AudioDharma: Gil Fronsdal's most recent dharma talks
Aug 28, 2026 · 30 min · 6 segments
This talk was given by Gil Fronsdal on 2026.08.28 at the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, CA. Video of this talk is available at: https://youtube.com/live/TsaEGjyZ7dU?feature=share. A…
Gil FronsdalHost
So over the last couple of weeks, I've given some guidance, instructions to bring ourselves right into the middle, right at the center of certain kind of midpoint of our life, right there where life kind of begins, where sensations of the present moment arise, and we meet them.
And based on that, we interpret them, we tell ourselves what it is, we recognize things.
Once we recognize what it is, it might be we have associations with it, we assign meaning to it, we have values we put on it.
And then that stimulates more thoughts and discursive thoughts and stories and imaginations.
And to bring ourselves right there where the Dharma is found, this deep place where present moment intelligence is found, the deep place here where we can find, recognize what is wholesome and unwholesome, is at the heart of kind of this path of freedom, this path of deep wisdom that the Buddha is offering.
And what I'd like to suggest for today is that to stay close to that has a lot to do with what we don't do.
And so we tend to overlay so many interpretations, ideas, reactivity on top of what's here that's extra.
And so to place ourself right in that middle point here and let that mostly be a place of non-doing.
Not to push anything away, not to deny anything, not to affirm anything, but to find a dynamic place in the middle where there's a kind of a strong attention, a strong stability, kind of, that is more like a stillness within, but we're not holding ourselves still.
We are, have the stillness of the early morning dawn over a very peaceful lake where everything has become quiet and still, soft, but unmoving, denying nothing, And if a bird flies through the air, if a fish jumps out of the water, it kind of doesn't disturb the dynamic stillness here.
So over the last couple of weeks, I've given some guidance, instructions to bring ourselves right into the middle, right at the center of certain kind of midpoint of our life, right there where life kind of begins, where sensations of the present moment arise, and we meet them.
And based on that, we interpret them, we tell ourselves what it is, we recognize things.
Once we recognize what it is, it might be we have associations with it, we assign meaning to it, we have values we put on it.
And then that stimulates more thoughts and discursive thoughts and stories and imaginations.
And to bring ourselves right there where the Dharma is found, this deep place where present moment intelligence is found, the deep place here where we can find, recognize what is wholesome and unwholesome, is at the heart of kind of this path of freedom, this path of deep wisdom that the Buddha is offering.
And what I'd like to suggest for today is that to stay close to that has a lot to do with what we don't do.
And so we tend to overlay so many interpretations, ideas, reactivity on top of what's here that's extra.
And so to place ourself right in that middle point here and let that mostly be a place of non-doing.
Not to push anything away, not to deny anything, not to affirm anything, but to find a dynamic place in the middle where there's a kind of a strong attention, a strong stability, kind of, that is more like a stillness within, but we're not holding ourselves still.
We are, have the stillness of the early morning dawn over a very peaceful lake where everything has become quiet and still, soft, but unmoving, denying nothing, And if a bird flies through the air, if a fish jumps out of the water, it kind of doesn't disturb the dynamic stillness here.
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