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Guided Meditation: Mindfulness of it All; Dharmette: Introduction to Mindfulness (5 of 5) Full Instructions - Gil Fronsdal

The following talk was given by Gil Fronsdal at Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, CA on December 12, 2025. Please visit the website www.audiodharma.org for more information.

Guided Meditation: Mindfulness of it All

Welcome to our meditation session.

When I was introduced to Vipassanā¹ practice in Thailand and Burma, the instructions were given relatively quickly. In Thailand, it was maybe done in five or ten minutes. In Burma, I was given a cassette tape, and I believe the instructions were laid out in thirty or forty minutes. Those were the instructions for the entire practice.

Here in our Insight community in the United States, we tend to give the instructions progressively over time. I did this this week with breathing one day, then body, emotions, and thoughts yesterday. The idea is to get really familiar with each of these areas so that once you are familiar with them, it is easier to practice with the full instructions.

The full instructions can be said very briefly: Be mindful of everything, but one thing at a time.

All our present-moment experience falls under the purview of our mindfulness. The way I was taught, and how we practice, combines concentration and mindfulness; these two work hand in hand. We were told to have the body's experience of breathing be the default—the place that is stabilizing, settling, and unifying. It is a place where we are developing a stronger, clearer form of mindfulness of the experience of breathing.

However, if anything becomes more compelling than the breathing, then we can let go of the breathing and have a new center for the attention, which is whatever is predominant in our direct experience. It could be body sensations, emotions, thoughts, sounds—anything that comes in through the sense doors, including the sense door of the mind.

Once we have been with something, acknowledged it well enough, and it is no longer compelling—when it no longer makes sense to have it at the center of the meditation—then we return to the breathing. The breathing is a default. In the way I was taught in Burma, ordinarily, you wouldn't stay long with another subject of mindfulness. If there was a sound or a body sensation, you wouldn't linger there for a long time; you would just acknowledge it for a while. The way I taught it here was to do that for three breaths and then return to the breathing, unless it stayed compelling or was a really good subject for developing mindfulness and concentration.

There is this gentle rhythm of being with the breath for a while, developing it there, gently including something else as part of the meditation, and then returning. It is a constant returning and coming to rest in the gentle, changing, shifting sensations of breathing.

Let's try to do this. Assume a meditation posture.

The posture and the breathing are the places on which to be centered, grounded, and rooted. Part of concentration practice is not so much a laser focus, but the practice of being centered and rooted right here. Right here in this experience, this place, this time. Rooted, grounded, stable.

Take a few long, slow, deep breaths. As you exhale, relax. Settle into that rooted groundedness of being here now.

Let the breathing return to normal. Continue this sense of groundedness and rootedness in your body as you become aware of the body's experience of breathing. Not so much being in the control tower watching or thinking about breathing, but being close and intimate with the body's experience of breathing. Almost as if the movements of breathing are coming to you, inviting you into a relationship with them.

Let go of thoughts as you exhale. Let go into an intimacy, a quietude of sensing and feeling breathing.

Shift your attention from breathing to one of the stronger sensations in your body. It doesn't have to be painful at all; it could be pleasant. Just choose one of the stronger sensations. As we did with the exercise of the hand, feel and sense that area like you are listening or accompanying the area to feel and get to know the sensations there. Maybe breathing with those sensations for three breaths.

Then, shift your attention back to be fully in your breathing. I think of the experience of breathing as the home base for mindfulness. Coming home to the body's experience of breathing, where the gentle rhythm of breathing is quieting the mind, so there is more space and awareness to be filled with the sensations of breathing.

Now, switch from breathing to whatever emotion, mood, or mental state seems present, active, or predominant. It doesn't have to be strong at all. Let your mindfulness take in, open up to, and be aware of feeling, sensing, and knowing how you feel. Ground yourself in the physicality of how you feel more than the thoughts and stories about how you feel.

For a few moments, allow yourself to feel the way you do, as if you are your own best friend accompanying how you feel with your breathing. Breathing through how you feel for three breaths.

Then, switch back to the breathing. Take a few breaths to re-enter yourself. Root yourself in the body's experience of breathing.

Now, shift your attention to your thinking. Whether you are thinking in words or in images, simply know, sense, and feel the thinking mind. Gaze directly at the mind that's thinking without reactions or judgments. Just know, just feel. Maybe breathing with the thinking mind for three breaths. By including thoughts and including breathing, you are less caught in your thoughts, stepping back and just seeing them, knowing them.

