In this episode, Gil shares a resonant guided meditation helping us into a relaxed state of silence, stillness, and spaciousness.
“If you hear the sound of the birds, it’s because it’s quiet enough to hear them. Hear the whistling of the birds, and hear the silence that allows us to hear. In the silence, sounds appear. It’s possible to be aware of both the sounds and the silence.” – Gil Fronsdal
More 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. Gil has an undergraduate degree in agriculture from U.C. Davis where he was active in promoting the field of sustainable farming. In 1998 he received a PhD in Religious Studies from Stanford University studying the earliest developments of the bodhisattva ideal. 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.
More from the Be Here Now Network’s Guest Podcast:
Lama Rod Owens covers the dharma of freedom, loving ourselves, ancestral work, and the power of meditation: Ep. 127 – Dedication to Liberation
JoAnna Hardy shares a guided meditation all around the first foundation of mindfulness – mindfulness of the body: Ep. 126 – First Foundation Guided Meditation
Through bearing witness, love & service, Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee shares how we can collectively heal the crisis of disconnection & ecological devastation: Ep. 125 – Love & Service
Buddhist Master Thich Nhat Hanh explores how we can joyfully bring mindfulness into everyday activities like phone calls, driving, and walking: Ep. 122 – The Ojai Foundation Presents: Under the Teaching Tree with Thich Nhat Hanh
Photo via Athirati
