B. Alan Wallace, 25 Aug 2012 Transcript available
Alan welcomes the participants and explains some of the groundrules for the 8-week retreat. Teaching: Alan begins by presenting the framework for his cycle of teachings on shamatha, vipasyana, mind-training, dream yoga, and dzogchen. During this retreat, the instructions in the morning will focus shamatha and those in the afternoon on the 4 applications of mindfulness. Even if one has not yet realized shamatha, vipasyana practice will support shamatha and vice versa. Practice by being swe…
B. Alan Wallace, 25 Aug 2012 Transcript available
It’s important to settle the motivation for the day. In Mahayana teachings the motivation is the base of bodhicitta. It’s important to have cognitive balance, which brings intelligence to our desires and aspirations. Relaxation, stability and clarity are crucial for meditation. First melt away the body and then allow the breath to flow naturally. Trust in the healing capacity of our own body. If you get tired when meditating, focus on relaxation without loosing stability. Meditation starts…
B. Alan Wallace, 25 Aug 2012 Transcript available
Meditation: Settling body, speech, and mind in the natural state; Bare attention; Application of mindfulness on the body Teaching: Alan begins by distinguishing between mindfulness, bare attention, vipassana, choiceless awareness, open presence, and dzogchen. As an entry point to vipasyana, it necessary to undo the conflation between that which is being presented and our superimposition of labels, memories, like/dislike, etc… Vipasyana is an expedition which attends to and engages with a…
B. Alan Wallace, 27 Aug 2012 Transcript available
Meditation: focus attention on the in and out breath at the belly. With the in breath, arouse your attention. With the out breath, release any thoughts and relax. In order to maintain attention, it is important to develop relaxation first. Otherwise, we get tired easily. Normally, our default mode is rumination, where we become susceptible to mental afflictions. We need to develop a new default mode: continuity of attention, continuity of non-conceptual knowing. When your breath is long,…
B. Alan Wallace, 27 Aug 2012 Transcript available
Meditation: mindfulness of the body. For each of the following senses—1) visual, 2) auditory, 3) tactile—engage in the following steps 1) direct mindfulness to the sense objects, 2) observe to see if they are unchanging, 3) direct mindfulness to space of sense field, 4) observe to see if it is unchanging. Teaching: Mindfulness of the body includes your own body, others’ bodies, all objects of the 5 senses. Alan recounts the story of the Buddha’s teaching to Bahiya, „In the seen, let there b…
B. Alan Wallace, 28 Aug 2012 Transcript available
Meditation: mindfulness of breathing at the abdomen using counting of breaths as a support. Counting does break the flow of mindfulness, so use it only if it helps stem rumination. Keep the counting staccato and as before, use introspection to detect any laxity or excitation. Meditation starts at 2:36
B. Alan Wallace, 28 Aug 2012 Transcript available
Teaching: Alan begins by framing the quest as the pursuit of inner knowledge, contrasting the centrality of subjective experience and mind in buddhism with the emphasis on understanding reality from the outside and materialism in science. In science, conceptual understanding and reason are considered the highest goal. In buddhism, concepts are used as a means to arrive at non-conceptual experience/realization. Both the body and the environmental are composed of the 4 elements. Meditation:…
B. Alan Wallace, 29 Aug 2012 Transcript available
Meditation: mindfulness of breathing at the nostril. Focus mental awareness on breath coming in and out at the nostril or upper lip, wherever you feel the sensation most clearly. Engage with the full course of in and out breath, arousing attention at in breath and releasing thoughts and relaxing at out breath. Experiment with staccato counting to counter rumination. This practice enhances vividness, but does so without sacrificing stability and relaxation. Be relentless about breaking up r…
B. Alan Wallace, 29 Aug 2012 Transcript available
Meditation: body scan. Single-pointedly focus on sensations (both outer and inner) at one target area, scanning the body from top to bottom as instructed in the guided meditation. Teaching: Alan introduces some Sautrāntika philosophy—view of reality—to help us observe closely. There are 1) things that exist and 2) things that don’t exist. Among things that exist, there are 1a) real and 1b) unreal. Real phenomena constitute anything that can be perceived directly or with the help of instrum…
B. Alan Wallace, 30 Aug 2012 Transcript available
Meditation: mindfulness of breathing at the nostril. Same instructions as before. Use introspection to attend to the flow of mindfulness. If there’s excitation, relax, release, and return. If there’s laxity or dullness, refresh, refocus, and retain. In between sessions, let your default mode be perception of real phenomena as defined in the Sautantrika and release rumination. Also, check to see that your respiration is flowing naturally. Meditation starts at 9:30
B. Alan Wallace, 30 Aug 2012 Transcript available
Teaching pt1: Alan begins the session by introducing the buddhist theory of causality. Here, one distinguishes between substantial causes and cooperative conditions in how effects are created. We can contemplate the factors of origination and dissolution in reference to the 18 dhatus—i.e., 6 sensory fields, 6 modes of consciousnesses, and 6 faculties. Meditation: mindfulness of the body focusing on the 2nd mark of existence dukkha. Closely apply mindfulness to see if sensations of pleas…
B. Alan Wallace, 31 Aug 2012 Transcript available
Teaching: Alan gives a brief teaching on Dromtönpa’s quote „Give up all attachment to this life, and let your mind become dharma.“ In shamatha practice, releasing excitation corresponds to giving up attachment, and resting in awareness, 5 antidotes naturally arise to counter the 5 obscurations to the substrate and rigpa: 1) sukkha vs. malice/ill-will, 2) single-pointed attention vs. desire/attachment/fixation, 3) coarse investigation vs. laxity/dullness, 4) bliss vs. excitation/anxiety, and…
