Spring 2010 Shamatha Retreat

In this afternoon session, Alan Wallace gives a brief introduction to the wisdom aspect of compassion, followed by the practice, some reflexions, and a Q&A session mostly focused on attachment.

This great photo was provided by Malcolm!

Please enjoy as we did!

In this Morning Session, we practice Settling the Mind in its Natural State with an emphasis on observing the spaces in between thoughts and the “background” of the mind rather than the foreground and the thoughts.
Alan starts with a brief introduction, followed by the practice, and an outro regarding sensory distractions such as noises.

Another artistic shot by Malcolm.

Enjoy!

This afternoon lecture was about one very important but often overlooked aspect of the four immeasurables: Empathetic Joy. It starts with a very precise, relevant, and bright introduction about the guilt, self-loathing, and low self esteem that plagues modernity and the west. Afterwards there is a 24 minute meditation on equanimity, focused mainly on the Phuket retreatants but relevant anywhere in the world. To finish, there is a long Q&A session with many practical questions that have come up during the personal meditations.

This full moon picture was also provided by Malcolm!

A brief preface to the practice of Shamatha Without a Sign as taught by Padmasambhava, followed by a 24 minute practice and some commentary on the practice as well as some tips as to how to maintain mindfulness throughout the day. As a bonus, we get the first taste of Alan’s fluent Tibetan with the addition of our newest Sangha member: Mugi from Mongolia!

Please enjoy this sublime practice as we did!

This sky photo was also provided by Malcolm, and I think it fits this practice very well!

This afternoon we went straight into a practice of empathetic joy, followed by a reflection on guilt, remorse, and how empathetic joy (mudita) can affect our deeds. Afterwards there is just a short Q&A section because a large part of it was extracted for the next episode of the podcast.

The picture is of yesterday’s beautiful sunset right outside the teaching hall!

One of the things we love about Alan is his ability to answer a single question with a 30 minute reply in which he not only answers the question completely but he explores all of the branches and leaves you deeply inspired. I felt the need to separate this into a separate episode for those who do not have time to listen to everything. I feel the start of the bonus episodes!

Alan talks about awareness of awareness (specifically the ability to realize rigpa through this practice), the several buddhist paths, the solid foundations of his teachings, the reasons for Shamatha, and more. This is a “must listen” episode which I hope will leave you as inspired as it did us.

This morning we practiced a slightly different method Awareness of Awareness, or Shamatha without a sign.
After the meditation, there is a short section on insomnia and anxiety that can arise when in retreat. It is mostly focused on our situation here in Phuket but I included it because it can be relevant to many around the world, especially if you are doing retreat with us! May it serve you well!

By the way, the podcast picture for this episode is part of a Thangka called “The Nine Progressive Stages of Mental Development” (or other names). Google it along with its explanation, it’s very inspiring! You can view the Thangka full size at the podcast website.

This afternoon we meditated on the fourth of the 4 Immeasurables: Equanimity.
There is a preamble on Equanimity, followed by the meditation and by some reflections of the importance of this practice. Afterwards there is a Q&A with a question about the breath followed by a question which again turned into a goldmine: it started out with “what exactly is the difference between nirvana and rigpa” and evolved into a very deep overview of the path and the final stages just prior to complete enlightenment. In Alan’s words, “deep waters.” Very interesting topic.

This photo of the cloud front was provided by Rosa!

In this morning session, we went straight into an Awareness of Awareness meditation with some extra techniques. Short and sweet! This is the third method in our Awareness of Awareness cycle.

(You may have to turn up the volume on this one! Sorry!)

This photo is also part of the great series from Malcolm!

This afternoon we meditated on the fourth of the 4 Immeasurables: Equanimity.
There is a preamble on Equanimity, followed by the meditation and by some reflections of the importance of this practice. Afterwards there is a Q&A with a question about the breath followed by a question which again turned into a goldmine: it started out with “what exactly is the difference between nirvana and rigpa” and evolved into a very deep overview of the path and the final stages just prior to complete enlightenment. In Alan’s words, “deep waters.” Very interesting topic.

This photo of the cloud front was provided by Rosa!

In this morning session, we went straight into an Awareness of Awareness meditation with some extra techniques. Short and sweet! This is the third method in our Awareness of Awareness cycle.

(You may have to turn up the volume on this one! Sorry!)

This photo is also part of the great series from Malcolm!

This afternoon we started with more cultivation of equanimity, specifically dispelling the “I-It” relationship with ourselves. First we had a great introduction to the concept, a couple of questions arose, and then the meditation (an extremely valuable practice).

Afterwards, Alan reflects on some of the incorrect “selling points” of buddhism that are sometimes portrayed in the media and as an effect of this modern (last 50 years) boom in Buddhism and other misconceptions. There was no Q&A, only one very long and simply astonishing lecture which I will upload as a bonus tomorrow! It will really be worth your time.

This great photo of our teaching hall Buddha was taken by Malcolm.

It’s Sunday (for us!) and here is the bonus I promised!
After yesterday’s practice on Equanimity, Alan said he had to add a couple of “footnotes” to the question about Nirvana and Rigpa from two days ago. You can expect what follows: 30 minutes that capture you and just keep escalating and escalating into a pure jewel of a lecture. And I say escalating because as we approach the end of the podcast, well… just listen for yourself! I will (humbly) say from my opinion that listening to this is probably one of the best ways you can use 30 minutes of your life.
Several of my fellow Phuket Sanga members asked me to make sure that this recording was going to be available in the future, and with very good reason. We love this kind of stuff over here, so as Alan ocassionaly says after these kinds of talks “Hopefully that wasn’t a waste of time for you. It certainly wasn’t for us!”

Today we practiced the last method in the “cycle” of Shamatha methods for this course. It is the final variation of Awareness of Awareness. In this podcast we go straight into the meditation followed by a brief recap of the four Awareness of Awareness practices and a short reminder on the importance of Shamatha.

This is today’s sky here at the Mind Centre, perfect for Awareness of Awareness practice!

Today we also finished the basic cycle of the Four Inmeasurables with another practice of equanimity.

We first get an introduction to the sheer importance of the practices of Four Inmeasurables (and how they not only are tremendously beneficial practices in themselves but also how they are the “golden ground” for cultivating Bodihchitta) and brief instructions for Tonglen. We then proceed to a practice of equanimity with Tonglen mixed in, and end with some good assorted Questions and Answers (Q&A).

The picture of this podcast is beautiful Chalong temple here in Phuket! This great photo was kindly provided by Sara.

This morning we started the cycle all over again with a delicious soothing practice of Full-Body awareness (or as Alan calls it, "The Infirmary!") He also gives a very brief introduction on why it is worthwhile to go into the infirmary and about “balancing earth and wind” and “balancing earth and sky”.

The picture (once again by Sara) is of the reclining Buddha at Prathong temple here in Phuket. He went into parinirvana in this position, which shows that sitting isn’t the only position for meditation!

We start with a great introduction on the Four Inmeasurables and how they interrelate based on Buddhaghosa and the Tibetan Buddhism perspective, including the “faux facsimiles” or close but very distorted versions of the 4I (yes! I finally found an abbreviation that I will be using from now on) and some commentary on how to remedy the delusion about thinking that we will be the lucky ones in samsara. After finding that Loving Kindness is the cure for that, we go into a great, deep practice to “get real.”
Afterwards there is some reflection on the practice and a few misc. Q&A.

This samsaric picture by Malcolm was taken before the retreat. This will probably be the only beach picture you see from us!

This morning we went back to the valuable practice of settling the attention on the rise and fall of the abdomen, a “transitional” practice. The podcast starts with an introduction about struggles, the “casino of samsara,” discipline, and counting in breath awareness practice.
After the practice, there is a reflection on the reality of suffering.

The picture is of our gompa, or teaching hall! It’s part of a bunch of pictures that have been uploaded to Alan’s facebook today. Here (on the website) is a fancy button in case you want to become a fan! (Or “Like” as they now call it):

This podcast is centered around a Loving Kindness practice designed to help develop joy and vision for our Shamatha practice, but it will work for many things. As almost always we start with a very good introduction followed by the 24 minute practice. Afterwards there is a short footnote about the difference between achieving Shamatha (access to the first Dhyāna) and actually achieving the first Dhyāna and what each entails.
The podcast ends there because was a question asked, “Alan, how would you like to see the development of Buddhism and Contemplative Science in the West within the next 10-15 years.” As you can imagine, I will leave this for the much-loved sunday bonus! If you know Alan, you know that this question deserves its own podcast episode.

This picture is of the spirit houses (or san phra phum in Thai) at the entryway to the Mind Centre! The theory behind them is very interesting once again I suggest consulting our great friend, Google!

This morning we had a 4 minuteintroduction on achieving Shamatha with breath awareness (and the acquired sign), followed by a classic, old school practice as taught by Buddhaghosa and practiced for millenia.
This practice should be at the bottom of the food pyramid!
Afterwards Alan explains some tips to slip back into meditation sessions with less transition from our “ordinary” state. Enjoy!

This beautiful picture of Kathmandu courtesy of our cheerful phuket Sangha friend Ale!

We start with a few comments about the term “Loving Kindness” and definitions of love (neodarwinism, scientific materialism, freud, all the goodies) and the shortcomings of looking at human beings as simple animals from the metaphysical point of view. Then we start to observe the attitude of self-centeredness which we frequently have and how it it has different “concentric rings” (which we can extend to include all beings and therefore cure this self-centeredness).
After this powerful reflective introduction we have a 24 minute session of practice of Loving Kindness and some Dzogchen bases. After the practice we have a question on Dzogchen and how some forms of it can be dangerous when used incorrectly or without preparation, and lastly we have a very juicy “trailer” of lucid dreaming.
Which means I am going to advertize here: If you keep faithfully listening to the podcast we’ll eventually come to great lucid dreaming practices! So keep listening and tell all of your friends! Everyone loves lucid dreaming.

This photo is the same stupa in Kathmandu from the morning podcast but this time our creative Ale (or Julian? saludos!) used the trusty black and white setting!

Today got quite long for a morning practice, but it was very interesting! Alan immediately got going with a very sharp discussion of the current status of acceptance that cognitive sciences or even just attentional training such as Shamatha have in the scientific materialist view. He draws on several events from his experience with his subtle humor but also with striking clarity and in my opinion, sad truth.
I will not try to describe or paraphrase what he said because it would not be very precise, but if you really are not interested then feel free to jump to 20:00!

There we start our usual morning meditation which in this case was a great practice of Settling the Mind in its Natural State (a way to directly observe our minds), and after the practice Alan explains the three qualities of a worthy student of Buddhism, and explains that this morning was a preview of the talk that is to come this afternoon.

He says that I am partly to blame for what got him going this morning and for this afternoon, and I will admit that this is because I asked him a question about debating the scientific materialist view of the relationship between the mind and brain. So if you are interested in these sorts of things don’t miss this afternoon! And as Alan jokingly said, “if you want a peaceful evening, you might want to bring earplugs!”

The relevant photo is from the Mind and Life XVIII conference in Dharamsala (2009) (to get you excited for this afternoon!)

Tonight we had a 5 minute introduction to the practice of Compassion and how to do it properly, as well as a reflection on the effect of Tonglen.
Afterwards we go straight to the practice.

After the meditation there is a question that a group of people had. The question was about not losing touch with Dharma even though we might get swamped with mundane tasks. I think this applies to many of us.

