Spring 2012 Shamatha Retreat

Alan welcomes all participants and gives an overview of what the retreat will entail as well as some information on Thanyapura.
After meditation Alan talks about motivations for the retreat and values of cultivating different kinds of intelligence.
> Conative Intelligence is the ability to recognize which of our desires are meaningful.
> Attentional Intelligence is choosing where to put our attention.
> Cognitive Intelligence is the clarity of mind engaging with reality as it is.
> Emotional Intelligence shows whether our emotional responses are balanced as compared to over-reactive.
The practice of Shamatha enhances these four forms of intelligence and leads to a shift in our priorities.

Note: Several sections concerning logistical issues have been removed from the recording.

The meditation begins at 02:50

Note: Due to a computer error this recording was incomplete. En lieu you will find Alan’s teaching to the same subject from the Fall 2011 retreat. Thank you for your kind understanding.

Alan leads us in the cultivation of loving kindness for ourselves. Bringing to mind our most meaningful aspirations and reflecting on how we can transform ourselves into better persons so that we can offer something meaningful to the world around us.

The meditation starts at 08:31

Focus on the tactile sensations of the breathing throughout the body, cultivating relaxation of body and mind. If we’re not fully engaged with what is happening in the present moment, rumination will fill our mind. Learn the prerequisites for Shamatha, how to get rid of OCDD and why multitasking is inefficient.

Meditation starts at 09:05

Loving-kindness is not an emotion - it is an aspiration. Nor is Loving-kindness an expectation or a goal.

Aspiration is sent out to the world and there is no point in which the door is closing on it.

Moving from the realm of actuality into the realm of potentiality.

Meditations starts at 04:42

Introduction of the second of the three qualities of Shamatha, namely developing the stability - the continuity of voluntary attention.

Alan emphasizes the importance of mastering the skill of stability.

Meditation starts at 15:54

The cultivation of loving-kindness entails the breaking down of the barriers within our own hearts and minds in order to establish peace of mind

Meditation starts at 06:18

Introduction to the third phase and most classic phase of practicing mindfulness of breathing. Focussing on the sensations at the tip of the nostrils will elevate focus of attention and enhance vividness. Instructions on methods and strategies to maximize the individual retreat.

Meditation starts at 12:56

Introduction to the practice of the cultivation of compassion. Compassion always has an element of wisdom.

Meditation starts at 06:39

The object in this meditation is the space of the mind and whatever arises in it. If one is carried away by thoughts, release the grasping and relax. It’s a practice that is close to Vipashyana it’s similar to the close application of mindfulness of mental phenomena. Alan also answered practical questions from the students. What is the correlation between emotions and bodily sensations? Does the acquired mental sign in mindfulness of breathing interfere with the visual field? How to measure the progress of the Shamtha practice?

Meditation starts at 12:00

We continue with the cultivation of compassion with a focus of suffering related to change. The root of this suffering of change focusses on the second of the three root mental afflictions.

Meditation starts at 08:23

Like a bird hovering in the wind, still but very attentive, we observe the space of the mind and whatever arises in it. Through a process of elimination we discard every sensory field until we are left with the mental domain, identifying mental events such as memories, images, ideas and thoughts. This practice of settling the mind is also called ‘Taking the Mind as the Path’. Alan also answered questions related to Bodhicitta and Samadhi.

Meditation starts at 24:10

Alan introduces the third type of suffering, in the Buddhist understanding, the deepest dimension of suffering - the persuasive suffering of conditional existence. He is further elaborating on ‘ego-based-suffering’ or ‘ego-grasping’.

If there is no hope, than there is no compassion.

Meditation starts at 11:41

In this practice, also known as ‘Taking the Impure Mind as the Path,’ we experientially distinguish between stillness and movement. Alan explains the various progressive stages according to the Sharp Vajra Tantra by Dudjom Lingpa. He also talks about how to balance compassion and wisdom, and the importance of setting aside any notion of progress during the sessions.

Meditation starts at 08:10

Introduction of the third of the four immeasurables: Empathetic Joy

Meditation starts at 07:27

Shamatha always implies a withdrawal. In shamatha without a sign we are not interested in the 5 sensory field not even in the mind, it is the ultimate retreat, just resting in the very nature of awareness. The knowing of knowing is the most undoubtable knowledge we have. This practice is a bit difficult because we’re addicted to ‘doing’. Alan also talked about the Janas and why the bliss of Samadhi is not to be feared.

Meditation starts at 15:36

Empathetic joy counteracts depression and low self-esteem, and balances the mind.

