The Shamatha Trilogy - Part 2 - Taking the Mind as the Path

The Shamatha Trilogy - Part 2 - Taking the Mind as the Path Lama Alan Wallace

Olaso. So I’d like to return to teaching you how to ride the tricycle of shamatha with the three points. And I just gave you an analogy. It’s a lightweight one, literally a lightweight one, of the samatha getting you lift off so that you can actually get up to cruising altitude. So when you turn to vipashyana, trekcho, stage of generation and completion, and so forth, you can maintain cruising altitude and not meet so much turbulence you just have to come down to a lower altitude. So it’s a nice, it’s a nice analogy. And it just occurred to me, just upon sitting here, that an airplane, like a jet, is basically a glorified tricycle with wings. [Laughs] Right? Front wheel, side wheel – tricycle. And that’s what this is. It’s a tricycle with wings. But let’s use that analogy. I think it’s really, kind of useful. It’s lightweight, but it’s useful. And that is, I’m sure you remember. And if you don’t, you need to remember now that in that initial introduction to the tricycle, with an emphasis on relaxation, right, that you need to know for every phase of this – today it will be second phase – and for every other meditation, for that matter, but in these phases, in each phase, you need to know what is the object of mindfulness. It’s crucial. You need to know exactly and with certainty, confidence.

[01:33] And so I won’t ask, I mean, I would ask for 300 plus people on the internet. But I won’t ask but I will remind you that in yesterday’s practice, the object of mindfulness is the tactile sensations throughout the body, and specifically those correlated with the respiration, the fluctuations. That’s what you, and so that would be again, to push the analogy of the tricycle, that’s the front wheel. That’s leading, that’s the front wheel. The two back wheels over here, they’re to support that, right. So you don’t, right, can you imagine a landing in an airplane on a unicycle, only one wheel, that would be very delicate piloting. So you need those two back wheels, right. Um, and so yesterday, the object of mindfulness, very much in tune with Asanga’s approach to mindfulness of breathing, but with that strong emphasis on relaxation, and relaxing more and more and more deeply, with every out breath.

[02:34] Then introspective, that’s the focus of mindfulness, so that you want to be as continuous as possible, with no breaks, optimally no breaks at all. But then to make sure to guard it, to use a classic verb as an analogy, to guard your mindfulness, then you need introspection. And if you, if the continuity of your mindfulness on the breath, sensations of the breath throughout the body, if it’s broken, if the discontinuity arises, it’s almost certainly because some type of conceptualization has arisen. Either you’ve heard something and then your mind is drawn away by what you heard, or it’s a memory, or fantasy, or just some spinning thought. And that’s what is going to disengage you. So your introspection, then, while you’re primarily focused on the object of mindfulness – breath, you’re monitoring as needed, as needed, as frequently as needed, but not more frequently than that, to see that you’re not falling into either extreme of excitation, which is most likely, or also just getting bored. Just getting bored, flat out, seeing one breath, you’ve seen them all, that kind of thing. And so you lose the clarity, you lose the interest, you lose the vividness, in which case, you’re kind of there but not really, you know. Like a kid in a classroom that’s just kind of staring at the ceiling, isn’t really thinking about anything else. He’s just not engaging with what’s happening in the classroom. So it’s very similar to that.

[04:06] And then the third wheel there, which is going to be constant, that is, it’s always there, but it will shift roles, of course, is that with which you began, having settled body, speech and mind in the natural state. And remembering, because it’s so important, it’s so inviting, it’s so, such a pleasant thought, that the awareness of awareness is the only one that’s effortless. To focus on, if I should focus on Elizabeth or Anita, then I have to focus and then focus and, Oh, yes, there’s Anita. That takes a little bit of effort, but awareness of awareness as you very well know by now, it comes with the territory. Right now you’re already aware of being aware with no effort whatsoever. So you know that’s your fallback. That’s your fallback, something that in fact is effortless. Now, it may not be effortless to sustain it, because we do still tend to fall into laxity and excitation and that takes some modification of the flow of your mindfulness, the flow of your attention. So there it is the first one, right? The awareness of awareness. That is the vantage point, that’s your lighthouse, that’s your basis of operation, that’s your headquarters, or your heart quarters, whatever you like.

