B. Alan Wallace, 25 Apr 2016
Alan shares with us an image that came to him this morning, originating probably from a martial arts film. In this image a trainee in martial arts is told to stand one-legged on the top of a telephone pole. And to just stay there… Our practice is much more challenging - says Alan. If your shamatha is flaky your vipashyana will be flaky, too - he warns us. But what is the foundation of shamatha? To answer this, Alan refers to Padmasambhava. Prior to practicing shamatha one should settle the body in its natural state. Then the speech - by settling the respiration in its natural rhythm. To stop the mental chatter is not so easy, but as long as there is mental activity it will prevent the respiration to settle in its natural state. It is especially important to maintain a very silent mind at the end of the out-breath to enable the in-breath to flow in effortlessly. One needs to maintain the continuity of attention without losing relaxation. Finally, one settles the mind in its natural state. And here Alan refers again to the image of a person balancing on the pole. Do not fall forward or backward, to the left or to the right - do not fall into excitation or laxity, do not grasp onto thoughts of the past or future. Stay balanced on the pole. Be “maharishi” (Sanskrit) - totally straight. The more deeply the body is relaxed and the respiration is settled in its natural rhythm, the better the mind will be able to practice shamatha.
The meditation is on settling body, speech and mind in their natural states and on resting in the stillness of awareness.
After the meditation Alan advises us to maintain the continuity of stillness between the sessions. If this stillness is maintained throughout the course of the day, we will be able to stay lucid and fully present, yet not caught up in whatever arises in the field of our senses and awareness.
The meditation starts at 6:16
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Olaso. An image came to mind this morning from some movie I’ve seen maybe even multiple movies kind of merged into one. Training in martial arts, where the trainees are told they have to stand on something like a telephone pole or a pole on one leg. Have you seen that? Just stand on one leg on top of a telephone pole and just and then stay. Stay, don’t move. That sounded challenging. Our training is much more challenging than that. We read yesterday I guess it was, yeah it was. That the stronger your shamatha, the stronger your vipashyana. If you have flaky shamatha, you’re going to have flaky vipashyana. Doesn’t matter what you call it’s still flaky. If you have flaky shamatha, you’re going to have flaky zen, flaky vajrayana, flaky flaky. It’s flaky all the way up, all the way down. If you don’t have a stable mind what are you going to do yeah. But then we can look down at the foundation of shamatha and as we see in the classic teachings, Padmasambhava immediately comes to mind. Prior to venturing into the main practice of shamatha you settle your body in its natural state. Deepening and deepening that sense of ease of looseness of relaxation but without spacing out without getting dull, without losing the clarity with which you began. And then settle your speech in its natural state. You know what that means. To rest in effortless silence, but not only verbally which is quite easy, but mentally which is not so easy and to facilitate that we settle the respiration in its natural rhythm. And in so doing we really need be very attentive as continuously as possible actually because if you just mentally talk your way right through the end of the outbreath, your breath is not going to settle in its natural state.
[02:04] The chit chat, the noise, the agitation that’s coming from the conceptual mind will prevent your respiration really settling into that fine tune, that fine tuning of internal balance. Balancing your whole energy system by way of the respiration. So you need to maintain a real continuity of attention. Not miss a beat, not miss an out breath, every out breath, especially as you come to the end. Knowing I’m only going to get this chance once. With this breath, this is it, then I’ve lost it forever. As I come to the end of the out breath with a very silent mind I’m going to egolessly, fearlessly release and release and release. And I’m simply going to allow, not pull in and not impede the next flow of the breath inwards. And I’m going to maintain that continuously quietly arousing the attention as the breath flows in and gently releasing as the breath flows out. Maintain continuity without losing the underlying sense of relaxation.
[03:05] Then we go to the culmination of this preliminary process of settling body, speech and mind going of course from coarse to subtle. And then we are settling mind in its natural state simply as a preliminary exercise. And so we go back to that image of standing on one leg on top of a telephone pole. Don’t fall forwards. And that is don’t be distracted outwards to any appearances, even mental ones. Don’t fall forwards. Don’t fall backwards. Don’t fall backwards into identifying with the desires, emotions, feelings, memories and so forth that come up. Don’t fall backwards. Don’t fall to the left. Getting carried away by thoughts pertaining to the past. Don’t fall to the right. Drifting off into thoughts pertaining to the future, some imaginary future that doesn’t even exist. So just stay right there. Oh, that’s telephone pole. Hello telephone pole. I thought it was an unflickering candle, but today it’s a telephone pole. [laughter] My little index finger. So there it is, straight. The, you know the sanskrit term rishi, rishi, like rishikesh, maharishi and so forth, rishi. It’s in Tibetan it’s drang srong. Drang srong chen po. Maharishi, drang srong chen po. Hindus don’t own that term it’s just a Sanskrit term, so we get to use it too. But the Tibetans drang srong, drang srong, drang srong chen po, the great rishi. And drang means straight, and srong means straight. It means straight straight, totally straight. So be totally straight not crooked. Not falling over. Okay.