Meditation starts at 11:11

We are used to rumination, to our thoughts going on and on. The mind is unsettled because of attachment. Alan discusses the difference between desire and attachment. The meditation includes inverting and release awareness. When there is low self-esteem, identifying with your mental afflictions is the root of the problem. Recognize what behavior is wholesome and unwholesome. Santideva and the preliminaries are discussed, as well as the achievement of shamatha.

Meditation starts at 20:30

Introduction to the fourth of the four immeasurables: Equanimity - sometimes also referred to as Even-mindedness or Even-heartedness.

Alan is asking the question, if we can develop equanimity with respect to ourselves.

Mediation starts at 20:40

Text to follow

Meditations starts at 51:45

With this session we have come to the end of the cycle related to the four immeasurables. Alan points out the ‘I-it-relationship’, as proposed by the German Philosopher Martin Buber. Alan further explains, why the practice of Equanimity is also a matter of humanizing our relationship with other humans by looking for common ground.

Meditation starts at 10:58

Shamatha and the Four Immeasurables

Alan talks about the fundamental impulse of caring. The barriers of the I-it relationship. The achievement of shamatha and how this is the base for achieving bodhicitta and extending that caring. Described the final practice of shamatha as described by Padmasambhava in his text Natural Liberation. In this practice we begin by stretching the space of the mind in all directions and then getting into the flow by just sustaining a clear cognoscente of being aware. He also explained how the Four Immeasurables are the foundation for the practice of bodhicitta.

Meditation starts 28.37
Meditation ends 53.22
Question and answer starts 58.30

A vision quest guided meditation which focuses on the causes and conditions of one’s own happiness, achieving this happiness and then sharing this happiness with others.

Alan discusses setting motivation for the day and dedicating merit at the end of the day.

Alan also talks about balancing earth and wind and earth and sky.

Meditation starts 10.59.

Beginning the Second Cycle.
While keeping the emphasis on relaxation, Alan suggested balancing three groups of practice as you would with the three food groups. First, shamatha for cultivating attention, stability, clarity. Second, the wisdom group since insight acts an antidote to delusion and ignorance – studying and reading that which helps an understanding of the practice. In formal sessions and in between sessions, we practice the third group: that of cultivating the heart. In this practice, there’s a vertical dimension related to faith and devotion and a horizontal dimension focusing on our fellow sentient beings through the practices of the Four Immeasurables. He also gave an interesting talk addressing the topics of precognition, remote viewing and recall of past lives.

Meditation starts 11.42
Meditation ends 35.40
Question and answer starts 51.26

Metta Bhavana, a classic approach for breaking down the barriers.
Beginning with oneself and the extending out to loved ones, casual friends, neutral and so on.
Buddhaghosa regards the immediate catalyst for loving kindness is attending closely to the other and seeing the lovable quality.

Meditation starts 7.22

We return to mindfulness of breathing with a focus on finding continuity and stability. Alan invokes the Buddha’s teachings which begin: “While breathing in long, he knows ‘I am breathing in long.’”

As we progress we’ll begin to notice times when the mind drops into serenity, and breathing becomes shallow. With less activity in the mind and body, there is less demand for air, and the whole body becomes calm. This can be very peaceful, we can see why it’s called an ambrosial dwelling.

Alan speaks to those who may experience variability in the quality of their practice, and emphasizes the importance of developing an authentic way of evaluating one’s practice. He then gives guidelines on how best to use our time in retreat when off the meditation cushion, finding activities that are conducive to shamatha practice: being grounded, present, aware and mindful while walking, eating, discussing dharma or reading meaningful books.

Question and answer 59.40

* Questions on anatomy: posture that influences the belly, a jaw that drops, and which nostril sensations to attend to.
* While in the supine posture should one exert effort to return to the body if the mind is agitated?
* In settling the mind, when emotions relating to mental events arise in the space of the body, should these be attended to at the expense of bifurcating one’s attention?

Meditation starts 9.37 Meditation ends 34.30

Metta Bhavana allowing the mind rove as it will from person to person and aspiring for each that they find happiness and the causes of happiness.

Meditation starts 5:25
Closing remarks start 29:50

This afternoon we proceed again to awareness of the breath at the apertures of the nostrils. We review the significance of using subtle objects to develop vividness in awareness of breathing and settling the mind. Then with awareness-of-awareness, how it reveals the inherit clarity of the substrate consciousness by dispelling the five obscurations by releasing grasping.

Alan brings to question the validity of the instruction for use of the acquired sign in the final stages of shamatha, suggesting it is only an interpretation, and not what the Buddha actually taught.

