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Guided Meditation: Pausing Discoursive Thinking; Dharmette: The End of Suffering (4 of 5) Third Noble Truth - Gil Fronsdal

The following talk was given by Gil Fronsdal at Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, CA on November 14, 2024. Please visit the website www.audiodharma.org for more information.

Guided Meditation: Pausing Discoursive Thinking

Hello everyone, and welcome to this meditation. What I've been doing this week is offering some guided meditation around some of the very basic topics of Insight Meditation, the way we teach it here at IMC: breath, body, and emotions. Today we will focus on thinking, but doing so in a way that creates a reference point or a support for understanding the Four Noble Truths.

Mindfulness of the body is a powerful support for understanding dukkha¹, the First Noble Truth of suffering. Mindfulness of emotions is a useful reference point for understanding the cause of suffering. Today, I'm going to do a mindfulness of thinking as a reference point to the cessation of suffering.

One of the powerful things in meditation is to understand the difference between discursive thinking and a quieter, deeper, softer, gentler way of thinking. This quieter thinking does not involve conversations, stories, projections of imaginary futures, movies in the head, great visions of things to come, or things past—living in memories. There's a simpler thinking that has to do with just here and now, recognizing what's happening.

We can give ourselves very simple meditation instructions with what is happening. If we're thinking a lot about the past—memories—we can very gently and quietly use those thoughts to bring us into the present moment by recognizing, "Oh, these are memory thoughts, and I'm very interested in them," or "I'm fascinated by them," or "I'm getting angry because of them."

Without any more elaboration, just very quietly—almost as if you're your own best friend who is sitting and just listening to you—report back what's happening. Name what's going on for you so you can see for yourself better. You're the kindest person you know, sitting with you and just knowing, seeing directly what's happening now.

If you are thinking about the future, having all these thoughts of conversations we have to have, quietly say, "Oh, now I'm having a conversation. Now I'm planning what I'm going to say." notice that that is what is happening in the present moment, and that it feels like a lot of tension in the forehead or in the brain.

With that, there will come a time when you can see that discursive thoughts, that thinking, stops. It doesn't have to stop for long. Maybe there's a long run-on sentence of what we're telling ourselves, and then there's a period. There's a pause. There's a cessation, an ending, before there's a new beginning. Start seeing the ending, the stopping, the pausing in between these discursive, conversational thoughts that we can have in the story-making mind. Feel and sense the end of the story, the end of the conversation—not because the partner has ended, because it's all in our own mind.

See if it's possible for a few moments to dwell, to abide here and now, breathing, attending from some deeper place inside. Attend with gentle thoughts that keep you in the present, gentle thoughts about what's happening now that encourage calming down. These thoughts have a calming effect that slows the discursive thinking down.

You will see that the continuity, the ongoing stream of story-making that we can live in, doesn't have to be continuous. Therefore, the impact, the influence, the conditioning, the emotional quality of that thinking doesn't have to keep churning our hearts. There can be a pause. There can be a stopping.

Begin appreciating and valuing that stopping, that pause, that cessation, however brief it might be. We often overlook it because we're so interested in what we're thinking about. We're racing ahead like the classic ancient metaphor of a monkey that swings from branch to branch. As soon as it has grabbed one branch, it's already reaching for the next. Before letting go, we're already reaching for the next branch, and so there's no pause, no stop.

Take a meditation posture and gently close your eyes. Take a few moments to be here and now in a definitive way, so there's no question that you're here and now. Maybe that can be done with the support of your body. Take some long, deep breaths, really feeling your body from the inside out as you breathe in, and then settling, relaxing, and letting go as you exhale.

Take some more deep breaths, and maybe pause, holding the breath at the very top of the inhale or the end of the exhale just very briefly. See if in the holding of the breath—not breathing—there actually can be some deeper connection to the body, stepping out of the stories of the mind into a deeper relaxation. Then allow the exhale, allow the inhale. That pause might be just two seconds.

Let breathing return to normal, and for three or four breaths, relax the body as you exhale.

For three or four breaths, on the exhale, relax the heart center. Softening in the heart.

And for three or four breaths, relaxing, softening, calming the thinking mind.

Then, if it's comfortable for you, center yourself on the body breathing, wherever it's easiest or most enjoyable to feel the body breathing—in the belly, the chest, or the nose.

