2019 8-Week Retreat, 14 Apr 2019, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
After having recovered from his cold Lama Alan is glad to be back. He mentions that Glen’s full guided tour on the 9 stages to Shamatha, which he gave last Friday is nothing other than the topic of phase I. Even though the aspects and perspective on this topic vary between Theravada, Mahayana or Dzogchen, there are no actual discrepancies in the description of achieving Shamatha. Lama-la emphasizes that the primary reason for Shamatha is to overcome the 5 obscurations in order to make the mind serviceable. The Buddha himself stated that as long as one is prone to these 5 obscurations it is like we are in debt, sick, in bonds, enslaved and lost on a desert track. It is obvious that in such a situation it is difficult to follow any practice seriously, be it Vipashyana, Stage of Generation and Completion or Tummo. The benefits of Shamatha is a fundamental shift in the prana system, which goes along with physical and mental pliancy. It makes the mind serviceable. Lama-la then quotes Padmasambhava in Natural Liberation who compares the achievement of Shamatha with the clear reflection of stars and planets in a pool where the water is limpid and unmoved. The indispensable advantage of using awareness of awareness as a shamatha practice is that one is very close to Rigpa for you are taking a facsimile as the fruition. In the practice to come, the theme is releasing all grasping to simply rest in awareness of awareness. Meditation is on awareness of awareness After the meditation Lama Alan address the problems of laxity and dullness for this particular practice and why these two mental factors can be overcome more easily than in other practices as long as we do not identify with these two obstacles. Before he goes to questions and answers, he recommends we do this practice for the remainder of the day. The question and answer session covered three questions regarding this particular practice. The meditation starts at 14:05
2017 8-Week Retreat, 15 May 2017, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
In the first part of this session, Alan prepares us for a silent meditation closely related to the statement from the teaching of Dorjé Drölo on page 25 of the text, “The physical world and its sentient inhabitants are none other than physical space. Samsāra and nirvāna are none other than displays of ultimate reality.” Alan says the choice of yogis writing in Sanskrit to use single terms to refer to the ultimate and relative forms of awareness, consciousness, and space indicates their view that the ultimate and relative are the same phenomena from different perspectives. Alan suggests that in in our silent meditation session we follow the instructions of Lerab Lingpa to rest in a flow luminous awareness that lightly notices appearances to any of the six sense domains without being captured by them. Without designating outer things or an inner subject, rest in between with nonconceptual awareness and self-releasing appearances. As you settle the mind in its natural state, the crystalized human mind melts into substrate consciousness and the ordinary space of phenomena dissolves into substrate. After the meditation, Alan discusses the parallels between the Dzogchen view that the physical world is none other than space and the views of leading quantum cosmologists. Drawing from his thesis at Amherst on the theoretically infinite energy of empty space and on the implications of the time problem in the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, Alan again highlights the conclusion of leading physicists that a conscious observer is necessary to designate a flow of time and crystalize a world out of the infinite potential of space, or it remains in static symmetry. The silent meditation period in this class was not recorded.
Spring 2010 Shamatha Retreat, 16 May 2010, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Ok, this is what a lot of you have been waiting for, and with very good reason! Get your thinking hats on, turn off your phones, get a nice cup of tea, clear your schedule, and bring forth your scientific aspect. In this podcast episode, B. Alan Wallace, Ph.D., will be delving into topics such as the nature of information, mind and matter as a derivative of information, the placebo effect, its connection to the flow of experience/information in relation to human existence, and oh, why not: quantum cosmology (just to name a few).
This is the main episode, and I will add a second episode with two semi-short followups from the next day.
I will not do any paraphrasing of information here, but I will try to list a few of the topics that come up in each part. Keep in mind that I will only list the main topics (not the topics in between topics), and perhaps not even all of them. This superanswer stems out of a question from Noah, who asked Alan to clarify a point from a previous day in which he mentioned that the information stored in his computer was “above and beyond” just a complex configuration of chemicals and electricity. The question asks for an explanation of the term “information” and how it can be causally efficacious.
This part starts with a synopsis on the elegant Buddhist hypothesis of human existence as a flow of experience and information, before the division of mind and body. Then, we go into a discussion of the nature of information, followed by a well-supported rejection of assuming the categorical error “subjective experience arises from the brain” which predominates in modern science, leading to the so called “hard problem of consciousness,” which Alan then briefly discusses. This is followed by a very sharp analysis of the placebo effect in relation to human existence as a flow of experience and information, and why 50 years of modern science have failed to explain how it works. As we approach the end of the podcast, Alan shows how much of the modern scientific research on the mind has been hindered because of the fact that if you ask physical questions, you are going to get physical answers. Observing with physical instruments will lead to physical phenomena.
To end majestically, Alan uses an example from Stephen Hawkins in order to relate this to the whole cosmos. Stephen Hawkins said (about the big bang and the current cosmological theory), something along the lines of “That story is based on the type of questions you were posing, and all of the questions you were posing were physical questions based on physical measurements.” A macrocosmic projection of the last 400 years in the development of science.
I will stop my attempt at paraphrasing here, in order to let you listen to the end of this last part without my measly commentary. I will just say (you know me by now) that it was the most mind-blowing of all of the information we have received thus far.
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.
Spring 2011 Shamatha Retreat, 06 May 2011, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
We return to the practice of settling the mind in its natural state. In the guided meditation, we bring the quality of quiet, bare attention to the visual, auditory, tactile, and then the mental field. In each domain, we allow there to be the simplicity of "in the heard, let there be just the heard" and so on.
The guided meditation begins at 7:45 in the recording.
After the guided meditation, Alan speaks freely for a while, encouraging us not to grasp onto anything which is not in our control. He also speaks about the process of gaining mastery over one's own rigpa.
