Fall 2013 Shamatha and the Seven-Point Mind Training, 04 Sep 2013, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Balance of learning how to unwind the body and mind so they are at ease, allowing yourself this freedom, whilst still maintaining the clarity. That's a skill! Recognising that we are free for the next 24 minutes, we have leisure and no obligations. Additionally we have the opportunity to know how to make this leisure time most meaningful.
First line of the text 'First train in the preliminaries'. This refers to four, the first of which is covered in this session. Each of the preliminaries, shift our very perspective, a revolution. First of the four thoughts that turn the mind, inner revolution - all about a life of leisure and opportunity, the precious human rebirth. This life of leisure and opportunity is more precious than a wish fulfilling jewel.
Alan, also spoke on the Alia (spp?) project. He discussed a scientific methodology that could test the validity of Shamatha realisation, based on the recollection of previously measured experiences from a persons life, such as meals eaten in the previous years. Based on the results of this experiment, the validity of past lives could be analysed.
2017 8-Week Retreat, 04 Apr 2017, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
Guided meditation on discovering shamatha using the practice Settling Body, Speech, and Mind in Their Natural States to advance through a process of elimination.
2018 8-week retreat- The Essence of Clear Meaning, 10 Apr 2018, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute in Pomaia (Pisa), Italy
Before meditation, Lama Alan Wallace begins by saying that the text jumps immediately into the deep end of the pool and it's made for us, for our time. As a context for the first point that we will approach tomorrow (among body, speech and mind, which one is primary?), Alan describes how in academia we have just one homogeneous voice: matter is primary, mind is derivative. There is nothing more 180º opposite to Dzogchen than materialism. Right now the Mind Sciences resemble where astronomy was in the 16th century: a lot of incompatible views (Alan mentions the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, Ptolemy and Copernicus) and no consensus about the earth being in the centre of the universe. In the same way, in 2018 we are still debating about the mind-body problem, baffled by the ghost in the machine. For Donald Hoffman, we haven't made real progress in the science of mind in the last 150 years. We still believe that consciousness is a great mystery or that the mind simply emerges from the brain. In a similar fashion to what happened to Galileo, who discovered the phases of Venus through his 23x power telescope, we need compelling empirical evidence to seal the conversation. We have not done to the mind what we have done to everything else in the physical world: directly observe the phenomena you are trying to understand with as much rigour and precision as you possibly can. This scientific discovery could radically shift our view of reality. Alan believes we are at a powerful juncture in human history. We have a method in our hands and with our samadhi as a telescope, we can turn awareness right upon awareness itself. If we do this for eight weeks, for one, two, three years... until our mind dissolves in the substrate consciousness and we achieve shamatha, then we can veridically recall memories from past lives and develop mundane siddhis like remote viewing. If not just one, but a lot of ordinary people like us could achieve that, it will be a game changer! We can rock the world. And this world needs to be rocked! Nowadays we think "This is the only life we get, let's make the best of it." The notion that there might be something beyond this life doesn't even come up. We are stuck with "family values" as a view (referring to Donald Trump). We have a dehumanizing and disempowering view of human existence as being just bodies. Alan says that there is nothing more important right now than to fathom the nature of mind and make it public. This is the truth about who we really are. We can follow Buddha's openness, incisiveness and compassionate inquiry into the nature of reality. The stakes are really high. What we do now can have a huge impact in the next lifetimes. The meditation is on awareness of awareness (shamatha), with emphasis on its two aspects: luminosity (the quality of experiencing, of making appearances manifest) and cognisance (the quality of knowing). The meditation starts at 27:45 After the meditation, Alan returns to the text, commenting on "How the nature of existence of ultimate reality manifested" and on "How Spontaneously actualized appearances arose as the teacher and his circle of disciples". He explains kadak (original purity, revealed by the practice of trekchö) and lhündrup (spontaneous actualization, revealed by the practice of tögal), noting that a Buddha never has dualistic view and does not see disciples as other. Commenting on the topic "The addendum of the qualities of disciples", Alan says that if faith, enthusiasm and intelligence arise as you engage with this teaching, then you can be certain: you have a seat on the table, you are part of the family, this is your inheritance! Otherwise for those who lack the karmic momentum, this teaching is self-secret or self-hidden. We then start the first of the eight phases of the teaching: taking the impure mind as the path (shamatha focused on the mind or settling the mind in its natural state). Alan ends by saying this teaching is like a play for our own benefit - Dudjom Lingpa was already a vidyadhara, he didn't need it! Text p.45-48
2017 8-Week Retreat, 11 Apr 2017, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
This guided meditation arrives at the practice of Settling the Mind in Its Natural State but by gets there by way of a tour of bare attention to visual, sound, and tactile sensations.