B. Alan Wallace, 31 Aug 2012 Transcript available
Teaching: Alan begins the session by presenting the 2nd and 3rd marks of existence. In the 2nd mark of existence, dukkha can be understood to mean the unsatisfactory nature of looking at any experience and thinking, „This will make me happy.“ The 3rd mark of existence: all phenomena are empty and non-self. This means that „me“ and „mine“ are conceptual designations empty of intrinsic entity (=self). Meditation: mindfulness of the body focusing on the 3rd mark of existence emptiness and n…
B. Alan Wallace, 02 Sep 2012 Transcript available
Alan gives a brief introduction to the 4 immeasurables. Whereas shamatha and vipassana attend to reality that is already manifest, the 4 immeasurables concern the realm of possibility and aspiration. Meditation: loving-kindness. Begin with the aspiration for yourself by asking, “What would make you truly happy?” Visualize your own awareness as a white orb at your heart chakra, and with every out breath, light fills your entire with the aspiration “May I find happiness and the causes of happ…
B. Alan Wallace, 02 Sep 2012 Transcript available
Teaching pt1: Alan reviews the view of reality according to the 3 turnings of the wheel of the dharma. In the 1st turning, in response to the question as posed by the Sautantrika of “What is real?”, we see things as simply or mere phenomena. Seeing means knowing what we’re seeing is mere or simply phenomena which means in accordance with the 3 marks of existence, free from our conceptual projections con-fused with reality. In the 2nd turning, we use our intelligence to uncover the ultimate…
B. Alan Wallace, 03 Sep 2012 Transcript available
Teaching: A new cycle begins this week on mindfulness of feelings. When feelings arise, there is a strong tendency for us to grasp onto them as I or mine. Therefore, we need to learn how to release grasping and identification with feelings and remain simply present with them. As for release, Alan emphasizes the importance of learning how to breathe properly. Without proper breathing, it’s difficult for our meditation to progress, since the prana system is central to body/mind. Proper bre…
B. Alan Wallace, 03 Sep 2012 Transcript available
Teaching pt1: Alan introduces the new cycle with the 2nd application of mindfulness on feelings. Feelings (Skt. vedana) refer to 1) like/pleasant, 2) dislike/unpleasant, or 3) neutral. Although feelings could be considered part of the mind, feelings get their own application and their own skandha due to their primacy. Feelings arise in reaction to 1) too much, 2) too little, or 3) wrong kind of the 4 elements. The hedonic response to feelings is to want pleasant feelings to stay and unple…
B. Alan Wallace, 04 Sep 2012 Transcript available
Alan uses rats as an analogy for thoughts. When a cat (mindfulness) is present, rats (thoughts) stay away. During the bubonic plague, rats (thoughts) carried fleas (disturbing emotions) which carried the bacterial infection (e.g., depression or anxiety). Therefore, we need to treat rumination as public enemy #1. According to Tsongkhapa, we must complete eliminate rumination in order to achieve shamatha. Meditation: mindfulness of breathing method of your choice. For each breath cycle, ar…
B. Alan Wallace, 04 Sep 2012 Transcript available
Teaching: This practice of mindfulness on feelings using the space of the body is a nice prelude the settling the mind where we attend to the space of the mind. As in the latter, we need to distinguish between stillness and movement—i.e., the stillness of awareness and the movement of sensations or thoughts. Loose, present, and luminous, awareness can remain still if there is no grasping or preference. If we can release desire and aversion, appearances are just appearances. Meditation:…
B. Alan Wallace, 05 Sep 2012 Transcript available
Meditation: transition from mindfulness of breathing with full body awareness to settling the mind. 1) mindfulness of breathing with full body awareness: Feel the beginning of the in breath at the lower abdomen and let it flow from the bottom up. Let awareness illuminate the space of the whole body. Maintain non-conceptual flow of mindfulness of non-conceptual sensations associated with the in and out breaths, monitoring that mindfulness with introspection. 2) settling the mind: Eyes at…
B. Alan Wallace, 06 Sep 2012 Transcript available
Note: This recording is of minor quality since we had to recover it from another device. Thank you for understanding. Teaching: This practice shines a bright light on feelings by attending to feelings internally (our own), externally (someone else’s), and both internally and externally (in ourself and others in interaction). Alan introduces an alternative translation for a key line in the Sattipathana sutta. Instead of the common translation “One views the body in the body,” Alan proposes…
B. Alan Wallace, 07 Sep 2012 Transcript available
Settling the mind in its natural state is the shamatha practice corresponding the applications of mindfulness on feelings and the mind. This practice itself lies on the cusp between shamatha and vipasyana, but it’s presented within the mahamudra and dzogchen traditions as a shamatha practice for dissolving the coarse mind into the substrate. Awareness of thoughts and emotions frees us from being trapped by our minds and facilitates wiser choices in our behavior. A Tibetan saying goes like th…
B. Alan Wallace, 07 Sep 2012 Transcript available
Alan elaborates on settling the mind in its natural state. While developing the 3 qualities of shamatha, we are observing external appearances and the (relative) dharmadhatu dissolve into the substrate and our mind (subjective mental events) dissolve into substrate consciousness from the perspective of the substrate or our best approximation thereof. The substrate is the repository of our karma and travels from lifetime to lifetime. Shamatha is sufficient to give us access to the substrate.…
B. Alan Wallace, 07 Sep 2012 Transcript available
