Courses / Fall 2014 Shamatha, Vipashyana, Dream Yoga, and the Experience of Pristine Awareness in the Great Perfection Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism /

25 We don’t need another hero!

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Fall 2014 Shamatha, Vipashyana, Dream Yoga

B. Alan Wallace
21 Aug 2014 – 16 Oct 2014
Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand

This eight-week retreat will focus on three of the six transitional processes, namely:

  • the Transitional Process of Living, with teachings on śamatha and vipaśyanā,
  • the Transitional Process of Dreaming, with teachings on dream yoga, and
  • the Transitional Process of Meditation with teachings on Dzogchen meditation.

All these teachings will be based on the text The Profound Dharma of The Natural Emergence of the Peaceful and Wrathful from Enlightened Awareness Stage of Completion Instructions on the Six Transitional Processes, an “earth terma” of teachings by Padmasambhava, revealed by Karma Lingpa in the fourteen century.

The English translation of this text has been published under the title Natural Liberation: Padmasambhava’s Teachings on the Six Bardos, with commentary by Gyatrul Rinpoche and translated by B. Alan Wallace.

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B. Alan Wallace, 05 Sep 2014

Alan starts the morning session commenting briefly the earlier fairly elaborated discussion on this whole reductionism of our existence to just brains, to being animals or robots. Alan invites us to start a revolution and not fall into the domination of people. Trust your own experience. In a world dominated by materialism, Tina Turner sings: “we don’t need another hero”. This really resonates with dzogchen. We don’t need to look outside again for a buddha. Rather than waiting for another hero to whom pay homage, Alan encourages us to discover the inner buddha inside ourselves. Padmasambhava is not manifesting physically but he does so by way of speech. Dharma speech is the greatest gift.

Alan continues talking about the only suitable motivation for dzogchen, which is bodhicitta. Further, he elaborates on what underlies great compassion and the sublime importance to realize pristine awareness.

Alan mentions how amazing it is that three great yogis have just passed away in the last week abiding in the clear light of death: two superb monks and one lay woman who had children. There is no time for discouragement, we have options to become realized yogis. Therefore, it is up to us to practice and attain realizations. Hence, it becomes crucial to engage in dzogchen practices in these degenerated times. This is the time in which dzogchen is most needed.

We finish the morning session with meditation, in which Padmasambhava’s words are coming directly from his mind. In this way, we receive pointing out instruction directly from Guru Rinpoche.

Meditation starts at 35:50

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