HH Dalai Lama Commentary to The 8-Verse Mind Training, 01 Jul 1979, Online
Part A - H.H. the Dalai Lama’s commentary to The Eight-Verse Mind Training, given at the Institute for Higher Tibetan Studies, Mt. Pèlerin, Switzerland, July 1979
HH Dalai Lama Commentary to The 8-Verse Mind Training, 01 Jul 1979, Online
Part B - H.H. the Dalai Lama’s commentary to The Eight-Verse Mind Training, given at the Institute for Higher Tibetan Studies, Mt. Pèlerin, Switzerland, July 1979
Fall 2015 Stage of Generation, 10 Aug 2015, Araluen Retreat Center, Queensland, Australia
Alan wants our meditation practice this week to move on to settling the mind in its natural state. Alan cleverly quotes a famous intellectual (not revealed in these notes and hence no need for a spoiler alert! - listen to the podcast) to comment that shamatha practice is often viewed as an escape from reality or a withdrawal from dealing with suffering and its causes in the world. However one's shamatha meditation practice doesn't make a dent in our Kleshas. Dudjom Lingpaís text last week stresses the need to recognise impermanence in and of our lives and the existence of suffering and its causes. Without this, one doesn't have Dharma practice, but rather just technique. This is why the preliminaries taught and discussed last week are important. The meditation practice of settling the mind in its natural state is indispensable to shamatha, Mahamudra and Dzogchen. Today's practice requires abiding in stillness while being present and maintaining and distinguishing that stillness in the midst of mental movement. During the meditation practice, Alan instructs us to let each of the six syllables of the Om Mani Padme Hum mantra arise in mind and observe them from that meditative state of stillness. The meditation starts at 26:34 ___ Course notes, other episodes and resources for this retreat are available here The text for this retreat can be purchased via the SBI Store. Finally, Please contribute to help us afford the audio equipment we rent to make these, and future podcasts freely available.
Fall 2011 Shamatha Retreat, 21 Sep 2011, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Afternoon talk
Mindfulness of breathing. Cultivating stability of attention while focusing on the rise and fall of the abdomen. Maintaining the same sense of relaxation. Breathe in to arise wakefulness and eliminate dullness. Breathe out to release all distractions. Discussion of counting technique with breathing. One thing you bring to the practice is your substrate consciousness with its stillness. Clarity is an intrinsic quality that gets covered over but not eliminated. Importance of releasing grasping.
Meditation starts at 30:43
Questions (55:55)
How do you know when medium and subtle excitation are occurring in the settling the mind in its natural state meditation? How about medium and subtle laxity?
Is it true that merely attaining shamatha, the body remains fresh after death? What level of realization is needed to be liberated in the bardo of the Dharmata?
Why do we need to be in solitary retreat to attain shamatha?
Question regarding free will and the self. How does rigpa impact the coarse mind and does it influence free will? Are there parallels in Christianity?
The 4 Yogas of Mahamudra 2019 Retreat, 20 Jun 2019, Shambhala Mountain Center
Lama Alan begins by again reminding us that the core reason for engaging in the practice of vipashyana is to cut the cord of dualistic grasping. He also comments on the view of Dzogchen, and how all appearances are our own appearances, or more explicitly, all appearances are appearances of us. Therefore samsara beings every instant that we see appearances as "other". Lama also comments on how relaxation is key, and how there's no harm in being relaxed. As we relax more and more through sustained practice, this tends to loosen blockages in our prana, which will most likely shout as they leave in the form of nyam. Lama Alan explains that the practice was based on Padmamsabhava's pith instruction from the book Natural Liberation (in the section "searching for the mind") and he reads the text itself. Core Meditations on the Path of Mahamudra * Vipashyana * Padmasambhava (Natural Liberation) * First bullet point We then move on to: The Four Yogas of Mahamudra * Yoga of One Taste * Karma Chagmé **Meditation** Vipashyana: inverting awareness in upon the mind that is observing Meditation starts at 15:52
Spring 2011 Shamatha Retreat, 24 Apr 2011, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Alan Wallace guides a 24-minute meditation on mindfulness of breathing, focusing on the balance between increasing vividness and maintaining the stability of the mind, also without the loss of relaxation.
Spring 2010 Shamatha Retreat, 16 May 2010, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
This is a short followup (I promise! It’s actually less than 15 minutes) clearing up some points from the previous episode. I took two fragments from the next day and mashed them together for this podcast. It is absolutely necessary to listen to Part 1 before listening to this.
In this first fragment B. Alan Wallace briefly returns to the topic of information flow, meaning-to-meaning communication (instead of achieving means through chemicals and brain correlates), and relates this to the placebo effect, specifically to how it is a blatant example of the mind’s capacity to heal itself and heal the body although modern science prefers to wrap itself up in tight conundrums and knots rather than accept this fact.
Then I cut to another fragment from the afternoon session in which B. Alan Wallace clears up some more points about the stream of name and flow and the mind-body problem. He details the hypothesis of the flow of consciousness (information), energy, and space as existence before the mind and body duality. In less than 5 minutes!
And to end this two-part podcast with an encouraging, defiant, educated, and exciting bang, Alan goes back to the history of Galileo. He shows how Galileo achieved authority in physics and ended up taking a “piece of the pie” from the church, simply because he really observed phenomena directly and this gave him the authority to be right, rather than believe people who make claims without really investigating the phenomenon which they claim absolute authority of.
