2019 8-Week Retreat, 22 Apr 2019, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
Lama Alan proceeds to Shantideva’s second Phase of Bodhicitta: exchanging self and others. It is evolutionary to put yourself first (e.g. procreation). We are acutely aware of our own suffering and place our own well being first. With awareness, however, comes caring. Are you willing to postpone your own enlightenment for the welfare of others whom are infinitely more important? Meditation starts at 16:35 After the meditation Alan comments on how silliness has its place and he answered a question regarding Vipashyana on the Nature of the Mind and more specifically, on origin and destination. He said that this meditation was very subtle, experiential (contemplate and observe closely with direct observation and in an intelligent way) and non-conceptual. See whether any of your appearances could be something on which the mind could be designated.
Fall 2010 Shamatha Retreat, 19 Nov 2010, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
This evening we return to compassion, with a focus on how Buddhism runs against the grain of modernity in terms of its approach to suffering. We can achieve lasting and total freedom from suffering while still alive; we don’t have to wait for death to bring salvation (as in modern mainstream Christianity), or total annihilation (as in the materialistic, neurocentric view of mind). Then, following the meditation session, Alan answers questions concerning ‘settling the mind in its natural state,’ how to find the right balance between mindfulness and introspection, and how to scientifically obliterate the neurocentric view once and for all.
2023 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 4, 13 May 2023, Crestone, Colorado and Online
After settling body, speech and mind, Lama la guides us through the main body of Padmasambhava’s pointing out instruction on identifying pristine awareness, together with the commentary of Gyatrul Rinpoche: Padmasambhava on “Identifying Pristine Awareness” (Natural Liberation): “At that time, the guru should provide the following instruction: Oh, now steadily observe this consciousness at the time of placing the mind steadfastly and without modification. Oh, once you have calmed the compulsive thoughts in your mind right where they are, and the mind is unmodified, isn’t there a motionless stability? Oh, this is called “śamatha,” but it is not the nature of the mind. Now, steadily observe the very nature of your own mind that is still. Is there a resplendent emptiness that is nothing, that is ungrounded in the nature of any substance, shape, or color? That is called the “empty essential nature.” Isn’t there a luster of that emptiness that is unceasing, clear, immaculate, soothing, and luminous, as it were? That is called the “luminous manifest nature.” Its essential nature is the indivisibility of sheer emptiness, not established as anything, and in its unceasing, vivid luster such awareness is resplendent and brilliant as it were. This present, unmoving consciousness, which cannot be directly expressed in words, is given the name “awareness.“ That which thinks is this alone, so it is given the name “mind.” It is this that is mindful of all kinds of things, so it is given the name ‘mindfulness.’ While it is not seen, it is a special seeing that is clear, steady, unmediated, and steadfast, so it is given the name “vipaśyanā.” It is that which makes distinctions among all specific phenomena, like separating the layers of a mushroom, so it is given the name ‘discerning intelligence.’ All terms such as ‘sugatagarbha,’ ‘sole quintessence,’ ‘absolute space,’ ‘primordial consciousness,’ ‘the middle way,’ ‘ultimate reality,’ ‘Mahāmudrā,’ ‘Atiyoga,’ and ‘emptiness’ are names of this alone. This steadfast awareness exists, so it is that which sees form with the eyes, experiences sounds with the ears, smells with the nose, tastes with the tongue, and so on. All the experiencers of such things are just this clear conscious awareness of the present. However, since we have this, and it variously appears as dislike, attachment, hatred, and so on, and because it knows, remembers, and is aware, we are given the name ‘sentient being.“ - Gyatrul Rinpoche: “We should know that all our mental activities, all our cogitations, and all our mental tasks are done with the mind. Discerning intelligence is the ability to distinguish between things, to categorize, and, among other things, to discern the various stages of the path.”
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 19 May 2020, Online-only
Session 14: Merging Mind with Space (directing) 1. Review 2. Merging mind with space 3. The actual practice 4. Meditation - merging mind with space (directing) 5. Achieving shamatha 6. Beyond shamatha 7. Q&A In today’s session we practice merging the mind with space. This is similar to the practice of awareness of awareness in that it is shamatha without an object. Meditation starts at 11:11 Glen explains the actual process of attaining shamatha. Upon attaining shamatha, total mental and physical pliancy is achieved. Any feeling of heaviness or discomfort is eliminated, and then intense mental bliss arises. The 5 obscurations are now abandoned totally while resting in samadhi, and outside of meditation they are much weaker than before. The differences between shamatha and jhana is that the jhana factors are not as strong in shamatha as in jhana. In the first jhana one can rest in samadhi for a whole 24 hours without wavering, and in shamatha it is between 4 and 24 hours. Another name for shamatha is access to the first jhana. Each proceeding jhana is subtler and more refined, and Glen explains the defining characteristics of each level. For example, in the first jhana one is free from mental unhappiness. In the Mahayana tradition, shamatha is an adequate basis for practicing vipashana, while in the Theravada tradition they emphasize more the jhanas as a basis for vipashana.
Shamatha Teachings Presented by Glen Svensson, 19 May 2020, Originally part of 2020 8-week retreat
Session 14: Merging Mind with Space (directing) 1. Review 2. Merging mind with space 3. The actual practice 4. Meditation - merging mind with space (directing) 5. Achieving shamatha 6. Beyond shamatha 7. Q&A In today’s session we practice merging the mind with space. This is similar to the practice of awareness of awareness in that it is shamatha without an object. Meditation starts at 11:11 Glen explains the actual process of attaining shamatha. Upon attaining shamatha, total mental and physical pliancy is achieved. Any feeling of heaviness or discomfort is eliminated, and then intense mental bliss arises. The 5 obscurations are now abandoned totally while resting in samadhi, and outside of meditation they are much weaker than before. The differences between shamatha and jhana is that the jhana factors are not as strong in shamatha as in jhana. In the first jhana one can rest in samadhi for a whole 24 hours without wavering, and in shamatha it is between 4 and 24 hours. Another name for shamatha is access to the first jhana. Each proceeding jhana is subtler and more refined, and Glen explains the defining characteristics of each level. For example, in the first jhana one is free from mental unhappiness. In the Mahayana tradition, shamatha is an adequate basis for practicing vipashana, while in the Theravada tradition they emphasize more the jhanas as a basis for vipashana.
Fall 2013 Shamatha and the Seven-Point Mind Training, 24 Sep 2013, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Intent of Samantabhadra – Placement exam – different practices for those of superior, middling and inferior faculties. Those with supreme faculties hear teachings and experience the direct crossing over and become a vidyadhara. Those with middling and inferior faculties follow the 10 bhumis (grounds) and the 5 paths. Merge your mind with space and remain in equipoise for 20 days. Those with middling faculties will identify rigpa and become a vidyadhara. Those with inferior faculties practice shamatha, vipassana, breaking through, and crossing over.
Merging your mind with space – let awareness slip into space rather than taking space as an object. Release all grasping to your mind and even the bliss, luminosity and nonconceptuality of shamatha. Release everything on the out breath – designed to counter the tightness or wired feeling that can come with awareness of awareness.
Working hypothesis – right now we are in a non-lucid dream. What would be the most direct way to wake up? Don’t do anything that will reinforce yourself as a sentient being. Release all grasping.