[05:13] But that’s primary. And that’s like space itself. Always remembering that awareness is not located in some little nucleus up in your head. It’s not enclosed, it’s not finite, has no shape, has no location, has no size. And so to correlate that with space is a very good correlation, right. And so that’s like space. And then I gave the analogy yesterday, I think they’re useful, that’s why I’m repeating a little bit. And that is when you’re introspectively monitoring the flow of thoughts, images, memories, these are really like winds, they just carry you away, you know, whether it’s a gust or whether it’s a tornado. But that’s kind of like space is the most encompassing, and then there’s the winds, the winds of conceptualization, and so forth, and you want to stand firm like the lighthouse. So the winds flow by but they don’t catch you up and carry you away. [06:08] But then the ground in that first phase – it’s all a review and then we’ll get right to the next phase today. The ground, of course, there, the Earth, the ground, where you’re descending to, grounding your awareness in tactile sensations that are constantly changing. So in a way, it’s not static, in every way, it’s not static. It’s the sensations of the breath, but in the body, in what we call the body. But then so you’re grounding your awareness in these tactile sensations, right. Ground your awareness in the fluctuations, the ongoing shifts, the flux of the energies corresponding with the breath. But the wonderful irony here, or the circularity is that all these sensations of the breath, including the fluctuations of prana corresponding to respiration, all of these are simply formations of, crystallizations of space of awareness. So you’re grounded in space.

[07:07] But it feels grounded. If you feel right now the sensations of your thighs, your feet, and so forth on your cushion, it really feels grounded, doesn’t it? Like, okay, here’s where I sit, here’s my place, it feels grounded. And we think about it, that’s exactly what it is. I’ve got a chunky body here, I’m sitting on the chunkier chair, and so I don’t fall through it. But then when you look at it non-conceptually, then the contours of the body fade right out and the solidity of the tactile sensations of the earth element also become very ephemeral. The sensations themselves are not solid. They’re not material, they’re made of atoms. So that’s kind of a recap of yesterday. And then I’ll give a brief prelude and then we’ll go right into this session. So now, with that initial emphasis on relaxation, you know what’s coming next is the emphasis on, in terms of the balancing act, so all of this was remembering, really remembering, until you’ve achieved shamatha, then you can say, Okay, I used it, there’s the boat, I’m leaving the boat, and then you can continue on into vipashyana. Relaxation without losing clarity.

[08:13] And that’s where the challenge is, especially when you consider, you know, where many of you will be in a month. Not here. A month or a couple of days, and so anticipating where you will be, and recalling, and also in anticipation, and looking ahead too, times at the end of the day, when you’re going to be really tired. Maybe you don’t even have to think elsewhere. Time you’re really exhausted. Just it’s been a tough day, it’s been a full day, a long shift, whatever it may be. And you’re coming home, the day’s work is over. And, of course, like any other time of the day, you have choices. You have choices. And so, the choice is, some people, I don’t think it’s you, but some people will say, Boy, do I need a glass of wine, or Boy, do I need a beer, or Boy, do I need something, Boy, do I need some television. I need anything to get my mind off my body, which just feels like so tired, tight, fatigued. So there are all kinds of ways we can kill time at the end of the day, when we’re no longer on duty.

[09:23] But there is that choice. When you feel, Oh, I’m way too tired to meditate. Good. Don’t meditate, just go lie down and breathe. Don’t have the thought meditate. Oh I can’t meditate, I’m way too tired. My mind is way too agitated, way stressed out. Oh, good, good. Then don’t meditate. By all means. I’ll guide you to the non-meditation cushion. The top of your bed, it’s really good. Not as firm as a yoga mat and not so soft that you feel like you’re gonna sink down into it. Good for a mattress. And then, I’m not going to meditate. I’m not going to meditate. I am not meditating. Oh, I’m not meditating. Oh, doesn’t it feel good, I’m not meditating, I don’t like meditations to do. [Laughs] And I’m no good at it anyway. And I’m not progressing, so, Oh, basta with meditation. I’m just going to, oh, boy, oh, boy, thank you, thank you. Oh. Anticipate. You may have days like that, where that would be so much better for your body, your mind, your nervous system than anything else. Anything else. And right there, you’re laying that foundation for achieving enlightenment, not watching television, having a glass of wine or just reading something, some junk, junk material to read or just having conversation, and wawawawa [AW snores], you know. [Laughs]

[10:51] And been there, done that, I really don’t care for it. And so, then we move on today. That’s relaxation, stillness, stability, we’re going to move from the ground. So we’re taking off here, we’re taking off. So there we are on our tricycle with wings. And we’re taking off from the ground, in touch with the ground until we’re not. And now what holds us aloft, of course, is the wind, the air, the wind passing under the wings, right. And so it’s the wind now giving us elevation. Uh, I’m going to, I could push that analogy further, I don’t think it’s really useful. But now as we are turning the focus of mindfulness, it was here and now we’re redirecting it. Having established a real foundation of relaxation, without losing clarity, now we redirect mindfulness away from tactile sensations, away from the body, away from all of the five sensory fields. To the best of our ability, just turn it away, turn it into the sixth field, you know what I’m gonna say now, turn it to the sixth domain. So now the object of your mindfulness is the space of the mind, the sixth domain, and whatever movements, activities, images coming and going, thoughts, emotions, desires, images, whatever, the winds of the mind, the movements of the mind.

