B. Alan Wallace, 16 Sep 2015
Before introducing the meditation, Alan highlights two important points for us to note regarding the previous day’s teachings. The first point is that a degree of discretion is required when disclosing Vajrayana and Dzogchen practices as they can be misinterpreted by those who are not “ripe” and don’t have a degree of purity. The second related point is that our perceptions are limited by the expectations we hold. When we see or hear an anomaly, we try to fit it into our expectations which can distort our understanding or we simply ignore it. Therefore to be truly open to teachings we need to leave our preconceptions and baggage behind.
The unguided meditation is on the third of the Great Immeasurables, which is Empathetic Joy. Alan reminds us that the Practice chapter of the text is about deepening and enhancing pristine awareness. The virtuous practice of lojong arises from this. He then describes the dream yoga practices taught by Padmasambhava, including the phases of dream yoga which ultimately lead to rigpa. Alan’s final point is that when we have obtained siddhis we should demonstrate these abilities to those around us. This can help counter the dominance of the materialistic worldview by showing that there are alternative ways of exploring and knowing the nature of reality that have been practiced for thousands of years.
Silent meditation on Great Empathetic Joy was not recorded.
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