AudioDharma: Gil Fronsdal's most recent dharma talks
Sep 30, 2026 · 31 min · 6 segments
This talk was given by Gil Fronsdal on 2026.09.30 at the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, CA. Video of this talk is available at…
Gil FronsdalHost
And some people when they meditate, uh, think they're not supposed to do much at all, just relax, be, not try to do anything, um, maybe be with their breathing.
And there's a kind of sometimes a kind of, uh, passivity that, uh, with which meditators are meditating.
Sometimes that passivity is the just the right medicine for an overactive life and things can settle.
But at some point, that passivity, uh, is maybe counterproductive because then it's very easy to begin slipping into distracted thoughts.
And, and there's something about, um, uh, uh, involving your thinking mind in the process of meditation, which is allowed and helpful and meaningful, useful.
But we have to know how to do that, how to use thinking, how to speak to ourselves in a way that is supports the meditative process.
Uh, one is that, um, uh, while there is a movement towards becoming calmer, quieter, uh, less active to kind of moving towards a kind of deep peace, the, uh, it's, it might be enabled, supported by a certain kind of sense of, uh, purpose, uh, to, to feel like this is important, this is valuable.
This is, uh, very auspicious, very important to have the opportunity to meditate.
So there was, there's a kind of a little bit of a, of a strength, a little bit of a, of a gathering ourselves together.
And, um, and the other is that, uh, when we, we can es- it's possible to include thinking as part of meditation, but to do so from the deep mind.
Conversational thinking, storytelling thinking, uh, judging thinking happens more on the surface mind.
And some people when they meditate, uh, think they're not supposed to do much at all, just relax, be, not try to do anything, um, maybe be with their breathing.
And there's a kind of sometimes a kind of, uh, passivity that, uh, with which meditators are meditating.
Sometimes that passivity is the just the right medicine for an overactive life and things can settle.
But at some point, that passivity, uh, is maybe counterproductive because then it's very easy to begin slipping into distracted thoughts.
And, and there's something about, um, uh, uh, involving your thinking mind in the process of meditation, which is allowed and helpful and meaningful, useful.
But we have to know how to do that, how to use thinking, how to speak to ourselves in a way that is supports the meditative process.
Uh, one is that, um, uh, while there is a movement towards becoming calmer, quieter, uh, less active to kind of moving towards a kind of deep peace, the, uh, it's, it might be enabled, supported by a certain kind of sense of, uh, purpose, uh, to, to feel like this is important, this is valuable.
This is, uh, very auspicious, very important to have the opportunity to meditate.
So there was, there's a kind of a little bit of a, of a strength, a little bit of a, of a gathering ourselves together.
And, um, and the other is that, uh, when we, we can es- it's possible to include thinking as part of meditation, but to do so from the deep mind.
Conversational thinking, storytelling thinking, uh, judging thinking happens more on the surface mind.
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