2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 05 May 2021, Online-only
Take your impure mind as the path, with the view that all the appearances to your awareness are nirmāṇakāyas.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 09 May 2021, Online-only
After first resting your mind in its natural state, taking the mind as the path, then by way of the appearances of beings manifesting in the space of your mind, attend to individuals by way of those appearances, cultivating loving-kindness toward the loveable, compassion for those afflicted by suffering and its causes, empathetic joy for those who are fortunate and virtuous, and impartiality for friends and foes. Since you cannot cultivate these four immeasurables without encountering such beings, view them all as living-being nirmāṇakāyas manifesting from your own sugatagarbha to lead you to Awakening.
2023 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 4, 17 Apr 2023, Crestone, Colorado and Online
At the start of this week’s teachings, Lama la answers questions around the following topics: - In the process of settlings one’s respiration in its natural state, through natural pranayama the breathing is balanced out, over time becoming subtler and subtler. Very likely this will happen in a non-rhythmic manner since blockages in the body and in the prana system will be released. The healing intelligence and power behind this process is our own pristine awareness. - Lama la compares the practice of samatha, when our awareness is focused more and more on the mental consciousness, to the process of bringing together all streams of a river delta into one channel. Since the awareness is drawn away from the five physical senses, this may bring with it alternations in our sight, for example, the fading of colors, or the fading of sight altogether. - May subatomic particles exist outside of the space of awareness? Lama la leads us from the Cittamatra view to the Prasangika view, in which all appearances of objects, including subatomic particles, and their conceptual designation take place within the space of awareness. - Is there a corresponding term to „space of awareness" in classical Buddhism? Lama la draws on the 18 elements of phenomenal experience: the 6 sense fields, the 6 corresponding modes of consciousness, and the 6 faculties on which perceptions of the senses arise. In Western science, there is no answer to the question faculties for consciousness, whereas in Buddhism the answer is that it is mentation, which is based in the substrate consciousness. Lama concludes that the corresponding term to „space of awareness" is „citta“ in Sanskrit, or „sem“ in Tibetan. - A question is about the sustainability of samatha: Very likely, when one cares for it, and without any major brain damage, it is sustainable during the lifetime in which it is achieved. It might be lost during the bardo, especially without an insight into emptiness. Then, in the next life, the momentum will carry on, probably making one a prodigy with respect to samatha. - Through familiarization with the practice of alternating between inverting awareness in upon itself and releasing it into space, a sense of the indivisibility of space and luminosity naturally arises. - Should one adjust one’s posture during meditation when it crumbles a bit? Monitoring one’s posture with introspection, and noting that it gets loose, one should restore it. - The luminosity and cognizance of which one is aware is not identical to the luminosity and cognizance with which one is aware, because the awareness of an event is always retrospective. Yet they are mutually dependent, and, consequently, they are not inherently existent. - Referring to a quote from the Vajra Essence, a person of sharp faculties might fathom the one taste of samsara and nirvana simply through the samatha practice of taking the mind as the path. This is only possible if this person brings a very strong momentum from past lives. We can look at this as an inspiration to create a strong momentum ourselves through practicing diligently. - How rigorous scientific research, like the one done at the University of Virginia, which challenges the materialistic worldview, is completely ignored by the scientific community. - How to overcome the fear of the unknown, when one dares to look beyond the materialistic worldview to which one has been accustomed to? Through familiarization, based on some trust in the discoveries of the countless beings who have gone this way before us. - How the practice of samatha might naturally catalyze spikes of insight into the nature of reality. - About the differentiation between the substrate consciousness and pristine awareness. - About how to not grasp onto mental events through renouncing to look at their referents. - How our meditation practice can be imbued with beneficial insights and motivation, without „thinking“ these like slogans. - About the crucial importance of releasing all appearances into emptiness before engaging in stage of generation practices, and on that basis imagining a deeper, sacred reality. - How to deal with immense grief through engaging in skillful means or through applying wisdom. - Referring to a statement made in Saturday’s teaching about our motivation to look for our own bliss, excitement, and peace as a driving force for engaging with the world, Lama la completes this teaching by pointing to acts of virtue done with selfless motivation. - Lama la will think about the request for an aural transmission of the text he composed during his time in retreat: A Lamp for Dispelling the Five Obscurations: Pith Instructions for Achieving Śamatha in the Dzogchen Tradition with Alacrity There is no meditation with this teaching.
