#Gil Fronsdal

[biene864maja]

[amaised44]

[philosohappy]

Been spending some time looking at the word kalyāṇa, as well as, kalyāṇamitta -- reflecting on how it applies to myself, and also the friendships in my life. It’s interesting. I think the information below (the list of the seven characteristics), is most helpful to me. It puts everything into perspective. It’s an eye-opener, for sure.

I also uploaded a video to my YouTube channel. It’s Gil Fronsdal discussing the meaning of kalyāṇa, during the closing ceremony of an insight meditation retreat that I participated in.

In the Mitta sutta of the Anguttara Nikaya, the Buddha has described seven characteristics of a good friend. The seven characteristics are: 

1. He gives what is hard to give 

2. He does what is hard to do 

3. He endures what is hard to endure 

4. He reveals his secrets to you 

5. He keeps your secrets 

6. He does not abandon you in misfortunes 

7. He doesn’t look down on you, when you’re down-and-out

[buboplague]

there are elements in the some of the darker parts of your art with the physical/spiritual disfigurement which i find really interesting

i was hoping to know if you have any commentary around how you dealt with these kind of feelings personally - and if there’s and reading material you’d recommend for someone going through something similar

also thanks for sharing your work! it truly is stunning

Thank you for enjoying my work! I'm glad that you find it interesting.

This is difficult to answer since everyone interprets art differently, and I don't know for certain which feelings you're seeing and referring to in my work, or what you're going through, so unfortunately I don't think my personal commentary is helpful.

But for reading recs, this podcast has been a good resource that has helped me find information and books on various topics and dealing with an assortment of things:

The One You Feed - Focuses on interviewing authors of books, spiritual teachers, and other helpful individuals for self help. There's a ton of episodes, a ton of topics, a lot of perspectives in one place, so I find it incredibly helpful. Bonus that the host is very grounded and professional. If a guest's advice doesn't vibe with you, just skip it and try someone else on the same topic, and if you do like someone's advice, they almost always have a book or some other content you can follow up on (sorry it's an audio and not reading rec; you can still read the show notes of each episode to get an idea of books and their topics if you're unable to listen)

I'm also particularly fond of this short talk by Gil Fronsdal (there is a written transcript available)

I'm sorry if this answer has been a bit of a non-answer, but I do wish you luck and strength for whatever you are going through!

[deepinsamsara]

"During my early Vipassana practice in Thailand, Achaan Buddhadasa said at the opening of a ten-day retreat, “Do not do anything that takes you out of your body.” I carried this—for me puzzling—instruction with me during the ten-day retreat, and I began to realize how often my center of attention and gravity were projected in front of me as I so frequently reached forward to grasp or identify with something outside of myself. The antic­ipation of lunch or the end of a meditation period, the rehashing of memories, the planning for future events, and the desire for or aversion to emotions or states of mind all contributed to a sense of not being physically centered on myself. Often I would feel as if I was ahead of myself either by actually leaning forward, or more usually and more subtly by feeling my “center of gravity” projected forward. In the course of the ten-day retreat, I began to learn to settle back into my own center of gravity and to align my body in a balanced vertical posture. The more settled I felt in my body, the more sensitive I became to ever subtler movements away from center caused by ever subtler attachments and aver­sions of the mind. Gradually I learned that mindfulness of the body is one of the best windows I have into an honest view of my inner life."

-Gil Fronsdal

[radical-revolution]

Vigilance

Vigilance is the path to the Deathless;

Negligence the path to death.

The vigilant do not die;

The negligent are as if already dead.

Knowing this distinction,

Vigilant sages rejoice in vigilance,

Delighting

In the field of the noble ones.

Absorbed in meditation, persevering,

Always steadfast,

The wise touch Nirvana,

The ultimate rest from toil.

Glory grows for a person who is

Energetic and mindful,

Pure and considerate in action,

Restrained and vigilant,

And who lives the Dharma.

Through effort, vigilance,

Restraint, and self-control,

The wise person can become an island

No flood will overwhelm.