As you feel the body breathing, gently, lightly feel that transition from breathing in to breathing out—that moment or two as breathing shifts.

Let the thinking mind become quieter so you can sense and feel the end of the inhale and the beginning of the exhale. Then do the same between the exhale and the inhale, feeling the end of the exhale and how there's a switch over to the beginning of the inhale.

As you continue breathing, when you get to the top of the inhale, notice if your mind has gotten involved in discursive thinking. If it has, relax, soften, and let go as you exhale.

With the exhale, let there be a pause in this story-making mind—the mind that has conversations or lives in memories or futures, fantasies.

At the end of the exhale, let there be a pause in thinking. For the moment or two that it pauses, appreciate the quiet. Appreciate what has become still.

Feel just beyond the edges of your thinking. Whatever you're thinking doesn't fill the universe. There's a "before" those thoughts, there's an "after" those thoughts, and there's all the space in the universe beyond the edges of your thoughts. Realizing that, maybe you can have the pause, the cessation of your discursive thinking, and appreciate how that part of the mind has become quiet.

We can have an invaluable life without the dominance of discursive thinking. There can be quieter, softer, gentler ways of thinking about the present that reassures the mind. The thinking mind, the discursive mind, can become quieter.

From time to time, we can be aware of the end of stories, the end of discursive thinking.

As we come to the end of this sitting, appreciate how the ending of story-making, the ending of the continuity of conversations, commentary, and judgments about things creates more space for calm, for peace, for us to be able to hear a quieter voice within. The quiet voice of kindness, of care, of love that is drowned out if we keep living in stories and commentary and anxious futures. The end of storytelling can be the beginning of deeper wisdom.

May it be that as we go into our life on this day, that we can listen to others more deeply, attend and care for others more fully. If we don't see the world and see others through the filter of our story-making mind—the filter of still living in memories or projections—may the quieting of the discursive mind let us be present for the world in a way that brings kindness and friendliness to all beings.

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

Dharmette: The End of Suffering (4 of 5) Third Noble Truth

Hello and welcome to this fourth talk on the Four Noble Truths. The general title of this series is "The End of Suffering," and that's the purpose of the Four Noble Truth teachings. The optional emotional pain that we feel arises because somehow there's a reactivity inside of us. Somehow there's craving, there's a compulsion, attachment that we engage in. The very attachment itself is painful, and it leads to a cascade of other pains that come when we're holding on tight to something. It leads to disappointment, fear, and anger.

It contributes to the creation of an edifice of abstract ideas of who we are and who we think we should be. Part of our identity is the result of our stories we tell about ourselves and stories that our society tells about what it means to be a human being or says who we are. So the First Noble Truth has a lot to do with the accumulation, the gathering together of all the different attachments.

It is conceivable we could be something else than the suffering that we have. But in fact, the Second Noble Truth says that the tangled ball of thread has become tangled by the force of craving. In another place, the Buddha talks about clinging and craving being the seamstress that sews together this edifice, this tapestry of attachments that we are often a walking manifestation of.

To begin getting a handle on this idea of attachment, craving, clinging, and compulsion, one of the places to see it is in the story-making mind, the discursive mind. There, it can be quite phenomenal—the spinning of the mind, the churning, moving on and on, thinking about something. Even if you're successful at letting go and stopping, it just comes right back, just there to spin out stories.

Some people have no trouble with the thinking mind and the discursive mind because they just believe it. They are invested in it; they think that that's who they are. Even though the discursive mind might be painful, they just go along with it because it has authority. "If we think it, we should believe it." "If we think it, then it says something about me, that is who I am."

There is a strong attachment to discursive thoughts, strong attachment to stories, strong identification and sense of self that gets built on the domain of discursive, conversational thoughts and commentary that we have. The world of judgments about the world around us and of ourselves can all too easily belong to that discursive mind that's spinning and churning and jumping from one branch to the other, never letting up. The continuity of thinking can just give a sense that we're always supposed to be doing this; this is what life is.

But as we get a handle on craving and clinging and attachment, and they begin to soften as we meditate and relax more deeply, there are wellsprings inside of deeper sources of understanding—even of ways of thinking that are not discursive thinking. It's not running along telling stories or rehearsing stories or repeating stories of the past.