2022 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 3, 08 Apr 2022, Online from Miyo Samten Ling in Crestone, Colorado, USA
Before Lama Alan will turn from the sravakayana perspective on violence to the bodhisattva context in terms of the bodhisattva precepts he points out that among the 46 types of misdeeds several point to the indispensability of developing samadhi and overcoming the 5 obscurations in order to tap into the full potential of the mind. For bodhicitta to arise spontaneously in one’s mind and permeate all activities and other desires, the mind must be at optimal performance, otherwise one will not be able to fulfill the job description of the bodhisattva, as stated by Atisa. Lama Alan makes the point that the reason people don’t progress in shamatha is because they have not fulfilled the inner prerequisites: if one is still involved in external activities, it unravels the inner stillness cultivated through shamatha. He suggests that there may be a way of engaging in such activities with such presence of mind without being caught up in them without hope, fear and anxiety and then return to the practice. As a preamble to the meditation Lama Alan explains how amid all the crises in the world (Ukraine, environmental) it can be legitimate to take a step backwards by practising shamatha and cultivating one’s own mind to establish one’s own peace of mind before helping anyone else. Lama then offers a quick recap of the different shamatha methods he has been teaching before he explains how one can integrate these into what he names the “tricycle approach”. Mindfulness of breathing means withdrawing one’s awareness (with the motivation of bodhicitta) from anything outside one’s body and attend to the non-conceptual field of tactile sensations. This one technique, as Asanga taught it, is sufficient for achieving shamatha. As all sense fields are sub-spaces of the space of awareness, as the sensations of breathing are getting imperceptibly subtle, we can release the breath and withdraw into the space of awareness, letting it merge with space and achieve the third type of mindfulness (mindfulness devoid of mindfulness). Then, inverting awareness right in upon the awareness of that space (self-illuminating mindfulness) one can achieve shamatha (without the acquired or counterpart sign). Another method leading to the same end point is taking the mind as the path (focusing on the sixth domain of experience) until all the movements of the mind subside and your awareness collapses into the mental domain (mindfulness devoid of mindfulness) and you then invert your awareness in upon itself (self-illuminating mindfulness). In terms of the practice of shamatha without a sign, Lama explains that this is taking the fruition as the path right from the beginning, which is turning in upon awareness itself. This is the most unelaborated approach to shamatha. Lama now explains how to integrate these into the so-called “tricycle” approach, named thus because it provides us with sufficient stability. The front wheel is shamatha without a sign, the right wheel is attending to the sensations throughout the body correlated with the respiration, which will lead to an increased sense of ease in body and mind as you release any constriction. The left wheel is attending to the mind which will allow you to increase temporal and qualitative vividness without being carried away by the contents of your mind. In this synthetic practice we’ll do all three of these: we’ll first settle the body and speech in their natural states, then the mind but from the very beginning we’ll drop our anchor in the awareness of awareness. When you have the opportunity to go into retreat you can choose which of these shamatha methods you want to focus on. You can ride the “synthetic tricycle” until you drop one wheel, then ride the “bicycle” until you want to drop the second wheel and then take your unicycle all the way to shamatha. The meditation starts at 00:30:43 and is on the pricycle approach - combining the three core methods After the meditation Lama Alan recaps the topic of violence within the shravakayana where there’s no compromise on the need to avoid it altogether and in all circumstances and then focuses on one of the root downfalls in the context of the bodhisattva vows which is very relevant to Section 4 of this text: If one destroys towns, cities, areas, or regions, that is the root downfall of destroying towns and so on. He then picks out a few of the 46 kinds of bodhisattva misconduct: not using siddhis, if you have them to help others or prevent harm is a sin of omission. The key is to use siddhis based on impartiality and an exchange of self and others. Another one is not to correct other people’s deluded actions. Yet another misconduct Lama picks out is not committing one of the 7 non-virtues of body and speech to benefit others out of compassion. But one needs to be a bodhisattva and have actualised bodhicitta in order to be able to do this. Lama-la then reads the story of a bodhisattva from the Upāyakauśalya-sūtra sutra who kills in order to prevent greater harm. The pages/sections covered from texts are from bottom of p.143 "If the one who is visualised is alive.,," but Lama reads the freshly revised version of this paragraph: "If you possess the life force of the visualisation in this way, then once a being is liberated, all the actions to guide that being will definitely succeed. If you lack the three crucial points of the fortress of the view, the precipice trail of meditation and the life force of visualisation, whatever wrathful activites you perform will be like children's games and your goals will not be accomplished. Ultimately, in the great incarceration box of emptiness, the wisdom realising identitylessness liberates like a sharp weapon its inhabitants, the rudra of dualistic grasping at the physical world and their sentient inhabitants into non-objective identitylessness. Then primordial consciousness, pristine awareness, is made manifest, the being awakens in the enlightened view of the three kayas, and proceeds to the supreme state of liberation, the attainment of perfect enlightenment, and the residue of samsara is withdrawn into absolute space.”; p. 147 first paragraph: "As for prayers, there's no determinate object for prayers...perfect omniscience.“ The aural transmission starts at 00:56:00 and then again at 01:35:00
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 29 Apr 2021, Online-only
Resting in Awareness, Observing the Mind, Note the Presence and Absence of the Five Obscurations
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 27 Apr 2020, Online-only
The Metta Sutta
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 04 May 2021, Online-only
While either sitting or lying down, continue maintaining awareness of the rhythm of the respiration in the background of your awareness, while closely applying mindfulness to your body, noting whether it remains settled in its natural state—relaxed, still, and vigilant. And introspectively monitor when your mindfulness is veiled by any of the five obscurations and when it is relatively free of them.