Just as in physics where matter in the universe may be considered crystallization of the energy in space, tactile sensations may be the congealing of energies in the space of the body and mental events may be crystallizations of energies in the space of the mind. It’s important to know stillness and movement in field of perception as well as stillness and movement of your own awareness. Examine whether feelings of pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral are absolutely or relatively so. Meditation:…
B. Alan Wallace, 07 Sep 2012 Transcript available
Shamatha should serve as a baseline or a base camp. However, people have different affinities for the various shamatha practices. Focus on the space of the mind as backdrop and note the thoughts, images, and feelings which flare up. What are the feelings triggered by? Paul Ekman speaks of emotions, moods, and temperaments. Alan asks us to explore grasping as a possible cause for moods. Meditation: choice of mindfulness of breathing or settling the mind. If your mind wanders, stabilize b…
B. Alan Wallace, 08 Sep 2012 Transcript available
Alan presents tips on dealing with subtlety in the shamatha practices. 1) mindfulness of breathing. The breath becomes increasingly subtle, and treat this an invitation to increase calm and clarity. Do not change the place you are attending to the breath. Rather, choose a baseline such as the nerve endings at the nostrils, and continue attending to the baseline and any fluctuations throughout the whole body of the breath. 2) settling the mind. When the space of the mind appears quiet, some…
B. Alan Wallace, 10 Sep 2012 Transcript available
As the 4 applications of mindfulness bring us knowledge of our experience, the 4 immeasurables bring balance in our emotions. If feeling down, practice loving-kindness and not its near enemy attachment. If feeling disengaged, practice compassion which is an antidote to the near enemy cold indifference. Worldly life is characterized by restlessness and anxiety, and for genuine happiness and the achievement of shamatha, we need to gradually wean ourselves from the props of hedonic pleasures.…
B. Alan Wallace, 10 Sep 2012 Transcript available
Some take to settling the mind easily, and others have a harder time. For the latter, start by focusing on mental images (without the soundtrack) which everyone can do, then the soundtrack alone, and mental images with the soundtrack. Among the 4 types of mindfulness, the first is called single-pointed mindfulness which means being simultaneously aware of the stillness of your own awareness and the movement of thoughts. Such mindfulness is accessed through deep relaxation. In post-meditation…
B. Alan Wallace, 10 Sep 2012 Transcript available
This week, Alan embarks on the 3rd application of mindfulness to the mind. As a prerequisite for this practice, you must be able to distinguish between stillness and motion and maintain single-pointed mindfulness as cultivated in the shamatha practice of settling the mind. As a vipasyana practice, we observe from luminosity and cognizance origination and dissolution of a whole range of emotions and states of consciousness. An emotion like anger exists at the conscious, unconscious, and seed…
B. Alan Wallace, 11 Sep 2012 Transcript available
For those having difficulties settling the mind, Alan proposes mindfulness of breathing as a useful prelude. Use each breath—and in particular, the out breath, especially the end of the out breath—to release any residual tension and relax the body totally. Make use of every out breath to relax more deeply and release any rumination. Core relaxation is a prerequisite to settling the mind. When practicing settling the mind, maintain peripheral awareness of the breath. Meditation: settling t…
B. Alan Wallace, 11 Sep 2012 Transcript available
Teaching: Alan discusses causality and the relationship between cause and effect within the context of mindfulness of the mind. According to the Sautantrika, both cause and effect are considered real. According to William James, the relationship (relata) is also considered real. In order to perceive any causal relationship, you need to observe phenomena with a wide angle over time and connect the dots. When experiencing pleasure, enquire whether it is stimulus driven or not. Genuine happ…
B. Alan Wallace, 12 Sep 2012 Transcript available
Alan reminds us that closely holding the mind causes suffering. There are two methods which free us from this suffering 1) relative bodhicitta where we identify with all sentient beings and 2) absolute bodhicitta where we completely retract all the tentacles by withdrawing into the substrate and then rigpa. In this practice, we train in viewing mental events from the non-grasping, non-reactive perspective of substrate consciousness. Meditation: settling the mind with full body awareness as…
B. Alan Wallace, 12 Sep 2012 Transcript available
In these practices focusing on the mind, it is useful to stabilise them with a reference point: 1) awareness resting in its own place as a subjective reference point or 2) space of the mind as an objective reference point. These practices counter the common belief that we think thoughts rather than thoughts just happen. Meditation: mindfulness of the mind. Release into the body, and release the body. Release into the breath, and release the breath. Release into the mind, and release t…
B. Alan Wallace, 13 Sep 2012 Transcript available
Alan comments that mindfulness of breathing and settling the mind are highly complementary. Mindfulness of breathing allows the prana system to settle and converge at the heart chakra which in turn allows the mind to settle. Settling the mind allows breath and prana to settle. In mindfulness of breathing, the breath can serve as the baseline. In settling the mind, the space of the mind can serve as the baseline. In order for a shamatha retreat to bear fruit, it is also important to have as…
B. Alan Wallace, 14 Sep 2012 Transcript available
Alan recounts the story of how Shariputra and Maudgalyayana first encountered the teachings of the Buddha. “Those phenomena that are causally created, the Tathagatha has shown their causes and he has also shown their cessation. Thus, the teaching of the Great Sage.” Normally, we identify strongly with subjective impulses and objective appearances, but when we observe them, we see that they are just phenomena arising from and dissolving into the mind. This first-hand experience into the co…
B. Alan Wallace, 14 Sep 2012 Transcript available