Unwise, foolish people

Give themselves over to negligence.

The wise

Protect vigilance as the greatest treasure.

Don’t give yourself to negligence,

Don’t devote yourself to sensual pleasure.

Vigilant and absorbed in meditation,

One attains abundant happiness.

Driving away negligence with vigilance,

Ascending the tower of insight and free of sorrow,

A sage observes the sorrowing masses

As someone standing on a mountain observes

Fools on the ground below.

Vigilant among the negligent,

Wide awake among the sleeping,

The wise one advances

Like a swift horse leaving a weak one behind.

With vigilance, Indra became the greatest of the gods.

The gods praise vigilance,

Forever rejecting negligence.

The monastic who delights in vigilance

And fears negligence

Advances like a fire,

Burning fetters subtle and gross.

The monastic who delights in vigilance

And fears negligence

Is incapable of backsliding

And is quite close to Nirvana.

—The Dhammapada: A New Translation of the Buddhist Classic

[ome-magical-ramblings]

"the most powerfull exercise you did", Stacking prayers, and praying with spirits and entities.

This is how it felt when I got asked this question by an acquaintance and I was floored and baffled by it. What's the most powerful exercise? I couldn't answer, what could I realistically say here? Evoke ancient daimon, spam this rite, or do this long convoluted ritual, I had nothing I could say. Because what's the most powerful exercise is but a gradual unfolding, I remember from Dhammapada Don’t disregard merit, thinking, “It won’t come back to me!” With dripping drops of water Even a water jug is filled. Little by little, A sage is filled with merit. Dhammapada v. 121-122, translated by Gil Fronsdal I think we don't realize how powerful the simple prayers and stuff we do, the pressure, inertia, and momentum of practice carries this "weight" that we don't realize easily. What's the most powerful exercise? Does it mean going to the gym and trying to hurt myself lifting the biggest weight I can over and over until I sustain an injury(metaphorically) ? There's a very definite subtle qualities that's bestowed upon us with the continuous practice of prayers, purification, and hymn recitations. Is that something sought? I don't think so, should we aggressively seek to get this "high" of divine power? or trying to force these states that leave us in a dazed state lmao. This bring upon us the idea of stacking prayers or hymns. The prayers when arranged in a specific way can cause a a new result that wasn't existent in the original two prayers alone. So...now a person would usually think if they throw all the powerful prayers they had before it would comes out well. I don't agree with that approach...because I burned my finger doing that. Can't play a song in reverse and expect the same melody, can't sauté onions well if there's a bunch of other stuff already in the pan, the order of practice is needed. There's need to be a subtle approach to this, better less than a lot. You can consult the "spirit of" the prayers you practice, if you anthropomorphize the prayer, invocation, text of practice you're doing you will have a more intimate relationship with it and your practice will grow deeper. After all that said, what else can you do? call your spiritual neighbors, ancestors, friends human or non-human. Call the elementals, the genii loci, ask them if they want to pray with you and pray with them. This is a definitely valid approach to transform yourself and other, imagine if you stopped having access to the prayers, invocations, and all the materials you have access to today, pray for these entities and give them access to the teaching you have, give them access to prayers and to invocations, bless them so that in the future you are blessed in the same way. We don't live in a vacuum.

[tsultrimpawo]

Seeing Possibility in Suffering Being intolerant of suffering, in the Buddhist sense, does not mean that we reject it or fight against it. It means that we stop and look at it, not morbidly, but with faith in the possibility of living a joyful and peaceful life. — Gil Fronsdal, "Living Two Traditions" (Photo: Lake Tahoe, California, May 2014) #Satipațțhāna #Maitri #Metta #Karuna #Mudita #Upekkha https://www.instagram.com/p/ClWJkMNrqLp/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[fielder]

Hello, I enjoyed your post about meditation. Especially where you mention Gil and his most frequent opening word. It made me laugh. I have been listening to Gil for years.

