Outer Preliminaries for Dzogchen - Four Revolutions in Outlook

09 Apr 2020 Make the Best of This Human Birth

Lama Alan begins by reading the next lines of the text, which refer to the initial instructions for mind training of the disciples –who maintain the samayas–, when encountering the entrance to the path. This pertains training in the four outer and seven inner preliminaries.

Lama Alan talks about the four outer, four revolutions in outlook, these are questioning our preconceptions, habitual way of seeing the world we inhabit. He compares this to the Galilean revolution, Darwinian, modern cosmology, and other such shifts in human history. The first of the four revolutions directly shifts the way we regard this human life, from regarding us as a unitary individual, which in the materialistic view comes from nothing and turns into nothing at birth and death, to realizing that each of us is endowed with this inconceivably precious opportunity, as rare as a star in the daytime, to achieve awakening. So our way of engaging with the world radically changes. Wether this is true or not, can be put to the test. Do we have the potential to be forever freed from Samsara? If it turns out to be true, then what do we do with this wish-fulfilling jewel?

Then the lake born Vajra lays the first step for seeking the path: merge your mind with your Guru’s mind, rest there for a little while.

Our Lama clears out that in the sessions it is assumed that we have already done our dharma practices by ourselves in the morning, so recitations will be done just once (sometimes English sometimes Tibetan), and we will go straight into the main practice. Today’s practice is about precious human rebirth, in the particular context we face today.

Meditation starts at 19:10

We close the session with dedication prayer.

Mediation on Rare and Precious Human Rebirth

Lama Alan said he won’t be surprised if he doesn’t include any new information for you in this session. While this topic of death and impermanence may be familiar to you, it often does not change our view of reality. That is it does not sink in to our view, meditation and action. We know that all conditioned phenomena are conditioned and arise from causes and conditions such as from a plant to the billion-fold galaxies. These things we know, but it is an inconvenient truth that we don’t want to face. If we faced it, there are sacrifices that we might have to make that we don’t want to because we are comfortable in the status quo. So therefore, instead of having to fundamentally and radically changing our way of life, it is easier to say ‘yes, yes, we’ve got this, I understand impermanence.’ In terms of my own experience, I still tend to view that which is always in a state of flux, like my age, as being unchanging. While I am always constantly changing, aging and will one day die. The Buddha’s observation is just true. Our view is that that which is always in a state of flux is unchanging. This is a delusion. We think that when our finances, our health and so on are going well that they will always bring felicity and when they are not going well we think our life will always be negative toward us. We prioritise our pursuit of hedonia. We equate a good life with the acquisition of wealth, health and external things. We think everything is stable and that death is for other people. We can radically change our view.

Meditation starts at 35:50 minutes

Notes: four themes of impermanence are: 1. All that is born dies. 2. All that comes together parts. 3. All that is acquired is lost. 4. All that goes up goes down.

10 Apr 2020

Death and Impermanence

12 Apr 2020

Lama Alan introduces the third of the four revolutions in outlook/inlook/perspective/orientation, which serve to set the direction in our pursuit for happiness. This third one is actually one of the four marks of existence: “All experiences that are contaminated by mental afflictions are unsatisfying.”

Lama Alan reflects on how life seems to ‘smile’ to some, while the reality of suffering seems ‘more true’ to some others; those who go through war, poverty, hunger, i.e., blatant suffering. Then, how does the reality of Dukkha pertain to the first group? In which way is life unsatisfying? Well, even the bliss of śamatha is unsatisfying, it will erode unless the practice is deepened with insight, and that makes the experience unsatisfying. So, in the long run, adding up all the good and wonderful experiences you have gone through – asks the Buddha – are you satisfied?

To transcend this mark of existence, we need to realize that all phenomena are empty and identityless: this is the only way we can cut through the root of suffering. Moreover, in the Dzogchen path, we go a step further, we cut through the very nature of the mind which ascertains that emptyness. So, lets have a practice!

Meditation starts at 18:41

Lama Alan concludes: “The whole point of understanding the full breadth of suffering and identifying the true causes of suffering is to be free of both, as soon as possible.” After meditation Lama Alan addresses three questions:

1. What would be the best daily balance and schedule for practice? It is my fervent prayer to practice the Great Perfection to completion! (44:00)

2. After some years of diligent practice, I have found a general sense of well being; I am feeling an enormous tug to be of service outside of formal practice, but I can’t be certain I am benefiting anyone, so I feel the tug to come back to formal practice. Can you comment on this tension, for those of us who have a full-time commitment? (51:20)

3. How should we choose the precise Guru for Guru yoga between our root Guru, primary Dzogchen Lama, and other Lamas who deeply inspire us? (56:30)

Tune in for the answers

12 Apr 2020

Transforming the Reality of Suffering

13 Apr 2020

Lama Alan begins with a brief clarification of what he meant by “revolution” in the context of the “Four Revolutions in Outlook/Perspective.” Unlike some of the violent revolutions that have taken place throughout history, the revolution he has in mind aligns more with the revolutions in humanity’s perspective on reality that took place after the findings of Galileo, Darwin, and others.

Lama Alan then turns to the 4th of these revolutions, which concerns the truth of actions and their consequences (karma). Lama Alan first explains that from the Buddhist perspective, each action of body, speech, or mind plants either a good seed or a bad seed, and reaps either a good harvest or a bad harvest. In other words, virtue leads to wellbeing and good fortune and non-virtue leads to suffering and struggle. He then comments on how this view is diametrically opposed to the materialist assumption that the universe is amoral, and that morality is whatever you decide it is. He further explains the Buddhist perspective speaking to the three primary mental afflictions of ignorance-delusion, craving-attachment, and hatred-aversion, noting that all negative experiences of the mind arise from these afflictions. Moreover, it is ignorance-delusion that is the direct cause of the two secondary afflictions of craving-attachment and hatred-aversion. Therefore, he draws the conclusion that since all non-virtue arises from afflictions, and afflictions arise from the primary affliction of ignorance or delusion with respect to the nature of reality, then that which is non-virtue can actually be understood as that which arises when one is out of touch with the true nature of reality. On this basis, we can then say that morality is built into the fabric of existence and that virtue aligns with reality and non-virtue clashes with reality. He draws on the example of environmental destruction and its consequences as an example of this in the natural world.

Lama Alan then offers Shantideva’s advice that when afflictions arise, we should be like a piece of wood. That is, we should not express them, but “quarantine” ourselves until we are restored to mental balance. Crucial to this practice, however, is the ability to recognize mental afflictions as mental afflictions, which Lama Alan speaks of as one of the greatest skills we can master.

The meditation begins at 26:30 . . . and is on resting in awareness and noticing the arising of afflictive states of mind, followed by tonglen.

After the meditation, Lama Alan answers a question about exactly how the fulfillment of Dudjom Lingpa’s prophesy of one hundred disciples achieving Great Transference Rainbow Body would be of benefit to the world today. In the context of his answer, Lama Alan mentions two books that give us a peak into 19th and early 20th century Tibet, a world where high spiritual accomplishment and the displays of siddhis was far more commonplace than in our present culture: Blazing Splendor: The Memoirs of Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche and Fearless in Tibet: The Life of the Mystic Terton Sogyal.

13 Apr 2020

Awareness of Mental Afflictions and Tonglen