--- ai_generation_date: '2026-05-15' ai_model: gemini-3-pro-preview audiodharma: talks: - date: '2023-01-13' mp3_url: https://audiodharma.us-east-1.linodeobjects.com/talks/17534/20230113-Gil_Fronsdal-IMC-guided_meditation_confidence_to_change.mp3 speakers: - speaker_name: Gil Fronsdal speaker_url: https://www.audiodharma.org/speakers/1 talk_start_time_seconds: 0 title: 'Guided Meditation: Confidence to Change' url: https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/17534 video_unavailable: false - date: '2023-01-13' mp3_url: null speakers: - speaker_name: Gil Fronsdal speaker_url: https://www.audiodharma.org/speakers/1 talk_start_time_seconds: 1583 title: 'Dharmette: Dharma of Challenges (5 of 5) Available to be Transformed' url: https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/17535 video_unavailable: false location_city: Redwood City, CA video_unavailable: false youtube: id: tc67-dCFYSs imprecise_upload_date: '2023-05-04' title: 'Guided Meditation: Confidence to Change; Dharma of Challenges (5 of 5) Available to be Transformed.' upload_date: null uploader_str: Insight Meditation Center uploader_url: https://www.youtube.com/@InsightMeditationCenter youtube_url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tc67-dCFYSs --- # Guided Meditation: Confidence to Change; Dharmette: Dharma of Challenges (5 of 5) Available to be Transformed - [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: Confidence to Change](https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/17534) So my friends, here we are again at the end of the week. I'm aware that the theme of the week is practicing with challenges, and one of the really important components of a healthy approach to challenges is confidence. To have confidence in oneself, to have confidence in the practice. So it's not just oneself. Part of what makes challenges difficult is a lack of confidence, like a kind of helplessness, a feeling of hopelessness. A "can't be done" feeling, a feeling that we're going to be overwhelmed by a situation. Certainly, there are ways in which we cannot stop tidal waves coming sometimes. But it makes a difference if we can meet them with Dharma[^1] confidence, a confidence in the practice. There are many components of this kind of confidence, and many aspects of how it would play out in the real world, but for now I want to offer one: an attitude of being available to be changed in a healthy way. To be available for what's happening, always ready. So that there's not a shield up; we're not closed up, we're not lost in our thoughts and our fears and our doubts, but a kind of openness. It is a counterphobic stance where, when a challenge comes, rather than stepping away—internally at least, if not physically—we step towards it: "Okay, I'm available for this, and I'm available to be changed. What is this? What is needed from me? In what useful ways can I now let go, show up, or invoke positive qualities? How can I enter this as a practice opportunity? What's the practice here?" This helps us avoid meeting the challenge having already lost before it has arrived, or before it is over. To be available, to have the confidence to bring the practice of attention, the practice of an available awareness that's there for what's coming, is the proposal for this morning's meditation. So gently take some time to settle into your posture. If it's comfortable, close your eyes. Already from the start, adopt an inner stance, an inner attitude of being available to what is. Discover it, know it, recognize, "What is this experience I'm having here and now through my body?" Be available to feel the tensions of the body. Without preconceived ideas or attitudes about what it means to have tensions. Just feel it; be available for a discovery here and now. An availability that also makes room for the tensions to relax, partly on their own when they are known. Then, be available to how the body experiences breathing. Putting aside attitudes and beliefs about breathing and mindfulness of breathing, in favor of recognizing how the body is experiencing breathing now. To have confidence in mindfulness, confidence in awareness, is to appreciate that it's quite significant and valuable to meet whatever is happening with a clear recognition, clear awareness, and clear knowing. Without needing to fix anything or change anything. Just be present for breathing. The attitude of availability is closely connected to being receptive to experience, receptive to the body breathing. Relaxing any way in which you're asserting yourself with attitudes or beliefs, or trying to do things or make things be different. To meditate is to call upon your confidence in the practice. The confidence of an honest, clear awareness of the present moment. Without getting into thoughts, analysis, or commentary—just being aware. With whatever confidence you have in the practice, relax in such a way that you're available to be changed, to be freed. And then as we come to the end of the sitting, turn towards whatever confidence you have in the practice. The confidence of being present to whatever might come, and turning towards an availability to be a refuge for others. Your availability to be a safe person for others, where for a certain time right now you don't have to be protecting yourself and making yourself safe, but you're available to be a refuge, a friend for others. Then, turn your attention outward, perhaps in preparation for beginning to re-engage in the world of people, animals, and this Earth. Consider how to enter back into the world with confidence and availability. An openness, a receptivity, and a wish to be a safe, caring presence for others. May all beings be happy. May all beings be safe. May all beings be peaceful. May all beings be free. Thank you. ## [Dharmette: Dharma of Challenges (5 of 5) Available to be Transformed](https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/17535) Hello everyone, and welcome to our fifth talk on the Dharma of challenges. This talk, and last week's talk, and the last four weeks of topics, have provided a kind of background or foundation for what's to come, which is talking about the challenges that we have and how we can address them with the Dharma, with practice, and with mindfulness. Hopefully, the topics we explored in December regarding the positive states of practice are recognized as part of this foundation for looking at challenges. Last Friday, I talked about the Dharma as transformation—that the Dharma is not just a set of teachings or a practice, but it's also the transformation itself. It's the beneficial change that comes about through the practice, and through finding the healthy, appropriate attitude with which to meet life. About three weeks ago, I gave a talk on the five beneficial states for listening to the Dharma. When people were in these states, the Buddha would recognize it, and then he would teach them the Dharma that was transformative, that would change them. This involves having a mind that's bright and inspired; having a mind that is receptive or ready; being free of hindrances[^2]; and being malleable, pliable, and workable to have a soft mind. This idea of being soft and receptive and available to be changed is such an important attitude for our life. It's easy to hold a simplistic and sometimes