Teaching: Awareness of awareness is the most subtle and profound of all the shamatha practices. From the dzogchen perspective, we suffer because 1) we grasp onto that which is not I and mine as being I and mine and 2) we fail to recognize who we are. Normally, we grasp at gross manifestations of body and mind as being I and mine. Shamatha takes us past all that down to the substrate. From there, there are two paths: 1) break through the substrate to rigpa or 2) realize the empty nature of…
B. Alan Wallace, 14 Sep 2012 Transcript available
Teaching: Who do you think you are? Are you identified with your body, your mind, or yourself? How does the I fit with the body and mind? We need to find out by probing experientially, not by thinking really hard. The image of a conglomeration of merchants with a CEO in charge. That CEO is the I. While that sense of there being a CEO or I is real, the referent, upon probing, is nowhere to be found and thus unreal. This sense of CEO or I is that which feels it is the agent or the observe…
B. Alan Wallace, 15 Sep 2012 Transcript available
Teaching pt1: Empathetic joy is taking delight in others’ virtues. As the only one of the 4 immeasurables which involves cultivating an emotion, empathetic joy also serves as the antidote to the near enemy of compassion, grief and despair. Given the prevalence of low self-esteem and guilt, it is also useful for many of us to take delight in our own virtues which is considered virtuous in buddhist teachings. Meditation: empathetic joy. Moving along the timeline from childhood to the presen…
B. Alan Wallace, 15 Sep 2012 Transcript available
Teaching: Alan reminds us that all the shamatha practices have been attending to the mind in that there is mindfulness placed on an object and introspection to the mind. In settling the mind, the object of mindfulness is the javana of the psyche. In awareness of awareness, the object of mindfulness is the bhavanga. In mindfulness of the mind, we attend to both the javana and the bhavanga with probing and inquiry vis-à-vis the 3 marks of existence. We see first-hand how mental afflictions a…
B. Alan Wallace, 17 Sep 2012 Transcript available
Teaching: Alan draws parallels between settling the mind and mindfulness of breathing. In settling the mind, in principle, being present with all mental arisings sufficient for the mind to undo its knots and heal itself. Don’t be the agent of thoughts! Sustain flow of mindfulness without distraction, without grasping. In reality, we grasp, and there are knots we cannot seem to undo on our own. In such instances, we may benefit from the counsel of spiritual friends and putting them into p…
B. Alan Wallace, 17 Sep 2012 Transcript available
Teaching: Alan introduces the 4th application of mindfulness to phenomena (dharmas). Whereas the first 3 applications of mindfulness are microscopic, the mindfulness of phenomena takes a step back to understand how it all fits together and their inter-relationships—i.e., dependent origination. While dependent origination applies to all phenomena, the focus here is understanding causes and conditions leading to suffering and happiness. All the different lists of phenomena in this section are…
B. Alan Wallace, 18 Sep 2012 Transcript available
Teaching: Alan introduces some points from his translation of Asanga’s comprehensive explanations for mindfulness of breathing. While Asanga does not mentions following the breath at the tip of the nostril, he does mention following the flow of vital energies from nostril to navel, noting 4 stages: 1) inhalation, 2) pause at the end of inhalation, 3) exhalation, 4) pause at the end of exhalation. Asanga also presents several counting methods as support when needed: 1) counting each inhalat…
B. Alan Wallace, 18 Sep 2012 Transcript available
Teaching: Alan elaborates on some points from his translation of Asanga’s explanations for mindfulness of breathing, as advice for people with heavy rumination. Asanga mentions 4 stages in mindfulness of breathing: 1) inhalation, 2) pause at the end of inhalation, 3) exhalation, 4) pause at the end of exhalation. He notes 1) overly lax or 2) overly forceful engagement. Asanga also presents training in counting as support: 1) counting individually (at end of inhalation/exhalation), 2) coun…
B. Alan Wallace, 19 Sep 2012 Transcript available
Teaching: Alan talks about the second of the five obscurations ill-will. As shamatha dredges the psyche, it is normal for ill-will to arise in response to memories, etc… The antidote is sukkha or well-being. You are experiencing sukkha when you enjoy and get into the flow of the practice. Sukkha comes through shamatha. Further support for the antidote comes from mudita or empathetic joy. On the spiritual path, we need to make a gentle transition from 100% dependence on hedonic well-bei…
B. Alan Wallace, 19 Sep 2012 Transcript available
Teaching: Continuing from Asanga’s Shravakabhumi, Alan introduces the second thorough training by way of the aggregates. Asanga begins by explaining the characteristics of achieving shamatha—i.e., 1) pliancy in the mind, 2) pliancy in the body, and 3) single-pointedness taking delight in the object. Having achieved shamatha, we return to the desire realm in an expedition to gain insight into the five aggregates: 1) form in terms of mindfulness of breathing, 2) feelings (positive/negative/n…
B. Alan Wallace, 20 Sep 2012 Transcript available
Teaching: Alan talks about the third of the five obscurations laxity and dullness. Dullness occurs when attention is no longer fully engaged with the object. It is experienced from stages 1-4, whereas laxity is experienced between stages 4-5. Its antidote is coarse investigation (aka applied thought) whereby you just check it out. Meditation: mindfulness of breathing per Asanga. Allow your body to breathe itself as your respiration settles into its natural rhythm. Let the mind come to…
B. Alan Wallace, 20 Sep 2012 Transcript available
Teaching: Continuing from Asanga’s Shravakabhumi, Alan introduces the 3rd thorough training by way of dependent origination. Asanga begins by attending to the breath which is dependent upon the body and mind which are in turn conditioned by the life faculty (subtle continuum of mental consciousness and prana) which is in turn dependent on previous compositional factors (samskara) which are in turn dependent on ignorance. The antidote to ignorance is wisdom which leads to the cessation of ign…
