---
ai_generation_date: '2026-08-12'
ai_model: gemini-3-pro-preview
audiodharma:
  talks:
    - date: '2021-01-11'
      mp3_url: https://audiodharma.us-east-1.linodeobjects.com/talks/12723/20210111-Gil_Fronsdal-IMC-guided_meditation_experiencing_disctinctions.mp3
      speakers:
        - speaker_name: Gil Fronsdal
          speaker_url: https://www.audiodharma.org/speakers/1
      talk_start_time_seconds: 0
      title: 'Guided Meditation: Experiencing Disctinctions'
      url: https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/12723
      video_unavailable: false
location_city: Redwood City, CA
video_unavailable: false
youtube:
  id: wuk-skvAQGg
  imprecise_upload_date: '2021-05-04'
  title: 'Guided Meditation: Experiencing Distinctions'
  upload_date: null
  uploader_str: Insight Meditation Center
  uploader_url: https://www.youtube.com/@InsightMeditationCenter
youtube_url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuk-skvAQGg
---

# Guided Meditation: Experiencing Disctinctions - [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: Experiencing Disctinctions](https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/12723)

Good morning for those of you in morning places, good afternoon for those of you in afternoon places, good evening and good night for those of you in evening and night places.

To be able to make those distinctions requires the ability to make distinctions, and that's kind of the theme for today—the making of distinctions. Not _making_ them, but recognizing distinctions.

As mindfulness gets established, as we have greater clarity in our perception of the present moment, it can be a very relaxed perception. But as there are fewer preoccupations and thoughts and reactions that cloud the eyes, cloud the mind, and we're just here with clarity, it can be similar to someone who is nearsighted and wears glasses, and then takes off the glasses. Without the glasses, it's all a blur, and with the glasses, there's clarity. With that clarity is the capacity to make distinctions. In fact, to see clearly is because we can see more and more subtle or precise distinctions between things.

The nearsighted person might see, "Oh, there's two dots over there." A nearsighted person would see the two dots, and maybe they would just blur together as one dot. But with clarity, they'd see, "Oh, there are two dots there."

If there is, in the far wall where I'm looking now, a door, and the door and the wall are the same color. Without glasses, a nearsighted person might not really see the very subtle distinction between the door and the wall. It's a kind of emergency exit door, so it doesn't stand out clearly, and the line is kind of subtle. For a nearsighted person, that line would not be very distinct and would really be seen as a wall.

As we settle down in meditation and we are present for our experience with greater clarity, less distraction, less preoccupation, less reactivity, then we start noticing that the details of the present moment stand out and highlight. Some of that is to make distinctions between things.

One of the distinctions that we make in mindfulness of breathing is a distinction between the inhalation and the exhalation. The experience of each is distinct. They are different from each other. To start becoming aware of that difference, it stands out a little bit and highlights that with the inhale, there might be a movement of expansion, and the exhale, there's contraction. The inhale is the rising of the chest perhaps, or expansion of the belly, and the exhale is the falling of it.

There are many distinctions to be made, and one of the distinctions that after a while becomes clearer and clearer is that there is a beginning of the inhale and there's an end of an inhale. Just as the inhale and exhale have distinct sensations, so the beginning has distinct unique sensations that are different than the end.

Now, to start looking for a distinction, it becomes work and searching, and that is not what we're talking about for anapanasati[^1]. It's not really looking and searching for the work of distinction, but rather it's through the relaxed, dedicated presence of attention here that things start standing out in highlight. It's kind of like you don't work when you put on your glasses and you see more clearly because the glasses are there. When the glasses of mindfulness are present, then these distinctions just appear. They appear for people who don't really—it doesn't occur to them maybe even to think about, "Oh, now I'm seeing distinctions." But they're there, and as we get more and more refined, then more and more clarity comes up, which takes the form of making distinctions.

This is not meant to be work, but meant to be almost a deeper, deeper relaxation, and then a registering of what happens when we experience. Like that, you start registering, just allowing, "Oh, it's like this."

So taking a meditation posture, and making a distinction between the posture which is both alert and comfortable, and one that's not. Adjusting the body so that it feels like you're more here, more present with your body. If you were going to practice mindfulness with your body being more alive and sensitive, what posture would you take?

And then to close your eyes, and to take a few long, slow, gentle breaths.

Maybe breathe deeply enough you can feel the stretching of your rib cage lifting, and then how that collapses or falls back as you exhale.

And if you're subtle enough, maybe you can even feel in the deep inhale the space that forms and grows between the ribs, and how that space disappears as you exhale.