Alan first gives a striking “bad-cop” approach to a part of the question talking about priorities. It makes a lot of sense. Then comes the real question about not separating from Dharma and alan gives a profoundly inspiring response which I believe might be very interesting and motivating to many of us all over the world (as well as the "bad-cop response")

I stripped the last part of the podcast but don’t worry, I won’t make you wait till Sunday! I’ll upload it right after this one and it deals with how to approach a conversation about the relationship of mind and brain. A favorite!

Guess who took the picture and where it’s from!

In this podcast, B. Alan Wallace, Ph. D., answers a question involving having a friendly discussion about the relationship between mind and brain (don’t we all have those with our friends all the time?) and explains his point of view as well as refutes several typical arguments about the mind being either part of, the same thing, or an emergent property of the brain.

I won’t say more, listen for yourselves! This will probably clear up any doubts you have about the topic, and his points are rock-solid.

(And if you are like me you’ll probably take note for the next time you have this argument!)

Some quick further reading: http://www.alanwallace.org/Exploration%20of%20Consciousness.pdf


You can tell I liked that photo!

This morning we had a short but sweet introduction on the mind’s capacity to heal itself and how the traditional sciences can cooperate with the contemplative science, come together, and share their insights. Alan also talks about how sometimes support from the psychopharmaceutical, clinical psychology, and psychiatry branches can be a huge support for contemplative practice. So this morning was about cooperation and synergy!

Afterwards we have a 24 minute session of settling the mind and then we wrapped it up on time!

The photo is a sunset from a few days ago courtesy of the wonderful (tia) Rosa!

We start with a very precise introduction of how mental afflictions are afflictions because they are rooted in delusion. Some feelings can be either very positive or afflictive depending on the above. I won’t give examples in order to not distort Alan’s words but it’s a great explanation!

We also get an explanation about four displays of compassion or Bodhisattva actions that are not immediately apparent, contrasting the sugar-coated, peaceful saints of other traditions with the Buddhist deities, which can be very wrathful but stemming from Compassion. He gives four examples which really opened our eyes.

Then we go into a great meditation session and afterwards we have a few excellent questions, wrapped up with an amazing analysis of a verse (the first verse of the first chapter) from the Dhammapada in which Alan masterfully adds to both the question of how to live a rich, meaningful, Dharma-saturated life in modernity without going into solitude and becoming a yogi and about the brain-mind question. This is a clear example of Alan’s exemplary knowledge compiling and interpreting at its pure best, and this podcast also has a crescendo ending in ƒƒ (for us musicians) which caused us to be late for dinner. This final point starts at 1:02:30 for you cheaters!

Another great photo from ale!

In this bonus podcast, B. Alan Wallace is asked about his ideal vision of Buddhism and Contemplative Science in “The West” (or modernity) for the next 10-15 years. Alan first describes his own term, “Contemplative Science,” and then gets going on a very inspiring and precise view of how this can be absolutely groundbreaking for science and humanity in general.
Can we penetrate and break through to knowing reality? Taking it out of the realm of metaphysics, religion, or theory, but actually putting it to the test and knowing?
I wont say more in order to not ruin Alan’s response, but if you are interested in Buddhism, Cognitive Sciences, Psychology, Brain Science, Philosophy, or Science in general, this is really worth a listen. It’s not technical at all, and gives a very expository view of the unfortunate status quo of the previously mentioned branches of science. You know that sunday bonuses don’t fail to deliver so just listen!

The photo is another great sky from Rosa here at the mind centre!

No, it’s not a side effect of your intense daily meditation – in this podcast the picture actually moves! That is to say, it’s a video!

With the help of David Cherniack, we were able to record Alan’s quick message.

As you can see, we have created a mailing list for information, news, and retreat information all regarding the Mind Centre here in Phuket. Please note that this is different from the podcast daily updates that you might have subscribed to. In other words, if you subscribe to the mailing list, you won’t be getting the daily podcast emails, so don’t worry! Some of you sharp-eyed folks may see that it looks a lot like the SBI mailing list registration, however please note the following message from SBI:

If you are already on SBI’s mailing list, but wish to also be on the Phuket list, you may subscribe again and click on “Phuket Mind Centre News & Updates.”  That will put you on both lists. If you are not already on SBI’s mailing list, you may subscribe and then choose to join General Interest or just the “Phuket Mind Centre News & Updates” list. 

So if you want to join the mailing list (or view the video in its full HD glory) please visit the website, or for those of you reading this on the website feel free to click the following beautiful, stylish Web 2.0 button:








I should probably also add that David had nothing to do with the extremely cheesy introduction to the video. He is a great filmmaker (I highly recommend his film “The Oracle” about the Tibetan Oracles), and he will most likely frown at me when he sees the introduction to this video, of which I admit I am guilty! So don’t take that very seriously.

Interesting title eh?

This morning we practiced Settling the Mind in its Natural State. Alan gave a brief introduction on some cases of Out of Body Experiences and showed how they are related to this practice and to Shamatha in general.

We have had internet problems so I don’t know when I will be able to upload this! Hopefully it will be working this afternoon…

Another great photo from Ale!

Alan starts with an introduction on “episodic compassion” and how easy it can be to feel contempt and superiority towards the people committing injustices according to us without looking at all of the perspectives.
This practice of compassion focuses both on the victims of other people’s behavior and on the “victimizers,” who themselves are victims of their own strong mental afflictions.

After the meditation we had some assorted Q&A about practice and I think I already have my Sunday bonus for this week although it’s only monday! There was a great question by our deep-question expert Noah along the lines of why won’t a yogi just display paranormal abilities in a massive event to “kickstart” the revolution of the mind sciences. The discussion that follows is extremely interesting and engaging, so I guarantee your Sunday this week won’t be boring, although your monday may be tinged with the mental affliction of resentment towards me because of how I left this episode as a “to-be-continued” cliffhanger! A great opportunity to practice compassion =)

By the way, sorry for the technical problems you may or may not have had recently, the internet here went down and I am in the process of fixing everything! That is why you may notice little weird things here and there (such as all of your great comments disappearing forever, boo). And finally this is another great photo from Ale’s travels!

This morning we had an inspiring introduction regarding the space of the mind and its observation, as well as a sequence of steps to become lucid with respect to reality. We went into a 24 minute session focusing on the nature of the space of the mind, evident in the spaces between thoughts but also very present even when there are thoughts.

After the practice Alan briefly discusses some interesting hypotheses that could be put to the test in the contemplative observatory. A very uplifting morning.

Another great picture from the collection that Ale shared!

We start with an introduction on the three different dimensions of suffering and pick up briefly on this morning’s topic of becoming lucid in the waking state.
The deep practice that follows is indeed a Compassion practice but its focus is on this lucidity.
After the meditation we have some open questions focused on the practice, such as “how does vividness manifest in the practice of settling the mind in its natural state,” and other general questions that might be good for all! We passed the microphone around so there are a lot people giving their experience and asking their own questions this time.

Another photo by Ale! As you can see she had quite a nice trip and gave me a bunch of awesome pictures. I know I already used this one but I had some technical problems!

This morning we started with a brief recap on some details about the breath in Settling the Mind in its Natural State, and some notes about the substrate conciousness and Awareness of Awareness.
Afterwards we had a very clearly explained practice, including some tips for people who are new to this type of meditation.

We are having some microphone adjustments so you might have to turn up the volume on this one! Sorry!

This photo was taken by Sara here at the mind centre… Very suitable photo for Awareness of Awareness!

This afternoon was great. We started with an overview of four immeasurables as an extrordinarly wise system of emotional regulation, and although that sounds utilitarian (since the qualities of loving kindness, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity are some of the most noble virtues to develop), they can be excellent for emotional balance.

Alan then talks about how to develop motivation, inspiration, enthusiasm, lightness, and hopefulness towards the practice, which is directly linked to the meditation we do afterwards.

After the session, we had some assorted Q&As on great subjects, including great tips and practices for maintaining the object of mindfulness between sessions and “seasoning” the day with the four immeasurables. There are also some great explanations on the 10 non-virtues and one of the great “path overviews” and bigger picture discussions that we know and love.

This photo is of Master Luang Phor Cham in the Chalong Temple of Phuket (another great one by Sara!)

This morning we followed a second method of Shamatha without a Sign (Awareness of Awareness) as taught by Padmasambhava. This method included probing into the very nature of that which inverts and releases the attention and in so doing one may realize rigpa! Alan first explains in detail the confusion around this practice and its true potential, using a dream analogy. A greatly inspiring overview.

Afterwards we have the actual practice and a short outro about the parallels of this practice and Dzogchen.

A great way to start the day!

Today’s practice was focused on taking delight both towards being of benefit in the world outwards but also of going into meditation and being apparently useless for a while, because it’s a cultivation with which you can become immensely useful afterwards. There is a great introduction on this point, and after the practice we had some great, fluid assorted Q&A with answers from the crowd. The questions vary from how to balance quality and quantity in meditation and some sprinkles of dream yoga near the end.


Another great local photo from Sara’s collection!

This morning we had a practice of the third method of Awareness of Awareness. Alan starts with an introduction and explains some points on the practice, and after the practice he gives some tips on keeping a constant meditation even when having to do other things. The meditation session in this podcast is a very clearly explained and great practice of Awareness of Awareness.

As you can probably tell by now I like interesting skies, and especially so when talking about Awareness of Awareness! This is another typical sky here after dinner.

This podcast starts with a microphone test; you may notice that this podcast has none of the annoying popping noises that went out in the previous episodes. And the sound quality will keep getting better as we tweak the system.

Ok, enough of that! Today’s afternoon practice was on Equanimity, and it was a very valuable meditation. We start as always with an excellent introduction with illustrative examples before going into the practice.

After the practice we had some assorted Q&A, but before that Alan gave some great tips on Lucid Dreaming and Dream Yoga (with many references to Stephen LaBerge). The questions are on assorted topics, from practice to theory, and are very illustrative. Enjoy!

I included this cellphone photo of yesterday’s sky to aid in reflecting about impermanence! I kept looking at the sky after taking the photo and in less than 30 seconds it was completely different!

This morning we practiced the final phase of Awareness of Awareness, and quoting from Alan’s great analogy in the introduction to this practice: “Putting it in the Oven.”
The title comes from the succinct explanation of the practice as described by Tsongkhapa.
This time it was just a brief 5 minute introduction and then we went into the meditation (as taught by Padmasambhava), the most profound of all Shamatha practices.

With this method, the path and the fruit are similar in aspect.

Enjoy as we did!

(And if you were wondering if I really had to use another sky picture – the answer is yes!)

Hello everyone!

Last week we had some internet trouble over here which caused the podcast XML to get corrupted. As a result, I have received many comments saying that you were having trouble downloading the podcast episodes from:

April 28 - May 1

The problem has now been fixed, so you may try downloading the episodes again. If the episodes do not show up in your iTunes, then follow the instructions in the video and they should work properly! Sorry for the trouble and enjoy your meditations!

May there be great benefit!

Wow, I have to say that we ended this cycle of meditations perfectly. We had a very valuable practice (although, what practice has not been very valuable?) on Equanimity paired with wisdom. We started with a short and sweet introduction, and then went straight into the meditation.

After the meditation we had two delicious juicy questions. The first question by Nick I took out because it’s perfect for a stand-alone bonus that I’ll send out tomorrow. It entails an explanation of the Four Immeasurables, their faux facsimiles, and how they balance out.

The question which I did not edit out was Ana Lorena’s, and she asked if it was possible to cultivate the Four Immeasurables without all the conceptualization and just bringing forth the aspirations. I won’t pollute the podcast anymore with my description, but if you trust me by now then I’ll tell you that it’s really worth a listen!

This beautiful photo was taken by Daniela at one of the local temples!