Meditation starts at: 22:20
2018 8-week retreat- The Essence of Clear Meaning, 27 Apr 2018, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute in Pomaia (Pisa), Italy
Topics include: - 9 yanas (shravaka, pratyekabuddha, bodhisattva, kriya, upaya, yoga, mahayoga, anuyoga, atiyoga) - 4 classes of tantra (kriya, charya, yoga, anuttarayoga) - Mahamudra (sutra, tantra, essence) - All is mind. Mind is empty. Emptiness is spontaneous actualization. Spontaneous actualization is self-liberating. URL for Flipchart folder: https://imgur.com/a/FRfJj 
2017 8-Week Retreat, 09 May 2017, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
This morning Alan continues the oral transmission of the Lake-Born Vajra’s pith instructions for Bringing the Impure Mind onto the Path excerpted from the Vajra Essence. He begins by pointing out two primary aspects of the practice: qualitative vividness and temporal vividness. By maintaining the stillness of awareness stability arises, which in turn leads to an increase in relaxation. Neither of these come by way of ‘doing,’ but by releasing grasping to anything which arises in the mind. Awareness, free of the overlay of habitual grasping, is by its very nature relaxed and stable. The increasing acuity of attention being honed here can notice more subtle event. Alan terms this qualitative vividness. As the fluctuations of the mind subside, you may attend more and more closely to the space of the mind and ascertain ever more fleeting murmurings of images and desires that were previously veiled by the more coarse activities of the mind. Alan term this temporal vividness. After another transmission of pith instructions from the Lake-Born Vajra in the guided meditation, Alan turns to another section of the Vajra Essence where the disciple Boundless Great Emptiness poses a pressing question to the Guru, “If, as you’ve said, practicing shamatha gives rise to such a wide and unpleasant array of nyam, and if, by achieving it, one does not move one step along the path to liberation, why should we practice it at all?” In answering this question, the Lake-Born Vajra succinctly lays out the complete path up to its culmination, identifying Samantabhadra in your own being. Guided meditation starts at 11:57
2023 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 4, 10 May 2023, Crestone, Colorado and Online
- Question 1: What’s the relationship between the statement that one might not encounter these noble teachings in the next life versus ideas of leftover karma or unfinished business when it comes to achieving rainbow body? Answer: Lama-la emphasised the rarity of encountering these teachings in this lifetime, let alone future lifetimes. Gyatrul Rinpoche, as far as Lama-la is aware, only taught this text to 15 or so disciples. The chances of coming across this in future—taking on a human rebirth and coming across the causes and conditions necessary—are therefore slim to none. That is why we should commit ourselves absolutely to making the most of this opportunity to study and practice now and play our part in seeing the more optimistic prophecies described at the opening of this text come to fruition. Even the most pessimistic prophecies, including the dying out of this lineage, are not set in stone. We must devote ourselves to virtuous actions, prayers, aspirations and doing whatever we can to keep this precious dharma alive—we must not wait for, or count on, the “luck“ or leftover karma of another lifetime to be reacquainted with it. Such leftover karma, or leto, may just propel us to higher realms and not necessarily orient us toward the enlightenment in one lifetime that this sacred text promises. The karmic momentum of past lifetimes has brought us here and we should seize this moment—it will never be time wasted. - Question 2: Throughout this retreat there have been several mentions of historical or contemporary figures that some might consider pure evil. How does Buddhism handle such figures? Are they all a culmination of mental affliction? Should we apply loving-kindness when we encounter them with this in mind? If all virtue is an emanation of the Buddhas, then is there a parallel force or origin story to evil? Is evil personified in Buddhism like it is in Christendom?’ Answer: All sentient beings have Buddhanature; this means no one is beyond rehabilitation from evil, though it is possible this may be the work of several lifetimes. Evil or otherwise unskilful action is always an emanation of mental affliction and should be met with loving-kindness; only love is sufficient for purifying hateful minds and deeds. There are cartoon-like personifications of evil within Buddhism—maras etc. However, these are never given sentient status but are instead the anthropomorphising of mental afflictions themselves, including self-grasping. Even bardo beings, demons or hungry ghosts should be received with compassion and not turned into pantomime villains. It is important to remember that such mental afflictions, like virtues, typically come in clusters. However, they are all empty appearances—free from inherent existence—and can be handled without reification and thereby made powerless. As with all else, their origin story is rooted in ignorance, the first link of dependent origination. In this light, having an externalised view of self-satisfaction is the catalyst to all unwholesome states and actions. - Question 3: Would there be any specific karmic consequences associated with failing to leverage the gifts we have been born with for dharma or—worse yet—using them for non-virtue? Answer: Lama-la emphasised that, absolutely, there would be negative consequences of failing to use our privileges for the sake of other sentient beings. The more we receive, the more intelligence or powerful we are or become, the more responsibility we have. It’s common sense, but a deep common sense. If such talents are used for selfish purposes or are weaponised against others then there are exceptionally heavy karmic consequences.
The 4 Yogas of Mahamudra 2019 Retreat, 17 Jun 2019, Shambhala Mountain Center
Lama Alan begins by using the analogy of going to the movies and watching images on a screen as it compares to observing the mind and whatever arises within it. He quotes Yangthang Rinpoche: "Do not look out, look in, because when you look out you reify" We're observing our own cinema about 16 hours a day. It's 3D, it's free, and it includes drama, farce, tragedy, and a lot of infomercials. Lama then explains that there are two ways of doing the practice of settling the mind in its natural state. One is what we've already practiced, which is explained by Karma Chagme using the analogy of the raven and the navigator. The other is the approach suggested by Yangthang Rinpoche, where we're less likely to be caught up in the contents of our mind, because we just recognize the mental events that arise but we're not interested in their content. After the meditation we go back to the texts. Lama Alan translated these short descriptions of each of the stages within each yoga from teachings by Garchen Rinpoche. They're contained in the text "Twelve Stages of the Four Yogas of Mahamudra". We start by covering the small stage of the Yoga of single-pointedness. Then we go back to "The Four Yogas of Mahamudra": * Yoga of Single-pointedness * Medium Stage * Karma Chagme's instructions **Meditation** Shamatha: Settling the mind in its natural state following Yangthang Rinpoche's approach Meditation starts at 14:34
Fall 2013 Shamatha and the Seven-Point Mind Training, 01 Oct 2013, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
We go right into meditation on the rise and fall of the breath at the abdomen. Burmese method to stabilize the mind.
Stage 2 of Shamatha is reached when you can stabilize your mind for up to a minute at a time. Alan discusses how to use the 9 stages of Shamatha – as sign posts, not as goals. If you set as goals then turn the 9 stages into poison. Achieve this stage by the power of thinking such as counting the breaths. Most of the time your attention is not on the object. This is to be expected. In between sessions maintain mindfulness.
Meditation was silent and so not recorded.
Spring 2011 Shamatha Retreat, 23 Apr 2011, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Alan Wallace guides a 24-minute meditation on loving-kindness, first for oneself, and then ultimately in all directions without barriers. He discusses the catalyst for the aspiration of loving-kindness and the importance of living a life of virtue.
He then answers the following questions from the group:
1. While doing awareness of awareness practice, I don't see a difference between awareness and mind. What is the relationship between awareness and mind?
2. Is it possible to achieve shamatha with the four immeasurable practices?
3. In Dudjom Lingpa's "Vajra Essence", there is a shamatha practice in which you visualize a bindu at the heart center. Can you talk about that?