2018 8-week retreat- The Essence of Clear Meaning, 17 Apr 2018, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute in Pomaia (Pisa), Italy
Lama Alan begins by saying that the meditation will be silent and we will keep the practice of taking aspects of the mind as the path. As a preamble to meditation, we are reminded that Dudjom Lingpa does say that the abiding theme all the way through this practice is stillness of awareness in the midst of the movements of the mind. What he does not say is that if this practice is shamatha with or without a sign, nor that we should observe thoughts as a shepherd watching his sheep or yaks, neither what exactly is the object of shamatha: awareness or the space of the mind and mental appearances. Therefore, Alan suggests that we see both practices not as completely separate ("this or that"), but as a spectrum, as a sliding scale. If you are resting in awareness, and you are not aware of thoughts, images and subjective experiences (desire, anger...), you are not doing the practice. And if you are really focusing on mental events and you are not resting in the stillness of awareness, also you are not doing the practice correctly. Alan then explains the richness and the benefits of each side of the spectrum. If in one session you tend to focus on the space of the mind and its activities, you are bound to gain some insight into your own mind - knowing how anger, desire, thoughts, images arise, how they are present and how they dissolve. Taking a real interest in our nearest neighbour, the mind, is helpful for the whole course of our life. And that way we will gain some insight into other people's minds as well. Or, if you prefer to focus more on the stillness of awareness, this is a great way to prepare for death. You are going to lose your mind, so don't get attached to it - it's just a bunch of mental states with no owner. If you can get familiar with, comfortable with the raw simplicity of the flow of awareness, this flow was not born and is not going to die. Instead of being fearful, dying can be interesting! The dying process can be the grand finale of our contemplative life. We can go with our eyes open. Lake-Born Vajra affirms, in the Vajra Essence, that we can linger there as long as 3 days. So, we can choose on which end of the spectrum we can focus on the practice. "Find a comfortable position...". After the meditation, we turn to the text (page 52 and also note 64). Alan recalls the two substrates: the first is comparable to dreamless sleep and the second with the dreamless sleep with the lights on. To explain why some serious yogis can mix up these experiences of the substrate upon achieving shamatha with the realization of rigpa, mistaking the third type of mindfulness ("Absence of mindfulness") with the third of the Yogas of Mahamudra ("One taste") or misapprehending the forth type of mindfulness ("Self-illuminating mindfulness") as being the second of the Yogas of Mahamudra ("Freedom from conceptual elaborations"), Alan describes the realization of each one of the Four Yogas of Mahamudra in terms of how they cover the five Mahayana paths. The main difference between the Mahayana/Sutrayana and Dzogchen is the mind who is realizing emptiness: in the Sutrayana, we are operating from the subtle continuum, the substrate consciousness (alaya-vijnana); in Dzogchen, we are operating from rigpa, even though there is still some veil. That's why it is so much faster! The first yoga ("Single-pointedness") is equivalent to the path of accumulation and the path of preparation. The second yoga ("Freedom from conceptual elaborations") is equivalent to reaching the path of seeing, the first Bhumi. You are already a vidyadhara, you have realized the emptiness of all phenomena. You naturally see everything as pure expressions of pristine awareness. You are beyond hope and fear. To emulate this realization, Alan strongly recommends that we apply this to the next session: resting in the lucidity of awareness, recognizing mental events as mental events, see how no mental appearance can harm you! Then we will carry this recognition from the mental experience to a lucid dream, and then to the waking state: nothing can harm us. It's like watching a 3D movie. We suffer just because of identification with and reification of, which creates a bifurcation of inner and outer, a chunkiness of things over here and out there, a boundary between self and other. And now that's gone! It's pure vision without visualization. The third yoga ("One taste") compares to the eighty Bhumi, moving beyond the cushion. It's the great impartiality: you don't prefer nirvana over samsara. You see the whole spectrum of all the realms in samsara, but you are totally lucid, you don't get suffering and you don't need any pleasure. You are abiding in rigpa. Adversity and felicity is seen as one taste. You finally get the classic teaching in the Heart Sutra: "Form is emptiness, emptiness is form. Form is not other than emptiness. Emptiness is not other than form." All dualities are transcended. The fourth and last of the Yogas of Mahamudra is "Non-meditation". You are not doing anything, just resting in 9 modes of inactivity. We have deactivated the samsaric mind of a sentient being. This compares to the Dzogchen practice of Trekchö. Therefore, resting in the substrate after achieving shamatha is not "One taste". And self-illuminating mindfulness is not the yoga of "Freedom from conceptual elaborations". Yogis who make this mistake are pretty serious but didn't receive correct instructions one way or another. Before ending the Part A'' of "Mindfulness of the essential nature of the path", Alan gives a brief explanation of the alaya-vijnana, comparing this unconfigured mind to a stem cell. Then we move to page 53, Part B'': "Specific meditative experiences to be purified". Alan talks about nyams and emphasizes how dangerous it is to crave the blissful states of shamatha. The Lake-Born Vajra warns: do not to take refuge in these experiences! At the end of the teaching, Alan talks about how nyams can manifest as weird stuff happening out there (outer), disturbances in the body (inner) and multiple perturbations of the mind (secret). Tomorrow we will see how to purify the nyams. Meditation is silent and therefore has not been recorded. Pages covered: 52-53.
2017 8-Week Retreat, 19 May 2017, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
Topics include: - Shamatha (calm abiding) - 9 stages (mind perspective) - 5 stages (event perspective) - 3 criteria for conventional existence (Tsongkhapa) - displays of the ground (4 kayas, 5 primordial consciousnesses) - displays of the ground (5 lights, 5 elements, 5 poisons) URL for Flipchart folder: http://imgur.com/a/rX7ll 
Spring 2010 Shamatha Retreat, 12 May 2010, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
This morning we practiced Settling the Mind by coming in through the senses with the phrase "In the perceived, let there be only the perceived" as a preparation for observing the mind. After a short introduction on the practice in which we touched briefly on the very interesting fact that the appearances that we see are not of a material nature in themselves. Anyway, enjoy the practice!
On a side note, Alan is happy to announce that the videos are now available from the “Science and Buddhism” colloquium at the University of Oxford, sponsored by the Physiology Department and the Oriental Institute of the University of Oxford, the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies, and the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies, March, 2010. The videos are accessible here:
http://www.voicesfromoxford.org/B-S-Introduction.html
The videos are on a menu to the right and they can be downloaded!
Fall 2010 Shamatha Retreat, 18 Nov 2010, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
This afternoon we look at Empathetic Joy – the aspiration for all beings to never be parted from happiness and its causes – and explore what this means from a wisdom perspective. Ultimately we look at it from the perspective of ‘Path,’ and what it means for one’s life to become Dharma. Following the meditation, Alan answers questions related to the practices of settling the mind in its natural state and awareness of awareness, as well as some very practical guidance related to the practice of lucid dreamless sleep.
This mudita really is a cultivation of emotion. (It s joy. … Taking delight in others’ joys successes)
Fathom the Mind. Heal the World., 06 Oct 2022, Online and in person from Blazing Mountain Retreat Center, Crestone, Colorado
After we settle our respiration in its natural rhythm, our awareness expands to the whole field of sensations in the body, drawing our attention to the heart. We cultivate Great Compassion as if from the divine heart of Christ perspective, by opening our hearts fully to the suffering of the world. We overcome our own fears through offering them to our Lord, the Guru, our protector, in utter surrender of body and mind, as if we were on the Cross ourselves. All that remains is the encompassing Light of Wisdom and Love in perpetual work of saving all living beings.
Spring 2012 Shamatha Retreat, 04 May 2012, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
We're at cruising attitude with settling the mind in its natural state. Tonight not many words about the practice. We're reminded of the metaphors of floating on an air mattress in Tahiti and a falcon kiting into the wind. It is helpful to remain partially attentive to the somatic field of the body while beginning this practice.
Q&A
* Where does hostility come from?
* Mindfulness of breathing through the mouth.
* When stretching our awareness: up, right, left, down.