2022 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 3, 04 May 2022, Online from Miyo Samten Ling in Crestone, Colorado, USA
Yangchen keeps guiding us through Tsongkhapa’s text “the Ocean of Reasoning”, exploring the nature of the holy perception that sees phenomena in all their varieties. What does Buddha perceive of the phenomena appearing to our mistaken minds? To answer this Yangchen quotes Tsongkhapa: “If they are to appear to the primordial consciousness insofar as they do appear to those with ignorance, however, then they’re merely done as the appearance of being real that appears to those other persons” but of course the Buddha never becomes mistaken! Even before conceptualisation kicks in, objects appear to our perception to be “out there”, then the grasping for the “apparently external” object ignites conceptualisation, which produces the belief that duality is real. The karmic seed is one, but losing track of this original starting point, we wrongly see two plants growing out of it: subject and object. Why in a Vajrayana sadhana we let appearances disappear into empty space? Because this perception of emptiness corresponds to the understanding that phenomena have no intrinsic essence. But in a sutra context, when one perceives the emptiness of something, what appears? That’s the question we are going to address. Conceptually emptiness can be divided into 18 different kinds (6 senses + 6 consciousnesses + 6 objects) or in 4 different kinds or even in only 2 kinds. The there’s an actual ultimate reality and a concordant/harmonious ultimate reality. Yangchen quotes “The Two Truths”, a Svatantrika text: “Refutation of arising and the rest, moreover, since in accord with what is correct we assert to be an ultimate.” Then she explains that when you refute the dualistic reality ever coming into being, then your refutation is an ultimate reality. Yangchen quotes another text on the Middle Way “In this way since lack of arising is also on accord with the ultimate, it is called co-ultimate, although it is not actually so because the actual ultimate it is beyond every elaboration”. When you understand something about emptiness probably you still don't perceive what is free of elaboration, but for the followers of Tsongkhapa one does have to use reasoning to eventually get to the unelaborated perception. Tsongkhapa explains what elaboration means. Our superficial elaborations, our projections, etc. are relatively easy to detect and peel away, but there’s still a person who elaborated that. On the other hand, appearances don’t have to disappears to remove our cognitive hyperactivity. Peeling off this superficial layer is very important. In this quote Tsongkhapa relates “elaboration” to the layer subjacent the ordinary cognitive hyperactivity. Dual appearances vanish, but there’s still elaboration, so the remaining appearances are still polluted by our ordinary, dualistic view. Only once we get rid of this mode of viewing we will genuinely see the pure appearances of a mandala. So we’re going to be “wrong” until we actually dissolve the energy in the central cannel. Emptiness is not something out there by itself, free of phenomena that are empty of inherent nature. Emptiness and interdependent phenomena are inseparable: that’s Arya Nagarjuna core point about the Middle Way. Then Yangchen quotes Tsongkhapa: “The lack of identity of phenomena… is the meaning of what is found by the immaculate knowing (sherab) that knows how things exist”, which means that by cutting off what does not exist there still remains “an absence of”. Emptiness as a simple negation is a cornerstone of the Gelugpa approach to emptiness. But hereYangchen refers to Tsongkhapa’s explanation of the complex or affirming neagtion because it can really help to understand what’s going on in the generation stage: you negate the dual appearance that is not really there, but then the wisdom perceiving the emptiness of objects arises as the mandala and deities. For an ordinary being anything that appear will unavoidably appear as being dual and for that being it will not appear at all without appearing dualistically. Deceptive realities can be distinguished in wrong and right: seeing a snow mountain yellow is a wrong deceptive because It’s wrong even in an ordinary view, while seeing it white is, in this conventional context, right. Svatantrika thinkers appreciate this distinction and even the Prasangika view, according to which the only true perspective is the Arya view, admits the practical utility of the above distinction between wrong and right deceptive views. According to Gelugpa, although some people can follow the direct route of Mahamudra based on meditation experiences only, most people need to get through some reasoning in order to overcome the dualistic view afflicting us on a finer level. Now Yangchen comes to the key sentence by Tsongkhapa: “It is with this reasoning that you should understand as classifiable within the category of ultimate (a concordant ultimate) all the subjective fields encountered with the meaning of being like an illusion (which is an affirming negation) by the primordial wisdom of Buddhas that know things in their variety and by the aftermath wisdom of lower Aryas”. Because at that point of intellectual exercise you’re seeing things as illusory, you can also understand why and how Buddhas can see our delusions and also you can understand the wisdom of a “lower Arya” view after