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Guided Meditation: Wholly Centered; Samadhi (43) Becoming One.

The following talk was given by Gil Fronsdal at Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, CA on March 26, 2025. Please visit the website www.audiodharma.org for more information.

Introduction

Hello and welcome to our meditation. We're in a period of time now, for the last couple of months, where we're focusing on samadhi¹. Samadhi has this dual characteristic that can seem a little bit like a paradox. And that is that there's both simultaneously a feeling of wholeness that arises, where everything's included, or a feeling of the mind being quite expansive, or the mental state, the awareness, being expansive, open, wide, inclusive of everything on one hand. And on the other hand, there's a centering on something. And that centering can become so central that, in terms of what we're aware of, that's all there's left. The world gets so relatively small in terms of what we're consciously focusing on or centered on. And those two things go together.

So the expansive mind, the whole mind that includes everything, is not actually aware of everything. And the sense of being centered on something, it does not exclude anything. So it's a little bit like this: as we get absorbed in some wonderful activity we're doing, we're not thinking anymore about the past and the future. We're not thinking anymore about right and wrong, or it should be different, or it should be better. We're not thinking anymore about other places that are happening now. The mind is no longer interested or involved in or concerned with things. So as we get more and more absorbed, the world of where the mind rests becomes smaller. And while at the same time, this expansive mind that we have, this holistic quality, is definitely there, but it's almost like nothing is in it. Everything could be in it, but because we're so centered, so focused on this central thing, a lot of things begin receding.

So in samadhi, at some point, people will say that they no longer hear sounds around them. They're quite capable of hearing, but somehow, the absorption in breathing, the mind is not interested or not oriented towards sounds anymore. At some point, it's so absorbed in just the simplicity of breathing that parts of the body seem to disappear. Some people describe in samadhi that they don't feel their body anymore. And of course, the body's there. I've sometimes thought the body disappeared, so I wanted to make sure I was still there and opened my eyes. Of course, it was there. It's just that somehow what the mind is taking in, what the mind is interested in, or rather, the field of awareness is so involved in something very small, though it's still very expansive. So it's just kind of like a wholeness of practice that becomes simpler and simpler and simpler.

And one of the things that remains in this wholeness of experience in this first jhāna² is that there's still a lot that remains there, but it's getting simpler. And what we're starting to feel now is this kind of—we're now really getting centered. And so there's a center that has this wide hole. One way I think of it is like standing in the middle of a trampoline, where the weight of the body has the whole trampoline sagging, and all the balls that the kids have left on the trampoline will roll down to the center. And so the center of the trampoline is where the mind gets centered, and everything gathers. And then after a while, we're no longer aware of what's outside of the trampoline, and then not aware of the edges of the trampoline, just here where we're standing.

Guided Meditation: Wholly Centered (link)

So, to assume a meditation posture. Taking the place where you're sitting is so important because it is, in a sense, going to be the middle of your trampoline, the middle of the circle of awareness in which you sit. And so to really assume the place where you're sitting, the place where you're lying, the place where you're standing, as a place to connect, to feel the weight of the body against the surface, the surface that supports you from falling by the pull of gravity. And maybe the surface your body's resting on feels firm, solid.

And gently closing your eyes. In some ways, with the eyes closed, the center of the trampoline, the center of your circle, is the sensations of the body, the weight of the body, the substantiality of the body, the solidity of the body, the simplicity of sensations of the body.

And then within the body, is there a center of your body? Do you have something intuitively, a place that you feel, maybe deep in the torso, a center of gravity? Some place where the weight of the torso, or the central location, maybe deep in the belly below the navel, that is somehow the center of the trampoline of your body.

And maybe from there, receiving the inhale as it begins. Not so much you receiving the inhale, but the body receiving it. And allowing the exhale, allowing the release.

And also on the inhale, have your awareness, your mind, open as you breathe in, like it's opening a window for the breeze to come in. Open the mind wide to receive the awareness of breathing. Breathing in, and as you exhale, allowing the mind to become wide. The mind wide like the surface of a lake where the waves and ripples calm down and the surface becomes calm and still. Breathing in, opening the mind. Breathing out, stilling the mind.

And with the mind open and wide, centering yourself, centering the awareness, your attention on the breathing. Seeing if you can be relaxed and easeful with whatever way your body is breathing. It's all okay.