B. Alan Wallace, 21 Sep 2012 Transcript available
Teaching: Alan talks about the fourth of the five obscurations excitation and anxiety. Excitation is associated with restlessness and agitation. Anxiety is also known as guilt, remorse, shame, or regret. Bliss and joy are the natural antidotes. But since these qualities cannot be called up at will, discursive meditation on the pros and cons of the practice (in this case, shamatha) can be helpful. As long as we have not achieved shamatha, we are subject to the 5 obscurations characterized…
B. Alan Wallace, 21 Sep 2012 Transcript available
Teaching: Continuing from Asanga’s Shravakabhumi, Alan introduces the 4th thorough training by way of the 16 phases: 1) breathing in, 2) breathing out, 3) the whole body, 4) tranquilising the bodily activities, 5) joy, 6) happiness, 7) formations of the mind, 8) tranquilising formations of the mind, 9) experiencing the mind, 10) gladdening the mind, 11) concentrating the mind, 12) liberating the mind, 13) impermanence, 14) eradication of obscurations, 15) freedom from attachment, 16) cessati…
B. Alan Wallace, 22 Sep 2012 Transcript available
Teaching: Alan talks about the fifth of the five obscurations afflictive uncertainty. While it is appropriate to be uncertain about that which is uncertain, when we wonder about whether or not it is possible to make progress in our practice or attain enlightenment we need to apply its antidote close investigation. As the Dalai Lama says, something becomes hopeless, the moment we’ve given up hope. Alan introduces the fourth of the 4 immeasurables equanimity. People appear to us differently…
B. Alan Wallace, 22 Sep 2012 Transcript available
Teaching: Continuing from Asanga’s Shravakabhumi, Alan gives the detailed explanation of the 4th thorough training by way of the 16 phases: 1) long breath, 2) short breath, 3) the whole body, 4) refining the bodily formation, 5) joy, 6) well-being, 7) formations of the mind, 8) wonderfully refining formations of the mind, 9) experiencing the mind, 10) bringing exception joy to the mind, 11) concentrating the mind, 12) liberating the mind, 13) impermanence, 14) eradication of obscurations, 15)…
B. Alan Wallace, 24 Sep 2012 Transcript available
Alan notes that we’re starting the second half of the retreat. Afterwards, when we return to an active way of life, while our shamatha practice may be maintained at best, other practices may indeed flourish. In an active life, the practices of the 4 applications of mindfulness can shift how we view reality in accordance with the 3 marks of existence, gradually becoming unstuck. Similarly, as our best friends, bodyguards even, the 4 immeasurables can be practiced in everyday life as we engage…
B. Alan Wallace, 24 Sep 2012 Transcript available
Teaching pt1: As we revisit this section, Alan will present teachings from the shravakayana and dzogchen. According to the shravakayana, nama rupa should not be understood as two entities but as a single activity of experience. Nama (naming) is the subjective experience of identifying an object. Rupa (all appearances) is the objective experience of an object perceived or conceived through the process of identification. Mano/manas (mind/mentation) is the mental process of conceptualization…
B. Alan Wallace, 25 Sep 2012 Transcript available
As opposed to meditations on suffering and impermanence, loving-kindness offers a gentle remedy for attachment, the near enemy of empathetic joy. The basis is seeing loveable qualities in oneself and others. Where low self-esteem is prevalent, we must start with loving-kindness for ourselves as this practice cannot be done meaningfully by skipping ourselves. Meditation: loving-kindness. There are two methods for cultivating loving-kindness: 1) meditation and 2) kind and loving actions.…
B. Alan Wallace, 25 Sep 2012 Transcript available
Teaching: Alan draws the teachings into the 21st century by dedicating this session to a brief history of science culminating in the view according to quantum mechanics. Early scientists like Galileo were devout Christians who attempted to understand reality from God’s perspective. The real world must be out there because 1) stuff happens when we’re not looking and 2) there is a commonality of perceptions. Modern physicists debunk this view. Anton Zeilinger said that reality is based only…
B. Alan Wallace, 26 Sep 2012 Transcript available
Teaching: When you understand the causality of how others contribute to your well-being, a sense of happy indebtedness can arise. “How can I do more to repay their kindness?” We can contribute to others’ well-being hedonically and/or eudaimonically. Most altruism in the world is focused on hedonic happiness/suffering, yet eudaimonia is real and can be cultivated. Following Atisha’s advice, we need to achieve shamatha in order to help others find genuine happiness. Genuine happiness is a s…
B. Alan Wallace, 26 Sep 2012 Transcript available
Teaching: As an appendix to last night’s talk, Alan introduces the placebo effect which is clearly a mental that happens and is well-known. However, there is no explanation in modern science for how it works. Applying John Wheeler’s assertion that information is primary and that the universe is an information processing system to the microcosm of one’s mind/body, we can consider mind/body as being derivative from information and as an information processing system. Information can catalyze…
B. Alan Wallace, 27 Sep 2012 Transcript available
In solitary retreat, it is easy to get caught up with all your own stuff coming from your own mind. This is attenuated being in a group retreat with others around. The 4 immeasurables help cultivate emotional balance, so when we encounter others, it’s like throwing a pebble into a swimming pool rather than a teacup. Alan recommences the meditation on compassion where we attend to others and their suffering. Meditation: compassion. Rumination is both tiresome and stressful, so an act of co…
B. Alan Wallace, 27 Sep 2012 Transcript available