he/she comes out of his/her śamadhi. Tsongkhapa ironises about the Aryas bragging about having achieved the non-elaboration state, because in his view they only achieved the negation of elaboration, which still implies an “absence of”. Yangchen explains that “if nothing at all has been established you can’t negate anything. By knocking out appearances of reality you’re knocking out ultimately reality as well”. Then Yangchen compares Tsongkhapa’s distinction between a [relative] emptiness (affirming negation, an absence of) and the ultimate emptiness (simple negation, what is not), to Padmasambhava’s warnings about the radical difference between recognising the substrate consciousness (achieving śamathā) and recognising primordial consciousness (realising dharmakaya). Yangchen asks what is the difference between Tsongkhapa’s meditation on emptiness “sutrayana style” and the total pacification of dual appearances in vajrayana and then describes the vajrayana method. In Vajrayana sentient beings arise from the movements of the karmic winds/energies, and the practice to “abide in peace” is to dissolve the winds into the central channel: all dual phenomena will withdraw - then pure, subtle dual appearances will start manifesting progressively (from light to five colors, etc.) The stage of generation goes through this process by simulating what to be a Buddha is like. It’s still a meaningful experience and ultimately it is based on the luminosity of the clear light. This is what it means to take the result as the path. Engaging in these appearances the mind is over here as the central deity but the mind can also be in any of the tathagata present in the mandala assuming each one's point of view, and it can even encompass all of them at once and stabilise. Yangchen underlines the importance to constantly bridge the sutrayana and vajrayana methods in oder to avoid the practice to become “dry”. In the meditation which begins at 1h01’00’’, we release and settle the energies in the body and take the mind down into an open spacious simplicity of awareness. Energy based body scan. Imagine the lack of identity of you, your physical sensation and your body. Coming and going of appearances. Outer objects seen at all at once as interdependent phenomena, including our own self as a base for our bodhisattva vow. Cleansing of our view from the cataracts. No distinction between a Buddha and self, wishing to become the Buddha. Dissolution. Release conceptualisations and dualistic propensities… Let your guru release you into a body to help others…
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 25 May 2021, Online-only
Buddha: “Breathing in long, one knows ‘I breathe in long,’ breathing out long, one knows ‘I breathe out long.’ Breathing in short, one knows ‘I breathe in short,’ breathing out short, one knows ‘I breathe out short.’ One trains thus: ‘I shall breathe in experiencing the whole body,’ one trains thus: ‘I shall breathe out experiencing the whole body.’ One trains thus: ‘I shall breathe in calming the bodily formation,’ one trains thus: ‘I shall breathe out calming the bodily formation.’
Fall 2012 Shamatha and the Four Applications of Mindfulness, 27 Sep 2012, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
In solitary retreat, it is easy to get caught up with all your own stuff coming from your own mind. This is attenuated being in a group retreat with others around. The 4 immeasurables help cultivate emotional balance, so when we encounter others, it’s like throwing a pebble into a swimming pool rather than a teacup. Alan recommences the meditation on compassion where we attend to others and their suffering.
Meditation: compassion. Rumination is both tiresome and stressful, so an act of compassion for yourself, settle your mind in the space of the body and the respiration in its natural state. Compassion is not feeling sorry, but an aspiration rooted in empathy, a sense of common ground. Bring to mind a person or a community facing blatant hedonic suffering. With every in breath, “May you like me be free from suffering.” For the visualization, practice either 1) traditional tonglen method of drawing in the suffering in the form of darkness which dissipates entirely in a white orb at the heart chakra or 2) have the suffering in the form of darkness just evaporate into thin air. Attend to another person or community, and repeat the practice. Attend to a person and or community with genuine suffering arising from their own mind. With every in breath, “May you like me be free from suffering and the causes of suffering.” Repeat visualization as before.
Meditation starts at 4:20
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 08 May 2020, Online-only
Padmasambhava's Guidance
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 29 Apr 2020, Online-only
Metta Practice: Seeing the Lovable
Fall 2012 Shamatha and the Four Applications of Mindfulness, 10 Sep 2012, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Some take to settling the mind easily, and others have a harder time. For the latter, start by focusing on mental images (without the soundtrack) which everyone can do, then the soundtrack alone, and mental images with the soundtrack. Among the 4 types of mindfulness, the first is called single-pointed mindfulness which means being simultaneously aware of the stillness of your own awareness and the movement of thoughts. Such mindfulness is accessed through deep relaxation.