2018 8-week retreat- The Essence of Clear Meaning, 04 May 2018, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute in Pomaia (Pisa), Italy
Alan introduces the meditation of "Taking the Mind as the Path" as a "pivot" meditation. When we rest easily and deeply in the stillness of awareness, it can be very relaxing, very soothing. This is a shamatha practice: "shamatha" indeed means tranquillity, serenity. If we observe emotions, memories, desires, thoughts etc. arising in the space of the mind without identifying with them and reifying them, this is already freedom, we are no longer the slaves of our own mind. It's not at all a kind of dissociation, but rather the ability to be fully present with them and not being captivated by the mind's movements: this is immediate freedom. As we become more and more familiar with seeing mental events as mental events without identifying with and reifying them, this may just flow out into the rest of our experience. In this way, we are half-way there to realize the empty nature of phenomena, because we are already seeing all appearances as empty of substantiality. The meditation is on Taking Aspects of the Mind as the Path. After the meditation, Lama Alan begins with the question: what is virtue and what is non-virtue? He continues Phase 3 on page 70, addressing the context of traditional Tibetan practices which involve doing: circumambulation, chanting, offering and so forth. In contrast, emptiness meditation may seem boring. However, Dzogchen meditation is nothing other than sustaining the view. Lama Alan again reminded us of the vital importance of preliminary practices, shamatha and vipashyana. With them, then "just sitting" maintaining the view is the most profound practice there is. Without them, "just sitting" becomes marmot practice. Following the text closely, he described how Gods and Demons were assumed realities in Tibetan culture as bacteria, viruses, gravity etc. are to us. Are they merely figments of the imagination? No. They do exist conventionally speaking as sentient beings with their own mind streams. But when we engage with or encounter them, then they arise as nothing other than our own appearances. Lama Alan also addressed the mind/body problem and the role of prana; the importance of returning repeatedly to "my own appearances" on all 3 levels; the dangers of reification in generation stage practice; the fact that mental afflictions make us unhappy, not other people, hence the need to purify our own minds. The meditation starts at 5:43 Text p. 70-71
Fall 2011 Shamatha Retreat, 14 Oct 2011, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
For those of us returning to our ordinary lives, Alan suggests that we avail ourselves of all the shamatha practices depending on our body and mind at that moment. For those of us continuing in retreat, Alan suggests that we focus primarily on one practice and deepen that.
Non-guided meditation (7:18) on shamatha practice of our choice.
Questions (33:02)
Q1a) It takes one countless eon to achieve the Path of Seeing. Why not take the shravaka path of realizing selflessness and using that wisdom from the very start?
Q1b) Where are we after achieving shamatha and vipashyana?
Q2a) Please tell us about Sakya Dagmo-la
Q2b) What is Samantabhadra’s pure land of Akanishta?
Q3) Who are Alan’s 2 principal teachers?
Q4a) How can we practice shamatha during ngöndro?
Q4b) I haven’t had any success with lucid dreaming, so are there easier practices?
Q5) Please give advice on preparing for retreat.
Q6) In Settling the Mind, is there subtle preference in letting thoughts arise in free association?
Q7) Since dzogchen is less complex and possibly easier for realizing clear light mind, why did the New Translation Schools move away from this towards the stages of generation and completion practices?
Spring 2012 Shamatha Retreat, 05 May 2012, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Tonight we add depth to the practice of settling the mind in its natural state with two further modes of mindfulness: #3 absence of mindfulness, and #4 naturally luminous mindfulness. Alan speaks at length about the experience of mental events compared to the other sense fields, and our reifying these experiences with cognitive fusion and conceptual overlays; taking the mind as the path is shown to be a strong analog to becoming lucid in a dream.
Meditation begins at 46:26
Q&A begins at 1:11:22
Q&A
* "Con-fusing" first-person energy with mental events.
* A down-home experience of the substrate consciousness.
2019 8-Week Retreat, 06 May 2019, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
Lama Alan began by commenting on some thoughtful questions that have been asked in the context of the lack of inherent existence of phenomena, such as : “How is that so, when we readily reach consensus regarding certain phenomena?” and “How does the grass grow when no one is looking?” He referred to the Great Perfection and said that these questions came in the second phase of the text, which has to do with the cultivation of wisdom. Meanwhile, he said that our lives are passing by quickly and that follow this route (“outside in”) would be a laborious process. He said a much quicker route was “inside out” and that that resulted in the questions either being answered or disappearing due to our insights. He also commented on how we shouldn't fall into questions for mere intellectual entertainment, and reminded us to consider if these questions are hitting the target of our mental afflictions, and if answering them will help prepare us for the time of death. The guided meditation concerned the emptiness of the mind, focusing on investigating whether the mind and the observer were one or two. Meditation starts at 9:05 After the meditation Lama Alan read and gave commentary on the text, from the second paragraph of page 191 to the second paragraph of page 192. He referred to Shamatha being a tool that could target the weak spot of our obscurations and afflictions. By achieving the essential nature of consciousness (the sign of the mind) and by then dealing with the bifurcation of dualistic grasping we could first cut through all the layers of mentation that obscure substrate consciousness and then the substrate consciousness that obscures Rigpa. Lama Alan referred to the trinity of dharmakaya, dharmadhatu and the energy of primordial consciousness, and how they're all indivisible. He explains a reference to primordial consciousness being self-arising, and how it only makes sense when seen from the phenomenal world, within the context of space and time. Primordial consciousness takes place in the 4th time, where there is no causality, arising or passing, and so it does not arise in dependence upon causes and conditions. He also commented that practically speaking, the thickest veil obscuring the substrate were the 5 obscurations. He referred to the importance of knowing mind (e.g. clearly identifying sentient being’s mind and separately substrate consciousness) and pristine awareness each individually. One useful question was to ask was: “What is there apart from the mind and substrate consciousness?” He also said that mind was the essential nature of Samsara.
Fall 2010 Shamatha Retreat, 18 Nov 2010, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
This evening Alan leads us into the practice of compassion by attending to the 3rd and deepest dimension of suffering and its causes, completing the process of merging wisdom and compassion. After the meditation session, Alan answers 3 very important and very practical questions: one dealing with the ‘vase breathing,’ which can be applied in the practice of “settling the mind in its natural state” and in “awareness of awareness;” the second dealing with how to distinguish between observing the space of the mind when nothing arises in it, and awareness of awareness itself; and the third dealing with how to progress most efficiently while practicing mindfulness of breathing.
