39 The Four Aspects of Taking the Mind as the Path

Spring 2016 # 39 The Four Aspects of Taking the Mind as the Path.

Olaso.

So for this session I’d like to return to the ever central theme of balance. So I’ll have the timer for about the first half of the session, what I’d like to do is just go back to the body. Back to the body, back to relaxation, back to calming, grounding, releasing. So among the three qualities relaxation is stability, grounding with the breath, full body awareness and in the midst of that maintain this quality of awareness that we’re going to immediately translate over to settling the mind in its natural state, and that is - indeed being aware of the sensations, the fluctuations, the movements within the body, but attending to them from a perspective of stillness. A very familiar theme. And then we’ll shift right over to, moving from the bodily domain to the mental domain. Body and mind, why not? Ground up. The reason for doing this and I think you might find it is helpful to do for months in the future, is it keeps bringing you back to that looseness because when you do turn to the space of the mind and the events arising within it, it tends to energize, it tends to arouse, to I think I guess that’s the word - to arouse. And if you’re doing it a lot it can get you into a state of a kind of a constant arousal which can get a bit tight and make you hypersensitive and then that, after a while that gets exhausting.

So to keep on coming back to the relaxation and stability, which is really the strong point of the mindfulness of breathing generally, and when you come to, let’s say - taking the mind as the path, strong point there is really it’s bringing forth clarity. Now I’d like to linger there, just briefly because I’d like to really cover some territory today in the text, but this is very quintessential, very core, okay? And that is now focusing now just on this one practice of taking the mind as the path - as a broadly speaking, broadly speaking, there are, I was about to say three, no there are four, there are four things that we may attend to on different occasions in this practice. All in the same practice. And starting from coarse to subtle, I guess. You know, coarse to subtle, and that is coarse is you direct your awareness to the space of the mind again memorize this please, it’s very good, it’s very easy. What is the object of mindfulness for this practice? It is the space of the mind and whatever arises within that domain, very simple. But in saying that, that means that you’ve excluded an awful lot. Not visual, not auditory, not tactile, not somatic experiences in the body, not the feelings in the body - all of those are perfectly legitimate, but not for this practice. It’s Shamatha. It’s [?2:56] yeah, so that’s very clear.

But now within that short phrase, attending in the space of the mind and whatever arises within it, well , in my experience, the easiest thing to observe is the stuff that comes up. The appearances that arise, and I’ll be a bit simplistic here, to simplify a little bit - primarily audio visual, like watching a movie, and that is - some of the things that come up are clearly mental representations of visual, so - the face of your mother, piece of fruit and so forth and so on. Like watching a movie but it’s 3D, it’s not a flat screen, right. And so there’s, and they just rise to meet you and you, if you’re right there when they first arise, you’re right there, and by right there, again my finger’s coming up - you’re resting in the stillness of your awareness, you’re clear, you’re still, you’re poised and you’re directed at the target. So that if something comes up in that field you notice immediately.

My looking at Maria’s face - I’m already there, so if her facial expression changes, I’ll know it as soon as it happens. If I am distracted then I might note it only, you know, a second, five, ten seconds later, but if I’m gazing right there and her head moves, facial expression changes, I’m seeing it as soon as it happens. In real time, right. Because I’m looking where it’s about to occur, then it does. So it’s seeing a mental event as a mental event from the very beginning. My words are really very carefully chosen here. Trying to be precise, and that is you’re seeing a mental event as a mental event, in the mentally perceived let there be just the mentally perceived. In other words when that mental event arises in that moment you are lucid, the parallel with lucid dreaming is extremely strong. You can, some people do, enter into a dream lucidly from the very first moment. If you’re already in lucid dreamless sleep, you’re resting there in the sheer vacuity of your substrate and you’re clear, you’re cognizant, you know that you are in deep clear, dreamless sleep, and then from that state a dream arises and you’re sustaining your lucidity as you move from dreamless sleep to dreaming sleep, then in the very first moment of the dream you’re lucid. It’s like being born as a Tulku a highly realized Tulku from the very moment you’re born you’re already aware, you’ve not been thrown into samsara, you’ve entered into your next rebirth luminously, consciously, out of compassion and you’re alert, you’re aware, you know who you are from the moment you start, okay.

[5:39] So the parallel, so we have three parallels- lucidity in the first moment of a thought, lucidity in the first moment of a dream and for have realized beings then lucidity in the first moment of taking their next birth because they’re coming in consciously. They were in the bardo, lucidly, they entered into the next rebirth lucidly, and they continued lucid, right. So those are the easiest ones, and there’s the, again, obviously there are other things you may have images or memories of smells coming up, or tastes coming up, tactile sensations coming up, the feel of stroking a cat, a cat’s fur with very rich thick fur, we all know, remember, remember what that feels like? An image comes up, it’s tactile, right. But for simplicity’s sake we’ll just keep to the visual and auditory, so it’s like watching a 3D movie. So an image comes up, you see it right when it arises, and then some discursive thought, some chit-chat comes up and it just comes up, it’s like sitting in a movie theater that’s quiet and then suddenly the sound track turns on and you, you hear, you hear sound. And you’re hearing it from the very moment and you’re recognizing the mental event as a mental event. That is - when that discursive thought arises in the space of the mind you see it as such from the first moment that it arises. And if you’re very still, very relaxed - it’s definitely possible, it’s not that hard, right. So those are kinda easy, yeah and you’re lucid from the beginning, right. So there is one thing.

Of course that’s not the only kind of thing that happens. One of you in your meetings with me today mentioned something we’ve all experienced and there’s on many occasions a thought doesn’t come up like this - and my hands are out in front of me - as an appearance coming to us, like - oh here I am, here’s the screen, here’s the image coming on the screen, here’s the mental chit-chat and it’s coming onto the auditory screen, but rather the thoughts come in so to speak from within and as it arises, I’d like a snack, there’s a thought, okay, I’d like a snack , it’s a really simple though it’s usually more complex than that, but - oh I’d like a snack, maybe a specific kind of snack that you have in your cupboard, right. And so when that arises in that first moment that it arises, Paula, what’s the focus of attention? I’d like a snack, I’d like some chocolate, I think somebody gave me some chocolate along the way, like about 5 kilos. In that first arising thought - oh I’d like a snack, I’d like some chocolate, what’s the referent, to what is the attention directed at that time? [Paula answers inaudible: “single pointed mind”] what’s that? [Paula answers again inaudible, “the mind, single pointed”]. Not really. [Another student said: “aware”]. Okay, I’m sitting there quietly and then suddenly - I’d like a snack - I’d like some of that dark chocolate. What’s the focus of my attention? Daniel. - Chocolate! Yeah. Chocolate! Chocolate. There’s a cognitive fusion and it’s not voluntary, I was sitting there, oh yes, I’m a good meditator, I’m settling my mind, I want chocolate. [laughter] You know, in that moment I just stopped meditating because I want chocolate. And by the way, I don’t really, so this is not any kind of reinforcement whatsoever because I think I have enough chocolate for the rest of the retreat and I thank you all. But unless you want me to be on the Diabetes express, probably enough chocolate. [laughter] Thank you. So this is all very light, okay.

But in that moment, in that first arising where as it arises there’s already cognitive fusion, from the moment it arises. From the moment that it arises my attention is in a dissatisfied mode, a desirous mode, it finds a target - oh I know what would satisfy me - chocolate, I want some chocolate. And in that moment it’s arising as a subjective impulse not as an objective appearance. And the focus of my mind is on chocolate, and maybe by way of an image, this kind of chocolate, that kind of chocolate. The mental image is not what I’m interested in, I don’t want to eat a mental image of chocolate, I want chocolate.