This is what needs to happen in the mind sciences. As was said in Part 1, observing through physical means and asking physical questions will lead to physical answers. The mind is obviously not physical. This means that the authority over the science of the mind should be not in the hands of scientific materialists, it should be in the hands of professional, highly trained contemplatives who have been studying this field for millennia. Just as Galileo claimed authority in the physical sciences from the Catholic Church, so must contemplatives claim authority from the “Church Scientific” in regards to the domain of the mind. This scientific materialism is extending its domain way beyond what they know about, and reducing everything to biological mechanisms simply won’t provide answers. So, let them contribute with their immensely valuable biological information about the brain, and let the real experts of the mind come in and contribute with their millennia-old knowledge of the mind.
Galileo did it, now it’s our turn to do it if we really want to advance scientifically in the study of the mind. Biology won’t cut it anymore.
The image used on the web and on the podcast file is the HUBBLE ULTRA DEEP FIELD. , the deepest portrait of the visible universe ever achieved by humankind.
Credit: NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith (STScI) and the HUDF Team.
Fall 2011 Shamatha Retreat, 03 Oct 2011, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Welcome to all! This afternoon Alan started by stating that stability is usually regarded as the core of the shamatha practice and how it is developed by the rope of mindfulness. Then following a text of Panchen Lobsang Chokyi Gyaltsen that describes that with practicing settling the mind in its natural state one can attend also to the luminosity and cognizance of the mind (which is none other
than awareness of awareness). So the two ends of the rope of mindfulness will be applied to the practice of this afternoon: mindfulness of the breath focused on stability (49:58).
Next Alan covered a wide range of topics from the different control over the bardos by bodhisattvas and common sentient beings to the fact of being able to remember when we become lucid but never when non-lucid. All of these topics were to point out the fact of the common and permanent denominator of them: the presence of awareness.
After the practice we got two questions (80:14): one about the different explanations of our need to sleep and what happen to the sleep of one who has achieved shamatha, and the second about if all sentient beings share the same rigpa.
Please enjoy, most interesting…
2022 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 3, 18 May 2022, Online from Miyo Samten Ling in Crestone, Colorado, USA
Yangchen begins the session with the sadhana meditation. The meditation begins at 0:00:34 and is based on the long version of the Lake-Born Sadhana, through which Yangchen guides us with visualizations, that she detailed in the previous sessions. Yangchen’s teachings start at 34:27. She points out how many details are implied in the sadhana once one integrates it with Lama Tharchin’s explanations and with the instructions in the Vajra Essence. Referring to the previous session she points out the essentially geometric forms she describes. Yangchen then anticipates a passage further ahead in the text: “Camara is one of the subcontinents …of our world system [Jambudvipa] …[and] is in the South-West”. When you’re doing the offerings its position is in the pure land further away from you on the left side [because you enter from the East]. That’s relevant to understand the mandala you’re building, with Mount Meru at its center. There are two kinds of nirmanakaya pure lands, celestial and terrestrial: Shambhala is accessible on this planet, where Sukhavati is a celestial realm…” “Camara [tib. Ngayab] is a terrestrial nirmanakaya pure land… accessible to the human realm…” as far as one’s view is pure enough to see it. “It’s the land of the rakshas, and Guru Rinpoche is living there as the king of the rakshas”. “the Copper-Coloured-Mountain [is made of a] three tiers palace of lotus light…” The upper tier is Sukhavati (Amitabha), the mid tier is Potalaka (Avalokiteshvara), the lower tier is Camara (Guru Rinpoche). Visualising the palace destroys our habit of grasping to objective appearances. Düdjom Rinpoche could experience all these details although they’re not expressed in the sadhana. As said in the previous session, it’s good to practice first on the extensive version of the sadhana and to rely on Lama Tharchin’s explanations which Yangchen follows in these teachings, to avoid the risk of missing a big part of the visualisation work when going straight to the shorter versions. It’s important not to rush. Here we’ll see how the Lotus-Born combine a peaceful deity (like Vajrasattva as presented in 2020 retreat) with a wrathful one (Heruka). Sometimes the Lake-Born is 8 years of age at others he is 16. We don’t have an explanation except that 8 years of age is the age the Guru had when he was “born” on a lotus, with the sense of pure immortality, while 16 years of age may be more suitable for his presence as the Guru of Gurus. About the frowning expression on the face, the Guru is never displeased with us, he’s displeased with Mara, the wrath is pointed at Mara. Without contracting your face muscles, if you can feel your “prana face” expressing that intense ferocious frown as if you were Heruka, this may help you remember you’re the Guru already and could help you cut off manifesting kleśas as soon as you become aware of them. The expression of affection manifests sensual desire, passion, tenderness, bliss. The Guru embraces his consort. No matter what the meditator gender is, it’s only one interlocking experience in which one perceives oneself as the both the male and female beings at once. Yangchen describes the props held by the Lotus-Born Vajra and Mandarava and she clarifies that their positions correspond to the chakras of the practitioner which gradually become activated. She continues the description of the sambkogakaya being according to Lama Tharchin’s instructions specifying that one should spend time to get the feeling of wearing those jewels, silks and other ornaments on the different parts of one’s body. The true vajra posture is the one held by the Guru, while the true lotus posture is he one held by Mandarava. In this lifetime anyone can access in oneself the other gender qualities to fully actualise the form one is contemplating. As humans we are karmically off-balance: during these practices where we have resistance, we find the point where we should work on our pocket of tension in terms of gender bias to reestablish the lost balance. These boundaries can be one’s most sensitive. In the privacy of our practice we can explore the very edges of who we think we are. Working on a finer balance helps us avoid the potential turmoils of practices like tummo. According to scriptures in the 8th century Guru Rinpoche was practicing with princess Mandarava in the Maratika cave in Eastern Nepal where they both attained the siddhi of deathless life (chime rigdzin). That’s what the image and practice “historically” evokes. The dakini enable the yogi to achieve siddhis and vice versa. Yangchen la reminds us that this entire mandala is already completely present and we didn’t have to create it from the seeds syllables. As soon as we arise as the Lake-Born Vajra the complete body mandala is already there. Regarding the mantra, the first three syllables should be visualised at the three places and Yangchen suggests to check the Vajra Essence p.130 and to read the detailed description by Lama Tharchin.