[12:18] And the challenge here is to maintain the stillness, the stability, in the midst of emotions coming up and desires and thoughts and memories and anxieties, hopes and fears, and to maintain that stability, again, like the lighthouse. And so that’s where the stability comes in. It’s not too difficult. A very quiet night here, for example, in Crestone, a very quiet night when you go outside. And there’s just the stars in the vastness of the landscape, and it’s all quiet. It’s really not that difficult to just sit outside for a little while. Silence meets silence, stillness meets stillness, not too hard, is it? And then there’s New York City at 6 p.m., on a weekday. A little bit more difficult.

[13:13] Because around you is just all the movement, all the hopes and fears, everybody going someplace because they don’t want to be where they are, they want to be someplace they are not. And they really would like everybody just to move aside, so they could be where they want to be. And everybody looking to the past and looking to the future. And so much busyness, so much noise, so much movement. And to maintain stillness in that kind of environment, on the subway, heading home after a long day’s work, and maintaining that stillness, as if you were still in Crestone at twilight, that would be a skill to cultivate. So everybody else in New York City, and you’re just in the stillness. And there’s movements around you, but you’re not moved by them. There are movements in the mind, but you’re not moved by them. You’re standing fast, that stillness. That’s the stillness that has real sustainability. If you can only be still when it’s really quiet, and everybody’s nice and there’s no problems, and no emotional disturbance, that’s fair weather shamatha, good and then it’s not good, and so forth.

[14:19] So the shift then, and we’re about to begin, is the shift, we again, we’re going to take off in the same way. We have to take off from the ground with relaxation, and then we’ll move to stillness where we do the emphasis in stillness and stability. And then while still maintaining the stillness of the lighthouse, stillness of awareness, focusing now that light primarily on the space of the mind and the movements, all the movements, very subtle movements, subjectively appearances, objectively appearances, subjectively impulses, and maintaining that stillness. That’s a challenge, but a challenge worth every bit of time it may ever take to master it. It’s invaluable, nobody can afford it. But it can be done. But now I want to broaden your memory of introspection.

[15:16] Introspection in the West means specting intro, looking probably at your mind, which is fine, it’s Descartes notion. But the Buddha’s notion of introspection is a little bit different. You can see this and I think it’s the last verse of the fifth chapter of Shantideva. And that is introspection is not simply much as, I’m gonna sneeze, maybe, no. [AW laughs] She was looking at me, she scared it away. Introspection is not only monitoring the mind, it’s enormously important that, but it’s also monitoring the body. So if you’re focusing on a Buddha image, in your shamatha practice, fine, it’s a great object. But intermittently, if you’re able to establish the seven points of Vairocana when you begin, well, when we get 10,15 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour, or two hours into it, you might want to check whether you’re still maintaining all seven points, or maybe you’ve lost six of them. You know, you’ve slumped, you’ve crumpled, you know, whatever, whatever.

[16:12] And when you’re really focused on something else, the quality of your posture can deteriorate point by point. And I’ve seen people do this, they started out like this, when I’m leading retreats, and then, and these are only 24-minute sessions. [Alarm rings. AW - I’ll set that.] So he started like this, looking really good. And then 15 minutes in the session this is what I see. And not sleeping, but just, that’s not really not a good posture, it’s not good for your neck, not good for meditation. So whether I should, this person may have very deep samadhi, a very specific person comes to mind, I don’t know. But what I do know is that person was not practicing introspection with respect to the body, because you’ll never, show me the Buddha image, Buddha Shakyamuni, Vajrasattva, you know. [AW laughs] There’s nowhere to be found, let alone your body tilting this way, or leaning forwards and so forth, and so on. So, monitoring the body is also very much part of introspection in the practice of shamatha. And then more broadly speaking, as we see in the Satipatthana Sutta.

[17:17] Then the Buddha is emphasizing mindfulness and introspection, and the introspection to be carried on at all times. So then you’re introspecting on your speech, I practice mindfulness towards your speech, but introspection, which is always reflexive, when I’m speaking it are my words, appropriate, I mean, speaking too quickly, too slowly, harsh, gentle, constructive, not constructive, helpful, or dismissive? And so monitoring with ethical intelligence, the speech is also introspection. And then as we use our bodies, use our hands and so forth. Is this appropriate use of the body? If we touch another person? Is it welcome? Is it appropriate? If not, then cut it. And so that’s introspection with respect to body, speech and mind of your own.