Q&A:
* How to regard one’s career in the pursuit of dharma.
* Status of previous retreatants.
* How to cope with bliss when it arrises.
* Medium excitation in settling-the-mind.
* How consciousness functions as pulses through time.

Meditation starts at 27:04
Q&A starts at 52:04

As we emerge from the Mind Centre and come out to the world, you come out poised to attend to the reality of others suffering and to be aroused to act. “Be of service to alleviate suffering”, that is what the practice is all about.

Meditation starts at 06:04

Today we proceed deeper into the practice of settling the mind in its natural state. We are given the second of five benchmarks as described in the Sharp Vajra Tantra by Dudjom Lingpa : the ability to discern between the movement and stillness of awareness itself. We will attempt in this practice to be simultaneously aware of the movement or stillness of both the space of the mind and our point of awareness. We hope to accomplish this in the moment using single pointed mindfulness (the first of the four types of mindfulness, as noted in the Vajra Essence).

The meditation leverages the technique revealed in Bāhiya’s teaching ("In the seen, let there be only the seen…") to “spiral in” on the space of the mind.

Q&A:
* Deepest fear of shamatha: loosing one’s sense of self.
* Clarifying Tenzin Choegyal Rinpoche, and a tangent into splitting photons as a metaphor for bifurcating mindstreams.
* Meanings of mindfulness.
* When events from home destabilize one’s retreat.

Meditation starts at 23:02

Alan guides us in a 24-minute meditation to cultivate compassion for ourselves and others, furthering this aspiration to recognize a deeper dimension of suffering — the suffering of change. This type of suffering is brought about by attachment.

Meditation begins 17.08

We expand on the techniques for settling the mind in its natural state, and introduce a second type of mindfulness: manifest mindfulness. We learn that feelings and emotions are not intrinsic to the phenomenological sensations we experience—they are merely the _way_ we experience the sensations that rise up to meet us. Understanding this distinction, with practicing settling the mind, can help us learn to avoid reacting harmfully when we are confronted with experiences we judge negatively.

Meditation begins 28:20
Closing comments 52:58

Question and Answer 1: 01:04
There is a recording error at 1:29:54

Q&A
* Progressing along the stages of shamatha.
* Clarifying the duration of continuity of mindfulness.
* When the mind resembles a life that resembles a lucid dream.
* Are the feelings attached to sensations hardwired?

Meditation begins at 45:27

The instructions for settling the mind in its natural state are simple: sustain the flow of mindfulness of the space of the mind and whatever arises in it without labeling or grasping. Though it doesn’t entail different stages there are different elements that can be attended to, mental events, subjective impulses such as feelings, and the space of the mind itself. Tonight’s meditation emphasizes the act of differentiating between these three.

Meditation begins at 8:05

Q&A: 33:04

* Meditation and mental disorders.
* The spiritual business model.
* Finding compassion, retroactively.
* Applying the dharma to civil service.
* Derivative benefits of the three modes of shamatha practice.

Meditations starts at 00:35

Awareness of awareness, the simplest of all shamatha practices, requires only the slightest instruction and yet its object can be elusive and indescribable. This evening, we proceed directly into the mediation, then open the floor to questions about the practice.

Meditations starts at 04:50

Q&A:
* My own kind of practice: awareness of a bindu.
* Going up hill in the wrong gear.
* Anarchistic mode of relaxation.
* What awareness of awareness is not.
* Bifurcation of awareness as it drops like hot coal.
* Awareness, elusive because it’s collapsed?
* Moving from the space of the mind into awareness of awareness.
* Three ways of watching a movie, and the gradient of grasping.

Taking delight in virtue

Meditation begins 8:50

Tonight we begin with a primer on lucid dreaming with techniques from modern oneironaut Stephen LaBerge and dream yoga from the Indo-Tibetan tradition. Then we proceed deeper into the practice of awareness of awareness. Alan reiterates the importance for the six prerequisites for shamatha training and describes the process of “rolling back the carpet” of the eight consciousnesses: past the five senses and the ruminating mind, past the obscured mind (manas), greeting our sense of self or “I” (ahamkara), and finally arriving at the alayavijnana.

Meditation begins 34.26
Q&A 58:29

* Different practices, same shamatha?
* Semantics: bhavanga versus alayavijnana.
* The far side of dullness and tiredness.
* Morning and night people, and entering into practice like a helicopter.
* The bashful maiden as a metaphor for thoughts that vanish with the light of awareness.

Here we allow our favorable and unfavorable perceptions of others to arise, recognize these as fabrications, and then probe beneath them to the common ground from which to view other’s desire to be truly happy.