In post-meditation, maintain a peripheral awareness of the breath or the space of the mind in order to cast a shield against rumination.
Meditation: The Buddha’s instructions to Bahiya, including the mentally perceived.
1) “In the seen, let there be just the seen.” Let your eyes be open. Direct mindfulness to the visual field without any add-ons.
2) “In the heard, let there be just the heard.” Close your eyes. Direct mindfulness to the auditory field.
3) “In the felt, let there be just the felt.” Keeping your eyes closed, direct mindfulness to the space of the body and the tactile events arising therein, including sensations of the 4 elemensts and somatic feelings.
4) “In the mentally perceived, let there be just the mentally perceived.” Let your eyes be open. Through the process of elimination, what do you perceive not by way of the 5 senses? Let your body be like a mountain, and let you mind be like space. Deliberately generate a thought or an image, if needed.
Meditation starts at 5:50
Fall 2012 Shamatha and the Four Applications of Mindfulness, 05 Oct 2012, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Great compassion is the principal practice of the 4 greats. Alan continues with great loving-kindness.
Meditation. Great loving-kindness. Visualize the primordial buddha Samantabhadra, deep-blue in color. From now until perfect awakening, take refuge in Samantabhadra, the dharma revealed by all the buddhas, and the sangha of vidyadharas. At the crown of your head, Samantabhadra melts into light, streams down your central channel, and reforms at your heart chakra, merging with your body, speech, and mind. 1) Why couldn’t we all find perfect happiness and its causes? Each one of us has pristine awareness, the cause, and are awaiting the contributing circumstances. 2) May we find perfect happiness and its causes. With out breath, light from Samantabhadra at your heart chakra spreads in all directions, leading each sentient being to fulfillment. With every out breath, arouse the intention 3) May I lead every sentient being to perfect happiness and its causes, and imagine each one finding perfect awakening. 4) May the gurus and the buddhas bless me, so that I may be enabled. With every in breath, light from all enlightened beings come in from all directions. With every out breath, light flows out to all sentient beings.
Teaching. Qualified teachers of the Mahayana and Vajrayana usually say that one needs a lot of merit in order to achieve shamatha. This is true. However, we shouldn’t think that we don’t have enough merit, so it’s not worth trying. As Dromtönpa said, give up all attachment to this life and let your mind become dharma. While you are actually cultivating shamatha and practicing the 4 immeasurables, you are accumulating merit.
Meditation starts at 04:40
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 15 May 2020, Online-only
Inquiry into the Conceptually Designating Mind
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 24 May 2020, Online-only
Je Atisha's Ultimate Bodhicitta Lojong
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 25 May 2020, Online-only
Resting in Open Presence
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 18 Apr 2021, Online-only
While resting in awareness, practice tonglen for everyone who spontaneously comes to mind, including those who are pleasing, unpleasing, and indifferent, recognizing how they all change roles in their relationship to you even in this life, let alone past and future lifetimes.
Fall 2014 Shamatha, Vipashyana, Dream Yoga, 22 Aug 2014, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Alan starts off by giving a meditation on settling the body, speech and mind in its natural state. He then elaborates on practices of mindfulness of breathing which follows three steps in the Theravada tradition: Focussing on the whole body experience, being aware of the rise and fall of the abdomen and finally paying close attention to the sensations at the nostrils. Alan, however, presents a Dzogchen approach to mindfulness of breathing which does not follow these steps but proposes to let the awareness rest still. That way you do not explicitly focus on the sensations of the breath, but you are implicitly aware of them - just as in a lucid dream in which your eye movements as well as the rhythm of your “dream breath” correlate with the movements of your physical body. In such a state you are also simply implicitly aware of your physical body but you don’t explicitly focus on it. This then explains how one can transfer from the desire realm (in which you are focussed on your bodily sensations) to the form realm: by simply letting the body do its job without interfering in the natural flow of the breath (the body knows it better than you do anyways!) and letting your awareness hold its own ground. Meditation starts at 01:18
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 08 Apr 2021, Online-only
Rest in Awareness, Viewing All Phenomena as Empty and as Creative Expressions of Pristine Awareness
2022 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 3, 30 Apr 2022, Online from Miyo Samten Ling in Crestone, Colorado, USA
The session begins with a preamble to the meditation. This meditation which begins at 00:21:15 is part 2 of the “Shamatha Trilogy” that Lama Alan began in Session 52. In part 1, the emphasis was on relaxation. In part 2, the emphasis is on stability. The challenge in this practice is to maintain stability in the midst of motion. Lama Alan comments that for any meditation it is essential to know with confidence and certainty what the object of mindfulness is. In this practice, the object of mindfulness is the space of the mind and the activities of the mind. Introspection is used to monitor the flow of mindfulness and to peripherally note the sensations of the body and the breath. After the meditation, Lama Alan returns to the text on page 173 at 00:45:48. We are now on Phase 5 of the text, which is entitled: Determining Secret Dualistic Grasping and Revealing the Way of Natural Liberation. First, a description of the process of becoming deluded in impure samsara is provided. The next section of the text (which is not covered in today’s transmission) addresses the way out of samsara by revealing the way of natural liberation. The text enumerates various causes for our becoming deluded in samsara, including reification, believing appearances and the bases of designations to be real, and striving after virtue with body and speech alone. Lama Alan expounds upon various passages in the text, including an explanation of the 3 criteria that can be used to verify that something exists relatively (based on commentaries by HH the Dalai Lama and Je Tsongkhapa). Lama Alan emphasizes that reality is not by majority rule: ie. this analysis does not support subjective relativism. Lama Alan comments that there is probably not much new information in the passages of the text covered in this session. After having heard these passages, Lama Alan encourages us to reflect on and saturate our minds with them, and then to view existence from this perspective. This will engender both compassion and a spirit of definite emergence (renunciation).
