This is an AI-generated transcript from auto-generated subtitles for the video Guided Meditation: Being One's Own Teacher; Udayi Sutta (5 of 5) Finding One's Path. It likely contains inaccuracies, especially with speaker attribution if there are multiple speakers.

Guided Meditation: Being One's Own Teacher; Dharmette: Udayi Sutta (5 of 5) Finding One's Path - Gil Fronsdal

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

Guided Meditation: Being One's Own Teacher

One of the tasks as we develop meditation practice, Buddhist practice, is to become our own teachers. What that means, partly, is to be able to find the path of practice as it opens up in front of us. A metaphor is that if you're going to cross a somewhat shallow, wide river and there are lots of rocks and boulders in it that are stepping stones across, the stepping stones are spread a little bit, at different distances from each other and at different angles. Some rocks are clearly not stable enough to step on. So you would have to find your way across the river on these stepping stones, going this way and that way, with a little bit longer steps sometimes. You have to make sure you stand in the middle of some stones, and you have to find your own path across by choosing the right stones to walk on. If you don't, you might end up in the river. And maybe it's a shallow river, so it's easy enough to get back up again.

In the same way, we're finding our path. Falling into the river is falling into our thoughts and preoccupations and attachments, reactivity; falling into greed, hate, and delusion; and falling into preoccupations with me, myself, and mine. To find the path, to find the stepping stones, moment after moment, is to find ourselves in the simplicity of awareness—the simplest kind of awareness, of attention, of knowing that you can find for yourself. It is so simple that it might even be a nonverbal awareness. Or so simple that if it's a simple verbal kind of knowing, there's no story connected, no judgment connected to it, no interpretation—just an in-breath, out-breath, warmth, coldness, calm, agitation. Just really, really simple.

Some of the ways we find our way are through some of these criteria we're talking about this week. One is you find your way when awareness doesn't harm anything, where there's no sting, no stress in being aware. We find it where there are no stories and interpretations, views, or beliefs that are somehow clouding the simple awareness. We don't need to have any beliefs to stay on the stepping stones of simple awareness.

And we find it where we're allowing something deep within to emerge, to unfold, to heal, to settle, to calm. There's a sense of allowing all the things that we are aware of, trusting that as we know them in this simple awareness, something that's not us within us—the Dharma, the natural processing—has a chance to unfold. We know that we're on the path when that awareness has a very simple, maybe primordial, kindness or care for ourselves, for what we're aware of.

Here we are, finding our steps. Rather than looking for a particular experience or looking for something to happen, we find the stepping stones in the simplicity of awareness that avoids any sting, any stress, any holding on; that avoids any belief. As we're practicing, beliefs might have gotten us to our meditation, but then we don't need them anymore. We find the stepping stones if the awareness is allowing, making space for what's here to let go, unfold, dissolve, open up, or grow if it's something wholesome. And the wholesomeness of a simple kindness—this is how we find the path across the river of attachments and clinging.

So with that, again like yesterday, we sit in silence. And if you're inclined to be your own teacher, maybe some of these words will point you to the way.

As we come to the end of this sitting, maybe we can point to the possibility of not identifying with the thoughts we have, the feelings and emotions we have, the impulses we have, the experiences of pain and suffering, happiness and pleasure; not to lean into anything or not to take up residence in any of that, but instead to know it, to be aware of it in the most simple way. Stepping out, stepping back from the river of attachment, the river of becoming, the river of being caught, the river of distractions and attachments, and stepping back onto the stable, secure, dry simplicity of just knowing this. Just this. Where each thing is allowed to be itself. Nothing is condemned, nothing is made wrong.

Where there's a relief and a kind of sense of well-being in not being caught in the river, wet in the flow of distractions. And this simplicity of knowing, of awareness, is how we find our way. And how we can bring a very meaningful attention and care to others, to see others without the filter of our attachments, our opinions; to see others without being caught in our sufferings and our hurts and our angers and our desires and envies. To see them as they are, warts and all, with a kind attention, an open attention, an attention that allows something deep to unfold.

May our ability to listen to others, see others, know others with simplicity support others to become free of suffering, to experience some peace here and now, to feel safe in our presence, and to have the possibility of being happy. May all beings be happy, and may how we attend to others support that possibility.

Thank you.

Introduction

So, good morning everyone and welcome. The announcement before I give the talk is that I'll be away for three weeks teaching a retreat in the wilderness, and then a week of camping with my wife. I think the whole thing will be a bit of a vacation as well. Some wonderful IMC teachers will be teaching while I'm away, and you'll be in good hands here at this YouTube channel.

Dharmette: Udayi Sutta (5 of 5) Finding One's Path

So this week, I'm kind of basing the teachings on the Udayi Sutta¹. And I'll read it, as I have every morning.

"It's not easy, Ananda, to teach the Dharma to others. The Dharma should be taught to others when five qualities are established within oneself. Which five? The Dharma should be taught to others thinking, 'I will speak step-by-step.' I will teach progressively. The Dharma should be taught to others thinking, 'I will speak for practical reasons. I'll speak providing instructions in how to become free of suffering.' The Dharma should be taught to others thinking, 'I will speak grounded in kindness.' The Dharma should be taught to others thinking, 'I will not speak for material reward.' The Dharma should be taught to others thinking, 'I will speak without wounding myself or others.'"

