B. Alan Wallace, 17 Jun 2019
Lama Alan begins by using the analogy of going to the movies and watching images on a screen as it compares to observing the mind and whatever arises within it. He quotes Yangthang Rinpoche: “Do not look out, look in, because when you look out you reify”
We’re observing our own cinema about 16 hours a day. It’s 3D, it’s free, and it includes drama, farce, tragedy, and a lot of infomercials.
Lama then explains that there are two ways of doing the practice of settling the mind in its natural state. One is what we’ve already practiced, which is explained by Karma Chagme using the analogy of the raven and the navigator. The other is the approach suggested by Yangthang Rinpoche, where we’re less likely to be caught up in the contents of our mind, because we just recognize the mental events that arise but we’re not interested in their content.
After the meditation we go back to the texts. Lama Alan translated these short descriptions of each of the stages within each yoga from teachings by Garchen Rinpoche. They’re contained in the text “Twelve Stages of the Four Yogas of Mahamudra”. We start by covering the small stage of the Yoga of single-pointedness.
Then we go back to “The Four Yogas of Mahamudra”:
Meditation
Shamatha: Settling the mind in its natural state following Yangthang Rinpoche’s approach
Meditation starts at 14:34
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