This is an AI-generated transcript from auto-generated subtitles for the video Guided Meditation: Seeing Clearly; Qualities of the Dharma (1 of 5) Visible Here and Now. It likely contains inaccuracies, especially with speaker attribution if there are multiple speakers.

Guided Meditation: Seeing Clearly; Dharmette: Qualities of the Dharma (1 of 5) Visible Here and Now - Gil Fronsdal

The following talk was given by Gil Fronsdal at Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, CA on July 29, 2024. Please visit the website www.audiodharma.org for more information.

Introduction

So, for the last three or almost four weeks, I've been living outdoors, mostly in a sleeping bag under the stars at night and in natural settings, teaching mostly in that context. There's something quite marvelous about the immediacy of living outdoors, the contact with the natural world, and the awakening of our natural senses. This speaks to the topic for today, which I'll introduce for the meditation by saying that Buddhist practice begins and ends with being in the present moment—a radical, clear seeing of present-moment experience.

In between the beginning and the end, it's seeing clearly that thoughts about the future and thoughts about the past are occurring in the present. It's about seeing them as present-moment occurrences. Everything we need to discover in the Dharma for the purposes of the kind of deep liberation of heart that Buddhism teaches is found by a simple attention to present-moment experience. It's fascinating to watch how difficult it is for the mind sometimes to stay in the present, how it travels off into the land of thoughts of the past, thoughts of the future, and thoughts of fantasy.

So this morning, let's see how to be here and now with a clear seeing of present-moment experience without wandering off. Of course, you will wander off, and then the task is always coming back to clear seeing. There is no need to analyze, judge, or criticize. If you can return to the clarity of seeing, "Oh, this is present moment experience, this is what's immediate, this is what is inviting me to see more deeply into reality as it unfolds in the present moment," that is the practice.

Guided Meditation: Seeing Clearly

So, assume a meditation posture, whatever posture is appropriate for you. In that posture you take, are there ways of adjusting it so that the mind can be a little bit more alert? Sometimes that's by adjusting the body in the posture, so that there's a little bit more intentionality in the meditation posture.

Then, as almost as a ritual of entering into the present moment of meditation, take a few long, slow, deep breaths. As you breathe in deeply, experience the torso expand, stretch, open. And as you exhale, relax, soften, settle. Maybe gently closing your eyes.

Letting your breathing return to normal. For some people, breathing is the primary connection or tether to the present moment. If you know you're breathing, you know what's happening in the present. Breathing is always now.

If you're not able to stay with the breathing, can you see as present-moment experience what is taking you away? Don't get swept into the past or swept into the future, swept into fantasy or commentary. But let there be a clear, relaxed, settling attention to: this is thinking about the past, this is thinking about the future, this is telling stories in the mind, commentary.

After a clear seeing of that, notice what the experience of breathing is like. Has it changed? Has it tightened up, gotten more held? Or has it gotten softer and more gentle? Whatever way it is is fine, just notice how it is.

Moment after moment, return to seeing what the present moment experience is. A kind of refuge in the present.

If mindfulness is to see what's happening in the present, to see it clearly, what can you see clearly at this moment? What can you see without commentary, judgment, being for or against, so that you appreciate the act of seeing or knowing? It's simple and clean, spacious. Just this is known. Just this is known with contentment or ease.

As we come to the end of this sitting, perhaps you're a little calmer, or more aware of your capacity for present-moment awareness. Almost as if you're standing at the entrance of a new territory, at a gate, and you're able to watch what comes through the gate. The gate being the present moment, and everything new has to come through that gate. To relax and settle back and see it clearly and find your freedom in that clarity, in the simplicity of knowing.

May our ability to see clearly translate to our ability to see others clearly, without judgment and bias, expectations, demands, or fears. To see clearly as an act of generosity, an act of care and kindness. May our ability to be present for others be a means for us to offer profound respect to each and every person we encounter.

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

And may our ability to be present for others contribute to that possibility.

Dharmette: Qualities of the Dharma (1 of 5) Visible Here and Now

Hello everyone, and I'm glad to be back. I've been gone for about a month and had a wonderful time. For about three weeks, I was involved in a training program to train people to be Buddhist teachers in the context of the natural world, through wilderness retreats and periods of living in the natural world. That's what I've been doing for the last month, except for the last four days or so when I went backpacking with my wife to add to the time living outdoors and camping. It was quite wonderful.

So for this week's teachings, I'd like to go through the five qualities of the Buddha's teachings. The way it's described is the description of the well-spoken teachings of the Buddha. The word for teaching is Dharma¹, which is a very rich word and can also mean reality or the truth itself, but for now, I'll call it the teachings. These are the five characteristics of the teachings, and the importance of these five is seen in the fact that the monastic Theravada community chants these every day as part of their liturgy. They're being reminded of these five qualities on a daily basis.

This is how it goes in English translation: The Dharma is well proclaimed, well spoken by the Blessed One. It is visible here and now, immediate, inviting to be seen for oneself, onward leading, and personally realized by the wise.

