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Guided Meditation: Calm; Dharmette: Hindrances and Wholesomeness (2 of 5) Agitation - Gil Fronsdal

The following talk was given by Gil Fronsdal at Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, CA on October 01, 2024. Please visit the website www.audiodharma.org for more information.

Guided Meditation: Calm

Good morning from Redwood City and welcome to this meditation session. Meditation is often associated with calm and tranquility. In the ancient instructions the Buddha gave for meditation, he emphasized this. He instructed people to calm the body. Whatever ways the body is agitated, let it be calm. Bring a gentling force to the body so that it can settle. He emphasized calming the agitated mind, again bringing to the mind the kind of reassurance and settling that calms the mind.

We can apply his teachings and instructions to one more area of calming, and that is to calm how we know. Mindfulness has a lot to do with knowing, recognizing what's happening as it's happening in the present moment. It also has to do with feeling or sensing what is happening as it's happening. The art of mindfulness is to somehow move between knowing and sensing. Some people might prefer one over the other as a calming force, and sometimes it's invaluable to go back and forth, to have one for a while and the other for a while. But either way, we can try to practice to know calmly, to sense our experience calmly.

This helps when our body is agitated, the mind is agitated, and there doesn't seem to be much room to change that. But we can step back, metaphorically, to observe, to know in a calm way. For people who use mental noting, this can really help us find the calm way of knowing. So if you are breathing in, say "in," but find a way in the mind, as you have the thought "in," to do it in a calm way, maybe even a calming way. And now when you are breathing out, say the word "out." Some people count the breath, and to count in a calm and calming way. If we are agitated, know we're agitated, but to know it in a calm way. And if it's more useful and more subtle to sense and feel the agitation in the body or in the mind, sense it calmly. In the way that maybe you would calmly pet a cat, or calmly, if you're a woodworker, feel the surface of wood to feel how smooth it is or how rough it still remains. So, to know calmly, to sense calmly.

And if you can, to allow yourself to calm, relax the body. So to assume a meditation posture and to adjust the posture in a way that you think will allow the greatest settling. For some of us, it might seem paradoxical that the greatest settling happens when the body is placed upright. And of course, that's not always possible, but there's a way in which the shoulders can soften and relax if they're hanging from the torso and the pull of gravity supports their relaxing.

Gently closing the eyes, and gently, maybe in a gentling, calming way, take some deeper, longer inhales and exhales. On the inhale, feeling the body; on the exhale, relaxing the body. Maybe exhaling an extra second or two, so there's a little bit more opportunity to let go in the body.

And then letting the breathing return to normal. And with what seems like an ordinary breath, close enough, on the exhales continue to relax the body, or soften. Sometimes it's nice to take the inhale as a time to feel some part of the body, and the exhale to relax it. So breathing in and feeling the face, breathing out softening the face.

Breathing in and feeling the shoulders, breathing out relaxing the shoulders. Noticing if a small shift in how the arms are positioned can let the shoulders relax a little bit more.

On the inhale, to feel the area of your chest, the heart area, and then to relax on the exhale.

On the inhale, feeling the belly and softening the belly as you exhale.

On the inhale, feeling a broad awareness of your body, and on the exhale, calming the whole body.

And on the inhale, feeling your mind, your thinking mind, feeling whatever way it's activated, energized, whatever way it is agitated or not. And on the exhale, calming the mind. Maybe with the image of letting the mind spread out and settle down, like the surface of a lake that has waves that settle.

And then calmly settling yourself on the experience of breathing in your body, centering yourself on the rhythm of breathing in and breathing out. And as you breathe in, clearly know you're breathing in, and clearly know as you're breathing out. Or allow yourself to ride the inhales and exhales as you feel or sense the rhythm of breathing in and out. An experiment with knowing breathing calmly, sensing and feeling breathing calmly. Even if the body is agitated, even if the breathing is agitated, know that calmly. Know agitation calmly. Know anything that excites the mind. Know it as it is, but calmly, as if you have all the time in the world.