Meditation begins at 14:50
Closing comments at 39:25

Meditation begins at 14:09
Q&A begins at 39:45

If you bring that equal openness of heart to everyone who comes to mind and everyone who comes into the field of experience, than that will do it for all sentient beings.

Meditation starts at 05:54

Tonight’s practice of awareness of awareness gives our sense of spaciousness a workout. Just as it’s possible for one to be small-minded, where limited perception causes an imbalance in what we take to be important, an expansiveness of awareness and attention can be cultivated giving us greater depth of understanding and openness to the world. The guided meditation instructs us to extend our perception in various directions, taking no object and without visualization.

We’re instructed to keep a correct posture during meditation the same way we avoid falling out of bed while deep asleep, by assigning the task to our body intelligence.

Then a polemic on the topic of non-overlapping magisteria and how it relates to having an expansive mind and genuine well-being in times of adversity.

Q&A
* The difference between thought and realization.
* Evaluating one’s practice in the moment.

Meditation starts at 13:35

We start a new cycle in the cultivation of loving kindness for ourselves. Alan emphasizes the significance of bringing a meaningful motivation to the practice.

Meditation starts at 14:29

After the mediation starting at 39:06, Alan comments about perceptions and aspects of death.

We restart the cycle in our teachings with a return to mindfulness of breathing. This practice has a strong analog with the meditation on loving kindness for oneself from this morning: both help establish a strong, reality-based foundation that is crucial to further practice. With loving kindness for ourselves we develop the basis for extending our aspirations toward others, and with mindfulness of breathing we develop the basis of relaxation required for all forms of meditation practice.

Alan defends his occasional soapbox homilies on the intersection of science and buddhism by placing them in the context of the Noble Eightfold Path, noting that authentic view and intention require questioning values, maintaining an open sense of reality, and directing one’s motivation.

Meditation Begins 23:50

Q&A 49:50
* Tending to our time, ourselves and others during retreat.
* Continuity of imagination in the four immeasurables.
* What is tonglen?
* Advice: be kind to yourself.
* The natural propensities related to shamatha.
* Imagining a dark shadow instead of actual suffering.

When developing loving kindness for the person, we must distinguish between the person and the mental afflictions that give rise to unwholesome behavior. It may even be appropriate to passionately condemn harmful behavior, but bearing in mind this wish for their happiness.

Meditation begins 25:22

Meditation begins at 15:45
Q&A begins at 53:19

While maybe a specifically monastic theme, its implications are for everyone following this path: “Be satisfied with that what is merely adequate”.

Mediation starts at 10:38

Tonight we finish a set of mindfulness of breathing as we move our attention to focus on the sensations at the apertures of the nostrils. The practice has been explained fully in previous teachings so we proceed directly into meditation.

Q&A
* [preceding the meditation] How much of the nostrils is a valid target? 25% 50%?
* Neurological disease and shamatha.
* Does the moon disappear when it’s out of mind?
* Why are we afraid to release?
* From the research of Ian Stevenson, why don’t children remember previous lives as animals or from hell realms?
* Experimentation with practices to get traction during our retreat.
* Does the achievement of shamatha with awareness of awareness leave a wake of unaddressed mental issues that would have been resolved by practicing settling the mind?

Meditation starts at 02:59

Alan shares his definitions of ‘spiritual’ and ‘religious’, and discusses ‘Mahakaruna’ or ‘Great Compassion’. Then, we practice developing this aspiration and intention to help all sentient beings become free.

Meditation begins at 14:42

We’re at cruising attitude with settling the mind in its natural state. Tonight not many words about the practice. We’re reminded of the metaphors of floating on an air mattress in Tahiti and a falcon kiting into the wind. It is helpful to remain partially attentive to the somatic field of the body while beginning this practice.

Q&A
* Where does hostility come from?
* Mindfulness of breathing through the mouth.
* When stretching our awareness: up, right, left, down.
* Using the news media as material for practicing the four immeasurables.
* Balancing theory and practice.
* Unachievable shamatha; throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

We cultivate the aspiration and intention to help all beings become free from grasping even in the midst of inevitable aging, sickness, natural calamity, and death.
Meditation begins at 14:52

Tonight we add depth to the practice of settling the mind in its natural state with two further modes of mindfulness: #3 absence of mindfulness, and #4 naturally luminous mindfulness. Alan speaks at length about the experience of mental events compared to the other sense fields, and our reifying these experiences with cognitive fusion and conceptual overlays; taking the mind as the path is shown to be a strong analog to becoming lucid in a dream.