And then beyond the edges of the body's experience of breathing, are there any feelings of pleasure, appreciation, gladness? As you breathe in, let the pleasure, the calm of your body, whatever is there, let it receive the inhale. Allowing the exhale to ride through the pleasure, the joy.

As you breathe in, connecting to the sensations of breathing in as they are received in joy or pleasure. As you exhale, connecting to the exhale and riding the exhale, bringing the joy or that pleasure with you to the very end of the exhale. So there's a very gentle engagement, involvement, centered on breathing, without the mind becoming tense or tight.

Giving yourself over to the simplicity of breathing. Anything more complicated, anything not involved with here and now, the mind takes a vacation. The mind takes a break from concerns with anything but a devotion to breathing in and breathing out.

Not trying too hard with anything, but giving yourself over to receiving breathing, receiving the inhale as if that's all there is to do. Breathing in is received in the wide open field of awareness, and the exhale is allowed in a wide field of settling calm. Appreciating the rhythm of receiving and allowing, supported by whatever well-being is being massaged as you breathe.

And as we come to the end of the sitting, to feel into your body, your heart, your mind, for whatever feels good about coming to the end of the meditation. How you're more settled or calm. Maybe there's something you enjoy about all this, something that can be called pleasant or pleasurable, maybe even some joy or well-being that, as you think about it, might bring you a little smile. Or maybe you would turn up the corners of your mouth just a little bit to bring a spark of something that feels like joy.

And with whatever joy or pleasure or calm that you feel, imagine that it's through the lens of that that you gaze upon the world. That how you see the world is a gift you give the world. If you gaze upon others with appreciation, joy, delight, pleasure, it does them a world of good to be seen that way. Even if they don't know that you look upon them that way, it spreads the conditions for friendship, for kindness, for care. Gazing upon the world through the eyes of well-being, of joy, delight, calm.

May all beings experience happiness. May all beings experience safety. May all beings experience peace. May all beings experience freedom. May all beings experience joy, well-being. So we can meet through our joy, through our mutual appreciation, our mutual care, the mutual way that we give each other space and freedom. May our practice of samadhi serve to bring benefit into this world.

Thank you.

Dharmette: Samadhi (43) Becoming One (link)

So welcome to this next talk, the 43rd talk in the series on samadhi. And these talks are certainly building on the 42 earlier talks, so they make more sense in the context of that. So the samadhi is an experience of immersion, absorption, that involves a number of characteristics. And one of the forms of samadhi that is emphasized in Buddhism is called jhāna. And there are four jhānas, four of these kind of almost quantumly different states of absorption or concentration. And these are states of mind or states of being, so we want to be careful we don't use the word "concentration" too much, with the idea that it's a laser focus of the mind where the mind gets tight and narrow and focused and penetrating. That all too easily narrows the field too much. It's a wide open field that settles into samadhi.

The first jhāna is generally characterized by five primary mental states that are going on, and those five are called the five jhānic factors. And so those are the initial or connecting attention, the sustaining of attention, joy, happiness, and then the fifth one is, the Pali is ekaggatā³. Sometimes it's translated as one-pointedness, and sometimes it's translated as unification, or I like to call it wholeness, a gathering together.

So, one way to kind of bring those two different ideas together—well, before I do that, the idea of one-pointedness lends itself to narrowing attention to a single point and getting tense in the process. It doesn't have to be that, but a lot of people who practice one-pointedness on something will try to penetrate or have this laser focus that's very tight and can lead to headaches even. It can lead to some kind of tension building up, and some of the negative consequences of samadhi are born from any kind of tension involved as we practice. Sometimes people are not aware that they're tense. There can be a lot of pleasure, a lot of goodness, it can even get concentrated with that tension, but sooner or later that tension will create some kind of unfortunate byproducts that can interfere with healthy samadhi.

So the word one-pointedness is a little bit risky. Unification or wholeness or gathering together maybe is a little bit abstract for people to understand. So the word that maybe kind of combines these two in a nice way might be "becoming one." Ekka means one, gatā can mean like going to, becoming something, a state of one, maybe a kind of oneness, but becoming one. So all of what we are becomes one, becomes absorbed with the breathing. And there's no sense that anything is being left out, but there's no awareness of what's outside.