Teaching: Alan continues with verses 85-87 in Ch. 9 of the Bodhicaryavatara covering components of the body. Just as we examined the body, we now examine parts of the body, going all the way down to the atomic level. As long as something has attributes, it can be divided further. The Vaibashika view contends that while we view the world with our senses and that configurations depend on our way of perceiving, atoms are truly existent. The Madhyamika view understands dependent origination as…
B. Alan Wallace, 28 Sep 2012 Transcript available
Teaching pt1. Yesterday, we addressed the first of three forms of suffering: suffering of suffering or blatant suffering. Its primary cause is hatred/anger due to getting what we don’t want or not getting what we do want. While renunciation for oneself and compassion for others are antidotes, ethics constitute the basic remedy and can be summarized as not harming others and being helpful to others when possible. Today, we look at the suffering of change which isn’t obvious to most. Its pr…
B. Alan Wallace, 28 Sep 2012 Transcript available
Teaching pt1: Alan shares his translation of Ch. 13 of Shantideva’s Compendium of Practices on the 4 applications of mindfulness. The body is simply a configuration of various parts and compilation of various substances assembled by the agent which arises from karma. What is called the body? What is the referent for “my body”? Where is the body which has all these parts? The body didn’t come from the past, nor does it go into the future. In the present, the body is like space. The body…
B. Alan Wallace, 29 Sep 2012 Transcript available
Teaching pt1. Alan introduces the 3rd and deepest level of suffering called all-pervasive suffering which is the fundamental vulnerability to suffering of body and mind caused by closely holding the aggregates. Compassion requires more than just sympathy. Just as we must have a sense that there’s another source of happiness than hedonic pleasure, here we must have a sense that liberation is possible. These direct tastes provide us with a platform for attending to that very suffering in othe…
B. Alan Wallace, 29 Sep 2012 Transcript available
Teaching: Alan continues with his commentary on Ch. 13 of Shantideva’s Compendium of Practices on the 4 applications of mindfulness. The body is filled with impurities, fragile by nature, and subject to destruction. One who sees this body as impermanent takes the essence of life, serving all sentient beings, avoiding faulty behavior, no craving or clinging to enjoyments, etc… One views the body as a the body, nothing that is mine. One designates the body of all sentient beings as my body…
B. Alan Wallace, 01 Oct 2012 Transcript available
Teaching pt1. Alan revisits the 3rd of the 4 immeasurables, empathetic joy. One of the early lamrim meditations is recognizing precious human rebirth (or literally, body) imbued with leisure and opportunity. This body—especially the subtle body of prana, chakra, and bindu—is likened to a wish-fulfilling gem. Meditation: empathetic joy preceded by settling body, speech, and mind. 1) settling body, speech, and mind. Let awareness descend into the space of the body and rest in the empty…
B. Alan Wallace, 01 Oct 2012 Transcript available
Teaching: Alan begins by exploring why it is said that dzogchen is particularly effective in degenerate times. He suggests that when the teachings are degenerate, society is degenerate, the mind is shot, the body is shot, they become difficult vehicles to transmit the dharma. By going directly to awareness, dzogchen bypasses culture, body, and coarse mind. Alan presents the misnomered placebo effect as a miracle for modern science and medicine because they do not understand consciousness.…
B. Alan Wallace, 02 Oct 2012 Transcript available
Teaching pt1. Alan recounts 2 parables from Karma Chagme’s Naked Awareness. 1) foolish prince who likes horses but develops renunciation and 2) foolish prince who becomes a beggar due to amnesia but rediscovers his true identity. Remain in the castle of your own awareness while beholding the kingdom of your own body. Take satisfaction in awareness resting in its own place. After rumination, take satisfaction in recovering awareness and coming home. Meditation: empathetic joy preceded by…
B. Alan Wallace, 02 Oct 2012 Transcript available
Teaching pt1: Alan outlines the situation in the modern health system regarding mental disorders. There has been an explosion in brain research since the 1990s, and while knowledge of neuronal correlations has increased, drugs targeting psychiatric disorders haven’t become more effective. Although a multitude of anti-depressants have been produced for decades, a recent meta-analysis has shown that except for severe depression, most drugs work no better than placebo, albeit with worrisome sid…
B. Alan Wallace, 03 Oct 2012 Transcript available
Teaching pt1. Alan revisits the 4th immeasurable equanimity. The Pali canon emphasizes a sense of imperturbability or emotional balance. In this spirit, Alan reads a section from Dudjom Lingpa’s Sharp Vajra of Conscious Awareness Tantra. Hoping for and clinging to things regarded as good and fearing things regarded as bad will lead to misery and suffering. Whatever joys and sorrows arise, these are mere appearances which are not to be blocked. Just stop reifying—i.e., the feeling of joy o…
B. Alan Wallace, 03 Oct 2012 Transcript available
Teaching pt1: With respect to the Madhyamaka, 1) hearing means that you understand the View as presented, 2) reflection means that you relate the teachings to your own experience, and 3) meditation means investigation based on shamatha to penetrate to direct realization. Alan elaborates on verses 90-92 of Ch. 9 of the Bodhicaryavatara. Suffering arises in dependence on causes and conditions; however, neither suffering nor joy is inherently existent. They are conventionally there without inv…
B. Alan Wallace, 04 Oct 2012 Transcript available
In the Mahayana, equanimity is a sense of evenness or equality between self and other. In order to practice guru yoga where there is non-duality between your own mind and the guru’s mind, pure vision for both self and guru is needed. Meditation. Equanimity from verses 90-119 in Ch. 8 of the Bodhicaryavatara. Since everyone experiences suffering and happiness, I must protect others from suffering just as I protect myself. My suffering does not affect another, and another’s suffering does…
