AudioDharma: Gil Fronsdal's most recent dharma talks
Oct 4, 2026 · 31 min · 9 segments
This talk was given by Gil Fronsdal on 2026.10.04 at the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, CA. A machine generated transcript of this talk is available. It has not been edited by a human, so…
Gil FronsdalHost
And the word growth is, um, v- very, uh, apropos for this process because it's a gradual proc... gradual growth.
It's a gradual unfolding development that happens over time, and it can happen the... one's whole life.
Just a slow, steady growing of all kinds of different inner qualities, qua- qualities, characteristics, uh, states of mind, states of heart.
They can really come and shape our disposition, how we are in the world, who we are, how we feel we are.
And, uh, in the tradition, they say they can come to a kind of a wholeness with them, a fullness, a completion of these wonderful states, and it's a slow and steady process.
When I was introduced to Buddhism for many years, uh, I did not get that message.
Just be really right here, and right here sit, st- sit in the emptiness of all things or sit with an awakened mind kind of," and that was just happily ever after.
So there was this kind of this radical, almost non-dual idea, just be here with this.
the other thing that I saw in Buddhism was that there was a, a tremendous emphasis on enlightenment.
Since sometimes enlightenment was to be found right here and now, and sometimes it was b- you know, you hope to g- make it there someday.
And so a lot of the emphasis was on enlightenment, and then enlightenment itself was a radical letting go, a radical falling away.
But it's a radical letting go, and that, um, if you look for descriptions and definitions of what this experience of awakening is, um, they're very non-descriptive.
There's nothing to ho... very little to hold onto there because almost maybe purposefully so that you're not trying to get or acquire or select an experience that's just that experience.
And so there was a little quip that people would say that enlightenment is not what you think it is.
And the word growth is, um, v- very, uh, apropos for this process because it's a gradual proc... gradual growth.
It's a gradual unfolding development that happens over time, and it can happen the... one's whole life.
Just a slow, steady growing of all kinds of different inner qualities, qua- qualities, characteristics, uh, states of mind, states of heart.
They can really come and shape our disposition, how we are in the world, who we are, how we feel we are.
And, uh, in the tradition, they say they can come to a kind of a wholeness with them, a fullness, a completion of these wonderful states, and it's a slow and steady process.
When I was introduced to Buddhism for many years, uh, I did not get that message.
Just be really right here, and right here sit, st- sit in the emptiness of all things or sit with an awakened mind kind of," and that was just happily ever after.
So there was this kind of this radical, almost non-dual idea, just be here with this.
the other thing that I saw in Buddhism was that there was a, a tremendous emphasis on enlightenment.
Since sometimes enlightenment was to be found right here and now, and sometimes it was b- you know, you hope to g- make it there someday.
And so a lot of the emphasis was on enlightenment, and then enlightenment itself was a radical letting go, a radical falling away.
But it's a radical letting go, and that, um, if you look for descriptions and definitions of what this experience of awakening is, um, they're very non-descriptive.
There's nothing to ho... very little to hold onto there because almost maybe purposefully so that you're not trying to get or acquire or select an experience that's just that experience.
And so there was a little quip that people would say that enlightenment is not what you think it is.
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