Whatever is happening for you in the mind, body, your heart, know it calmly. Recognize, be present in a tranquil way, even if everything else is not tranquil. Experiment with tranquil knowing, tranquil sensing, as if you're your own good friend who's with you in a calm way when you most need a calm friend.

As we come to the end of this sitting, to feel, recognize any way that you're calmer now than you were at the beginning. Where in your body might you be feeling sensations of calm or tranquility? Open to those feelings, soften with those feelings. In what way is your mind calmer? If it's easy, allow the calmness of mind to spread through the mind.

And on the foundation of some calmness, can your mindfulness become calm? Even if your mindfulness is of that which is not calm, can you know what is not calm, calmly? So the knowing is not pulled into agitation or excitement or tension. As if you're looking across a landscape in a calm way, spend the last moments here gazing upon your body, your mind, as if it's the landscape that you're calmly surveying.

And then to turn that calm awareness, calm gaze, out into the world. Maybe considering the people and activities you'll be doing today, and gazing upon it calmly, without a hurry, without preoccupation, a simple knowing. And gazing upon the people of your life with calm awareness, wish them well. Gaze upon them calmly and kindly.

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

And may each of our contributions to this possibility begin in being calmly present for others, especially when they're troubled. May all beings find peace.

Thank you.

Dharmette: Hindrances and Wholesomeness (2 of 5) Agitation

Hello everyone, and welcome to this second talk on the hindrances, where the focus is to understand how the hindrances are unwholesome and how to bring in the wholesome. The hindrances hinder our wisdom for how to act in this world, how to be in this world. But when we understand the difference between unwholesome and wholesome ways of being, then it's easier to choose the wholesome way, the healthy way, the wise way.

In the modern world, it might be shorthand, more accessible for many people, to see the difference between a stressful way of responding and a calm way of responding. No matter how difficult the situation is, it can be made more difficult if we get agitated, if we get more and more stressed in the situation. We might have more wisdom, wiser ways of responding, and be better able to understand the situation if we can stay calm, if we can somehow not allow the stress to take over.

So today, the hindrance to look at, going backwards through the list, is agitation and regrets, or agitation and remorse. I like the word remorse because in Latin, it literally means to chew again. You're chewing something over and over again in an agitated, stressful way. It's helpful to understand this agitation as a stressful excitation. It can come from anything that's unwholesome. There's a way in which greed, especially frustrated greed or a certain kind of excitement around greed, can really agitate the system. In that agitation and excitement, we kind of lose ourselves. Anger and hostility can also be excited, and if it's frustrated, if aversion comes from a lot of frustration, that frustration can build up the tension and agitation in the body. Or pursuing, engaging in, and fueling anger and hostility can come with a lot of agitation in the body.

With this agitation we're looking at here, it's possible to feel, to recognize that it doesn't feel healthy to have it, that it puts on a lot of stress. We kind of lose ourselves in it; it takes over. There's a kind of, maybe not a surrender to it, but it has such a convincing force that we almost believe whatever we're agitated about, and we get involved in agitation.

So we can be agitated by many things: things that bother us, many things that we want to be different. We can also be agitated by our regrets, our remorse for what we have done in the past. Ideally, the regrets involve things we genuinely deserve to have some kind of regret for. But to spend our time chewing over it, ruminating over and over and over again about the things we've done in the past, is debilitating and keeps the mind in a kind of surface agitation.

In the Buddhist approach to having done something which causes harm or has some kind of fault to it, the idea is not to be stuck in a backward-looking mind, reviewing the past over and over again. But rather, to look at the past just enough to learn how to do better, and then to be forward-looking, even inspired to try to live now, having learned from that, and to do better in the future. So we don't want to ignore what we've done that we need to learn from, but we also don't want to be weighed down by it. The idea in Buddhism is to always look at how I can respond, how I can live in an onward-leading way to a life that's calm, that's peaceful, that's liberating, that's loving even. And so to be inspired by that possibility of an onward-looking way to go.