Fall 2015 Stage of Generation, 11 Aug 2015, Araluen Retreat Center, Queensland, Australia
Alan explains the purpose of cultivating divine pride and merging our awareness with the mind of the guru. Divine pride is a fabrication, but a better one than we currently have. Low self esteem or high self esteem are both constructions. In this practice we "un-construct" the fabrication by melting it into emptiness, then we imagine our mind stream indivisible with the Buddha. This is the swift path but it's slender and very subtle. We seek to dissolve not only the reified notion of self but to arise from emptiness with the identity of Padmasambhava. It's like a holographic image. It can move and it has causal efficacy but it's not there from its own side. Hold it with the lightness of a feather. You imagine like this until the reality bursts through and like a seed sprouting, the husk falls into the soil. Then pristine awareness manifests! The meditation is on Settling the Mind. After the meditation Alan added a footnote regarding the hierarchy of the three modes of knowledge in epistemology. First there's knowledge based on authority, which is belief and better if it's in accordance with reality! But in Buddhism even if you have studied, how much has that purified your mind? In science it's enough for us to rely on knowledge based on authority, but in Buddhism we have to probe more deeply so we really know for ourselves. As we're investing everything in the refuge of Dharma, it's like investing in gold. We need to make sure it's solid gold. Even if you ascertain knowledge through reason it's not enough. You have to know for yourself. That's the highest form of knowledge. That is realisation. And even beyond that, there's acquired confidence which he likened to countersinking a nail that's already flush. Meditation starts at 15:55
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 26 Apr 2020, Online-only
Vajra Essence Review (week 4) 1. Review 2. Establishing the mind as baseless and rootless 3. How individuals with specific faculties may enter the path 4. How meditative experiences and realizations arise 5. Meditation – Vajra Essence review 6. Q&A Glen begins with a short review of what we have seen so far in The Vajra Essence. He reads a quote by Je Tsultrim Zangpo on how people of sharp faculties can realize the emptiness of mind just by being shown partial reasoning for establishing that absence. What that means for people of inferior faculties is we should try to study the Madhyama treatises in order “to comprehend all the reasons that establish the absence of true existence.” Glen also presents the arguments for how the mind is established as baseless in regards to how “if the one who arises were really established,” it would be immutable and un-able to change. Therefore, as Vajra of Mind states: “I am the emptiness that never arose.” Glen states how the reality of impermanence, in its most subtle state, can be a means for ascertaining emptiness. He also briefly explains the process of delusion in samsara, which subsequently creates our appearances. Regarding shamatha, those of inferior faculties who wish to take the mind as the path should “relax and let thoughts be as they are,” observing with mindfulness and introspection. This practice will lead to bliss, luminosity and non-conceptuality, but it is important to not get attached to them. Finally Glen concludes his review by talking about the 5 paths which lead to realization: intellectual understanding, meditative experience, realization, acquiring confidence, and finally liberation. Meditation starts at 32:20 Q & A: Glen gives some recommendations on how to structure your retreat regarding the different classes that he, Lama Alan and Yangchen are giving.
Fall 2011 Shamatha Retreat, 15 Sep 2011, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Talk
Last night’s discussion of pointing out instructions may have left some feeling hopeless as so many of the qualified teachers have died. Important to know that if receive authentic teachings that is enough don’t need the pointing out instructions. Referenced teachings on DVD from five years ago in which Yangthang Rinpoche said to rest in luminosity and emptiness and said don’t tell me you can’t do it. Discussion of the emptiness of the mind.
Meditation (43:26)
Meditate on compassion at the deepest level which is our essential vulnerability to suffering. Visualize your own suffering and the causes of suffering as darkness dissolving into the light orb at your heart. Then continue with the same meditation for others.
Questions (68:25)
1) You talked today about the emptiness of the mind. When I attend to the space of the mind it ripples like Jello.
2) In Dzogchen you talk about clarity and emptiness. How does that relate to the awareness of awareness meditation?
3) As you said, everything in the world we get we eventually loose. This is so obvious to understand intellectually but that is not enough; we must experience at a deeper level. Can you comment on that?
4) How does the subtle energy body exist? Is it mental energy or physical energy? Does your knowledge of physics help explain how it exists?
2022 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 3, 26 May 2022, Online from Miyo Samten Ling in Crestone, Colorado, USA
Yangchen begins with a correction to yesterday's commentary in the section on offering the leftover torma. This is not being offered to Ishvari and Brahma as the high gods in the Hindu tradition because the leftover torma is being offered to a lower class of beings. All these beings are in the plural. Here we are making friends with various classes of spirits. At 3:34 we then begin the sadhana. Yangchen leads us through the complete sadhana, including the ganachakra, as a template, or prototype, which we can use on our own as a long meditation, or just practice it one part at a time until we comfortable with it to make it our own practice. Today we followed the practice in English.
Fall 2015 Stage of Generation, 13 Aug 2015, Araluen Retreat Center, Queensland, Australia
The practices so far may seem separate but they are all inter-related. When settling the mind in its natural state we observe the space of the mind and what comes up within it in real time, trying not to get abducted by the content. We then move on to something more challenging, the mental afflictions, of which Alan focuses on Craving, hostility, ignorance/delusion. We become ensnared with our mental afflictions when they appear because we see them from an ordinary perspective; that is, we have cognitive fusion with them and therefore react to them. However, if we view them from the stillness of our awareness, an ‘I/it’ perspective, we see them more as events taking place, as appearances of the substrate consciousness. With reference to the sadhana of Avalokiteshvara, based on the realisation of emptiness and the power of imagination, everything is viewed as displays of Dharmakaya. Therefore when a ‘mental affliction’ appears it is seen as an aspect of primordial consciousness (a facet of Buddha mind) not as a delusion. We get a a taste of this perception when we view these upheavals from the stillness of our awareness. Alan emphasises that a person is not the same as the mental afflictions that we may witness in them. Similarly, those we witness in ourselves are also not us, they come and go. He goes on to relating this to the Sangha. Following meditation he finishes by explaining the imagery of the deities displayed on the shrine.
2019 8-Week Retreat, 09 Apr 2019, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
Lama Alan begins by explaining the placement exam in the text and what it is about. Also, he explains that the reason for the exam is to see where we are in our journey. The idea is to merge our mind with external space and external means not holding anything within. The image is like the one of being on the edge of a waterfall where the water that goes out is gone and will not be yours anymore. Meditation is on releasing the mind into space After the meditation he suggests to try to do this releasing as continuously as possible and to see if we can be as free of activity as we can. Then there is a request for Lama Alan to share something about Guru Rinpoche and a comment from Glen from the people following the retreat from afar. The meditation starts at 16:06
Fall 2010 Shamatha Retreat, 18 Nov 2010, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Alan’s introduction was very interesting. He explained to us that, according to the teachings of Padmasambhava, this practice is designed to go straight to the nature of the phenomena of consciousness, “the space of awareness,” the relative space of the mind.
He shared with us that years ago some scientists were trying to investigate and research yogis, and how these people practice Shamatha and Compassion. The scientists wanted to study only the brain, but the yogis refused to take part, because practice is something that is experiential. It’s like trying to investigate how a mathematician can understand sophisticated math, by only looking at his brain. The only one who can assess consciousness is a first person observer, looking at his/her own mind.
2019 8-Week Retreat, 05 Apr 2019, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
Preliminary practices are not mentioned in this text but Lama Alan stresses that they are profound practices of enormous importance. This text was revealed in 1863 by Dudjom Lingpa through visionary connection with the Lake Born Vajra. The first question is which is primary among body, speech and mind? Consciousness in the universe is primary. If the mind is primary, what is the nature of that mind? If you want to understand the nature of consciousness you must look at it. To study consciousness you need attention, concentration, mindfulness and introspection. The straight path for understanding consciousness is to look carefully with discerning intelligence. If you don’t look then you will stay in the dark forever. Meditation is Awareness of Awareness for first half and investigation in the second half After the meditation, we start the text. There is a discussion of who is a suitable vessel for these teachings and the dangers of teaching those who are not suitable. The teachings are kept secret to protect people. Lama Alan discusses the visionary appearances described in the text. Then he starts the Phase 1: Taking the Impure Mind as the Path. Who is going from here to there? Look inward, what is the referent of I? Do not look outside yourself for the Buddha. You have to know that consciousness is primary and everything else is derivative. Discussion of Thomas Huxley who put the profession of science on the map. He promoted a complete fusion of science and materialism that has continued to what we see today. Stops in the text on page 166 where “Faculty of Mentation answered, “I am formless emptiness. I definitely transcend shape and color.” The meditation begins at 27:50
Fall 2013 Shamatha and the Seven-Point Mind Training, 13 Sep 2013, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
The guided meditation is settling the mind in its natural state. Before this meditation starts, Dr. Wallace points out the two types of vividness (qualitative and temporal) and the continuity of stability.