2019 8-Week Retreat, 21 May 2019, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
Guided meditation is on taking the mind as the path while looking at the feelings with which we experience the different mental phenomena and what happens to the feelings as they are observed.
The Wisdom of Atisha and Knowing Our Own Minds, 15 Sep 2021, Online from Miyo Samten Ling in Crestone, CO
The meditation is again on shamatha on the mind but this time with even fewer words than in meditation 8.1.
THE SCIENCE OF MIND, 17 Nov 2021, Online Retreat
The Science of Mind - Day Five, Session One, Meditation Only Padmasambhava on awareness of awareness
THE SCIENCE OF MIND, 19 Nov 2021, Online Retreat
The Science of Mind - Day Seven, Session Two, Meditation Only Meditation from Yangthang Rinpoche
2017 8-Week Retreat, 19 Apr 2017, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
Alan states that there are two meditation practices that are ideal for calming an upset mind. Mental afflictions alway involve contraction, Alan says, so in the first practice he describes the paramount goal is simply releasing and relaxing, even if that requires going for a walk in scenic beauty. The second practice, which he teaches in this session, works well when the mind is agitated but not to the point of the restless squirming that requires the first approach. This Burmese Approach to Mindfulness of Breathing cultivates relaxation and stability by focusing attention on the tactile sensations of the breath at the abdomen. This brings the body and mind into balance and produces a sense of well being. After the guided meditation, Alan continues with his commentary on the Mud and Feathers text, starting on the bottom of p 151. Orgyen Dorje Drolo, a wrathful manifestation of Padmasambhava, continues with his pith instructions to Dudjom Lingpa on how to sustain rigpa. Dudjom Lingpa had previously had a glimpse of rigpa, but could not sustain it. One of the main obstacles that Dudjom Lingpa needs to overcome is dualistic grasping to the self and phenomena, and reification of appearances, which obscure the view. Stable realization of pristine awareness occurs in a stepwise fashion, first involving investigation (understanding) and then meditation (experience) prior to realization. Alan mentions that intelligence (prajna) is useful in understanding the teachings on emptiness, but that Dzogchen teachings require both intelligence and intuition (yeshe). Intelligence can be cultivated, but intuition is unveiled. Guided meditation starts at 18:05
2017 8-Week Retreat, 14 May 2017, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
The guided meditation begins with the shamatha practice of Settling the Mind in Its Natural State and then shifts to a vipashyana investigation of the origin, location, and destination of the appearances as you observe them.
2017 8-Week Retreat, 19 May 2017, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
The guided meditation begins with Settling the Mind in Its Natural State and then shifts to a vipashyana inquiry into the nature of the appearances that arise, the awareness that knows them, and the perceived boundary between inner and outer.
2019 8-Week Retreat, 28 May 2019, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
Lama begins by reminding us that today we lift off the silence. He continues commenting that within the context of the four greats, the last one, Maha Upeksha, is the Grand Finale and he proceeds to comment on its liturgy. In the context of impartiality Lama shares some quotes from a book by Martin Buber and comments on the I-it and I-thou relationship. Also, he examines impartiality from the context of the first, second and third turning of the wheel of Dharma; ending with the Great Perfection. When commenting on the Great Perfection Lama examines the idea of 'the view' being theistic, non theistic or polytheistic and tells us that The Great Perfection is none of the above and all of the above. The meditation starts with taking the mind as the path, without attachment to awareness or aversion to the mind. We then move on to cultivating great impartiality for all sentient beings. After the meditation Lama answers a question whether it is possible to translate the teachings of Sukavhati for people with a Christian background. To end he gives us the the pith instructions that will never be repeated in this retreat: "The interviews will be on time!" The meditation starts at
2018 8-week retreat- The Essence of Clear Meaning, 13 May 2018, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute in Pomaia (Pisa), Italy
The morning meditation was a settling body, speech and mind practice, focused on settling the respiration in its natural rhythm.
2018 8-week retreat- The Essence of Clear Meaning, 14 May 2018, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute in Pomaia (Pisa), Italy
The meditation is settling the mind in its natural state and then rolling it back through subtler and subtler stages to the substrate consciousness.
2018 8-week retreat- The Essence of Clear Meaning, 26 May 2018, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute in Pomaia (Pisa), Italy
The guided meditation begins with awareness of awareness, then continues with taking the mind as the path, and culminates in open presence.