In this juicy sunday Bonus, Alan answers a question from our friend Noah about why wait to kickstart the revolution in the mind sciences? Why not get an accomplished Yogi to demonstrate his paranormal abilities under scientific scrutiny? Maybe just a little bit of levitation, walking through walls, multiplying themselves, disappearing… The usual.

You can be sure that what follows is a a very thorough analysis of this subject, from several perspectives and with some possible outcomes. Very interesting for those of us who have sometimes asked that question ourselves!

Anyone want to guess who is depicted in this Thangka? Hint: I’m his fan.


View this episode on the site for a larger version of the pic!

This session was the first of the meditations with less spoken guidance. However, Alan made up for it with the great introduction and outro!

The talks are based on the importance of looking for genuine happiness, focusing on the more and more common condition of “General Anxiety,” (or reality-based anxiety) its causes, and how society is depending on more and more brain drugs to band-aid the symptoms. The outro is particularly enriching; it details how a cooperation between the Pharmaceutical Industry (which can be absolutely necessary), Psychiatrists (talk treatment), and Dharma could work in synergy towards a real focus on healing the mind on all levels.

This local photo is courtesy of Daniela.

Last but certainly not least, happy mothers day weekend! We love you and miss you mothers!

Today we re-started the 4I cycle with Loving Kindness. Specifically, we focused on motivation and how it has the power to make things possible or impossible, achievable or not achievable.

The introduction was around this motivation and its power, while the outro contains a great several-part question by Malcom on the different methods of Shamatha, their pit falls, changing between methods, etc. It is a very concise explanation of the three methods we cover in this retreat, how they interrelate, and how it is possible to use them all cohesively. Also at the end there is a very precise explanation on how to correctly do the practice of Awareness of Awareness (spurred by a question from Noah). Alan utilizes his trusty sensory deprivation tank example and leaves the object of this practice quite clear. So if you like Awareness of Awareness but aren’t sure if you are doing it correctly, the last 15 minutes or so of this podcast might clear many doubts!

I might add that today we had quite a few doses of uplifting and informative humor scattered throughout, so hopefully it will add some icing to your mood as it did to ours!
(As opposed to these Monkey-Deities’ apparent mood in the photo of the local Chinese temple taken by Ivan)

Feliz día de las madres en Mexico! Las queremos mucho y las extrañamos!

Today we had a quite silent and relaxing session on the sensations of the breath at the level of the abdomen.

The introduction talks about the several ways in which we can recognize progress in our practice, and the outro is a recap on the terms “mindfulness,” “instrospection,” and “conscientiousness.”

This local photo is courtesy of Daniela.

In the introduction, Alan talks about Loving Kindness and how it is an aspiration and not a feeling (although it certainly comes with a feeling). He also talks about achieving Shamatha by method of non-discursive meditation on the apspiration of Loving Kindness (developing stability and vividness).

After the practice we had an explanation of moving loving kindness into “enemy territory,” talked briefly about the concept of “enemy,” and saw how Loving Kindness can (and needs to) grow ultimately.

Today I did something unusual in that I split the podcast into three. I won’t be releasing them on Sunday this time (I am sending out the three at the same time), but I felt they were themes that a lot of people are interested in, and it would be handy to have them as stand-alone episodes. So don’t be scared when you get 4 podcast updates today! It’s actually the usual daily 2 with the afternoon one split into 3.

This local photo is from Daniela.

This podcast was spurred by a question from our philosopher Ilse asking about the difference of “Identitylessness” [or non self] and “Personhood” (as she put it).

There are many misconceptions about Buddhism and the theme of the “Non-Self,” and here B. Alan Wallace breaks it down skillfully and with his characteristic [irony alarm went off], funny and good-humored but extremely wise and accurate examples. This is really recommended if you have any doubts (as many of us do) on this topic! It is explained extremely clearly.

As a bonus within a bonus, Ilse comments that the practice of Shamatha in this retreat so far is starting to weaken her sense of identity. Alan quickly says it’s a good thing then talks about how Shamatha can and does weaken the sense of identity (and the suffering it entails) and breaks down the “fortress” of ignorance and delusion, along with their derivative afflictions such as craving, aversion, anger, hostility, etc. At the end it gets very philosophical (and nicely so). All in all a great podcast for reflexion.

In the spirit of this podcast, do you know who is in the picture? You might say, “What kind of stupid question is that?… That’s Alan!” But what is it that you call Alan? The pixels on the screen? Your appearance of Alan? The voice? A dharma teacher? A friend? Do you see the same Alan that I am seeing as I add the picture? How many Alans are there? Is there an Alan (I hope so!) ?
Have fun with that one!

Ah, the Ngöndro (preliminary) practices. If you ask how many you have to do (without the proper context and preparation), you will probably be sorry to hear the answer: 100,000. Of ALL OF THEM.

With these good-humored words and other examples, Alan reproaches the “how much do I gotta do” approach to the preliminaries and sets off on a very enlightening explanation of the very valid reasons for the preliminaries and the context in which they are immensely beneficial and meaningful. He also points out when they are not yet of most benefit (especially to us modern people or to people just starting in the path of Dharma) and explains why.

In the end, Alan gives a short, concise, and brilliant personal answer (based on how the Buddha taught his disciples) to the preliminaries of Shamatha which left us all tremendously inspired. I won’t ruin and pollute the surprise of what his answer is so it will suffice to say that if you have doubts, problems, and/or restlessness about the preliminaries or want to clear any misconceptions, this podcast is definitely for you. And if you really know the preliminaries and perhaps have even completed them, Alan’s final points are still extremely valuable to anyone and can bring a rich, meaningful, and powerful drive to the practice.

For those interested, the picture is from a thangka of the Dudjom Tersar Ngöndro.

This morning we had a brief followup on the concept of the loss of the sense of self. Afterwards we went directly into the practice, which you may notice was quite silent apart from the initial sets of instructions. This time it’s about going deeper and using our own faculties of mindfulness and introspection without Alan reminding us to do so.

This also means fewer words from me (compared to my essays from yesterday)! So back to the cushion I go! Enjoy!

In this episode, we keep working more deeply with the Four Immeasurables. As always we have our introduction which includes an answer by HH. Dalai Lama from a Mind and Life conference saying that what moves us or motivates us to do anything at all is caring. Alan then breaks this down and shows how all of the 4I stem from this basic caring, and also shows how they are deeply entangled together. For example, empathetic joy is “built-into” compassion, as it arises when the suffering is alleviated.

After the meditation, we go into an open mic Q&A session which has several questions focused on Awareness of Awareness, and then Ilse shares an experience which spurs Alan into talking about conciousness in the bardo.
The last 60 seconds (literally) are a brilliant explanation of “information” and how it only stored/retrieved/exists with reference to the person storing it or accessing it. A computer analogy was obviously present and then related with conciousness in the bardo and from life to life.

This local photo is from Rosa!

This morning we practiced Settling the Mind by coming in through the senses with the phrase “In the perceived, let there be only the perceived” as a preparation for observing the mind. After a short introduction on the practice in which we touched briefly on the very interesting fact that the appearances that we see are not of a material nature in themselves. Anyway, enjoy the practice!

On a side note, Alan is happy to announce that the videos are now available from the “Science and Buddhism” colloquium at the University of Oxford, sponsored by the Physiology Department and the Oriental Institute of the University of Oxford, the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies, and the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies, March, 2010. The videos are accessible here:
http://www.voicesfromoxford.org/B-S-Introduction.html

The videos are on a menu to the right and they can be downloaded!

Alan is happy to announce that the videos are now available from the “Science and Buddhism” colloquium at the University of Oxford, sponsored by the Physiology Department and the Oriental Institute of the University of Oxford, the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies, and the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies, March, 2010. The videos are accessible from the main website of voices from oxford: http://www.VoicesfromOxford.org/

To go to the section on Buddhism and Science directly, click here: http://www.voicesfromoxford.org/B-S-Introduction.html


Here is the introductory video from the Voices of Oxford Youtube Channel:



















“This seminal series of videos was recorded during a 2-day colloquium on Buddhism and Science at Oxford University involving leading scientists, philosophers, Buddhist scholars and Buddhist practitioners in deep debate on the perceived convergence of modern science (relativity theory, quantum mechanics, systems biology, cognitive psychology, clinical science) with some of the traditional ideas of Buddhism (anti-metaphysical stance, interdependence, emptiness, no-self). The colloquium was organised by Vesna Wallace (Numata Professor of Buddhist Studies at Oxford), Denis Noble (Emeritus Professor of Physiology) and Alan Wallace (Director of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies). In addition to the introduction, there are 11 30-minute recordings. The debates are lively and critical.”

Today we had a very deep practice on Compassion.
The introduction contains great examples as always in order to turn our minds towards the cultivation of compassion, to make real the suffering of others and to unveil our innate compassion, with the boldness, courage, and vision to realize what is happening, attend to the world of possibility, and aspire “may there be freedom.” This will leave us poised for action and ready to come out of meditation and do some good in the world.

The outro talks about the peril of classifying ourselves as “not a loving person” or “not a compassionate person.” Being more reserved does not mean being less compassionate. Alan talks about the obscurations that these feelings bring, and how to peel off the crusts and reveal the compassion that we do not get from anyone, not even from the meditation, because it’s already there. The meditation just blows the dust of our eyes.

You may notice that this podcast is quite short. Unfortunately my poor laptop was expecting to be on retreat as well, little did it know what awaited it! Today it had an electrical affliction and the hard drive refused to continue recording. I have fixed it, but unfortunately this podcast was cut short. Not to worry, the themes covered will probably come up again very soon, and if you are still longing (I won’t say craving) for more then:

Alan is happy to announce that the videos are now available from the “Science and Buddhism” colloquium at the University of Oxford, sponsored by the Physiology Department and the Oriental Institute of the University of Oxford, the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies, and the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies, March, 2010. The videos are accessible here:
http://www.voicesfromoxford.org/B-S-Introduction.html

The videos are on a menu to the right and they can be downloaded!

The picture used is that of Avalokiteśvara so that all sentient beings (and my laptop!) may be free of suffering!

This morning’s introduction was about our sense of control and possession of our bodies, our minds, and “our” thoughts. We often believe that our thoughts are actually ours, when we can’t even control them.

In the following meditation, we go into the headquarters (or heartquarters!) of our own mind and release control of everything except our awareness of it.

Another great local photo from Daniela!

Alan gives an introduction on what we actually meditate on when “meditating on the 4I.” That is to say, the object of the meditations is always sentient beings. In today’s powerful practice, we work on separating the person from the mental affliction, which goes hand in hand with eliminating our sense of contempt towards the person (even if the acts themselves are truly deplorable). Alan mentioned it was one of the more turbulent practices, because the above can be challenging! This practice is designed to overcome that delusion.

Afterwards we had a great question from Noah, our resident asker of juicy questions, about information. It will be up this Sunday along with a great explanation on the Four Immeasurables which is long overdue!

Today we practiced settling the mind in its natural state with an emphasis on observing the background, the “stage” of the mind. As Alan mentions, this acts as a whetstone (knife-sharpening stone) for our vividness, increasing the resolution and sharpness of our mind.
The mind can also be viewed in HD!

The outro was unexpected and mind-blowing. It will be part of Sunday’s bonus but I won’t cut it out, it came out very spontaneously and it will leave you longing for it to be Sunday.

Some of you might recognize the picture of Galileo’s telescope… It is relevant both for the analogy of sharpening what we perceive and for the outro of this podcast!

Today we came back to the meditative cultivation of Compassion (to use the correct phrase) and had an introduction directly related to the practice in order to have less words interjected afterwards. The introduction also talks about the three levels of suffering: blatant suffering, suffering of change, and suffering of conditioned existence.