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 07 May 2020, Online-only
Recognizing the Space of the Mind
Fall 2012 Shamatha and the Four Applications of Mindfulness, 11 Sep 2012, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
For those having difficulties settling the mind, Alan proposes mindfulness of breathing as a useful prelude. Use each breath—and in particular, the out breath, especially the end of the out breath—to release any residual tension and relax the body totally. Make use of every out breath to relax more deeply and release any rumination. Core relaxation is a prerequisite to settling the mind. When practicing settling the mind, maintain peripheral awareness of the breath.
Meditation: settling the mind with mindfulness of breathing as a prelude.
1) mindfulness of breathing. Practice the mindfulness of breathing technique of your choice. If you detect any rumination, relax, release, and return.
2) settling the mind. Let eyes be open, gaze vacant. Direct attention to the space of the mind and its contents. Maintain peripheral awareness of the breath. Apply introspection to the quality of mindfulness and apply remedies as needed.
Meditation starts at 3:03
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 30 Apr 2021, Online-only
By recognizing how objects do not exist from their own side, you may their emptiness of inherent nature as a simple negation, which is ethically neutral, devoid of good or bad qualities. By recognizing the empty essential nature of awareness with the unborn luminosity of your awareness, you realize the nonduality of emptiness and luminosity, which is a complex negation. The first is the objective clear light, and the second is the subjective clear light. With this in mind, rest in awareness while releasing all “signs” in the form of thoughts, labels, symbols, and analogies; and thus approach liberation through the door of the absence of signs.
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 08 May 2020, Online-only
Padmasambhava's Complete Instruction on Ascertaining the Empty Essence of Your Mind
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 20 May 2020, Online-only
Bodhicitta and Taking the Mind as the Path
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 08 Apr 2021, Online-only
Rest your Awareness in Space, without Slipping into Dualistic Grasping
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 20 Apr 2021, Online-only
Buddha: “Here, monks, a disciple dwells pervading one direction with one’s heart filled with loving-kindness, likewise the second, the third, and the fourth direction; so above, below and around; one dwells pervading the entire world everywhere and equally with one’s heart filled with loving-kindness, abundant, grown great, measureless, free from enmity and free from distress.” (Dīgha Nikāya 13)
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 12 May 2021, Online-only
While resting in awareness, recognize when the mind is attached and unattached, hostile and unhostile, deluded and undeluded, contracted and uncontracted, and distracted and undistracted.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 16 Apr 2021, Online-only
While resting in awareness, notice which mental processes have a calming and balancing effect on your mind, and examine how they arise, how they are present, and how they vanish. Observe the mind and note the factors of origination and of dissolution of the five poisons: delusion, attachment, hostility, pride and envy.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 13 May 2021, Online-only
Observe how the mental events the Buddha highlighted in his pith instructions arise in dependence upon the causes and conditions and how they pass, noting their impermanent, unsatisfying, and impersonal nature.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 11 Apr 2021, Online-only
Take your Mind as a Means for Transcending your Identity as a Human Being
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 12 Apr 2021, Online-only
Resting in Awareness, Examine the Arising, Presence, and Vanishing of Objective Appearances within the Space of the Mind
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 22 Apr 2021, Online-only
Taking the mind as the path, practice tonglen for every person who comes to mind
2019 8-Week Retreat, 08 Apr 2019, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
Guided meditation is on Vipashyana, identifying the agent.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 03 May 2021, Online-only
First arousing bodhicitta, the view of emptiness, and the view of the Great Perfection, alternately release your awareness into space with no object and then invert it into the mind with no subject. Finally, rest without activity in awareness beyond subject and object.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 25 May 2021, Online-only
