This is an AI-generated transcript from auto-generated subtitles for the video 7:00 a.m. Guided Meditation; 7:30 a.m. Dharma Talk with Gil Fronsdal. It likely contains inaccuracies.

Guided Meditation: Natural Awareness and Love; Dharmette: Love (10) Love Without a Reason - Gil Fronsdal

The following talk was given by Gil Fronsdal at Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, CA on January 15, 2026. Please visit the website www.audiodharma.org for more information.

Guided Meditation: Natural Awareness and Love

Hello and welcome to this meditation. In meditation, when you are doing mindfulness practice, the distinction between the experiences we have inside of us and the experiences we have that have to do with what is outside of us has no sharp line. They are all included.

If we sit and meditate with our eyes closed and center ourselves on the breathing, it is a kind of internal centering. But as the practice develops and expands, present-moment awareness starts including the world around us as well. At some point, there is no difference between the two from the point of view of this non-identifying, non-reactive awareness that is able to hold it all, perhaps in a "Big Mind" or a big awareness.

Love is the same way. There can be love that is entirely internal, but love is often connected to what is external to us. The more love expands, the more the difference between inside and outside dissolves. Many people go into nature for a walk—a city park with nice trees, perhaps seeing a lovely animal like a deer or squirrel, or seeing children play. There can be a kind of delight and even a warmth, a kind regard where something inside of us softens. We might describe this as a love for the natural world that inspires us and resets us, reminding us how to be at ease rather than caught up in the activities of the social world.

As we turn the attention inward, we find that the inner world too is a natural world. Everything we have within us is nature. Every thought, every feeling, sensation, and emotion can be seen as just another passing aspect, a changing dimension of the natural world as it is experienced in this body and mind. The line between inner and outer begins to dissolve, and the love, delight, and inspiration we find in the natural world can be found in the inner world equally.

This is radically different from how many people live, where there is a very strong identification with thoughts, emotions, desires, and personal situations. Sometimes this self-view is quite negative, or it is so compelling that we are caught in the grip of things. But there is a different way: when inner and outer become more or less the same, they are all nature. We can view the inner world not as something so personal, but as something we are intimate with through a non-identifying awareness. There is room for love here. This too is nature, no different than the world around us.

Deep natural drives and needs are operating within us. As mindfulness deepens, the line between the inner and outer world dissolves and love can go in all directions. It can be for all that is within us and all that is without us, without needing to be justified. It is simply a way of living in the middle of this natural world, appreciating its unfolding.

Take a meditation posture now, which is taking this very natural phenomenon of our body and arranging it in a way that allows for natural vitality, alertness, and the ability to relax to be maximized. Gently close your eyes.

Take some fuller breaths, softening into the body as you exhale. Allow the breathing to return to normal. In a soft, slow, and gentle way, allow yourself to become familiar with how the natural sensations of the body show themselves to you. Do not fixate on any one place, but let the attention roam or float around the body. Do not think about what you are feeling, except perhaps to think about feeling it better. Settle into the warmth, the tingling, or the humming of the body.

Similarly, with a soft attention, roam around the thinking mind—the sensations associated with the thinking, imagining, and reacting mind. Notice the mind where there might be a strong sense of "self" operating and feel the sensations of it all. As you exhale, soften the thinking mind and settle down into your torso.

Gently roam around the areas of your torso where breathing is experienced: the chest, the belly, the shoulders, and the rib cage. Notice the shifting pressure or weight on your sitting bones as you breathe. Let your attention float among these different sensations. Notice if there is any place in the body where breathing is pleasant, where there is enjoyment or sweetness in the cycle of the breath.

Relax the thinking mind and let go of your thoughts so you can let go into the experience of the body breathing. If there is any warmth or tenderness—a sweet humming with the breathing—take that in as a support to reassure the mind, helping it feel safe and able to relax.