* Using the news media as material for practicing the four immeasurables.
* Balancing theory and practice.
* Unachievable shamatha; throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Fall 2011 Shamatha Retreat, 13 Sep 2011, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Dharma talk: Meditative cultivation of Compassion and the Suffering of Change
On the “most wanted” list of mental afflictions is hatred. Craving/attachment is the #1 culprit in the suffering of change. Craving and attachment are always carried by a conceptual line (i.e. they are one step removed from reality). There is the sense of “If only……” (I had this or that, I would be happy). The object of desire seems static (it is an object), but everything is in flux. Arhats are free of suffering because they are free of attachment. They feel pain, but the experience is different because there is not grasping at “my body.” The pain just arises in space.
The two parts of Buddhist ethics are (1) doing no harm and (2) being of benefit. If we were all ethical, 95 percent of the blatant suffering in the world would vanish.
Shamatha is one level of Samadhi. You achieve a more balanced mind and have the experience of bliss, non-conceptuality, and luminosity (it is moment to moment, but the experience is there). These three qualities are how craving/attachment, delusion, and hostility are experienced from the view point of rigpa. We can get glimpses of this in shamatha which is designed to lead us along our authentic intention and actually has a chance of success.
There are three types of desires which can be expressed thus: “I want to feel good,” (pleasure), “I want to feel alive, alive, awake, excited,” and “I want to feel safe, unafraid, secure.”
However, if you get what you want, it will eventually erode and change (therefore, the suffering of change).
Our aspirations must be in the realm of possibility (e.g. to be free of unnecessary suffering via releasing attachment to the desire realm and to have a balanced mind; it is still not permanent and unchanging, but we can work in that direction). We will still have to experience natural catastrophes, sickness, old age, and death.
Meditation on Compassion and the Suffering of Change (46:27), beginning with ourselves and moving to those whom we care about and eventually further and further out.
Questions and Answers (71:10):
1. What are pointing out instructions?
2. When you are experience laxity and excitation at the same time, which do you tackle first?
2019 8-Week Retreat, 17 May 2019, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
Lama Alan describes the mindfulness of breathing Shamatha method according to Buddhaghosa, which is to focus on the tactile sensations of the breath at the nostrils or upper lip. Beginning at stage 4, one begins practicing for greater vividness. There are two types of vividness, temporal and qualitative. Temporal vividness is evident in the practice of Settling the Mind in its Natural State when you notice briefer and briefer mental events. Qualitative vividness is noticing more subtle events or in the case of mindfulness of breathing more subtle sensations. A unique quality of this mindfulness of breathing practice is that it has its own feedback loop. As your mind becomes calm, the sensations of breathing become more subtle and you need greater qualitative vividness. Lama Alan reads from a Sri Lankan scholar (Paravahera Vajirañāna Mahāthera - Buddhist Meditation in Theory and Practice) regarding this mindfulness of breathing technique. He discusses the preliminary sign, acquired sign and counterpart sign as they manifest in this technique. When the acquired sign arises, which is a mental image, you focus on that. When the counterpart sign arises you are at the access to the first Dhyana. It is an archetype of the air element in the form realm but as our form realm is individual there are individual differences in how this appears. Meditation is on mindfulness of breathing at the nostrils. After the Meditation, Lama Alan returns to the text, page 201, where we finish the section on Cutting Through from Phase 7. Dudjom Lingpa received the Vajra Essence after becoming a Vidyadhara as a pure vision while resting in Rigpa. He waited 18 years to teach for the time to be right to teach it. Meditation begins at 55:00
2023 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 4, 03 May 2023, Crestone, Colorado and Online
With open eyes, bringing awareness outside of your head, and then descending it to your heart chakra. So you are experiencing reality from your head to your heart. This affects the prana which will too come down. Then bring your awareness to the open expanse of the sky. Lama la quoted as Padmasambhava concludes, “thus by shifting the gaze, focus of awareness, in various alternating ways, the mind settles in its natural state and an indication of this if awareness remains evenly, lucidly and steadily wherever it is placed, Samatha has arisen. Then continue in silence.
2023 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 4, 20 Apr 2023, Crestone, Colorado and Online
The meditation is a chance to step back from the mental afflictions and activities of the mind and give it the space to heal itself because nothing outside of it is doing it. Releasing all entanglements. Mental afflictions don’t purify themselves, it isn’t really healing itself, this is giving pristine awareness that chance. So we step back and allow that to happen. Grasping drains us, but in awareness of awareness the healing is implicit.
Fall 2014 Shamatha, Vipashyana, Dream Yoga, 01 Sep 2014, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
This session begins with the 7 line prayer of Padmasmbhava and on into the meditation. Alan clarifies the two excerpts he discussed yesterday from ‘The Vajra Essence’, and ’The Enlightened View of Samantabhadra’ regarding the placement exam of merging mind with space and the paths that beings of various capacities should take. Listen out for the wonderful response Gyatrul Rinpoche gives Alan when Alan talks about giving up teaching and focusing on meditation (a response we are all happy Rinpoche gave). Meditation starts at 05:33
Fall 2013 Shamatha and the Seven-Point Mind Training, 08 Oct 2013, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Focus simply on the observation of the so call objective appearances that appear in the space of the mind.
When we have difficulty doing this practice, the way to counter is to learn to relax more. OUr prana systems are so wired.
We can also request the blessings of the guru as explained earlier. Alan discusses the so called placebo effect with respect to trust.
After the silent meditation Alan goes on to explain the 9th stage prior to achieving shamatha - attentional balance.
Silent meditation at 14:17 (not recorded) was "front loaded" at the start of the session.