After the succinct practice Alan gave yet another add-on to the bonus that will go out on Sunday. I will add it to the Sunday podcast but I left it here anyway. There is also an assorted Q&A session including posture, information, mundane questions (such as where to find Dharma books for kids) and more deep, religious questions (such as dream teachings), and the buddhist perspective of sleep paralysis. Oh, and lest I forget: Alan recites some Simon & Garfunkel.(I sure know how to market these podcasts don’t I!)

Enjoy! (along with this photo from our talented photographer Daniela).

In this request by Nick W, Alan breaks down the Four Immeasurables in an extremely clear synopsis of how they interrelate, their faux facsimiles (which may look very similar but they work in the opposite direction), and how to clearly distinguish them.
Alan ends with a beautiful and remarkably accurate metaphor of a charriot pulled by four great steeds, in which he illustrates how the Four Immeasurables work together and help balance each other.

Alan’s talent in compiling so much knowledge and explaining it so clearly makes this a great short episode for anyone, new or experienced in the topic of the Four Immeasurables!

The picture is very much related to (and embodies) the topic.

Ok, this is what a lot of you have been waiting for, and with very good reason! Get your thinking hats on, turn off your phones, get a nice cup of tea, clear your schedule, and bring forth your scientific aspect. In this podcast episode, B. Alan Wallace, Ph.D., will be delving into topics such as the nature of information, mind and matter as a derivative of information, the placebo effect, its connection to the flow of experience/information in relation to human existence, and oh, why not: quantum cosmology (just to name a few).

This is the main episode, and I will add a second episode with two semi-short followups from the next day.

I will not do any paraphrasing of information here, but I will try to list a few of the topics that come up in each part. Keep in mind that I will only list the main topics (not the topics in between topics), and perhaps not even all of them. This superanswer stems out of a question from Noah, who asked Alan to clarify a point from a previous day in which he mentioned that the information stored in his computer was “above and beyond” just a complex configuration of chemicals and electricity. The question asks for an explanation of the term “information” and how it can be causally efficacious.

This part starts with a synopsis on the elegant Buddhist hypothesis of human existence as a flow of experience and information, before the division of mind and body. Then, we go into a discussion of the nature of information, followed by a well-supported rejection of assuming the categorical error “subjective experience arises from the brain” which predominates in modern science, leading to the so called “hard problem of consciousness,” which Alan then briefly discusses. This is followed by a very sharp analysis of the placebo effect in relation to human existence as a flow of experience and information, and why 50 years of modern science have failed to explain how it works. As we approach the end of the podcast, Alan shows how much of the modern scientific research on the mind has been hindered because of the fact that if you ask physical questions, you are going to get physical answers. Observing with physical instruments will lead to physical phenomena.

To end majestically, Alan uses an example from Stephen Hawkins in order to relate this to the whole cosmos. Stephen Hawkins said (about the big bang and the current cosmological theory), something along the lines of “That story is based on the type of questions you were posing, and all of the questions you were posing were physical questions based on physical measurements.” A macrocosmic projection of the last 400 years in the development of science.

I will stop my attempt at paraphrasing here, in order to let you listen to the end of this last part without my measly commentary. I will just say (you know me by now) that it was the most mind-blowing of all of the information we have received thus far.

The image used on the web and on the podcast file is the HUBBLE ULTRA DEEP FIELD. , the deepest portrait of the visible universe ever achieved by humankind.
Credit: NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith (STScI) and the HUDF Team.

This is a short followup (I promise! It’s actually less than 15 minutes) clearing up some points from the previous episode. I took two fragments from the next day and mashed them together for this podcast. It is absolutely necessary to listen to Part 1 before listening to this.



In this first fragment B. Alan Wallace briefly returns to the topic of information flow, meaning-to-meaning communication (instead of achieving means through chemicals and brain correlates), and relates this to the placebo effect, specifically to how it is a blatant example of the mind’s capacity to heal itself and heal the body although modern science prefers to wrap itself up in tight conundrums and knots rather than accept this fact.

Then I cut to another fragment from the afternoon session in which B. Alan Wallace clears up some more points about the stream of name and flow and the mind-body problem. He details the hypothesis of the flow of consciousness (information), energy, and space as existence before the mind and body duality. In less than 5 minutes!

And to end this two-part podcast with an encouraging, defiant, educated, and exciting bang, Alan goes back to the history of Galileo. He shows how Galileo achieved authority in physics and ended up taking a “piece of the pie” from the church, simply because he really observed phenomena directly and this gave him the authority to be right, rather than believe people who make claims without really investigating the phenomenon which they claim absolute authority of.

This is what needs to happen in the mind sciences. As was said in Part 1, observing through physical means and asking physical questions will lead to physical answers. The mind is obviously not physical. This means that the authority over the science of the mind should be not in the hands of scientific materialists, it should be in the hands of professional, highly trained contemplatives who have been studying this field for millennia. Just as Galileo claimed authority in the physical sciences from the Catholic Church, so must contemplatives claim authority from the “Church Scientific” in regards to the domain of the mind. This scientific materialism is extending its domain way beyond what they know about, and reducing everything to biological mechanisms simply won’t provide answers. So, let them contribute with their immensely valuable biological information about the brain, and let the real experts of the mind come in and contribute with their millennia-old knowledge of the mind.

Galileo did it, now it’s our turn to do it if we really want to advance scientifically in the study of the mind. Biology won’t cut it anymore.


The image used on the web and on the podcast file is the HUBBLE ULTRA DEEP FIELD. , the deepest portrait of the visible universe ever achieved by humankind.
Credit: NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith (STScI) and the HUDF Team.

In this morning’s introduction, Alan talks about how the mind is very capable of healing itself, and how the purpose of settling the mind in its natural state is to observe it vividly while not doing things that will prevent the mind from healing. He also talks about talk therapy and medicine, highlighting how they are can be crucial in some cases as a preamble to meditating.

Afterwards we have the practice, consisting of a short introduction and then silence. Enjoy!

This picture of our Mind Centre’s “san phra phum” is courtesy of Sara!

Today as the title suggests we combined Compassion and Loving kindness into a practice of Tonglen. Furthermore, we incorporated the four modes of enlightened acvitity, using each one where needed, and in the visualization we let the light or energy sent out with the breath take the form of whatever is actually needed in the situation (not just necessary a generic light of compassion/loving kindness) and tinted it with the respective enlightened acvitity color. Whew!

After the mostly silent practice, we went into a diverse Q&A session which got very interesting and set the stage for tomorrow’s talk on death, the bardo, and dream yoga.
Among the topics for the Q&A are the length of sessions and how to manage it for the greatest benefit, the great question of “Time,” specifically the relative qualities of time and how they can and do manifest daily in our Shamatha practice. Of course this also gave Alan the chance to go into the explanation of time in the substrate conciousness, and in the innate mind of clear light. And to top things off, Alan went cosmic for a few minutes into the mainstream science theory of frozen time which arises from quantum cosmology (applying the Schrödinger equation to the entire universe). Then Alan answered a question/analysis about the Dalai Lama’s next reincarnation possibilities, and the last 20 minutes of the podcast were the start of an answer about the bardo, which will continue tomorrow.

Enjoy (along with this beautiful photo from Sara!)

This morning Alan promptly warned us that he was feeling a little bit feisty, which resulted in a great historical introduction with examples of how subjective experience has been mistreated and eventually completely disregarded by scientists and philosophers. It includes some fun quotes like this one from John B. Watson in 1913, “The time has come when psychology must discard all references to consciousness,” and moreover “belief in consciousness is attributed to superstition and magic.” It can be clearly seen how this “virus” of scientific materialism just erodes common sense and sadly is becoming more and more prominent.

Aaaanyways, after the spot-on introduction we move into the first practice of Awareness of Awareness of this cycle, observing the limpid luminosity of our very existant consciousness, thereby going against the grain of the entire 20th century!

The outro contains some more goodies about the terrible damage that the ideological dogma of materialism regarding concioiusness is doing, and calls for contemplatives of the world to unite.

And as you could have expected, we are back to sky photos for Awareness of Awareness, this one taken by Sara!

Alan starts this afternoon by detailing some of the possible “side effects” that could happen during intense practice of Shamatha, in the sense that when we are trying to make our mind so focused an unified, it can sometimes become quite small. He also talks about how sometimes we keep hurting ourselves with our own memories of unpleasant events (making them real again) even dozens or hundreds of times after the original event. The Empathetic Joy practice we do afterwards is a remedy to both of the above condition.

After the bright and uplifting practice, Alan adds some footnotes from this morning, focusing on Galileo and making a very interesting and sharply plausible hypothesis as to why the start of probing into the mind in the west took 300 years. We then continue yesterday’s question of death and continuity of conciousness in the period between lifes (bardo), relating it to dream yoga. We have two more very brief questions afterwards and end with two minutes to spare!

This photo (by Malcolm) is of our Buddha statue in the teaching hall, happy to see us undertaking this long overdue adventure into the mind with such a wise and ideal guide (to his left, not in the picture)!

Today’s practice, the second out of the four Awareness of Awareness methods that we cover in our cycle, is a very deep penetrating practice, encroaching upon VIpassyana territory. Alan starts with an introduction on the practice and its implications, relating it to the short discourse by the Buddha to the wandering ascetic Bahiya.

After this sublime practice, the outro deals with the Buddhist middle way (warning about drawing false conclusions from this practice) and then with “I think, therefore I am” and its shortcomings, which include the reification of ourselves and of all objects (which gets us into tremendous knots and loops).

Here is the brief Bahiya sutta, with the invaluable instructions that the Buddha gave Bahiya:
http://bit.ly/aalIo8 [as Alan said, perhaps someone will read this and, not unlike popcorn, become free! if you become free, please send us an email! :) ]

And this sunset was captured by Sara here at the Mind Centre!

This afternoon the meditation was 100% silent. Even the introduction lasts around 20 seconds!
I cut out the 24 minutes of silence in order to make this a smaller download. You can click pause and do your own Empathetic Joy meditation! For reference, go to the previous podcasts. After the meditation we had a power outage which cut out a chunk of a very interesting question. The power came on and off a few times, and I cut the long parts when the power was out (and thus we had no recording).

Among the questions covered in this podcast are: Not fusing mental events with the referent (Alan gave a VERY clear answer, very useful for those practicing Settling the Mind[ ]…), some clarification about the acquired sign in Breath Awareness (and more on this air-element symbol), and then a long question about many aspects of Shamatha, both practical, historic, and theoric, and finally from that question arose Alan’s description of his proposal: A Buddhism Renaissance, coming back to the core teachings and not simply “riding the wave” of tradition and losing touch with the true wisdom.

This morning we return to the third phase in the classic Awareness of Awareness teachings of Padmasambhava. In the introduction, Alan explains how this phase helps create a very 3D and spacious quality to our awareness, which is a very good warmup before settling in in tomorrow’s practice. Alan clearly explains the practice with his characteristic eloquence and then we dive right in.

Following the practice, Alan spices it up with a little bit of cosmology for good measure, relating the practice to a microcosm of how the universe may be operating, and giving a great analogy of breaking through to pristine awareness (rigpa).

And today’s sky photo was taken by me a few days ago… I hope I hadn’t used it before! Duplicates will probably happen.

This afternoon Alan starts by quite briefly explaining this balance between fluidity and structure in the equanimity practice, and after the instructions we set off in a pretty much rich but silent session.

