Exploring the path to samadhi, Gil Fronsdal reflects on how we can stop being at war with ourselves and develop a more unified awareness.
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In this episode, Gil Fronsdal offers a talk on:
- The process of becoming whole
- Holding compassion for the self and others
- Feeling at ease and not being in conflict with the self
- Unification as a function of samadhi
- Composing ourselves on what is happening in the moment
- Learning to be alert while relaxing
- The problem with too much thinking
- How defining ourselves physically limits the quality of awareness
- Including it all, the difficult and the wonderful
“I believe that the earlier stages before samadhi are stages that are to help us become whole and not to be divided with ourselves or fragmented. Part of the process of entering samadhi is becoming whole, at least samadhi is healthier the more whole we become, when we are not at war with ourselves.” –Gil Fronsdal
This recording was originally published on Dharmaseed
About Gil Fronsdal:
Gil Fronsdal is the co-teacher for the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California; he has been teaching since 1990. He has practiced Zen and Vipassana in the U.S. and Asia since 1975. He was a Theravada monk in Burma in 1985, and in 1989 began training with Jack Kornfield to be a Vipassana teacher. Gil teaches at Spirit Rock Meditation Center where he is part of its Teachers Council. Gil was ordained as a Soto Zen priest at the San Francisco Zen Center in 1982, and in 1995 received Dharma Transmission from Mel Weitsman, the abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center. He currently serves on the SF Zen Center Elders’ Council. In 2011 he founded IMC’s Insight Retreat Center. He is the author of The Issue at Hand, essays on mindfulness practice; A Monastery Within; a book on the five hindrances called Unhindered; and the translator of The Dhammapada, published by Shambhala Publications. You may listen to Gil’s talks on Audio Dharma.
“When the mind is stable and equanimous, you have a much better situation to be able to see clearly without the filter of your conditioning, the filter of your likes and dislikes, the filter of your emotional reaction to what is going on.” –Gil Fronsdal
Photo by wirestock
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