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 13 May 2020, Online-only
Today we will start the next preliminary practice, Phowa. So, might this give an ultimate answer to 'what do you want to be when you grow up?'. We can enter this practice with a sweet, uplifting attitude. Eva (Yangchen) reads an excerpt from the book "The Velveteen Rabbit", as a parable for the path to enlightenment. Yangchen then addresses how Phowa practice is not in contradiction with the aspiration to reach buddhahood in a single lifetime, rather it is complementary. What characterizes our aspirations is the perseverance to remain in a path no matter the number of eons it takes, as Tsongkhapa writes, the quickly part is for the sake of others. She talks about how Phowa helps on our surrender, knowing that we are and will be taken care of by our Guru, our ultimate Guru, even when our configured mind is losing its ground. Phowa is letting our heart fly, into infinite space. The Phowa practice we focus on is based on a Nirmanakaya Buddhafield, which arose from Amitabha's intense prayer. Yangchen reads Lama Tsongkhapa's prayer to Amitabha, and explains how birth and life unfold in Sukhavati. She then talks about the possibility of feeling a greater connection to other pure lands, and what this implies for us when practicing Phowa. She also elaborates on the state of mind the prayers generate, as we aspire to be reborn in Sukhavati. Yangchen clarifies that two termas are put together by Düdjom Lingpa in his commentary, adding up to seven preliminary practices. She also clarifies why there are two Phowa practices in the Khandro Nyingtik text, and reads the opening colophon, as well as the closing lines, of both of them. After this, she goes into "A Treasure House of Blessings" and reads the starting paragraphs related to the practice of Phowa. Eva teaches first on the three transferences and then continues with the text, describing just the visualization. [Keywords: Phowa, Amitabha's prayer, Sukhavati prayers]
2017 8-Week Retreat, 02 May 2017, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
Topics include: - five kayas (dharmakaya, sambkogakaya, nirmanakaya, svabhavikakaya, vajrakaya) - three categories (mind, expanse, pith instructions) - Buddhahood Without Meditation (view, meditation, conduct, fruition) - person (gang - filled, zag - contaminated) - two types of grasping at self (person, phenomena) - three types of ignorance (causal, connate, speculative) URL for Flipchart folder: http://imgur.com/a/rX7ll 
Spring 2012 Shamatha Retreat, 11 Apr 2012, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
The object in this meditation is the space of the mind and whatever arises in it. If one is carried away by thoughts, release the grasping and relax. It’s a practice that is close to Vipashyana it’s similar to the close application of mindfulness of mental phenomena. Alan also answered practical questions from the students. What is the correlation between emotions and bodily sensations? Does the acquired mental sign in mindfulness of breathing interfere with the visual field? How to measure the progress of the Shamtha practice?
Meditation starts at 12:00
Fall 2013 Shamatha and the Seven-Point Mind Training, 10 Oct 2013, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Before the meditation, Dr. Wallace starts with a prelude to the meditation of settling the mind in its natural state. The focus should now be on the ongoing flow of mindfulness, whether thoughts and images arise or not. Special attention for "what's there" when there are no thoughts.
After the silent meditation, Dr. Wallace comments on various quotes of great masters form Theravada, Sanskrit and Tibetan traditions on "what it is to rest in Shamatha".
Meditation starts at: silent meditation (not recorded) starts at 09:04 min.
2017 8-Week Retreat, 18 Apr 2017, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
Topics include: - definition of mind (luminosity & cognizance) - 3 aspects of the ground (essential nature, manifest nature, compassionate activities) - explanation of short Lake-Born Vajra sadhana (preparation, main practice, conclusion) - 3 sattvas (samayasattva, jnanasattva, samadhisattva) - stages of deity practice (approaching, accomplishing, enlightened activity) URL for Flipchart folder: http://imgur.com/a/rX7ll 
Fall 2011 Shamatha Retreat, 10 Sep 2011, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
In this session we continue with the practice of loving-kindness.
Alan starts by talking on the meaning of having a day off from a contemplative perspective.
He then discusses the possibility that practicing loving kindness can have an effect on the other person
Also, how the faults of others are a reflection of our own propensities, as referred to in the lo jong literature.
Meditation starts at 34:20
Questions (59:21):
1) Advice on compulsive thoughts, with relation to the prerequisites for achieving shamatha
2) What does it mean to truly do nothing in meditation?
3) What is the dualistic mind?
4) Why haven't we been covering stage of generation and stage of completion?
Fall 2010 Shamatha Retreat, 18 Nov 2010, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
In this session Alan gives a short explanation on the modern neurocentric view which sustains that mental events are either equal to the brain, emergent properties of the brain or mere functions of it. He encourages us to observe mental events with an empiric–centric view, a spirit of inquiry and first person experience. We then meditated on settling the mind in its natural state with a special emphasis on observing carefully the space from which mental events arise, take place and dissolve back.
2017 8-Week Retreat, 09 May 2017, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
Contrary to the assumption of materialist science that all phenomena, including consciousness, can be known only by looking outwards, Alan begins this session with instructions for looking inwards to roll back the conceptual mind to a subtle awareness that precedes even the primal sense of I explored yesterday. This is the elemental substrate consciousness aware only of the substrate, and the practice Alan guides to takes us there is Shamatha Without a Sign, Merging Mind with Space, drawn from Dudjom Lingpa’s text Natural Liberation. After the practice we turn to the root text from “Until now you have eaten enough food to fill Mt. Meru…” up to “…With these words he disappeared,” the conclusion of the teachings of Longchenpa. In this section, Longchenpa tries to snap us out of the perspective of a sentient being, continuing his ontological shock therapy with warnings that to cling to the body as real eats away at the fruit of omniscience and cuts your lifeline to liberation. The section closes by addressing any remaining qualms about the value of realizing emptiness and then reminds us that until ultimate awakening, “dualistic appearances do not subside; and until they vanish, appearances of benefit and harm will uninterruptedly arise.” This brings to a close the second of the four-part sub-section of the text, “Dissolving Grasping at the Permanence of Things” and sets up the segue for the one to follow, “Counteracting the Faults of Benefit and Harm”. Alan closes with thoughts on the overlaps and disparities of the interests of scientists and contemplatives, including questions of universal mathematical constants, karma, Abhidharma cosmology, how a contemplative plunging into the depths of consciousness may gain perfectly valid insight into cosmology, and why that proposition is understandably outrageous to a materialist. Guided meditation starts at 13:32
Fathom the Mind. Heal the World., 04 Oct 2022, Online and in person from Blazing Mountain Retreat Center, Crestone, Colorado
On this second day on Asanga’s presentation of mindfulness of breathing, we will spend more time in meditation. After taking refuge and arousing bodhicitta, Lama la goes directly to the guided meditation. Before starting it Lama la highlights that it is more important to be comfortable when meditating than following some prescribed posture and being in agony. The meditation starts at minute 2:35 and is on mindfulness of the inhalation and exhalation as taught be Arya Asanga by way of counting. To facilitate this formal practice Lama la begins the mediation with the prelude of settling body, speech and mind in the natural state. The lovely thing about mindfulness of breathing is the immediate gratification. If you feel bored occasionally, it doesn't come from the object but from the degree of clarity of your own awareness with which you are attending to. This applies to anything, it can be the most exciting thing, event or person. Another crucial point is that whatever we are doing, there is a way of viewing reality (darsana) and we have our lens which depends on the type and quality of attention. Lama la mention quotes William James’ „what you attend to is reality“ and elucidates this quote. This is also true for the technique of mindfulness of breathing. It is embedded in a darsana and Arya Asanga invites us to get real and to avoid to contaminate our immediate pure experience of tactile sensations arising in space with our thoughts, fabrications and constructs. Coming back to the text, Lama la starts with section „thorough training by engaging with the aggregates“. He emphasizes that this is classic vipashyana, first turning of the wheel of dharma while bearing in mind the rhythm of the breath. He compares this with a mother cradling her baby. Mindfulness of breathing is holding us and keeping us in the present moment. He emphasized that this approach is revolutionary in the sense that we are reviewing or regarding the body. We go back to that which is familiar and take a fresh look. Normally, we experience the body as „I“ or „mine“ but with this investigation we discover that it is not „I“ or „mind“ and also not a person. Moreover, it is not a source of lasting happiness. The body is just a body, an aggregate, and we observe it as a natural phenomenon. Lama Alan then covers the aggregates of feeling, recognition, mental formations and consciousness in a very similar way. In all cases we stand outside of the performance and from that dispassionate but discerning and attentive moment by moment awareness we observe the various aggregates and discover that we are just the observer, not the owner. The aggregates are like an orchestra without a conductor. What keeps us in Samsara are the closely appropriated skandhas. We make ourselves unnecessarily vulnerable and by releasing this grasping we will free ourselves. Lama la continues in the text with the section „thorough training by engaging with dependent origination“ and explains the various dependencies down to ignorance. He highlights that this root cause is twofold, not knowing who we are and getting it wrong and mentions that seeing the network of cause and condition and fathoming it takes all the „umph“ out of craving and lust. After discussion the 12 links of dependent origination in forward order, he discusses its reverse order. We see that if we eliminate the first link, ignorance, the all the other links of formation, life-faculty etc. cease. During this investigation, we apply course investigation (vitarka) and subtle analysis (vicara), which is the unique hallmark of buddhism in the world—pratityasamutpada of the mind.
