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

56 Settling the mind in its natural state and the impure illusory body

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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, 23 Sep 2014

We continue deepening our practice of settling the mind in its natural state, which is considered the optimal technique for dreaming yoga practices. Alan elaborates on reification and the fact that we become so vulnerable to suffer when doing so. Alan gives the instructions for this practice, which is built upon being free of distraction and grasping, either gross or subtle. The perspective we are trying to emulate in this practice is that of the substrate consciousness. We are seeking to approximate viewing the mind not from inside the mind but rather from the perspective of the discerning but non conceptual luminous bright and blissful substrate consciousness, which is the origin from which all the subjective impulses emerge. This practice is a fantastic daytime preparation for lucid dreaming.

After meditation, Alan continues with the text on page 145 regarding the ten analogies of the impure illusory body. Alan elaborates on the practice of equalizing when encountering situations that the eight mundane concerns take place and the application of the wisdom of the absence of true existence. Settling the mind in its natural state is the foundation for more advanced practices such as generation and completion stages, trekcho, togal, etc.

Alan finishes the session making reference to the signs that makes one to be a good practitioner: not only when one has equalized the eight mundane concerns but most important when one develops an incredible and genuine sense of good cheer, warmth, kindness, joy and wellbeing.

Meditation starts at 38:40

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