This is an AI-generated transcript from auto-generated subtitles for the video Guided Meditation: Contentment; Gratitude (4 of 5) Appreciation. It likely contains inaccuracies.

Guided Meditation: Contentment; Dharmette: Gratitude (4 of 5) Appreciation - Gil Fronsdal

The following talk was given by Gil Fronsdal at Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, CA on November 28, 2024. Please visit the website www.audiodharma.org for more information.

Guided Meditation: Contentment

I'll start again with a welcome to everyone on this Thanksgiving Day in the United States. For myself, I'd like to emphasize the giving part of Thanksgiving—that it's an act of generosity. Two wonderful things—gratitude (offering thanks) and giving generosity—come together in Thanksgiving.

The meditation that we're about to do is one way of understanding it: to create the conditions within us so that we can be much more attentive and receptive to appreciating others and appreciating the world. Without appreciation, there's not really any deep form of gratitude or Thanksgiving. I'll talk more about this act of deep appreciation and how important it is for Thanksgiving during the Dharma¹ talk. But for the meditation, I'd like to emphasize that meditation creates the conditions for appreciation.

We relax. We step out of the preoccupations of our mind—the bias and the orientations we have to how we see people, how we look at them, and how we're caught up in our own concerns. We step out of seeing the world through the filters of our emotions and moods. somehow settle deeper below that to a quieter place where the eyes become clear, where there's less filter and dust over the eyes—of thoughts, memories, associations, biases, hurts, desires. To quiet enough, to settle enough, to relax enough to see in a fresh way.

One means for doing this, one support, is to find a contentment within. For minutes of meditation, to feel content. A deep contentment—not about all things for sure, but for now to be content to sit here, to meditate. Content to be breathing, to be alive. To be content with the benefits that we have that allow us to sit down in quiet to meditate and do this spiritual practice. It's a remarkable thing. It's a remarkable honor and gift that we receive that we can do this. Many people don't have the ability to take time off to sit in quiet and meditate.

For today, to have a sense that we do this practice and we find a place of deep rest, deep contentment, so that we can enter the world with a giving heart. Enter the world with eyes that can appreciate deeply.

So for now, assume a posture. A posture that, for you, you can be content that this is your meditation posture. That you can be comfortable in, that you can be awake in.

Gently close your eyes. Allow a gentling of your insides. Maybe with every exhale, a calming, gentling of whatever is agitated or tense.

Feeling the body's experience of breathing from the inside out. Especially in the torso, the rib cage, the diaphragm, the belly, the back rib cage. Gently, just enough so it's comfortable—nice, maybe even bringing some pleasure—take some longer breaths. A longer inhale, maybe especially a longer exhale. Feeling the body from the inside: the stretching, the opening with the in-breath expansion; this settling, relaxing with the exhale.

With a longer exhale than usual, settling in at the end of the out-breath to whatever sense of inner stability there is. There at the end of the out-breath, maybe in your belly, maybe all the way down to your pelvic cavity, or the area of the diaphragm, or where your sitting bones touch a surface that holds you up.

Letting your breathing become normal, but continue on the exhale to relax into an inner stability or an inner stillness.

And as you're meditating here, can you find a feeling, a sense of inner contentment that's very simple? Not dismissing that there are things to be discontent about, but to not overlook that there can be some way of being content at this moment. Content with this moment as it is. As you breathe, not needing things to be different. Or if you do, contentment with engaging in a practice that puts you on a path to freedom and love.

Breathe with contentment. Breathe in. Breathe out. Let go into a feeling of contentment here.

See if you can breathe content. Be content enough so you can feel an opening in your heart, so there's space to take in what is good here. Your own goodness. The goodness of your life that you receive, that holds your life.

Contentment that allows the heart to be generous. To be appreciative. To allow there to be an opening of your emotional tenderness, warmth, care. So that every moment of contentment, appreciation, thankfulness, opens the emotional center so you feel even more of the same.

And then, as we come to the end of this sitting, to turn the attention, the heart, out into the world with appreciation for all the benefits and goodness that we receive. May we offer thanks. May we have the sense of generosity that can give thanks for the food we eat, and all the people, resources, plants, and animals that make it possible for us to have this food we'll have today.

May we offer thanks to all the resources that we have that allow us to stay in touch with each other and connected right here and now, with the technology that we have, and all the web of communications that we have to connect and to know people, and all the people who support it and keep it going.

May we be thankful for the so-called "technology of the heart" that also creates a network, a web of communication and connections we have with others—those who are close to us, those who are strangers out in the world. May we offer our thanks for this web of social connections, however small it might be.

May we cherish the human capacity for kindness, generosity, love, and appreciation. We give thanks for that part of the heart—all our hearts—that has goodness in it. That we've evolved to have an amazing amount of inner goodness. And we give thanks to all the goodness that comes into this world, maybe each drop filling an ocean of goodness.

And may we be content and appreciative and thankful to simply be alive in this world, so we can offer whatever goodness that we have to wherever it might be possible, in whatever vehicle and means it might be.

May we be thankful and appreciative of ourselves, and with ourselves to be generous in this world. To be caring and kind. Contribute to a better world for everyone. And maybe it begins as simply as offering thanks, the gift of thankfulness.

May all beings be happy. May all beings be safe. May all beings be peaceful. May all beings be free.²

And may our giving of thanks contribute to the well-being of the world. Thank you.