So, it's not easy to teach the Dharma to others. And I suppose that's partly because these things are not easy to do, or it's easy to overlook the simplicity of these ideas for other purposes in teaching. And as I've been doing this week, these wonderful qualities are also very useful for those of us when we're not teaching, but when we're just speaking.

"I will speak step-by-step" is the first one in the sutta, but the last one for this week. And I'm equating it or connecting these things to what I've taught for the last week. On Friday, it was the possibility of liberation and the path to liberation. And so, "I will speak step-by-step, I will speak progressively, I will teach a path," the progressive path, the gradual path that leads onward to greater and greater freedom.

The word for step-by-step, Anupubba², can also mean footstep, steps. It can be the traces of the steps that are left behind. And so it could also be the idea of tracking. "I will teach tracking, how to track, how to find our way through our life so we can be our own teachers." And so, particularly pointing out how we can step-by-step, gradually find our way.

It's easy to maybe teach the most profound Dharma of Buddhism and leave lots of people behind because they simply can't understand it, it's just not relevant for them. And so to teach something that's appropriate for each person is part of the art. For people who are new to practice, to offer beginning instructions. For people who have particular forms of suffering, maybe it needs to be addressed directly. And then people who are middling in practice, they might need something different. And then people who are quite experienced in practice maybe are ready for some deeper pointing out that can happen.

But still, it's always step-by-step. And giving instructions, pointing where to find the next step in practice, is not only to point it out to people but then to help people understand it for themselves, to give people their own kind of agency so they can become their own teachers, so they don't rely on other teachers all the time. "So this is how it works, this is how it goes, this is what you can do, this is what you pay attention to, this is what's helpful."

And eventually, what we learn through this practice is to not be overly concerned with what we're experiencing, but rather how we know what we're experiencing. And so there's almost like a paradigm shift from being identified or caught up with or managing the experience we have—trying to change our experience, have a better experience—to letting the experience be what it is, kind of leave it alone. But don't leave it alone by ignoring it; leave it alone in the clarity of knowing, of mindfulness. Really know it. And this is finding your own path. So it's not looking for an experience so much as it is looking for where that freedom is in the knowing, in the awareness.

To switch over to the idea of speaking, these teachings apply to speaking as well. When we speak, don't leap from one thing to another, don't leap to conclusions. Speak in a way that allows people to understand and follow along with what's being said. Explain the foundation, explain the conditions, explain the reasons for why you do something or why you think something. Explain the purpose, step-by-step. Provide people with the stepping stones of explanations, of teachings, so they can follow what you're saying, understand what you're saying, so that we can find our way together with what's going on. To make declarative statements, where we just make a statement as if it's true, maybe people can't follow along; it's too big of a leap. So, to speak in a way that is gradual, that builds a case, builds an understanding, builds a connection with others.

If having a warm, deep connection to others is part of the value of being in a relationship, let that happen step-by-step. Care for it. You know, ask questions of others, learn about them, pay attention, explain yourself, say something about yourself so people get to know you. So the gradual building and building. This is one of the hallmarks or one of the characteristics of the Buddhist teachings: it's a developmental model of human life, meaning things evolve and develop over time. And for the Buddha, there isn't like instant enlightenment per se, exactly. There isn't this idea of a quick fix. But just like a child—you don't snap your fingers and suddenly the child is an adult. There's a gradual growth and development of that child, day by day, meal by meal, experience by experience, a child grows.

In the same way, even as adults, there's still this evolution, this maturing that goes on. And so one of the key metaphors for becoming, you know, growing in the Dharma is the idea of growing, it's the idea of maturing, like a fruit matures, a plant grows. So that it's a step-by-step, it's a gradual process, it's a building, putting together the stepping stones. And so to approach the Dharma, approach these teachings in that kind of way.

If we're going to be our own teachers, then it's really important we understand ourselves well and understand what we need next. What helps us to open up? What helps us to be more present? What helps us to mature in some way? And at different stages of practice, there are different things that are needed. Sometimes what's needed is a lot of Mettā³ and compassion. Sometimes what's needed is a friend or a companion to talk to and explore and think about things. Sometimes what's needed is a therapist. Sometimes what's needed is to go out into the world and serve and do something for the benefit of others—not for the sake of others, but that's what we need. That's where our growing and our evolution, our development is going to be.

So this idea of step-by-step, progressive, that idea of finding the tracks, so we're tracking carefully, not just big leaps, but here and now, where is the next step now? And so to go through a day with that kind of care, to end our session here together and then, taking time, ask yourself, "Given all this, given what's happened now, how I am now, what is the next step in my own inner maturation?" Is it to go have breakfast? But how do I have breakfast to support this gradual growth of the Dharma in me, the mindfulness of attention, of kindness? Is it to go to drive to work? Great, but how does driving to work support this gradual growth? Always asking, "Where's the Dharma here? Where's the maturation here? Where's the path to freedom here? Where's the path to kindness?"—in whatever we're doing.

And if you simply ask that question of yourself, you'll start being your own teacher. If you don't ask the question, then it's all too easy to live a life that is inattentive, where we're caught up in what we're doing that we don't really pay attention to how we're doing what we're doing. The Dharma is found in that how. And if you want to be your own teacher, then gradually, step-by-step, as you go through the day, find the path. Find how you can grow in these qualities that we've been talking about.

So thank you very, very much for the opportunity to teach and to be part of this. And I'll be back, I think it's the very, very end of July, I think maybe the 29th of July. And looking forward to being with you again. Thank you.