Padmasambhava on "Identifying Pristine Awareness"
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 12 Apr 2020, Online-only
Vipashyana Inquiry into the Immutable, Autonomous Sovereign Mind
Shamatha, Vipashyana, Mahamudra, and Dzogchen, 26 Apr 2016, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Italy
Alan begins the session with a sutta from the Pali Canon - the Suda Sutta or cook discourse, which begins with a foolish cook who didn’t take the king’s preferences into account and highlights the importance of acquiring the sign of the mind. The foolish cook never acquired the “sign” of the king. Alan mentions the movie Avatar in which there was a touching scene with the line “I see you”, and the phrase carries the meaning of understanding someone. In this way, the foolish cook did not “see” the king. He didn't understand him and see what he truly wanted. Alan interprets the sign of the mind as being that from which the mind as we experience it emerges, the bhavanga. It is this brightly shining mind that is the source of our motivation to seek a path and to seek liberation. That stem consciousness that is not yet human is bound to hold a more primal stem desire. Tapping into that, you can find out what really makes you happy, and going deeper you can ask rigpa, “What’s your desire?” You can practice vipashyana without tapping into the depth of your soul, tapping into your heart’s desire, and tapping into the deepest motivation that is already there, but if you haven't tapped into the innermost depths of what you truly want, the practice of vipashyana can easily be reduced to just another form of psychotherapy and have nothing to do with the path. “Having acquired the sign of the mind, sensing the savor of solitude, practicing jhana, masterful, mindful, you obtain a pleasure that is not hedonic.” This sounds very much like shamatha. Shamatha can help ensure that your vipashyana can be motivated by a truly authentic motivation. Also, to see the variety of motivations displayed in the world, and to be able to cut through and be able to truly look at someone and be able to say “I see you” on a level where you can truly empathize - that would be something. How can we tap into that depth of another person if we haven’t tapped into that depth of ourselves? Alan then talks about two techniques to determine if you are doing the practice correctly and maintaining the flow of knowing or if you are just spacing out and cultivating stupor. The first test is for when you are settling the mind in its natural state during an interval between mental events. If, as you are attending there, an event arises, and as soon as the event arises, you’re already there and you don’t have to pull your attention back, then you were there before it happened. You were sustaining cognisance, and that’s the indicator of it. If it takes a few seconds, then you were spacing out. The second test can be done when you are withdrawing from all appearances and attending to the sheer luminosity and cognisance of awareness. If as soon as a subjective impulse - a thought, a desire, an emotion, etc. - comes up, you get it, then you were on the mark. If you learn about it only seconds later and you had to pull yourself back, then you were not on target. The meditation is on shamatha without a sign. After the meditation Alan talks about Galileo, mentioning, among other things, that history might have been a lot different if he had been allowed to stay in the monastery and had come to understand the sign of his own mind. The last four hundred years have yielded a tremendous growth of knowledge of the outside world, in medicine, and in hedonic well-being, yet have yielded little in terms of eudaimonia and knowledge into the nature of the mind. Major scientists are saying do not rely upon your first person experience, do not rely on introspection, and do not rely upon your own perception. They say that doing so is misleading and unreliable, but we don't have to follow that... The meditation starts at 24:50 ___ Please contribute to make these, and future podcasts freely available.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 04 May 2021, Online-only
While taking the mind as the path, introspectively follow the courses of the activities of the mind, recognizing those that are beneficial and those that are unbeneficial, as Nāgasena counsels when he defines authentic mindfulness. Note the difference between observing a mental affliction and appropriating it. Also note when there is recognition and intention, for that’s when karma is being accumulated. But recognize, too, that nonvirtues may be committed out of ignorance, which does not seem to disturb the mind, though the karmic results, for example, of breaking one’s vows and samayas are disastrous.