Fall 2013 Shamatha and the Seven-Point Mind Training, 24 Sep 2013, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Discussion of Jesus taking on all the suffering and sins of others on the cross. Two views – Jesus suffering on the cross and Gnostic vision in which he is laughing and joyful. May both be true with suffering on the surface and beneath that resting in pristine awareness. St Francis – gave up everything to live in poverty and became very joyful.
Meditation – loving kindness to oneself. Taking all the darkness into your Buddha nature.
Discussion of the phrases – May the suffering and its causes of all sentient beings ripen upon me and may the causes of my wellbeing ripen upon all sentient beings. Developmental model.
Discovery model – going deep into one’s own awareness and discovering loving kindness. Tap into ultimate Bodhicitta and relative Bodhicitta comes out like a geyser.
Question: Practices were given for people of superior, middling and inferior faculties. What about those needing remedial help? Answer – go to taking the mind as the path and if still having problems than let your mind mount your breath and go to breathing practice.
Meditation starts at: 24:05
Fall 2015 Stage of Generation, 04 Sep 2015, Araluen Retreat Center, Queensland, Australia
For Mahamudra and Dzogchen, the one important thing is to understand the nature of your mind. We have been following the yogic approach to understanding your mind. To be fully qualified, to gain benefit from the Vipashyana questions we have been asking you must have achieved shamatha. When resting in the substrate consciousness, these questions can be used to break right through to rigpa. You are asking questions from the eight extremes of conceptualization to break through to pristine awareness that transcends conceptualization. The meditation has you invert your awareness on itself and see what you see. Do this for a short time, rest and then question again. After the mediation Alan turns to the text (p. 99-101). Alan then provides an overview of the 4 Yogas of Mahamudra. The meditation starts at 33:42 ___ Course notes, other episodes and resources for this retreat are available here The text for this retreat can be purchased via the SBI Store. Finally, Please contribute to help us afford the audio equipment we rent to make these, and future podcasts freely available.
2019 8-Week Retreat, 08 May 2019, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
Lama Alan explains that although Dzogchen is considered to be the pinnacle of the yanas, the grand finale of all paths, nevertheless individuals may be drawn to it from the outset of their respective journeys. Although the full extent of the path may seem long winded and daunting, it’s good to have a general overview of what it might entail along with all the major inflection points of progress (path of preparation, accumulation, seeing, etc.) To immerse ourselves in these teachings serves a goal of utmost importance, and that is to sow the seeds of a continuum of progress across however many lifetimes it takes to achieve enlightenment. In this way, even if we die without having achieved it, we are reborn with the fortunate unfinished business of continuing along the path. This is how the work of a single lifetime can change the trajectory of countless lifetimes wasted in samsara. Meditation is on vipashyana on the nature of the mind, following Padmasambhava's instructions. After the meditation, Lama Alan returns to the text, continuing to explain the differences between the mind and pristine awareness as well as the starting with the differences between conceptual understanding and experiential realization. The meditation starts at 24:17
2018 8-week retreat- The Essence of Clear Meaning, 13 May 2018, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute in Pomaia (Pisa), Italy
The meditation began with shamatha (taking the mind as the path), proceeded with vipashyana (the emptiness of "I" in the non-conceptual present), and culminated on non-meditation.
Fathom the Mind. Heal the World., 03 Oct 2022, Online and in person from Blazing Mountain Retreat Center, Crestone, Colorado
After a short break Lama Alan approaches the text and reminds us that the first major section is on Shamatha. We can achieve Shamatha by mindfulness of breathing with the purpose to make our minds serviceable. He reminds us that for the task at hand, to achieve Buddhahood, there is no way around Shamatha and Vipasyana and that Samadhi is based on ethics (sila), nonviolence and compassion. In order to develop attention to a high degree, so that it is sustainable, we have to refine, balance and train the mind. But training the mind is not easy. It is like tuning a lute. Lama la tells the story of Sona, the comfort-loving student, who was vigorously trying to train his mind. He comments on the five faculties (faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration and intelligence) that when cultivated turn into the five powers. He then created an analogy of the melodic and auxiliary strings of a vina (lute) with the mental factors necessary for developing shamatha and the goal to achieve liberation and turned to the four melodic strings of attention, mindfulness, introspection and concentration. He described its Sanskrit roots and English definitions in detail. He started with attention (manaskara) and explains how mentation (manas) emerges from the substrate. He continues with mindfulness, the current mindfulness movement started by Jon Kabat-Zinn and the buddhist definition of smrti given within the Pali and Sanskrit tradition and closes with introspection (saṃprajanya) and concentration (samadhi). Ending the session Lama la encourages us to maintain the continuity of our practice for as long as possible because this is key to achieving Shamatha. This session does not include a meditation.
Fall 2011 Shamatha Retreat, 12 Sep 2011, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Vast and Profound, it’s the minimum we can say about this afternoon’s session. Alan gave
us an exquisite exploration of the mechanics of the practice of Settling the mind in its
natural state: how by one step it can heal our minds from mental afflictions developing an
equanimity towards all kinds of mental events; this is through cutting their continuity by
being aware of them and leading us to shamatha. But not only shamatha, even it can help us
for the subsequent practice of Breaking Through.
