--- ai_generation_date: '2026-09-30' ai_model: gemini-3-pro-preview audiodharma: talks: - date: '2026-09-29' mp3_url: https://audiodharma.us-east-1.linodeobjects.com/talks/26360/20260929-gil_fronsdal-imc-guided_meditation_thinking_beneficially.mp3 speakers: - speaker_name: Gil Fronsdal speaker_url: https://www.audiodharma.org/speakers/1 talk_start_time_seconds: 0 title: 'Guided Meditation: Thinking Beneficially' url: https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/26360 video_unavailable: false - date: '2026-09-29' mp3_url: https://audiodharma.us-east-1.linodeobjects.com/talks/26361/20260929-gil_fronsdal-imc-dharmette_right_speech_2_of_5_useful.mp3 speakers: - speaker_name: Gil Fronsdal speaker_url: https://www.audiodharma.org/speakers/1 talk_start_time_seconds: 1829 title: 'Dharmette: Right Speech (2 of 5) Useful.' url: https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/26361 video_unavailable: false location_city: Redwood City, CA video_unavailable: false youtube: id: utqEFSOCjts imprecise_upload_date: null title: 'Guided Meditation: Thinking Beneficially; Right Speech (2 of 5) Usefully' upload_date: '2026-09-29' uploader_str: Insight Meditation Center uploader_url: https://www.youtube.com/@InsightMeditationCenter youtube_url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utqEFSOCjts --- # Guided Meditation: Thinking Beneficially; Dharmette: Right Speech (2 of 5) Useful. - [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: Thinking Beneficially](https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/26360) Hello from IMC, and related to the topic of today is the idea that speech, the way we speak, can be sacred or can be profound, can be phenomenally meaningful. What we are told, how people relate to us, how we talk to other people. There's so much goodness, so much respect, love, so much dharma[^1] with a way of being that can be conveyed in how we speak. And so caring for speech is a way of caring for ourselves and caring for others. And for meditation, how we speak to ourselves can be sacred, can be very meaningful. How we speak to ourselves can be an expression of love, can be an expression of mettā[^2] and karuṇā[^3]. How we speak to ourselves can be transformative. So this week when we're talking about speech, we can apply this to meditation as well. And can we speak to ourselves in meditation? Can we think in meditation in ways that support the meditation? Not to be busy, not to get more agitated, but the opposite—to be deeply reassuring, settling, encouraging, calming. It gets us absorbed into and involved here in a deep way with the practice. It's not necessary to stop thinking to meditate well, but it's certainly necessary to stop having discursive thoughts. It's certainly necessary to stop having judging thoughts. But to give ourselves simple words, simple instructions, simple encouragement, simple questions, simple descriptions of what we're experiencing as a way of really helping us get absorbed here, really connected, interested, involved. Because the idea in meditation is to get more interested in the meditation than we are interested in discursive thoughts, distracting thoughts. And one of the ways to do this is to have a sense of purpose, to know why we're meditating. And it could be as simple as we're meditating in order to become calmer, to relieve us of stress. It could be we're meditating in order to know ourselves better, to find out what's really going on. We're meditating to settle all the agitation of the day so we can feel at home here in our own skin, in our own body, in our own heart. We're sitting here so that we can have the kind of inner stillness that helps us to let go of the things we're most attached to, most clinging to, in a way that when we're ready, we can let go. So to have a sense of purpose and then to ask what is useful for that purpose? What supports that purpose? What is beneficial? And it can be as simple as: Let me check in with myself. Let me find out what's happening here. How am I? Like I'm my own best friend: How are you? And then really listen, explore, feel into yourself. How are you? And given how you are, how would you support yourself to start the meditation? Where would you have your attention? How would you have your posture? What attitude might you establish? And how could you speak to yourself where the way you speak supports the purpose you have? So if the purpose is to be calm, how can you talk calmly about becoming calm, about where to put the attention, and how to meditate very calmly? So it keeps you involved in the calming activity of meditation. So you don't have to let go of your thoughts today. Don't let go of your thinking. You might stop thinking about certain things, but switch over to think about your meditation. So you don't need to stop thinking, just think about the right things. So taking a posture for meditation. And one of the ways to speak to yourself is to ask simple questions for how to start, and where to put your attention, and how to be. One of the ways to start is to check in with yourself. How are you really in your body, in your mind, in your heart? And use that as a basis for starting the meditation. So, I'm going to be quiet now so that you can provide yourself with the kind of guided meditation, guided support that I provide often at this time. And see if you can find a voice to speak it well, to do well for you. If you think more in images, maybe you can bring up images that support the meditation. If you're with your breathing, it could be an image of a jellyfish propelling itself