[18:05] And now get right back to the method for today, your primary object of mindfulness, that which you sustain with the utmost continuity is on that, but part of your introspection, since actually you’re focusing on the mind. And when laxity comes up, you’re observing laxity, when excitation comes up, you’re observing excitation, because that’s there, a movement in the field of mind, right? So you don’t need something else to monitor that. But what you do need and that gets very tricky, subtle, is your objects, space of mind and contents, right? But what about your mindfulness of that space? The mindfulness of that space, not what you’re looking at, but that with which you are looking, has the mindfulness with which you’re observing the space of the mind, has that slipped into excitation? Has that slipped into laxity? Optimally, you’d be resting in awareness, and you’d just feel laxity and excitation coming up, right. But not optimally, they slip in the back door and laxity catches you. And then your mindfulness itself is infused with laxity.

[19:15] So then for you need it, what’s it called an outside? In academia, what do they call it an outside? Evaluator or something, they have a special word for it. You’re doing your dissertation, defending your dissertation, and you’re going to have an outside, somebody who is not in your faculty coming in, an outside evaluator, this special term? [Yangchen – external] External, what is it? Just like, evaluator or something like that. [Yangchen – supervisor] Okay, external supervisor. That’s good. That’s very good. So introspection is the external supervisor, while mindfulness is doing its best to observe everything that’s happening in the mind. Sometimes the mold gets in from the back and the external supervisor comes in and says, Oh, laxity has come. Excitation. And then you apply will and you correct it. So it’s quite an interesting complex, isn’t it? It’s a system there.

[20:03] But now in this practice we’re about to begin any moment now, focus on mindfulness of the space of the mind and its movements. But also, we’re not letting go of phase one; we’re not saying I’ve outgrown that, because with your faculty of introspection, then you also, in the back, you’re still sensing the sensations in the body, and very possibly relaxing more and more deeply. In the back, just noting peripherally, the ebb and flow of the breathing. So you’re deepening that even while the main event is now the space of the mind. Right. Introspection is going two ways, two pronged. Introspection is monitoring the flow of mindfulness and introspection is also, as it should in shamatha, also monitoring the body. And in this case, we’re kept maintaining the continuum or the current from phase one. Okay. So that’s what we’ll do now. If I gave it a big prelude, that means I should be able to use fewer words when you go to it. Let’s find a comfortable position.

[21:09] Meditation bell rings.

[21:56] Settle your body, speech and mind in their natural states.

[23:04] And once your awareness has settled, holding its own ground, then replicating the practice from yesterday, very briefly, let’s count just ten breaths, one count at the end of each inhalation, and between counts maintain the continuity of mindfulness of the fluctuations of prana throughout the body associated with respiration. Count one to ten without losing count.

[25:12] Then let your eyes be gently open, your gaze resting passively without an object in the space in front of you, and your mental awareness likewise placed in front of you, but without focusing on any object in the sensory field, grounding you in the present moment. And then while maintaining the stillness of your mental awareness resting right where it is, direct the light of this awareness to the space of the mind and whatever events, appearances, subjective impulses arise within that space.

[26:41] While attending to this space and whatever remote movements occur within it, already without exerting any effort, there is already awareness of awareness. So, that’s given but make it explicit, so you’re simultaneously aware of the stillness of your awareness, the stillness of the space of the mind and of the movements within that space.

[28:01] See if you can let the flow of your mindfulness be so continuous, so uninterrupted that not a single thought passes through unnoticed, that everything is illuminated within the space of the mind, but without your awareness merging with that space, or any of the contents or events that take place within it. Again the familiar analogy of the cow herder watching over his herd, grazing out over an empty plane but without engaging with them, viewing them from a distance.

[31:05] Intermittently apply your introspection to the sensations throughout the somatic field, see the tension is not building but rather being alleviated breath by breath, see that your breath continues to flow unimpededly and effortlessly, that your concentration does not constrain the flow of the respiration.

[33:06] And while you do your best to maintain continuity of mindfulness on the space of the mind and the movements there in, intermittently monitor the flow of mindfulness itself to see that the sharp edge of clarity, vividness, has not become dull and that you’re not maintaining a backroom conversation, chitchat, in the mind but it’s quiet in there. And when thoughts arise, they are vividly illuminated rather than being thought of by you.

[35:45] And to remind you of the very simple, straightforward antidotes or methods of balance, when you retrospectively note that your attention has been carried away, you’re no longer engaging with the space of the mind and its movements, as soon as you know that the mind is wandering, let your first response be to relax, loosen up, and your awareness will naturally gravitate right back to the meditative object.

[36:43] Likewise, retrospectively when you know that laxity or dullness have set in, let your initial response, a sufficient response be to freshen up, take a fresh interest, focus on this ever-changing field of experience we’re in, from moment to moment. You never know what’s coming up next but what you do know is it’s constantly in a state of flux.

[38:13] You can help stabilize that flow of mindfulness by accentuating, highlighting, your awareness of awareness itself, this unwavering stillness of awareness in the midst of the movements of the mind.

[45:09] Meditation bell rings three times.

Discussion

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