So, you know, if you close your eyes, maybe laying on the couch and listening to some really nice music, and pretty soon the couch disappears, the room disappears, time disappears, the future disappears, the activities of the day disappear. In a way, maybe even you disappear because you have become one with the music. You've kind of centered now in the music. The wholeness of experience now is defined by music. But you're not narrowly focused on the music, zeroing in on it. There's a feeling that the mind is quite expansive. It's like the mind has become the music, become one with the music, but the music is broad and wide and everywhere in a certain way.

So with samadhi, there is becoming one, but you can't do that with tension. It has to be very soft. So it's almost like a feather that slowly lands on the ground and then is centered on the ground, becomes one with the ground. Maybe, I don't know what feathers are thinking about, but becoming just there. So it's that kind of more like gently settling in and a very light feeling. And so to find a way to be with breathing, to be with the sensations, and become one with it, becoming simple with it, becoming whole just with this experience of breathing.

And so these five mental factors all work together. They're all there and they're kind of part of the whole. So at this point in the first jhāna, there is a kind of activity going on. We are still engaged in doing some kind of practice, but the way we engage, it almost feels like we can enjoy it more. So this applied attention, we're connecting attention, "Ah, yes, we're here, connect." And then sustaining. I sometimes liken it to getting a massage where the masseuse puts their hand, and it feels so good to have the hand touch us because we know what's going to come is the kneading. And so the kneading, or maybe it's more like the rhythm of kneading and letting go, squeezing and letting go of a massage. So there's this kind of rhythm of making a connection fully with the breathing and then sustaining it, riding it, feeling it. And so the mind is gently involved with this.

There's a little bit of intentionality, a little bit of participation, but the sense of participation is just a delight. Just, "Ah, it's so good to do this." Maybe it's like being really thirsty on a hot day and then drinking cool, refreshing water, and it just feels so good to take those sips and the gulps and feel, "Ah, this is good, this is good." Each sip feels good in new ways. Like the rhythm, "Ah." And so that speaks to this applied and sustained attention. It's related to some of the sense of well-being that can arise, and I'll talk more about that tomorrow. But there's a sense of the pleasure, the joy, the delight that comes, almost as if the rhythm of massaging, applied attention and sustained attention, is almost like blowing on a gentle flame, keeping it going, keeping it going.

And so it's not work. It's not like we have an agenda. It's not like we're trying to make something happen. Ideally, it's just really good for its own sake. And so as we go deeper into these deep absorptions, it's very important, the more we go into it, to not be trying to make anything happen and do something and try to do better, but it's more like just really enjoying what's here now and just to be content with that. And that allows for a deeper settling that we'll see.

So there are five factors then. The first four are connecting attention and then sustaining, then two forms of well-being, a joy and a happiness, and I'll talk more about these tomorrow. And then today, the emphasis is on this ekaggatā, this one-pointedness of becoming one, this unification. And which is a simplification where we allow the mind to become simpler and simpler, unconcerned about anything but just this process of the samadhi itself. And we might be very aware that there's a field of openness, a field of goodness, a field of joy, and we're just allowing everything to be there, everything there mutually supportive of this process of being content just to be with the breathing, just the simplicity of just breathing in and breathing out. Nothing else needs to happen.

And in some ways, the world disappears, like on the couch listening to music. Your cushion disappears, the room disappears, yesterday disappears, tomorrow disappears, maybe even you disappear in just simply staying there with the breathing.

So you might see as you go through the day today if there are certain activities you do that lend themselves to this kind of becoming one with the activity. So it could be something like washing dishes or putting the dishes away in a way that, or cleaning the kitchen floor, or folding the laundry, or chopping vegetables, or making your bed, or putting your clothes very nicely away in a drawer, where you just give yourself over to that activity, not to get it done quickly to move on to more important things, but that this is the place to become one with this activity. And often that means that somehow we do it with care. We do it so it feels really nice. It looks nice, like folding the t-shirt in a neat, kind of nice way before you put it in the drawer is not because we're fastidious, but because that's what samadhi does. To be fully involved with what we do is to do things in a way that are harmonious, beautiful, pleasant, enjoyable.

And see in the course of the day whether you can begin experiencing some of the benefits of samadhi in being absorbed in what you do. And you probably, your heart will love it if you give yourself more chances through the day to become one, whole, unified, one-pointedly absorbed in what you're actually doing in the moment. So thank you very much, and we'll continue. Thank you.