He also gave us a bright presentation of the workings of attachment and anger, especially
the latter one putting the Iphone as a good example. How anger is rooted in delusion and
how it prevents from imploding into the substrate consciousness.
The meditation (50:28) was about compassion, at this time focusing on the most obvious suffering:
the suffering of pain. Alan wanted to focus not only onto any kind of suffering of suffering
but on the one that we can do something about it here and now: compassion for the mental
suffering.
For the questions and answers (75:24) the topics of lucid dreaming, the 4 thoughts that turn the
mind towards the Dharma, differences between intuition and reason and the difference
between the realization of emptiness and rigpa (most inspiring!!) came up.
Please don’t miss this podcast, enjoy…
Fall 2011 Shamatha Retreat, 02 Sep 2011, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
In this session Alan welcomes the participants and gives an overview of what the retreat will entail. He also talks a little about the Thanyapura Mind Centre and its vision.
Note: Several sections concerning logistical issues have been removed from the recording
2017 8-Week Retreat, 19 Apr 2017, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
The guided meditation is The Burmese Method of Mindfulness of Breathing. This practice focuses attention on the tactile sensations of the breath at the abdomen and Alan recommends it for soothing an agitated mind.
2017 8-Week Retreat, 11 May 2017, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
The guided meditation is a transmission of Lerab Lingpa's pith instructions for Settling the Mind In Its Natural State excerpted from his presentation of the seven common preliminaries in The Heart Essence of Vimalamitra.
Spring 2011 Shamatha Retreat, 01 Jun 2011, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
This morning we begin with an unguided meditation (not included in this recording) and then Alan answers the following questions from the group:
1. Could you clarify the terms mind, awareness, and consciousness? Do you use them interchangeably?
2. You mentioned sem and rigpa. What about lo?
2017 8-Week Retreat, 10 Apr 2017, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
Before going to the practice, Alan highlights again the importance of the common preliminaries (precious human life, mortality, law of karma and the nature of suffering)for motivating a shift one's view and generating enough escape velocity to enter the Buddhist path. In today's shamatha practice Alan lays out a framework for the method known variously as “Shamata Focused on the Mind,” “Settling the Mind in Its Natural State,” “Taking the Impure Mind as the Path,” and “Taking Appearances and Awareness as the Path.” With this method. activity of the mental continuum is observed from the perspective of still awareness, which illuminates but does not enter into appearances. In the course of this practice, the turbulent "snow globe" of your mind will gradually become tranquil and empty. The flow of mental awareness will become unconfigured and the subtle continuum of mental consciousness, the bhavanga, will appear. The basic practice of "stillness meets motion" (stillness in the midst of motion) is enormously beneficial in our ordinary, motion-filled lives. Alan compares practices emphasizing “stillness meets stillness” to Non-abiding Nirvana and the “stillness meets motion” approach to the enlightened activities of a Buddha. The guided meditation is on the practice Settling the Mind in Its Natural State. After the meditation Alan discusses “pointing out instructions” and how they almost always include drawing a strong distinction between substrate consciousness and rigpa. Mental consciousness can move into all other modes of perception and can lose itself by cognitively fusing with an appearance. The substrate consciousness, however, does not move into or become an appearance, but it does move about with the with the person as she moves here to there. Rigpa, on the other hand doesn't move at all. Rigpa is of the fourth time (beyond present, past, and future) and is not located in space. It is primordially unmoving. Alan continues with the text "The Foolish Dharma of an Idiot Clothed in Mud and Feathers", at the end of page 144 of the hardcover version, “When I thought of going to a big marketplace..." Alan explains that what Dudjom Lingpa is doing here reminds him of the Kadampa aphorism "Do not rely on the teacher but on the teaching.” Usually we try to make a good first impression by lauding our credentials and this is nowadays also done in Dharma. Dudjom Lingpa, however, does just the opposite. His self-effacing description of himself is intended to direct our focus to the teaching and not on outer appearance of the teacher. Guided meditation starts at 40:15
Fall 2015 Stage of Generation, 08 Sep 2015, Araluen Retreat Center, Queensland, Australia
Having crossed from Shamatha to Vipashyana, Alan takes us out of the gravitational field to the non-meditation of Dzogchen - which entails not doing anything at all! As long as we activate the mind of a sentient being we are not a Buddha. There are four requirements: don’t do anything, don’t strive, don’t desire and don’t fix anything. Alan describes two approaches to identifying the mind. We can receive pointing out instructions from a qualified master, or we can just do the practice. He proposes an approach he likens to floating on your back in a buoyant sea. Meditation is on ‘non-meditation’. After the meditation, Alan returns to the text, beginning Chapter Five, and warns us to fasten our meditation belts as we take off into Dzogchen! To illustrate Nagarjuna’s statement that ‘mind is a mere label…’ Alan first talks about how we differentiate phenomena through a process of elimination. A particular person’s face is identified as being ‘that which is not anything else’. Verbal designation is information and it is information or labels that is primary, not mind. Alan then segues to physics, quoting Caslav Brukner and Anton Zeilinger who also view information as the primary concept. He compares their views to the prevailing ‘scientific’ view that matter yields information which give rise to observers. On the contrary, physicist John Wheeler inverts the sequence and proposes that the presence of the observer makes it possible for information to arise. Thus matter is a category constructed out of information. Alan then circles back to Nagarjuna, drawing the parallel between his views and theirs. He finishes with a flourish, referring to the past and the story now widely accepted of the origins of life and the universe, galaxies and our own planet, starting with the Big Bang. But we know now there can be no reality independent of information about that reality, or independent of the mind that is aware of that information. Wheeler says it is wrong to think of the past as already existing. It exists in relation to our questions and measurements. Steven Hawking agrees, describing the past as being in a superimposition state before you make a measurement. So we can choose our past. There is no real past, independent of our question, measurements, designation and concepts. Meditation begins at 14:32. ___ Course notes, other episodes and resources for this retreat are available here The text for this retreat can be purchased via the SBI Store. Finally, Please contribute to help us afford the audio equipment we rent to make these, and future podcasts freely available.
