The Shamatha Trilogy - Part 1 - Mindfulness of Breathing

The Shamatha Trilogy - Part 1 - Mindfulness of Breathing Lama Alan Wallace

[0:01] Olaso. For the last several days we’ve been guided in a number of similar but not identical meditations by some of the greatest meditation masters in Buddhist history – Padmasambhava, you recall; Dudjom Rinpoche and Atisha. And again and again in these very high-elevation meditations, we’re told at some point: relax, now just relax. Now, if we’re told, now pay sharp attention or investigate or probe into this, ask this, stabilize, then we know what to do. You know, I have to do – Oh, I have to do something that I wasn’t doing. But if we’re told: now relax, what exactly are we supposed to do? Like somebody says: fall asleep right now, fall asleep – that was a cheap imitation [laughter] – what are you supposed to do, you know? What exactly are you supposed to do when you’re told: now relax?

[01:09] For these meditations, definitely in the territory of vipashyana, it’s like coming to cruising altitude and then just cruising in high altitude, like a passenger jet, like 35,000 feet, and then you just maintain that cruising altitude. And to follow the analogy a bit further, if it’s really to be a sustained vipashyana practice, sustaining a knowing, then your jet, your airliner must have four engines, four jets that keep it moving, propelling it. Relaxation, stability, and vividness, those are your shamatha engines, but then also maintaining that clear cognizance, that knowing, that discerning knowing that emerges as a result of your investigation, your inquiry, your vipashyana practice. So, in a way then, you need four jets to maintain that cruising altitude.

[02:12] Well, we can do these practices, I think, as I was leading them, or Dudjom Rinpoche and so forth were leading them. I think there was no point where we felt, I can’t do that; I have no idea what to do. We can do it. But then when he says, relax, well, if the mind is very peaceful, really, really quiet, calm, serene, spacious, then relax is, comes quite with the territory. But if you’re up there cruising at 35,000 feet, and then suddenly you hit some heavy turbulence, heavy turbulence, really like teeth-chattering turbulence of memories coming up and desires coming up and compulsive thoughts coming up and so forth in the midst of as you’re trying to cruise there, if a lot of conceptual turbulence arises, just like imagine yourself in a jet, and suddenly it’s really strong, like, phew, what’s happening here? It’s, if the, you know, the airline attendant, says everybody, as the jet is bobbing up and down, and people are getting rattled all over the place, if he just says, relax, you may not quite know how to do that [laughter]. How much turbulence can this jet withstand? When you see the wings flapping like those of a bird, you kind of wonder, is now the time to relax or maybe it’s a good time to scream, you know [laughter]. Not that that would help.

[3:34] And so, likewise, when you’re cruising along there, having followed the instructions right to the end, and then he says, relax, then, yeah, you can, unless there’s a lot of conceptual turbulence, in which case, that turbulence is going to make it very difficult to relax. And so I would like to now spend three sessions – today and then tomorrow and then Monday – guiding you through familiar practices, but I’d like to integrate them, lead them in a way that hopefully we’ll have a bit of freshness, so you don’t just feel you’ve heard all of this before. But one practice, the tricycle practice, but emphasizing on each day just one of the wheels, just one of these phases. And the phases are, in principle, very, very familiar to all of you who have heard almost any of my teachings.

[04:18] The first phase is really very much focusing on the cultivation of relaxation. That’s the first thing. It’s the last thing: now relax, when you have all four jets firing away, but it’s also the first thing, because as you very well know – I’ll repeat myself a tiny bit here – to maintain stability, you can’t do that if you’re tight, if you’re contracted, tense, and so forth. So this morning, we’ll be really focusing on relaxation. Then, tomorrow, in our opening session, then, we’ll be adding to that, augmenting that, not shifting tracks, but now it’s like a three-layered cake. Then, laying the second layer on, and that, of course, is going to be stability. And then, on Monday, when we return, then add the third layer of the cake, and that would be the vividness, all of those then arising hopefully, synergistically, so each of them is supporting the other two. So, and then with that foundation, shamatha, then of course, you’re really prepared to be able to practice vipashyana, gain insight by the power of vipashyana, and then sustain that insight, sustain it so really, it becomes assimilated. It seeps in, you draw in, you really, just that; you really absorb it by dwelling there, by resting, by continuity in a very restful way, a relaxed way, so that the longer you’re resting in that union of shamatha-vipashyana, you’re not getting more and more exhausted, but rather, you’re just cruising, you know, in a sense of ease.