One of the remarkable things that can happen is the discursive mind becomes quiet and still. It can be such a relief. It can be such a release. That's why some people distract themselves from their discursive thinking mind by doing something that's very distracting—reading a book, watching a movie, going for a walk in a park, or doing some kind of exercise. Or going to sleep, because it stops this endless turning of the mind that is not emotion-free. It carries a lot of emotional baggage. It's almost like we're creating an atmosphere through discursive thinking, and then that atmosphere comes back and has a profound effect on us; it can create a conditioning for ourselves. So to have that become quiet can be such a relief.

It's very important not to think that meditation is about quieting all thinking. There is very subtle, quieter thinking—more like thoughts rather than continuous thinking. There are very quiet thoughts about the present moment that can come out of wisdom, can come out of kindness, can come out of a gentleness or sensitivity to what's happening. That's very simple and doesn't carry the valence of attachment. It doesn't carry the weight of attachment, of clinging, of compulsion. It is just there softly, lightly.

We can see that the discursive thoughts and the emotions that go along with them maybe have stopped for a while—have paused. The Third Noble Truth is the cessation² of suffering, which can happen on many different levels. But maybe for today, the accessible level I wanted to emphasize is the cessation of discursive thoughts—the ending of it, the pause. Between one paragraph of thinking we do and before the next paragraph begins, put a period. End the sentence in the mind. Take a break with the movie you're looking at in the mind and pause.

Appreciate the quiet mind, the more peaceful mind. Appreciate the softer, quieter ways of thinking that maybe arise out of wisdom, out of kindness, that are drowned out by the loudness of discursive thoughts that go on and on. Have that stop. The cessation of it allows us to appreciate something much deeper and more intimate and more integral to what's happening here: deeper reservoirs of peace, deeper reservoirs of a quiet, still place, reservoirs of kindness, love, and generosity.

Then we start seeing, at some point, that the suffering that came with discursive thinking begins to abate as well. Various kinds of suffering and stress and distress that we experience—we notice that they stop. Anytime we notice some kind of distress, anguish, emotional pain, or emotional discomfort that has stopped, that's an invaluable thing to notice.

The bumper sticker today would be: "I stop for stopping."

When you've noticed that something that was troubling you, some mental state that was troubling you, is no longer there for whatever reason, don't just go on to the next thing to do. Stop yourself and register that. Take it in. Feel the cessation of suffering because it's teaching a very important lesson. Eventually, the lesson is that there is optional emotional pain that we contribute to, and that that can stop. That can cease. That can come to an end.

That's the good news of Buddhism: it is possible. The emotional pain that might remain then is not so difficult; there's a whole different relationship to it. It's part of the richness of life. It's part of where compassion might arise, or knowledge and wisdom might arise. When there's no conceit, no identity, no tangle of a ball of thread in which it gets tangled up, the emotional pain that we might still experience—the heartbreak in the world—becomes very, very simple. It does not become a burden. Rather, it becomes a source of meaning, providing meaning—meaning of being, of having compassion, of care, of kindness, of living a different way in this world where we're here to support each other and to care for ourselves.

So this Third Noble Truth, the cessation of suffering, is a truth that it is possible. It's not an all-or-nothing kind of thing that we can expect to happen today or tomorrow, but it's a step-by-step, gradual beginning to appreciate the small cessations.

I want to emphasize today the quieting, the stopping of discursive thinking, which is such a troublemaker for us. Be careful that you don't invest too much importance in the story-making mind, that you don't give it too much authority over you. The optional suffering that we can experience around our stories has a lot to do with the amount of authority we give those stories, how much we invest ourselves in those stories, and how much we identify—or our sense of identity gets tangled up—in those stories. Be careful with those.

One way to be careful is to begin noticing and seeing all the little places in the day where the story-making mind stops for whatever reason. And if they stop, pause for a little bit, even for a few seconds. Remember the bumper sticker: "I stop for stopping." Then pause even more to take it in. Feel the goodness of that and see if that pausing of stories can connect you to something deeper inside—a deeper wisdom, deeper love, deeper peace.

The cessation of suffering, the Third Noble Truth, and the way to develop that cessation and enrich it and expand it into our life so it can become fully realized is from what the Buddha calls the Fourth Noble Truth, which will be the topic for tomorrow.

Thank you very much, and may you enjoy cessations.