B. Alan Wallace, 04 Oct 2012 Transcript available
Teaching pt1: In buddhist epistemology, valid perception depends on an object, sense faculty, and continuum of consciousness. While the Shravakayana takes all three as real, Madhyamaka asserts their emptiness. Alan continues with verses 93-103 of Ch. 9 of the Bodhicaryavatara which addresses the origination of feelings. In buddhist epistemology, feelings arise from contact, so Shantideva deconstructs contact. If there’s an interval, there can be no actual contact between an object and sens…
B. Alan Wallace, 05 Oct 2012 Transcript available
Teaching pt1. Alan begins a new cycle on the 4 greats. While the 4 immeasurables don’t require a particular world view, the 4 greats are firmly rooted in the buddhist world view. “With meditative equipoise, one sees reality as it is. When on sees reality as it is, the bodhisattva develops great compassion.” The liturgy contains four lines. 1) Why couldn’t we all be free from suffering and its causes? It is helpful to consider all sentient beings as referring to all those we encounter. 2…
B. Alan Wallace, 05 Oct 2012 Transcript available
Teaching pt1: Alan continues with his commentary on the section on mindfulness of feelings in Ch. 13 of Shantideva’s Compendium of Practices. Regard feelings as feelings which stills cognitive fusion with them. Have great compassion for those who grasp onto joy. Those who do not grasp onto feelings experience true well-being. Whenever you experience pleasant feelings, generate great compassion for all sentient beings who suffer from attachment, and abandon attachment. Whenever you experie…
B. Alan Wallace, 05 Oct 2012 Transcript available
Great compassion is the principal practice of the 4 greats. Alan continues with great loving-kindness. Meditation. Great loving-kindness. Visualize the primordial buddha Samantabhadra, deep-blue in color. From now until perfect awakening, take refuge in Samantabhadra, the dharma revealed by all the buddhas, and the sangha of vidyadharas. At the crown of your head, Samantabhadra melts into light, streams down your central channel, and reforms at your heart chakra, merging with your body,…
B. Alan Wallace, 06 Oct 2012 Transcript available
Teaching pt1: Alan continues with his commentary on the section on mindfulness of feelings in Ch. 13 of Shantideva’s Compendium of Practices. When experiencing a painful feeling, develop great compassion for beings who fixate on feelings, totally identify with them, hold them close, misapprehend them, and ruminate about them. Let the feeling arouse compassion. One may also use a wisdom approach by inquiring who is the one who experiences the feeling? By gaining insight into the emptiness o…
B. Alan Wallace, 08 Oct 2012 Transcript available
Teaching pt1. Alan continues with the series on the 4 greats with great empathetic joy. Unlike empathetic joy in the Pali canon, great empathetic joy is an aspiration. There’s a similar liturgy. 1) Why couldn’t all sentient beings never be parted from happiness free of suffering? This doesn’t refer to hedonic pleasure but eudaimonia. It also refers to freedom from all three kinds of suffering. 2) May we all never be parted from happiness free of suffering. 3) I shall do it. 4) May I re…
B. Alan Wallace, 08 Oct 2012 Transcript available
Teaching pt1: Alan revisits the 3rd application of mindfulness to the mind. Mindfulness means recollection. Here, we are taking the impure mind as the object of investigation. Specifically, we are examining the reified sense of “my mind”. Alan continues with verses 102-103 of Ch. 9 of Shantideva’s Bodhicaryavatara. The mind is not located in the sense faculties, sense objects, nor in between. It is nowhere to be found. Therefore, it is non-existent. As this impure mind which keeps us i…
B. Alan Wallace, 09 Oct 2012 Transcript available
Teaching pt1. Alan continues with the series on the 4 greats with great equanimity. There’s a similar liturgy beginning with 1) why couldn’t all sentient beings abide in great equanimity free from attachment to those who are close and aversion to those who are far? There are various levels of equanimity. In settling the mind, still awareness and a lack of preference for all arisings are crucial for the mind to settle in its natural state. If you respond with anything other than equanimity,…
B. Alan Wallace, 09 Oct 2012 Transcript available
Teaching pt1: Alan continues with verses 104-105 of Ch. 9 of Shantideva’s Bodhicaryavatara. Since awareness cannot precede, co-occur, nor follow the object of awareness, awareness is not inherently real. Similarly, no phenomenon comes into (inherent) existence. Inherently existent phenomena cannot causally interact with anything. Only conventionally does awareness arise in dependence on an object. Alan talks about the entry point of the 5 paths and 10 bhumis as outlined in Asanga’s Abisa…
B. Alan Wallace, 10 Oct 2012 Transcript available
Teaching. Alan repeats the series on the 4 greats, starting with great compassion. Focusing on the cause of suffering, we have experienced during the retreat that the mind caught up in rumination is very vulnerable to suffering. Mind is beaten up by samsara. Without shamatha, the mind is dysfunctional. When the mind is able to rest in the substrate, there is no blatant suffering. The proper way to view shamatha is not as an end itself, but as an on-ramp to the path of awakening. Meditati…
B. Alan Wallace, 10 Oct 2012 Transcript available
Teaching pt1: Alan begins his commentary on the section on mindfulness of the mind in Ch. 13 of Shantideva’s Compendium of Practices. Where is the mind that becomes attached, hateful, or deluded? It has no location, basis, or form. The mind is not seen by any of the buddhas. The mind is like an illusion because it apprehends events with unreal projections. Even though one looks for the mind everywhere, it is not to be found. This means it is unobservable which means it doesn’t arise in t…
B. Alan Wallace, 11 Oct 2012 Transcript available