You know, and so that’s where the cognitive fusion is and that’s so similar to entering from the very first moment, non lucidly into a dream. The first moment you are not aware of a dream. You’re not focusing on a mental image, in that first moment of a non lucid dream you’re not focusing on a mental image, you’re focusing on people! Things, places, events, you’re by way of the mental image arising in the dream state, you’re attending, you think you’re attending to actual people. You’re delusional. Because you think those are actual people in the dream and of course they’re not, right.

And so seeing the dream as a dream is seeing the dream as a mental event which is what, following what the Buddha said, and it’s also called being lucid, right. And so we’re, how do you say, so as we can enter into the first moment of the dream non lucidly - by mistaking that which is arising for something it’s not, in the first moment of a non lucid thought, we’re attending to the referent of the thought, which means we’re not settling the mind in its natural state. But then sooner or later, hopefully sooner, if your introspective skills are being used, honed, refined, sharpened, then a second later, maybe it’s five seconds later, after I’ve kind of being going through my chocolate array, then I come to my senses, I return to the present moment, because my eating chocolate is in the future, right. I return to the present moment, where actually I’m not interested in getting off my cushion right now and getting chocolate. I’m not actually addicted. And then, retrospectively I recognize - oh I was off, I was thinking about chocolate. Retrospectively, introspection monitors, it does quality control and I recognize, oh I wasn’t here and now, I wasn’t focusing on the space of the mind and or its contents, I was focusing on chocolate. As soon as that recognition comes, that’s the time, and this, this is like surgery, you are not taking a cleaver and wacking off big chunks of flesh, you’re not throwing out the thought, the chocolate, you’re not getting frustrated, you’re not throwing out the thought, and so forth, because after all, thoughts are grist for the mill. Thoughts are contents of the mind, they are perfectly fine, they’re not noise, they’re the object of meditation.

Or one of the objects of meditation. So as soon as you see that you’ve strayed, it’s going to be a retrospective recognition, and as soon as you see oh, I’m thinking about chocolate, let your first response be not the, probably not the natural one unless you’ve become very familiar with the practice, let your first response be? Jeffrey. Jeffrey responds - relax.

Good, exactly right, relax, release. But now what are you releasing? What are you releasing? I’m going to ask somebody who knows for sure, oh and if you don’t oh I’m going to scold you. Claudio, what are you releasing? Claudio responds - grasping. Yes exactly right. You’re not releasing the thought, you’re not releasing the mental image, you’re not even releasing the desire for chocolate, they’re grist for the mill. A mental image you talk with, the desire for chocolate? Those are mental events arising within the space of the mind, that’s what you’re looking at. You’re not trying to get rid of them, that’s what you’re attending to. But, it’s that grasping, the cognitive fusion that captured your attention and like gave you almost like whiplash, directed your attention off to chocolate, that’s what you’re releasing. Relax. Loosen up, and then if you see that you’re still attending to chocolate, then you’re still not doing the practice. Because this is not a chocolate samadhi. [laughter] You might try that one day but I wouldn’t suggest it really.

[13:52] So relax and then release. What are you releasing? The grasping, not the thought, not the desire, just the grasping. But the thought of chocolate, even the desire for chocolate may remain, that’s fine, look at it. So relax, release, and then return. And return to the present moment, from the perspective of stillness and what’s in the present moment now that you’ve come to your senses, if it’s where is there, is an image of chocolate, fine. If what’s there is a lingering desire, I would like some chocolate - fine, no problem, observe the desire. And then sooner or later it’s going to fade out, it’s not going stay there constantly. And so, that’s the second type of event that arises. Where it comes in this way, kind of the mudra, coming from within, it can be a thought, I wonder what my brother’s doing right now? That’s not craving or attachment. It’s just, now what’s the referent? My brother, exactly and my brother is not the object of this meditation, he’s a person. So that’s quite neutral, innocent, like I wonder what my brother’s doing right now? Fine, you can think about that all you like off the cushion but right now you’ve something else to do, as soon as you see that it’s the same thing - I slipped off, I was thinking about my brother - relax - release the identification - return, and there’s a thought or image of brother and so forth - fine, fine, fine, fine, fine. So relax, release and return. So that’s just an innocent thought, no craving, or grasping there, it’s just you know, it got derailed, it can be a desire, it can be an emotion. I’m upset that - you know whatever it is, you know, some object. Or I’m worried that, or I’m sad that, and there’s a referent when the emotion first comes up, it has a referent, oh I’m sad that. You know, over four hundred people now died in Ecuador I’m sad for that, you know. But in the practice we’re not focusing on Ecuador. If you’d like to cultivate compassion, good, good. Attending to people in Ecuador who are struggling from this quite severe earthquake.

[16:00] And so we have the ones that appear objectively, kind of easy. The ones that occur subjectively as impulses, thoughts desires, emotions, intentions, you’re aware of them retrospectively and the release is not getting rid of them but releasing identification with. Third, moving right on is - on occasion, I think you’ve all had this experience, you’re really very attentive, you’re not may wandering, you’re not dull, you’re not spaced out, you are focused on target, you have a clear sense that if a thought arises, I’ll be right there, greeting it when it arises, or aware of it as soon as it arises, but as you’re doing it, like right now if you like - - you may not see any distinct event on occasion, you say it’s quiet there’s no soundtrack, there’s no visual, there’s no olfactory, gustatory and so forth, I don’t see any desire coming up, feeling is neutral....so what do you do then? When you’re looking at the space and you just don’t see any crystallized, distinct clear content, what do you do then, Michelle? [response inaudible] No, that’s not right, good, I’m glad you said it because a lot of people would do exactly that - allow it to be - that means to my mind, because I’m a lazy guy, if you allow it to be, I mean I’m going to space out, that’s what you just told me, at least that’s what I heard. Here to space out and wait. Oh oh oh oh oh ooooh, wait is anticipation of something that hasn’t happened yet but it will. That’s not this practice. So there’s no waiting in this practice. You never wait. You don’t wait to achieve Shamatha, you don’t wait for the next thought, don’t wait at all. In fact just generally speaking I’d say just never wait again in your life. [laugher] Don’t do it. If you’re waiting in a long queue, you know, in the grocery market, don’t wait, just stand there. Don’t wait. You know wait is unfulfilled aspiration and anticipation of something that hasn’t happened yet. Why do that? Why not just stand there. And you can do all kinds of things - loving kindness for the people who are getting their groceries right now, mudita, oh I am so glad. Oh you’re having a nice chat there with the cashier, that’s very very nice. [laughter] Because I’m not in a hurry. I like to say that to the cashiers, I often do. They say something, they apologize or something, I say - I’m in no hurry. Because number 1 it’s true, but I like saying that, I’m in no hurry, no problem, no hurry. They probably don’t hear that all that often. I’m kind of guessing. Okay, detour. [laughter] So when you’re attending there and there’s just nothing distinct coming up, well of course let it be, it’s not like you have to shout at it or generate something, do something, but it’s not enough to let be. It’s not enough. So it’s very good to give the wrong answer because then you’ll really know the right answer afterwards. Much better than just giving the right answer. Because then you might have guessed. I guessed right, whatever. [laughter] So what do you do? Yeah you let it be, but then you’ve got a subtle challenge. The first is easy, seeing the image, second one’s harder, retrospectively noting the impulse. The third one is sustaining the flow of cognizance, of clear knowing, and what are you knowing now? You are knowing, ascertaining, clearly recognizing the space of the mind. And it’s not just letting be. It’s not just, it’s actually knowing, and what are you knowing now? It’s something subtle. The space itself, knowing the nature of that, and sustaining that focus, that flow of cognizance. That’s crucial. We’ll look into that later, but it is an element from the very beginning.