After the meditation, we go back to the Seven Point Mind Training. The aphorism "Examine the unborn nature of awareness" is discussed.
From the Pali perspective, Dr. Wallace talks about the issue of the culmination of the path (realisation of Nirvana) for an arhat.
Next, some quotes from Mahayana Sutras, including one by Nagarjuna.
Finally we go into Dzogchen perspective in which a section of the Vajra Essence from Dudjom Lingpa is quoted.
Meditation starts at: 5:56
The 4 Yogas of Mahamudra 2019 Retreat, 15 Jun 2019, Shambhala Mountain Center
This morning Lama Alan introduces the practice of settling body, speech, and mind in their natural state. After the meditation Lama Alan continues to comment on the practice and its benefits. This can be an excellent prelude to other practices and also help us with our everyday activities. Lama also introduces the concept of seasoning the day and the importance of learning how to practice in the supine position. He also explains the differences between Mahamudra from the perspective of Sutrayana and Vajrayana. Lama then comments on the 3 main elements to enter the path of Mahamudra: Shamatha, Vipashyana, and identifying pristine awareness. He further elaborates on the practice of Shamatha. Finally he goes over the 4 revolutions in outlook (aka the 4 thoughts that turn the mind) as preliminaries to Mahamudra in the Sutrayana and viewing all sentient beings as family, seeing your Vajra siblings with pure vision, and viewing your Guru as a Buddha. **Meditation** Shamatha: Settling body, speech, and mind in their natural state Meditation starts at 8:38
Fall 2014 Shamatha, Vipashyana, Dream Yoga, 23 Sep 2014, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
We continue deepening our practice of settling the mind in its natural state, which is considered the optimal technique for dreaming yoga practices. Alan elaborates on reification and the fact that we become so vulnerable to suffer when doing so. Alan gives the instructions for this practice, which is built upon being free of distraction and grasping, either gross or subtle. The perspective we are trying to emulate in this practice is that of the substrate consciousness. We are seeking to approximate viewing the mind not from inside the mind but rather from the perspective of the discerning but non conceptual luminous bright and blissful substrate consciousness, which is the origin from which all the subjective impulses emerge. This practice is a fantastic daytime preparation for lucid dreaming. After meditation, Alan continues with the text on page 145 regarding the ten analogies of the impure illusory body. Alan elaborates on the practice of equalizing when encountering situations that the eight mundane concerns take place and the application of the wisdom of the absence of true existence. Settling the mind in its natural state is the foundation for more advanced practices such as generation and completion stages, trekcho, togal, etc. Alan finishes the session making reference to the signs that makes one to be a good practitioner: not only when one has equalized the eight mundane concerns but most important when one develops an incredible and genuine sense of good cheer, warmth, kindness, joy and wellbeing. Meditation starts at 38:40
Shamatha Teachings Presented by Glen Svensson, 07 Apr 2020, Originally part of 2020 8-week retreat
Session 2: Breath (full-body) 1. Review 2. Qualities (relaxation, stability, clarity) 3. Objects (breath, mind, awareness, merging mind with space) 4. The actual practice 5. Meditation - breath (full-body) 6. Tips for the practice 7. Q&A This session focuses on mindfulness of breath with full body awareness. Glen reviews our previous practice of settling the body, speech and mind in its natural state, and how this practice can be an entryway to shamatha, vipassana, and cutting through to pristine awareness. He elaborates how our shamatha meditation should have three main qualities: relaxation, stability and clarity. Their counterparts are tension, excitation and laxity. In our modern world, relaxation is the first quality we should develop in our meditation. Glen also mentions the different objects of shamatha meditation we can use, which are: breath, mind, awareness and space. Based on the Buddha’s quote that Lama Alan frequently uses, he explains how shamatha has the effects of being peaceful, sublime, an ambrosial dwelling which quells unwholesome states. Meditation starts at 26:40 Glen concludes by doing a Q & A, and recommending us to keep our initial meditation sessions short, emphasizing quality over quantity, and gradually increase the duration. He also elaborates how it is OK if in our shamatha sessions there is still a sense of observer and object, examination of duality is a vipashana practice.
Fall 2011 Shamatha Retreat, 02 Sep 2011, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
In this session Alan introduces the practice of loving-kindness extended in all directions.
The meditation starts at 9:34
QA starts at 34:40:
1. Why is the question "what would make us happy" instead of "what would make us happier"?
2. Meditating with eyes open vs eyes closed
3. How to overcome the "fuzzy" quality of attention
4. Can the meditator know the difference between the different degrees of laxity?
5. Perceiving one's heartbeat while meditating
6. If the large flame of effort depicted in the image of the stages of shamatha does not mean trying so hard, what does it actually represent?
7. Where do the pictures in my mind come from?
8. How do you spell "alaya"?
9. Images coming up just before falling asleep
10. If you dissolve your mind into the substrate, is there some similarity to schizophrenia or psychosis?
2017 8-Week Retreat, 01 May 2017, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
Alan begins the session by reminding us that until we achieve shamatha we should get used to a mind that is changing like the weather. As we evaluate our practice by how IT is going, the idea might come up that we need a retreat from the retreat because the mind is so noisy. One option is the relaxing and soothing withdrawal into the body of mindfulness of breathing. Out of this practice stability and continuity will arise and once this happens one naturally becomes more interested in the mind and the practice of Settling the Mind in Its Natural State. Over time mental appearances may become so familiar that the allure of stillness might be even more interesting and we might want to dwell in it. However, the point of shamatha is to provide clarity for vipashyana and we direct it to fathom what is really going on. Alan raises the question of what is the transition or the connection between the active doing of vipashyana and the nonmeditation of rigpa. The answer is in the guided meditation, watching the mind construct the world of objects and subjects. Following the meditation Alan wants to linger on a sentence of the text that would not need much explanation for Tibetans. Referring to the lines in the teachings of Avalokiteshvara, "Although you may seek the basis of designation human being, a horse, a dog.... with their consciousnesses,” Alan reflects that this common sense observation of including animals among the sentient actually contradicts our Eurocentric philosophical and scientific history. To inoculate us for the time after the retreat, Alan reminds us of the many occasions on which our society, way of life, and thinking inflicted unimaginable harm on other human beings, animals and nature as a whole. All the cruelty that is still going on would end if if we would accept that all living beings are consciousness and have feelings. Alan quotes several examples from among the current materialist opinions of cognitive philosophers and scientists and draws parallels to physics by showing how difficult it is to eradicate wrong views and assumptions. Guided meditation starts at 13:27
Spring 2010 Shamatha Retreat, 16 May 2010, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
In this morning's introduction, Alan talks about how the mind is very capable of healing itself, and how the purpose of settling the mind in its natural state is to observe it vividly while not doing things that will prevent the mind from healing. He also talks about talk therapy and medicine, highlighting how they are can be crucial in some cases as a preamble to meditating.
Afterwards we have the practice, consisting of a short introduction and then silence. Enjoy!
