Gil Fronsdal (born 1954) is a Norwegian-born, American Buddhist teacher, writer and scholar based inRedwood City,California. He has been practicingBuddhism of theSōtō Zen andVipassanāsects since 1975, and is currently teaching the practice of Buddhism in theSan Francisco Bay Area.^[1] Having been taught by the Vipassanā practitionerJack Kornfield, Fronsdal is part of the Vipassanā teachers' collective atSpirit Rock Meditation Center.^[2] He was ordained as a Sōtō Zen priest at theSan Francisco Zen Center in 1982, and was aTheravāda monk in Burma in 1985.^[1] In 1995, he receivedDharma transmission fromMel Weitsman, the abbot of theBerkeley Zen Center.^[3]

He is the guiding teacher of theInsightMeditation Center (IMC) of Redwood City.^[4] He has a PhD inBuddhist Studies fromStanford University.^[2] His manydharma talks available online contain basic information on meditation and Buddhism, as well as subtleconcepts of Buddhism explained at the level of thelay person.^[5]

Fronsdal has been credited with identifying "what is perhaps the basic formula of success for any Buddhist group in America: 'spiritual' practice (that is, meditation) removed from Asian cultural expressions".^[6] Fronsdal has also been noted for his "analysis of the transformed role ofsila (morality) in the western Insight Meditation Movement"^[7] and his view that the popularity of vipassana meditation in middle-class America is related to its message of "orthopraxy" (right action) and its lack of cultural and historical "baggage".^[8] His work has also been cited as a means by whichFirst Nations people might "change the reality ofinternalized oppression to the reality of peace"^[9] while his 2005 translation of theDhammapada has been included in a suggested reading list for teaching college students about happiness.^[10]

In a 2011 discussion of the meaning ofmindfulness, the AmericanTheravadaBuddhistmonkBhikkhu Bodhi cited Fronsdal in the following passage as "neatly" summarizing the difference between traditional Buddhist practice and that being taught in the West:

Rather than stressing world-renunciation, they [Western lay teachers] stress engagement with, and freedom within the world. Rather than rejecting the body, these Western teachers embrace the body as part of theholistic field of practice. Rather than stressing ultimate spiritual goals such as full enlightenment, ending the cycles of rebirth, or attaining the various stages ofsainthood, many Western teachers tend to stress the immediate benefits ofmindfulness and untroubled,equanimous presence in the midst of life’s vicissitudes.^[11]

This approach has been described as having traditional forms of Buddhism "being expanded upon rather than rejected", with Fronsdal cited as calling on Vipassana teachers "to study traditional Buddhism, not in order to adopt it wholesale but to be moreconscious about what is and is not adopted and to take more responsibility for assumptions and intentions underlying innovation".^[12] As such, Fronsdal is recognized as presenting meditation as "the heart of the Buddhist path" with the traditional Buddhist values of loving-kindness,ethics, andgenerosity as key elements in a mindfulness-based, spiritual life among practitioners who are more likely to describe their involvement as "spiritual" rather than "religious".^[13]

In 2008Peter Dale Scott, the Canadian-born poet and professoremeritus of English at theUniversity of California, Berkeley, published a poem dedicated to Fronsdal entitledBreathing exercise: a how-to poem.^[14]

• Fronsdal, Gil (2016),The Buddha before Buddhism: Wisdom from the Early Teachings,Shambhala Publications,ISBN 978-9386867292
• Fronsdal, Gil (2010),AMonastery Within: Tales from the Buddhist Path, Tranquil Books,ISBN 978-0-9845092-1-8
• Fronsdal, Gil (2005),TheDhammapada: A New Translation of the Buddhist Classic with Annotations,Shambhala Publications,ISBN 1-59030-211-7
• Fronsdal, Gil (2002), "Virtues without Rules", in Prebish, C.S.; Baumann, Martin (eds.),Westward Dharma: Buddhism Beyond Asia,University of California Press,ISBN 978-0520226258
• Fronsdal, Gil (2001),The Issue at Hand", Essays on Buddhist Mindfulness Practice
• Fronsdal, Gil (1998), "Insight Meditation in the United States:Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness", in Prebish, C.S.; Tanaka, K.K. (eds.),The Faces of Buddhism in America,University of California Press
• Fronsdal, Egil (1998),The dawn of the bodhisattva path: Studies in a religious ideal of ancient Indian Buddhists with particular emphasis on the earliest extantPerfection of Wisdom Sūtra" (Ph.D. thesis),Stanford University, archived fromthe original on 2011-07-19, retrieved2009-04-21
• Fronsdal, Gil; Van House, Nancy (1996),Voices from Spirit Rock: Talks on Mindfulness Practice, Clear & Present Graphics
• Fronsdal, Gil;Kornfield, Jack (1996),Teachings of the Buddha,Shambhala Publications,ISBN 1-57062-124-1

• Official website
• Dharma talks (mp3)
• Dhammapada readings (mp3)
• Insight Meditation Center (Redwood City, California, USA)
• Insight Retreat Center (Santa Cruz, California, USA)

• Living people
• 20th-century American Buddhists
• 21st-century American Buddhists
• Norwegian Buddhists
• American Zen Buddhists
• American Theravada Buddhists
• American scholars of Buddhism
• Norwegian emigrants to the United States
• Theravada Buddhist spiritual teachers
• 1954 births
• Stanford University alumni

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata