THE SCIENCE OF MIND, 13 Nov 2021, Online Retreat
Day One, Session Two Q&A To maintain the privacy of the attendees some of the questions may not be heard, but in the video version of the Q&A the questions are shown on the screen. We apologize for this inconvenience.
Fall 2015 Stage of Generation, 30 Jul 2015, Araluen Retreat Center, Queensland, Australia
Welcome to podcast listeners joining the eight-week retreat. Alan explains the lineage of these teachings and the text, A Spacious Path to Freedom by Karma Chagme, which all retreaters are encouraged to obtain and consult. The function of any preliminary practice is to purify the mind and gather merit, and the fluctuations of the breath can be used to begin a progression of practices for training awareness to remain still in the middle of any activity. Meditation starts at 46:00 ___ Course notes, other episodes and resources for this retreat are available here The text for this retreat can be purchased via the SBI Store. Finally, Please contribute to help us afford the audio equipment we rent to make these, and future podcasts freely available.
Shamatha, Vipashyana, Mahamudra, and Dzogchen, 07 Apr 2016, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Italy
Alan starts explaining that balance is a crucial theme in shamatha training where we cultivate relaxation without losing clarity, stability of attention without losing relaxation and vividness without losing stability. The balance of these three qualities can be applied to every activity in daily life, however there is no guarantee that it is meaningful. During the development of shamatha the faculties of mindfulness and introspection, which we already have, are refined through training and turned into powers. Alan then turns to the more general theme of Buddha Dharma. Within the 37 aspects of enlightenment, there are five faculties, which can be turned into five powers through training and refinement. These five faculties are faith, intelligence, enthusiasm, samadhi and mindfulness. Alan groups them into pairs of balance. Faith can be balanced with intelligence, enthusiasm can be balanced with samadhi and mindfulness will balance out all the other four. Enthusiasm, in Sanskrit Vīrya, is not just effort or diligence but rather carries the meaning of taking delight in virtue. Alan illustrates the meaning of diligence with the examples of filling out a tax form or beating a donkey to go uphill. Enthusiasm in contrast, is likened to water flowing downhill. He then explains that Vīrya is balanced with samadhi, meaning a focused, composed, not fragmented quality of one’s attention. Alan defines the fifth faculty, mindfulness, as bearing something in mind without forgetfulness and without distraction. Mindfulness enables us to balance the other four. Alan then turns to the faculty of Faith, and explains how it is of three types: appreciation, aspiration and belief. Faith has to be in balance with intelligence. If there is too much faith and too little intelligence one can wind up being dogmatic, stupid, rigid and close-minded. And if there is too much intelligence and too little faith, one can be very smart and clever, but will not achieve anything. Alan continues explaining how enthusiasm is balanced with samadhi. Instead of just meditating for 11 hours a day he prefers to balance this with theory. By reflecting on the teachings, joy, inspiration and eagerness to devote oneself to practice is increased. He emphasizes that practice brings life to the theory and the theory brings meaning to the practice. However, enthusiasm and samadhi should not be mixed. While in-between sessions we should arouse enthusiasm, during the meditation we should just focus on samadhi. Alan then says that these five faculties can be turned into powers through training and refinement. This fivefold grid is also very useful if applied to other fields like business, mental health, education, athletics etc. Alan then introduces the “Shower of Blessings practice” as the meditation for today. The text will be available on the podcast website, in the section “Supplementary Resources”. The meditation is the oral transmission of the “Shower of Blessings” practice. After the meditation Alan says that he sometimes gets impatient with the request of teaching secular Dharma without any references to Buddhism. On the other hand, the Dalai Lama has now written two books on secular ethics and supports the secular approach with the motivation of helping all people, which Alan admires a lot. Meditation starts at 29:00 ___ Please contribute to make these, and future podcasts freely available.
2023 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 4, 10 Apr 2023, Crestone, Colorado and Online
Please see the additional notes on the media site - "April 10 Notes on Gyatrul Rinpoche’s Passing" In a spirit of reverence, devotion, and gratitude towards Venerable Gyatrul Rinpoche, whose parinirvana occurred on April 8th, Lama la describes this as a time of transition, in which Gyatrul Rinpoche is no longer burdened by a 98-year-old body, and a mind arising dependent on that body, but as a time when his child clear light has merged with the mother clear light of death, while, through a thin thread, it is still connected with the body which is neither alive nor dead. This state is called tukdam. Lama describes how this abiding of Gyatrul Rinpoche in the all-pervasive Dharmakaya brings him closer to all of us in the sense that Gyatrul Rinpoche's pristine awareness is not separate or different from our own pristine awareness. Lama la looks back into the past of Gyatrul Rinpoche as far as his incarnation as Karma Chagmé, a great master of Dzogchen and Mahamudra in the 17th century. He then recommends highly the book „Stories of the Early Life of Gyatrul Rinpoche“, which was put together by close students of, and, as Lama says, speaks with the voice of Gyatrul Rinpoche. These stories are an extraordinary account of Gyatrul Rinpoche’s many siddhis. Lama la goes on to describe Gyatrul Rinpoche’s life, from the hardships of the escape from Tibet and the early years as a refugee in India, where Gyatrul Rinpoche studied all Buddhist Tibetan traditions and served as an emissary for the Karmapa and all of the Tibetan community with His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama. How he later, only reluctantly, and only after an intimate conversation with His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, immigrated to the West, first to Canada, and then to the United States, where he founded various Dharma centers, to which he invited other great masters to come, to teach, and to turn the wheel of Dharma. In all of his extraordinary deeds and qualities, Gyatrul Rinpoche was, just like His Holiness the Dalai Lama, an embodiment of utter humility. Lama Alan reminds us that Gyatrul Rinpoche’s speech is still with us in the form of audio recordings and books, and we can always approach him in this way. When one realizes that, through following the Guru’s teachings and practicing them perseveringly, enlightenment becomes an actual possibility for oneself, one’s gratitude and reverence become boundless. Lama Alan encourages us to honor and connect with Gyatrul Rinpoche in the present through Guru Yoga in the non-dual approach of Dzogchen, according to the instruction „Don’t look for the Buddha outside of yourself!“. But first one has to empty oneself out of all self-importance and to so make room for the Guru. The familiar practice of settling one’s body, speech and mind in their natural states here becomes the basis for Guru Yoga, as it is a process of emptying ourselves out from our self-centeredness in body, speech and mind. This empty space then allows the Guru to emerge within ourselves. Finally, Lama Alan looks to the future: Now, in a time when most of the great Mahasiddhas of the past have passed away, who will carry on the sacred lineage of the Buddha? Will another generation of Mahasiddhas and Bodhisattvas rise, who can pass on the blazing torch of realization? Lama la concludes that it is up to us to repay the kindness of our Gurus and teachers in this, the best possible way. Yangchen Ösel introduces us shortly to the Düdjom Tersar Ngöndro „Chariot of Liberation“, an earth terma revealed by Dudjom Lingpa himself, which he described to be a direct preliminary to the Vajra Essence. We have been led through this practice in detail during the 2020 8-week retreat by her. Now Yangchen la encourages us to practice it together in the spirit that the Guru addressed in this text is the one who has realized Dharmakaya, and who is dwelling there, an embodiment of this lineage, reaching from our own root Guru to Padmasambhava to Samantabhadra. She then guides us through the whole practice in form of a meditation which starts at 40:00.
2023 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 4, 11 May 2023, Crestone, Colorado and Online
Prior to returning to the text the session commences with Lama citing a correction of a missed word, ‘candor’, from the list “The best of disciples are those in whom the following qualities are present all together:” (page 219); we now have the full transmission of the list. At 04.08 we return to the text (page 256) where Vajra of Pristine Awareness asks, “If they are not liberated, they must proceed into the transitional phases, so Teacher, please explain precisely the crucial points of practice in those states!” Lama clarifies that the six stages, with specific stages for each one, are such that one can use each of these as the basis for achieving awakening. Lama-la exhorts us to pay very close attention to the next two paragraphs of the text as they are core. He indicates one must transcend ordinary dualistic thinking to ascertain the ‘koan’ from a deeper space of awareness. The retranslation reads: “This very consciousness, being free throughout the three times, never went to enlightenment; and not being free—while not wandering in samsāra—it remains in an ethically neutral state throughout the transitional phases, and this is the defining characteristic of a sentient being.” Lama-la suggests we memorise this one sentence, noting its invaluable powerful teaching. He then unpacks and gives extended instruction of the wording “free throughout the three times”. At 00.23.50 we take a pause from the text to hear the Theravadin view regarding the bardo which refutes the teachings of the Buddha. Lama then quotes from the Pāli Cannon, he cites Peter Harvey (Selfless Mind), and discusses the Abhidharma and Cittamātra, then refers to the Prāsaṅgika Madhyamaka in this regard. Lama states ‘the basis of designation and that which is designated upon it are always different, never the same; the substrate consciousness is the basis of designation of an individual but it’s not a person, it’s just a consciousness.’ Lama-la refers to the Prāsaṅgika Madhyamaka, “The sentient being in the transitional phase of becoming is called a gandharva….”. Lama gives evidence of proto Madhyamaka in the Pali Canon, citing the Pheṇasutta, stating Madhyamaka is the bridge between the Pali Canon and Dzogchen. From the Kaccāyanagotta-sutta Lama draws attention to the ontological view just as we are practicing with vipaśyanā. Finally, Nikola Tesla is quoted. The conclusion being the only way to apprehend nonphysical phenomena is with mental consciousness/mental perception, not with technology. The mediation starts at 01.07.36. After the meditation Lama shares how seriously the yogis in retreat are practicing. He encourages us to get familiar with our substrate consciousness, the essential nature of our own mind, by resting in nonconceptual awareness thereby getting to know our own being that will not die. In that way we can then be set up to die lucidly. Lama-la explains that, at the time of death, one can have legitimate insight into Rigpa without having fully achieved shamatha or vipashyanā however the stronger the shamatha and vipashyana the more sustainable the identification of pristine awareness will be. In conclusion he advises uncertainty shouldn’t be the foundation for our practice, rather, with a clear sense of having a dysfunctional mind where there is no contentment and knowing that life is passing by, we take advantage of these extraordinary teachings. The aural transmission starts at 00.04.08 and covers pages 219, 256.
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 25 May 2020, Online-only
Lama Alan comments we have received a lot of material during these two months, this is a great deal of material to assimilate, but we have the next 10 months to assimilate and practice all this. He comments on the importance of having spiritual friends and maintaining the Sangha that has been created. Returning to the text on the question: “O Teacher, Bhagavān, if someone ascertains emptiness in terms of such nonexistence, doesn’t that person have to ascertain that experiences of joy and sorrow and of moving from one place to another within the realms of the phenomenal world do not exist either? Lama Alan expounds on the different points of the answer given by the Bhagavan. Phenomena in the dream are no more inherently existent from their own side than appearances, objects and people on the waking state. Clinging to reality, we deceive ourselves. He makes a parallel with Einstein’s relativity theory; space and time do not exist by their own side. Reifying all phenomena is the root of all mental afflictions, the root of all accumulation of karma, and the root of all suffering and it is because you are getting the nature of reality wrong. This will not be easy, but this is what needs to be fathomed to comprehend the middle way, this is what needs to be done. Lama Alan comments on the next section of the text: The Point of Realizing the Emptiness of Phenomena Meditation starts at 1:05:45. Dedication Vision Quest
Fall 2014 Shamatha, Vipashyana, Dream Yoga, 27 Aug 2014, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
We conclude the teachings on the transitional phase of living from the Vajra Essence with a meditation found in the text and a commentary on it. We practice the meditation as an exercise of prospective memory so that after death, in the bardo of becoming, we will recall our backup plan for becoming lucid and attaining enlightenment. The crossing over practices of Dzogchen are done without visualization, but according to masters who have achieved this stage, primordial consciousness spontaneously appears as the absolute space of the great bliss of Akanistha with five of its aspects manifesting as the five Buddhas. A primary tenet of Dzogchen is to not look for the Buddha outside yourself. Only when you cut through delusive appearances do you recognize who you are. Meditation starts at 09:28
Fall 2012 Shamatha and the Four Applications of Mindfulness, 05 Oct 2012, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Teaching pt1: Alan continues with his commentary on the section on mindfulness of feelings in Ch. 13 of Shantideva’s Compendium of Practices. Regard feelings as feelings which stills cognitive fusion with them. Have great compassion for those who grasp onto joy. Those who do not grasp onto feelings experience true well-being. Whenever you experience pleasant feelings, generate great compassion for all sentient beings who suffer from attachment, and abandon attachment. Whenever you experience painful feelings, generate great compassion for all sentient beings who suffer from hatred, and abandon hatred. Whenever you experience neutral feelings, generate great compassion for all sentient beings who suffer from delusion, and abandon delusion. Experience no attachment to pleasant feelings, no aversion to painful feelings, and no ignorance with regards to neutral feelings. Recognize pleasant feelings as impermanent, painful feelings as unsatisfying, and neutral feelings as peaceful and identityless.
Meditation: mindfulness of feelings as above combined with great compassion. Apply mindfulness to the field of the body and the mind. Observe how sensations in the body and thoughts/images in the mind act as cooperative conditions for feelings. Let awareness be still as you recognize feelings as feelings. When encountering a pleasant feeling, recognize impermeance, unpleasant feeling as unsatisfying, neutral feeling as having no owner and no inherent existence. Weaving together great compassion... Whenever you encounter a pleasant/painful/neutral feeling, arouse great compassion for all those suffering from attachment/hatred/delusion. Repeat the liturgy and visualizations from this morning for each type of feeling.
Teaching pt2: Simply being present with won’t change conventional reality. Conventional reality needs to be challenged with direct realization of emptiness. Only then, can withdrawing or changing conceptual designation alter your reality.
Q1. I have chronic tinitus, and the severity of the whistling is normally correlated to my stress level. Here in retreat, I’m feeling very relaxed, but the whistling is quite loud. Is this being produced by shifts in prana?
Q2. How does the body exist? The bundle of space-energy-matter appears to the substrate consciousness as my body, but without the substrate consciousness, that bundle of space-energy-matter is still there.
Meditation starts at: 30:56
2023 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 4, 03 May 2023, Crestone, Colorado and Online
Lama la began today’s teaching by reviewing “inference by way of belief” and how this assumes you’ve done your research through authoritative sources. He explains the Buddhist sequence of ways of knowing: inference by belief, cogent logical inference, perceptual knowledge by the way of the 6 senses and finally, direct “yogic” perception. Then Lama la reviews the very important third method and auspicious circumstance, “Regard your companions as vīras and ḍākinīs,” that must be assembled. He spoke about how important this is and how Lojong can help us achieve this and work with our minds to not disdain anyone. Even those causing mischief, evil or greedy behavior in the public arena today, we can recognize that the person’s mind is mentally afflicted and didn’t choose to have them and is dominated by them. Lama la shared some verses from The Metta Sutta and from the Eight Verses of Mind Training to help us internalize the teachings and by prioritizing eudaemonia over hedonia and how we can earn virtue by kindness, empathy, patience etc toward those with mental affliction. Lama la started with the text at 36:15 on page 216 finishing up the three remaining methods and auspicious circumstances. He reminded us there is no word for forgiveness in Tibetan and explained why and related this to understanding that mental afflictions are the root of afflicted behavior and compassion is the best response. Lama la clarified that the phrase, “all the affairs of this life” refers to the eight mundane concerns. And the text then talks about the “advice” we get from many people that will lead to endless suffering.“ The meditation which starts at minute 58:00 is on Padmasambhava final part on awareness of awareness as taught in Natural Liberation. After the meditation Lama la gave the oral transmission of his comments on a paragraph of Gyatrul Rinpoche’s commentary from “Natural Liberation".
2023 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 4, 17 May 2023, Crestone, Colorado and Online
A synopsis will be added soon
2023 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 4, 26 May 2023, Crestone, Colorado and Online
Lama-la starts the session with a short prayer to Guru Rinpoche that he composed in Tibetan, which Yangchen-la translates for us in English. There are a number of very good questions asked today: 1. As we are approaching the end of the retreat, what words of advice would he give us regarding how best to explain to our loved ones, if they ask, what this retreat was all about, so that this could be beneficial for them too. Generally, Lama-la says, it would be difficult, as we have a ‘subculture’ here, with a very precise and different language. He would explain the scientific, philosophic and contemplative religious aspects of the Buddhist knowledge, of encompassing depth, as well as its efficacy to alleviate the suffering of the world, by way of looking inward and transforming the mind. It is the culmination of knowledge, which can fulfill our eternal yearning. 2. Why Gyatrul Rinpoche did not want any photographs or videos to be taken of his tukdam. Answer: He wanted to keep a low profile. 3. Do children recall only past human lives and how can they recall the bardo of becoming, where there is no gross body. Answer: Not exclusively past human lives, but the vast majority of them. Lama-la is not sure how it is that this happens, but he thinks that it is because they are accessing memories stored in the substrate, of immediate events happened before they died or otherwise may have a „le-to“, unfinished business. There seems to be something special with regards to a human-to-human rebirth, perhaps related to conditions that are human or being facilitated by a human brain. 4. How is it that the bardo time aligns with the materialistic framework of a multiple of 7 days? Answer: While there is no explanation for this, it does not mean that it is not true, and Lama-la explains. 5. The Buddhist worldview is very different to the materialist scientific one, and the student has difficulty to integrate them. Answer: This is a matter related to the perspective of the observer, as there are multiple valid perceptions depending on the cognitive frame of reference.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 08 Apr 2021, Online-only
Lama Alan corrected yesterday’s reading transmission by giving 2 passages that had been omitted and he also gave related commentary. That, for example, the pure lands and Preta’s exist in parallel worlds although they lack inherent existence. And that, those in the bardo see not with the eyes but with mental awareness. Lama Alan referred to the paths to enlightenment as set out in different traditions (e.g. Gelugpa and Dzogchen) emphasising differences in effort and the release of effort. References were made to the nature of space from a scientific perspective. Lama la also spoke about all appearances arising from the empty space of the substrate, that they were displays of space, emerging from space and dissolving back into space, having no existence apart from substrate consciousness. He concluded by saying that phenomena are not merely empty. They are creative expressions of primordial awareness. Moreover Dharmadhatu is not ethically neutral or a dead zone, but that it is replete with all of the qualities of enlightenment, and that this is the actual nature of our own mind. Meditation starts at 34.30 minutes and is on resting our awareness in space, without slipping into dualistic grasping.
The Shamatha Trilogy, 03 May 2022, Online from Miyo Samten Ling in Crestone, Colorado, USA
The Shamatha Trilogy - Part 3 - Shamatha Without a Sign
Fall 2012 Shamatha and the Four Applications of Mindfulness, 28 Sep 2012, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Teaching pt1. Yesterday, we addressed the first of three forms of suffering: suffering of suffering or blatant suffering. Its primary cause is hatred/anger due to getting what we don’t want or not getting what we do want. While renunciation for oneself and compassion for others are antidotes, ethics constitute the basic remedy and can be summarized as not harming others and being helpful to others when possible. Today, we look at the suffering of change which isn’t obvious to most. Its primary cause is attachment, especially to the impermanent as permanent. The basic remedy for attachment is samadhi. Sadly, samadhi has become somewhat neglected in buddhism with many teachers and students alike believing that just a dab will do, yet not achieving samadhi breaks one of the bodhisattva vows.
Meditation: compassion. Begin by attending inward. Is it true that craving leads to suffering? With every in breath, “May I be free from suffering and its causes of attachment/craving.” Visualize them as darkness dissolving into the white orb at your heart chakra without a trace. Turn attention outwards to a person or group who is suffering due to craving/attachment. “May you like me be free from suffering and its causes of attachment. May we cultivate samadhi. May we be free.” With each breath, imagine each one becoming free.
Teaching pt2. The 20th century has been the worst era for buddhism. Communism dealt a nearly lethal blow to buddhism in several Asian countries. Some teachers say that the times are so degenerate that one should not even try to gain any realizations. Such an attitude would finish off buddhadharma. The Dalai Lama supports the creation of a contemplative observatory in Bangalore open to contemplatives of various traditions and scientists alike with the aspiration to revitalize the contemplative traditions of the world, so that each one can rediscover its own treasures.
Meditation starts at 16:50
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 10 May 2021, Online-only
Lama Alan begins this session by introducing us to the way Tibetans approach a sacred text, which is that they "encounter" it rather than just "read" it. This shows the relational character towards the text and its author. The text can be understood as the speech emanation of the author, here as the speech emanation of the Padmasambhava, talking to us through Dudjom Lingpa. Lama Alan then completes the reading transmission form yesterday with the sentence „Likewise, at the time of Buddhahood as well, purification, liberation, and all displays of the kayas and facets of primordial consciousness are not created by activities or accomplished by effort.“ (bottom of page 103) Then Lama shows us how a momentum was built up from the beginning of this text until now, all steps guiding us towards reaching the path and progressing along the path towards perfect Enlightenment: • Through the preliminaries, we are learning to cultivate conative intelligence, based on bodhicitta. • Through the practice of vipashyana on our own minds, we might gain some understanding and insight into its empty nature. • Through practicing "taking the impure mind as the path" we learn that our sense of a self as an independent entity is a delusion and • Through extending this practice to the outer world, we see that all possible appearances in all possible worlds of samsara are equally empty. • Extending further we conclude that even the Buddha and Buddhahood are empty of inherent existence. • Based on the emptiness of all phenomena, we are introduced to an enchanted world that is populated by all kinds of mundane and supermundane beings such as spirits, nagas, gods, etc. All these steps have prepared us to now enter into stage of generation practices in an authentical way. Lama Alan then reads to us and gives commentary on a famous verse by Asanga from the Uttaratantra: “The perfect Buddhakaya is all-embracing, suchness cannot be differentiated, and all beings have the disposition. Thus, they always have Buddha-nature.“: 1. The buddhakaya / dharmakaya is all-pervasive – if we intuitively affirm this to be true, this is our own buddha-nature resonating with dharmakaya 2. The suchness/emptiness of all things is the basis for the non-separability of our own awareness and of pristine awareness – the wisdom of emptiness of all phenomena can be gained through logic and reasoning which leads to the transcendence of wisdom 3. All sentient beings without exception have buddha-nature – this is our relative view as sentient beings on other sentient beings, acknowledging our own and everyone’s else’s highest potential On this basis, we are now ready to move to stage of generation practice, a skillful means to make the unfathomable nature of the sugatagarbha apparent to us. While in traditional Tibetan texts guru yoga is introduced to students in an early stage of practice, we, who did not grow up in Tibetan culture, may now be ripe to gain an authentic understanding of the indispensable practice of seeing one´s own guru as Samantabhadra. Lama Alan continues in the text, where we are introduced to four kinds of nirmanakayas. • Living beings nirmanakayas are all sentient beings, they are viewed as manifestations of the Buddha, through which we can develop the four immeasurables: Only if there are sentient beings are we able to view them as our objects of loving-kindness, of compassion, can we rejoice in their virtues and we can develop equanimity towards all of them. In their kindness the Buddhas manifest as sentient beings; we can choose to view each and every sentient being that we encounter as a Buddha who is giving us an opportunity to develop our capacities. • Teacher nirmanakayas appear according to our abilities, our dispositions, and our conduct in various forms to guide us step by step. Lama introduces us to some of his early Tibetan teachers and expresses his gratitude towards all the many authentic teachers that he had in his life. From the many teachers we encounter in our lives, with some we may enter into a guru-disciple relationship. • Created nirmanakayas are representations of the Buddha’s body, speech, and mind, such as statues, sacred texts, and stupas. • Material nirmanakayas are the things that sustain us as sentient beings, making it possible for us to pursue the path towards enlightenment, such as food, clothing and shelter; and also all four elements and our whole inanimate environment. We only can view reality with pure vision if we can affirm the teachings of the Uttaratantra explained above. Then we have the choice – right now - to view everybody and everything as an expression of the divine, as an ongoing flow of blessings. Meditation starts at 01:07:32: After having settled body, speech and mind in their natural states we are invited to view all appearances and objects as empty in inherent existence, and to release them all into emptiness, indivisible from the dharmakaya. Out of emptiness, we view all sentient beings, all teachers, all created representations of the Buddha’s body, speech, and mind, and all material requisites as the four kinds of nirmanakayas.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 21 Apr 2021, Online-only
Lama Alan returns to the cultivation of loving-kindness and emphasises that we need to imbue both loving-kindness and compassion with as much wisdom as possible. He starts by encouraging us to deepen our understanding of loving-kindness, ‘May we all experience happiness and the causes of happiness’, and asks: what kind of happiness and which causes? He cautions that we need to bring wisdom into the notion of happiness and recognise that this aspiration goes beyond hedonia, which in Buddhism is seen as a form of dukkha. We wish for the happiness that arises from living an ethical life, cultivating samadhi, the four immeasurables and wisdom, through to the immutable bliss of nirvana: the happiness of eudaimonia. The more we imbue our cultivation of loving-kindness with wisdom the more profound, vast and sustainable it will be. Lama Alan turns to the virtue of immeasurable compassion, ‘May we all be free of suffering and the causes of suffering’. He points out that suffering goes much deeper than is generally realised and provides a thorough examination of the three types of suffering: blatant suffering, the suffering of change and the pervasive suffering of conditioned existence. He then shows how these types of suffering can be related to the three types of poison: attachment, hatred and delusion. Lama Alan explains that hedonia can never provide us with sustainable wellbeing and happiness. He reminds us of the impermanence of all conditioned phenomena: that which ascends to a high position descends to the low; that which comes together is rendered asunder; that which is acquired is lost; and that which is created is destroyed. He asks, is it possible to be happy in the face of these truths? Not without dharma! He describes depression and anxiety as reality-based and points to their growth in our increasingly materialistic world. Lama Alan explains the three marks of existence and how our ignorance of these truths turns into our suffering by grasping the impermanent as permanent, the unsatisfying as satisfying and that which is not ‘I’ or ‘mine’ as being ‘I’ or ‘mine’ e.g., closely identifying with one’s body and mind as ‘I’ and ‘mine’. He provides the Dzogchen perspective that ultimately we suffer because of ‘not knowing the nature of reality, not knowing who we are and getting it wrong’. He then moves on to look at causality, a central theme throughout Buddhism. We look at appropriative causes and contributory causes. Lama Alan asks where does mental suffering come from? He explains that the appropriative cause of suffering is a prior continuum of feelings: pleasant, unpleasant, neutral. Although, we may experience difficult people and situations in life these do not cause our suffering: they are contributory conditions. The principal causes of our mental suffering are craving-attachment, hostility-hatred and ignorance-delusion. Lama Alan reflects that when we cultivate immeasurable compassion with this degree of insight into the reality of suffering and the causes of suffering, our compassion becomes profound with deep roots in reality itself. He quotes His Holiness the Dalai Lama, “Compassion becomes much stronger when you realise emptiness, which is nirvana, and thereby recognise that the root of others’ suffering can actually be eliminated. Otherwise, if you feel that such suffering is inescapable you simply feel sad, saying, “What a pity!” Lama Alan explains that through the practice of samatha and vipasyana, it is possible to gain experiential insight and cut through the reification of one’s own mind and see the truth decisively. Once you have realised the freedom of nirvana, you see that so could everyone else be free and this deepens your compassion. Meditation is at 01:02:54 and is about the stages for cultivating compassion.
Fall 2014 Shamatha, Vipashyana, Dream Yoga, 02 Sep 2014, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Padmasambhava’s first vipashyana meditation is found on page 115 of Natural Liberation. Alan invites those listening to hear these words as the actual speech of Padmasambhava. To examine consciousness we need first to improve the signal to noise ratio with shamatha practice so that we can identify clearly the object of our investigation. It is important to immerse ourselves first in the examination and then afterward find the words to report our discoveries to our teacher. It is vitally important to do this practice with the eyes open. There is a discussion in Dzogchen practice of the hollow crystal kati channel. This channel is different from the central and side channels described in other tantras. It originates at the heart and terminates at the pupils of the eyes. Inside the hollow crystal kati channel at the heart is the bindu of internal space which manifests as external appearances to visual awareness. The hollow crystal kati channel becomes central to the later stages of Dzogchen practice. Meditation starts at 8:23
2022 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 3, 16 May 2022, Online from Miyo Samten Ling in Crestone, Colorado, USA
This session covers two verses from the Lake Born Vajra long sadhana: the descent of great vajra blessings and the blessing of the outer and inner offerings. We have the pith instructions on how to do this sadhana in the Vajra Essence. Yangchen also draws from Lama Tharchin's commentary regarding the Hung and how it represents the five aspects of primordial consciousness. Our mind is projecting appearances all the time so when doing visualizations, what you visualize is reality. Deliberately creating and becoming skilled at creating appearances and believing those as much as those which arise based on karma and klesas. Calling upon vajra blessings in this way is to believe that one has actually received them, and it changes the capacity of our mind stream. The remaining of the sadhana takes place in that pure realm. Yangchen continues by reading the verse and providing a discussion of the three roots and the five aspects of purity. Actual descent of blessings is first gaining knowledge and realization. The sadhana is to remind us over and over again what happened in the empowerment. The long sadhana is designed to keep all the samayas of the five Buddha families. Yangchen concludes with a discussion of the outer and inner offerings. We need to bless the offerings, so we don't see them as ordinary. Regarding the inner offerings, medicine purifies anger, blood purifies attachment and the torma purifies ignorance. There is no meditation with this teaching.
2022 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 3, 27 May 2022, Online from Miyo Samten Ling in Crestone, Colorado, USA
After pointing out one minor revision in the translation, Lama Alan continues with the aural transmission at 00:00:24 on p. 189 „O Vajra of Pristine Awareness, [344] its sublime qualities are inexpressible!..." regarding the benefits and sublime qualities of identifying and resting in pristine awareness for six months. These are said to be a hundred thousand times greater than performing physical prostrations and circumambulations, performing acts of generosity, devoting oneself to mental and verbal virtues, practising stage of generation, generating bodhicitta or applying oneself to the ten virtuous deeds for an entire lifetime. Lama Alan stresses that when the Lake-Born Vajra talks about resting in pristine awareness for six months uninterruptedly, he really means this literally but we tend to struggle to do this even for six minutes. Lama Alan reiterates that we need shamatha, some realisation of emptiness and to identify rigpa to enter the Dzogchen path. Lama-la goes on to speculate on the significance of the timeframe of six months mentioned in the text and walks us through the five phases of the text. In Phase 1 we gain some realisation into the emptiness of inherent nature of our own minds and are able to achieve shamatha. In Phase 2 we are given sufficient pointing out instructions to identify rigpa. In this way, Phases 1 and 2 bring us to the path of Dzogchen and allow us to proceed along the Mahayana path of accumulation. In Phase 3 we gain an understanding of the emptiness of all phenomena, with the augmentation of stages of generation and completion in Phase 4, which reinforces our understanding of emptiness and deepens our understanding of pristine awareness. This would help us along the Mahayana path of preparation in the context of Dzogchen. In Phase 5 we gain understanding of the preliminary practices and the view, meditation and conduct of Dzogchen which is all we need to identify and dwell in the ground pristine awareness. With Phase 5 we’re thus given everything we need to know to reach the first arya bodhisattva ground and become a fully matured vidhyadhara. Once there you’re fully qualified to devote yourself to the practice of togal and become a Buddha within 20 years. Lama asks us not to hide our realisation when we do so! After giving the transmission of the final paragraph Lama Alan comments on the significance of the repetition of “space” which is dharmadhatu, the womb of all the tathagathas, the primordial union of samantabhadra and samantabhadri, the ultimate depths of reality itself, space and awareness all the way to the ground. To contrast this last paragraph and bring out the differences in their depictions of space, Lama then reads a passage from Phase 1, the dialogue between the Bhagavan Samantabhadra and the bodhisattva Boundless Great Emptiness. The space being referred to in Phase 1 is the ethically neutral substrate. Phenomenologically, all these appearances arise from and dissolve back into the space of awareness and consist of configurations of that space. Lama reiterates that if we want to fathom the ultimate nature of space we first need to fathom its relative nature. It’s the substrate, that ethically neutral space, that’s obscuring the dharmadhatu. The reason we can’t see the deeper reality of the dharmadhatu is because we’re viewing the substrate with the substrate consciousness and the substrate consciousness is obscuring pristine awareness. We first need to cut through the reification of the substrate consciousness and in so doing the reification of the substrate, realise the emptiness of both, and then we’re poised to realise pristine awareness as pristine awareness and dharmadhatu as dharmadhatu. How much momentum do we have? To determine this, Lama Alan reminds us of a passage from the Enlightened View of Samantabhadra where we’re given the 20-day placement exam to merge our mind with external space. After drawing parallels to modern physics, Lama-la guides us in the meditation of merging our mind with space. The meditation is on merging mind with space and begins at 01:23:59
Shamatha, Vipashyana, Mahamudra, and Dzogchen, 18 May 2016, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Italy
Alan continues the teaching on the four greats by venturing into Maha Mudita, Great Empathetic Joy. In the Mahayana Buddhist context, reaching the path of accumulation entails the achievement of shamatha and bodhicitta, and then sealing it with insight into emptiness – there is no going back from there. Alan comments that Buddhism is not evangelical. Moreover, there are many paths from all wisdom traditions, and the book by Aldous Huxley’s entitled “The Perennial Philosophy” he read many years ago, provides the idea that all these paths point in a similar direction to the ultimate ground of reality. Consummate scholars of comparative religion such as Huston Smith and Ninian Smart endorse the idea of the perennial philosophy. Maha Mudita then becomes the wish and the resolve that all people of all wisdom traditions find the path within their own tradition. Alan continues that also science could become a genuine path for which we can express the resolve of Maha Mudita. Alan quotes William James to suggest that philosophy can also be a path itself, where philosophy and science complement each other as when knowledge becomes consensual it moves from the discipline of philosophy to science. In each case, as demonstrated by the Galilean revolution, a strategy for developing and entering the path of inquiry is needed. This is evident in the modern ‘philosophy of mind’ where the nature of consciousness is not being properly addressed due to the path being the prevailing burying of heads in the sands of scientific materialism. An authentic path is thus critical, and we can express the aspiration that all people enter the path of their own wisdom tradition. Alan also comments on the power and blessings of devotion to Amitābha and the aspiration to enter Sukhāvatī. Alan continues commenting with examples on the lack of consensus in philosophy after more than 2000 years, and the dominance of modern science, and says there is a need for a revolution in the mind sciences to overcome the prevailing paradigm of scientific materialism to promote genuine well-being for all. Alan says the Tuscany retreat and potential Contemplative Observatory is in the right neighborhood for such a revolution, given the scientific revolution began in Galileo’s Pisa and the Renaissance in Florence. A renaissance in contemplative inquiry of all the paths of world religions is necessary so that all beings may never be parted from genuine happiness free of sorrow. For any of these to be a path, we need to explore the nature of the mind and the observer. We need to achieve shamatha, which is pure technology. The meditation is on Great Empathetic Joy. Following the meditation, Alan comments on the current prominence of movements throughout the world of religious fundamentalism and scientific materialism. The meditation starts at 1:00:00 ___ Please contribute to make these, and future podcasts freely available.
Fall 2012 Shamatha and the Four Applications of Mindfulness, 29 Aug 2012, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Meditation: mindfulness of breathing at the nostril. Focus mental awareness on breath coming in and out at the nostril or upper lip, wherever you feel the sensation most clearly. Engage with the full course of in and out breath, arousing attention at in breath and releasing thoughts and relaxing at out breath. Experiment with staccato counting to counter rumination.
This practice enhances vividness, but does so without sacrificing stability and relaxation.
Be relentless about breaking up rumination by resting engaged!
Meditation starts at 1:40
2023 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 4, 22 May 2023, Crestone, Colorado and Online
After adding a footnote to his response to the question about Shamatha in today’s Q&A session, Lama-la then attended to four minor corrections in the oral transmission of the text given in Session 65. At 00:04:18 we return to the text on the transitional phase of dying, from Page 261, last paragraph - Page 263, 2nd paragraph. Having gone through various methods for “transference by your own power or by the visualization described by someone else” the Lake Born Vajra outlines the dying processes involving the “separation of the energy-mind“, the “dissolution of the [dark] near-attainment into the clear light“, and the “liberation in the clear light of the dharmakāya during the dying process“. With these processes being described within the theoretical framework of traditional Tibetan medicine, Lama-la gives us an introduction to this integrated system which, in his own experience, has great diagnostic efficacy. He points out that this system starts with achieving samadhi and then looking at the body from the inside out, with shamatha and vipasyana, and discovering the chakras, five different types of vata/vital energy, five different types of pitta, five different types of kapha, all related to the five elements and three humors. To help us understand the dissolution processes being described in this part of the text, Lama-la describes how, within this system, at conception the subtle mind comes in, and then as the baby’s body develops, this subtle mind begins to differentiate like a rider on a horse, the rider being the subtle consciousness, and the horse being the subtle energy/prana, that carries on from life-time to life-time. What starts as purely mental consciousness at conception, differentiates into six modes of consciousness—human mental consciousness and the five sensory modes of consciousness, on the basis of the brain and the nervous system. Similarly, after conception, the life-sustaining prana, also differentiates into five kinds of vital energy, each with specific functions. For anyone who wishes to investigate further, Lama-la recommends a book by Dr. Yeshi Dhonden, 2000, „Healing from the Source: The Science and Lore of Tibetan Medicine“, translated and edited by B. Alan Wallace. Within this context, the Lake Born Vajra highlights four derivative types of vital energy that are signs that a person is dying. Then, Lama-la gives a new translation for the paragraph at the top of page 262, beginning “Due to interference …” and provides extensive commentary on the different stages in the physiology of dying from the third-person and first-person perspectives, which lead to the “separation of the energy-mind“ and the person’s death. Another new translation is give in this section, page 262, 3rd paragraph, beginning “Those of superior faculties…”. Lama notes here that if one has achieved shamatha, then like being lucid in deep dreamless sleep, you will know what is happening, you will recognize the stages of dissolution, and you will know what is coming next. Then we are given the perspective of the person who is actually dying, be they of superior, middling or lesser faculties. The Lake Born Vajra details what the dying person experiences through the stages of “dissolution of the [dark] near-attainment into the clear light“, and “liberation in the clear light of the dharmakāya during the dying process“, and Lama-la provides extensive interpretation. Whilst the Lake Born Vajra concludes that for those who have not ascertained rigpa, the clear light will only appear fleetingly, Lama-la reminds us that this advice is meant for those of superior faculties. Therefore, he suggests, “For the likes of us, think about Sukhavati!” This concludes the transitional phase of dying. Then Lama-la addresses the opening sentence of the next phase, the transitional phase of ultimate reality. Given that this phase is relevant to those who have ascertained rigpa and who are accomplished tögal practitioners, Lama-la points out that he will read through this lengthy section of the text in our next session, but he will not give extensive commentary. As a preface to today’s meditation, Lama-la highlights that Padmasambhava provides us with pointing out instructions from the “Tantra of the Lamp of Primordial Consciousness“. We are encouraged to … listen as if hearing these words for the first time, so that we may see something for the first time; and to … let these words be a launching pad to see if you can go right to the referent, pristine awareness, that is always there. The meditation, “You’re Pregnant with Your Own Dharmakaya“, begins at 01:04:35.
2022 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 3, 21 May 2022, Online from Miyo Samten Ling in Crestone, Colorado, USA
In his brief preamble to the meditation, Lama Alan poses the perennial question: “who am I?” The meditation that follows is a personal, experiential exploration of this question. This question is utterly central and meaningful to human existence. The meditation begins at 00:08:42. While resting in awareness, selectively note when any thought of "I am" arises. When such thoughts arise, search for the referent, the basis of designation, of the "I." Explore whether the "I" that is designated upon that basis is identical to that basis. Then turn your awareness in upon the person who is meditating, and non-conceptually "see what you see.“ Following the meditation, Lama Alan emphasizes the crucial importance of this exploration of who we are. When we invite our Guru to the crown of our head, and then merge our body, speech, and mind with the Guru’s body, speech, and mind, it is essential that we first “clean house,” clean out any “I, me, and mine” so that there is a beautiful clean abode for the Guru to dwell in. In addition, the way we conceive of ourselves, our view of who we think we are, has an enormous bearing on what we aspire for, and what we devote our lives to. Lama Alan makes a minor alteration to the translation of the text of the Vajra Essence on p184 in the sentence beginning: “In the past…” The transmission of new material begins at 00:44:34 (page 184 through the top of page 186). This section of the text begins with a continuation of the discussion of inner, outer, and secret upheavals, pointing out the crucial importance of being able to distinguish among them. The text then discusses ways both gurus and disciples go astray, and how they can avoid going astray. Ways to go astray include: teaching without any meditative experience or realizations, mistaking the meditative experience of bliss, luminosity and nonconceptuality for nirvana, reifying meditative experiences, not having realized the view of emptiness, and spending your life hearing and listening without meditating. Lama Alan provides commentary on these points, emphasizing how common it is for people to become immersed in acquiring learning, without ever putting the learning into practice. The text points out that being “captivated by the knowledge gained from hearing and … talking” is a type of craving that is like “being bound by fetters of gold.” Parables are taught in order to “come to know the meaning of the crucial points” concerning the view and meditation. Lama Alan comments that the view, Samantabhadra, is inconceivable, ineffable, and beyond the scope of cognition. Parables are a traditional way to point to the view. Lama Alan then shares two parables from the book “Natural Liberation,” the first is the Parable of the Old Man Losing His Cord, and the second is a parable about a king, his son, an illusionist, and a horse. These parables point out that the ultimate reality of your own mind is primordially present, but that you wander in samsara because you don’t recognize your own nature. You can come to know the nature of your mind by being introduced to it by pointing out instructions from your Guru. The text explains that if you come to know the meaning of the crucial points concerning the view and meditation, and dedicate yourself to the essential practice, you will reach the “state of liberation without getting caught up in pitfalls, mistakes, or errant paths.”
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 05 Apr 2021, Online-only
We continue the practice of deconstructing our demons. Lama Alan clarifies that this type of contemplative inquiry is NOT a solution to the many injustices we see in the world. It is for overcoming the delusions of our own mind. Lama Alan aspires that these teachings not simply add to our knowledge, but have a clear practical application for us on and off the cushion. He reminds us of the power of this Lojong which starts from within and moves outward. The power is in the fact that we find the absence of the person who has low self esteem and the absence of the person making that judgement as well, not just that they are nowhere to be found. Madhyamaka instruction notes that wherever there is affliction (arrogance/pride, hatred/hostility, craving/attachment), there is always reification-or, a Hard target. The practice is deconstructing that hard target which is easier done on the cushion than off. He introduces the meditation as a bootcamp to improve our whole lives. In it, we will concentrate on people who appear to be demonic to us. The Meditation, which begins at 00:08:07, asks you to elicit a person or people who appear to be demonic to you and then proceeds to guide us to deconstruct that target via examination of the origin, location, and destination. We are led to the conclusion that the object(s) are empty of existence and non-existence. And, we are reminded all these appearances are arising from our own substrate. And, that all that we loathe in another person is drawn from our own capacity to be that person. All the targets arise from our own substrate, empty of inherent nature. The lecture resumes at 32:40. So, according to the Madhyamaka view, our demons do not have any power independent of our own projection. Lama Alan returns to discussing the 17th and 18th century Christian scientists’ views of God. (Be aware there were different views of God. We should wonder when asked, “Do you believe in God?”, which understanding of God are we asserting our belief in or our non-belief in. These differences are not enumerated here.) But there is a question these scientists were dealing with, which was how can demons or gods which are non-physical entities harm anyone. This question is embedded in the Madhyamaka view. If anything were completely substantial, it could not influence anything else because it would be independent. That which enables something to become a whole and have parts does so by the power of conceptual designation. If they existed inherently, they couldn’t interact with anything else. Eurocentric civilization in the 19th century became locked into the materialistic view which is dominated by the “closure principle”. According to the closure principle if something (such as mind) is composed of matter and energy, it can only be influenced by matter and energy. The material universe is closed. However, 20th century physics extinguished the basis for this principle with relativity theory and quantum theory. Despite these revolutionary discoveries, science’s view of the mind still remains trapped in the material interpretation. Donald Hoffman bemoans the fact that neuro scientists remain 300 years behind by ignoring the progress of 21st century physics. The whole history of Eurocentric civilization is one of first reifying gods and demons and then going to the other extreme of saying none of these exist because there is no physical evidence. Buddhism, on the other hand, in the great university systems in India, such as Nalanda, took the study of the mind as foremost and primarily. Scholars (punditas) of the monastery did the intellectual inquiry and meditators (siddhas) did the empirical research. Before returning to the text, Lama Alan, concludes modern academia’s treatment of the mind in the West is still bound by the ideological and methodological constraints of materialism. The Lake Born Vajra states that there are no demons except for those you create but at the same time living creatures experience what they have brought upon themselves from past lives (karma). Lama Alan clarifies here that Buddhism has never asserted that the tragedies, and profoundly evil acts that befall individuals and nations are a result of what people or nations have done in this live time and therefore are deserved atrocities. But these horrendous acts do arise as a result of actions in past lives from beginningless time which we are unaware of. He goes on to say that most diabolical appearances in this life are seeing the worst aspect of ourself being embodied externally. All beings without exception are our own appearances. This is not to negate seeing evil as evil, but is another perspective for viewing it. Finally, in the text, the student asks the Bhagavan why he has told us all this. The answer is, if you don’t realize the actually nature of reality, however kind, compassionate, or virtuous you are, you will still be acting out of delusion, and there will be no way to achieve actual liberation or enlightenment. Sometimes dharma practitioners feel meditating on emptiness is boring and not producing anything. They think further purifications (ngöndro) are necessary to achieve results. While ngöndro is always fine, you will never get out of samsara if you don’t realize emptiness and you’ll never eradicate none mental affliction if you don’t unify samatha and vipasyana. This vacillation between various practices or starting and stopping practice will not lead you to liberation. Lama Alan concludes: “Believe and trust in your own awareness and then, the dust will be removed from your eye of wisdom.” He emphasizes that in order to engage and be part of dharma today we must understand the uniqueness of where we are in human history and to do that, we must understand the past and present influence of Eurocentric civilization.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 23 Apr 2021, Online-only
Lama Alan returns to one final comment on Longchenpa’s writings on the Four Immeasurables. Within the sutrayana context the Four Immeasurables are already implicit in our Buddha-nature. It’s a reality of possibility, of potential, but we need to bring in the causes and conditions for them to manifest. From the perspective of a Buddha, in the mantrayana context, the Four Immeasurables are already present in all sentient beings in the ground (as actuality). On the path, skilful means and wisdom are non-dual, the Four Immeasurables arise through the complete unification of skilful means and wisdom. In the fruition, the 5 kayas (including the Vajra kaya) and the facets of primordial consciousness are one, non-dual. Insofar as we view the ground, path and fruition from the perspective of a sentient being, we have a Buddha-nature and the Four Immeasurables are implicit but not manifest within it. In the mantrayana, specifically from the perspective of Dzogchen, Buddha-nature is a reality. We’re deluded into thinking that we’re sentient beings because of our ignorance of the actual nature of reality and who we are - out of dualistic grasping we’re seeing appearances as “other” rather than spontaneous displays of primordial consciousness. So from one perspective, it’s a matter of cultivating the Four Immeasurables and from the other, it’s about unveiling them: releasing what obscures them. In the sravakayana, the highest aspiration is the spirit of definite emergence (renunciation) as well as the single-pointed focus to achieve liberation, “as if your hair is on fire”. According to the Buddha himself, the direct path to liberation is the four applications of mindfulness. But because one still has all the mental afflictions, to protect that resolve for virtue in the first turning of the wheel of Dharma, one will take vows, in order to have greater freedom to make wise choices. Lama Alan reminds us that to be fully participating in these teachings one needs to receive a corresponding empowerment. In the process of taking a Vajrayana empowerment, the prelude to the bestowal is arousing bodhicitta and re-affirming one’s Bodhisattva vows. There’s no Vajrayana without Bodhicitta, without Bodhisattvayana and without taking Bodhisattva vows. Lama Alan wants to make this explicit. Given the circumstances he will not be able to grant empowerment but in the upcoming meditation he wants to restore the Bodhisattva vows. These are taken from a liturgy of Patrul Rinpoche which brings the interlude to a close. Meditation starts at 00:19:22 and is about taking the Bodhisattva Vows After the meditation Lama Alan introduces Phase 4 of the text. He makes some prefatory comments: since we’ve all taken bodhisattva vows, we need to know the 18 root downfalls and the 46 secondary precepts to avoid infractions. We can find them in the auxiliary readings for this retreat. Lama-la exhorts us to know and keep these precepts for our own sakes in order to protect our practice. He reiterates that in Phase 1 we’ve received pith instructions on whether our minds have origin, location, destination, any physical properties and ascertained that they’re empty of materiality. We gained insight into the emptiness of the mind. It follows that if there’s nothing really “in here” there can be nothing “out there”. This precedes the instructions for those of dull faculties. We take the mind as the path, imbued with refuge, bodhicitta, whatever insight we have into the emptiness of the mind and all that appears to the mind, achieve samatha, attend closely to the pointing out instructions to pristine awareness in Phase 2, and cut through to pristine awareness, having had some taste of the emptiness of inherent nature of the mind. The teachings in Phase 3 on the emptiness of all phenomena are to protect the ongoing resting in the view, so that it doesn’t fall back into reification - seeing all phenomena spontaneously arising as our own appearances. If we had realised everything that was taught in Phases 1-3, we would have realised samatha, vipasyana and would be resting in pristine awareness. In phase 4 there’ll be more teachings on the nature of primordial consciousness, on the ground, path, fruition, to continue on that effortless path of the Great Perfection - trekchö. Having cut through to the original purity of pristine awareness, we simply rest there in complete inactivity of 9 kinds: coarse, medium and subtle, of body, speech and mind. The teachings in Phase 4 on trekchö are designed to lead us from having realised pristine awareness to gaining confidence, going deeper. Lama-la explains that one may wish to augment one’s continuing practice of resting in pristine awareness with the practice of the stage of generation. According to the Lake-Born Vajra, you don’t necessarily need to augment it but it may be very helpful. Similarly, in the path of Mahamudra, which corresponds to trekchö, one may wish to augment one’s practice with the stage of generation. It is possible to reach perfect enlightenment in this lifetime with samatha, vipasyana, taking dharmata as the path. Having already taken the impure mind as the path, one achieves the realisation of the emptiness of all phenomena and then takes rigpa as the path, cuts through and dwells in primordial consciousness. You can achieve perfect enlightenment in this lifetime by resting in pristine awareness but the majority of practitioners augment their practice with stages of generation and completion. We come to a fork in the road. Do we want to follow the effortless path of resting in pristine awareness, letting all the qualities of enlightenment manifest effortlessly and spontaneously from rigpa and achieve perfect awakening in that way or do we want to augment the practice of resting in rigpa with the stage of generation, possibly stage of completion and coming to the culmination of Dzogchen practice with the direct crossing over to spontaneous actualisation? One can rest in pristine awareness, receive pith instructions on direct crossing over by way of the four visions and manifest rainbow body (the highest being Great Transference rainbow body). Lama Alan ends by reading one of his favourite parables, written down by Karma Chagmé Rinpoché, but tracing back to Padmasambhava himself, published under the title Naked Awareness. This parable makes clear to us why one would go through the practice of imagining oneself as a Buddha before one has any Buddha qualities at all (as in stage of generation practice). Even before one has identified one’s pristine awareness, on the basis of preliminary practices and some samatha, an insight into emptiness as well as faith or intuition, we can receive pointing out instructions on who we are, dissolve all our impure appearances into emptiness. Out of emptiness we can adopt the identity of a Buddha, visualise the appearance of a pure land, a palace, our companions as being viras and dakinis and we can act like a Buddha. In so doing we cut through the mistaken notion of being a sentient being. Lama Alan concludes that with this parable we’ve gone deeper into the domain of the Great Perfection, and augment this with the view, meditation and conduct of the stage of generation.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 14 Apr 2021, Online-only
We continue the philosophical search for the Middle Way. Lama Alan recaps some of the important questions around relativism and reminds us that although relativism may sound the same as Madhyamaka, it is not, and this is a crucial point. To find the Middle Way, we need to clearly identify both philosophical extremes, then what is left is the Middle Way. In meditation, we are guided to look from the inside out: Who do you think you are? Meditation starts at 00:08:53 Lama Alan looks at a definition of metaphysical realism from the philosopher, Hilary Putnam, and then investigates this second philosophical extreme. He starts by reading today’s paragraph again and explains its meaning: all appearances and the whole emergence of samsara emerges from “I am” - from self-grasping. He acknowledges what an astonishing statement this is, and asks: How could the universe emerge from “I am“; human beings have only been around for a few hundred thousand years! Madhyamaka philosophy asserts that there are causal patterns that, for all practical purposes, are invariant across all frames of reference. It does not matter whether you believe it or not, there are truths of cause and effect in science and Buddhism, and these are not a matter of perspective. Lama Alan points out that the definition of metaphysical realism sounds a lot like the Madhyamaka philosophy of reification. Madhyamaka abandons materialistic metaphysical realism and the subjective metaphysical realism of the mind. He explains it is not easy to cut through the deep habitual patterns of reification, but just as we can have a little bit of lucidity in a dream, so can we start with a little bit of lucidity in Madhyamaka: Lama Alan cites the practice of transforming adversity and felicity. But how do we move on from just a conceptual understanding? We must put in the work and meditate! Lama Alan emphasises that to proceed forward to the Middle Way depends on how we interpret today’s section of the text. How we unpack it will determine whether we are undermining our whole practice or falling back into old ruts. How do we determine that something can be said to exist within the context of relative truth and how do we recognise an error? How do we determine this especially in the context of today’s section of the text? Lama Alan introduces a definition from HH Dalai Lama to guide us in our search for the Middle Way and explains the centrality of our own ‘inner reality’.
2022 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 3, 08 Apr 2022, Online from Miyo Samten Ling in Crestone, Colorado, USA
Eva la starts this lesson with answering questions that she received per email. She explains: - an appropriate approach to and the view while doing a sadhana and a tsog, - how a stabilized mind supports the flow of prana during visualizations, - vows and commitments regarding empowerments in the Gelugpa and Nyingma traditions, referring to her teachings in the 2019 8-week retreat on Dudjom Rinpoche`s commentary on samayas and vows - and discusses the great depth and encompassment of the preliminary practices `Chariot of Liberation`, an devotional approach to Guru Rinpoche, on which Yangchen-la has taught extensively during the 2020 8-week retreat - finally the term "svabhada shudda", pure nature, in the mantra of emptiness from the perspective of Lama Tsongkhapa and of Dzogchen, and how they - although drawing from different approaches - point to the same transcendent reality. She further elaborates on that theme from her scholarly background, shedding light on the distinction between the subjective and the objective clear light and the final dissolution of that distinction. The meditation from 00:48:38 until 1:16:10 is on visualizing the mandala with the main focus on the five deities. Yangchen then returns to the Vajra Essence on page 143 and clarifies the last paragraph. Continuing in the text, she emphasizes that what is to be extinguished, the true enemy, is self-grasping, which is the sole cause of samsara. She points out that in reality all enemies are one's own self-appearances. The text continues describing first the ultimate and then the deceptive meaning of the various ferocious activities, which are depicted in dreadful imagery like that of supernatural birds devouring the corpses of the harm-doers. The session ends with Yangchen reading out loud to us the dedication on page 146, last paragraph, while inviting us to meditate on our own personal dedication for this session.
Public lecture on “Lucid Dreaming and Dream Yoga”, 25 May 2019, Lama Tsong Khapa Institute, Pomaia, Italy.
Alan gave a lecture on "Lucid Dreaming and Dream Yoga" at Lama Tsong Khapa Institute, Pomaia, Italy.
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 21 May 2020, Online-only
Lama Alan begins by saying there will be 2 meditation sessions on the cultivation of Bodhicitta. The first emphasizes the Dzogchen Route which emphasizes going directly to ultimate Bodhicitta, and the second will arc through ‘Great Impartiality’ to ‘cultivation of exchanging self with others’ to taking the Bodhisattva Precepts. He again weaves in this morning session with the afternoon session, where we investigate the nature of reality itself. Lama Alan expresses how Tsongkhapa’s approach is more gentle, like slowing teaching a child to swim without freaking us out. Padmasambhava has no problem with freaking us out. He says things like, “the basis of designation doesn’t really exist”. Lama Alan reminds us that Guru Rinpoche is speaking from the perspective of a Buddha while Je Tsongkhapa is speaking to us from the perspective of a Human Being. Guru Rinpoche is trying to wake us from our dream, while Tsongkhapa enters the dream with us. Going deeper into Samadhi we access a broader bandwidth, and when joined with insight then all kinds of abilities arise with this. Dalai Lama has actually encouraged practitioners to develop and display siddhis in order to inspire others and validate the reality of these abilities. Which is a message to emphasize the practice of shamatha. Lama Alan then talks about calling for blessings to develop siddhis, and how it isn’t a wish list. We need to be practicing shamatha, doing something about it to bring these blessings to flow! He mentions Ultimate Bodhicitta to Relative Bodhicitta seeing entanglement between 2. Among 18 Bodhisattva root downfalls and 46 Secondary Downfalls, Lama Alan speaks to 3 specific ones as preparations to (optionally) taking the Bodhisattva Vows during the 2nd meditation session. 24th Root Downfall of not striving to achieve samadhi/shamatha. 25th Root Downfall of not striving to abandon the 5 obscurations. 46th Secondary Downfall of not using one’s paranormal abilities in order to stop someone from engaging in nonvirtue. Lama Alan then speaks of the siddhis of technology that have been created, both positive and negative. And talks of the enhancement of our hedonic pleasures, though it hasn’t helped us experience genuine well-being. Contemplative Inquiry, on the other hand, hasn’t given rise to technology, so Science and Contemplative Inquiry are complimentary and both have limitations. Just as technology can be useful, siddhis can also be helpful. Lama Alan quotes the Buddha instructing one to apply one’s concentration to siddhis and lists ways these siddhis may arise simply from samadhi. Then Lama Alan questions how do these siddhis arise and function, and from which cognitive frame of reference? Wouldn’t it be a wonderful strategy to have garden of yogis achieve shamatha, and practice these siddhis in lucid dreaming? There is a book called “Walking through Walls” which highlights the siddhis which can be attained through the union of shamatha and vipahysana, from 1990. It is time to wake up and explore the inner powers, motivated by compassion, guided by wisdom. On the Bodhisattva path we can pray for and cultivate for the mundane siddhis as a way of waking people up so they stop thinking they everything just boils down to matter and energy. From here, Lama Alan speaks of the trajectory of science in terms of knowing who we really are and the nature of reality. Meditation on Ultimate Bodhicitta starts at 22:27 Meditation on Relative Bodhicitta (Taking the Bodhisattva Vows, if one wishes) starts at 47:02
2023 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 4, 29 Apr 2023, Crestone, Colorado and Online
A synopsis will be added soon
Fall 2012 Shamatha and the Four Applications of Mindfulness, 30 Aug 2012, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Teaching pt1: Alan begins the session by introducing the buddhist theory of causality. Here, one distinguishes between substantial causes and cooperative conditions in how effects are created. We can contemplate the factors of origination and dissolution in reference to the 18 dhatus—i.e., 6 sensory fields, 6 modes of consciousnesses, and 6 faculties.