This picture of our Mind Centre's "san phra phum" is courtesy of Sara!
Fall 2015 Stage of Generation, 14 Aug 2015, Araluen Retreat Center, Queensland, Australia
We take a brief break from shamatha with two vipashyana practices taught by Padmasambhava via Dudjom Lingpa in the Sharp Vajra of Consciousness Awareness. Probe into the body, speech and mind and determine which is primary. Alan discusses the 35 year period between 1875 and 1910 in which introspection was used to examine the phenomenon of the mind. This ended because many times the results were as hypothesized and there appeared to be a factor of "leading the witness". The current scientific view is that matter is primary and consciousness is secondary. The implications of which is primary, mind or matter are enormous. Meditation is on the Buddha's teaching to Bahiya - in the seen there is only the seen. After the meditation Alan provides a history of science from Galileo through Einstein and the Christian thought underlying it. He brings in Dharmakirti's analysis of inference; how do we know things we can't perceive. To infer the cause on the basis of an effect, at some point in time someone must have seen the cause produce the effect and the effect can't be produced by anything else. Alan applies this analysis to the appearances we perceive. Alan ends with a quote from Andrei Linde from Stanford on the role of consciousness in the universe. The meditation starts at 23:18
Spring 2011 Shamatha Retreat, 10 May 2011, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
In this teaching, Alan Wallace guides a meditation on compassion for the deepest kind of suffering: the suffering of conditioned existence. He informs us that the cultivation of wisdom from insight is a prerequisite for this compassion; the sense that it is possible to wake up, to realize true freedom.
The guided meditation begins 29:08 at in the recording.
Editor's Note: The first three minutes of this session may be difficult for some to hear due to a recording error.
Alan then answers these questions:
1. When in awareness of awareness, we withdraw from all appearances and objectifications of our mind dissolve into the substrate consciousness. But only achieving shamatha, at the end of the shamatha trek, our mind has dissolved into a more essential and less configured consciousness. Can you please be more specific about the different "stages of dissolution" along this trek to destination?
2. In this morning's meditation, we were instructed to observe the space of the mind and the objects that arise in it without alteration. I know that quantum physics has discovered that inherent in observation itself is a changing of the observed, and some scientists today are questioning the scientific method itself, wondering if we do not alter experiments by observation. If this is true, is it really possible to observer ourselves without alteration?
Fall 2011 Shamatha Retreat, 30 Sep 2011, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Alan reviews the process of relinquishing control/agency in the 3 shamatha practices. Given the buddhist assertion that something true should appear truer with increasing scrutiny, the truth of emptiness is now reinforced with insights from modern quantum physics. Yet the insight in modern science does not appear to alter lifestyles and world views, whereas buddhist practice grounded in ethics, concentration, and wisdom do.
Guided meditation (46:20) on projecting awareness up, right, left, down, center, release, and rest. This meditation should be considered a stretching exercise to help us understand that awareness is totally open, without center nor periphery.
Questions (71:13):
Q1) How can we overcome the lion at the gate of „I am the observer“?
Q2) What are other methods to weaken the veils of luminosity in addition to oscillation in awareness of awareness?
Q3) When does the birth process begin?
Q4) What are the Tibetan terms for settling the mind in its natural state and awareness of awareness and their connotations?
Q5) In terms of Hawking’s theory of the past as being in superposition, how is the present different?
Q6) Can you clarify the terms appearance and perception, nangwa and nangyul, within the contexts of mind and space of mind and the 8 consciousnesses?
2019 8-Week Retreat, 19 Apr 2019, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
Lama Alan stresses that the preliminary practices transform everything and until the revolutions based on these practices have occurred in your mind theses practices should be your primary focus. Meditation is on the passage from Dudjom Lingpa’s The Foolish Dharma of an Idiot Clothed in Mud and Feathers on developing Bodhicitta and a continuation of Shantideva’s A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life, Chapter 8. After the meditation, Lama Alan states that existentially settling the mind at ease is to develop Bodhicitta. What greater ease is there than to be willing to dive into Avici Hell to benefit the beings there. There are 7.8 billion people in this world and 20 billion billion animals or 3 billion animals for each person. Those we can actually help to obtain liberation are human beings. We are destroying our planet. Dharma is never more important than it is now. Question regarding breaking samaya with one’s thoughts and implications for the practice of settling your mind in the natural state and allowing all thoughts to arise. Lama Alan describes some thoughts that are root downfalls of Bodhicitta and Tantric Vows. The vow is not broken by the thought arising but rather the identification with the thought which is thinking the though with intention. What heals the mind is resting in that ray of pristine awareness. Please don’t break your samaya because then there is nothing any Lama can do for you. Lama Alan responds to two additional questions. Will each individual enter the Bodhisattva path prior to Dzogchen and what is the difference between Bodhicitta and Rigpa. Meditation begins at 2:30
2017 8-Week Retreat, 12 May 2017, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
In this session Alan completes the oral transmission of Settling the Mind in Its Natural State from Lerab Lingpa. It’s a practice he has taught for many years from this very short text and we’re encouraged to read it repeatedly ourselves. The remaining part of the text covers what to expect as the practice unfolds. In terms of obstacles, we’re warned against becoming “thought experts” in the way one becomes a wildlife expert. Rather we are aiming to have thoughts self-release. To evaluate your practice, the text presents three criteria: 1) Are the afflictions of your mindstream subdued; 2) Are we developing the autonomy of not succumbing to them, that is, not cognitively fusing with them; 3) Is the mind constantly calm and composed. The silent meditation practice is at the end of the teaching and was not recorded.
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 07 Apr 2020, Online-only
Session 2: Breath (full-body) 1. Review 2. Qualities (relaxation, stability, clarity) 3. Objects (breath, mind, awareness, merging mind with space) 4. The actual practice 5. Meditation - breath (full-body) 6. Tips for the practice 7. Q&A
This session focuses on mindfulness of breath with full body awareness. Glen reviews our previous practice of settling the body, speech and mind in its natural state, and how this practice can be an entryway to shamatha, vipassana, and cutting through to pristine awareness.
He elaborates how our shamatha meditation should have three main qualities: relaxation, stability and clarity. Their counterparts are tension, excitation and laxity. In our modern world, relaxation is the first quality we should develop in our meditation.
Glen also mentions the different objects of shamatha meditation we can use, which are: breath, mind, awareness and space.
Based on the Buddha’s quote that Lama Alan frequently uses, he explains how shamatha has the effects of being peaceful, sublime, an ambrosial dwelling which quells unwholesome states.
Meditation starts at 26:40
Glen concludes by doing a Q & A, and recommending us to keep our initial meditation sessions short, emphasizing quality over quantity, and gradually increase the duration. He also elaborates how it is OK if in our shamatha sessions there is still a sense of observer and object, examination of duality is a vipashana practice.