Remember that what you are experiencing—your breathing, your sensations, your emotions, and your moods—is nature. Emotions and moods are like the weather. Thoughts are like clouds drifting by. The body is like the earth. Sensations are an expression of life; to feel sensations is to be alive. People and animals have been feeling sensations just like you since ancient times. We are sharing in an experience of being alive that has unfolded for centuries and millennia.

In the middle of it all, drop in the word "love." The word love evokes a family of warmhearted emotions. Drop in the word love for this natural world of your own body, mind, and heart. It is all nature. Let your awareness be infused with love and warmth for whatever might be there—the good, the bad, and the ugly. Love can hold it all.

Like dropping a stone into a pond, drop the word love into the middle of all things. Let it be a love that infuses awareness of all things, where there is no "inside" that is different from the "outside." Just awareness and love for all things.

As we come to the end of this sitting, imagine dropping the word love into the middle of our societies and communities. Let this love spread throughout your world, carrying your goodwill for everyone.

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

Thank you.

Dharmette: Love (10) Love Without a Reason

Welcome to this tenth talk on love in this ongoing series regarding what love has to do with our Buddhist practice. Many people who practice discover that as mindfulness becomes well-developed, it becomes almost synonymous with love.

Mature mindfulness does not resist or limit our experience or our attention. When resistances, contractions, and attachments dissolve, our natural capacity for love—goodwill, kindness, well-wishing, compassion, and caring—has a chance to surface and flow. Strong mindfulness brings an experience of feeling safe, content, and at home with oneself and the world. Even if the world around us is chaotic or dangerous, we are not defined by that chaos.

This non-identifying awareness is not about losing ourselves; it is about gaining ourselves. By letting go of limiting ideas of self, an unlimited quality emerges where nothing is held in check. When we stop overlaying our constructs, stories, beliefs, and desires onto our experience, we begin to understand that everything is nature. This realization can bring a deep sense of gratitude, reverence, joy, and appreciation.

Sitting down to meditate becomes equivalent to walking in a delightful natural setting. Taking a walk "inside" ourselves—through all our sensations, feelings, and thoughts—can be just as refreshing. But this requires an awareness that does not make a "self" out of anything. To do this wisely, we must know how to practice with our anger, aversion, fear, grief, sorrow, conceit, and attachments. We should not be at war with these states, nor should we be glued to them. We do not necessarily believe or disbelieve them; we do not simply accept or reject them. Instead, we see them clearly without needing to fix them or have them be different.

We discover the richness and freedom of an awareness that can hold it all without identifying with it. While there is certainly right and wrong in this world, awareness does not have to be caught in that grip. We can notice the feeling of "right" or "wrong" and hold it generously. This allows wisdom and intelligence to operate. If we are locked on and identified, we will not be as wise or as loving.

In Buddhism, we talk about suffering, or dukkha¹. Even with our suffering, we do not have to define ourselves by it. There is suffering, but that too is nature. This is not a betrayal or a command to "suffer better"; it is a path to becoming free. We hold suffering in an awareness that is not itself suffering. We recognize a way of being and knowing that remains free even when there is pain in the system.

This helps us discover a form of love that is not romantic or preferential. It is not dependent on getting something in return, nor is it based on whether people love us or whether we receive pleasure. There is a love that just radiates—a love that has no object and, in a way, no reason. It is like a tender warmth or sweetness that arises because we are settled and at ease.

It is possible to rest in a loving awareness that does not require a reason for its existence. It is our natural capacity. It wants to surface if we get out of the way and stop clinging. This is one of the great gifts of the practice: the emergence of love that has no reason.

There are kinds of love that do have reasons and objects, and that is fine. But at the heart of Buddhist practice is this capacity for awareness and love that is there for no purpose other than the nature of being alive. A free heart is an aware heart; a free heart is a loving heart. Each person has a love that is unique to their own heart.

Appreciate yourself. Appreciate your capacity for love. It is okay to be at ease in this world, because then the best of who you are has a chance to surface. You do not have to be afraid or strained. As you discover this natural capacity, the practices we will be doing—the Brahmavihāras²—will become more understandable and accessible. I look forward to continuing this with you.

Thank you.