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 11 May 2020, Online-only
Dimensions of Taking the Mind as the Path
Outer preliminaries for Dzogchen from Lama Alan, 12 Apr 2020, Online - Originally part of 2020 8-week retreat
12 Apr 2020 Lama Alan introduces the third of the four revolutions in outlook/inlook/perspective/orientation, which serve to set the direction in our pursuit for happiness. This third one is actually one of the four marks of existence: “All experiences that are contaminated by mental afflictions are unsatisfying.” Lama Alan reflects on how life seems to ‘smile’ to some, while the reality of suffering seems ‘more true’ to some others; those who go through war, poverty, hunger, i.e., blatant suffering. Then, how does the reality of Dukkha pertain to the first group? In which way is life unsatisfying? Well, even the bliss of śamatha is unsatisfying, it will erode unless the practice is deepened with insight, and that makes the experience unsatisfying. So, in the long run, adding up all the good and wonderful experiences you have gone through – asks the Buddha – are you satisfied? To transcend this mark of existence, we need to realize that all phenomena are empty and identityless: this is the only way we can cut through the root of suffering. Moreover, in the Dzogchen path, we go a step further, we cut through the very nature of the mind which ascertains that emptyness. So, lets have a practice! Meditation starts at 18:41 Lama Alan concludes: “The whole point of understanding the full breadth of suffering and identifying the true causes of suffering is to be free of both, as soon as possible.” After meditation Lama Alan addresses three questions: 1. What would be the best daily balance and schedule for practice? It is my fervent prayer to practice the Great Perfection to completion! (44:00) 2. After some years of diligent practice, I have found a general sense of well being; I am feeling an enormous tug to be of service outside of formal practice, but I can’t be certain I am benefiting anyone, so I feel the tug to come back to formal practice. Can you comment on this tension, for those of us who have a full-time commitment? (51:20) 3. How should we choose the precise Guru for Guru yoga between our root Guru, primary Dzogchen Lama, and other Lamas who deeply inspire us? (56:30) Tune in for the answers
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 12 Apr 2020, Online-only
Lama Alan introduces the third of the four revolutions in outlook/inlook/perspective/orientation, which serve to set the direction in our pursuit for happiness. This third one is actually one of the four marks of existence: "All experiences that are contaminated by mental afflictions are unsatisfying."
Lama Alan reflects on how life seems to ‘smile’ to some, while the reality of suffering seems ‘more true’ to some others; those who go through war, poverty, hunger, i.e., blatant suffering. Then, how does the reality of Dukkha pertain to the first group? In which way is life unsatisfying? Well, even the bliss of śamatha is unsatisfying, it will erode unless the practice is deepened with insight, and that makes the experience unsatisfying. So, in the long run, adding up all the good and wonderful experiences you have gone through – asks the Buddha – are you satisfied?
To transcend this mark of existence, we need to realize that all phenomena are empty and identityless: this is the only way we can cut through the root of suffering. Moreover, in the Dzogchen path, we go a step further, we cut through the very nature of the mind which ascertains that emptyness. So, lets have a practice!
Meditation starts at 18:41
Lama Alan concludes: "The whole point of understanding the full breadth of suffering and identifying the true causes of suffering is to be free of both, as soon as possible." After meditation Lama Alan addresses three questions:
1. What would be the best daily balance and schedule for practice? It is my fervent prayer to practice the Great Perfection to completion! (44:00)
2. After some years of diligent practice, I have found a general sense of well being; I am feeling an enormous tug to be of service outside of formal practice, but I can't be certain I am benefiting anyone, so I feel the tug to come back to formal practice. Can you comment on this tension, for those of us who have a full-time commitment? (51:20)
3. How should we choose the precise Guru for Guru yoga between our root Guru, primary Dzogchen Lama, and other Lamas who deeply inspire us? (56:30)
Tune in for the answers
[Keywords: third outer preliminary, dukkha, questions for practice]
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 23 May 2021, Online-only
First taking refuge, then arousing bodhicitta and the view of emptiness, rest in awareness that is primordially still, and view the occurrence of such mental processes as reification, laxity, and excitation, without identifying with or reifying them.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 27 Apr 2021, Online-only
While resting in awareness, when you view mental appearances with direct perception, unconfigured with conceptualization, they are not categorized as existent or nonexistent. When you probe into the nature of your own mind as a conceptually designated subject, examine whether it can be identified within the context of the eight extremes of conceptual elaboration.
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 05 May 2020, Online-only
Stepping into the Coach of Taking the Mind as the Path
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 17 May 2021, Online-only
While resting in awareness observe the stream of consciousness from which all subjective mental processes emerge, and the space of the mind from which all mental images and appearances arise. In so doing, closely apply mindfulness to the nature of arising—the factors of origination—of the mind.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 18 May 2021, Online-only
Observe the movements of javana with and without identifying with them, and examine the consequences in your mind and behavior of “appropriated” and “unappropriated” mental processes. Then observe the impact of the observation on the observed: the nature of observer-participancy. Finally, examine the actual nature of the mind that observes, cutting through the dualities of existence and nonexistence and so on to a dimension of consciousness that is signless, boundless, and all-luminous.
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 07 May 2020, Online-only
Authentic Doubt and Vipashyana
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 12 Apr 2020, Online-only
Transforming the Reality of Suffering