So these five qualities of what the Dharma is are also the instruction, or the pointing-out instruction, for how to practice—where to look, and where our focus is for discovering what these teachings are. They're not about finding them in a book; it's not about finding them in lists. Rather, it's pointing to a direct experience that we can have ourselves.

"Visible here and now" is one translation. Sandiṭṭhiko² is the Pali word. Diṭṭhi here has the meaning of to see, or to view, or to observe. San means with, for oneself seeing. It's not to be contemplated, it's not to be logically figured out, it's not to be learned externally. There's something that we're looking for to see that's directly visible here and now. And so the question is, what is that?

The times when the Buddha describes what this is, we could in modern English call it seeing certain psychological states. In particular, in the simplest way, he says it is to directly see greed, hatred, and delusion³ as it's present. And when there is no greed, hatred, and delusion, when we see the absence of this, then we're seeing the Dharma. So this is not a teaching about states of mind in meditation, or metaphysics, or philosophy. It's about seeing the psychological state of mind that is free of affliction, free of the stress, free of the suffering that comes with greed, hatred, and delusion. If you see that, you're seeing the Dharma that's visible here and now.

The rest of it follows, as the Buddha says as well. It's immediate. You see something that's here and now; it's not of time. It's not something that belongs to the world of time because it's so present and immediate. And this teaching about this kind of seeing is inviting you to come and look for yourself, discover this for yourself. You don't have to believe it, you don't have to memorize it, just come to see for yourself. See for yourself what the absence of greed, hatred, and delusion is like.

See for yourself how the absence of greed, hatred, and delusion is onward leading. It provides a guide, it's a guidepost for ourself, it's a North Star. To have some experience of this kind of freedom, the joy, the happiness, the peace that can come from this kind of absence, is a guide for how to see it again, to find it, to look for it, to live by it. And this is something that is not supposed to be believed but something to be experienced by the wise. And here, the word "the wise" is you. You are the wise person who is learning how to see clearly, learning what to recognize and what to know. For today, I just emphasize this absence of greed, hatred, and delusion. This is kind of the umbrella term for all kinds of states of affliction.

As I clear my throat—I biked down here, and I think that somehow triggered a little bit of a reaction to something. The emphasis here is a deep seeing into ourselves, into the states of mind, the qualities of mind, the places of attachment, the places of clinging—not so that we hang out there and suffer because of it, but so we can look past it, look beyond it, to see a mind that's free of affliction, free of these particularly difficult psychological states.

I'm fond of saying that Buddhism is sometimes more psychological than it is philosophical, more psychological than it is religious, because it's pointing to something to be directly experienced in our own mind, the way our own mind operates and works. And it's there that we discover freedom. If we're spending time trying to solve the problems of the world—something that's very important to do—it's important to know that that's not where we're going to find freedom. We might rearrange the world to be perfect just the way we want it to be, and it's not going to stay that way for long. Very quickly, things will change and not be perfect anymore.

But if we turn the attention to ourselves, that's where a certain kind of perfection can happen. That's where we can learn how to find our freedom in an imperfect world, how to find our non-reactivity in a world where people are reacting all the time, where we can find our wisdom in a world where there is no wisdom. The wisdom that we're building on is the wisdom that arises from knowing for ourselves that it's possible to live without greed, hatred, and delusion.

So that's the direction practice is going toward. This is what the Dharma is, what the Buddha is pointing to: this possibility. And it's something that's directly visible, that's immediately here and now. The word Sandiṭṭhiko can also sometimes be translated as "it's here and now, to be seen here and now." Such a healthy way of living in the world can arise, so much wisdom can arise, when the reference point for how to live in the world is to be free of afflictive states.

Now, to be free of greed, hatred, and delusion in some permanent way is a big task. But I hope that each of you has moments through the day where you find yourself, maybe accidentally, free of these afflictive states—of stress, of greed, of hatred and delusion. Free of clinging, free of grasping, free of pushing away, free of anger, free of fear. Maybe it's accidental. Maybe you go for a walk in your neighborhood and you see someone has a beautiful garden or a beautiful tree, and something about seeing the tree or the garden settles something or releases something for a few moments. Just the appreciation, the delight, the joy—right there are moments of freedom. Right there, we're seeing the Dharma: that it is possible to be free of afflictive states.

So, look for those through the day. Appreciate the small ways in which they occur. They are teaching you the Dharma. And then from seeing those clearly, you might begin understanding the afflictive states more fully when they appear later, and you might not be as wedded to them, so committed to them. You might not want to invest so much time, energy, and mental real estate to being caught up in obsessive thinking, caught up in clinging, caught up in resistance, caught up in anxiety. There is another way of being where we're free of it. And if you can see it in small ways through the day, those can build, those can grow, those can inform how you can live. Don't underestimate the value of seeing the small ways in which we are free. It's those that we build on to experience a greater freedom in our life, a freedom which is visible here and now, immediate, inviting us to come and check it out for ourselves, onward leading, and personally realized by the wise.

Thank you. I'll go through the next four of these qualities over this week and hope that it helps you to understand Dharma and practice in an intimate way. Thank you.