You might notice with a deep inhale that chances are most of the sensations of a deep inhale are in the front half of the torso. The sensations of inhaling are more subtle in the back ribcage.

And then allowing your breathing to return to normal. Now notice you can just see the distinction between the deeper inhale and what would be closer to a normal breath. What are the sensations like now of the inhale? What happens in your back ribcage as you exhale?

To relax your body, soften what can be softened. Softening the muscles of the face around the eyes and forehead. Maybe around the jaws. Relaxing the shoulders, and feeling the difference, the distinction between the tighter shoulders and the looser ones, if it happens that they loosen.

And softening the belly. And noticing what it's like for you now in your mind. If it's sleepy, maybe there's a way of brightening the mind, maybe brightening it on the inhale. If the mind is tense or agitated, maybe relaxing the mind as you exhale.

Letting go of your thoughts. Maybe letting go of thoughts is a bit like pulling the curtains away from the window. Pulling the curtains away from your ability to feel and sense and experience your breathing.

And allow yourself to receive or take in the inhale. Let it register in a relaxed way, in a clear enough way so that when you exhale, your body can really feel the difference between the inhale and the exhale. That's allowing your body to feel the distinctions.

It's not so much you're working to make distinctions, it is that you're feeling so fully that of course your body can feel the difference between what it's like to inhale and exhale.

To recognize or register the particular sensations or qualities of the breath does involve, without working at it, the mind's ability to make distinctions.

So for example, noticing if the inhales and exhales are long or are they short? Rapid or slow? It's all okay just the way it is. Your job is just to notice how it is.

Does your body experience either the inhale or the exhale as longer or shorter than the other? And don't answer the question with your mind, but allow yourself to become quieter so you feel and experience more carefully, so the body reveals which is longer or shorter, or that they're the same length.

Does the body experience the breathing in a shallow way or in a deep way?

While you're breathing, are there times when there's more a sense of movement and more a sense of stillness in the breathing? Any expansion and contraction? Any feeling of pressure, maybe as you inhale, and release of pressure as you exhale?

Any shifting feelings of temperature, warmth, and coolness?

Are there any other sensations, sharp or soft as you breathe? Any tingling or vibration?

Does breathing feel rough and jagged or smooth and soft? Any sensations of hardness and resistance, maybe at the top of the in-breath? Any sensations of softness or malleability?

As if you're lovingly taking your hand to stroke a very smooth piece of wood that you're sanding or cleaning. Or as if you're gently stroking the back of the head of a child. Lovingly allow your awareness to be stroked by the sensations of your breathing.

Letting the thinking mind become quiet, clear, so you can really take in, really allow yourself to feel the body's experience of breathing. Entering into the world of the body breathing. Quieter and quieter, clearer and clearer for the kaleidoscope of sensations that come into play as you're breathing.

Noticing if there's any way the breathing is held back, any holding of the breathing. See if you can relax, soften how you're breathing, and in doing so, allowing the body to feel breathing more distinctly, even if it's subtle. The distinct experience of subtle breathing.

And then coming to the end of this meditation. Feeling yourself here in this body, at this time, in this spot. Maybe letting go, relaxing into where your body is touching your chair, your cushion, the floor, the bed, to really feel that you are here.

And then distinct from you are all the people of your life, who for right now are there somewhere distinct from this place where you are. Maybe elsewhere in the room, in the house, in the neighborhood, in the town, in the land, in the globe.

And the more we're grounded in ourselves, rooted in ourselves, the more we have to offer to others in terms of a clear, distinct awareness. The more we're able to really see someone else as distinct, as their own self and how they are.

And it's a gift to give others to allow them to be as they are and to see them as they are. It can almost be synonymous to see someone as they are, to see them and allow them to be who they are, and to appreciate them, to love them. To offer the gift of our kind regard, our presence. We're not interfering with them, we're allowing them to be as they are.

It's one way of expressing our love, our goodwill, our kindness to others, is to see them as they are and to appreciate them. Maybe not everything they do, but something about them that we settle back and see clearly, make a distinction.

And perhaps you don't have to tell them that you're doing so. But see if you can open up a heart of kindness, goodwill.

Maybe sitting here at these last moments of this meditation, to tap into your capacity to appreciate and wish well to others.

May all beings be happy.
May all beings be safe.
May all beings be free of oppression.
May all beings be free of distress.
May all beings everywhere be free.

[^1]: **Anapanasati:** A Pali term meaning "mindfulness of breathing," a core meditation practice taught by the Buddha.