Meditation: mindfulness of the body focusing on the 2nd mark of existence dukkha. Closely apply mindfulness to see if sensations of pleasure/pain or comfort/discomfort are coming from the object. Have awareness illuminate all 5 sense domains and ask: 1) is there anything unchanging/static?, 2) is anything a true source of pleasure/displeasure?, and 3) is there any overlap between the sense domains?
Teaching pt2: Alan returns to the 1st and 2nd marks of existence with the idea that when they saturate our mind, there’s a profound shift in our world view. The 1st mark of existence: unconditioned phenomena are impermanent. The 2nd mark of existence: any experience contaminated by disturbing emotions is unsatisfying.
Q1. What is the difference between conceptual and non-conceptual (experience)?
Meditation starts at 35:07
Shamatha, Vipashyana, Mahamudra, and Dzogchen, 13 May 2016, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Italy
Alan starts by explaining that there are two approaches to Mahamudra: the Vajrayana and the Sutrayana. The Vajrayana approach is embedded in the Kagyu tradition, where Mahamudra is placed in the culminating phase of the stage of completion. The assumption is that you’ve already laid a solid foundation in Sutrayana practice – bodhicitta, realization of emptiness, renunciation – moved on at the stage of generation, then at the stage of completion – the six yogas of Naropa – and then the cherry on the cake would be Mahamudra. In this Vajrayana approach to Mahamudra, what you’re realizing is not simply the emptiness of the mind and of all phenomena – that’s in the Sutrayana, and then it saturates the stages of generation and completion – you’re realizing emptiness and viewing reality from the perspective of the indwelling mind of clear light, rigpa. And then, Panchen Lama presents the Sutrayana path – shamatha and vipashyana, overwhelmingly fathoming the empty nature of the mind. In Sutrayana, you don’t have methods for realizing emptiness from the perspective of rigpa. Then Alan comes back to the context of the Panchen Lama text. When you’re resting in meditative equipoise the central point is to realize the empty nature of your own mind, and in that openness, there is the luminosity of your own awareness, realizing the union of the luminosity and the emptiness of your own awareness. Then you dwell there, in the space-like meditative equipoise. Insofar you’re immersed in dharmadhatu saturated by awareness, conventional reality fades out. But then sooner or later you have to come out, you get off the cushion, and the central theme is to sustain this dreamlike awareness of all phenomena. And the critical point is to be able to see, not simply believe, but viewing how phenomena exist as mere imputations. The real challenge in this post-meditative period is: can you apprehend all phenomena as non-existent from their own side, without reification, as opposed to apprehending them as existent from their own side? Can you view waking appearances as if you were in a lucid dream? If the rest of your life is untouched by your meditative experiences then there is no meaning. Meditation is on Vipashyana on the nature of appearances. Alan returned to Panchen Lama’s text, from Chandrakirti´s quote from Introduction to Madhyamaka on, up to the point where Panchen Lama correlates the Four Yogas to the Five Paths. And then Alan paused to share an article, to prepare us to the post-retreat, when we will bump with people that are not immersed in this world view, meditation, way of life, aspiration and so forth – all our fellow sentient beings. The article, written by Daniel Simpson – Buddhist Meditation and Cognitive Sciences – is available at the link below: Read the article. Alan highlighted some provocative things that warrant a meaningful response. Please refer to Mahamudra Retreat Notes – May, 13th for Alan´s notes on this article. Alan has drawn a parallel between modern scientists’ attitude towards Buddhist knowledge about meditation and consciousness and Cesare Cremonini’s attitude towards Galileo’s discoveries. From Alan’s notes: “Cesare Cremonini, was a friend of Galileo and among his contemporaries who refused to look through a telescope to confirm or refute Galileo’s discoveries. He explained his refusal with the words, “I do not wish to approve of claims about which I do not have any knowledge, and about things which I have not seen... and then to observe through those glasses gives me a headache. Enough! I do not want to hear anything more about this”. In this Mudita day, Alan ended on an uplifting note - during his stay in Italy, he met three very fine open minded scientists, in three different research centers, and he will join them next week to talk about consciousness. And finally he said he is giving us a pack full of ammunition, not to harm anyone but if people throw bullshit objections, be merciless. Meditation starts at 14:45 ___ Please contribute to make these, and future podcasts freely available.
2022 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 3, 24 May 2022, Online from Miyo Samten Ling in Crestone, Colorado, USA
Lama-la starts with a few new revisions to the translation of the recent paragraphs in the text, indicating that Wisdom Publications has already agreed to a second edition of The Vajra Essence which will be published probably after the end of next year’s 8 week retreat, with Eva Natanya as co-translator. He continues to polish and refining the sentences in the text. He acknowledges Glen Svensson’s amazing quiet role in this retreat. It is important that we are grateful to everyone who has helped us to get here, as we are so fortunate to have encountered the dharma and the path. Receiving these teachings is not by accident, we are coming with great merit accumulated, even if we are not aware of how. At 00:19:50 Lama-la proceeds along in the text on page 186-187 and discusses the difference between sentient beings and buddhas. While they are of the same nature, buddhas know who they are, while sentient beings are not. It is this unawareness (marigpa) with which samsara begins, along with the unawareness of being unaware (not knowing that we don’t know; avidya avidya). There is no beginning to samsara, because in fact it has never come into existence from buddhas’ perspective, who see samsara and nirvana as equally pure. There is no creator, and the answer to the question of ‘how did we get here’ remains a mystery for sentient beings. Until we become a buddha we will not know, and afterwards the question will either be answered, or become irrelevant. Lama-la reads and discusses an auxiliary teaching of Karma Chagme in Naked Awareness on the 4 yogas of Mahamudra regarding the apparent lack of qualities and characteristics in many of those who have reached the grounds and paths. There is a debate between the Kagyu masters and Sakya Pandita, which is still unresolved and remains a mystery. What is knowable and important? Our trust in the guru on the basis of his teachings and his conduct, not his title. Are the teachings beneficial and am I receiving blessings? With regards to us, we should not doubt ourselves, but have confidence and practice diligently. The meditation on practicing like a vidyadhara begins at 1:30:47
Shamatha, Vipashyana, Mahamudra, and Dzogchen, 15 May 2016, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Italy
Alan began the session with the warning that this afternoon’s session would be dense, which prompted laugh from everyone in the room, given that all previous sessions have already been pretty dense! He then elaborated on the three higher trainings (ethics, samadhi and wisdom), saying that in the beginning of the path, the importance of ethics could not be overemphasized. He gave some detail on how to cultivate ethics, namely exploring its two facets: non-violence (both overt and covert) and benevolence, with the aim of highlighting the importance of having a solid ethical foundation, so that the impact of our meditation can be optimized. As a way to make these comments practical, Alan paraphrased Shantideva’s Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life, namely on how to deal with mental afflictions (from chapter 5, “Be like a piece of wood!”). Bypassing comments on shamatha, which we’ve explored extensively, Alan then moved on to foundational teachings on vipashyana on the nature of the mind, by citing some quotes of the Buddha, from the Pali Canon. After the meditation, we returned to the Panchen Lama text, with Alan recovering an earlier section from stanza 45, to which he gave additional commentary. The remaining time of the session was dedicated to exploring a contradiction in assessing levels of realization mentioned in the Panchen Lama’s text (on the equivalence between the yoga of non-elaboration and the first bodhisattva stage), with Alan recovering a quote from Gampopa’s “The Jewel Ornament of Liberation”, to elucidate on this contradiction. The rest of the session was an inspiring discourse on the importance of being careful when assessing levels of realization, namely given all the differences of perception that exist between mere beginners and highly realized beings. Meditation is silent and not recorded. ___ Please contribute to make these, and future podcasts freely available.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 05 May 2021, Online-only
Returning to the Satipatthana Sutta and the close application of mindfulness to the body, Lama Alan describes the quality of mindfulness and introspection permeating your experience in all four postures of walking sitting, lying down and standing, as well as your daily activities. He reads the Buddha’s pith instructions on acting introspectively in all activities, including falling asleep and waking up, and comments that this guidance was intended for meditators who had achieved the first dhyana. He explains the importance of behaving in a dignified manner in relationship with other people, animals and the natural environment so that your behaviour is always conducive to yours and others’ wellbeing. He describes how the three higher trainings of ethics, samadhi and wisdom are synergistic, and your practice and ethics are supported in this way. Lama Alan reads the long list of body parts and the refrain from the sutta. The practice is to visualise your own body parts and consider everything that is under the skin. This is to counteract attachment to your body and others’ bodies as well as increase awareness of impermanence. The sutta continues with the refrain on the four elements that make up the body. Earth refers to the solidity of the body, water the moisture and fluidity, fire the warmth and air the motility in the body. He explains that there are different degrees of these elements in the body and that there is not a solid essence in any of them. Lama Alan discusses the Bhikkuni Vajira’s discourse with mara in the Vajira Sutta and her insight on the body, ‘a heap of sheer constructions’ and so not really there – ‘Here no being is found!’. She exists only as a convention, and this is true for the whole world. Meditation starts at 00:36:38 and is on the arising of the four elements in the body and their insubstantiality
2022 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 3, 01 Apr 2022, Online from Miyo Samten Ling in Crestone, Colorado, USA
Eva picks up on Lama Alan’s earlier talk that the longer one can dwell in the realisation of the clear light, this completely non-conceptual experience, one is purifying the mind stream not only of conceptual thoughts and habitual propensities but also of past karma because of the non-dual realisation of emptiness and pristine awareness. She draws a parallel to how the longer one stays in the experience of the mandala, dwelling in the perspective from which all things are pure, one is able to set aside one’s experience of things as ordinary. She refers to Dharmakirti who said that as long as the sense consciousnesses are withdrawn and mental consciousness is focused completely on the objects of the mandala, even if our eyes are open, one will not have visual appearances. Eva explains that the point of the sadhana is to stop engaging with appearances as ordinary. Immersing oneself in the meditation, visualising appearances of mandala, of oneself as the yidam, etc, actually stops one from even perceiving appearances as ordinary. The ideal in generation practice is to be able to meditate uninterruptedly on the mandala for four hours, as is the case in shamatha. The appearance of the mandala purifies us from experiencing appearances as ordinary and from grasping to them as ordinary; the clear light is purifying the mind of everything, including the propensities for things to appear as ordinary and real. The step of re-creating appearances out of emptiness is the direct antidote to grasping to things as real. There’s a subtle difference between grasping to appearances as ordinary and grasping to things as real, they’re not quite the same but closely interrelated. Eva la refers back to a short quotation from the Vajra Essence covered at the end of last year’s retreat regarding the three samadhis: the samadhi of suchness (dissolution into the indivisible union of dharmakaya and dharmadhatu), all-illuminating samadhi (the manifest nature of the luminosity of pristine awareness which causes all things to appear and of which Vairocana is the embodiment), causal samadhi (consists of apparitions involving both referential objects and visualisation): “The first two samādhis are primordial consciousness that is the pristine awareness of emptiness, transcending the conceptual objects of the intellect and mentation. [215] The latter [the causal samādhi] consists of apparitions involving both referential objects and visualization.” Eva then answers a common question: What if mental imagery does not come to mind? Her straightforward answer is that in Vajrayana, out of the two, pure appearances and the divine identification (pride of being the yidam), it’s the pride that’s more important. Both are direct antidotes to ordinary appearances and grasping to them as real but it’s the grasping we must cut through. She reassures us that it’s worth the effort to “dwell in a pure world” even if nothing appears because this is essential for the path of Dzogchen. Our expectations of visualisations might be false expectations for a long time. She advises to be content even with an unclear image and to rely on knowing the presence of it. If nothing appears to visual awareness, understanding still occurs and things can happen on a pranic or emotional level as stage of generation works on all levels of our being and not just via visualisation. Eva clarifies that realising emptiness in the sutra context doesn’t necessarily establish things as pure in the divine sense but merely as pure of mental afflictions. In Vajrayana because pristine awareness is inseparable from emptiness it establishes that the empty reality is not ethically neutral. She explains that the humility to let go of one’s ordinary identity is true reverence and devotion and that this is enough to start, which is why guru yoga is the essential prerequisite to all these practices. One first needs to imagine what divinity looks like as ‘not me’, in order to identify with divinity in an authentic way. Eva explains that this practice is directed to our self-grasping. If we want to be free of samsara and free of mental afflictions, if we want our consciousness to be united with pristine awareness, the energy of this mandala is to remind us what liberation looks like in relation to what we’re attached to. The meditation is on the ferocious mandala and starts at 1:04:40