Dharmette: Gratitude (4 of 5) Appreciation

Hello and welcome to this fourth talk on gratitude. Coincidentally, it's also Thanksgiving today in the United States. I love the idea that the word is Thanksgiving, with the word "giving" in it. It touches into this profound aspect of Buddhist spirituality that involves generosity—to give.

One of the most profound things we can give others is our appreciation of them. Gratitude begins with appreciation. I want to underscore this; I've said it this week already, but there are three steps, three aspects of generosity that make it robust and full.

One is taking time to appreciate. Really recognizing, acknowledging what it is that we benefited from, what received, the goodnesses we've seen. Really take time to appreciate. Don't be in a hurry. Don't overlook. Stop. Maybe the bumper sticker can say, "I stop for appreciation."

And then take in any of the goodness of that, the thankfulness of that. Receive it deeply inside of you so that it opens you in some way, or touches you in a deep way, or moves you so that the emotionality, the tenderness, the warmth of it—you allow it space to be in you. Take it in and receive it. Almost like, take it in and relax with it. Don't take it in tensely, like now you have to do something and reply, and you have to immediately apologize or you have to immediately say thank you quickly. But take time to really relate to it, to register it. Because it's one of the means to open the heart. It's one of the means to feel a more heartfelt connection to others—to allow ourselves to feel the thankfulness that we have, to feel the generosity someone else has offered.

And then there's more embodiment. There's more fullness to this Thanksgiving we can give. Then we want to express it in some way, as I talked about yesterday. But today I want to offer something a little different. The giving of thanks can be done indirectly by how well and deeply we appreciate others. Even people who are difficult for us. Is there a silver lining? Is there something you can see that's wonderful in the person? The goodness of inner beauty, integrity, authenticity?

What can you appreciate in others? This is a gift. Many people in our world are not appreciated enough. Some people have never really been appreciated. To begin appreciating, to begin to take time and to acknowledge what you see is good—it could be as simple as, "Oh, thank you. It's so helpful that you're helping with the dishes today." Or, "Wow, you came right away to help with that, or to bring the food to the table." Or, "I saw you really stopped and sat with that person who looked like they were kind of being sad."

You don't have to necessarily tell them, but really take time to appreciate what you see. Make it an art. Make it a practice to look for the silver linings, to look for what's good in people. Almost like your heart's going to say hello to it, resonate with it, feel it. And maybe say some nice things about it. Maybe that's when you say thank you: "Thank you for the kindness back. Thank you for your helpfulness. Thank you for your care and your sympathy. Thank you for how honest you were." Whatever it might be that you see.

And maybe you don't say it directly for people if it seems too personal or too awkward in the situation, but even then, you can look and see people with appreciative eyes. What is good in people? Part of that also then brings out what is good. It reinforces it. But it also might open your heart. Maybe it resonates with the same goodness in you. For you to recognize it in someone else means something in you knows that, and maybe that inspires you. It opens you.

And then, after taking time to really appreciate someone, then to offer thanks. And to offer thanks in such a way that it opens you even more. A thanks that's not quick, it's not to shut people out, but it's really almost like the beginning of our relationship. "Thank you. Thank you for helping the dishes. It was nice doing it with you." It almost looks like you're not expecting anything, but you're just open to the moment, to what follows. So you're opening.

So there's this wonderful cycle of gratitude and generosity. Gratitude, appreciation—we receive goodness and benefits from the world, even when it's not specifically to us. We benefit seeing the goodness in others. And to receive that, but don't let it stop in us. Don't say, "Well, that person's so wonderful but I'm not," and feel inadequate. If you feel and sense someone else's goodness, you have it in you somewhere.

Let the cycles continue. Let you open up and appreciate more. Open up and feel the goodness of the others more, the goodness of the situation, the goodness of this life. And then let your response, your generosity, be that you would offer something in return. Offer thanks. Offer gratitude. Offer generosity. Offer to do the dishes. Offer to help with a table. Offer to sit with someone. Offer to make a difference in the world in some way. So you keep the cycles flowing. You keep the unfolding. And don't let it stop with you. And even if it stops with someone else, keep it flowing. It's an invaluable part of our life, this process of appreciating the world, the process of feeling connected and tender-hearted and warm-hearted—and broken-hearted in profound ways—and then offering a connection through that.

It helps if you have a certain contentment. Don't be in a hurry. Don't be filled with desires for things and activities, and for the conversations to go your way, and for your opinions. Be content with what's happening here. So there's room always creating room in your heart. Room for others. Room for yourself. Room for appreciating what's here, the goodness that's here.

And then support that to grow. Your thanks is not an end of the story. Your thanks is how the proper thanks, the good thanks, the embodied thanks—it's really an appreciation. Heartfelt appreciation, when we take time to do that, is the fuel for more goodness in this world. More goodness in our families. More goodness in our communities. More goodness that spreads to strangers we meet on the street or in stores or places of work.

May it be that we can be mindful, be present, be attentive. Be content enough to see the goodness—even the sliver of goodness—in others. And they, appreciating that and taking that in, are being inspired by that. Encourage our own generosity, our own goodness. To see what we can offer to this world. And don't underestimate the tremendous benefit of expressing thanks in all the ways you can think of it.

So thank you very, very much for our time together today, and this week, and this year, and these years that we've been doing this on YouTube. I feel very, very fortunate that all of you are interested in this, that you're coming regularly, and this is important for you. It's important for me. I feel that I benefit from that. I am inspired by that. And I offer you my thanks and appreciation that we're doing this together. Thank you for today, and may this day be nurturing for you.