2018 8-week retreat- The Essence of Clear Meaning, 15 May 2018, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute in Pomaia (Pisa), Italy
As a prelude to the meditation, Lama Alan Wallace brings up the importance of the technology of shamatha to see for ourselves what Dudjom Lingpa is describing as the phenomenology of our lived world. In the practice of awareness of awareness, he clarifies what it means to invert awareness right upon itself: it's not a contraction, withdrawing to a tiny, claustrophobic space. With the eyes open, inviting a sense of spaciousness, you just rest where you are, taking no interest in any appearances of the six domains, and see what's left (via negativa). Awareness has no locality, no center nor periphery, and no vector, so it permeates the space and its light dawns on you just like it happens when we face west during sunrise. For this instruction, Lama Alan uses the helpful analogy of being in a sensory deprivation tank. In the practice of taking the mind as the path, Lama Alan uses another analogy: if your thoughts are squashing you as in the old videogame Frogger, you need a bigger screen and less traffic. For developing relaxation without collapsing the space of awareness, the practice which gets the best of both worlds is Dzogchen approach to mindfulness of breathing: you just rest in awareness and let the rhythm of the breath come to you, with no effort. On an interesting side note, Lama Alan mentions the correlation of the breath during a dream and the possibility of being aware of the rhythm of the breath during lucid deep dreamless sleep, even without tactile sensations. After the meditation, we go back to the text, exploring the genesis of "Apprehending Minds" and "How Objects and Minds Transform and Dissolve in an Instant" (pages 91-94). Lama Alan explains how each one of the five facets of primordial consciousness (yeshe / jnana) crystalizes and it is obscured by each one of the five poisons: delusion (primordial consciousness of dharmadhatu), envy (primordial consciousness of accomplishment), hatred (mirror-like primordial consciousness), pride (primordial consciousness of equality) and attachment (primordial consciousness of discernment). Then he describes the relation between the twelve links of dependent origination and the eight aggregates of consciousness, emphasizing the role of manas (mentation) and klishtamanas (afflictive mentation) in the arising of the myriad of appearances. He advises us not to reify the twelve links - one thing leads to another, in a light way, without any chunky mechanism, and because a lot of triggers are non-physical appearances, in fact there is no "mind-body problem" whatsoever. Dudjom Lingpa also explains how there is no real movement in time and in space (only the transformation of appearances), how energy (prana) is inseparable from mentation and how there is one eon (kalpa) per thought. The guided meditation (Dzogchen approach to mindfulness of breathing followed by taking the mind as the path) starts at 24:54 Text: p. 91-94
Spring 2012 Shamatha Retreat, 09 May 2012, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Relax! You've heard it, you'll hear it again. We revisit the crucial technique of letting go—of tension in the body, controlling the breath, and attachment to rumination—as we sink deeply in today's meditation to know the whole body of the breath.
Q&A
* Impermanence of each sensation of the breath.
* "Earworm" infestations during settling the mind in its natural state.
* Idiots compassion, or when imbalance occurs in the trilogy of virtue, wisdom, and the pursuit of genuine happiness.
* Accumulating karma while deluded, such as while dreaming.
Meditation starts at 14:34
Q&A starts at 39:50
2018 8-week retreat- The Essence of Clear Meaning, 08 May 2018, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute in Pomaia (Pisa), Italy
As we reach the end of the 5th week, Lama Alan Wallace wraps up Phase 3 by addressing some common obstacles and key points on the path. First, Lama Alan explains the four levels of any practice: understanding (you know what needs to be done), experience (you get some taste with spikes and doubts), realization (you get it) and acquiring confidence (that becomes a part of you, like irreversible bodhicitta). For some of us, even though we have understanding, it's like we are losing battles in the practice of shamatha focused on the mind, always being kidnapped by unrecognized thoughts and impulses. In this case, Lama Alan says the diagnosis is simple: lack of clarity. All the practices we are exploring, specially vipashyana, are related to vividness. In Phase 3 we are pushing the limits of our intelligence to know the nature of reality. So, the greater the intensity of acuity, the greater the stability and the relaxation it requires. For the vividness (the top of the pyramid) to be sustainable we need a correspondent degree of stability and relaxation (the base of the pyramid), otherwise it can lead to harmful results. If you cannot sustain such degree of clarity, if you feel frustrated or tight, then Lama Alan suggests that you should go back, retreat to the foundation of shamatha: relaxation and stability. For that, the best practice is mindfulness of breathing, which also has a sliding scale: you can practice Asanga's method of focusing on the fluctuations of energy in the somatic field of the whole body (with 90% of emphasis) while you rest in awareness (10%). Or you can practice the Dzogchen approach to mindfulness of breathing (90% resting in awareness and 10% focusing on the respiration coming up to meet you, without going after it). And he adds that the supine posture is great for that - if you are used to sleeping when you try to practice in shavasana, learn not to do it, it's just a habit. Besides the pyramid of the three qualities of shamatha, we also have a pyramid for reaching non-meditation at the top, with shamatha and vipashyana as foundation. Without vipashyana, if you are reifying everything that appears, you are not practicing Dzogchen. Actually, Lama Alan lists four elements that differentiate Dzogchen non-meditation from just sitting there: you need bodhicitta as your motivation (any other motivation is not compatible with vajrayana), shamatha, insight into emptiness (vipashyana), Dzogchen view. You have to do the work, you cannot skip your mind. Second, Lama Alan goes further in the notion of space. When we get caught in any drama, the space of awareness collapses to the size of the thought, the situation or the pain, for example. Then, of course grasping occurs! We have no other option. If the space of your awareness is larger than your body, then you can do vipashyana on the body, and the same with your feelings and your mind. If the space of your awareness is the same size of samsara, then you are stuck. But if it encompasses samsara and nirvana, that's the view of Dzogchen. Now we begin illuminating the space of the whole body, without collapsing into any specific sensation. Then we rest in the space of the mind, with no centre or periphery, and certainly not inside our head (that's why it is crucial to practice with eyes open, at least partially). This is already non-conceptual, so it is a smooth segue to non-meditation, in which we rest in the space of awareness, unimpeded, wide open, with no concepts and no