[04:52] So the stronger the more deeply we’re able to settle the body in its natural state, the more continuously and with greater and greater fine tuning we’ll be able to settle the respiration in its natural rhythm. And the more that deeply, egolessly, effortlessly settles in its natural rhythm then the mind will be able to come to settle effortlessly in stillness and clarity. Ready to go. To practice shamatha, vipashyana whatever else you want to do. So, let’s do that for twenty four minutes. This will be a guided meditation.
[05:35] (sounds of retreatants getting ready for meditation).
[06:12] Meditation bell rings three times.
[06:50] With the motivation to set out on the great voyage, the great voyage to perfect awakening crossing the sea of samsara. Before you set out from the harbor you see that you are your ship is in good shape, ready to weather all types of weather. The stormiest of seas. So the motivation of bodhicitta we’re taking refuge first of all let your awareness descend into the space of the body, fill the space of the body from the ground to the crown of your head, mindfully present throughout this somatic field.
[08:31] And wherever you feel tightness or constriction throughout the body, as you breathe in very gently attend to these tight regions. And as you breathe out surrender your muscles to gravity, relax deeply from your core.
[09:33] Throughout the session let your body be still like a mountain apart from the movement of the breath.
[10:31] And while adopting and sustaining a posture of vigilance breath by breath with every exhalation relax more and more deeply in the body but without losing the vigilance of your posture or the clarity of your mind.
[11:26] And then among the sensations arising throughout the somatic field, selectively focus on those sensations corresponding to the respiration, attending to the whole body, the whole field of tactile sensations and attending to the whole body, the entire cycle of the in breath and the out breath, relaxing deeply, letting go, letting go with every outbreath all the way through to the end. Simply allowing with no vestige of control or effort. Simply allowing the breath to flow in whether it’s short or long however it may be, let it be. Arousing your attention with each inhalation relaxing with each exhalation. Letting the horseman of your mind continuously ride the mount of your breath. Enhance the stability, the continuity of your attention but without losing the sense of ease in body and mind. Without disrupting or straining the flow of the respiration.
[14:51] Existentially set your mind at ease releasing all hopes and fears, all concerns, all thoughts about the future and the past, trusting that it’s ok to simply rest quietly and non discursively but discerningly in the present moment. Sustaining the flow of clear cognizance.
[15:49] The eyes at least partially open but without directing your mental awareness to any of the six fields of experience. Simply letting it rest in its own nature holding its own ground.
[16:33] Of course, appearances continue to arise in the visual, the auditory, the tactile, and the mental domains of course. Let them come let them go, but let your awareness be unmoved. Let your body be still like a mountain. Maintain this with firm resolve. And let your mind, let your awareness be still like space.
[20:29] Whenever you know that you’ve fallen off and carried away note this as quickly as possible and always let your first response be to relax more deeply, not to tighten up. Relax, and whatever pulled you away, release the grasping. Without the grasping it would not have been able to pull you away, it has no power from its own side. Whatever that it may be. It’s an empty appearance. Relax, release and the return happens naturally. You don’t need to look for it, you don’t need to strive or give it effort. In the release of all grasping awareness naturally, effortlessly comes to rest in its own place and it naturally effortlessly holds its own ground, straight, you [are] backed, clear, unflickering, unwavering.
[21:56] Sustain this flow of mindful presence without distraction and without grasping. Let’s continue practicing in silence.
[30:13] Bell rings three times, meditation ends.
[30:41] Olaso. Stillness and motion that’s the stillness. That’s the stillness. And the more continuously that can be maintained throughout the course of the day then you’ll be able to be fully present with whatever movements are arising, surrounding environment, other people, your body, any activities of the mind without being caught up and swept away by them, without falling into a state of non lucidity, without the cognitive fusion. Neither caught up and carried away nor disassociated, something right in the middle. Fully present, fully attentive but still. So do that all day. Enjoy your day.
Transcribed by KrissKringle Sprinkle
Revised by Rafael Carlos Giusti
Final edition by Rafael Carlos Giusti
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