2019 8-Week Retreat, 24 Apr 2019, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
With five weeks left on the retreat, Lama Alan recommends that retreat participants should focus on one or two techniques as their primary shamatha methods. Although it’s alright to do some of the other techniques on occasion to familiarize ourselves with them, it’s now important to hone our skills using our chosen methods. Whatever method we choose, Lama Alan emphasizes that we should anchor our shamatha practice in the stillness of awareness regardless of the chosen object, be it the breath or the space of the mind. Shamatha within the context of Dzogchen is cultivated for the sake of not only pacifying the mind, but transcending it altogether. Furthermore, the practice should be imbued with all the features of the Buddhist path (refuge, renunciation, bodhicitta, and the view). This is what elevates our shamatha training to a genuine Dzogchen practice. Lama Alan decides a strategy for approaching the three main branches of Dzogchen practice (shamatha, vipashyana, and open presence), with suggestions on how to structure our daily schedule. Continuing on the theme of contrasting Dzogchen with the Pali Canon, Lama Alan refers to passages from the Suttas and highlights similarities. Lama Alan then relays teachings from Yangthang Rinpoche on the three ways in which thoughts release themselves. Meditation begins: silent session choosing one’s own shamatha method, bearing in mind Yangthang Rinpoche’s aforementioned teachings. After the meditation, Lama Alan continues to draw parallels between Dzogchen and the Pali Canon, and how certain references in the Suttas make sense from a Dzogchen perspective. As such, it is “the great encompassment” because it can be said to enfold within it all the preceding teachings of the various yanas. Silent meditation starts at 42:06
2017 8-Week Retreat, 09 May 2017, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
The guided meditation begins with the shamatha practice of Merging Mind with Space and then shifts to the vipashyana examination of the boundary between space and awareness.
2018 8-week retreat- The Essence of Clear Meaning, 14 May 2018, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute in Pomaia (Pisa), Italy
The meditation begins with taking aspects of the mind as the path and gradually moves to resting in awareness and viewing feelings as feelings, without identifying with them.
2017 8-Week Retreat, 14 May 2017, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
This is a transmission of the brief pith instructions for Settling the Mind in Its Natural State from Yangthang Rinpoche. The silent meditation period after the transmission is not recorded.
Spring 2011 Shamatha Retreat, 20 May 2011, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
This morning, Alan first reviews the practice of settling the mind in its natural state, both in theory and in practice. This is followed by an unguided meditation that begins at 12:00 in the recording.
Spring 2012 Shamatha Retreat, 23 Apr 2012, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
As we emerge from the Mind Centre and come out to the world, you come out poised to attend to the reality of others suffering and to be aroused to act. "Be of service to alleviate suffering", that is what the practice is all about.
Meditation starts at 06:04
2017 8-Week Retreat, 09 May 2017, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
The guided meditation is a another transmission of pith instructions from the Lake-Born Vajra on Bringing the Impure Mind onto the Path excerpted from Vajra Essence.
2019 8-Week Retreat, 14 May 2019, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
Guided meditation is on taking the mind as the path while Lama seeds the clouds of our minds with passages from Transforming Felicity and Adversity Into the Spiritual path.
2017 8-Week Retreat, 08 May 2017, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
The guided meditation settles in still awareness to roll back the conceptual mind and observe directly the preconceptual, primal sense of self. With that clearly in view the vipashyana inquiry examines whether "I" can be found in that appearance.