locality of our body and mind. Space itself is aware and illuminates all events without moving. "This is deep rest", Lama Alan concludes. The meditation (Asanga's mindfulness of breathing followed by taking the mind as the path) starts at 44:11 Second, Lama Alan recommends that we always keep in mind the Four Reliances (from the Sutra of Akshayamati and the Sutra of the Questions of the Naga King Anavatapta), taught in all Buddhist schools, now presented in a Dzogchen context: 1) Do not rely on the individual, rely on the Dharma; 2) Do not rely on the words, rely on the meaning; 3) Do not rely on the provisional meaning, but on the definitive one; 4) Do not rely on conditioned consciousness, but on primordial consciousness (yeshe). Commenting on the third, Lama Alan points out that the definitive teaching is emptiness. It's the only invariant truth in all possible frames of reference. All phenomena are empty of inherent nature, it does not matter if you believe this or not. Commenting on the fourth, Lama Alan says that the teachings are just for one thing: "Wake up to your own face as the dharmakaya!" Third, Lama Alan poses a question: if there is no objective pre-existent reality out there, how can we validate our perceptions? How come we can make right and wrong measurements and affirmations? Otherwise we will fall into absolutism ("God says so..."), nihilism ("there is no morality") or some form of new age relativism ("Reality is whatever people think..."). For that, Lama Alan quotes physicist John Wheeler, who devised a variant of the Twenty Questions game called Negative Twenty Questions. Finally, he reads an excerpt of his new book on vipashyana, bringing the Madhyamaka view of conventional valid cognition from Tsongkhapa and also from His Holiness the Dalai Lama. After some stormy weather in Phase 3, Lama Alan ends by saying that now we will be going through smooth waters.
Fall 2013 Shamatha and the Seven-Point Mind Training, 17 Sep 2013, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
“The essential nature of the path is resting in the substrate” the ultimate substrate: the union of ultimate nature of reality (dharmata) and ultimate nature of the mind (citta).
Vajra Essence – Previously the intellect distinguished outer and inner and grasped to it as being distinct. Now settle into a nonconceptual state.
Discussion of Yogini Sera Khandro and her description of the four kinds of open presence. No benefit to sitting in open presence if don’t have the type of realizations described.
Meditation starts at: 0:00
Fall 2011 Shamatha Retreat, 20 Oct 2011, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Alan leads the group, who has started talking now, through a shamatha session (02:13) designed to bring the mind down from agitation to calm. He speaks to a question (35:53) regarding the Dzogchen view of rigpa and the extent to which one can provide a reason as to why one who awakens from the dream of reality won’t fall asleep again.
Note: The first 5 or 10 seconds were missing because Alan started talking before the computer had finished loading. Sorry about that! We were coming back from our (hectic) group photo session so he was talking about that, and that's also why this session is shorter.
2019 8-Week Retreat, 14 May 2019, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
Topics include: - Phase 6: Teachings on the Essential Points of Practice & Their Key Distinctions - 1. Substrate (alaya) & Dharmakaya - 2. Mentation (manas) & Wisdom (prajna) - 3. Conditioned consciousness (vijnana) & Primordial consciousness (jnana) - 4. Mind (citta) & Pristine awareness (vidya) - 5. Understanding & Realization - The four stages (understanding, experience, realization, acquiring confidence) Flipchart URL: https://imgur.com/cafMgD8 
Fall 2011 Shamatha Retreat, 02 Sep 2011, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
In this session we continue with the practice of loving-kindness, beginning with ourselves and then gradually extending outwards where it's easiest
The meditation starts at 4:39
QA starts at 29:24:
1. When doing the loving-kindness practice and it becomes strenuous, can one switch to shamatha for a bit instead?
2. When we invite images, are we supposed to do it like open a room and invite everyone and extend the wish, but at the same time just rest with it?
3. Can you explain the objects of attention while settling the body, speech and mind in their natural state?
4. Using a mental image as the object of attention instead of the sensations of the breath
Fall 2011 Shamatha Retreat, 27 Sep 2011, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
We come back to the cultivation of mediate, starting with oneself, but not an immutable self, a dependently arisen self.
Alan again comments on our way of evaluating our practice: "Meditation, what have you given me this week?" No, no, no!
All that comes up is a maturation of our karma
From the lo jong (mind training) teachings: everything that comes up, transmute it into fuel for the path.
"This happened. Others see it as poor you. I take it as a lesson to deepen my practice and wisdom."
Become the alchemist of your life.
From the perspective of rigpa: with deep intuitive faith seeing all experiences arising as coming from Buddhas to help us become enlightened - we can have an ongoing flow of gratitude for this!
The one taste of felicity and adversity
Meditation starts at 14:21
Public Teachings from Lama Alan, 22 Nov 2023, Online
On Guru Rinpoche Day, November 22, 2023, Lama Alan emerged from retreat silence for a few hours to offer a very meaningful public talk. This was held in the stillness of Manjushri Chapel at Miyo Samten Ling with the yogis in long-term retreat present. This talk was inspired by the excerpt, Value of Observing the Mind, from The Royal Seal of Mahamudra, Volume One, by The Third Khamtrul Rinpoche Ngawang Kunga Tenzin. This was the first of an ongoing series of teachings from Lama Alan.
Spring 2012 Shamatha Retreat, 26 Apr 2012, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Awareness of awareness, the simplest of all shamatha practices, requires only the slightest instruction and yet its object can be elusive and indescribable. This evening, we proceed directly into the mediation, then open the floor to questions about the practice.
Meditations starts at 04:50
Q&A:
* My own kind of practice: awareness of a bindu.
* Going up hill in the wrong gear.
* Anarchistic mode of relaxation.
* What awareness of awareness is not.
* Bifurcation of awareness as it drops like hot coal.
* Awareness, elusive because it's collapsed?
* Moving from the space of the mind into awareness of awareness.
* Three ways of watching a movie, and the gradient of grasping.
Fall 2013 Shamatha and the Seven-Point Mind Training, 08 Oct 2013, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Meditate for half the session on shamatha without a sign – probing right into where you think the observer is – this can lead to ultimate Bodhicitta. Spend the second half of the session on Tonglen, relative Bodhicitta.
Alan provides commentary on the line from 7 point mind training – “Whatever you encounter, immediately apply it to meditation.
Description of the five powers: resolution, familiarization, positive seeds, revulsion and prayer. Under power of prayer, given the law of karma, what can the Buddha’s do?
