B. Alan Wallace, 20 Jun 2019
Since this is our last afternoon we will now move on to what is commonly referred to as non-meditation, open presence, cutting through, etc. At a first glance it seems like just doing nothing at all and there aren’t many ways of doing nothing, but if you’re doing something then you’re not doing the practice. Everything hinges on what you bring onto that “nothing”, what the practice is imbued with.
Motivation is of course very important, and bodhicitta is the only suitable motivation here. Then the gold standard when it comes to open presence is open presence in pristine awareness, so you’re not just resting in your ordinary consciousness or the substrate consciousness, let alone a wandering mind.
An imperative preparation that is needed is some degree of insight into the emptiness of inherent nature, especially of one’s own mind and at least implicitly of all phenomena.
It may not be spectacular at the beginning, but that’s how it starts.
We will be following a method drawn from the pith instructions by Yangthang Rinpoche.
After the meditation Lama Alan emphasizes that it’s not too soon to begin this practice. If we postpone it, we’ll never get good at it. Just like with shamatha, this can be broken down into smaller problems or challenges. Lama also shares several ways in which yogis approach this path, so we definitely have options. He then explains how relative bodhicitta arises effortlessly and spontaneously from ultimate bodhicitta.
We then continue with the texts:
The Four Yogas of Mahamudra
Twelve Stages of the Four Yogas of Mahamudra:
Meditation
Non-meditation: pith instructions by Yangthang Rinpoche
Meditation starts at 27:55
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