Yes, thanks, this is in re: Gil Fronsdal, meditation teacher

[psychreviews2]

The Anapanasati Sutta: Mindfulness of Breathing

Originally posted on: Jan 13, 2018

Today I’m comparing different English translations of The Anapanasati sutta, the discourse on the mindfulness of breathing. There are a couple of versions I would like to share. One translation is from Gil Fronsdal, from the Insight Meditation Center in California, and Thanissaro Bhikkhu’s translation from the Majjhima Nikaya. Thanissaro has taught in many locations, including the Insight Meditation Center. The following instructions will be broken down into tetrads for ease of practice.

1st tetrad

The instructions begin with: "Always mindful, she breathes in; mindful she breathes out. Ardent, alert, & mindful — putting aside greed & distress with reference to the world."

Ardent is translated as a form of passion or wholehearted commitment. Alert means you are not sleeping, or lost in thoughts. Mindfulness, according to Thanissaro, is being able to bring your mind back to the breath when it wanders. The mind will wander, but there is no need for self-recrimination. We just keep bringing the mind back to the breath. If we keep thinking about how to meditate, we are just stuck in thinking. The best way is to put in a little effort, and just start.

As we begin the 1st tetrad we have a few word options for following the breath. Gil uses knowing. We know that the breath is long or short. Thanissaro uses discerning a long or short breath. The word discern can also be translated as recognize. If your mind is wandering you cannot recognize the details of the breath. If you can recognize a long or short breath, or any of the following details, then you are concentrated enough.

The instructions move from the breath to the body. Thanissaro’s translation uses the term sensitive. "I will breathe sensitive to the entire body." Gil uses experiencing the whole body. At first we are narrow with the breath in the belly or the nose, depending on whichever you prefer. Either way we must expand our attention span to include the breath and the sensations of the body. When we do this we can notice tension in different areas of the body. These are called in Buddhism, bodily formations or bodily fabrications.

A fabrication is like a building. The tension builds. We relax the bodily formations, or calm the bodily fabrications. Essentially, relax your body. Whatever tensions we have in our mind we can see are manifesting with tightness in our body. That’s what this is about. See if these tensions are necessary, and if not, train the brain to tighten less.

Summary:

Try to recognize long breaths, while being interested, aware, and always coming back to the breath.

Recognize short breaths in the same way.

Expand your attention to include the body.

Relax tightness in the body.

2nd tetrad

When the body is relaxed, we are in the 2nd tetrad. The instructions start with being sensitive to rapture or, depending on the translation, you experience enjoyment. We enjoy the in and out breath with this reduced bodily tightness. Then we are sensitive to pleasure or we experience the pleasure.

This is a calming feeling which is a more peaceful form of pleasure we started with. With this calm relaxation, it is much easier to look at what the mind is doing. We become sensitive to mental fabrication, or experience our mental formations. A form of mental tightness.

At this point we are moving into a form of thought stopping, but the difference here is that we relax the mental formations, or calm the mental fabrications. Another way to put it, we relax our mental tightness, and the tightness of those thoughts that interrupt the meditation.

Summary:

Pay attention to the enjoyment or rapture.

As time passes pay attention to the more refined pleasure that appears.

Experience or be sensitive to our tight thinking.

Relax the strained thinking that interrupts the meditation.

3rd tetrad

Here is where it can get vague in the translations. Gil want us to breathe in and out experiencing the mind, satisfying the mind, composing the mind, and liberating the mind. Thanissaro wants us to be sensitive to the mind, satisfy the mind, steady the mind, and release the mind.

In this tetrad, we are experiencing the quality of our mind. In this experiencing, Gil describes paying attention to whether the mind is being preoccupied, or not preoccupied. Preoccupations are what deeply disturb our concentration. They are our deepest concerns about our place in life.

When we are free of preoccupation and we become satisfied with the results of the prior meditative work, the mind becomes more composed or concentrated on the breath. There is less effort to keep the mind from wandering. Liberation is now possible with this clear mind so we can move onto the 4th tetrad.