After the session Alan had two juicy pieces of paper with multi-questions written on them. They cover a lot of practical content, such as the characteristics of the Shamatha stages and how to use them correctly, the characteristics of the different types of exitation and laxity. how to maintain motivation in the practice (dealing with the issue of "progress"), how to be really 100% sure that you are doing “Settling the Mind..[]” correctly, and more.
The next question deals with conceptual designation, and starts with “how were atoms first conceptually designated” and later turns into an analysis of conceptual designation, appearances, and how we can never actually see the referent of appearances (so yes in a way we never see the “real” world, just appearances that arise from our substrate). The talk was filled with physics, history, several jokes, open questions, laughter… Alan really had us cracking up today. However, (as always) he managed to leave us dazed with brilliant insight, so that we all walk out of the meditation hall absorbed in thoughts and bumping into things (ok maybe not the latter).

Enjoy as we did!

The picture is very much related as we approach the celebrations for the Birth of the Buddha (in several East-Asian countries such as Thailand).

Alan “kickstarted” this morning [because he likes that word so much ;) ] with a healthy dose of Physics. He started talking about the following article from NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/18/science/space/18cosmos.html , which claims to uncover a new clue as to why we exist. Appreciating the enormous scientific value of this article, we realize the truth of the statement “ask a physical question and you’ll receive a physical answer.” We go back into the analysis of the relationship between the observer and matter, going into a “strange loop” of which came before the other, ending in mutual interdependence.

Alan then masterfully creates a seamless link between this introduction and the practice of Awareness of Awareness. While these brilliant scientists at FERMI (and soon CERN!) are deeply investigating why we exist from the material point of view, we brilliant contemplatives are investigating why we exist by probing into the very nature of consciousness (without which there would be no physics and no physical theories, incidentally).
Oh, and by the way, this can be done for free!

Today’s awareness of awareness “sky” picture [I know I cheated a little bit] is called “A Clash of Clusters” and shows striking evidence of Dark Matter (and even maps it in blue). For more info: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/imagefeature1163.html
Credit: Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CXC, M. Bradac (University of California, Santa Barbara), and S. Allen (Stanford University)

As you can probably tell by the title, today’s practice was not you regular 4I practice. Sure, it did start out with a regular equanimity/Tonglen practice but this time we had the option of going deeper, down to pristine awareness. Rather than “Boundless” Compassion or Loving Kindness, today we had the option to cultivate “Great” (Maha) Compassion/Loving Kindness. Although “boundless” sounds quite more grandiloquent, cultivating Mahakarunā or Mahamettā is something that has to be yearned at our deepest level of existance for it not to be just utterly hilarous or megalomaniacal. Alan gives a great introduction on how to see this from a non-megalomaniacal point of view, and explains taking on the task of “making it so” for all sentient beings and arousing our deepest motivation for it. I won’t pollute it further with my words, listen to Alan!

After the session, Alan spontaneously said one of the classic (beautiful) dedications of merit, and gave an English translation. We then went into some questions about Conciousness, the brain, scientific materialism, the problems with the current status quo, etc. At the very end Alan answered a question about doubt, grasping, noting the grasping, labeling, and commenting in regards to tje practice of Settling the Mind in its Natural State.

I just took this photo of a rainbow which was waiting for us across the sky as we left the teaching hall. It doesn’t do it much justice since the rainbow covered most of the sky, so someone will probably give me a better picture soon! This is what happens when you practice Mahakaruna ;)

This lovely afternoon we went back to the practice of Loving Kindness, using the phrase from T.S. Elliot in the title. We went straight into meditation.

After the practice, we had assorted Q&A from several people, on many topics. Alan talked about “practicing well” regardless of how well the practice is going, and there are other pieces of golden information scattered throughout.

I would also like to let you know that after receiving several emails offering donations, I added some links to donate to the Santa Barbara Institute for Conciousness Studies to help fund future podcasts. For those viewing this on the web click on the big arrow to see the subsite, and for those viewing this in iTunes go here: http://bit.ly/bnxSR5
All of the profits will go to ensure that they can keep running podcasts in the future when I am not around. So don’t worry, I don’t want to make any money from you (and neither do they!)


This picture of the surrounding jungle was provided by Sangay!

In this short and sweet sunday bonus, we synthesized the three main methods of Shamatha into one practice. There is an extremely short introduction and then the practice.
A great way to combine these different meditative variations!
Enjoy as we did!

I would also like to let you know that after receiving several emails offering donations, I added some links to donate to the Santa Barbara Institute for Conciousness Studies to help fund future podcasts. For those viewing this on the web click on the big arrow to see the subsite, and for those viewing this in iTunes go here: http://bit.ly/bnxSR5
All of the profits will go to ensure that they can keep running podcasts in the future when I am not around. So don’t worry, I don’t want to make any money from you (and neither do they!)


The photo is of the very photogenic Sombrero Galaxy. That glow in the middle is composed of billions of stars.
Credit:Image Credit: NASA/Hubble Heritage Team

This morning Alan started by saying that he would like to let us choose our own Shamatha method, for these next few days and perhaps for the rest of the retreat. If so, then I will only be podcasting the long afternoon sessions.
But for now I left this one in anyway.

Alan also talks about the “gears” of our practice, upshifting and downshifting, and gives a brief outro on the importance of remaining engaged with reality.

Enjoy this silent practice with us!

This great photo is by Sara.

This afternoon we started with a very practical introduction on how to draw from the 4I throughout the course of a normal day in our life after the retreat if we are not going into full time practice. To use an incorrect (but illustrative) phrase, going back to the “real world.” It includes a review on how to identify when and which of the Four Immeasurables are needed and on how to correctly apply them in day-to-day mundane life. The practice itself was silent, but I left it in for coherence.

The outro includes a brief summary on the gradient of nuances with which we can practice each of the Four Immeasurables. There is a mode of practice for everyone!
There were also two great questions, the first of which I have taken out with the goal of making your Sunday a fun day. The second question deals with the “pulses” of cognition that are described both in Buddhist psychology and in modern scientific research. Alan overviews how they interact, conglomerate, scatter, etc, and how our Shamatha practice “controls” these pulses of attention. An extremely interesting topic.

The photo stems from my lack of creativity, this is our great Shamatha manual from which the questions about the attention pulses came from! A must-have.

In this episode, Alan talks about something that probably bothers many of us, and he calls it “A Sacred Tension.” It is about our decision to either dedicate our time fully to contemplation, to mundane life, or somewhere in between both. This is very valuable for those of us having these types of doubts.

I stripped out the silent meditation (so you know the drill: pause, set your own 24 [or more!] minute timer, and then press play again), and left in a brief outro. I would like to say that the stats that Alan mentions are now almost double! I’ll share some stats with all of you towards the end of this podcast series.

Thank you all for tuning in =)

In today’s lecture, Alan gave a very brief reflection for when we finish this retreat. As we know, the still, sustained focus / samadhi of our attention will naturally diminish within a socially engaged lifestyle. However, the Four Immeasurables have no reason to do so and in fact can even be amplified and practiced all day within the context of our life. We then go into a free Four Immeasurable meditation, and I have a question for you valued listeners:
Do you prefer for me to trim the silent meditations out of the podcast? Please comment on the site for this podcast episode. Keep in mind that I always place chapter markers so you can easily skip to after the meditation or just use fast forward. So please comment, I want to see what you all think! I left it in today, also because we had a great meditation-enhancing rainstorm. Unfortunately the tiny wire microphone I use for Alan obviously does not do it justice, but you can at least imagine meditating here with us in the rain :)

After the meditation I stripped what will be the second sunday bonus, a continuation from yesterday. I say this again, you should be very excited for this sunday, just as if there was a big sports match or something. I left a brief question from Malcom about the different interpretations of equanimity between the Theravada and Mahayana views, and Alan added some very wise information on sadness and remorse at the very end.

Enjoy!

This morning Alan suggested to adopt the attitute of starting a 2-week retreat. He humorously gave some very important points and tips about the practice in order to make the most out of the time we have left. Very recommended!

After the practice, Alan throws in 3 minutes about William James’ pure experience theory, John Wheeler 's (theoretical physicist) theories, and how they are extremely similar to the core Buddhist teachings of experience. He also relates them to the practice of Shamatha, showing how it is really an outstandingly potent tool to probe into the nature of the universe at large. Yes, in 3 minutes total.

Enjoy, along with this beautiful photo from Ale!

This afternoon we went directly into meditation with no preamble, and had no outro directly pertaining to the meditation. So you can meditate for 24 minutes on your own and then press play!

We briefly come back to Malcom’s question on the Theravada/Mahayana views of Equanimity, clearning up some generalizations that are sometimes made about Buddhism (specifically about karma and equanimity) in the process. We then go to a question from Mervin about “The Attention Revolution” and the expedition of Shamatha, specifically focusing on the perils and dead ends. Alan also briefly talks about how the practice can go wrong (in rare cases) and how to avoid that, referencing the beautiful Nine Stages of Progressive Mental Development thangka which you probably already know and love (and can be used as an illustration for the nine stages in "Attention Revolution"). Thangka can also be seen at the website for this episode.

And you will be wondering why the podcast only lasted 15 minutes. Unfortunately we had some sort of electric surge which triggered a hard drive skip and the audio was corrupted. This podcast is all I could rescue. But the themes covered will probably come up in the Fall retreat =)
Sorry about that!

This morning we had a silent meditation followed by a few brief tips. The tips cover a bit of posture, and then Alan talks about how the benefits of the practices can be retained in a non-contemplative lifestyle, linking this to losing as little ground in between sessions by using one of several strategies.

Enjoy!
(Local photo from Daniela)

Today we went directly into practice, which I removed from the recording to make it easier to listen to. As you know by now, just do your own practice and then press play! Alan suggests that if we are just feeling “ordinary” or with no specific need to balance emotions, then Loving Kindness or Tonglen are always magnificent go-to practices.

After the meditation (and where this recording starts), we had an extremely juicy lecture. I usually say “juicy” when Alan gives marvelous scientific explanations but this time it was pure heart-food, with no physics attached.
The first minutes have a lot of short answers on different topics, such as a very brief recap on yesterday’s eating meat discussion (which did not make it to the podcast), some of the possible benefits (for some people, or for a period in our lifes) of celibacy and monastic ordnation, highlighting the simplicity that both bring. We also had a wonderful question from Ilse about beauty, which started with “Does a Bodhisattva enjoy flowers?” and the role of beauty and joy, followed by a very practical question from Ivan on the topic of Organ Donation and after-death awareness, to which Alan gives very practical points to reflect upon. All this in 15 minutes!

Then comes a question which might be extremely useful for all of us. It deals with how to acquire self-confidence and remedy problems such as low self worth and self esteem while avoiding pride completely. In addition to Alan’s brilliant answers, the question made him recall his first encounter with H.H. the Dalai Lama and the question he asked him back in 1971, which he was kind enough to share with us (and all of our worldwide listeners!) once again. It is a very touching and extremely meaningful story, in which H.H. The Dalai Lama’s words and actions serve to really overcome pride of any kind.

The photo is of a red lotus, both in reference to Ilse’s question and because of it’s connection to Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion (and I really don’t need to tell you why he is relevant to this episode… HINT: 1971)

I extracted this practical gem from this afternoon’s lecture. It is a clear example of how the instructions to a practice can be profoundly meaningful, stunning, transformative, and just utterly inspiring when given correctly by a sharply prepared, more than qualified, and immensely skilled teacher.

In this short episode, Alan sublimely describes the practice of Awareness of Awareness in response to a question from Malcolm, specifically focusing on resting in the pure luminosity and cognizance of experience. I really won’t contaminate this with my words, so I’ll just say it’s an absolutely must-listen for those who really enjoy the practice, for those with a few doubts about it, for those who don’t quite understand the practice, for those in between, and for everyone else.