Meditation begins at 46:26
Q&A begins at 1:11:22

Q&A
* “Con-fusing” first-person energy with mental events.
* A down-home experience of the substrate consciousness.

We should ask the simple question: “Why are we suffering at all?” The answer is twofold:
1. We are grasping onto which is not I as being I and that which is not truly mine as being really mine.
2. We fail to recognize, who we really are.

Meditation starts at 13:24

Our lives are saturated with desire for attainments of both a mundane and spiritual nature. While giving priority to a spiritual desire will aid our enthusiasm to practice, it may ultimately be fruitless in the context of multiple rebirths if it is not sustained with visionary motivation such as with bodhicitta. It is this benign form of grasping that provides the continuity of coherence in the long thread in the path to liberation. Alan begins with these lessons of ambition.

Then with the guided meditation we bring our attention to the three knowable aspects in settling the mind in its natural state: the space of the mind, objective thoughts and memories, and subjective feelings that arise in their accompaniment.

Q&A
* Can the attainment of shamatha be hindered by excessively striving?
* The difference between dzogchen and mahamudra.
* How should one begin a vajrayana practice.

Meditation starts at 39:07

The ‘Greats’ begin with compassion - the ‘Great Compassion’ - aspiring to get everybody’s head above water, so they survive. It is followed by the ‘Great Loving Kindness’ - the very meaning of existence.

Meditation starts at 12:57

Settling the body, speech, and mind in their natural state is fundamental to shamatha practice and though it so familiarly begins each session we mustn’t relax our regard for it. So this evening we refine our skill for the technique, culminating with an awareness that is relaxed, still, and clear.

Then we discuss our habit for seeking serenity and stimulation outside of ourselves, when in fact these qualities exist nowhere other than their source in our own awareness.

Meditation Begins 13.46 - 38.10

Q&A 47.05
* How thoughts and images relate.
* Considering we may constitute an intergalactic super-organism.
* Practicing vipasyana before attaining samadhi.
* Degrees of grasping in awareness of awareness.
* Techniques of counting the breath.
* Bringing interest to boring subjects.
* Eyes as a portal to the substrate.

Over time, why couldn’t all sentient beings find the genuine happiness that stems from the cultivation of the heart and mind? May it be so. We practice arousing this aspiration of loving-kindness, “may we all experience such wellbeing”.
Meditation starts at 6:37

Relax! You’ve heard it, you’ll hear it again. We revisit the crucial technique of letting go—of tension in the body, controlling the breath, and attachment to rumination—as we sink deeply in today’s meditation to know the whole body of the breath.

Q&A
* Impermanence of each sensation of the breath.
* “Earworm” infestations during settling the mind in its natural state.
* Idiots compassion, or when imbalance occurs in the trilogy of virtue, wisdom, and the pursuit of genuine happiness.
* Accumulating karma while deluded, such as while dreaming.
Meditation starts at 14:34
Q&A starts at 39:50

For the cultivation of genuine happiness there are certain aspects of reality, the knowing of which does really liberate. Alan mentions the following ‘game-changers’:
To gain insight into impermanence, to gain experiential insight into what are the true causes of suffering and genuine happiness, to gain insight into the very absence of there being some autonomous, substantial ‘self’ - 'I' - ‘me’, to gain some realization of the absence of inherit nature of all phenomena - realization of emptiness and finally to realize prestine awareness - your own ultimate ground of being.

Meditation starts at 08:44

In mindfulness of breathing, the technique of arousing interest during inhalation and relaxing during exhalation is incredibly effective. We apply this technique tonight as we focus on the sensations at the apertures of the nostrils.

Q&A
* Thomas Merton, Chamtrul Rinpoche, and the Pratyekabuddha.
* Three countless aeons, rainbow bodies, and the king, navigator and shepherd.
* Reasons for the sequence of mindfulness of breathing, settling the mind, to awareness of awareness.
* More shrinking lamas.
* Differentiating between the substrate and substrate consciousness.
* Awaiting one’s moment of grace.

Meditation starts at 04:51

Maha-Mudita liturgy.

Why couldn’t all sentient beings never be separated from happiness and its cause’s ?
May we never be separated from genuine happiness and its causes.
I make this resolve that we shall never be separated from happiness and its causes.
May the Guru, the enlightened ones bless me that i shall be so enabled.