through the water, opening and closing, or a large soaring bird that gently dips its wings up and down as you breathe. So with that, I'll be quiet, and may you be your own teacher today for your meditation practice. As we come to the end of this sitting, spend another minute or so seeing if you can speak in ways that are beneficial for you. Speaking to yourself with not necessarily wishing yourself well, but just simple recognition of what's happening with a calm, centered voice. Simple questions about how you are. Simple instructions of how to be that are not idealistic or imposing something on yourself, but seem to come from deep within. How you'd most want to be is what is most sincere for you. And then to turn your attention out into the world. In what way can you think about the world around you with a kind voice, a gentle voice, a calming voice? What way can you wish well unto others? What way can you see them? That if they knew that you were thinking of them that way, they would be happy, relieved, gladdened. And may it be that this practice we do prepares us to walk into the world in ways that support others, that support their happiness and well-being. May all beings be happy. May all beings be safe. May all beings be peaceful. May all beings be free. Thank you. ## [Dharmette: Right Speech (2 of 5) Useful.](https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/26361) So hello everyone and welcome, and this week I'm exploring the five forms of right speech, or five ways of considering our speech. So there is speech that is well-formed, beneficial. It's kind of the five criteria, the self-audit that we can do to know whether it's okay to say what we're going to say. So the five are put under the acronym AUDIT, since it's a kind of way of checking in with ourselves. So is it *A*ccurate? Is it true? Is it *U*seful? That's today. What's the *D*isposition that we have when we speak? Do we have a good disposition, good attitude? And what's the *I*mpact of what we're doing? What's the impact on ourselves, the impact on others? And is it *T*imely? Is it the right time to speak? So these five criteria. Today it's: is it useful? And for this, it's important to have some sense of purpose. Why are we speaking? What purpose do we have? And what I'd like to propose is that that's always a good question because there are layers of purpose for speech. There might be the most obvious one we have, the most overt one, the one that everyone can see, but in fact, there are layers of purpose underneath that that are operating. Something as innocent as someone on the street asking you for a direction to a place that you know where it is. And so you're happy to give them directions and so you point them down the street where they have to go. And what purpose did you speak to them? Because they asked, because you were able to offer them direction. But if you start looking below the surface of that, you might find that there was some feeling of fear, anxiety, that maybe you didn't know the stranger, so you wanted to speak quickly and briefly to get out of there. Or maybe there was a layer of wanting to impress the person. The person seemed very nice, attractive, interesting to you, and so you were interested in saying it in a way that cast a good light on yourself. A good impression you make for them, and so you were speaking not just to give them directions but to make an impression. Maybe you wanted to show them how clever you are, that you knew the kind of shortcut, and you really wanted them to see, wow, you really know. So there might be different purposes. And so for what purpose are we speaking, and what purpose is it for the other people? Is it useful to speak? Some people want to get something done, talk about a difficult topic, work out a disagreement, but the other person has a migraine and it's not useful to try to talk to them. They'll just—we're not going to get the best of them. This is not the useful time to talk to them. They might not be available. They might be so closed down or so angry that it's not useful to talk with them. So we can exhaust ourselves trying to get through to them, trying to explain, but it's not going to be for any purpose. It's not beneficial. And a few people try to express their opinions, get other people to understand them, insist on getting their way, try to work something out when the other person is simply unavailable for that kind of conversation. And it might be quite sad, maybe sometimes heartbreaking, but it also doesn't make sense to exhaust ourselves trying, because it's not useful to do so. And it might be that the purposes we have are not kind. Maybe, is it useful to complain? Is it useful to be cynical? Is it useful to attack someone or put them down? For what purpose? If we're trying to get them to be annoyed by us, then it's useful. But what do we really want? What do we want in our relationship with other people? What kind of relationships do we want to have? What kind of impact do we want to have on them? So is overdoing how we speak and what we're speaking about useful? Or is it not useful? So sometimes things are accurate and true, but is it useful to speak it? Is it kind to speak it? I once wanted to criticize someone who gave a public talk, a public figure, and I criticized what they were saying and why they said it. I certainly wasn't talking to them, but I had people around me that I could speak to. And I thought about it a little bit first: is it useful to have this complaint, useful to be critical of them? Why am I trying to do this? And the study of