That probably includes you!

Alan sometimes uses the example of “shafts of light” from the substrate filtering through all our grasping, and I think this picture gives some sort of an idea of what is left over when we just rest in the simplicity of awareness, revealing what always is and always has been there all along.

Happy Vesak Day!

This morning we conmemorated the celebration of Buddha Śākyamuni’s birth, enlightment, and parinirvana with a guided Shamatha meditation.

After the session, Alan talks a little bit about Vesak and concludes by saying that the best way to celebrate the Buddha’s day is to practice all day, so I hope you can all join us around the world!

This afternoon we started with a special guided meditation to commemorate the Buddha’s Enlightenment, not specifically centered on Shamatha or the Four Immeasurables.

After the meditation, Alan gave us a short recap on the night/morning of the Buddha Gautama’s enlightemnent, up to the moment when he went back to his five companions and they also achieved Enlightenment. He ends the story on a heartwarming reflection about the day we are commemorating, which set this whole sequence of events flowing (up to our retreat here and this podcast), which have given rise to so much goodness in the world. Alan then spontaneously adds a very beautiful and inspirating note on what it means to be a Buddhist, saying it’s simply a matter of trust.

After we silently recovered from the powerful emotions that were generated in many of us, we went to a much lighter tone and Alan read a poem submitted by an anonymous member of our Sangha here. I must say it was very good and quite impressive, expanding Alan’s “3Rs” into “33Rs”!

After the nice poem, we went into an interesting question about the prana system, why it has not been studied scientifically despite the staggering evidence about its existance, and its relationship to the mind.

Enjoy, and continue meditating in commemoration of this day! I took this photo of our Teaching Hall Buddha just minutes ago after we finished some chanting in Pali masterfully led by Malcolm.

May all sentient beings have genuine happiness and its causes,

May all sentient beings be free of suffering and its causes,

May all sentient beings never be separated from bliss without suffering,

May all sentient beings be in equanimity, free of bias, attachment and anger.

May the benefit spread in all directions so that all sentient beings realize full awakening.

In this afternoon’s marvelous introduction, Alan talks about The Great Path of the Bodhisattvas, comparing it to a Freeway (using the American term). Using this very accurate analogy he talks about getting on the fast lane, and never getting off (until we reach the common destination). A very inspiring introduction!

After a thirty minute silent session, we go into some very interesting Q&A. Among the topics covered we have a quick question about the breath as the body settles during the practice, and then a very interesting question about Merit. If you have any doubts or would like a refresh on this topic, I really recommend this part of the lecture. Alan covers all of the bases, from the basic act of helping someone with any little thing, to realizing emptiness. He talks about how it can be gained, lost, and how it can be used for many things, incorporating the story of Śāriputra (how he realized Nirvana after hearing a short phrase) and what role Merit played in it.

Throughout the entire lecture and up to the ending, Alan goes back to his original example about this Great Path, highway, freeway, autopista, carretera, autobahn, autostrada, autosnelweg, ทางหลวง, 高速道路, 公路, हाइवे, автострада, of the Bodhisattvaas. As I was writing this description I realized that my laptop’s desktop background, which I have had for months, seemed to fit this podcast perfectly. Granted, it’s not an autobahn, and it’s not as full of Bodhisattva’s as we’d like it to be, but it certainly gives the feeling "the road is all yours.”
Go for it!

Credit: Trey Ratcliff (amazing photogapher, uses the HDR technique!)
http://www.stuckincustoms.com/

In this bonus episode we cover some very interesting cognitive science/brain science questions from Noah.
The first question asks if meditation researchers have been able to isolate the EEG correlates of meditative experiences such as staying on the object, excitation, laxity, etc.
The second question asks whether it is possible to “augment” Shamatha practice, perhaps speed up the earlier stages, for example, with the use of neurofeedback training.

Alan starts by talking about the short/medium term plans for the scientific investigations here in Phuket. If everything goes well, the plan to have around 20-40 people fully focusing on achieving Shamatha (while being scientifically studied with state of the art, non-intrusive equipment) could be a reality very soon. Alan talks about the ideal situation, where these people start achieving Shamatha (even having the actual achievement inside an MRI tube) and then very rigurous scientific studies could be published, in order to turn this attention training into real, mainstream, rock-solid scientific fact. This method of starting the attention revolution would be pretty much failsafe, and the modern scientific community would have no choice but to break their denial and understand and accept the results.

Alan then connects this answer to the second one, going into a discussion analyzing all of the consequences that could arise as a result of using artificial augmentation for Shamatha practice. The discussions covers technology, science, ethics, psychology, and more. The end of the podcast deals with the drug industry, including the fact that (according to some studies) all of the anti-depressant drugs are either not at all better or negligibly better than the placebo for people with mild to moderate depression, but what they do bring is a huge range of side effects including suicidal thoughts. Yet people still take them, and doctors won’t admit they are wrong.

A very thought provoking episode!

The photo shows Yongey Mingur Rinpoche undergoing EEG testing. Source: http://www.mingyur.org

A number of the past bonus podcasts had been geared towards the physicists, but this weekend we have some juice for psychologists! In this bonus podcast, we have some extremely interesting points about attention training and the cognitive sciences from a more professional psychology standpoint. However, this is also very relevant for all meditators wishing to gain a better understanding of attention.

Adeline asked several questions, mostly pertaining to the “pulse-like” quality of our attention, and to the 600 or so pulses of attention that we have per second (according to both Buddhist psychology and modern psychology).

I wont go much into the details of the answers, but in a brief overview the podcast first goes into the need for actual contemplative scientists (a hybrid profession of both professional science and professional meditation) in modern psychology, followed by a discussion on the “clustering” of these pulse-like moments of cognition. Alan also relates this clustering is also related with Samadhi and with two different types of vividness, and presents a valid scientific, testable hypothesis on this topic.

Towards the end of the podcast, Alan also analyses how most of the research is now focused on the negative. How many people are depressed, how many people are unhappy, how many people have no empathy… The list goes on. He talks a bit about the Milgram torture experiment (wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment) and how nobody cared to study the 20% (aprox.)of people who did not agree to torture others. Instead of studying what it was about these 20% that caused them to be more compassionate, and how to integrate this into education systems, the result was “80% tortured, 20% did not.” Alan further talks about these “ideological blinkers” in modern psychology, and highlights the urgent need for cognitive science, to scientifically show that the human mind can evolve in extraordinary ways, unveiling levels of compassion, altruism, and ethics that are sometimes thought impossible in modernity.

I’ll try not to title all of the Shamatha episodes from today onwards with the phrase “for the last time,” although we have come to the final cycle of the teachings!
My descriptions for these morning practices will really not be very verbose since it’s the fourth time (or so) I podcast the full-body awareness practice.

So if you are new to the podcast, I really suggest listening to the first practices back from April. The descriptions and the practices themselves are much more throughly explained. But I’ll keep uploading this cycle just so you have more practices to choose from in your Shamatha podcast arsenal!

This mostly unrelated photo of a nearby pineapple-to-be was provided by Sanjay. If you have never seen pineapples growing I must say it’s quite a sight to behold! Here is another example of a more matured pineapple: http://i.imgur.com/Ho9Zg.jpg . There are fields and fields of those around the mind centre…

The beginning of this afternoon’s lecture is a stunning, wisdom-packed reflection on the analysis of our own world view. Alan starts by giving an overview of some of the predominant world views, from the individual vantage points of physics, biology, Abrahamic religions (Christianism, Judaism, Islam), and contemplative practices, ultimately culminating in an explanation of the Buddhist view.

He gives a brief but very precise reflection on Karma, Theravada, and Mahayana views, and then proposes a profound hypothesis, probably the most profound hypothesis that we can test personally: In Buddhism it has been observed throught millenia that as we orient ourselves with reality, with genuine happiness and liberation/enlightenment of both ourselves and others, reality rises up to help out. In other words, reality seems to align itself so that the conditions necessary for finding genuine happiness (a.k.a: finding reality as it is) present themselves to us when our motivation is clear and we develop a sincere and profound yearning for this (as opposed to having yearning for hedonic, materialist success and pleasure where we literally are dominated mostly by luck, chance and doing our best).
With the very real posibility of testing this hypothesis in our lifes by using simple observation, we glide into a profound Loving Kindness practice, yearning to achieve our most meaningful aspirations.

Post-practice, we have a few very interesting questions on the topics of “getting real” and what that means on all stages (from deep sleep to waking life), non conceptuality, and the relationship between Shamatha practice and sleep.

I took this photo right as we were exiting the teaching hall. I know we are not in Awareness of Awareness yet but hey, by now you probably know that I can’t resist amazing sunsets!

This morning, Alan started by reading two short verses from the Dhammapada, (freshly translated by him last night) which are a very strong metaphor with the mind training we are doing here. He then talks about the importance of having a base in relaxation and training the mind from the ground up rather than tensing up and forcing it to quiet down. However, pure relaxaton will not simply cause stability to arise on its own, so Alan explains how a delicate balance is needed between effort and relaxation, and gives one of the core, indispensable teachings for Shamatha practice.
After a breath awareness session, Alan further shows the relationship between the Dhammapada verses and our own mind training, and it’s amazing how spot-on they are considering the fact that they have been around for 2500 years!

This photo was taken by Sanjay just around the corner from the mind centre. The plants on the ground are the same pineapple plants from yesterday’s photo!

This afternoon we started with a reflection on how many times we see people as just “flat images” or appearances arising to our minds. In the supermarket, subway, etc, we see them as obstacles or merely objects in our way. Today’s intro deals with seeing through those images and realizing that a real person is there, looking back, with their own hopes and fears, joys and sorrows. Alan also emphasizes the importance of starting with ourselves, and describes these Four Immeasurable practices as digging in search of water. At first, the practices can be very conceptual and we actually feel like we have to pour water on the ground to soften it and allow us to dig. But eventually, just following the practice, we break into the “ground water,” which just flows out unimpededly and plentifully. With this metaphor in mind, we go into the practice thinking of tapping into our hearts, and opening the floodgates of our virtue and well-being.

After the practice, we had several very interesting questions. The first one deals with the concept of “symmetry breaking,” and Alan goes into a marvelous cosmological explanation o f what this means, and describes all configurations of mass-energy as space/vacuum just frozen by grasping (coming from both the Kalachakra and from quantum field theory). He then beautifully relates this to Buddhism, culminating in the Dzogchen view. After that, we had a very interesting question from Ana Lorena on the topic of hypnagogic imagery, and Alan gave his interpretation of this phenomenon. There was then a very interesting “unanswerable” question by Elizabeth which I cut out to use for this Sunday’s bonus, and we finished this afternoon with some questions from Adeline mostly focusing on the “Four Modes of Enlightened Activity” (for more on this topic view some of the April/Early may podcasts).

As you can probably tell my creativity dwindled today and all I could think of was a picture of an actual floodgate. This can give you a rough idea of what it is like when you permanently and fully break into your inner virtues and happiness, but I think a better picture would be the entire walls just shattering into smithereens and a gargantuan flow of water bursting out. Unfortunately I couldn’t find a suitable picture for that :(

In today’s mindfulness of breathing practice, Alan started by talking about the causes and solutions for the all too popular phenomenon of the “energy going up to the head,” and proceeded by applying the glass half empty / glass half full example in our practice. He emphasizes taking delight in the periods (as brief as they may be) when we recognize we are no longer distracted and have a little glimpse of being clear in the present.
Before jumping into the practice, Alan shares a story from his early days in Dharamsala (60s, early 70s) in which he he was asked why it was that he was there practicing Dharma.