Meditation starts at 25:10 - 49:26

With awareness of awareness, the body and speech are settled normally while the mind is given a complete reboot: all concerns are released, attention from all phenomenon is revoked, then that which remains will dawn. We’re given the metaphors of the sailor’s raven and the dueling swordsman. Then the three types of knowledge and their relationship to the qualities of the substrate consciousness and the method of resting in non conceptuality with knowing.

Meditation starts at 21:05 - 46:05

Q&A
* When sensations at the belly are subtle.
* Why Tibetans don’t give forgiveness; how to deal with resentment.

We are invited to ask ourselves a question… How does one integrate vastly deepening bliss, on one hand, with increasingly boundless awareness of all beings’ suffering on the other hand…?

Meditation starts at 5:22

Three methods of escape when the mind is agitated: send your awareness out into the somatic field, out further into the world of exterior senses, or penetrate inward, deep into our sense of awareness. This evening we practice awareness of awareness and watch closely the tentacles of grasping, the identification with some appearance of the agent within.

Q&A
* Managing feelings of ill-will.
* How siddhis arise upon achieving shamatha.
* The degree to which karma influences psyche.
* Recommending meditation to those with PTSD.
* When we lack the talent to write the book of our life.
* Talking with dead people.

Meditation begins at 7:40
Q&A begins at 39:22

Alan elaborates on the leading question: “Why couldn’t we all be free of attachment and aversion for those who are near or far?” Because we are not free of the underlying delusion, that gives rise to craving and hostility.

Meditation starts at 07:04

Mindfulness of breathing, a active developmental practice, produces skills such as attentional stability which can be said to have a high market value. Likewise, settling the mind in its natural state helps develop such evolutionarily advantageous qualities as the skill to recognize emotional refractory periods. Awareness of awareness, conversely, in its passive method of discovery, has zero hedonic value. What is does provide, with its insight into the substrate consciousness, is a preparation that is useful in confronting death. The core of awareness of awareness is releasing all that is identified with “I” and “mine,” as one probes inward beyond the layers that are eliminated at the end of life.

Q&A
* The role of introspection in awareness of awareness.
* The value of seeking the agent.
* What is the locality of awareness?
* When body energy arises.

Meditation starts at 38:53

Might it be that when our resolve is to realize genuine happiness for the sake of all beings we may have confidence and trust that reality rises up to meet us day by day moment by moment?
Meditation starts at 31:23

Tonight we plunge right into the practice of awareness of awareness, with the variant of stretching in four directions. Then we discuss the value of familiarizing oneself with awareness, as a portal to the greater depths of wisdom and virtue.

Q&A
* Cognition fused with dullness in settling the mind in its natural state.
* Are the Buddha’s teachings that resulted in spontaneous nirvana related to taking the result as the path?
* Could there be a benefit to inducing fainting safely?
* The method of probing in awareness of awareness.
* Dredging the psyche in awareness of awareness.
* The briefest moments of experience in awareness of awareness.
* Aversion to giving attention and the need for forbearance.

We review loving-kindness’ distant enemy, false facsimile, proximate cause, and sign of success. What is your vision of your own flourishing?
Silent meditation begins at 8:55

With a new cycle we return to settling the body, speech, and mind in their natural states. In the Vajra Essence, Düdjom Lingpa intimates shamatha can be achieved simply by fully releasing the body, speech, and mind. When we remove all activity, our mind naturally gravitates into alignment, the pranas equalizing into the central channel. But in order to allow this a solid dharma practice alone is not sufficient; we must have a conducive environment, lifestyle, and community. This is especially true when going into a solitary shamatha retreat, which requires having few activities, pure ethics, a release of rumination, and importantly, having few desires and being content (to avoid living the parable of the elephant and the cat).

Q&A
* The four jhanas and the experiences to expect after attaining shamatha.
* Comparing the bliss of shamatha with that of tummo.

Meditation begins at 30:07
Q&A Begins at 1:09:01

The meditative cultivation of loving kindness as taught in the Visuddhimagga by Bhadantacariya Buddhaghosa.

Silent meditation not included

Being mindful of the sensations of the breath at the abdomen can result in a eudaemonic contentment if we release craving for more stimulating pleasures, and simply enjoy watching our body unravel energetically. In this flow, we can progress to the fourth stage of shamatha. It can help our practice to retain the same contentment when we are off the meditation cushion, while bringing ourselves replete to the world.

The substrate consciousness, a storehouse of memories and karmic seeds, does not appear brimming with these things when we can finally observe it upon achieving shamatha. Is it because these things are dormant? Or are they nonexistent from a relative perspective? In what way does the information of our mindstream persist? When we are able to rest in the pure cognizance of awareness do we know it to exist in its own right outside of any cognitive framework? Alan attends to these questions with glee.