[Keywords: shamatha, full-body, relaxation]
2017 8-Week Retreat, 08 May 2017, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
Having covered the Four Greats up to its culmination of bodhicitta - the powerful motivation that imbues even nonmeditation with profound meaning - Alan guides us today back to a review of the shamatha method of Bringing the Impure Mind onto the Path. Since this practice is enormously useful and greatly emphasized by Düdjom Lingpa, Alan suggests we make this our primary shamatha practice for the remainder of the retreat. Over the next days Alan will illuminate this method with citations from the other four of Düdjom Lingpa’s texts. To begin this session, he draws from the first chapter of The Enlightened View Of Samantabhadra and its explanation of the four mindfulnesses, which can also be found in the Sharp Vajra Of Consciousness Awareness Tantra. Alan explains each type of mindfulness in the context of shamatha and highlights the importance of viewing appearances with still awareness. If we can just let them be, we can watch even troubling appearances self-release and experience the capacity of the mind to heal itself. To encourage the experience of all this, Alan gives a transmission of the pith instructions of the Lake-Born Vajra for the practice of Bringing the Impure Mind onto the Path as found in Vajra Essence. Concluding the session, Alan stresses the importance of maintaining mindfulness not only on the cushion but also between sessions. The more we are able to sustain our awareness of the space of the mind, without letting a single thought go by unnoticed, the more we progress on the path without backsliding between sessions. Guided meditation starts at 21:14
2017 8-Week Retreat, 09 Apr 2017, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
Alan begins this session with detailed instructions on how to practice Merging the External Mind with Space. In this shamatha practice, all activities of the mind (Javana, in sanskrit) go dormant. We release them all entirely so that what remains is the Bhavanga. Although releasing the mind, we do maintain a flow of awareness, a primal sense of knowing focusing on the clarity of awareness. We use the oscillation of the breath to release the mind as we breathe out and to intensify the luminosity as we breathe in. After the meditation, Alan emphasizes one more time the importance of maintaining a continuity of practice between sessions: "Let your default mode be non discursive". As we continue with the text on page 143 about the uncommon preliminaries, Alan elucidates the first point relating to guru devotion by reminding us of the four types of enlightened activities of a bodhisattva (peaceful, expansive, powerful and wrathful). The text continues with the importance of viewing one’s vajra siblings purely. In the Dzogchen path, afflictive emotions are to be viewed as the five primordial wisdoms. By viewing all our sangha companions’ behaviors in this way, they will arise as blessings of the all the Buddhas. The third uncommon preliminary emphasized by Dudjom Lingpa is viewing all sentient beings with immeasurable compassion. Based on this, we are to take the pledge of Maha Karuna, which is to liberate all sentient beings, no matter how long it takes. The 24 minute silent meditation starts at 20:01. That silent period has been cut from the audio.
The Wisdom of Atisha and Knowing Our Own Minds, 16 Sep 2021, Online from Miyo Samten Ling in Crestone, CO
Content: - For people with lots of thoughts and rumination mindfulness of breathing may be more suitable to start with instead of shamatha focused on the mind, because thoughts may be overwhelming. - Start with mindfulness of breathing up to stage IV, because then your attention will never be entirely diverted to some other objects and you never will completely lose your object. On stage VII you can move on from shamatha focused on the mind to shamatha without a sign (awareness of awareness). - You should adjust your practice accordingly to the condition during the day and do practices that are encouraging. The meditation is on shamatha focused on the mind and begins at minute 12.16. Text discussed: - Before continuing with text at the end of page 2 just before the green lady appears, Lama-la goes back to the questions from Atisha: "Drom, well then, who are you?" because Droms answer is not so obvious. - Lama continues with the discussion of the text starting from "As Drom spoke these words, a green lady carrying a vase filled with the nectar of primordial consciousness poured it into two crystal ladles…" and ending with "Master, please reveal the essential point.” (middle of page 4) - Four ways of releasing thoughts
Fall 2014 Shamatha, Vipashyana, Dream Yoga, 08 Oct 2014, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Once again we come back to the culmination of the 4 immeasurables: the cultivation of equanimity. By way of referring to the Dalai Lama as well as a Tibetan aphorism Alan emphasizes the importance of wisdom and compassion. We need both and they need to be balanced. As what concerns the meditation, Alan asks us to release all identification with the body, mind and even awareness (almost like Watzlawick in his explanation of “the pursuit of unhappiness” Alan gives an easy recipe: if samsara hasn’t dished up enough suffering for you, it’s best to start identifying with ever more things!). The only aspect we are told to identify with in this meditation is all sentient beings: Think of whoever appears in the space of your mind as a person who has once been your mother, brother, sister, father, etc. In this manner, practice equanimity. Meditation starts at 36:19
2019 8-Week Retreat, 05 May 2019, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
Lama-la starts this morning’s session by reporting from a talk he heard earlier this morning from His Holiness the Dalai Lama on Vajrayana just before a Yamantaka empowerment. Here, as well as in the Mahayana sutras, the perception of space and time is different, which is why people perceived the Buddha in different ways. In Tantra, the Buddha manifests in the mandala as an archetypal or divine form. Interestingly, in his talk the Dalai Lama used the term indwelling connate mind of clear light. All of the mind states one experiences merge and dissolve back into that mind. Coupled with that is the very subtle prana or energy. He also mentioned that in the first of the 8 yanas one takes the mind as the path, and only in the last yana one takes the indwelling clear light as the path. In other words, one starts with one’s mind of a sentient being and purifies it. Later, one takes the indwelling connate clear light, i.e. rigpa as the path. When resting in rigpa and looking back, all the other practices seem to involve much effort and work. Lama-la then quotes Yangthang Rinpoche, who stresses that the primary refuge is the guru, because we receive the blessings from our gurus mind to our mind - from Dharmakaya to Dharmakaya. This is particularly important in Dzogchen, because we move along the path by the power of blessings, which is given and brings about the transformation and realization. When thinking about our spiritual teacher, the lama who guides us, we should think about Dharmakaya, Buddha mind, first. Even though this dimension of us is cloaked by veils of obscurations we can connect with it by using our intuition, a kind of primordial knowing. In a way we are taking refuge in our intuition, which is our closest approximation of Dharmakaya. On a final point, Lama-la emphasizes that the Dharmakaya is formless and an iconographically or archetypal representation is Samantabhadra, which has a form. So the question can arise: Why we should visualize a form when there is none? The answer is that we are unable to grasp the trans-conceptual Dharmakaya which makes it hard for us to take refuge. The reason for taking a human and not a geometrical or any other form is that we can relate to it much better and are able to arouse a sense of awe bringing forth the divine, so that we can eventually see our own face as the Dharmakaya. In a similar fashion we will assume the nominal identity of the deity in the empowerment next Sunday because this propels us to enlightenment. Meditation is on opening the floodgates of blessings through Guru yoga After the meditation Lama-la mentions that he will continue with instructions on Guru yoga from Yangthang Rinpoche tomorrow. The meditation starts at: 39:49
Fall 2013 Shamatha and the Seven-Point Mind Training, 21 Oct 2013, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Tonight the meditation is front loaded by looking at two ways we can view the adversity that will no doubt effect us and those we see as belonging to us. Firstly, non lucidly with relative bodhichitta which still has an element of self centeredness, or secondly with ultimate bodhichitta, the view from the bardo, from emptiness or from rigpa.
After the meditation we move on to the practices of Seven Point Mind Training which look at the constructive things we can do to support our ongoing dharma practice. Here Alan focuses particularly on the practice of setting a motivation of Bodhichitta and dedicating.
Questions:
How can we help some one in the throws of anger?
Do we have to believe every sentient being has been our mother to practice Bodhichitta?
Clarification about the practice of Merging Mind With Space.