[20:02] And the final one, which is the subtlest one - that you’re all very familiar with it, is that in the midst of this, have I left anything out? As in terms of space of the mind and it’s contents? Have I left anything out? [a student mentions breathing] I would encourage you to continue breathing. I would encourage that. [laughter] But that’s not the object, no. That’s not what we’re attending to. That’s a different practice. Breathing in our marginal it’s noise on the outside at the outside, we’re not selecting it. So have I left anything else, anything else? Anna? Leave anything out? Brandon asks a question. Yeah that’s the technique but in terms of anything else that we might be aware of that might be integral to this practice of taking the mind as the path. Have I left anything out Brandon? [ Students asks a question] That’s more of vipassana style, ya. Good for you, that was a nice chorus, good for you, ya, [laughter] awareness of awareness. Awareness of awareness is also taking place in this space. It’s not out there in the visual, it’s not in any of the five, it’s not, awareness of the, the mental awareness of course that’s what we’re talking about, that’s not out there something you’ll see in the visual domain. The auditory and so forth, you are aware of being aware and where’s that taking place? Well in this practice of course that’s integral to any kind of perception, there’s also the awareness of awareness that’s built in. So that’s the fourth element. Okay, so all four, now that was a lot of words, in practice it’s just really simple. But it’s important to see the whole bandwidth. That we don’t neglect. That we don’t get so focused on the, on the appearances arising that we’re not aware of the subjective impulses, the feelings the desires, the emotions and so forth. Hey that’s grist for the mill, but we’re not so focused on just the events arising or the impulses arising that we’re not aware of the intervals between these distinct events. And what’s left over between the space of the mind, we mustn’t ignore that or just kind of wait. Wait through it until something interesting happens, you know. And then finally in the midst of all of that there it is. The awareness. My finger is up again. It does that a lot. Hello. We have a lot of conversation. [laughter] That’s always there, that’s always there. That’s your backbone. When all the rest falls away, that’s still there, okay, very good. Let’s practice.

[22:41] This will need very little instruction, I think.

In fact I think we can do without instruction, the first half, you can, it doesn’t have to be exact half, the first 8 minutes, 12, whatever. Taking the body as the path in a manner of speaking, mindfulness of breathing, full body awareness, you know it. Second half then just slip seamlessly right over to - attending to the space of the mind and whatever arises in it. You know how to [do] it, so let’s just do it silently, no recording is needed.

Olaso, We finally get back to the text. If there is anyone listening by podcast, and you have come in freshly, I’m reading, giving commentary now on a chapter from an entirely different text by Karma Chagme Rinpoche, entirely devoted to shamatha. If you’re interested in getting a digital copy you can simply write to Santa Barbara Institute and with the understanding that you’ll use the text only for your personal use, you’re welcome to ask and it will be sent quickly. So here we are, continuing finally with the text. And so just to read the last sentence covered before, furthermore if you have not cultivated jhana, even though if you strive for other roots of virtue like generosity, ethics, patience and so forth, and they’re not included in within the class of the sages teachings and that’s in fact one of the Bodhisattva’s precepts, that you must be developing samadhi , so it’s remarkable how often it’s overlooked when it’s so evident throughout the entire Pali canon, ‘Theravada tradition, Mahayana tradition, Vajrayana tradition’, it’s indispensable. And I still hear people saying - oh that’s not so important. But, it is.

So here we have from another citation from the Sutra, again Karma Chagme Rinpoche seems to have enormous erudition here. and so this is from the Kushala mula sumber graha sutra [Alan said something, not clear]- The Sutra that fully holds the roots of virtue. And it states - Even though you guard ethical discipline for an eon and cultivate patience for a long period, if you do not become acquainted with reality you are an extremist in relation to my teachings You’re an outsider, you haven’t gotten it. And acquainted with reality is of course focusing on vipassana and vipassana needs to be supported by shamatha. And then this Ananda Garbha Vir Kanti Nedsha Sutra and that’s ....[ Tibetan ] I should translate the titles, I will right now just off the cuff, the sutra that reveals Ananda resting on his bed just lose states- whoever lacks the mind of meditative equipoise lacks realization of pure, primordial consciousness. The contaminations will not be eliminated, so by all means, accomplish it. Meditative equipoise - we’re referring to Samadhi , we’re referring to shamatha.

And as I said before but I’ll just say it again - Is it possible to have a glimpse, some authentic experience or insight into primordial consciousness, buddha nature, rigpa, without having achieved shamatha? The answer is unequivocally - yes. And then we have a purely empirical question - totally experiential - if you do have such a breakthrough, something genuine, meaningful, perhaps the most meaningful experience you’ve ever had in your life.

[26:37] Very simple question - can you sustain it? Without shamatha? Maybe. If you’re extremely gifted. I mean I want to be and am being totally non rigid here, we’re just talking about experience. But if you don’t have that fusion of the shamatha vipassana you’re contaminations will not be eliminated, as stated so frequently already, so by all means, accomplish it. Moving right on - With respect to all the dharmas of the Buddha looks like another quote from the same sutra With respect to all the dharmas of the Buddha I see no other way, if you realize shamatha and great primordial consciousness you will certainly achieve spontaneous actualization. So into a very high state of realization, culminating in Buddhahood itself. It’s interesting those two points are highlighted - shamatha and great primordial consciousness - one being the means to the end, one is the technology, the other one is the science, science means - actually knowing. So this is indispensable. And briefly put, I could linger here a lot but I don’t want to, but again just to break up any notion here, I think I’m teaching in a non rigid fashion but sometimes people have impressions to the contrary, if I am, then I am, but I’d like be using words very carefully, to show that although there’s this classic sequence, it’s undeniable, sila, samadhi, prajna, the six perfections, they’re there I didn’t make that up. It is clearly true that shamatha is the basis for vipassana, but also, um, it’s important not to fall to an extreme of having it too hierarchical sequential rigid - I haven’t , I haven’t perfected ethics yet I won’t go to shamatha, I haven’t finished shamatha I won’t go to vipassana - and so forth, that’s really way too rigid and the other extreme is just kind of like a little bit of this a little bit of that. But there are occasions, we see in Bahiya receiving arhatship after one little dharma talk in the, remember, what did he call them, the simulationists. Remember Rodger Jackson’s translation - The simultanists. Well Bahiya was really a simulationists for arhatship - he heard, he realized. And we find in the Dzogchen tradition, you find in the Zen tradition, the Chan tradition, Buddha holds up a flower and people gain realization, okay? That’s simultaneous.

