B. Alan Wallace, 17 Sep 2015
Alan begins this morning’s session by referring to self-emergent beings who experience spontaneous realisations due to having been highly realised in previous lives. Dudjom Lingpa, to whom he has made many references during this retreat, had no human teacher but received teachings directly from Padmasambhava. Within the Spacious Path to Freedom lineage, Karma Chagme had a mutual guru-disciple relationship with Min-gyur Rinpoche, whom he recognised as a reincarnation of Padmasambhava. Alan recalls the story of Franklyn Merrell-Wolff (1887-1985), who, he feels, is an example of a modern day self-emergent yogi. Wolff, son of a theologian, was born in Pasadena and did not connect with the religion of his background. He wanted to achieve higher states of consciousness. As well as studying psychology, maths and philosophy he read widely around other religions and studied the teachings of Shankara. At the age of 49 years Wolff had spontaneous experiences of non-dual conscious states. These had a profound effect on him and he subsequently set up an ashram. Alan’s own story weaves into that of Wolff’s, with whom he feels a resonance. The meditation follows, focusing on Great Equanimity in which samsara and nirvana are viewed as non-dual.
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