With Thanissaro, the 3rd tetrad is about measuring the state of our mind. If we are depressed, we then gladden the mind by focusing on what is enjoyable about the breath. Another choice is thinking about inspirational thoughts and uplifting memories to return to a better state of mind. If the mind is overly excited, we are to breathe in a way that steadies the mind.

A useful guide that Thanissaro recommends is surveying how much effort and pain there is in trying to maintain concentration. A lot of insight in meditation is learning to think, and allow mental movements to happen without so much stress. This is a form of mental stream-lining.

In Buddhism, much of our stress is habitual. With a strong meditation practice the stress can become more of a choice, as the brain starts rewiring.

Summary:

As your strained thinking starts subsiding, notice the quality of the mind.

Gladden the mind if the state of mind is down.

Steady the mind if it is too excited.

Release the deep preoccupations of the mind by looking at the drawbacks of the stress. Notice how small our problems are compared to the hugeness of the universe and time. Be creative and use what contemplation works with trial and error. Just like in the sutta, we must put aside greed and distress in reference to the world. The outside world that the preoccupations are aimed at.

4th tetrad

Gil’s instructions:

First contemplate impermanence of your experience.

Then contemplate the fading away of clinging.

Then contemplate the cessation of clinging and then relinquishment of it all.

Thanissaro looks at this tetrad with a lot of detail. Inconstancy is a tool to see all experiences, including powerful impulses as ultimately not lasting. We must wait until the impulses evaporate on their own. One can notice how the impulses get stronger as you concentrate on them. As we get more skilled at this, we can look at the dispassion we have for what is impermanent. As the mind finds what’s impermanent dissatisfying, it naturally lets go of clinging stress.

Thanissaro emphasizes moving up the Jhanas, as one uses less stress to stay in concentration. There is a link below on how to develop Jhanas, or concentration states. When we can’t stay, or we can’t move in these concentration states without stress, the escape appears. We can then turn the insight at the concentration itself. The concentration has taken a lot of effort thus far. Any movement of the attention span has some stress. The mind naturally lets both the staying and the moving drop away. This is the real relinquishment or nirvana. One must go through this non-experience. Nirvana cannot be perceived or willed into manifestation.

Summary:

Look at the impermanence of our senses and thoughts.

Notice how trying to control experiences with stressful intentions, is a waste of energy.

As dissatisfaction increases, the mind has less obsession and clinging.

Focus on the concentration itself, and notice the work that is necessary to maintain it. Keep cultivating until the mind cannot find a better place. When stuck between staying or moving the mind naturally, relinquishes both staying and moving.

Photo:

Buddhist Monk Ajaan Geoff giving a Dhamma Talk By Ajaan_Goeff_Dhamma_Talk.jpg: Sakula (Mary Reinard).The original uploader was Narcissus at English Wikipediaderivative work: Sudozero (talk) - Ajaan_Goeff_Dhamma_Talk.jpg, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11290301

[aaronhillsworld]

Have you heard of Equanimity? 🤔 Tomorrow at 5M Soulful Self Care Saturdays we’ll talk about and practice this concept as it relates to life & meditation. Here’s tomorrow’s notes. Join me! • Equanimity definition — Balance, mental calmness, composure, and evenness of temper, especially in a difficult situation. • Equanimity can be confused with indifference. As a “flat lining” vs a lack of friction. Allowing emotions to come up and move through while not being overtaken by the experience. • With equanimity you are poised to let the salient and intense stimulus arise and pass. Not resisting the experience or needing it to be different in any way. • Equanimity offers us a container in which to hold the full range of our experience. The ability to stand in the middle of whatever is happening with balance, strength and stability. There is a strong presence of inner calm, well being and integrity that keeps us strong and balanced. • “As inner strength develops equanimity follows” — Gil Fronsdal • One major study demonstrated that In response to emotionally charged stimuli meditators show increased activity in the amygdala and also frontal regions. They were experiencing negative emotion while remaining in control. They were experiencing the emotion fully with composure and without suppressing the experience. Repeat these 5 Mantras for 5 minutes a day to help yourself to stay balanced 1. I won’t allow the good or bad things in life to remove me from my place of peace, center and groundedness. 2. The only consistency in life is change and I embrace that change isn’t always easy, but it’s doable. 3. It is what it is but that doesn’t mean it will continue to be what it is. 4. Right now I inhale patience and exhale anxiousness. 5. I will work to accept what I can’t change, change what I can and stay curious in order to know the difference. 12-2pm @ One God One Thought Center Center for Better Living (3605 Coronado Rd.) Adults $10 Kids & Teens $5 Massage $1 per min. More info @ 5Mselfcare.com Bring your family & friends and Let’s Self Care Together on Saturdays! (at One God One Thought Center Center for Better Living) https://www.instagram.com/p/CpDHKwwOOjD/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[amaised44]