Silent meditation (not recorded) was "front loaded" at the start of the session.
2018 8-week retreat- The Essence of Clear Meaning, 22 May 2018, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute in Pomaia (Pisa), Italy
Topics include: - overview of the 8 phases - 6 distinctions (substrate & dharmakaya, mentation & wisdom, mind & pristine awareness, conditioned consciousness & primordial consciousness, deluded sentient beings & liberated Buddhas, understanding & realization) - 8 consciousnesses (5 sense consciousnesses, mental consciousness, afflictive mentation, substrate consciousness) URL for Flipchart folder: https://imgur.com/a/FRfJj 
Fall 2013 Shamatha and the Seven-Point Mind Training, 14 Oct 2013, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Alan again front loads the meditation by comparing Atisha's Lam Rim texts and Seven Point Mind Training text and the role of discursive meditation in both. We can be encouraged that although Ultimate and Relative Bodichitta might seem high and complex ideals we have already begun training our minds in each of these with our range of meditations.
After the meditation, Alan begins to unpack the next aphorism taking the advice from living well to dying well. He shares advice on preparing for death, propulsive karma, the bardo and rebirth.
Meditation starts at: 28:40 (silent meditation)
Fall 2010 Shamatha Retreat, 18 Nov 2010, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
This morning Alan raised the emotional issue of the warrior returning home from the front. Going down memory lane he recalled the various ways heroes have been greeted upon their return. Some were welcomed and accommodated with gratitude; others were left to paddle for themselves. And then he got to the point: how about those of us taking time from their lives to face the most noblest (and bloodless) of all battles – the one with our own afflictive emotions. How would we be received when the retreat is over? With love and encouragement? Or indifference at best? Then with a swift maneuver he wiped off the tears and quoted a Kadampa Geshe: “Now is not the time to subdue others’ minds, it’s the time to subdue our own” We then followed him onto the battlefield of mind.
Spring 2012 Shamatha Retreat, 15 May 2012, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Tonight we plunge right into the practice of awareness of awareness, with the variant of stretching in four directions. Then we discuss the value of familiarizing oneself with awareness, as a portal to the greater depths of wisdom and virtue.
Q&A
* Cognition fused with dullness in settling the mind in its natural state.
* Are the Buddha's teachings that resulted in spontaneous nirvana related to taking the result as the path?
* Could there be a benefit to inducing fainting safely?
* The method of probing in awareness of awareness.
* Dredging the psyche in awareness of awareness.
* The briefest moments of experience in awareness of awareness.
* Aversion to giving attention and the need for forbearance.
Fall 2014 Shamatha, Vipashyana, Dream Yoga, 02 Sep 2014, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Just as we can answer the question, “Is Michael in the room?” by seeing only his face rather than every part of him, we can examine the mind by looking at an individual mental appearance. In the foundational vipashyana practice of the Four Applications of Mindfulness we pose three questions as we examine mental appearances: 1) Is it static or changing? 2)Is it a well-spring of happiness or is it bound to be unsatisfying? 3)Can I discover an inherently-existent “I” in the appearance itself? We do Vipashyana practice at this stage of the path, because after leaving the meditative equipoise of shamatha, we continue to reify our own minds, which is the greatest obscuration of rigpa. Meditation starts at 58:43
2019 8-Week Retreat, 26 Apr 2019, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
Topics include: - review of Phase 1 to 4 (Taking the impure mind as the path, Revealing your own face as the sharp vajra of vipashyana, Revealing the ground dharmakaya, Determining the characteristics and qualities of the ground) - 4 philosophical systems (Vaibhasika, Sautrantika, Cittamatra, Madhyamaka) - 9 yanas - 4 classes of tantra (kriya, upaya, yoga, anuttarayoga) - Mahamudra (sutra, tantra, essence) Flipchart URL: https://imgur.com/J0C6YPC 
Spring 2012 Shamatha Retreat, 12 May 2012, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Three methods of escape when the mind is agitated: send your awareness out into the somatic field, out further into the world of exterior senses, or penetrate inward, deep into our sense of awareness. This evening we practice awareness of awareness and watch closely the tentacles of grasping, the identification with some appearance of the agent within.
Q&A
* Managing feelings of ill-will.
* How siddhis arise upon achieving shamatha.
* The degree to which karma influences psyche.
* Recommending meditation to those with PTSD.
* When we lack the talent to write the book of our life.
* Talking with dead people.
Meditation begins at 7:40
Q&A begins at 39:22
2018 8-week retreat- The Essence of Clear Meaning, 09 May 2018, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute in Pomaia (Pisa), Italy
Lama Alan began the session highlighting the importance of the precious opportunity those accompanying this retreat are having, by receiving the full transmission of this text, which contains everything we need in order to become a vidyadhara in one lifetime, and then achieve enlightenment! He then also commented on the importance of receiving the actual complete oral transmission, or lung, something which is not part of our current mainstream western culture. He proceeded to the story of how he got the oral transmission of the entire corpus of Kalachakra teachings from Gen Lamrimpa (for a period of 8 months, for 4h every day!) during the 1-year shamatha retreat Gen Lamrimpa led back in 1988. The reason for this oral transmission to be so important is that once we receive it, it gets stored in our substrate consciousness and therefore it remains there until we achieve enlightenment (if one actually achieves shamatha, then the possibility to access the teachings later on is also made available to the trained mind). Lama-la also highlighted the crucial point that if we started to receive the oral transmission, we must receive it in full - this is the samaya between us and the guru in this instance - otherwise if we take it casually and not receive the full transmission, we would break our samaya. Before the meditation, Lama made a brief preamble highlighting the differences between resting in the substrate and resting in emptiness, mentioning that while resting in the substrate is not beneficial in and of itself, resting in emptiness does purify one's mind, being therefore inconceivably valuable! The first part of the meditation began with taking the mind as the path, culminating in our best approximation of lucidly resting in the substrate (3rd mindfulness) and self-illuminating mindfulness (the 4th one); in the second half of the session, we start inquiring, probing into our own sense of identity, the observer, the one who is meditating. After the meditation, we began exploring Phase 4 of the text, "Determining the Characteristics and Qualities of the Ground". Lama gave the oral transmission, and commentary, up until "(b) As for the five buddha families, (…)" making comments about several topics, including how "the essential nature of all possible worlds of appearances is emptiness" refers to dharmakaya and dharmadhatu, but also the often-neglected element of the energy of primordial consciousness. He also elaborated on the eight extremes of conceptual elaboration, namely birth and cessation, existence and non-existence, coming and going, and finally diversity, concluding by saying that the text lacks the last one, the extreme of unity, which Lama justified probably as a scribal error. He then made brief comments about the three doors of liberation (emptiness, signlessness and desirelessness), concluding the session with comments on the five kayas, namely (1) dharmakaya, (2) sambhogakaya, (3) nirmanakaya, (4) svabhavikakaya and lastly, (5) vajrakaya, for which Dudjom Lingpa highlights its seven vajra qualities. The closing comment for the session was a re-statement of the incredible fact that, just by resting in rigpa, all the qualities of the path and the fruition will naturally emerge. The meditation starts at 24:54 Text p. 77-79
Spring 2012 Shamatha Retreat, 10 May 2012, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
In mindfulness of breathing, the technique of arousing interest during inhalation and relaxing during exhalation is incredibly effective. We apply this technique tonight as we focus on the sensations at the apertures of the nostrils.