Meditation starts at: 19:40 (silent, not recorded)
2019 8-Week Retreat, 12 Apr 2019, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
Glen does this session as Lama Alan is ill and getting some rest. Glen reads from the text the section regarding the placement test for those of superior, middling and inferior abilities. For those of middling and inferior abilities, the practice is to identify consciousness as stillness and thoughts as movement. We need to be very clear about what is the object of this practice – the space of the mind and the mental events arising in it. Mental events include thoughts, emotions and images. This practice is important not just as a Shamatha practice but as a practice we can use throughout the day. By stepping back and watching mental events we are free not to react to them. Mental events only have the power to harm us if we give them power by identifying with and following them or by suppressing them. Glen reads from page 83 of Attention Revolution by Alan Wallace regarding the specifics of settling the mind in its natural state. He also discusses the benefits of doing the practice with your eyes open. Meditation is on Settling the Mind in its Natural State After the meditation, he mentions that it is very helpful to be explicitly aware of the stillness of our awareness. The more you rest in the stillness, the more spacious is the mind and mental events are less disturbing like throwing a pebble into a lake versus a small cup. Questions: Are awareness and stillness synonymous? Is commentary to remind oneself of the practice helpful or not? Do we need to be explicitly aware of awareness? The questioner feels he goes back and forth between thoughts and awareness. Meditation begins at 22:28
Fall 2010 Shamatha Retreat, 18 Nov 2010, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
This morning Alan used the Russian-dolls imagery (the dolls that stuck within each other) as his mold. First, he applied it to our mindfulness of breathing practice. Settling the body, speech, and mind are all contained within one another. The mind is at rest when the inner voice is quiet. The inner voice is quiet when the respiration is flowing unobstructed, not forced and unconstricted within a properly aligned body, which is relaxed, still, and yet in a posture of vigilance. We then use our introspection to check on the body, respiration and the mind to see if all them are in their natural states.
Alan then applied the Russian-dolls metaphor to Buddhism in general. Just as a larger doll cannot fit into a smaller one, so the various philosophies of Buddhism gradually build up on one another. Hinayana is encompassed within Mahayana. Mahayana is included within Vajrayana and Vajrayana (and all others) are contained within Dzogchen – The Great Encompassment. Oh, yes…and his favorite – Science makes sense within the context of the Buddhist tradition. However, reverse the gradation and we end up with a whole lot of conflicts and nonsense.
Before we entered the meditation Alan expressed his disgruntledness with people who might pick any school of Buddhism, chop off what doesn’t fit into their worldview and call themselves “secular Buddhists”.
2019 8-Week Retreat, 26 Apr 2019, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
Meditation is on stillness in the midst of motion (your method of choice) with some more instructions on looking at the observer towards the end. After the meditation, Lama Alan talks about how do you experience yourself using observation. The very notion of being a semchen (mind haver) is optional. Nothing about the mind requires us to take possession. Lama Alan then turns to the topic of what happens to an Arhat at death, what continues? He first describes this from the Sravakayana perspective in which there is no mention of a type of consciousness that is not conditioned. He quotes from the Pali Canon in which the Buddha refers to a signless, luminous, all pervasive mind and how does this fit with the concept of a conditioned mind terminated at the Arhat’s death. Lama Alan then turns to the second turning of the wheel of dharma, the perfection of wisdom. He asked Jeffrey Hopkins from this perspective what carries on in a dead Arhat. Jeffrey Hopkins replied that from the Sutrayana point of view, the subtle conditioned mind is what carries on but from the Vajrayana point of view it is the most subtle, indwelling mind of clear light. He then provides a response he received from Geshe Dorji Damdul from the Tibet House in India about how the Buddha metaphorically awakens the Arhat to continue on the path to full enlightenment. HH Dalai Lama often quotes Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö, a Rime master on the different points of view on Buddha nature presented by the different schools of Tibetan Buddhism. Tsong Khapa representing the Gelugpa view, presents Buddha nature from the perspective of sentient beings as a potential arising based on causes and conditions. The Sakya view is that of a Bodhisattva high on the path. The Nyingma view is from the perspective of a Buddha. From the Buddha’s perspective Buddha nature is unborn. Lama Alan then quotes from the Uttaratantra by Maitreya regarding how sentient beings minds are suffused by Buddha mind. There is discussion regarding how dualistic grasping sets the wheels of samsara in motion. Lama Alan finishes the session with the story of how he met his main Theravada teacher (Balangoda Ananda Maitreya) in Sri Lanka who taught him primarily about Shamatha. Guided meditation is mostly silent and starts at 00:55 Meditation instructions begin at 18:02
Fall 2013 Shamatha and the Seven-Point Mind Training, 09 Oct 2013, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
We revisit an important facet of settling the mind in its natural state: to observe not so much the objective appearances to the mind, but the subjective impulses to the mind. This is not as easy as we only become aware after it occurred. But we can observe them and not identifying with them. There are three points: 1) The importance of this practice cannot be over emphasised, we can’t just wish for no mental afflictions and apart from arharts, everyone has them. Now we have the great fortune to see mental afflictions as mental afflictions which is so beneficial. As we do not identify with them, the little violence in our minds does not spew out onto those around you. 2) This is a path of self knowledge, it’s the wrong path if you want to have one pleasant hedonic day after another, release the hedonic evaluation of a good session or a bad session, the proof of the practitioner is how one responds to the various disturbances that occur. Go through the experience, not take a detour around it. Don’t identify with it and keep going anyway. We are not going into some fantasy realm, we are seeing what is happening here and now and getting real, removing the conceptual overlay. 3) Enter the practice by relaxing, being kind gentle and patient, seeking to cultivate genuine happiness. Then as you come off the cushion this sense of loving kindness is brought to the world.
After the meditation Alan talks about achieving Shamatha and what one experiences at the time.
Meditation starts at: A silent meditation session, not recorded. Starts at 25:20
2017 8-Week Retreat, 14 May 2017, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
Alan starts by recommending that at times when we feel our minds are too cluttered, overcast by chit-chat, and when the space of the mind seems to be filled with junk, we should fill it with something else before trying to rest in awareness. For this silent session, we start by practicing mindfulness of breathing using Asanga´s method to sooth the mind. Then, Alan transmits the pith instruction for Settling the Mind in Its Natural State from Yangthang Rinpoche, a great contemporary Dzogchen master considered to be an emanation of Vimalamitra. After the meditation, Alan reminds us that we are in samsara because we have minds. And sometimes, our minds may not be a very nice neighborhood. We can get out of this noisy precinct of our minds by going outwards to the silent countryside, free of thoughts, by either of two methods. We can practice by engaging the nonconceptual sensations of the body on the cushion or by simply going for a walk in nature and being aware of all the sensations arising to the five senses. Or we can take the other basic approach of going inwards to awareness itself, another thought-free zone free of dualistic grasping and even the concepts of inward or outward. Simply rest there. The transmission starts at 15:30 which is followed by a silent meditation session that is not recorded.
Fall 2013 Shamatha and the Seven-Point Mind Training, 04 Sep 2013, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Moving right into the foundational practice of settling the body, speech and mind in its natural state. Learning how to breathe – to let the respiration flow naturally without being forced or restricted.
How to develop a durable and genuine state of being that is not dependent upon pleasant stimulation. Without stimulation from the outside, then stimulate internally with rumination. To settle the mind at ease one must learn to relax. The challenge is to relax and yet stay clear. Looking for a balance between relaxation, stability and vividness. These three have a synergy – relaxation gives rise to stability which gives rise to clarity which enhances stability and deepens relaxation and the circle starts again.
Meditation starts at: 06:04
