11 - Q&A

B. Alan Wallace, 16 Jun 2019

Note: Sorry we still had some issues with the microphones that day

Kriss

This is in regard to the stages and what came to my attention with that fourth stage, coming into the retreat I was having the impression in regard to samadhi that some fear was surrounding it for me and I thought about it but when you read about the complacency and then the next one is resistance, if there’s any relation there and how that might be able to work through or something I should know.

Henri

Today we were talking about walking through walls, so I was wondering that similarly in a lucid dream one might get stuck in a wall when you’re like, kind of thinking it’s not there and then half way through think: “Oh it’s there”. I have a little experience, not getting stuck but a couple of my dear friends have. This was the introduction. When we were talking about samadhi, manipulating the archetypal elements in the form realm and that’s kind of like manipulating how this is appearing here. So can you get stuck in a wall similarly like in a lucid dream? Or is it through samadhi that it’s not really, you’re not stumbling upon those blocks? I was thinking about this…

Dale

I got a little confused today when you were talking about the stages. The first thing is it never occurred to me that I need to sit for an hour straight. I would sit for half an hour and move around a little bit and maybe a drink of water. I might do that for two and a half hours in half hour increments. But you know I noticed that during the course of the retreat in Pomaia, I’m sure I experienced subtle excitation a lot. I mean it would go on for a long time. But when I look at the list it doesn’t really seem like, you know, in other words it seems like, ok well I’m a little bit like a 7, I’m a little bit like a 3, maybe a 4. It’s not really that clear to me, and you kind of threw me off a little bit with the sitting for at least an hour, with the subtle excitation.

Martha

I find that in meditation I’m kind of all over the place. I have a nice meditation, then I have one where I am distracted by coarse agitation, and then I have one where I don’t feel tired coming in to it and then I find that I’m momentarily dropping off to sleep and waking back up again. And so just thinking that perhaps, so I have scoliosis and I like to do it supine, but I was wondering if maybe that would be a situation where walking meditation might be of value. Do you have any pointers there? Because it seems like it would be a lot more distracting to do walking meditation if you’re walking in your neighborhood or right around a trail or something.

Marilyn

I’m relatively new to meditation as you know and I’m really drawn to the wisdom studies but I got here late like as far in my life. So I was wondering if you could kind of give a guideline as far as how to balance wisdom studies with how many hours of meditation. I’m a lay person, I’m retired so…But I seem busier now so, this is my main focus.

[Name missing]

I hope this is an appropriate question. You know you talk about meditating for seven hours. I would like to know or feel that experience, what that is like. Are there any kind of thoughts, experiences, sensations, or content going on? Anything I can relate to?

Victoria

There’s two types of distinctions that keep coming up for me. One is between the Theravada and the Dzogchen/Mahamudra experience of identitylessness or impersonality. And then the second question a distinction has to do between the Four Yogas, and Mud and Feathers and Buddhahood without Meditation.

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