[05:54] So that’s what we’re doing this morning. And you’re gonna have to bear with me. You don’t have to laugh, but if you do, it’d be very courteous. I have to tell you one more joke [laughter]. It’s one of my favorites. So you have a passenger jet; it’s flying at 35,000 feet, and they start hitting some really heavy turbulence. I mean, really, people are freaking out a little bit. And the flight attendant is no longer saying, relax. She’s strapped in. And then the turbulence is getting stronger and stronger, and the pilot’s voice comes on, and he says, “Ladies and gentlemen, I regret to inform you, but don’t worry that, in fact, we’ve lost two of our jets, they’re out. But don’t worry. We’ll still get to our destination, but it will take twice as long, but two jets; we’ll still get there. So please don’t worry, relax, but we have lost two jets. And so it makes people not that relaxed to hear that. And then a bit more time [he] comes on. He said, “Ladies and gentlemen, it’s – I’m very sorry to tell you, but we’ve lost another jet. But even with one jet, we can still stay aloft, but it can now take another – it’s gonna take still twice as much now with just one jet. But don’t worry, we’ll get there. It’ll just take longer, but we’ll get there, don’t worry. And then he comes on one last time, and he says, “Ladies and gentlemen, I regret to inform you we’ve lost our last jet,” at which point, one of the passengers says, “Oh, great, now it’s gonna take forever to get there [laughter].”

[7:38] Okay, thank you [laughing]. I wanted to get a response there – see, I can’t get it from the camera, but Bruce is laughing. Warmed the cockles of my heart. So, but that’s pretty much like what Atisha was saying, didn’t he, just about shamatha? If you don’t have the prerequisites, then you can meditate for a thousand years and not get there. Okay. And if that’s true for shamatha, then what need to be said about practicing vipashyana without the shamatha, without the three jets? What need to be said of that? Let alone, if you’re cruising there, and then you kind of space out, and you’ve lost that flow of knowing, because that’s what liberates, not relaxation, stability, and vividness. It’s the knowing of the nature of reality, knowing identitylessness, and then resting in that, fusing your shamatha with that; that’s what liberates. So there we are.

[08:28] So I think, without further ado, I’ll teach the first of three parts, and then we’ll add a second part tomorrow, a third part on Monday. I find – you know, I did my first few sessions this morning, from 2:00 to 6:00, and doing this and just finding a freshness in it, a freshness in it, as I did, went from there to vipashyana and so on. And so please find a comfortable position. And this is going to be basically lift-off, so the jet takes off from the runway. Well, we want to make sure that we’re getting lift-off, let alone being able to maintain cruising altitude at 35,000 feet. Can we really get lift-off? And you get that with relaxation, but it is relaxation without losing clarity. If you have relaxation without, but you lose clarity, you just like spacing out, you know, becoming dull and lax, then you’re just driving down the runway, but you’re not getting lift-off. So the lift-off is a deeper and deeper relaxation, and at this point, just not losing the clarity with which you began this session. So please find a comfortable position and we will continue.

[09:47] Meditation bell.

[10:06] With the great aspiration and resolve to follow this path of the Great Perfection to its culmination, optimally achieving the great transference rainbow body in this very lifetime – why should we set our sights any lower than that? – with that motivation, to achieve enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings, settle your body, speech, and mind in their natural states, as you’ve done before.

[11:36] Now, the culmination of this prelude is, in fact, the place at which we start the main practice. It runs throughout the main practice, and it is also where we come to the end. It’s the beginning, middle, and end. And that is awareness resting in its own nature – relaxed, still, and clear. And we call that this awareness of awareness is, in fact, effortless. You don’t need to do something more. You don’t need to give effort, to be aware of being aware. Just release the effort of doing anything else.