necessary attitude that says, "No, I can't do that. I have to protect myself. I have to defend myself. I have to take care of myself. I can't just be available, I'll be taken advantage of." And to some degree that's true, and we have to navigate this wisely. But as our wisdom and confidence grow about how to be in the world without harming ourselves through our clinging, anger, ill will, hostility, greed, or envy, we learn how to be in the midst of challenges while remaining available for change. One of the clearest representations of this for me is the idea of dialogue with others. How to be in a productive dialogue—not just a discussion, but a dialogue where you are exploring some theme, concern, or conflict. If we enter a dialogue only trying to convince the other person that we're right, then we're not available to be changed. You might still be right, and maybe you'll stay right, but that doesn't mean you can't be available to be transformed by the other person. You can hear new ideas, hear them in a different way, and expand your horizons so you understand, "Well, I am right, but this person is adding something. It's not either-or." Without that availability to learn something new, I don't think it's really dialogue; it's mostly a debate. But to be available to be in dialogue with the attitude of, "How can I learn something here? Is there something more I can learn?"—this is the availability to be transformed in a beneficial way. This was relevant for me just before we started this meditation, because the technology wasn't working here when I sat down. I had to call for help, and we were trying to figure it out. Normally, in the minutes before sitting, I'm getting ready and organizing my thoughts on what we're going to talk about. But today I couldn't do much of that because I was dealing with the technology and getting things set up properly. I was actually kind of happy because I thought, "Oh, this is a challenge. I'm not able to do it how I usually want to do it. But let's see what happens here now. Let's see what arises. This is happening, and I'm available for what comes next. I'm available to see how this unfolds." Rather than being concerned or distressed around, "Maybe we're not going to get the sound system working in time for the 7 a.m. sitting, and all these people will be waiting," I maintained this availability. I certainly wanted to be on time and be here, but I also had this curiosity: "Okay, this is how it is now, and I don't need to stress. I don't need to have any kind of fear. Let's just see." This essence of availability made the whole thing easier and much more pleasant than it could have been. It was wonderful to receive my friend's support and to feel the generosity of their help. The availability to be transformed is essential for Dharma practice. Because it's so important, we want to understand what gets in the way. Why are we stuck? Why are we protecting ourselves, resisting, shutting down, or insisting that it has to be our way? We can use this as a reference point: "I want to be available to be transformed by the situation, to be freed by it. Oh, I can't do that right now. I'm not doing that. That's interesting." Keep that in mind: "Am I available to be changed? Am I available to be transformed by this? Am I available to be freed by it?" Then we start discovering what's underneath. Maybe we don't have a lot of confidence, or a sense of safety. We're afraid, we're assertive, or we want something. Don't just accept that as a given; put a question mark next to it: "Do I really need this to be this way? Is there another way of being safe? Is there another way of caring for this situation? Is there another way of protecting myself that doesn't involve shutting down? What do I have to let go of to be available?" This is such an important question because so many times, what we have to do is let go of something we're attached to. Let go of excessive self-preoccupation. When we do, it feels like a relief in and of itself. Something that was closed, tight, or stressed softens and lets go. We might feel more vulnerable because of that, and then we have to figure out how to be with our vulnerability. Maybe we have to have effective ways of protecting ourselves, or avoid certain situations, but we're not closing down or resisting. We're just taking care of ourselves while remaining available in an open, caring way. The Dharma is here to transform us in a beneficial way. It is here to free us from the stresses, the distresses, the fears, and the heavy ways that we often live. This is a path of liberation, and liberation is a transformation. Follow this path to develop the confidence and the love for being available to be transformed. When hearing Dharma teachings or reading books, don't read them just to reinforce your own opinions. It's nice when it supports our understanding, but we shouldn't simply latch onto that. Be willing to be challenged by what you read and hear. When we don't immediately agree with it, it can be very valuable to engage in deeper reflection: "What's happening here? What's going on?" rather than quickly coming to a judgment of right and wrong. In Dharma life, have the confidence to always be looking: "Where is the opening? Where is the possibility? Where is the doorway here to be freer? Where is the opportunity to let go of something and be transformed?" We can bring forth our availability and the beauty that's in our hearts—letting our friendliness, our kindness, and our love be present. We can be available for challenges, not only so we are changed by them, but also so we are changed by the best qualities of our own hearts. We must be available to see what goodness can come out in the context of our confidence and our strength. Without allowing the good in us to come forth, challenges might not transform us in beneficial ways. This willingness to be changed and transformed is part of the art of Dharma practice. The Dharma is a liberating process, unfolding in its own time; we just have to trust the process. Between now and Monday, notice this notion of being available to be changed—both by the external world and by your internal world. What comes forth? How often are you available? And how often are you going about your day in a way where you're not really available, insisting on everything being a certain way, or being so busy that there's only one way to do things? What would it be like to go through your day noticing when you're available to be changed and when you're not? And what do you learn through that? Thank you very much. I appreciate this chance to explore this with you. I hope nothing I've said has disrespected how difficult some of your challenges are, or made it seem like it's too easy to simply "be with them." But maybe as we learn to work with the smaller challenges of life, we prepare ourselves to be available and know how to address the larger ones. Thank you, and I look forward to continuing on Monday. --- [^1]: **Dharma:** A Sanskrit word (Dhamma in Pali) with multiple meanings, most commonly referring to the teachings of the Buddha, the truth of how things are, or the path of practice. [^2]: **Five Hindrances:** In Buddhism, five common mental states that hinder meditation and clarity: sensory desire, ill will, sloth and torpor, restlessness and worry, and doubt.