B. Alan Wallace, 28 Aug 2015
Shamatha is enormously important yet profoundly inadequate. You must cross the continental divide from shamatha to vipashyana to enter a path, with shamatha alone you will eventually fall back.
The meditation is Vipashyana. What do you see when you think “I”?
After the meditation, Alan talks about the focus in the Pali Cannon of personal identitylessness without analysis of the world outside yourself. For Mahamudra, the big question to ask is that world really out there? Science assumes metaphysical realism; there is a real world out there.
Alan quotes Francis Bacon: “I would address one general admonition to all; that they consider what are the true ends of knowledge, and that they seek it not either for pleasure of the mind, or for contention, or for superiority to others, or for profit, or fame, or power, or any of these inferior things; but for the benefit and use of life; and that they perfect and govern it in charity.” Alan discusses his view that science is currently in the service of profit, fame, power and pursuit of knowledge for knowledge’s sake and not driven by service for life. Science is asking questions that are simply irrelevant to eudaimonia. The idolatry of religious fundamentalism and the idolatry of science empower each other. The world has never more desperately needed a middle way. We must sharpen our internal tools with shamatha and Vipashyana and seek the middle way view.
The meditation starts at 11:37.
Course notes, other episodes and resources for this retreat are available here
The text for this retreat can be purchased via the SBI Store.
Finally, Please contribute to help us afford the audio equipment we rent to make these, and future podcasts freely available.
This lecture does not have a text transcript. Please contact us if you’d like to volunteer to assist our transcription team.
Ask questions about this lecture on the Buddhism Stack Exchange or the Students of Alan Wallace Facebook Group. Please include this lecture’s URL when you post.
RSS