[12:53] Now, let the sovereign upon the throne throughout the course of this session, to the best of your ability, let this awareness, this flow of mental awareness be unmoving, unwavering, knowing itself, but like a lighthouse out on a rocky knoll at the edge of the ocean, casting its light out over the sea. Similarly, with your mental awareness unmoving, like the lighthouse, direct the light of your awareness now to illuminate this three-dimensional space of tactile sensations, flooded with the light of your awareness, so you’re aware of tactile sensations arising throughout this entire somatic space, but nothing more, with no visualization of the body, no conceptualization of body, no conceptualization. Simply direct this flow of nonconceptual awareness, riding upon your tactile consciousness to clearly illuminate and know the sensations arising throughout this field.

[14:53] Recall that the substrate consciousness illuminates all appearances of every kind within samsara, but it doesn’t move; it does not enter into those appearances, it doesn’t move. So approximate that substrate consciousness here and now and let it illuminate the whole range, the diversity of tactile sensations arising within this field. And then selectively focus, sifting through this range of tactile sensations to identify and sustain your focus on those sensations, those fluctuations corresponding to the in- and out-breath.

[17:26] Riding that fluctuating wave of the sensations corresponding to the in- and out-breath, with every exhalation, loosen up, relax, surrender your muscles to gravity incrementally with every outbreath. Melt whatever tension, tightness, constriction there is in your shoulders, your torso, but also the tiny muscles and networks of muscles in the face, the jaws, around the eyes, the forehead, between the eyebrows. And with every in-breath, very gently arouse your awareness, focus clearly but ever so gently, just enough to maintain the degree of clarity with which you began so that you’re not becoming bored or listless or spaced out or dull. You’re maintaining the altitude.

[19:31] With every out-breath, you’re relaxing, releasing the muscles in the body – coarse and subtle. With every out-breath, you’re also releasing the breath, holding nothing in reserve, neither impeding its flow nor forcing it out. Whatever thoughts, images may come up as you breathe out, give just enough effort, tiny bit of effort to releasing them, so they release themselves, and they fade away. And with every out-breath, you return to silence. The turbulence of conceptualization is calmed, released into space.

[21:53] So we already introduced the theme of observing movement from the place of stillness. Your awareness remains just like the lighthouse, firm and solid, unmoving on its rocky knoll, but it illuminates the waves of the surface of the ocean. So, in this practice, you’re simultaneously settling your body more and more deeply in its natural state, more and more deeply relaxed, still, and yet vigilant, and simultaneously, while attending closely to the fluctuations, to the rhythm of the respiration without interfering with it, without trying to control it or regulate it, you’re allowing the respiration to settle in its natural rhythm, thereby laying the foundation of ease, relaxation, calm.

[24:21] As you maintain that clarity breath by breath, you may become aware of increasingly subtle pockets of tension, tightness, which you can gently release with every out-breath. As you release all conceptualization, all mental imagery, the very notion of there being contours, there being limits, borders to this somatic space will evaporate. And it may become increasingly obvious that the space to which you are attending is none other than the space of awareness itself, in which these sensations, these movements are themselves configurations of that space. They’re not apart from that space. They’re not substantial, they’re immaterial, like rainbows.

[26:49] The primary focus of mindfulness in this phase is the somatic field and the fluctuations of tactile sensations associated with the respiration. This is spotlighted, highlighted. But with your faculty of introspection, you also are aware of the movements of thoughts, memories, and so on, that they do not flow and obscure your awareness of the breath. So you attend to the ground, these tactile sensations, and then, to push the metaphor, then you attend to the winds of conceptualization that will pull you away, will blow you away if you identify with them, appropriate them. But like the lighthouse, let the winds flow around you without moving you.

[28:24] So with mindfulness you attend to the sensations of the breath, with introspection you note the movements of the winds of thoughts, and with awareness itself – self-knowing, self-illuminating – you rest in stillness. Three events occurring simultaneously, a tricycle.

[29:33] Let’s continue for a few more minutes in silence. [33:48] Meditation bell.

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