[28:55] Or there’ll be, there’s so many marvelous Zen stories of this sort, I’m sure [name?] could spend hours on these wonderful accounts of people just having a spontaneous, sudden awakening, and if they’re very very mature they may be able to sustain it. This is where so important it’s not to be rigid, there are, we have such a spectrum of individuals, some of them are really very basic. Maybe not much practice in past lives, you’re coming in real novices, they’re going to go more slowly. Other people are coming in super charged. And they’ll receive the same teachings and they’ll progress much more quickly. So there are the simulationists, they just enter into it, gain immediate realization. As Padmasambhava says in his teachings on Shamatha without a Sign - in Natural Liberation, he gives this very simple practice of resting in awareness, the awareness of awareness, inverting in upon the agent and releasing, in upon the agent and releasing - he said this may be enough to break right through to Rigpa. And so there are those individuals for whom they will gain realization by the power of their gaining realization of rigpa without necessarily going through a lot of investigative meditation or vipassana. Because if you realize rigpa you realize vipassana of emptiness. If you realized emptiness, [name ?] have you necessarily realized rigpa? [responds] No. That’s correct yeah, no . You can realize emptiness and not realize rigpa. Giving an analogy, it’s quite a close analogy but that’s all it is - you could be in the midst of a dream, somebody was just telling me about being in a lucid dream and sustaining it by practicing mindfulness of breathing, with the oscillating motion that Padmasambhava taught, good. Good technique. If it’s good in the waking state why shouldn’t it be in the dream state? But the close analogy here is- if you had a very long dream, this is a thought experiment, and in your dream you achieve shamatha and then you have a guidance in vipassana and you’re exploring the origin and nature and destination and so forth, you may be engaging in parts, whole analysis, the various phenomena in the dream, and you may, in a very nice long dream with really good guidance, gain realization of the empty nature of all the phenomena in the dream. Of yourself, you’re not really there subjectively, all the people and everything, you may realize that nothing is there from it’s own side, you could realize all of that, that all of these are mere appearances, and - Andre, would you necessarily have, be lucid if you found that realization? If you simple realise everything that’s empty of inherent nature does it means that you know that you’re dreaming? This is correct, no? No. It doesn’t . You could just have really good insight into, ontological insight into what is the manner, the nature of existence of the phenomena I’m experiencing, and you may probe into it and investigate it , and - I see, I see that nothing here exists from it’s own side, neither objectively nor subjectively - wow, this is really cool, and still not know you’re dreaming, right? It’s possible. But now, Kirstie if you slipped into a lucid dream, have you had lucid dreams? May I ask have you had lucid dreams? Okay, you will. But you can imagine having it, you can imagine being in a dream and knowing that you’re dreaming. So imagine it as a thought experiment, and that is that if you’re in a dream and you really nailed it - you’re vividly aware, you clearly know this is a dream, all these appearances are only dream appearances, by the power of that recognition, being awake within your dream, would, by the power of that, would you know therefore that all the appearances of people and so forth in the dream do not exist from their own side? Yeah you are right, you are right. If you know you are dreaming, you know there’s nobody over there, by the sheer fact that you know this is a dream, like it’s almost like - duh. You know. Exactly right. Yeah. So that’s an analogue. And that’s in the dream state, big analogue, if you’ve realized rigpa, if you’re viewing reality from the perspective of rigpa then you know that all, then by the power of that realization you know that nothing that appears to you exists from its own side. Because you’re either already realizing, you’re very swiftly going to realize all of these appearances are nothing more than, nothing other than effulgences of your own pristine awareness. Okay.

[33:09] So. Then we go to another sutra. So he’s, just one sutra after another, he’s showing this is not just a quirk here, this is representative of all of mahayana buddhism. And I put on the website, [Sangay Wangmo did put it on the website] this marvelous piece of scholarship from [komeditera? 33:22 ] The Way of Buddhist meditation. I think he definitively shows from the Pali canon that it’s exactly the same in the Pali canon. Jhana is absolutely necessary. And that’s a teaching of the Buddha, if you want to make up your own dharma you can but that’s what the Buddha said. And that’s for the Theravada, that’s for the Pali canon, here we’re nailing it for the Mahayana. So in the Maha Pratiharya Neodesha sutra and so [Tibetan 33:53], the sutra that illuminates or displays the great, the great apparitions the great delusions or great apparitions. So it is said in the sutra - No movement of the body, no movement of the speech, no movement of the mind is complete purity of the three elements as a miracle That’s the miracle, that’s the apparition. Very Dzogchen-ish. For the cultivation of such shamatha it is necessary to leave behind idle amusements, completely. As the [Ageshias 34:25 ?] Samshodhana sutra states, and this in Tibetan, The sutra that arouses the extraordinary Resolve. Remember that resolve that comes just before Bodhichitta? So these are Mahayana sutras. Here’s one more - Leaving behind idle amusements, what we call - killing time or what we call modernity. Maitreya - there are 20 faults of idle amusements. Is that if you indulge in the body is unrestrained, the speech is unrestrained the mind is unrestrained, mental afflictions are great, you are polluted by mundane talk you’re overcome by Mara and you exhibit unconscientious behavior and shamatha and vipassana are not achieved.

So we’re, we’re just kind of living in a whirlpool, like being out in the ocean this is a whirlpool and everything just being sucked into the whirlpool of this. And our modernity, I mean it’s so ingenious, it’s breathtaking! How much brilliance, and I mean there’s no other word for it and I’m not being sarcastic at all , how much brilliance is going in from the brilliant minds of people like Steve Jobs and people like in the Walt Disney studios and in Pixel and virtual reality and the list goes, and video games and so forth and so on. I mean the amount of sheer brilliance going into the entertainment industry is stunning, I mean it’s just breath taking an on the whole it’s just a waste of time. To just piss away you life, but of course if you’re a materialist you think when you’re dead you’re dead so who really cares? Who really cares? You know, have a good time, you’re going to be dead soon anyway and then after a while people won’t even remember you. And so as, what was it, our colleague of Stephen Hawking said this morning, no yesterday, Thomas Herzog, - our existence is totally irrelevant. [laughter] In that big bang, that trajectory you remember, I don’t need to say it all over again. But if you feel your existence is totally irrelevant, then killing time is no big deal. Because it’s already irrelevant, already pointless, so why not enjoy instead of not enjoy having a meaningless life?

So, but if you’re aware of dharma, any kind of dharma, Buddhist dharma or otherwise then you see - hey, this life is not to be pissed away.

[36:46] Another sutra - the Chandra Pradipa Sutra and this is the sutra of the Lamp of the Moon states With food, drink, garments, flowers, incense and garlands, the victorious leader is not venerated [laughter] not venerated, thank you, he is venerated that way [laughter] but relatively speaking he’s going to go to something further, thank you though, I’m going to read it all over again. With food drink garments flowers incense and garlands the victorious leader of course referring to the Buddha is not venerated That’s not the way to show your respect. He could have said - food, particularly dark chocolate, drink - etc etc, that’s, it’s lovely. But superior to this, superior to this merit is that of a sentient being who earnestly yearns for enlightenment. Is disillusioned with evil composites, everything unwholesome, and for this purpose dwells in the wilderness, taking the seven steps to liberation.

Very symbolic, but he’s saying this is where the juice is, this is the way to delight the Buddhas, the Bodhisattvas, the great enlightenments of the past present and future, this is the way to delight them, this is the way to show your reverence, this is the way to show gratitude. This is your devotion, devote yourself to dharma and that’s what truly pleases them. And no truer word was said. That person continually turns away from composites specifically all the allures of the desire realm That person has no desire for anything in the mundane world whether the desire realm or form or formless realms, their contamination do not increase, of course they increase by our cognitively fusing with them, especially craving and attachment and that’s how we perpetuate our own existence in samsara.