And then returning to your breathing.

As we continue in a relaxed way, if there is something compelling in the body, emotions, or thinking, do not think about it more, but be mindful of it. It might be enough just to know it and feel it for a moment—that is enough to acknowledge it and come back. Sometimes it is appropriate to give it three breaths, sometimes longer, but always coming back home to the breathing in a relaxed way.

One thing at a time. Be aware of breathing. Then something else if it is predominant. And then returning to breathing.

Be relaxed about what you become aware of. Always ready to begin again with breathing.

As we come to the end of the sitting, appreciate that mindfulness is a practice that can bring a meditative or non-reactive awareness to anything and everything in our life. It is like turning on the lights in a dark room and letting the eyes roam around in a relaxed way to land on each thing and see it clearly.

This capacity for seeing each thing in a respectful, mindful way—giving time to each moment of experience—can also be used for being aware of other people. Not to stare at people, but if you are going to be aware of someone, know them well. Know them in their own right. See, feel, and know without the filter of reactions, history, and ideas. A simple knowing that maybe clears the air so that you can gaze upon others kindly.

May it be that this practice of mindfulness clears the air of our hearts and minds so we can offer respect and appreciation in some way for all people we encounter. It is so good for us to live in a world of appreciation instead of the opposite.

May all beings be appreciated. May all beings be supported. May all beings be valued. May all beings be loved. May all beings be free of oppression and bias.

May this practice of mindfulness support us in doing this. May all beings be happy.

Thank you.

Dharmette: Introduction to Mindfulness (5 of 5) Full Instructions

Hello and welcome to this fifth talk on Introduction to Mindfulness Meditation, where I bring together into a whole the first four days of instructions. All the instructions lead to beginning to appreciate how to be aware of everything—how to be able to be in the middle of our life and have a clear, non-interfering, relaxed, maybe even liberated awareness of each thing that arises.

A liberated awareness means that we are not entangled with it, reactive to it, under its influence, pushed around by it, trying to automatically do something, or judging it. There is a deeper thing we can do. We can see clearly and wisely, free of our reactivity and entanglement.

When I was introduced to this practice in Thailand, the way it was taught to me—very briefly—I interpreted to mean "be aware of everything." I was smart enough to know I couldn't literally do that. So, in this noisy monastery, I thought, "Well, at least try to be aware of all the sounds in the monastery."

In a way, I just chased all the sounds, trying to catch every one, which I couldn't do because many of them were happening at the same time. I ended up with a headache. Every day I went to talk to the abbot about my practice. I went back to the abbot the next day and explained what had happened and the headache I got. He said, "Oh no, you misunderstood. You don't try to pay attention to everything all at once. You just pay attention to one thing at a time."

A relaxed, clear awareness. As if that is all you need to do at that moment: attend to this thing, whatever the predominant experience might be.

As I learned this practice of Vipassanā, I began to think of it as being kind of sacred—one of the most sacred things I know. It is sacred when there is nothing outside, nothing excluded. There is something about that openness, that inclusivity—that nothing is kept out of my heart, nothing is pushed away, nothing is denied. There is something that feels so freeing, so sacred, so special in the awareness that can do that.

It is not a way of necessarily saying that everything I am aware of is sacred, or that I condone it, or that it should keep happening. But there is a way in which that awareness—that can be open, inclusive, and non-reactive—is sacred. To rest in that allows for wisdom to operate. It allows for a deeper understanding, including what needs to be changed, stopped, or refused. That is a different part of the mind and heart that interacts with things appropriately. But to start with this beginning place of openness, receptivity, and non-reactivity feels really special, free, and non-clinging.

Slowly, what we are learning in Vipassanā is how to do that with all the areas of our life. How I was taught this in Asia was to do it with breathing as the default, as the home base.

If something else happens, we leave the home base. We don't try to hold on to it or fixate on it, but we take care of something else. We attend to that, include that in awareness, and then we come back to the home base. I saw that if I didn't do that—if I tried to just be focused on the breathing and stay there—I would set up tension when something else, like a knee pain, was really strong and calling for my attention. Trying to override it created tension. But if I didn't try to hold on to the breathing, but just went over and attended to the knee pain, it would be a lot easier. After a while, I could just leave the knee pain alone and come back to be with my breathing. Sometimes I had to stay with the knee pain for a while, and that became a fascinating subject for mindfulness, becoming the temporary home base.

