Be Here Now Network Guest Podcast Ep. 237 - Imagination: A New Year’s Talk with Buddhist Teacher Gil Fronsdal
Jan 5, 2026
In this insightful discussion, Gil Fronsdal, a renowned Buddhist teacher and co-teacher at the Insight Meditation Center, explores the dual nature of imagination. He highlights how it can create beauty and connection while also leading to suffering. Gil reflects on mindfulness through the lens of everyday experiences and the importance of not getting lost in dreams. He connects imagination to compassion and warns against passive engagement with reality. By envisioning a world free from suffering, he invites listeners to harness imagination for meaningful intentions.
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Imagination Both Creates And Harms
- Gil Fronsdal observes that imagination creates both beauty and suffering by generating possibilities and connections.
- He urges recognizing imagination's value alongside its dangers rather than abandoning it entirely.
Hut Story Shows Imagination's Power
- Gil Fronsdal tells the classic hut-and-noise story to show how imagination turns harmless stimuli into terror.
- He uses it to illustrate how our self-image and fear often arise from imagined patterns, not reality.
Use Sensory Anchors To Wake Up
- Practice returning to raw sensory building blocks like breath, steps, and the weight of the body to wake from imagined narratives.
- Use these present-moment anchors to access peace, joy, and compassion in each moment.