From the same sutra - Forsaking delight in towns and cities, constantly remain in solitude and dwell in the forest. Like a Rhinoceros living in the forest, free of duality, before long you will achieve supreme concentration The Rhinoceros is really symbolic. They didn’t have any Rhinoceros in Tibet, none, [laughter] so if Tibetans were wondering -give me an example, what’s a rhinoceros? They wouldn’t have any to point to. But it’s symbolic. They speak of the Pratyekabuddhas as being Rhinoceros like. And according to Buddhist lore, I think it’s actually true, but I’ve not really studied Rhinoceros much, that they really are very solitary creatures. And so, it’s just that, it’s something very simple. Live in solitude, take delight in solitude, be content in solitude. Be content in freedom from distractions, amusements, ways of just, oh - wasting time. Therefore during the first few days as you go into solitude, during the first two days you should reject all distractions, including invitations, business, prejudiced conversation, questions and abuse. Go really into solitude, go into silence, not only that- this is into shamatha, this whole chapter is about shamatha so we’re talking about a shamatha retreat here. Not only that, dispense with all physical, verbal and mental distraction including various practices of prostration, circumambulation and chanting So try not to get caught up in the great wave of Buddhist tradition because this has been going on for centuries and centuries and centuries. I find it difficult to live or hang out in Buddhist monasteries in Asia because they’re so noisy. That’s it, Sri Lanka - no different. I mean, I, there was a nearby monastery when I was living out in the jungle, nearby monastery and they would sometimes chant all through the night which is very meritorious but they do it through loudspeakers. [laughter] They’d be blaring it out over the whole landscape. I thought - boy, practice virtue but couldn’t you do it a bit quieter, you know? And it’s everywhere, the monasteries where I lived where chanting doing puja ringing bells doing rituals, and there’s nothing wrong with all of that, it’s virtue. Or you’re debating, you’re clapping your hand, you’re shouting and jumping around in debate and so forth, that’s also virtue. But if you want to meditate, if you, anybody thinking about going to Asia for retreat probably don’t think about going to a monastery because they’re so noisy. And it’s all of them, Nyingma, Kagyu Gelug, not sectarian, non sectarian noisiness. [laughter] It’s everywhere. So you might just want to find some quiet place in your home country. Italy is such a quiet place [ laughter] there are parts.

[41:25] So the Bodhicharyavatara, he’s going to really quote from him and these are taken, yeah these are taken from the 8th chapter, the Jhana chapter, the meditation chapter. Boy when I read this I was just so, I was just sucked in totally. No, this is actually from the no this is from the introspection chapter. The wisdom chapter has a truly poetic series of verses about the virtues of living in solitude, it’s really magnificent. It just makes you want to stop everything and go into solitude. This is from the introspection chapter, chapter 5. Brilliant chapter. So here he says - Even though you practice recitations, austerities and so on for a long time, because the mind is distracted elsewhere, such action is said by the sage to be meaningless this is the problem with these outer activities, the recitations the circumambulation, the rituals, the chanting , the prostrations, they’re all good, so called - physical virtues, verbal virtues. You’re reciting the sutras, you’re reciting, reciting, but the Buddha himself said that if while you’re doing that outer display with your mouth and your body, if your mind is distracted, it’s pointless. You who wish to guard your practice guard your mind with great care. If you do not guard this mind you will not be able to guard your practice. By examining this mind alone all those will be guarded. Your body, your speech will be guarded. If you’re looking into your mind, you’re watching your thoughts, your motivation, your intentions and so forth, you don’t need to worry about your speech and your physical behavior. Because they’re coming, any voluntary behavior of speech and body, coming from the mind, if your mind’s in good shape, the other two you can just let off the leash. I speak very personally here. I don’t always follow my own dictum, I don’t always live up to my own ideals by any means, but at least I know what my ideals are.

Here’s my ideal and that is that whenever I am sitting here, I take this with tremendous seriousness, sitting and giving dharma teachings. When I think of my own lamas, when I think of the lineage, boy emotion comes really quickly, I’ll try to just keep going. A sense of reverence arises, a sense responsibility arises, a sense of gratitude arises, a sense of the absolute imperative to not defile the teaching arises, and to speak with a virtuous mind. Sometimes a virtuous mind may be sharply critical, the Buddha, even the Buddha himself was sharply critical on occasion. The Dalai Lama himself, Gyatrul Rinpoche himself, sometimes sharply critical, but not with hatred. They’re just being sharply critical of that which should be criticized. Do mental afflictions arise sometimes when I’m being sharply critical? Yes. That’s my problem, I need to work on that. But the overall job of any dharma teacher, because I know some of you are dharma teachers in your own right. I feel it’s an absolute imperative to do our absolute best, just generally of course but especially when teaching dharma. The mind must be wholesome. Must be wholesome. If it’s not it’s better not to show up. Say sorry, there will be no teaching today if the teacher has an afflicted mind, you know. But this is the beauty of it, if you do have that confidence as you sit down to teach that your mind is wholesome, your motivation is sound, you’re speaking out of caring for those who are listening, out of a reverence for what you’re teaching, then you can just let it flow. And you don’t have to worry. It may come out silly, like telling a silly Ledaki joke about landing on the sun at night, it’s cool, it’s silly, but it’s fine, it’s fine. And silly jokes, no problem, it’s okay, it’s not unwholesome. But it’s not getting poisoned by one’s own mental afflictions. So when you have that confidence that your mind is wholesome, then you have the freedom to be spontaneous. And if you don’t have that confidence it’s better not to be spontaneous, because what comes out may be really regrettable.

[45:26] By examining this mind alone all those will be guarded. By subduing this mind alone all those will be subdued. Your verbal behavior, your physical behavior, apart from the discipline of the mind what’s the use of many practices? All these incredible practices, arrays of rituals and exotic practices of all kinds, what’s the point if you’re not guarding your mind? If the elephant of the mind is loose, it inflicts the harm of Ivici hell And bear in mind, this is from the 8th century. I think it’s probably literally true, 8th century India, what was their major weapon of mass destruction? War elephant. War elephant, really, I think so. There’s, they had spears and arrow and so forth, but imagine you got ten guys here with spears and arrows and you got one guy with an elephant. [laughter] I’ll be on the Elephant, thank you. they can really do damage. And so that’s what, that’s, he’s taking, nowadays we just say - if the nuclear arsenal of the mind is let loose, then you know, then bla bla. Well their nuclear arsenal was an elephant, big big weapon, you know. A war elephant, heavily armoured, and then people on top with arrows and spears and all kinds of weapons. You see that coming you better run, unless you’ve got a bigger elephant, you know. [laughter] So if the elephant of the mind is loose is inflicts the harm of Ivici hell Well we know the mind does more damage to the planet, the human mind does more damage to the planet than anything else on the planet. More than weapons, more than over population more than big business and so forth, it’s the mind that’s doing more damage than anything else. The afflicted mind. if this elephant of the mind is bound with the rope of mindfulness, all dangers You’ve tamed the mind, you’ve subdued the mind. So now that which was a weapon of mass destruction now becomes your biggest ally for construction, for all kinds of stuff that you might want to do. Building a village and so forth and so on. The elephant, if it’s tamed - tremendous, what a boon, they must have been really worth a lot of money, a well trained elephant. Especially got two of them, they can have babies, you really got an investment there. So when not tamed, real danger, when tamed tremendous benefit. If this elephant of the mind is bound with the rope of mindfulness all dangers will disappear and all joys with come into your hands. My possessions my honor, by body and livelihood may decline, and other virtues may decline but never will I let the mind decline It’s his vow, his pledge, I see passion here, that’s what I see.