purpose and usefulness is very helpful because it helps, at least me, to ask questions. So why am I doing this? What's the purpose it serves? Is there a better purpose to have? Simply to vent my frustrations, my anger at someone, when it's not going to have any impact on them—any good impact for our relationship? Maybe this is not a useful conversation. Maybe what's useful is to bring some particular topic up out of the public talk that I heard, and maybe it's an indirect question. Maybe criticizing it, but saying something like, "That person was trying to convey something important for them in a way. I wonder if it could have been done in a more inspiring way. I wonder what would have been the compassionate thing to say around this topic." And then you engage in interesting conversation. And it can be an exploration that falls away from what the person said publicly to, well, it's an interesting conversation with your friends. Is it useful? What's the purpose? And in Buddhism, this idea of purpose: is it useful for the goal of practice? So if a person is deeply rooted in dharma practice, that's one of the constant reference points. Does this help me to become a better person? Does this help me to become a freer person, to be less attached? Does this help me to be honest with myself and to really see myself in a deeper way? Does this help me to let go of the ways that I am caught, the ways that I'm tense? Does this help me to relax? Does this help me be open, and not closed? So there's a reference point to ourselves. And all those dharma reference points are double-sided. Because it's not only good for ourselves, but whatever is good dharmically for ourselves will translate to being interested in the welfare of others. So to really ask yourself these dharma questions: am I speaking from my freedom? Am I speaking from my goodwill, or am I speaking from my attachment? Am I speaking from my fear? Am I speaking from where I'm most closed down? And can I change that? Is it useful to speak from there? Is another way of speaking more useful? Is it more useful not to speak, to be silent? If I speak now, am I going to make the situation worse? Surely the person will be more angry and more tense. Let me not speak at all until I can find a way of speaking about something that is not going to agitate the situation, but rather help make us feel more deeply connected to each other and know each other well. Instead of making a statement, let me ask a question, a sincere question: "What do you think? What do you think we should do now? Or is there anything you'd like to say?" Or, "I find this challenging, but I want to know from you how it is for you, and do you have any ideas of how we can go forward?" So to not hold on to our complaining, hold on to our challenges in ways that we kind of get words out of us that are attacking others—that's not useful. But to have words that come out that help make connections and create the conditions for a deeper conversation that allows for a deeper connection. So this question: is it useful? Is it beneficial? And chances are, there's some percentage of the conversations you're going to have where maybe it's not so useful to have the talk in that way. Maybe realizing it's not useful, or the most useful, can allow you to reflect a little bit: how can I make it more useful? So using these five audits, these five criteria that the Buddha uses—like today's: is it useful?—is a way of living a contemplative life. A life where we really are contemplating, considering, thinking about what we're doing and what we're saying. We're not just kind of going along thoughtlessly, just saying whatever comes to our mind spontaneously. And that's part of the quality of a dharma life: to live a conscious life, a deliberate life, a considered life. And to be able to find a way to be our own companion in our thinking, that we enjoy thinking about these things. We find that our thinking mind is beginning to shift now to not be harsh, not be complaining, not be angry, not be anxious, but our thinking mind now becomes a contemplative mind that is thinking and engaged in a mature, kind, serious way with what is useful here, what is beneficial. And one of the things to keep in mind, the question of what is useful and what is beneficial can be directed to how we think, how we're considering things. So that rather than thinking becoming more and more busy, our thinking becomes more and more satisfying. Now, if this is a new skill to contemplate in this way, it might be awkward and you fall off easily, fall off the bike easily when you're learning. But keep practicing it until it becomes second nature. Some of us have been practicing complaining and anxiety for decades. Aversive thoughts for decades. That's what we've been practicing and building up. And it might be time to practice something else and let that become second nature. So, thank you and may you live a contemplative life today. And before you speak, if you would like to do any homework, before you speak, just check in with yourself for a few moments. What's the purpose of what you're about to say? And just asking yourself that question: does that change what you're going to say? So, thank you very much. And we'll continue tomorrow. --- [^1]: **Dharma:** A Sanskrit word (Dhamma in Pali) that refers to the teachings of the Buddha, the truth, or the natural law of the universe. [^2]: **Mettā:** A Pali word meaning loving-kindness, friendliness, or goodwill. [^3]: **Karuṇā:** A Pali word meaning compassion, the active desire to remove the suffering of others.