[philosohappy]

Gil Fronsdal tellin' it like it is. 

(Plus, me making a hmmph sound in ah-ha agreement.)

And the artwork is from Be Here Now, by Ram Dass

[rdnewhaven]

The Joy of Giving Generosity entails relinquishing some aspects of one’s self-interest, and thus is a giving of one’s self. —Gil Fronsdal, “The Joy of Giving” #Dana (at New Haven Zen Center) https://www.instagram.com/p/Co7DjCTOD4r/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[silence-the-barking-monk]

"In the Buddha’s teachings, tranquility is a supportive condition for happiness that can be characterized as “peaceful happiness.” In meditation, the state of tranquility provides contentment and peace that are the basis for a deep and sublime sense of well-being."

[radical-revolution]

Brief Instructions for Loving-Kindness Meditation

To practice loving-kindness meditation, sit in a comfortable and relaxed manner. Take two or three deep breaths with slow, long and complete exhalations. Let go of any concerns or preoccupations. For a few minutes, feel or imagine the breath moving through the center of your chest - in the area of your heart.

Metta is first practiced toward oneself, since we often have difficulty loving others without first loving ourselves. Sitting quietly, mentally repeat, slowly and steadily, the following or similar phrases:

May I be happy. May I be well. May I be safe. May I be peaceful and at ease.

While you say these phrases, allow yourself to sink into the intentions they express. Loving-kindness meditation consists primarily of connecting to the intention of wishing ourselves or others happiness. However, if feelings of warmth, friendliness, or love arise in the body or mind, connect to them, allowing them to grow as you repeat the phrases. As an aid to the meditation, you might hold an image of yourself in your mind's eye. This helps reinforce the intentions expressed in the phrases.

After a period of directing loving-kindness toward yourself, bring to mind a friend or someone in your life who has deeply cared for you. Then slowly repeat phrases of loving-kindness toward them:

May you be happy. May you be well. May you be safe. May you be peaceful and at ease.

As you say these phrases, again sink into their intention or heartfelt meaning. And, if any feelings of loving-kindness arise, connect the feelings with the phrases so that the feelings may become stronger as you repeat the words.

As you continue the meditation, you can bring to mind other friends, neighbors, acquaintances, strangers, animals, and finally people with whom you have difficulty. You can either use the same phrases, repeating them again and again, or make up phrases that better represent the loving-kindness you feel toward these beings. In addition to simple and perhaps personal and creative forms of metta practice, there is a classic and systematic approach to metta as an intensive meditation practice. Because the classic meditation is fairly elaborate, it is usually undertaken during periods of intensive metta practice on retreat.

Sometimes during loving-kindness meditation, seemingly opposite feelings such as anger, grief, or sadness may arise. Take these to be signs that your heart is softening, revealing what is held there. You can either shift to mindfulness practice or you can—with whatever patience, acceptance, and kindness you can muster for such feelings—direct loving-kindness toward them. Above all, remember that there is no need to judge yourself for having these feelings.

~Gil Fronsdal, The Issue at Hand