This is an AI-generated transcript from auto-generated subtitles for the video Guided Meditation: Meditating Like a Buddha; To Transform the World (4 of 5) With Dignity. It likely contains inaccuracies.

Guided Meditation: Meditating Like a Buddha; Dharmette: To Transform the World (4 of 5) With Dignity - Gil Fronsdal

The following talk was given by Gil Fronsdal at Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, CA on October 31, 2024. Please visit the website www.audiodharma.org for more information.

Guided Meditation: Meditating Like a Buddha

Good morning, or good day, everyone. Welcome to our meditation. Today, I would like to call attention to the statue of the Buddha behind me.

Statues of the Buddha sitting in meditation are idealized depictions. They are symbolic descriptions of something very significant. We aren't looking at this to see the Buddha as he is; we are looking at it to see something about ourselves. What this posture represents is someone who has inner peace, inner tranquility, and confidence. The person is fully present in a dignified way, without asserting themselves onto others, without demeaning others, and without wanting something from others. It represents a self-contained tranquility, peace, and confidence, while at the same time being available for others.

Usually, these statues depict the Buddha sitting in meditation with his eyes only half-closed or half-open. He is available to the world to see it and look upon it with a relaxed gaze. As we look on a Buddha statue, the idea is to have it inspire our own dignity, our own capacity for inner peace and confidence, and our own sense of self-respect.

There are many ways in which we can feel this and express it physically. It is said there are four dignified postures for meditation: standing, walking, sitting, and lying down. In each of these, we adjust the posture so that it is in touch with—or is an expression of—a certain sense of dignity, self-confidence, and peace.

In our society, we have the idea of "power postures," where people take a stance to develop confidence before giving a public talk. I don't know about this "power confidence" exactly, but I know about dignifying postures—to sit in meditation with a dignity like a Buddha.

So, please assume your meditation posture. For today, give a little emphasis to finding a posture that is an expression of dignity, of your value, and of your confidence. It is a confidence that just being alive here means you are important, you are invaluable, and you have dignity and respect.

If you are sitting, you might want to sit a little bit straighter. You might want to sit, or even lie down, in such a way that allows your chest to be more open and full—a confident chest. Have your hands in a position where they dignify us; they hold us upright.

In assuming a dignifying posture, the idea is that this helps settle something inside. It evokes a sense of inner tranquility—that all things locally, here and now, are good. Locally, here in this body, this mind, and this heart, this person that is you has self-dignity and self-respect. We are gazing upon ourselves favorably.

If you haven't closed your eyes, maybe gently close them or keep them half-open. See if you can have your breathing breathe a sense of dignity, deep appreciation, and confidence into your whole being. Breathe in a little deeper and fuller, maybe feeling the strength of breathing in moving the rib cage, the chest, and the belly. It provides a feeling of strength, confidence, and value. On the exhale, relax and let go, but do not let go of dignity and confidence. Let go into it.

Take deep inhales as a way of creating more room for breath, for breathing, and for the enlivening effect of breathing in and breathing out.

Now, let your breathing return to normal. Feel, to whatever degree possible, that your body and your posture are the container for your inner life. It is a container for your meditation that provides an atmosphere—a holding of quiet, peaceful dignity. This dignity highlights the immense value of embodying our present-moment experience. This person, this body, this heart, this mind, this inner life is precious, invaluable, and worthy of embodying. It is worthy of meditating within.

Worthy of sitting like a Buddha—peaceful, calm, and careful not to give in to thoughts that undermine our dignity. Let the dignity of a Buddha help you be present with a quiet confidence.

[Silence]

As we come to the end of the sitting, consider whatever way you want to support others. Consider your gift to your family, your friends, your community, and the world through your generosity, your care, your kindness, your friendliness, and your integrity.

Whatever you have to offer with your skills and abilities carries much more value and strength if you do it carrying your inner dignity with you. It carries more value if you dignify others in the process. If you are really here in a fully dignified way, whatever you are offering carries more value. Whatever way you see others as valuable, as having dignity, what you offer carries more value.

May it be that this practice brings a greater sense of our own personal dignity and allows us to see others in a dignified way. With that, may we live our lives for the welfare and happiness of this world.

May all beings be happy. May all beings be safe. May all beings be peaceful. May all beings be free.

Thank you.