Agitation doesn't do that. The kind of agitation we're talking about here as a hindrance is stuck in an unwholesome state. It covers over wisdom, covers over our ability to see what is actually a healthy, wholesome way of engaging with an issue or a problem, of taking care of something. And so it's very important to see and feel the limitations that come with being agitated, the limitations that come with ruminating over and over again with regrets and remorse that we might have.

Part of a wise life in Buddhism is actually to recognize what Buddhism calls the dangers—the limitations, the downside—of things which are unhealthy for us. The reference point for that "unhealthy" is somatic. It's really to feel in our body that something is off, something is grating, something feels deflating, something makes us feel tense or empty or afraid or uneasy in some way. And knowing that that is not really how we want to live, what can we do to bring in what's wholesome, healthy, that has a sense of ease to it? Can we understand the value of doing that? Can we understand the downside of the unwholesome and the upside of the wholesome, and then choose the wholesome?

The simplest wholesome thing for a mindfulness practitioner is to be mindful calmly and clearly, so that the mindfulness is not entangled or caught up in aversion, greed, and conceit. Another wholesome thing to do when there's a lot of agitation, when the body or mind is stressed out in some way, is to calm. The Buddha put a lot of emphasis when he taught mindfulness on beginning by calming the body and mind, to relax.

It's interesting, the Buddha called the food for calm, what feeds calm, calm itself. So whatever degree of calm that we experience, let that register. Don't overlook it. Because maybe calm is not so exciting, the mind orients us to what's exciting, orients towards what's big, and kind of doesn't understand the value of calm—that that's really a good place to be. And so, to recognize when we're settled, recognize when there's a tranquility or a peace, and that recognition supports it to continue. So we don't lose track of it. Don't forget wholesomeness, don't lose track of it, maintain it, don't sacrifice it too easily because we see something that excites us, and in the excitement we become agitated, we become caught, and we're no longer really present for ourselves.

So if we live our life—and that's the theme for this week—attentive and knowledgeable, and able to feel and sense when what's going on feels unhealthy, and when what goes on feels healthy physically, mentally, spiritually, that's the guide for ourselves. This is the way that I've been talking about lately, that you become a "self-whisperer." You want to really be attuned, have a rapport with yourself, have a sensitivity to yourself that you can read yourself well. You know yourself well, you can approach yourself in a way that the inner life feels safe, feels calm, feels held, feels respected.

If we're caught in agitation, caught with regrets of all kinds, caught with resentments of any kind, then the way that we are aware of ourselves, the way that we know ourselves, is through the filter of the agitated stress, the agitated excitement. If it's through the filter of regrets and maybe even criticisms of ourselves, then the inner life just feels more of the same. The wholesome feeds the wholesome; the unwholesome feeds the unwholesome. And so we don't want to keep doing it that way.

It can be a phenomenal exercise, phenomenally freeing, to at least kind of take a deep breath and know how you are in a calm way. Almost as if you're saying to yourself, "Oh, I'm quite agitated right now." To take that long to say it, you know, two seconds or whatever, can change the whole dynamic. It's like stepping out of the feeding mechanism that keeps feeding and fueling agitation. And then to feel, to recognize that that calm way of knowing is wholesome, and to begin finding ways to support the growth of a healthy, positive, supportive way of being in this world. By being able to read and feel and sense deeply what's happening in here for ourselves, what the need is, how to approach in a way that's supportive and helps create safety and kindness. And to learn for mindfulness to be that approach, for mindfulness to be the sensitivity, the care, the rapport that helps the inner life settle, helps the inner life feel safe and cared for and respected.

Generally, when there's a lot of agitation and regrets, remorse, the inner life doesn't feel supported. It feels like it's being somehow made more and more uneasy. So please don't underestimate the tremendous value of being calm. It can certainly be overdone, certainly be attached to, and try to hold on to. There's a time for healthy excitement, and hopefully by being cognizant of the impact our behavior has on ourselves, we'll recognize when healthy excitement is healthy and when excitement is not.

So, may you have a calm day, and may you bring a quality of tranquility to help everyone feel safer and more at ease. Thank you.