Metta bhavana as taught by the Buddha.
Silent meditation not included

Like an old friend, mindfulness of the sensations of the breath at the apertures of the nostrils, with its gentle undulations, makes us feel at home and flush with well-being. It is a marvelous compliment to the more stirring effects of settling the mind and awareness of awareness. Little is said about the practice before we begin.

Q&A
* In a beginningless universe, shouldn’t all beings be enlightened?
* Settling the mind in its natural state and multiple lucid dreamers.
* Classic yidam practices, balancing with shamatha, and three-year retreats.
* Maintaining shamatha.
* A reality where Padmasambhava is born from a lotus.

Alan reviews the nature of mental suffering and the strategies for dealing with it in each of the three methods of Shamatha.

Silent meditation 23:17 — 48:30.

Also, a talk about the ease of retrieving Shamatha-related skills, though they may seem to deteriorate; the “best friends” of the four immeasurables; and our capacities for discursive meditations, including the “hired guns” of intelligence, imagination, creativity, and concentration.

We begin tonight by reading an excerpt by Düdjom Lingpa describing the dzogchen practice of open presence and discussing its similitude to settling the mind in its natural state. The illusions of a lucid dream are analogous to the empty appearances of mental phenomena when settling the mind which in turn is a microcosm of the immeasurably deeper open presence practice and recognizing pristine awareness in the emptiness of all phenomenon.

Silent meditation from 40:02 - 1:04:40, then Q&A.

Q&A
* The fast-track helicopter method of entering into meditation.
* Om mani padme hum and Newt Gingrich.
* Judging nonsectarian bare attention mindfulness meditation.

Silent Meditation Not Included

In settling the mind in its natural state, by observing mental events without taking interest in their contents we develop a familiarity with their essential nature. By this we receive the benefit of gaining a nonconceptual certainty that nothing in the mind can inflict harm on us, and if strong emotions arise they do not elicit a refractory period. It has also said knowing the essential nature of mental events is the basis for all samadhis.

Before the meditation Alan also gives an introduction to the technique of gentle vase breathing.

Q&A
* How to analyze the nature of mind.
* Insights in settling the mind in its natural state.
* The mind is not a polygon.
* Maintaining cognizance of awareness in settling the mind in its natural state.
* Having preferences in settling the mind in its natural state.
* Finding the origins of somatic correlates.

Silent meditation

In settling the mind in its natural state we seek to emulate viewing the substrate from the perspective of the substrate consciousness as a cognizant, luminous and unmediated experience of mental phenomenon. On this path we’ll notice thoughts and images carry our attention away less often when they do not have an emotional counterpart; feelings and emotions have a strong draw to cognitive fusion. If we keep a spaciousness in our awareness larger than the emotions and feelings that arise, entanglement can be avoided. Whether the emotion is hostility, anger, anxiety, craving or bliss and pleasure, they can be allowed to arise and experienced without grasping or reification. This practice trains us to recognize emotions in our daily interactions, and allows us the space to respond wisely.

After the meditation Alan recontextualizes his comments about dzogchen’s open presence meditation from a previous podcast, lest it be mistaken that it is only for the advanced practitioner; we learn how to begin planting the seeds of dzogchen practice even as beginners.

Silent meditation starts at 32:49 - 57:50

Q&A
* Comparing the substrate with Jung’s subconscious.
* Rumination cockroaches come out after the lights go out.

May we be a light that inspires others to draw on their own inner resources!
Silent meditation not included.

As if we’ve become disciples in the 17th century, this evening we listen to the 4th Panchen Lama Rinpoche’s teachings on awareness of awareness. Alan reads this translation to exemplify the uniformity through the ages of these acultural teachings.

Silent Meditation at 40:14

Q&A (1:06:32)
* Evaluating one’s authentic motivation.
* How rigpa relates to karma’s influence of substrate consciousness.
* How hell realms exist.
* Practices for redeeming transgressions.

While attending to sentient beings always think… It’s because of you’re kindness that i have the opportunity to achieve enlightenment.

The stillness experienced in awareness of awareness is due to the absence of grasping. In sustaining this awareness we are observing nothing other than the substrate consciousness itself, though veiled by the course mind. Compare this to the possibility of observing rigpa while practicing dzogchen’s open presence meditation. We may then know reality is not like a dream, but is a dream; nothing existing from its own side, objectively or subjectively.

Q&A
* Advice on effectively helping self absorbed complainers.
* Comparing Hinayana with Theravada and Mahayana.
* The feasibility of doing a one-year shamatha retreat.
* Practicing gratefulness.
* Which variety of awareness of awareness to practice in a personal retreat.
* Does one realize any emptiness by achieving the first jhana?

