_mindfulness_1_of_6.mp3 speakers: - speaker_name: Gil Fronsdal speaker_url: https://www.audiodharma.org/speakers/1 talk_start_time_seconds: 0 title: 'Eightfold Path: Right Mindfulness (1 of 6)' url: https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/12466 video_unavailable: false location_city: Redwood City, CA video_unavailable: false youtube: id: rfGvWpwjHpM imprecise_upload_date: '2021-05-04' title: 'Dharmette: Eightfold Path: Right Mindfulness (1 of 6)' upload_date: null uploader_str: Insight Meditation Center uploader_url: https://www.youtube.com/@InsightMeditationCenter youtube_url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfGvWpwjHpM --- # Eightfold Path: Right Mindfulness (1 of 6) - [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._ ## [Eightfold Path: Right Mindfulness (1 of 6)](https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/12466) Good morning. In continuing this series of talks on the Eightfold Path, today we come to Right Mindfulness, the seventh factor of the path. With all these factors, they are somehow directly an expression, manifestation, and orientation based on Right View. So, Right Mindfulness, for someone who doesn't really have a taste yet of some kind of inner freedom, would be based on the notion or idea of being mindful in a way that's wholesome or skillful, and avoiding being mindful in a way that's unskillful or unwholesome. To avoid having mindfulness that's mixed up in greed for spiritual experiences, or ambition to become the next great human savior through being a meditator. It is not being filled with a kind of aversion and hostility towards anything, thinking, "I have to get rid of something in me that's a bad part of me, and I want to overcome it and push it away." But rather, it is a form of awareness that is looking to be simple, without a lot of desires that are mixed in. It's without any ill will, without wanting to cause harm, and hopefully without any conceit. Finding where that is, for someone who has a taste of freedom—they know a little bit what that is like to be free of aversion, greed, and conceit. They have a taste of that, and it's that taste that helps us to find, "Oh, this is how mindfulness is." It is possible to be aware of experience in a simple, friendly, open, non-aggressive kind of way. And then we try to build and expand that awareness so it becomes bigger and stronger. In the teachings of mindfulness by the Buddha, in a discourse called the Discourse on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness[^1], the momentum of mindfulness as it builds, expands, and becomes more inclusive, is kind of as mindfulness becomes... The word for mindfulness in Buddhist language is _sati_, and it develops to become something called _patisati_ (p-a-t-i s-a-t-i). Bhikkhu Bodhi[^2], the great translator, translates _patisati_ sometimes as "lucid awareness," which I also like to use as a translation. Lucid in the sense that we know we're aware. The awareness, the consciousness, is strong enough that we're not blinded or lost in what we're aware of. Of course, we mostly have to be aware of something, but there are two things: there's the thing that we're aware of, and the awareness. If what we're aware of is something dangerous, suddenly we're going to be more involved in focusing on the danger than the fact that we're aware. But there are many times when we are lost in what we're aware of—lost in thought, for example—so much so it's almost like we're not aware anymore. There is awareness, but it's all kind of been sucked into the world of thinking. Mindfulness practice is a little bit reclaiming that awareness so that it's not lost to us. When we're thinking, for example, we know we're thinking. When we're looking at a sunset, not only is the sunset beautiful and we appreciate it, but also we know we're aware. When we're breathing, we're aware of breathing, but there's a way that it's so obvious that we know we're breathing—so obviously we're aware of breathing—that we don't consciously think, "Oh, now I'm aware." But it's clear. If someone asks you afterwards, you say, "Yes, I was clearly aware." It's almost like the act of being aware, the phenomenon of being aware, is as clear as what we're aware of. Now, these two things are said to arise together, so you can't have one without the other. But to have this lucid awareness—lucid here means awareness that we know we're aware, where awareness is almost like a thing in itself. It's something you can know in and of itself, and to then rest in that awareness, to be with it. The momentum of mindfulness that has a taste of freedom, a hint of freedom, is that we want to expand that freedom into that awareness so it's less constrained and defined by our greed, our hatred, our delusion. Less limited, less hijacked by our conceit or ambition, or our despair, our sadness, our anger. This amazing