Q&A
* Thomas Merton, Chamtrul Rinpoche, and the Pratyekabuddha.
* Three countless aeons, rainbow bodies, and the king, navigator and shepherd.
* Reasons for the sequence of mindfulness of breathing, settling the mind, to awareness of awareness.
* More shrinking lamas.
* Differentiating between the substrate and substrate consciousness.
* Awaiting one's moment of grace.
Meditation starts at 04:51
Fall 2013 Shamatha and the Seven-Point Mind Training, 11 Sep 2013, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Prefaced with brief elusion to the third of those four thoughts that turn the mind about - focusing on the reality of suffering. Why do we have to suffer at all? This deepest dimension of suffering - it arises directly because of or pertains to our relationship with our bodies and minds. The aggregates (our bodies and minds), arose in relation to mental afflictions (klesha) and karma. We are closely holding onto, or identifying with, our bodies and minds which are defiled in the sense of being created by karma and klesha. That very identification with that which is not 'I' or 'mine', as being 'I' or 'mine'. Alan then goes on to give examples.
Meditation starts at: 16:08
2017 8-Week Retreat, 21 May 2017, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
Questions include: 1. I'm unclear about reification. How do I avoid reification, in particular how do I avoid reification of substrate consciousness. Just telling myself it's not real, not concrete doesn't seem effective. 2. Would you help clarify Dzogchen view, from the perspective of a realized yogi. It sounds like there are only empty appearances, externally there is no phenomenal world in a way similar to Cittamatra, and mind also is empty appearance without true existence or independent existence. Is this accurate? 3. During the guided meditation Alan says that people and things are still out there when we don't look at them. Probably that means that the observer is not needed to make things exist?
2018 8-week retreat- The Essence of Clear Meaning, 06 May 2018, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute in Pomaia (Pisa), Italy
As we approach the end of Phase 3 of the text, Lama Alan began the session remembering some of the examples that we typically find challenging while understanding emptiness, like how does grass grow when no one's looking, or how food gets rotten in the refrigerator, even if there's no observer around. He then detailed two strategies we can use to progress. One is based on the simple use of our intelligence, and on the hard work implied by fathoming the nature of reality through questioning, study and reflection, taking advantage of the momentum set forth by all available schools and traditions, over the last centuries. However, there's also another approach, more direct and experiential, where one can try to fathom reality through direct experience. We went back to the instructions detailed in Natural Liberation, where straight from the simple practice of awareness of awareness, one can begin an isolation, which for some people might just be enough to cut through to rigpa. If that's the case, then by simply going straight into non-meditation, all six perfections will arise spontaneously, including the perfection of wisdom, therefore bypassing all the above mentioned study. He concluded this prelude to the meditation by saying that each one of us can decide, based on this spectrum of strategies more geared towards the use of intelligence or intuition, what's our optimal choice. The meditation was a combination of shamatha and vipashyana, starting with mindfulness of breathing, going on to an exploration of the three marks of existence with respect to the mind, and finally into the emptiness of mind. Returning to the text, we continued the oral transmission from section "iv'' Collapsing the False Cave of Hopes and Fears", up until section "ii" The Elaborate Explanation", with Lama Alan concluding his commentary on the sequence of the analysis of the emptiness of all phenomena that Dudjom Lingpa started earlier on (from elementary particles, matter, gods and demons up to Buddhas and Buddha fields). Among other references, he also commented on the difference between appearances and objects (these have characteristics, and their own network of causality), and the relationship between emptiness and pristine awareness. The meditation starts at 21:36 Text p. 72-73
Fall 2011 Shamatha Retreat, 29 Sep 2011, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Alan expands upon some of the ideas from physics he dealt with in the previous day’s talk and explains how the Dzogchen view and the Prasangika-Madhyamika view are complementary. He weaves this within a broader explanation of the path of taking the breath, mind and awareness as one’s object. The practice for today (41:14) deals with probing more deeply into the agent. Questions (65:53) raise issues such as the benefits of solitude and the cultivation of the 4 immeasurable in this context, how karmic imprints travel from life to life, the concept of the ‘mere I’, the ineffability of rigpa, how one can view the idea of beginninglessness and the benefits of mantra.
2018 8-week retreat- The Essence of Clear Meaning, 11 May 2018, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute in Pomaia (Pisa), Italy
Lama Alan drives right into the question of origin, location and destination through the analogy of being in a non-lucid dream: we take everything as real including our own identity. What if a (Nirmanakaya) Buddha manifests in this non-lucid dream and asks, "Where have you come from?" We try to remember the first moment of the non-lucid dream and where we were prior to that. But in that first moment of the non-lucid dream we don't know it's a dream, and in the second moment we think we know, but we're wrong. It is impossible to recall the first moment of a non-lucid dream because we can't remember what we didn't know in the first place. Impossible! This means the first moment is unknowable to us. And if we then attempt to recall where we were prior to the start of a non-lucid dream, we'll draw a complete blank: it's unfindable. Then if the Buddha in a non-lucid dream asks, "where are you now?", impossible to answer because there is no findable "here" in a dream. And if this Buddha asks "where are you going when you leave here?", likewise we won't have an answer. During this preamble to meditation, Lama Alan draws the parallel between this non-lucid dream and samsara: the first moment of samsara is unknowable because we're not lucid during the first instant of samsara. Even the Buddha looking back couldn't identify the beginning of his samsara because it was non-lucid. Thus, we call it "beginningless". But that doesn't mean it doesn't have an end, which relates directly to the first moment of unawareness in mind-wandering. Lama Alan then explains that for this morning's meditation on Compassion & Pristine Awareness, we'll have a "guest lecturer" as he'll guide us through Sera Khandro's meditation from "Garland for the Delight of the Fortunate". The meditation is an oral transmission from Sera Khandro's Garland for the Delight of the Fortunate (Vol 2, Buddhahood Without Meditation), extracted from a. The Concise Teachings of Pith Instructions on the Vital Points of Methods for Placing the Mind. After the meditation, Lama Alan elucidates the connection between the meditation and the topic. Pristine Awareness is the place of ultimate refuge. Out of motivation of self-compassion and compassion for others, we need to find it and then rest in Pristine Awareness. Once we're releasing into it, we tap into all the qualities of an Enlightened Buddha, which includes tapping into the well-spring of a Buddha's Great Compassion. The meditation starts at 40:15
