B. Alan Wallace, 06 Sep 2014
This session continues the pointing out instructions from Padmasambhava, to cut through the substrate to pristine awareness (rigpa). Alan gives a preface to the meditation, explaining the ‘eight extremes of conceptual elaboration’ that Padmasambhava uses, and that identifying rigpa is a process of elimination. He also touches on that for something ‘beyond speech and thought’ there is so much written about it, and how to approach the guidance.
The later part of the session takes the idea of the mind as empty, and when you emerge from shamatha, appearances are illusory even while engaging in a physical world. Alan quotes suicide statistics, suggesting that many choose suicide due to being enmeshed with the mind. They are betting their lives on the belief that the appearances to the mind exist inherently.
Let your awareness be still between sessions. We are on the move, that’s what it means to be a sentient being. Whereas rigpa is still: not because it is held still, it is still because it is beyond time. It is not still versus movement, it is stillness behind coming and going.
Meditation starts at 16:41
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