When my first son was quite small, we would take him to parks and playgrounds. It was interesting to watch as he was growing up from being a toddler who could just hobble around. If I was sitting on a bench watching him play, he would not wander too far off. Then he would come back, almost like he was playing a game of tag, to check in. "Am I still there?"

As he started growing up, he would go further away and then come back. During the playground time, he was always coming to home base, checking in where it was safe. Was he okay? Was I there? Then he would go off. As he got older, he would go further and include more and more in his world, and then come back. Now he is twenty-seven, so it is pretty rare that he comes back to check in! But maybe it still has some value—some place of grounding, familiarity, and home base.

The breathing is that home base. The advantage of breathing is that it is concentrating. It is a place to develop concentration, unification, and settledness—really settling into the present moment in that rhythm of breathing. But we don't hold on to it. We are willing to let go of it for body sensations when they are compelling, emotions when they need our attention, or thinking when we need to attend to it so we don't keep thinking unconsciously. We see it clearly for what it is.

It is the same with sounds. If there are loud sounds around us, we can just do listening meditation, and then we come back to the breathing. What we are learning is that whatever is happening in the world can be included in mindfulness. "This too." We learn to have a relaxed but clear awareness that can receive, accept, know, or include whatever is happening in our experience—one thing at a time.

Occasionally, it might seem that there are a lot of things happening all at once, and it doesn't make sense to go "one thing at a time." We still practice one thing at a time, but now we settle back. We might just be aware: "Oh, this is chaos." That is the one thing. We don't try to limit it or zero in on any one component. We realize that a whole bunch of stuff is happening all at once, and we just settle back and be aware of the whole gestalt—the whole show, the full catastrophe.

The label that I have used sometimes is, "This is chaos." Once I recognize, "Oh, just chaos happening," that allows me to be more attuned and attentive to what the whole thing is. I begin settling, arriving, and being here, rather than chasing and looking for the "one thing." Sometimes the "one thing" is a combination of many things operating.

Sometimes, especially in meditation, if we can settle down, it can feel like one thing. It might be that just a few moments are needed to acknowledge something, and that is enough. Then we relax, come back to the breathing, and settle in again. There is a relaxed, meditative flow—the speed of mindfulness that we are following.

Each person, as they meditate, can choose for themselves where the most useful place for the attention to rest is. Sometimes it is easier just to stay committed to the breathing; it makes things easy when everything else is complicated. Sometimes it might be sounds that create less interference or controlling, so it is more relaxed to just be open to sounds.

Sometimes we make something an area of study. We intentionally explore the world of thinking—the gestalt, the component parts of thinking, getting to know the emotions, the sensations, the beliefs, the manner of thinking. This is an exercise of becoming more familiar so that in the future it can be simple to be mindful of thinking without being caught in the content.

Sometimes what needs our attention is the sensation and experience of clinging itself—reactivity itself. We open to feel that, study that, and get to know it.

Slowly, over time, all of our life comes into focus. All of our life comes to be processed through mindfulness, through non-reactive awareness. It is quite powerful to allow and give shape, meaning, and value to a whole life. Nothing is left out. It is all material for developing this kind of sacred awareness where all things are included. Everything has a place in awareness, while it might not have a place in our life.

Recently, there was a stain on a rug. I was aware of it in a relaxed way. It didn't bother me at all; I could just be present for it. But I also went to clean the stain.

That is the overview for this week: the simple way of presenting the instructions here at IMC, the rationale, and the approach. From this foundation, we can build and go in different directions. I would like everyone to really have a strong foundation in this way that I taught. I am thinking about doing this again next week so that we are not introducing a new topic that you have to process, but going through the same five steps again. We can do it in a deeper, fuller way so that you understand these instructions even better.

Thank you very much. Before we end, I would like to bring your attention to the IMC end-of-the-year fundraising letter. All the financial support for IMC comes from the people who support it and offer dāna². It is freely given; inspired to give and inspired to receive. There is a link to the IMC website where there is a fundraising letter that I wrote. Please read it. Even if you are not planning to make a donation, it might be nice to see what I wrote. For those of you who would like to donate to IMC and the broader IMC efforts, your donations are greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much.