After the practice, Alan gives a brilliant short talk relating mindfulness of breathing to going “cold turkey” from our mental addictions, and culminates in how we really can develop deep, underlying motivation to drive and hold practices like this one with inspiration and enthusiasm.

This photo by Daniela illustrates this concept of motivation… This gigantic (will be the world’s largest) Buddha statue being built here in Phuket is almost 50 meters high and will be covered in heavy white jade marble. The construction is an ardous process relying only on donations, and working under a powerful sun and relentless heat. The motivation of seing this statue completed, overlooking Phuket from the top of a hill as well as the religious implications no doubt help the people involved see the “big picture.”
More info: http://www.mingmongkolphuket.com/index-en.php

The introduction to today’s practice was tailored to us here in Phuket in the sense that we are coming out of retreat soon, but it can be applied by everyone. Alan talks about including the people we are going to see soon into our Loving Kindness meditation, and talks about the quite palpable effects that this can have on our relationships with such people in the (near) future. He includes his experience of this when dealing with Indian customs officers in Delhi, and if you feel skeptic about the effects of doing this meditation the best thing you can do is try it!(And then keep your eyes open). For what it counts, I can also vouch for this.

After the meditation, which consisted of brief instructions followed by silence, we had a question from… Noah! So you probably know where this is going.
The question contains several parts, all dealing with Bodhicitta, and actually becoming a Bodhisattva. Alan talks about the path to bodhicitta, including the importance of cultivating the Four Immeasurables, first at their “boundless level” and then going Maha (Great). The question not only deals with the achievement of bodhicitta (which in itself is radically profound), but also explains the process of sealing this bodhicitta (making it gold-like) with great wisdom. Alan includes very valuable tips that can help us orient ourselves towards this great aspiration of bodhicitta starting today, and the episode magestically culminates in the achievement of Rigpa (pristine awareness).

By the way, for clarification on any of the above points (including Maha-4I) you might want to check several of the previous episodes where they were covered in detail!

And by now I don’t think I need to give much explanation regarding why this picture is so relevant.

If you have been subscribing to the podcast, you are probably very familiar with today’s meditation. We practiced Settling the Mind in its Natural State by first coming in through different domains of experience, following to the instructions that the Buddha gave to the wandering ascetic Bahiya. I have linked to them directly in the past so I won’t do so here, however Alan paraphrases them very clearly in the introduction. Alan also gives a brief recap on a point about non-conceptual experience from a few days ago, and details a “smooth gradient” from being fully-fledged psychotic to being a Buddha. Shortly thereafter, we go into the practice with the prospect of becoming sane, first with respect to our own minds, then in our dreams, and then in all experience, thus becoming lucid in the waking state.

Enjoy!

This beautiful local photo is from Daniela!

This afternoon we went into a very practical and powerful practice on Compassion, focusing on the blatant, glaring, obvious pain that can arise in both the physical and mental domains of experience. Alan starts by giving a brief overview of this blatant suffering, and what can be done to cure it mentally, including praise for the pharmaceutical industry in relieving the symptoms. He then highlights how this blatant suffering is something we have all experienced, and how it really can take posession of our entire (untrained) minds and not let us focus on anything else.

After this very useful meditation, we followed up yesterday’s topic of Bodhicitta. First, Alan answered that it may in fact be possible to be a Bodhisattva without knowing it, and even be a Bodhisattva while preaching another religion or having almost all types of jobs. He also makes a reference to a study which suggests that babies may be undergoing past life recall sometime during their third trimester of gestation. This time Alan covers a different way to develop Bodhicitta, with more of a “discovery” approach. For this, Alan draws on the magnificent text, “The Vajra Essence,” and talks about Dzogchen. We also go into a brief, fun, and very enlightening tangent about monastic debating, complete with authentic sound effects from Alan dating back to his debating days.

After the discussion of Bodhicitta, we have a brief question from Enrique about overcoming coarse laxity and stages 4-5 in Shamatha practice, and a final anonymous question about etiquette issues which sadly got cut off due to an electrical problem, but this time it was only 1 minute before Alan ended anyway so not much was lost! So read up on some gompa etiquette if you are interested.

At first I thought of using a picture of some debating monks, but then I decided on this NASA picture. For the first time instead of using a distant galaxy I am using our planet, where we can immediately see the enormous ammount of blatant suffering in order to inspire us to realize Bodhicitta and achieve perfect Enlightenment to be able to liberate every single sentient being from suffering.

This morning we returned to Settling the Mind in its Natural state, this time observing the foreground of events arising within the domain of the mind. Alan quotes two plays from Shakespeare ("The Tempest" and "As You Like It") which relate with uncanny precision to what we have been covering in this retreat. Enjoy the mostly silent practice!

Some of you may recognize today’s image as the painting “Miranda,” (by John William Waterhouse in 1916), depicting a scene from “The Tempest.”

In this afternoon practice, we focused not so much on the blatant form of suffering as we did yesterday, but on the underlying causes. In the introduction, Alan reflects on how little we really know about suffering in modernity, and how we build our hapiness on very weak foundations of delusion, attachment, and craving. Even if we have good luck and we are hedonically happy, the foundation of that happiness is just a time bomb, and sooner or later it will go off and we will suffer.

In this meditation, we experiment with cultivating compassion first for ourselves, freeing ourselves of attachment and craving. These afflictions are terribly deceiving, because they seem pleasant, get us hooked, and never fail to dissapoint. As always, we then expand this yearning to include all beings, and keep breaking down the barriers for our Four Immesaurables.

After the meditation Alan pulled one of his amazing acts and and brilliantly summarized pretty much all of Buddhist philosophy in 45 minutes. I took this out and it will be the seasoning for tomorrow’s sunday Bonus.

This still was given to me by David Cherniack (expect more great stills from him in this last week), and it sort of looks like the mirages that appear on pavement sometimes. They look like water, but when you get closer they never fail to dissapear. (Yes I know that the still is actually real water from our monsoon here, just trying to be imaginative!)

For this short bonus episode, I extracted a question that Elizabeth said was maybe unanswerable, about the very beginning of ignorance and delusion (and samsara for that matter). But we all know by now that Alan always has something up his sleeve.

He starts by talking about the problems that can arise when we misniterpret the Buddhist view that “samsara is beginningless”. Infinite past lifes would mean infinite chances to achieve Bodhicitta, to go into meditation retreat for 60 years, to achieve enlightenment, etc, which would mean that we probably failed an infinite number of times. Not very motivating! So Alan gives a very sharp and amazing answer to this “unanswerable” question, which is both completely aligned with the Buddhist notion of a beginningless samsara and extremely logical, drawing from everyday examples such as thinking and dreaming. To illustrate his explanation, Alan draws on a short parable from the book “Naked Awareness” by Karma Chagme (although in the recording you will hear him say it was from “A Spacious Path to Freedom,” which is actually the prequel… He made the correction later in the day).

In the last 5 minutes, we go into the question of the “end of samsara,” where Alan quotes H.H. Dalai Lama and then he ends by sharing a laughter-filled question he made back in Dharamsala about how the last sentient being can achieve enlightenment. I just laughed out loud again listening to it to write the desription.

This much more flattering picture of last week’s rainbow was provided by Rosa - thank you!

Yes, this is an ambitious title but as always the podcast episode does not fail to deliver the goods. However, I really won’t even try to summarize all of Buddhist Philosophy in two paragraphs. I know I always say that but really, this time there is just no point and not enough space for me to do that. However, I will give you a few things :)

The lecture started with what to do when we encounter strong negative emotions, attitudes, and mental states after the retreat, and this was weaved with a question about the relationship of Chitamattra and Dzogchen. Instead of giving a brief conceptual comparison, Alan rolls back and looks at a sequence of ways of viewing reality, fully engaged with a way of practice. He works with Sanskrit-language based schools: Vaibhashika, Sautrantika, Chittamatra, and Madhyamaka, and ends with a brief overview of The Great Perfection (Dzogchen).

Alan makes this very relevant regardless of personal interest in Buddhism, and clearly explains the ways of viewing the physical, appearances, systems of measurement, qualia, references, perception, the mind, awareness, “what do you really know,” and just all of reality from evolving points of view. Somewhere in the middle, there is a brief detour into the “lack of competition” that resulted in materialism taking over the mind sciences. I will honestly say that I do not consider myself well-versed in Buddhist philosophy, and this episode was extremely enlightening and helped me clearly understand the different views of the Indian Buddhist schools, culminating in the beauty of the Dzogchen view.

So that’s all you’ll get from me! I very highly recommend this episode.

In this morning session, Alan really woke us up (interpret that as you will) by making an addendum to this Sunday’s bonus episode where we had a “speed drive” through different ways of viewing reality from the Buddhist point of view. Alan only had two minutes left for Dzogchen, so this morning he went deeper into an explanation of this culminating Great Perfection. This episode is crucial to understanding the Dzogchen view.

Alan first briefly recapitulates on the path to Arhathood from the point of view of the coarse and subtle mind, and then using a strong metaphor from dreaming he explains what Dzogchen has to add to that view. I would feel dirty trying to summarize the beauty of this explanation because I really don’t want to mess with Dzogchen teachings.

You will notice that I edited the meditation on Compassion out of the podcast and skipped straight to Alan’s words after the meditation. This is because he picks off right where he left off, talking about the dangers of taking Dzogchen practice (and any other practice such as Vipassana) and how this is sadly becoming more and more common. Alan uses an analogy from his days in Dharamsala to ilustrate the futility of Dzogchen without context, so please share this episode with anybody you might know is attempting this. We don’t want them to waste their time.

If you are keen-eyed you will recognize the palms in the photo from many other photos in this podcast. This was a nighttime still provided by David Cherniack, slightly modified by me to make it more relevant :)
To see David’s original footage wait for more details on his movie!

This practice got separated from the previous episode for continuity purposes. As you might expect, we return for the final time to the practice of Settling the Mind in its Natural State. Spefically, we start by attending to the spaces in between mental events, and after a while we go deeper and without breaking the continuity we observe the space from which mental events arise, in which they are present, and into which they dissolve. Alan briefly reflects on achieving Shamatha by observing the substrate, by observing space, and explains his reasons behind breaking this Shamatha practice into parts (attending to the foreground, and today to the background). As you probably expect, his reasons make a lot of sense. So enjoy this Settling the Mind practice, for the last time in this podcast series!

By the way, if you want some practices with more explanation behind them, you might want to check the meditations from the first week. This is the fourth time we come to this phase in the Shamatha cycle so Alan is using very few words compared to seven weeks ago.

This spectacular photo was taken by Malcolm, and this is straight from his camera! I promise I did not even modify the colors, the skies here are just stunning. Prepare for more breathtaking sky photos in these last episodes (although they get scaled down to 300 sq pixels for the podcast…)

This afternoon Alan started by pointing out the modern tendency of being very harsh and strict with ourselves, and the need for Compassion. He then proceeds by diving down to the very root of suffering, considering the hypothesis that all mental afflictions stem from the grasping and reification of “self” as separate, autonomous, and self-existant. He aludes to the Vajra essence, showing how the symmetry of the substrate is broken and the sense of “self” coagulates and differentiates itself from the space, followed by the arising of appearances also as “other” and finally as the mind activates it conceptually imputes objects from those appearances we directly see.

Using a few other examples, we see that it is pretty evident that all suffering comes from the reification and grasping of self, me and mine. The only thing left for us to do is investigate this hypothesis, bringing wisdom and compassion together into practice.