[48:06] To you who wish to guard your minds and guard mindfulness and introspection even at the cost of your life this I ask with folded hands He’s a poet, I think he’s writing with passion here. This is not a bland, you know, document, he’s pleading with us out of compassion. repeatedly examining the condition of the body and mind just that in short, is the definition of introspection. Okay? So there’s the preamble. This is very common strategy in Buddhism. If you’re going to engage in bodhichitta, or you’re going to practice stage of generation or whatever you’re going to do, first reflect upon what’s the significance, what’s the meaning? Is this worth the investment of time? How important is this? What are the implications? What are the consequences? What are the applicability? You rev yourself up, this is enthusiasm. Remember between enthusiasm and samadhi? The two to be balanced? He gave us all of that to give us some sense of enthusiasm. This is not something to overlook. And frankly I don’t care what anybody’s teacher says -you’re lama this your lama that, if you’re following a buddhist path, buddha tramps your teacher. Dharma degenerates. It’s been degenerating for a long time. Sometimes a generation passes on, we can’t simply assume teachers are always infallible. Sometimes they are just carrying tradition.

This is the Buddha he is citing, Shantideva he is citing, you know. Those people are not to be taken casually. If you are following this path. If you’re not then no problem, do whatever you like. So that was to rev up the engines, the inspiration, the motivation, the aspiration, enthusiasm, but then you have to go over to samadhi. Remember that you’re balancing enthusiasm is samadhi, then okay get down to it. Okay, I want I want to yes I’m ready to go what do I do? Okay here’s how to cultivate shamatha. There is number 1 Shamatha with characteristics, it’s also called shamatha with signs. And shamatha without characteristic, which means a clear definite object, a referent to which you are focusing your attention. For both of these the posture is very import. The Padma Jala tantra, or the Net the Matrix of Lotuses Tantra states - upon a very soft cushion sit upright in the Vajra position with the eyes gazing down over the tip of the nose, with slow respirations, slightly press the tongue against the palette, slightly tuck in the navel which means sit very erect and by doing so let the mind remain conscientious, very present Present, okay. So he’s going to be focusing a lot on posture here. The Vajra Mala Tantra The tantra of the garland of vajras, so we have one that the Matrix of Lotuses, and now we have the Mala or the Garland of Vajras, this tantra here it is said: The practitioner should sit upon a comfortable cushion. They keep on saying this repeatedly, very soft, which really means very comfortable, not just super soft. And here it says comfortable. They always say that, they don’t just say sit on a cushion, they say sit on a comfortable cushion and you all know what that means - when you sit on it you should be comfortable. You shouldn’t ask the cushion whether it’s comfortable, [laughter] because it’s not , it’s a cushion. The practitioner should sit upon a comfortable cushion and direct the eyes over the tip of the nose So don’t focus on the tip of the nose Position the nose in line with the navel So should be, I see sometimes, this is important advice, I see some people when they go into meditation, they start going like this with the head drooped over. Not a good idea. To, to, this is a heavy chunk of meat on the top of their neck and that’s a lot of weight now drooping over, that’s not going to be good for you. Not good for samadhi on the long run, not good for your posture, not good for the body. So you want, it’s a balancing act once again. If you’re sitting up right, which of course is the classic position, you want to be sitting so with as little effort as possible, of muscles flexing, that you’re sitting there that the head is so well balanced that you’re not drooping over the side, if you really start going deep you’re going to start losing bodily awareness and if you’re at a tilt you’re going to fall over or your head’s going to droop down. I’ve seen this many times. Sometimes I peep when I’m leading a meditation, I see some people, head down, you know, dropped. Not good. So balance it so your head remains well supported by your neck, so position the nose in line with the navel, so there you are okay, it’s a nice thing. Let the shoulders be even, so don’t tilt one side to the other. And press the tongue against the pallet, that helps to prevent drool coming down. It contains the saliva. Let the teeth and lips be comfortable. And the exhalation and inhalation be relaxed. So all of this sound very familiar, really good advice, this is sitting in the classic posture. By incrementally releasing exertion, and this is again, a long time ago, this is a tantra centuries ago, by incrementally releasing exertion - what he implies here is that even back then people approach the meditation they’re uptight. You know, they’re stressed. They’ve been caught up in this or that or the other thing, and they’re still tense, they’re still caught up in grasping, hope, fear anxiety and so on. Release it. Whether it takes minutes, hours, weeks or months, really have to release the exertion. Release, release, get soft and then by so doing, exhalation and inhalation become natural. And the Tibetan ?[53:38] Just as they are, just [blows] just that, what we’ve been doing for three weeks.

This occurs due to sitting properly in the bodhisattva position. Okay? So there we are. Here’s the meaning of these statements. A vital point as is that with the physical posture as a contributing factor So it’s not primary, but it’s auxiliary, realizations arise in the mind so this is not trivial, the posture is implicated in the practice. Thus and now he goes into a subtle analysis in terms of the winds or vital energies and the different types. There are five major types, five minor types according to Indian Iveric and traditional Tibetan Medicine. due to the legs being either in the vajra or the bodhisattva position The vajra can be the full vajra, the half vajra and the bodhisattva is where the legs are just flat, just flat, like that, in any of those the downward vital clearing energy this is the type of energy by which we evacuate, urine, feces, and so forth, the downward dispelling, okay? That’s one of the types. the downward clearing vital energy is directed into the central channel, envy is calmed and you’re not troubled by interferences interesting. due to the hands being in the mudra of meditative equipoise left hand beneath, right above, thumbs touched, you’re so, by four finger widths beneath the navel so that the touching of the thumbs should be four finger widths beneath the navel, okay? The water vital energy is directed into the central channel and anger is calmed So now we’re dealing with a vital energy relating to the elements. due to the spine being straight like an arrow and the shoulders being raised like the wings of a vulture the earth vital energy is directed into the central channel and delusion is calmed This is, one point, where just a little big of a qualm arises in my mind. I’ve seen this before, the shoulders raised like the wings of a vulture, I know exactly what he’s talking about, but where I’ve encountered this exactly right it’s tummo practice, it’s tummo practice, and just as David was showing it’s actually your hands are in the vajra, don’t do this, this is a different practice entirely, it’s tumo, we’re not doing tumo. But in tumo you put your two hands in the vajra fist with your thumbs tucked in touched the base of the ring finger and then you, with the back of your palms, pressed against the top of your thighs right at the base there, then you straighten your arms and then you see the shoulders come up, this is like the wings of a vulture. That’s what you do for tummo practice because you’re really straightening out the spine. I can’t imagine practicing shamatha like that. [laughter] This is tummo practice, and this is coming from Marpa and Marpa was a master of posture. So it is my interpretation, I’m not going to refute anything he says but I think he is describing here the posture for tummo practice. But tweak it because your hands are in the vajra fist, there at the base, that’s fine, they’ve been trained in this, a lot of people have, no big deal. But I would not encourage you to raise your shoulders for sustained shamatha practice. I would not encourage that. But, so there it is.