Dharmette: To Transform the World (4 of 5) With Dignity

Welcome to this fourth talk titled "To Transform the World."

I have chosen this theme partly because we are in the week before the election here in the United States. It is an election that has created a lot of anxiety and divisiveness, suggesting there might be a lot of conflict in its wake. Certainly, we can get involved in election politics—getting out the vote and all kinds of things that can make a big difference. But here, I am offering something different for now.

This is an approach to transforming the world that is suitable—and may be powerful—no matter the outcome of the election. No matter what happens, whatever way we want to respond and deal with it, let it come from the values that come out of this practice.

For today, the emphasis is on dignity and respect. Buddhism puts a tremendous value on our dignity, our value, and our self-respect. As I said in the meditation, Buddha statues are a symbolic representation of what it is like for a human being to fully inhabit the place where they are.

The Buddha is sitting on the ground, fully grounded and fully present in this spot. There is no question about it; he is rooted here on that spot. The upright torso, with a chest that is a little bit open, is an expression of a dignified presence. The eyes are half-closed. The head is not leaning forward; the torso is not leaning forward or pulling back. It is fully here, present in this world, without being aggressive or passive. It is without staring or turning away. He is here with dignity and presence.

The body is relaxed and alert. It is wonderful to look at some of these statues from the side or the back. Sometimes my favorite part is the alertness of the spine; the sculptor has made it alive in a significantly powerful way. It isn't just that we are alive and present with the front of us—with our thoughts, ideas, and eyes, seeing what we can see and how others see us. From the back, we "have our own back" in a sense. We are standing up. This alert posture is not collapsed; it is not depending on anything. It is self-reliant.

This is all symbolic. The idea is for each person to find their own way to manifest a kind of dignity in their very being—to sit, meditate, and show up with it.

There is a very important document that came out of the United Nations some sixty years ago called the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It begins: "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights."

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity. To be able to live in a dignified way, and to see the dignity of others, is vital.

I see people who offer spiritual care—especially chaplains in hospitals and other places—as having a specific mission. Their work, their task, their vision is to dignify. They see and treat people as if anybody they encounter has dignity, has value, and is an equal. They are someone to make room for. They are allowed to be here, and we can respect them. We can dignify them; we can hold them up.

The reason why it is so important for these chaplains—and for us—to do that is that a lot of people in our world are treated as if they do not have dignity or value. They are not met with respect; they are not seen as full human beings on this planet.

If everything we do for others—whether we speak to them kindly or speak to them with difficulty because of our differences—can be done while first and foremost viewing them as dignified, respect-worthy human beings, then they might listen to us. Whatever way we show up for them has more value and meaning. If we offer kindness, the kindness is more powerful. If we offer truth, the truth-telling stands stronger with that unassertive, unaggressive, dignified way of carrying it.

If we dignify others, they might be more available to hear what we have to say or to experience our generosity. It might settle something. When people are diminished, belittled, and disparaged, it makes them feel terrible. That feeling creates a tendency for living in harmful ways—harming oneself and harming others. It doesn't create people who are going to support others in this world.

But if we can meet others with dignity—if we can dignify them—then maybe there is a chance for cooperation, coordination, and mutual respect. Maybe that is more important than getting our way.

Sometimes the word "dignity" is associated with an inner tranquility, an inner peace that comes together with an inner confidence. It is a confident dignity, a confident peace. It is as if we are allowed to embody the place we are in; as if we can really show up and be here. We count. We are important in and of ourselves—but not so important that we diminish the value of anybody else. We are important so we can value other people as equals in their dignity.

We can separate what people say and do from the inherent dignity that comes with being a human being. There is inherent value and respect-worthiness in who people fundamentally are.

How do we do this? How do we dignify people? Here is a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt, again talking about universal human rights:

"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home—so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world."¹

Unless our own dignity and our dignifying of others play a role in the small interactions as we go through the day, then perhaps it is hopeless to expect it to happen anywhere else in the wider world.

So may it be that this practice helps us to sit like the Buddha, walk like the Buddha, and talk like the Buddha—with confidence, presence, peace, and clarity about our own dignity and value, and the dignity and value of others.

May we share a dignified and dignifying world with others. May all beings know that they are valued in their fundamental way—that they were born equal and free.

May all beings be free. Thank you.