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Guided Meditation: Global Awareness; Eightfold Path (5 of 10) Holistic Action

The following talk was given by Gil Fronsdal at Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, CA on October 17, 2025. Please visit the website www.audiodharma.org for more information.

Introduction

Hello and welcome. As a way of introducing today's topic, there were people in the ancient world, at the time of the Buddha, who referred to the Buddha as a teacher of action. In a way, that is pretty accurate. In his teachings on inconstancy, change, and impermanence, the core change that he was most emphasizing was the dynamic activity of our inner life. Our inner life is nothing static. There's no inherent essence that's like a kernel of something permanent, like a soul. Rather, there might be an inherent harmony, inherent sensitivity, and inherent depth to the process-nature of our inner life. It's constantly dynamic, constantly flowing and moving—a dynamic, complex system of relationships between all the different parts of who we are.

And in seeing that, it's an activity. It's action. It's dynamism. What we're doing here is not judging what's there. We're not essentializing anything. We're not reifying anything, thinking, "This is how it really is. This is who I am." If you have an itch, you're not forever an "itcher." That doesn't become your identity. If you have anger or sadness, that doesn't essentially define who you are. It's just an activity; it's part of the process that's unfolding now.

We hold it all broadly, widely, in this wide field of attention that can hold it all without locking into any one thing, thinking, "This is it. This defines who I am. This defines reality. This is what's happening." There's no locking in. There's a kind of participating in this dynamic, rich field of action, of activity. Some of that activity we have a role in shaping, a role in holding. And for some of it, our primary role is to allow it to be there and not identify with it, not pick it up, not participate.

In the process, we come into a kind of a deep harmony, a deep unification of all the different parts. A unification that's only possible if we appreciate how dynamic it is, how we don't let our thoughts get locked in, or we don't get locked into our thoughts. And so, this sense of the dynamic whole, where there are many parts—and part of this dynamic whole, there are parts of us that do get caught. At the same time, side by side, there are parts of us that are free. There are parts of us that have ill will, and right next to it, there are parts of us that have goodwill, have love.

We broaden the heart wide enough to hold it all, so that then we can gently leave alone that which is unwholesome and go along with what is wholesome. We go along with that which holds it all in a healthy, kind, supportive way. So that the way we hold it, the way we relate to it all, is with goodwill, kindness. The way we hold it all is without any animosity, any hostility, any diminishing or demeaning of any part of our experience. It's all included in the whole, even if in including it, we leave it alone.

Guided Meditation: Global Awareness (link)

Assume a meditation posture. The posture is meant to be a wide-open field, a container for our global experience. The posture is not incidental; it's not just a means to meditate. It's the temple for meditation.

With your eyes closed, feel the global sense of your body, in whatever way that is easy for you. Let your attention roam around the body. Let your attention broaden throughout the body, having a panoramic view with the mind's eye. Gently, lazily roam around the body.

And then within this body, as part of your bodily experience, take some deeper, fuller breaths to also give you a broad, global awareness of your torso. As you exhale a little longer than normal, relax the body, releasing the holding.

Letting the breathing return to normal.

See if you can now have a global awareness of your mind, a panoramic view where you don't land on any one aspect of the mind, where you don't see the mind through the lens of a particular attitude. But a wide, open view of the mind and all its different activities.

As you exhale, relax the thinking mind.

In this wide field of body and mind, the activity, the action that you contribute, is very simple: to calmly know what's happening. To calmly sense, feel what's happening. All the while that you stay centered in the body breathing. The rhythm of breathing in and breathing out keeps you close to the present moment.

And that combination of being here in the present with your breathing and calmly knowing and feeling the global experience gives a chance for your inner life to move to a kind of harmony, unification, peace.

If you are thinking, notice how that narrows the field of silent awareness. Open wide. Have the field of awareness be as global, as panoramic as you can. Maybe as if looking into the vast night sky, and thoughts are simply meteorites moving through the sky. Let them be. Let them shine and burn out in the vast, sky-like mind that can hold it all.

By knowing calmly, sensing, feeling calmly, being mindful calmly, we begin to leave things alone, to unstick ourselves, to make breathing room for all things. As if the calm knowing allows things to come into harmony.

And as we come to the end of this sitting, similar to how we began, see if there can be a global awareness of your body. Wide, panoramic, with the inner eye roaming around, or the inner eye vast like looking into the night sky. And a panoramic, global view of the mind that holds it all, where all things have permission to be there. The only action you do is to choose to be aware of it all.

In this global awareness, may you have a stronger connection to avoiding causing harm, getting swept into hostility or ill will, resentment. Or even be less inclined to be devoted to sensual pleasures, to desires. Because all those things diminish the global well-being.

And may it be, as this meditation comes to an end, that you're able to stay connected to a deep sensitivity, a deep knowing and knowledge that you lose so much of yourself if you succumb to ill will, resentment, anxiety, greed, desires. And that the best of who you are is more available in a calm, broad awareness.

May the best of who you are be shared with the world.

May all beings be happy.

May all beings be safe.

May all beings be peaceful.

May all beings be free.

Dharmette: Eightfold Path (5 of 10) Holistic Action (link)

Hello and welcome to this fifth talk on the Noble Eightfold Path.¹ Today's topic is the fourth factor: Right Action. Maybe it's a little bit simplistic or silly, but I love the idea that as we go through the Eightfold Path, we're unfolding a piece of paper or cloth that's really tightly folded up into a small little tight bundle. And we're unfolding it, freeing it, letting something become more open and clean and available for the wider world, available for ourselves. Living with the Eightfold Path is not a limitation, but rather it's moving into something that's more unlimited. Unlimited in its freedom, unlimited in not having any kind of tight boundaries that limit who we are.