[56:41] By tucking the chin slightly down, just a wee bit towards the chest, the fire vital energy is directed in the central channel and attachment is calmed. With the eyes partially opened direct the gaze to a point four finger widths below the tip of the nose, I’d be careful there, don’t start letting tension build up in the forehead, by touching the tongue up against the pallet the vital energy of air is directed into the central channel. Pride is calmed and awareness becomes clear. In that way if you correctly adopt the seven points of the posture the vital energies are directed into the central channel and as a result realizations naturally arise. continuing If the body leans to the right there first occurs a sense of clarity but thereafter anger arises and you’re afflicted by masculine demonic forces I won’t try to explain that. If you lean to the left there first arises a sense of joy we see bliss, clarity, luminosity the same, joy bliss the same, so so first there arises a sense of joy but thereafter attachment arises and you’re affected by feminine demonic forces. If you lean forward there first occurs a sense of non conceptuality You see just see the three qualities of shamatha right there, luminosity bliss, non conceptuality first there arises non conceptuality, but thereafter delusion arises and you’re afflicted by earth spirits, the mind becomes unhappy and vital energy of the heart becomes disturbed. If the body leans backward there first arises a sense of vacuity, but thereafter obstacles occur including the arousing of pride, strong ideation this is the compulsive you know, rumination and so forth scattering and excitement, the body becomes bluish and thin, the vital fluids seep out and so forth therefore I would be very sure not to err with respect to the posture [laughter] especially that last one sounds pretty awful. So these are the posture issues, these are classic teachings they’re repeated in many many cases in meditation manuals, they are to be taken seriously but I would suggest not dogmatically. He doesn’t say here, by the way if you have a scoliosis, this is what I suggest. He doesn’t say if you’re knees are blown out this is what I suggest, he doesn’t say if you are old and have arthritis I would suggest this, he doesn’t say if you have an injury and so forth, he doesn’t, no this is if your body is really spick and span, great, ready to go and - oh by the way you probably spent the first 20 years sitting on the ground in cross leg and not sitting on chairs like those crazy Westerners. Which means your muscles will be different you know if you spent 20 years sitting on the ground cross legged and that’s normal and you’ve never even seen a chair. I mean 100 years ago, bump into any nomad and say - what does a chair look like? They won’t have a clue, I mean what do you need a chair for? You’ve got cushions. So the body forms differently, the muscles, the ligaments are different if you’ve been raised on chairs as opposed to sitting cross legged all the time, from eating to everything else, as you know, when you’re stationary.

[59:31] So there needs to be flexibility here, this is classic. Now I know the classic teachings, but then I have, and I’m not making this up like a California hippy, I am a California hippy but this is not where this is coming from. And that is, I’ve listened to my own teachers and it was years ago, I went into a very strict shamatha retreat in this practice of settling the mind and Gyatrul Rinpoche, he was very straight, very strict, a wonderful Lama. He told me a week before I even went into retreat, he guided me while I did from afar, but he said - make sure you take advantage of the lying down posture in your retreat. He said it, and I didn’t say - oh please, you know, may I, may I? He said make sure you do that. So that’s my lama. But it goes back further than that. And so, just a few notes for today. Here’s from the Vimuttimagga, you know of the Vasuddhimagga, path of purification, 5th century, by the greatest commentator, Buddhagosha. Vimuttimagga has uncomparable reputation. But it’s written by an Arhat. The Arhat Upatissa who lived in the 1st century of the common era. So it goes way, way back. And so as an Arhat, very early in the time, you know when the Buddha’s teachings were really flourishing, many people achieving arhatship and so forth and so on. This is what he had to say - The standing and walking postures are particularly You know there are four postures here, standing and walking, you know about that, the standing and walking postures are particularly suitable for lustful natured personalities So if you’re more inclined to desire, that kind of thing, then spend more time standing and walking. while sitting and reclining are more appropriate for anger natured personalities So there’s a rule of thumb but he’s clearly suggesting yes, supine position, or reclining, that’s perfectly fine. And then Buddhagosha, we go back to his Vasuddimagga he states here, very succinctly whichever posture is effective for developing concentration is the one to be adopted so he takes an absolutely pragmatic approach. So if it’s laying down, lay down, if it’s sitting, sit, if it’s sitting on a chair, sitting on an easy chair, whatever it is, you want to be comfortable but you don’t want to be sloppy, you don’t want to be spacing out and so forth. So I thought that was really helpful to, to balance. Here’s the classic teachings but in case you don’t have a classic body, or even if you do you can’t sit like that for 8 hours a day, but you’d like to meditate 8 hours a day, you have the motivation, you have the clarity , the enthusiasm but you just can’t sit comfortably for 8 hours a day. Maybe you can sit for 3 hours, what are you going to do for the rest of the time? Say I can’t meditate because I can’t sit in the cross legged? It’s crazy. So then be flexible.

[1:02:11] So we’ll do just a little bit more. The cultivation of shamatha with characteristics. So we covered the posture first now we have two types - with and without characteristics. The samadhiraja Sutra states that if you meditate on Lord Shakyamuni in front of you, there are immeasurable benefits. And it says to hold in mind each of the thirty two signs and eighty symbols of the Buddha’s body. The same Sutra states Holding in mind the object of the beautiful protector of the world whose body is like the color of gold is called the meditative equipoise of a bodhisattva So this method, I’m going to pause there for the text. This method is taught in all schools of Tibetan Buddhism. It was taught in classical Indian and Mahayana Buddhism. I have never seen that used as an object of shamatha in the Pali Canon or Therevada tradition. Not that it’s incompatible, I just haven’t seen it. But there are very extensive descriptions of that. I’ve translated 2, 3 of them, from Gen Lamrinpa and then two from Tsongkhapa when I co translated, the other one I did the whole translation. So it’s classic, it’s excellent, taught in all schools, and it’s not for everybody. For some people it’s just perfect. It just fits suitably, they have a lot of devotion, they have faith, they have reverence, they love doing their practice. They have good, they’re just gifted with with visualization skills, those people should go for it. Excellent. But, I’m just go briefly to the Vajra Essence. We’ll go maybe a little bit over time, but not a lot. But we’re going to come back to that but I want to go back, right back to Dzogchen. Because this is classic Mahayana teaching. Now we’re going to go right back to Dzogchen from the Vajra Essence. So here’s Samantabhadra manifesting as the Lake Born Vajra, speaking to this entourage of Bodhisattvas in this visionary experience of Dudjom Lingpa. He states Oh Vajra of mine first merge this mind with external space and remain in meditative equipoise for seven days So we’ll come back to that later. But he’s giving a little placement exam, I’ve heard this many times in the past. He’s going to give you three weeks of the practice, and one week for each practice. And the first one is with your eyes open, especially in a place like this, big sky. But eyes open, sit or recline, and just [breathes] release your mind into space, and just do that all the time, as much as you can for every waking moment, just [blows] bye bye mind, nice knowing you, you served me well, bye. Just release. Don’t space out. Don’t get dopey, don’t get stupid. Don’t get dull. Sustain the stillness of awareness but give away your mind, just dissolve in the space. bye, and just do that all day for seven days, see what happens.