Teaching pt1. Alan continues the series on the 4 greats with great loving-kindness. Hedonic well-being is important, and the understanding of cause and effect in the natural world by modern science has made important contributions. In union with shamatha, knowing reality as it is through the wisdom of dependent origination and emptiness leads to durable eudaimonia. Meditation. Great loving-kindness preceded by mindfulness of the body and the mind. 1) mindfulness of the body. Seated on…
B. Alan Wallace, 11 Oct 2012 Transcript available
Teaching pt1: Alan completes his commentary on the section on mindfulness of the mind in Ch. 13 of Shantideva’s Compendium of Practices. The mind is not really seen anywhere—e.g., inside, outside, in the skandhas, in the elements, etc… From what does the mind arise? Does the mind arise from an object? If so, are they the same or other? Mind cannot see itself just as a blade cannot cut itself. Ordinary mind is never still, being conscious of one thing after another. A stable mind is st…
B. Alan Wallace, 12 Oct 2012 Transcript available
Teaching. Alan continues the series on the 4 greats with great empathetic joy. When you become lucid in a dream, happiness arises from knowing reality as it is. As long as you remain lucid, nothing in the dream can cause suffering. Therefore, the instruction is to stay lucid by not losing the recognition of the dream as a dream. Shamatha helps you sustain lucidity. Vipasyana counters our ingrained tendency to reify everything. When you break through the substrate consciousness to primord…
B. Alan Wallace, 12 Oct 2012 Transcript available
Teaching pt1: Alan gives his and the Dalai Lama’s commentary on the section on mindfulness of phenomena in verses 105-112 of Ch. 9 of Shantideva’s Bodhicaryavatara. Just as the mind does not come into existence, in the same way, we come to certainty that no phenomenon comes into existence. That which we perceive cannot be more real than our perception of it. Two objections are discussed. 1) If conventional truth doesn’t exist, then does nothing exist at all? If phenomena are just appariti…
B. Alan Wallace, 13 Oct 2012 Transcript available
Teaching pt1. Alan completes the 2nd cycle on the 4 greats with great equanimity. Literally, it refers to freedom from attachment to the near and aversion to the far. There is nothing closer than our own awareness. Thogyal—direct crossing over or leaping over—means traversing the bhumis in leaps and bounds to complete enlightenment. Meditation. Great equanimity preceded by mindfulness of the mind. 1) mindfulness of the mind. Let your mind release all thoughts about that which has alre…
B. Alan Wallace, 13 Oct 2012 Transcript available
Teaching pt1: Alan gives his commentary on the section on mindfulness of phenomena in Ch. 13 of Shantideva’s Compendium of Practices. This section challenges our view that we’re leaving the Mind Center and returning to the mundane world. Contemplating phenomena as phenomena can be understood in terms of the 3 turnings of the wheel of dharma. In the 1st turning, we closely apply mindfulness to phenomena. Because phenomena deceive, the 2nd turning instructs viewing them as empty, illusion-li…
B. Alan Wallace, 15 Oct 2012 Transcript available
Teaching: All the teachings are included in settling body, speech, and mind in their natural state. According to Asanga, sensations of the breath become increasingly subtle until prana dissolves into space. Conceptualizations diminish further and further until mind slips into non-conceptuality. Keep it simple. It’s the nature of the practice. Meditation: Mindfulness of breathing preceded by settling body, speech, and mind. 1) settling body, speech, and mind. Let your awareness illumin…
B. Alan Wallace, 15 Oct 2012 Transcript available
Teaching: Alan completes his commentary on the section on mindfulness of phenomena in Ch. 13 of Shantideva’s Compendium of Practices. Composite phenomena are impermanent and unstable, rising quickly and passing away. This points to impermanence and relative reality. Although this is just the way things are, people may react with depression to the hedonic present, anxiety to the hedonic future, and PTSD to the hedonic past. Composite phenomena are also unmoving and empty, like an optical il…
B. Alan Wallace, 16 Oct 2012 Transcript available
Meditation: Settling the mind preceded by settling body, speech, and mind. 1) settling body, speech, and mind. Let your awareness come to rest in its own place. There may be knowing of knowing. Let your unmoving awareness illuminate the space of the body and the objective/subjective experiences. Observe them like an out-of-body experience. 2) settling the mind. Let your eyes be open, gaze vacant. Direct mindfulness single-pointedly to the space of the mind and its contents. Begin with…
B. Alan Wallace, 16 Oct 2012 Transcript available
Teaching: Alan presents the conclusion from Karma Chagme’s Union of Mahamudra and Dzogchen. Emanation of Padmasambhava’s speech, Atisha addressed how to combine all the teachings of the 3 yanas into one practice. The fivefold practices are: 1) bodhicitta as motivation, 2) meditation on one’s own body as the deity, 3) meditation on one’s spiritual mentor as the deity, 4) view of non-conceptuality (insight into emptiness and rigpa), 5) dedication. Alan also introduces the 4 reliances: Rely…
B. Alan Wallace, 17 Oct 2012 Transcript available
Teaching: Awareness of awareness is also known as shamatha without a sign. Sign refers to a target, so there’s no vector of attention. During the meditation, when you do the warm-up exercise of directing awareness in the 4 directions, don’t meditate or visualize the 4 directions. Just send out your antenna, or expand the space of awareness. Meditation: Awareness of awareness. With your eyes open, evenly rest your gaze in the space before you. Simply be present in the present moment.…
B. Alan Wallace, 17 Oct 2012 Transcript available
Teaching: Alan shares the conclusion of phase 1 of the Dudjom Lingpa’s Sharp Vajra of Conscious Awareness Tantra. Phase 1 covers taking the impure mind as the path aka settling the mind. You identify the impure mind that is dissolved into substrate consciousness. How never to be separated from the experience of the practical instructions when distant from sublime spiritual friends. A sublime spiritual friend reveals the path. It is important to distinguish between path and not path. We n…
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