The Buddha said that what limits us, what creates boundaries, is an excessive preoccupation with "me, myself, and mine." Excessive preoccupation with attachments and clinging, and ill will and hostility, and desires. To begin to appreciate that there is another way of living. The Eightfold Path, at its heart, is not a prescription of what we're supposed to do, but a description of how we live when we're free. When we have this deep, deep sensitivity that includes all of who we are. And we really know, we recognize, we take the time, we have the space, we have the practice, we have the capacity to stay in the present moment fully enough to recognize that right here, there is also freedom. Right here, there's also a kind of presence that allows a fullness of intelligence, of care, of love, of respect for others, respect for ourselves to be available.

We're not going headlong into the future. We're not getting swept up by the beliefs and the angers, the hurts, the frustrations, the desires that we might have. But we understand there's a much better thing to do: to open up wide, to feel all of it, and to know, to sense, to experience freedom right here. To experience compassion and goodwill and love and care, not as something we're supposed to do, but something that we naturally feel if we really bring all of ourselves into the situation.

And when we do this, we know that there's a real world of difference between collapsing, collecting, tightening up around the activities that cause suffering, that cause stress, versus not doing so and staying connected to that capacity that doesn't suffer. Either because we see it right next to it—clinging, suffering; absence of clinging, absence of suffering, they're both there—or more importantly, we see that the global awareness that holds both is itself a kind of freedom. It's itself a whole different category of freedom, of peace.

And that leads us to avoid doing things that harm ourselves, limit ourselves, where we lose touch with something profound that we know. And at the same time, we don't harm others because we know harming others harms them. They're like us, and we don't want to harm other people and limit their lives. And partly because if we do that, we know we're limiting ourselves. We're so deeply connected to others. We can't relate to others in any kind of way without that reinforcing, building, creating a certain kind of inner landscape for ourselves. And we're responsible for this inner landscape by what we act on, what we do.

And so the fourth step of the Eightfold Path I call holistic action, usually called Right Action. And I love this, that right in the middle of the Eightfold Path is this emphasis on action. The Buddha was a teacher of action. This is not about a passive life, a passive life in the forest or in a cave or something. This is how we're going to live in this world. The Eightfold Path is about being in the world. It's not about retreating from the world, but it is about retreating from greed, hate, and delusion. It is about finding an alternative way of living and participating in this world.

And so here we come to holistic action. What is the action that takes into account the whole—the whole of ourselves, the whole of the social situation, the whole of the consequences and the ripple effects of our actions? Here, there are three things that the Buddha defines as holistic action, and they're all listed in the negative. Sometimes people are surprised by how often many of the goals in Buddhism are described as the absence of something. That does two things: it's very concrete, very specific—the action of something, you don't do this—but also it leaves wide open the alternative. It doesn't need to define the alternative. If you do this, then you can just live your life in this open way. You don't have to have a particular code of conduct that you're supposed to follow, but rather you live into the world from this holistic view.

So the three things that are called holistic action—and it is a kind of activity even though it's an absence—are: not killing, not killing living beings. It's a radical thing. It's a revolutionary thing given how much killing of beings is part of human life. Killing other human beings, killing animals. The whole act of killing is so central to much of what humans do. Whether this teaching of not killing is meant to be universal—no animals at all, no humans at all. Is there just war? Is there just killing? Is there appropriate killing? This is a complicated question. It's a question of the heart, not the mind. What happens when the heart is expansive and we know we have to take care of many things that are maybe in conflict with each other? Many of us will have to grapple with this, but I love it that people are grappling with this teaching: don't kill. It's the first precept. For the Eightfold Path, Right Action is not a precept. It's not a command. Remember, it's a description. So something about a liberated heart, something about a deep sensitivity of a heart, means a person is not going to kill. For some people, it's a gradual process. I remember when I was quite young, we used to go fishing. At some point, I just couldn't do that anymore. No more fishing. I didn't want to kill the fish.

The second is not to steal. It's usually worded as "not to take what is not given." If it belongs to someone else, don't take it unless it's offered. Again, many of us don't steal overtly, but perhaps the lifestyles we live, the products we consume that we buy, have been procured in ways that maybe are not ethical.

And then the last one is avoiding sexual misconduct. This is more nuanced and certainly complicated, but the idea here is you don't cause harm through your sexuality. What sexual behavior looks like is left quite open, as long as it's not causing harm.

So all three of these—not killing, not stealing, not causing sexual harm—involve not harming. You can adopt these as a precept. You can adopt these as a training. You can logically feel this is really good, really important. You can be devoted to it, dedicated to it out of faith. But as an Eightfold Path, this fourth fold has opened up to a deeper sensitivity, where we understand something profound about the nature of the heart, the mind, and what happens when we get involved with unwholesome mind states, the unwholesome clinging and attachment that is required in order to kill, steal, and engage in deliberate sexual misconduct. And we really know it's not a matter of following a precept or a rule. It's following the peace, the freedom, the deep love that exists within us that becomes a guide for how we live our life.

Of course, there might be times when we have strong feelings of hostility, and you might even feel like you want to kill someone, at least metaphorically. You might feel strong feelings of wanting to take something, steal, or get involved in sexual misconduct. Of course, human beings have all kinds of thoughts and impulses. As we open the folds of the mind—the more it's folded up, the more we don't see what goes on, the operating principles. The more we unfold the mind, unfold the heart, we see clearly. We see how harmful it is to ourselves to close up again, to tighten up again, to get all folded up and preoccupied with something. To be able to live an unpreoccupied life, and to stay unpreoccupied, to be able to see the Eightfold Path as an expression of our freedom more than a path to freedom.

So, holistic action. We'll continue on Monday with the rest of the folds. Thank you for being part of this.