[1:04:51] Then fix your attention on a pebble, a stick, a physical representation of the Buddha, like a statue, or a syllable, could be a drawn syllable, like Hung or Ah And remain in meditative equipoise for seven days. Okay now you have something visual to look at. So sky and earth, I mean something totally, just releasing into space and then something tangible, practical , physical right in front of you. Okay, you just did sky, now come back to earth. Seven days, okay. And then Then imagine a clear, radiant five colored Bindu, or an orb of light at your heart, fix your attention on it and remain in meditative equipoise for seven days Okay, there’s 21 day placement exam. See how are you after 7 days, okay? For some and the answer is different people come in with different degree of maturity, giftedness and so forth. For some this three fold exercise For some this places the mind in a state of bliss, luminosity and vacuity Some can achieve shamatha right on the spot. Bahiya achieved arhatship like that. Some people they do it in three weeks, they’ve achieved shamatha. I would imagine someone of the caliber of Lama Zopa Rinpoche would fit in that category. For some of those of you who know him he was born a yogi, so who knows, not for me to say, but that kind of person. This experience devoid of thought like an ocean unmoved by wave is called shamatha with signs because you are releasing out into space, you are focusing on a physical object, you are focusing on a bindu. With signs, with characteristics. So if it works, it works, good. Some cannot calm their thoughts they do this for three times seven days and they know what they’re supposed to do, calm their thoughts be single pointed and achieve shamatha, but they cannot. Some cannot calm their thoughts because their mind is so agitated. And they’re doing, especially the final one - that final one of visualizing this orbit of light at your heart, that’s playing with nitroglycerin. It can be very useful, nitroglycerin. It can also do major damage.

So some cannot calm the thoughts because the mind is so agitated and they experience uncomfortable pains, amalaties in the heart. The life force channel and so on. This can really upset the whole flow of prana, it’s too tense their minds are too coarse, too crude, they’re too agitated, they shouldn’t be messing, children should not play with fire, novice meditators should not mess around with that, not without very close guidance. You kids can play with fire if their parents are right there, right, this is playing with fire. Those with unstable minds, those with a wind constitution lot of agitation, lot of activity and so forth or with coarse minds may fall if they do this like focusing really intensely at this image at your heart may fall unconscious or slip into a trance Not a good trance. Such people should relax and let thoughts be as they are. Continually observing them with unwavering mindfulness and careful introspection. So for some people visualization practice will be just what the doctor ordered - perfect. For many, many, even in nomadic Tibet that alone, modernity, 150 years later, doing visualization, really plonking down doing it hour after hour, after hour - I’ve been watching this for a long time, it doesn’t work for many people. Not Western and not for Tibetans either, really just hunkering down and doing that for many hours, day after day, month after month, not even Tibetans, and you know they tend to be a bit more mellow than we are. So is that the case, your mind is coarse, your wind, is agitated and so forth - there it is - take the mind as the path, just observe thoughts, chill, relax, like the shepherd watching the herd, okay, watching the flock.

[1:08:33] Final quote, again from Dudjom Lingpa, that was actually from Padmasambhava by way of, this is Dudjom Lingpa himself, his commentary to the Sharp Vajra of Conscious Awareness Tantra - it’s called - Essence of clear Meaning. It’s just magnificent, it just, this text just takes my breath away, it’s just brilliant. The root text is only 10 pages long, it covers the whole path to enlightenment. His commentary is about 100. I’ll read this and we’ll be finished. But this is from Dudjom Lingpa himself, right after he’s given a complete explanation of taking the mind as the path, okay, he’s finished it, we’re done. He says Well whether or not you’ve identified pristine awareness within yourself, you who become muddled Bear in mind you can identify pristine awareness and not have achieved shamatha. You may have identified it, and it fades out, how are you now? Okay, you had that great experience a month ago where you had [1:09:30?] two months ago or you had a break through into non self three months ago, fine but how are you today? You know. And so well Whether or not you’ve identified pristine awareness, or non self or you know, emptiness and so forth You who become muddled due to distraction and sloth, excitation and laxity, should first mount your discursive mind, which is like a cripple, onto your vital energy this refers to the breath which is like a blind, wild stead so the cripple is riding the steed, the mind is riding the breath by tethering your mind with meditative experience and sustained attention so that you can meditate uninterruptedly, so chill, relax, stabilize, calm, breathing in breathing out like a rider just gracefully, smoothly, just seeing that horse just galloping along the plain and that rider and the horse are just one, the rider is just, as the horse moves so does the rider move, it’s not boom boom boom boom, it’s not falling off the horse, it’s just - ooooo - it’s just like a dance, like that. Your mind riding the stead of your breath. when this occurs, by tethering your mind with meditative experience and sustained attention so that you can meditate uninterruptedly, eventually all coarse and subtle obsessive thoughts will seem to be purified and uncontrived primordially present consciousness will manifest primordially present consciousness - I know the context. Substrate consciousness. Primordially present didn’t start sometime in the past , it’s always been there so it’s not referring to primordial consciousness is not what he said, it’s primordially [Tibetan 1:11:16?] it’s a mode of dimension of consciousness, it’s always been there. Your human life hasn’t been, Michelle’s mind wasn’t here 60 years ago. Michelle’s mind didn’t exist anywhere in the universe, but her substrate did, belonged to somebody else back then, alright. So that will become manifest. That’s a big deal. To know that for yourself.

To know what it is that you are seeing, I mean it just it seems like gargantuanly important. I mean are we here for just a few decades and then are we out like a light? I can live with that, but what’s true? Is that true? Which so many just people, believe, like - of course. Is it true? Or is our consciousness primordially present and this is an individual continuum of consciousness? Does it have no beginning? Have no end? I mean what could be more different? That beautiful distinction that Thomas Hertog gave yesterday - of here’s one view, where you’re totally irrelevant, your chemical scum, the universe is meaningless, evolution is meaningless, you’re meaningless, and then we wonder, and a lot of people think that’s scientific truth, and then we wonder why is depression going up? Planetarily why is it now the second, I think the second worst affliction on the planet and it’s going to take number 1 soon? Why, what’s the problem, why are you depressed? When we’ve been hammering in that you’re a piece of nothing, you know? Why are people anxious, why are people frustrated, why are people, why do people feel low self esteem? Gosh, let’s try to find out why do people feel low self esteem when we’re told with all the authority of science that we’re nothing. That all that is really something is brain and you’re along for the ride. So we have that one. I won’t linger, you heard it yesterday. And then he shifts over with razor sharp science, like - oh I can’t science let’s run off to religion, I can’t stand science, he goes from dumb science to smart science, old science to new science and the new science is welcome - you’re a participant in reality, you belong here, and you’re shaping your universe. Your observations are shaping your universe, you’re drawing from potentiality, actuality and you’re doing it. And this is straight science. He’s not talking any dharma, any religion, faith system and so forth. It’s just cutting edge straight science and it’s breathtaking. I love it when the division between meaning and truth fades out and dissolves entirely. So here we are. Same thing. This is a big deal. To not just believe. Lama Zopa Rinpoche was once asked - do we have to believe in reincarnation to become enlightened. Remember his answer? No - you have to know reincarnation, you have to know it’s true. If you don’t even know your substrate consciousness and you’re going to talk about achieving realization emptiness and Vidyadhara and Stage of Generation and Completion and you haven’t even really figured out whether you terminated at death or not? Grow up. You know. Really, get real. Because if we’re going to be terminated, number 1 it could be any second now, and it will certainly be any decade now, if that’s it, then what’s the big deal? You know, why go to all the effort? There are so many ways just to get pleasure quickly, you know. And there will be more, there will be more [ laughter] just for sure, just watch what’s coming up, virtual reality. Tired of your life? Your boring stupid, miserable meaningless little life? How about virtual reality, that’s um…that’s coming soon.

Enjoy your evening, enjoy your evening. See you tomorrow morning..

Transcribed by Cheri Langston

Revised by Rafael Carlos Giusti

Final Edition by Cheri Langston

Discussion

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.