2018 8-week retreat- The Essence of Clear Meaning, 30 Apr 2018, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute in Pomaia (Pisa), Italy
Lama Alan begins this afternoon's teaching with two observations from two different sources: The first one from His Holiness The Dalai Lama teaching in Dharamsala, where His Holiness teaches that what makes us unhappy is our kleshas (mental afflictions). We think that many things make us unhappy, but His Holiness says, "Not true. Mental afflictions make the mind unhappy and unserviceable". The second observation was from a neuroscientist who insists that we are no more than our brain. The brain is the agent and so, "When consciousness ceases, there is nothing to fear!" Lama Alan remarks that it is the strategy of bullies and tyrants to try to make others feel small and worthless. In the same way we are being disempowered by the materialists' concept that we are just animals whose sole function is to survive and procreate. Lama Alan teaches that using the sharp sword of reasoning and careful enquiry, we can blow up the cage of metaphysical realism that identifies us (the self) with our five aggregates (skandhas). The same reasoning, which is used for the self, is also applied to the body and mind. We should not take it as a matter of faith but investigate thoroughly. Life is short. We do not know how short! The meditation is on the unfindability of the self and its bases of designation (body & mind). After the meditation, Lama asks us to step back to the beginning of Phase 3 where he makes a small refinement to his previous translation. Alan continues teaching Dudjom Lingpa's Auto-Commentary on the Sharp Vajra of Conscious Awareness Tantra called Essence of Clear Meaning, Phase 3. Sub-heading: Recognizing Their Emptiness by Their Mere Appearance. Finally, Lama-la invites questions and one student asks, "What is the basis of designation of awareness?" The meditation starts at 13:42 Text p. 67
Fall 2014 Shamatha, Vipashyana, Dream Yoga, 11 Sep 2014, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Alan starts sharing his experience along the eight eight-week retreats that he has been leading in Phuket. He addresses the importance to practice the four immeasurables and vipashana with a solid foundation on shamatha, but shamatha alone is meaningless. Practicing shamatha by itself does not make you walk the path to enlightenment. Alan explains the two main obstacles for the spiritual path: self-centered and self-grasping. Then, Alan explains how to use mental afflictions in order to transform them into the path. When they arise it is a wonderful opportunity to check if we are reifying. This becomes crucial for the practice of dzogchen. Practice dharma, observe your own mind. Following that, Alan elaborates on what we observe is always relative to the instrument of measurement, either in science or in the investigation of the mind. Alan comments on the important role of the observer. Alan raises the issue described by madhyamika prasangika school and how it resonates with quantum mechanics: when engaging in analysis you can’t find the object of observation. Nowadays information is so relevant in our lives. Therefore the awareness, that is the person who receives and possesses the information is fundamental. Meditation starts at 00:53
Fall 2015 Stage of Generation, 27 Aug 2015, Araluen Retreat Center, Queensland, Australia
Alan begins by referring again to the two methods of Shamatha meditation whereby the attention can focus on an external object or inwardly on the mind. He explains a method used in the Theravada tradition where outward meditation leads to inward meditation and ultimately Shamatha. The same methods can be used in Vipashyana. When cultivating insight into the emptiness of the self one can focus on the tactile sensations that arise within the body and investigate thoroughly their origin. One can then turn the attention to the mind in the same way, seeking what is truly there. This forms the basis for the mediation that follows. Meditation is on Vipashyana. After meditation Alan gives an historical account of how the world around us has been explained by philosophers and scientists. He quotes Hilary Putnam, Protagoras, Socrates, William James, George Berkeley and Feuerbach. Some early philosophers suggest that what we experience has no basis other than our own perception of appearances, but there are differing views on how those appearances arise. Until recently theology held dominance therefore explanations often included a theological element. In the post-Darwinian era materialism became the dominant view and with the advent of modern science is ongoing. Alan points out that a purely materialistic view has an absence of mind and consciousness and is therefore not complete. He suggests that what is needed is a view that includes both. Meditation begins at . ___ Course notes, other episodes and resources for this retreat are available here The text for this retreat can be purchased via the SBI Store. Finally, Please contribute to help us afford the audio equipment we rent to make these, and future podcasts freely available.
2017 8-Week Retreat, 08 May 2017, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
The guided meditation is a transmission of the pith instructions of the Lake-Born Vajra for the practice of Taking the Impure Mind onto the Path as found in Vajra Essence.
2017 8-Week Retreat, 12 May 2017, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
Alan begins the session with front-loading instructions for a silent vipashyana session examining the reification of appearances. We are encouraged to begin with Settling the Mind in Its Natural State and move on to the examination of reification as appearances arise. This approach of abiding in awareness is a little different than the traditional role of introspection in monitoring mindfulness, with the emphasis here on cultivating an “out of mind experience” to prevent afflictions capturing us from behind. After all, it’s not awareness that gets upset, depressed, or anxious, so awareness is where we should rest and set up our telescope of vipashyana to observe reification. While we're at it, we should observe further whether we perceive the object inspiring the mental affliction as static and unchanging. If so, it is easy to deduce that the object we are observing during reification could not possibly exist. From there, we can employ classic Middle Way philosophy to understand that no conditioned phenomena can exist from its own side. With this in mind, it becomes clear that whether appearances upset us or not is our choice. This summarizes the teachings of Saraha we finished yesterday and sets up the next section of teachings from Vajrapani, beginning on page 22. The message of this teaching is simple; if we reify anything at all in samsara or nirvana, there is no overcoming the obscurations of rigpa. Alan finishes the session with another inoculation against modernity. This time, using Francis Bacon’s definition of an idol as an “unaffected partner in a coupling of two phenomena,” he takes us on a trip through Descartes, Aristotle, modern materialism, and neuroscience demonstrating their idolatry. We finish the week with the suggestion to check if the objects of our afflictions are themselves idols – unaffected by that which they affect. The silent meditation session starts at 12:36 and that 24-minute period is not recorded.