2023 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 4, 22 Apr 2023, Crestone, Colorado and Online
The thrust of the discussion circles around intuition and its roots in primordial consciousness. The conversation starts out comparing and contrasting primordial consciousness (super-mundane) with substrate consciousness (mundane). The substrate consciousness is a microcosm of primordial awareness, and the explanations are given. “Primordial consciousness is the natural glow of the ground, and it is described in terms of five facets of primordial consciousness. Specifically, when the ground is made manifest, great primordial consciousness, which has been forever present, abides in the aspect of lucidity and luminosity, like the breaking of dawn or like the rising of the sun. It is not impeded, as in a blanked-out darkness that knows nothing. Rather, all appearances are present as self-knowing, but it is not as though it becomes something that arises or ceases, either.” We then are directed to the four reliances as a path to our ultimate teacher as extremely important as it culminates right where we are in the text. There were four reliances (Skt. catuḥpratisaraṇa; Tib. rton pa bzhi) taught by the Buddha shortly before his passing away, as taught in the Sūtra of the Teaching of Akṣayamati and the Sūtra of the Questions of the Nāga King Anavatapta. - Do not rely on the individual, but on the Dharma. (Why the guru/disciple relationship is transpersonal) - Do not rely on the words, but on their referents. (As in finger pointing to the moon – do not look at just the words, but their referent) - Do not rely on the provisional referent, but on the definitive referent. - Do not rely on conditioned consciousness, but on primordial consciousness. (This may be difficult to understand until one has a taste or experience of primordial consciousness) “Primordial consciousness is self-emergent, naturally luminous, and free of outer and inner obscuration; it is the all-pervasive, lucid, luminous infinity of space, free of contamination.” The discussion turns to the laws of karma and the contrast with, for example Christianity. In Buddhism there is no creator God with omnipotence like being sent to hell by this being, etc. Rather it is karma as the cause for experiences of either felicity or adversity. Karma is not a law that was created, but rather more accurately described as invariant or simply how things are/ how things work. To understand how to find an inroad into getting out of samsara, one can look at the 12 links of Dependent Origination to find an inroad into how to break out of samsara. If one follows the links, samsara is explained, but if one “rolls them back” then one can find a way out! Two entries into breaking the samsaric cycle are: - Cease craving “I want” - Not Knowing. The question of where genius comes from is explored and quotes from Einstein are also given. Accurate intuition comes from primordial consciousness (see the notes). “Conditioned consciousness is what makes an initial moment of consciousness emerge in the aspect of the object, just as various images of planets and stars emerge in the ocean.” It is for this reason that was previously stated, “When focusing outward through the sense doors, those external sensory appearances that appear to be seen, heard, felt, tasted and touched are called conditioned consciousness.” The meditation is on awareness of awareness and starts at 1:03:48 After the meditation Lama la recommends to rest in that silence (based on the meditation), to pose questions to that silence and listen to that silence. The best way to accomplish posing a question would be to settle your mind in its natural state, then turn towards awareness of awareness and rest in that silence. Pose the question prior to this and in that silence an answer might come up. This is where intuition and prajna (wisdom) will be needed to determine if it feels right. But be sure it is not coming from the chattering mind! He gives the example of how Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo asked her guru a question if one came up, as there were no cell phones at that time. She said she would pray to him.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 18 Apr 2021, Online-only
This final teaching of Phase 3, opens with the text “In general, devouring demons are so called because they consume the fruits of omniscience” (pg. 88). Lama Alan highlights that these demons are the maras of mental afflictions, our only true enemies. They cut off our vitality for dharma; they keep us cycling in samsara; they torment us lifetime after lifetime; and they steal our collections of merit and knowledge. Lama alerts us to once again recognise that in so far as there are people, places, entities in our lives, that we view as enemies / demons, such appearances only arise because we have those karmic seeds. If in our past lives we had not accumulated any non-virtuous karmic seeds to manifest as enemies in this lifetime, we wouldn’t have any, so no such appearances would arise. All appearances arising to us, be they good/bad, pleasant/unpleasant, are manifestations of our own karma. The appearances themselves are empty, they have no owner, they are not already appropriated. So just how these appearances are actualised for us, depends on how we conceptually designate them. If we don’t appropriate them, they can’t inflict benefit or harm, but they can when we do so. Therefore, these appearances are of demons/enemies because we designate them as such. Come what may, as Lama Alan reminds us, no-one does samsara to us, we do it all to ourselves. Referring to a host of delusive malevolent spirits, Lama suggests that by severing the bases of related mental afflictions, these spirits don’t have a leg to stand on. Taking inspiration from a Shakespearean worldview, Lama reflects that if “All the world’s a stage …”, then as an actor on that stage, as soon as you appropriate any of the mental processes of the heroes or villains sharing that stage, then you completely lose yourself in the character you are playing. Instead, be mindful, and recognize that this stage is one where all the actors are emerging from your own mind. To counteract all craving and grasping, the Lake-Born Vajra mentors us to “recognize the sublime importance of dedicating yourself to giving away your body”, sentiments highlighted by Śantideva as an indispensable foundation for developing Bodhicitta (Bodhisattva Way of Life - Chapter 8). Lama Alan emphasises that a vital first step in this process is to recognize that this body is illusory. However, even though it is nowhere to be found, independent from appearances, we have appropriated it, and latched onto it so strongly that it is the very basis for the self-centeredness that contaminates our minds. As a result of this, we get trapped in the rut of delusive reification, mindlessly allowing ourselves to be caught in the grip of every mental affliction that pops into our mind stream. In this way, our suffering is perpetuated. What does Lama suggest? Move to a new neighbourhood! If we can stop the appropriation of our body, feelings, mental processes, and all phenomena, that results from identifying them as ‘I’ or ’mine’, then we can move our minds out of this matrix of delusive appearances. To do this, Lama recommends the Four Close Applications of Mindfulness, powerful practices that focus on cutting through what he terms, our ‘cognitive hyperactivity disorder’. As such, he advises that they are a very valuable foundation for everything in this text, including fathoming how things exist, fathoming deceptive reality and ultimate existence – emptiness. The text then outlines the details of the severance practice of Chö, which first requires us to “correctly establish and realize the profound nature of existence of emptiness.” With the focus of this practice being to sever the inner poison of self-grasping, the root of our karmic imprints from non-virtuous actions in this and past lifetimes, Lama Alan emphasises the vital importance of purifying karma before it germinates. In conclusion, we are reminded of the wisdom of Lojong practices, and Lama references the teachings of Jikmé Tenpé Nyima - Transforming Felicity and Adversity into the Spiritual Path, who encourages us to pledge that ‘From now on, whatever kind of adversity arises, I shall not quail’. Lama Alan notes that the Lake-Born Vajra has encouraged us to practice tonglen, therefore, this session concludes with the meditation - resting in awareness, practice tonglen for everyone who spontaneously comes to mind, which begins at 01:05:41.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 12 May 2021, Online-only
Lama Alan comments further on the list of the five facets of primordial consciousness which he introduced in the previous day’s teaching and explains their meaningful sequence. He relates the sequence to the twelve links of dependent origination. Then he returns to the text where we left off, having already described the buddhafield of Ghanavyuha, which is in the centre, he continues by commenting on the etymology and qualities of the Buddhafield of Abhirati, which is in the eastern direction. Lama Alan describes all the buddhafields and their celestial palaces, continuing with the qualities and etymology of the buddhafield of Srimat, which is in the southern direction, the buddhafield of Sukhaviti, which is in the western direction, and the buddhafield of Karmaprasiddhi, which is in the northern direction. He comments that the text describes the five Buddhafields and five buddha families as being for those students who like to know directions and like to relate to families or ‘castes’. Lama Alan expands on this and explains that for those who wish to follow the Dzogchen path, and would like to relate to things that are recognisable and familiar, the palaces, families and persons of the buddhas can be helpful to make the teachings more accessible. The text states that the directions are not to be taken literally and explains how to view these. Lama Alan describes the five Buddha families starting with the buddha family in the centre, then the vajra family in the east, the jewel family in the south, the lotus family in the west and the karma family in the north. He comments on the etymology and qualities of the five Buddhas: Vairocana – “Illuminator”, Akshobhya – “Immovable”, Ratnasambhava – “Source of Great Value”, Amhitaba – “Boundless Light” and Amoghasiddhi – “Accomplisher of Meaning”. He describes the Lotus Family which is ‘our’ family, ultimately stemming from Samantabhadra, by way of Amitayus, Amitabha, Avalokitesvara, Padmasambhava, and Tara. He recommends and provides a recording of their mantras. Lama Alan suggests we view a picture of the five buddhas sitting cross-legged so that we can visualise them during our meditation. Meditation starts at 00:58:29 and is a practice of stage of generation, visualising the buddhafields and buddhas, and dissolving into emptiness all impure appearances and all impure objects and subjects designated by the conceptual mind. Then out of emptiness generating ourselves as each of the five buddhas.
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 15 May 2020, Online-only
The session is on great loving-kindness. Lama Alan starts saying that, because everybody is interdependent and there are no inherent existing borders between self and other, taking responsibility for one’s well being entails taking responsibility for everybody else’s well-being too. The impulse of caring is fundamental and inextricable. But it can be veiled and usually meets resistance and blockages when it’s extended outwards. The cultivation aims to put down the barriers. For that, Lama Alan summarizes Longchenpa’s instructions on the cultivation of lovingkindness. To increase lovingkindness, one can desire the happiness of every being as one desire it for its own mother. Mother. Then, as Buddhaghosa suggests, a good strategy is to find somebody easy. Then, to focus specifically on those who are bereft of happiness and aspire for their mundane happiness and for their enlightenment. A sign of having cultivated lovingkindness is that it arises for each being greater than that of a mother for her only child. You regard them all as loveable, and with great affection you wish to benefit them. After having cultivated loving-kindness with an object, Longchenpa suggests the cultivation of loving-kindness without a sign, uniting loving-kindness and emptiness, viewing everyone as being insubstantial like space. The fruits of the cultivation is that you see everyone as lovable and everyone sees you as lovable. You accumulate merit and purify karma. Lama Alan then shares some more thoughts on loving-kindness. He relates the morning topic to the one of the afternoon, the identitylessness of persons: the basis of designation (eg, the body, the personality) is never identical with the object we impute upon it (the person). The bases of designation are not sentient beings. The beings are lovable. It’s very crucial not to mistake lovable for attractive. Father Lawrence Freeman said that it’s very important not only that we love, but that we know that we are loved unconditionally. Lama Alan recalls the uncondicional love he received from his mother and how His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Khadro-La love also display such lovingkindness. In some people, it might be hard to find the lovable. But to develop immeasurable loving- kindness and great loving-kindness that’s exactly what we have to cultivate. Lama speculates that when we focus on persons whose behavior is overwhelmingly not lovable, it’s safe to say that we’re attending to someone who haven’t deeply felt loved. Their ability to love is there, but might be obscured. Who’s more in need of loving-kindness than those people who never felt loved? Further examples of unconditionality of loving-kindness include a person with a history of anger metting the Dalai Lama’s unconditional loving-kindness and the stories of J. Allen Boone’s book “Kinship with All Life”. Meditation “Looking with the Eyes of Unconditional Love” begins at 37:10. Keywords: great loving-kindness, Longchenpa, Father Lawrence Freeman, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Khadro-La.