Alan elaborates the four modes of enlightened activities:
1. Pacifying color white
2. Enriching color gold
3. Power color red
4. Ferocity color blue

Silent Meditation

When performed in the method described by Panchen Lama Rinpoche of letting thoughts emerge and dissolve on their own like a raven on a ship, awareness of awareness qualifies as a practice of shamatha, vipassana, and dzogchen. The latter two require a supplementation of theory and view, but the practice is pertinent to all three and in its polyvalence can contribute to the deep shift in perspective yielded by each. Confidence of correct practice is essential, strengthened by realizations asserted by the experience of a diminishing of the five obscurations. Doing practice that produces pragmatic benefits which linger for weeks or years gives this perfect confidence.

Silent Meditation starts at 45:00

Part 2 starts at 01:09:56

No Q&A session tonight.

Alan gives the remaining two of Buddhaghosa’s fourfold analyses of the four immeasurables, those of empathetic joy and of equanimity. The analyses consist of the false facsimile, the diametric opposite, the immediate catalyst, and the sign of success of each quality.
Silent meditation not included.

We expand upon the two methods given by Panchen Lama Rinpoche of managing incoming thoughts: in the first, after flicking an arrow of thought, what remains in its place is awareness—a knowing devoid of thought. It’s as if you get your own built-in dzogchen master. Phet! In the second method, letting thoughts arise and evaporate, you begin to perceive all thoughts, your body, and awareness itself as empty and identityless. It is said, while in between sessions, one should act as an illusory being. Though we dismiss thoughts as unwanted, we must be thankful for they provide the whetstone with which we sharpen the stability and vividness of our awareness. When people and events of the outer world come and go just as thoughts, we can be grateful too for their contribution to our practice.

Silent meditation at 30:20

Q&A at 55:41
* Distinguishing between awareness of awareness and settling the mind in its natural state.
* Introspection in awareness of awareness.
* When the distracting thought is a mantra.
* Defining locality in awareness of awareness.
* Resting without thoughts and a subtle thought stream.
* Awareness (vidya) vs. consciousness (jñana, vijñana) vs. mind (citta).
* Subject and object in awareness.

Alan explains why the four immeasurables build a perfect system by each backing up one of the others.

Silent meditation

Our shamatha practice can help keep us cognitively tuned while back in the big world, even if we can only practice briefly during the day. In times when we are fatigued from stress, full-body awareness in the shavasana pose is the most healing; on brimful days when the mind is agitated, mindfulness of breathing can bring the best benefit; when we’re more relaxed and grounded, settling the mind in its natural state or awareness of awareness can be the tonic that enriches our lives.

Alan gives us ‘le grande tour’ of the paths available in dharma; how buddhahood can be attained by various combinations of realizing emptiness and rigpa, cultivating bodhicitta, samadhi, and different options and complements of the practices.

Silent meditation 45:38

Q&A 01:10:40
* Techniques to calm the pranas in preparation for meditation.
* Distinction between attachment and commitment.
* Drug use for spiritual gain.

How to help people ? What aspects of dharma speak of developing these abilities and is there a first aid guide for specific ailments ?

Enter your practice in the spirit of loving-kindness, particularly when the mind is prone to rumination. Consider the analogy of the horse saved from a burning barn, scared and frantic—never would you be hard on such a horse, it needs only gentle kindness. Only this brief but essential advice tonight, before we practice and open the floor to questions.

Q&A
* As an aid in settling the mind in its natural state, which types of mental events can be generated to find the space of the mind?
* Recommended dzogchen reading.
* When expanding awareness in the four directions, must it be returned to center?
* Nyam, flashbacks, and the placebo effect.

We are encouraged to practice the four immeasurables in a spirit of looking back on our retreat and broader past. Then we receive advice around the question, “How do we prepare for death when we have months, days, hours, seconds?” (27:19)

We proceed directly into meditation with loving kindness for ourself, then spend the remaining time with Q&A.

Q&A (at 24:51)
* Subtlety of subjectivity in lucid dreams.
* Achieving shamatha while dreaming.
* Sleep paralysis and false awakenings.
* What is deja vu?
* Relevance of learning the Tibetan language today.
* Unpacking the terms “reality-based” and “let reality rise up to meet you.”

Aspiring for genuine happiness.
Unguided meditation not included.
Q&A
What do i have to do to achieve stage 4 outside of retreat?
What does full enlightenment mean?