capacity for awareness to grow and expand can change our life radically, without changing anything in life. So, say that I'm really greedy for something, and I'm lost in that greed, and I'm planning to get it and want to get it. And then I practice mindfulness and I become aware, "Oh, I'm greedy. Well, I didn't know I was so greedy, and this is what greed is like." And then I feel the greed's effect on my body, that I'm all tense and tight, and a little bit like I have a foot in front of my body, ready to go to the store to get this thing that I so much want. Slowly, the mindfulness becomes stronger and stronger, and at some point, the mindfulness begins to feel, "Oh, there's freedom here. Yes, I can have greed, but there's freedom in relationship to it." It just becomes an object of awareness. I don't use it to define myself. I don't use it as an object of aversion or hostility. Over time, that awareness can keep growing and growing, and it's just such a beautiful thing, such a profound, peaceful, inspiring place to be, in this field of being aware. Maybe the greed hasn't really gone away; it's still there. But now I feel at peace. This is a part of the amazing thing about this practice: we don't necessarily have to get rid of anything or change anything to find our peace, our happiness, and well-being. We discover it when the awareness of it becomes free. I think one of the wonderful metaphors for this in the Buddhist tradition is the lotus that grows up out of muddy water. It definitely arises from the mud, but then when the lotus blossoms, the blossoms are completely clean, pure, and shiny, untouched by the mud, and they flower above the mud. In the same way, as awareness gets stronger, it is no longer touched by that greed I had. The awareness is there; it's like the lotus has blossomed. Or if there's hatred, or if there is despair, or if there's sadness, or depression even—difficult states of mind, for sure, very difficult. If there's fear, very difficult. But as the mindfulness gets stronger, all those states don't have to go away. You don't have to fix them or solve them. We're not defined by them anymore. There they are, and awareness is here. Awareness is so much bigger, in a sense. The mind becomes so much more than the particular state that we have, and the mind is not being defined by those states. When we're preoccupied with greed or hatred or depression or sadness, or even good states of mind, preoccupied by enthusiasm or excited joy, we kind of become organized or defined around that. But as the mindfulness becomes free and more open, then all those states can be there, but it's kind of like there's something more wonderful here: we are conscious, we are aware. So, two forms of mindfulness: Mindfulness that we just engage with and learn to practice with in a wholesome way. It's a wonderful thing to do, a wonderful practice and engagement. And then there's the mindfulness that is really part and parcel of the initial experiences of freedom that we have. Both of them are moving towards the same place, to become more and more lucid in the awareness, more and more present in consciousness—this amazing capacity to be conscious. The saying, the little cliché that's in the Vipassana[^3] world, is that the practice of mindfulness is not to see something new, but to see in a new way. Not to look for something new, but to see what's here in a new way, with clarity, with clear recognition. I'll continue now for the next days to talk about mindfulness in these 7:00 AM sittings. Probably tomorrow I'll talk about different characteristics or different forms of attention that come into play as we do mindfulness practice, and then we'll go on into different aspects of this important practice next week. Thank you for being here, and I hope that for today, or the next 24 hours, you kind of get curious about consciousness, being aware, and how awareness can operate effortlessly. And if you start discovering the effortless operation of awareness, maybe you'll begin to get a glimmer of this freedom there as well. Freedom from effort, freedom from self, freedom from trying. Just this amazing thing to be aware. May your awareness bring you much freedom and much delight, and maybe even a sense of awe and wonder. The wonder of being consciousness, being conscious. Thank you. --- [^1]: **Discourse on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness (Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta):** The Buddha's foundational teaching on mindfulness practice. [^2]: **Bhikkhu Bodhi:** An American Theravada Buddhist monk and a renowned translator of the Pali Canon into English. (Original transcript read "vika body", corrected based on context). [^3]: **Vipassana:** A Pali word often translated as "insight" or "clear-seeing," referring to the Buddhist meditation practice aimed at seeing the true nature of reality.