Perceptions versus stories

Gil Fronsdal reflects on Anicca, the Buddhist teaching often translated as impermanence, and offers a more precise lens for Western minds to understand its meaning.

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In this episode, Gil offers wisdom on:

• How to create inner conditions that support the natural arising of wisdom
• Understanding inconstancy as a flow of coming and going, not a fixed state of change
• A powerful fable: The Emperor of China’s quest for a painting that embodies peace and wisdom
• Calming the agitated, restless mind through meditation and mindful awareness
• Discovering true peace and safety within ourselves, rather than chasing it in the external world
• The value of noticing the flow of change and where our minds are caught
• Knowing that it is not just the world that constantly changes, but also our perception of the world
• Floating in the river of change rather than trying to swim against it
• Seeing Anicca through the lens of insight meditation 

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.

This recording was originally published on Dharmaseed.org

"The mind is like a waterfall, furious and violent. There's not much peace in it. In that state, there's not much wisdom, not much clarity. This is one of the functions of meditation: to help us quiet the mind, settle it, and show the mind that there is an alternative to being restless and agitated. Teach the mind that the safety that it's looking for is found within.” – Gil Fronsdal

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