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 10 Apr 2020, Online-only
Lama Alan said he won’t be surprised if he doesn’t include any new information for you in this session. While this topic of death and impermanence may be familiar to you, it often does not change our view of reality. That is it does not sink in to our view, meditation and action. We know that all conditioned phenomena are conditioned and arise from causes and conditions such as from a plant to the billion-fold galaxies. These things we know, but it is an inconvenient truth that we don’t want to face. If we faced it, there are sacrifices that we might have to make that we don’t want to because we are comfortable in the status quo. So therefore, instead of having to fundamentally and radically changing our way of life, it is easier to say ‘yes, yes, we’ve got this, I understand impermanence.’ In terms of my own experience, I still tend to view that which is always in a state of flux, like my age, as being unchanging. While I am always constantly changing, aging and will one day die. The Buddha’s observation is just true. Our view is that that which is always in a state of flux is unchanging. This is a delusion. We think that when our finances, our health and so on are going well that they will always bring felicity and when they are not going well we think our life will always be negative toward us. We prioritise our pursuit of hedonia. We equate a good life with the acquisition of wealth, health and external things. We think everything is stable and that death is for other people. We can radically change our view.
Meditation starts at 35:50 minutes
Notes: four themes of impermanence are: 1. All that is born dies. 2. All that comes together parts. 3. All that is acquired is lost. 4. All that goes up goes down.
Meditation starts at 35:50 minutes [Keywords: death, impermanence, 2 nd Revolution in Outlook]
Outer preliminaries for Dzogchen from Lama Alan, 10 Apr 2020, Online - Originally part of 2020 8-week retreat
Lama Alan said he won’t be surprised if he doesn’t include any new information for you in this session. While this topic of death and impermanence may be familiar to you, it often does not change our view of reality. That is it does not sink in to our view, meditation and action. We know that all conditioned phenomena are conditioned and arise from causes and conditions such as from a plant to the billion-fold galaxies. These things we know, but it is an inconvenient truth that we don’t want to face. If we faced it, there are sacrifices that we might have to make that we don’t want to because we are comfortable in the status quo. So therefore, instead of having to fundamentally and radically changing our way of life, it is easier to say ‘yes, yes, we’ve got this, I understand impermanence.’ In terms of my own experience, I still tend to view that which is always in a state of flux, like my age, as being unchanging. While I am always constantly changing, aging and will one day die. The Buddha’s observation is just true. Our view is that that which is always in a state of flux is unchanging. This is a delusion. We think that when our finances, our health and so on are going well that they will always bring felicity and when they are not going well we think our life will always be negative toward us. We prioritise our pursuit of hedonia. We equate a good life with the acquisition of wealth, health and external things. We think everything is stable and that death is for other people. We can radically change our view. Meditation starts at 35:50 minutes Notes: four themes of impermanence are: 1. All that is born dies. 2. All that comes together parts. 3. All that is acquired is lost. 4. All that goes up goes down.
2022 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 3, 28 Apr 2022, Online from Miyo Samten Ling in Crestone, Colorado, USA
This imprudent madman who has shattered his mode of apprehension: Yangchen la opens today's session with the recitation of "Calling the Guru from Afar". The above line specifically takes us back to the contemplation of our relationship to appearances, as inherently existent. She discusses the empty nature of phenomena from the point of view of interdependence, and specifically from how causation is not a cause-effect linear relation between two concrete things, but rather the manifestation of multiplicity. For this discussion she draws on a verse from Shantideva, and Tsongkhapa's commentary to it. The main point stated there is that, just like an illusion arises once all factors for its arising come together, every phenomena arises. That is to say, every phenomenon is equal to an illusion, simply because of the myriad of causes that give rise to it. Yangchen la then goes back to Tsongkhapa's text "Three Principles of the Path", the three principles being renunciation, bodhicitta and authentic view. She talks about several pathways for the realisation of emptiness, and how they complement each other. The teaching today is full of pointers to emptiness. Yangchen la gives also instructions on how to relate to appearances during everyday activities, and again relates the view of emptiness to our practice of guru yoga, inviting us to see through appearances, into that which lies behind our modes of apprehension. Today's session circles around eradicating the extremes of existence and nonexistence, in the first case through appearances, and in the second through emptiness. The mere fact that there is no emptiness if there is nothing to be deemed empty, dispels the second extreme. Emptiness eradicates grasping to things as ordinary, the emergence of a mandala eradicates grasping to them as real, and in this way she invites us back to meditation. In the meditation which starts at 55:30 we are going deeper into the emergence of a pure deity in a pure world.
2023 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 4, 13 Apr 2023, Crestone, Colorado and Online
1. Exhortation to practice 2. Phase 1: Taking the impure mind as the path 3. Mind is most important 4. Mind as baseless and rootless 5. External space and internal mind 6. Meditation – Vajra Essence review 7. Q&A
2022 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 3, 30 May 2022, Online from Miyo Samten Ling in Crestone, Colorado, USA
On this auspicious day beginning the Saka Dawa, the month commemorating the Buddha's enlightenment, Lama Alan has no new teachings, but gives transmission and commentary on some of the text (page 187 and 195, at 00:02:15) for which the translation has been polished. Today is devoted to practicing together the Shower of Blessings, a guru yoga based on the Seven Line Prayer and a second session on the very concise version of the Lake-Born Vajra Sadhana for which Lama Alan gives the aural transmission in English and Tibetan. The meditation starts at 17:08 This concludes the 8-week retreat with one more next year to complete the Vajra Essence. See you then!
Fall 2012 Shamatha and the Four Applications of Mindfulness, 29 Aug 2012, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Meditation: body scan. Single-pointedly focus on sensations (both outer and inner) at one target area, scanning the body from top to bottom as instructed in the guided meditation.
Teaching: Alan introduces some Sautrāntika philosophy—view of reality—to help us observe closely. There are 1) things that exist and 2) things that don’t exist. Among things that exist, there are 1a) real and 1b) unreal. Real phenomena constitute anything that can be perceived directly or with the help of instruments. Unreal phenomena exist only because we say so—i.e., conceptual designations.
This framework helps us in the practice of the 4 applications of mindfulness to distinguish through careful observation between 1) what’s being presented and 2) what’s being superimposed.
Q1. In the practice of the 5 elements, each element appears to be in flux, so does each element contain air element?
Q2. Is the experience of prana (lelung) upon achieving shamatha the same as kundalini?
Q3. Can walking meditation be integrated into shamatha practice?
Q4. How to refresh and renew interest in the breath without tension?
Q5. Do the 3 shamatha practices present a gradual progression from gross to subtle? And if so, does this mean that we have to master all 3 practices to achieve shamatha?
Meditation starts at 10:50
Shamatha, Vipashyana, Mahamudra, and Dzogchen, 12 May 2016, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Italy
Following the classical sequence of the four immeasurables, Alan today turns to empathetic joy or mudita. He explains that the near enemy of compassion is grief and despair or, expressed in a modern term, depression. During the cultivation of compassion, we attend to a great extent to the evil things in the world. Especially for us, living in the 21th century, the exposure through the media to the myriad manifestations and sources of suffering can be overwhelming. Among many other reasons, this can be a reason too, to fall into depression. If we are dwelling in grief and hopelessness, without being able to help ourselves, we are useless to the world. The natural antidote to the near enemy of compassion is empathetic joy. This is not a superficial look on the bright side of things, but rather balancing out deep insight into suffering with a vision and insight. The Dalai Lama demonstrated this when he was asked about his cheerfulness despite the immense suffering of his people. He answered that it comes from his insight into emptiness. Until we achieve this realization of emptiness, we can use empathetic joy to balance out the depression and despair. Alan reminds us about the importance of being certain about the object of meditation. When cultivating compassion, we attend to sentient beings who are subject to suffering. In the meditation of Mudita we are taking delight in virtue. This includes our own virtues too. Especially in the modern world we find very little encouragement to attend to and rejoice in our own virtues, because this can easily be conflated with pride, arrogance and vanity. In this light, it is even more important to focus on the things that bring meaning to our own life, like the cultivation of compassion and virtue. Cultivation of virtue is the only hope for the world in the face of all the mental afflictions that are destroying our civilization and disintegrating the whole planet. In the search of the virtue that we have brought to the world, we must not overlook the virtue that comes from turning inward like going on retreats and transforming our minds. The meditation is about empathetic joy. After the meditation Alan reminds us of the quote from Stephen Hawking and Thomas Hertog about the universe not having one absolute history. Similarly, our own history can be seen in many different ways, especially if we consider the small amount of data points, i.e. exact memories we have of our own past. If we only concentrate on the crappy things of our own history, we easily get depressed. It’s like eating dirt. Thus writers of biographies try to concentrate on the important fact of a person’s life in an objective manner. In contrast to that, Tibetans write namtars, (total liberation) which are spiritual biographies to inspire others to reach liberation. Here a famous example is the life story of Milarepa, which also includes the evil part of his life, but then focuses on his liberation from the bad deeds and transformation into a yogi. Considering the multiple version of our own history, Alan encourages us to write our own namtar. This can also include the times when we “screwed up” during our life and how we transformed. Finally, Alan recommends for the time between sessions to attend to the kindness of others and taking delight in it. This can change our world. “Have the antenna up all day”. Meditation starts at 15:50 ___ Please contribute to make these, and future podcasts freely available.
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 11 May 2020, Online-only
Meditation is “Dzogchen View: Guidance from Yangthang Rinpoche” begins at 29:07 Lama Alan began by addressing Yangthang Rimpoche’s guided meditation and how it is “advanced” yet not premature for us. Which brings us to a type of balance within context of Buddhism, that we’re emphasizing the study and practice which meets us right now where we are in our lives. Then the Dharma meets us and helps us transform every aspect of our lives into Dharma. And it is appropriate to emphasize the Dharma practices which meet and transform our life right now. The balance to study, practice, plant seeds for the most advance Dharma practices. Important to season our overall practice with some familiarity of even these advanced practices. So you transform your life while listening to, practicing, studying the higher practice which become inspiration for us. Important as we enter phase 2, where we begin to be introduced to practicing the recognition of Pristine Awareness. Even if we don’t see immediate benefit or transformation, we’re planting seeds. And we don’t know how far we’ll develop in this lifetime, so why get bogged down without a clear vision of the Path? Lama Alan then speaks of some of the ways practitioners in different traditions may become bogged down, be lost in misunderstanding, or never be introduced to the path. He focuses on Chan and Zen, with deep respect, and how it becomes “Beat Zen” when Zen came to California in the 50s. Beat Zen lost its connection with the deep roots and teachings of Buddhism, yet don’t see what is missing. In fact, they called the tradition “Square Zen”. So the practitioners of Beat Zen (which now encompasses most of Western Zen) basically tossed out the teachings of Buddha himself. With this prefrace, there are many masters in all traditions which hold the gold standard. Lama Alan tells some stories about those who’ve guided him and from whom he learned the importance of “Path”. And from this perspective of the “truth” being golden, we allow the guidance of Yangthang Rimpoche to wash over us and lead us through the highest path, the top of the mountain, in the meditation. After the meditation, Lama Alan wraps up the discussion.
Fall 2014 Shamatha, Vipashyana, Dream Yoga, 27 Aug 2014, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Alan encourages those following the retreat through the podcasts to obtain a copy of his translation of Natural Liberation, our text for the remainder of the retreat. The meditation that Alan guided is found on page 105 of the text. The familiar quality control monitor of introspection is not mentioned in shamatha without a sign practices because there is no vector for awareness. In this practice the oscillation between the arousal of the intensity of awareness and its release will by itself dispel laxity and lethargy. Between sessions, as you move through the day, try to maintain stillness of awareness amidst the motion of appearances. Meditation starts at 11:42
The Shamatha Trilogy, 29 Apr 2022, Online from Miyo Samten Ling in Crestone, Colorado, USA
The Shamatha Trilogy - Part 1 - Mindfulness of Breathing