After the meditation, we have a brief comment by Alan about the Vajra Essence (Dudjom Lingpa) and the relative “simplicity” of the path, followed by some interesting questions from Malcolm. He built on on an earlier question about being a Bodhisattva without knowing it, now extending it to “Is it possible for a Sotāpanna (stream enterer) to be one with out knowing it.” Alan said yes, but then really unpacked the question, focusing on the importance of not taking things out of context. He highlights his skepticism of many modern ways in which people are practicing Dharma, and talks a little about debunking false claims of realization. He also talks about how these new Dharma experiments can cause you to fool yourself into thinking you have genuine realization, uniquely combining a story from the suttas with Mark Twain.

Along the explanation he comes upon the debate of “momentary Samadhi” being enough for Vipassana practice and the problems with this allegation, pointing to the following debate: http://www.mahasi.org.mm/discourse/E24/E24ch01.htm
There is also a part where Alan speaks about a connection between Mahayana and Christianity, and Elizabeth explains how the Christian Saint Josaphat is actually a mistranslation of Arhat, and reveals the fact the The Buddha was actually canonized! She says there is an article on her website, which is here: http://buddhist-christian.org/

Well, I think this description has gotten out of hand with the length. So I’ll leave you with this still from David Cherniack, representing the distortion that occurs when taking Dharma out of context!

This morning, Alan said he would squeeze out every drop of knowledge he had left about this first method of Awareness of Awareness, so if you listen to the previous episodes on this stage of practice you will be extremely well rounded! Alan starts by detailing an all to common problem: thinking that we are doing the practice incorrectly when we are actually doing it correctly, and reacting by tightening up our attention and trying harder, resulting in fatigue. This is followed by explaining how to gain satisfaction from stability, relating it to visualization practice, and setting our expectations correctly.

From there, we briefly explore the possibility of achieving Shamatha within Vajrayana instad of using the practices that we have covered in this retreat, and while it is certainly possible, the difficulty is quite high and there are many pitfalls.

As a final point before the meditation, Alan shows how this practice is a very smooth transition from the Settling the Mind practice from yesterday (Monday), talking about visual space as nothing other than mental space, and showing how to glide from attending to space to attending to awareness itself. He briefly gives some different ways of doing the oscillation (which by now you should be very familiar with, refer to the first episodes otherwise), which are suited for different people, and then we jump in!

After the meditation, Alan talks about his first Shamatha retreat back in 1980 and squeezes a few more drops out of using too much strength without relaxation and stability.

Enjoy! This sky picture is a part of a great set taken by Malcolm.

The story Alan narrates at the very start of this episode comes because there was a dog outside the teaching hall, and as we were coming in for the lecture he would try to get in between our legs, or at least just stick his head in. He clearly looked very determined and excited to learn about Mudita, and it was hard to get Alan inside the teaching hall sans-dog. Moving to the actual lecture, Alan explains today’s practice, in which we cultivate empathetic joy towards others both in terms of hedonic pleasure and then of genuine happiness. Alan gives several examples of each, and notes, also with great examples, that we can learn to use the mind just like we learn to drive a vehicle. It can go from our worst enemy to our best friend.

After the fairly silent practice [again, if you want more verbose practices refer to the beginning of the podcast series], we went into very interesting questions. The first ones were by Enrique, based on The Vajra Essence and returning to yesterday’s point on achieving Shamatha through the union of Shamatha and Vipassana. Alan talks about close Vipassana-style insights that can arise through the Shamatha practice of Settling the Mind, and quotes another mysterious (you’ll see why) passage from (possibly) the Vajra Essence.

In the last half of the session, we have a very meaningful question about how to distinguish between true love (or loving kindness) and attachment, and the relationship that grief from loss has to attachment. Alan starts by talking about the delicate and difficult act of throwing out attachment while retaining love, and we learn the origins of the phrase “throwing out the baby with the bathwater.” Who said we only learn Dharma? Alan also covers the examination of a relationship both from the coarse and subtle levels, and the delicate interplay and entanglement of feelings, highlighting the toxicity of attachment even in happy relationships, and proposing a “reality check.”
He also integrates a question from Tsapel, and shows how to cultivate Loving Kindness both from the monastic perspective and within ordinary society. We reflect that if you were “incomplete” and your relationship with “your other half” makes you “complete” then you are bound to suffer, and end on the importance of recognizing the difference between genuine Loving Kindness (or Love) and attachment and not mistake one for the other.

Enjoy these very profound reflections. This quite artistic photo from Malcolm shows our friends and silent (or sometimes not so silent) fellow sentient beings :) I had to include them in the podcast before sending out more sky photos!

As we approach the end of the retreat, the lectures are getting more and more information packed and so are these summaries. I will say as I always do; if you are new to the podcast go back to the first episodes!

This morning we started by covering the importance and the difficulty, even for Tibetans now and in the past, of calming the mind through Shamatha practice. Alan speaks about the sad state of the modern view that reduces human beings into biological machines, where the brain does everything and we do nothing. From here, he mentions the popular but very incorrect belief that Buddhism arrived to the west “dead on arrival,” and that achieving realizations or even Shamatha in modernity is impossible. It all boils down to your belief in yourself, motivation, and diligence. As HH. Dalai Lama said, practice like Milarepa and you will achieve like Milarepa. Too often we look for the “quick fix,” and Alan emphazises that there is simply no substitute for cultivating real stability. Keeping our minds concentrated by keeping them in motion will not achieve lasting transformation. Alan also explains why throughout this retreat he has always given an entire worldview with elaborate answers rather than just “keeping it to practice,” and I will vouch that his technique has really worked for me and other fellow retreatants, giving us a deep understanding of the context and gently but firmly turning our minds towards the pursuit of genuine happiness.

Towards the end of this introduction, Alan gives several practical tips on what to do if our mind just won’t cooperate when we try to meditate, emphasising and giving instructions on breathing out correctly. He then starts this Awareness of Awareness practice, which he later mentions can be excellent medicine to heal ourselves from the sad belief that we are only matter, organic computers with no control over ourselves.

No materialist investigation into “ourselves” and reality can compete against these practices unless a radical shift takes place in the modern way of viewing reality.

This morning Alan starts by giving instructions on how to watch the opening game of the World Cup (Mexico-South Africa) on Friday, after being asked for permission to do so. He has a very interesting football-watching technique!

On a slightly more profound tone, Alan is asked what to do with the whole topic of devotion when teaching Shamatha in a scientific context. He gives a very good explanation of how Shamatha can be practiced with no religious devition at all, with some devotion, and with immense devotion, and talks about each of these alternatives. He also talks about the relationship between devotion and trust, and relates this to how the Buddha never asked for postrations or any other act of devotion before giving teachings. A sense of trust is something that arises differently for everyone, and the point is to have this flourish from firsthand experience, rather than just believing everything you are told. This is very useful for anyone who might be having these sorts of doubts.

We then go into the third method in our cycle Awareness of Awareness, this time spending less time shifting the visual gaze and more time just sustaining a non-conceptual, non-discursive thought of mindfulness of resting Awareness in its own nature of luminosity. This episode is only recommended if you have already done the last three repetitions of this method of practice in the previous weeks, where it had more words and explanation.

The familiar photogenic trees and moon by Malcolm.

This afternoon Alan started by sharing a story about his first meditation counsel with Geshe Rabten, and the two topics that he suggested for meditation: Precious Human Rebirth and Equanimity. He emphasizes the importance of Equanimity and seeing through the “I-It” relationship with others (for more on this topic refer to previous episodes), and also highlights the importance of balancing the urgency that can arise from meditating on the precious human rebirth. He suggests not being shortsighted, and taking the time to develop the Four Immeasurables correctly, however long that may take, knowing it is the path. Alan then very poetically goes into the instructions for the practice, talking about ending one phase (retreat) but starting a new one afterwards, and to symbolize this the retreat will end on a new moon, a new start. For the practice, Alan instructs “seeing through” appearances and like a metallurgist separating the positive feelings from the negative feelings, looking towards the people we may encounter in the near future as we finish the retreat.

After the practice, Alan shares a very encouraging story from his wife about attending a lecture at Oxford in which Prince Charles spoke magnificently, stressing the importance of spiritual vision and saying that science alone will not save us. Following that, there are a few great questions from Adeline, starting from the phrase “nothing can harm the mind” and relating this to practices like Voodoo. Alan shares a relevant story about Voodoo from Dharamsala, a part of the life of Milarepa, and another story about Virupa and some protector deities, all to illustrate his points. Then he explains how to protect the mind, emphasising the benefits of metta.
For example: http://www.sota.dhamma.org/metta.htm

Then we have a question about the difference between Awareness and Attention, to which Alan gives the scientific answer, the regular Buddhist answer, and the Dzogchen answer. Finally, we have a question from Kathleen about “disclosure” in our practice, to which Alan responds with great information about how we can share our experiences with wisdom and with tact, if we choose to do so at all.

This very artistic photo is from Malcolm.

I know, I am quite the dramatic with my titles :)
With a bittersweet feeling we have come to the last group practice of Shamatha for this retreat. To end majestically, we practiced the fourth method of Shamatha without a sign as taught by Padmasambhava. Preceding the practice, Alan shared some tips of what we can do to practice and ground ourselves in the midst of a flurry of activity around us. He first returned to his analogy of Schooner (Boat)/ Submarine/Jet Plane in relationship with the Shamatha practices, and then he shared one more drop of wisdom in the form of a brand new practice for us, combining Breath Awareness with Awareness of Awareness to create a deeply soothing yet vivid and engaged practice.

After the meditation, Alan suggests keeping the attention engaged with something real in between thoughts and everyday, and finished by sharing a brilliant Tibetan aphorism to keep us out of trouble:
“When you are alone, watch your mind. When you are with others, watch your mouth.”

This beautiful starry picture is a still from David.

This afternoon may be the last podcast episode of Alan’s lectures for this retreat. He started by returning to the hypothesis of saying that if we align ourselves with reality, reality will rise up to meet us. That is, if we devote ourselves with our heart and might to the path of Dharma (the word Dharma means reality, by the way), with a clear and strong motivation, all that we truly need rises up to meet us in a friendly way. He also talks about really understanding Dharma, and about transmuting everything that comes up in life into part of the path. Alan uses an analogy back from Dharamsala in '72, with the Dalai Lama’s physician, to support the point that everything can be transformed into medicine with enough wisdom. He then talks about his personal experience with this radical hypothesis and way of viewing the world, showing that it has held true for him. It is important to note that you need to have the wisdom to see this, and it does not mean that your life will become nice and fluffy.

Before going into the practice, he explains how we can integrate Equanimity and Loving Kindness into a non dual meditation, and explains a beautiful method which we then practice.

After the meditation, Alan goes back briefly to the subject of Karma and its intricate mysteries. He relates this to the case of the Chinese invasion of Tibet, and then goes to explain in what way “blessings” can enter our stream of conciousness and transmute karma. All of this is from the Buddhist point of view. We also get the remainder of Milarepa’s story from yesterday, which shows a clear example of transforming Karma. To further illustrate this point we go into a story of one of Atisha’s top diciples.

Before ending, we have a question from Ricardo et al., simply stating “Has Anyone from the Shamatha Projects Achieved Shamatha?” Alan talks about his students, their status, the problems they have encountered, and like a master weaver manages to integrate this with the topic of Karma and clearing obscurations. All in all a very motivating answer if you were having these doubts.

Well, I guess this may be it! I may upload one more episode from the retreat, but if not I will send some other things in a few weeks. I have some audio from Klaus, but I am simply out of time right now and the next weeks will be crazy. In any case, thank you for joining us so far. It has been a pleasure providing these podcasts for you, and my heart’s motivation is that you will benefit from them and therefore benefit others around you.
May all sentient beings flourish!