Fall 2014 Shamatha, Vipashyana, Dream Yoga, 13 Oct 2014, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
At the beginning Alan shares extremely uplifting news as what concerns “Project Contemplative Observatory”. After having failed to build one in India and in Santa Barbara it finally looks as if a promising piece of land in Tuscany is available. The land is cheap and big enough to support not only a contemplative observatory but also a mind center. With retreatants maybe even planting organic food there, it would truly be as close as we get in samsara to a pure land! After a silent meditation we return to the text. Alan explains that the four great types of liberation can only manifest once you completely stop all conceptualization. These four types are then described as: 1) primordial liberation, which means that you don’t need to remedy anything and take no external refuge 2) liberation by itself, because after you have investigated enough (practiced vipashyana) you find clear insight and you then simply release into that insight 3) instantaneous liberation 4) complete liberation, which means that it takes no effort at all Alan then points out that whereas a while ago he quoted Geshe Rabten who argued that all of Dharma either lays the foundation for bodhicitta, is bodhicitta or leads to bodhicitta, this is different from a Dzogchen perspective. From that view all of dharma is a preparation for discovering who you are, and that is rigpa. Not only does Alan contrast the Madhyamaka and the Dzogchen approach in this way, but also by explaining in what ways things arise. Nagarjuna shows that it is not reasonable to say that things exist, nor that they don’t exist, nor both, nor neither. However, from the Dzogchen perspective everything self-arises - but, of course, only from the perspective of rigpa! Silent meditation cut out at 27:18
Fall 2014 Shamatha, Vipashyana, Dream Yoga, 04 Sep 2014, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
In the teachings Alan elaborated once more on the topic of seeing ones teacher as the Buddha, sharing some stories about his early times in India which relate to that topic. It is easy to see the really great lamas, like the Karmapa or H.H. the Dalai Lama as totally unlike ourselves, we can imagine them as being Buddhas. But if we see our ordinary lama, who is giving us the everyday teachings, in a different way, because after all they seem to be almost like us, we have just missed the point. Then we practice simple idolatry. We have to see them of being of one nature, all from the same source. Then we had a clarification regarding how to deal with upheavals that come up as a result of the practice, and the comment from Dudjom Lingpa in his Sharp Vajra of Conscious Awareness Tantra is not to reify them, otherwise you will get stuck. The grasping onto them as inherently existing is the problem, not the upheavals themselves. Regarding todays practice, what we have to do here is to release the notion of practicing this from the perspective of a sentient being. There is no effort involved, no modification or fabrication, and it involves not doing anything. There is a dimension here that is always rigpa, and it never falls into marigpa (unknowing), it never wandered in samsara. From that perspective there is nothing to be done, but from the perspective of a sentient being we have a lot of work to do. Questions: Q1: Regarding the long quotation from Karma Chagme Rinpoche in A Spacious Path to Freedom (“What do you mean you can’t…”), and that will be included on the webpage for download very soon. Q2: In regards to the translation of the Compendium of Practices chapter 13, which is translated by Alan right now so it will still take a bit of time, we will receive it later. Q3: Regarding the intensification in the oscillation of Awareness of Awareness. Q4: In intense practice of Mindfulness of Breathing the mind isn’t very sharp anymore. Am I getting old? Q5: During meditation it feels like sounds are passing through my body. Well, that could be The Who again… Meditation starts at 01:02 min
The 4 Yogas of Mahamudra 2019 Retreat, 20 Jun 2019, Shambhala Mountain Center
**Jan-Paul** How to distinguish between rigpa and the substrate consciousness? Is it possible to have a glimpse of the substrate consciousness before having achieved shamatha? **Anjana** My question is regarding His Holiness the Dalai Lama. I watch all of his webcasts and I try to watch them live as much as possible as opposed to recordings. Many of them are teachings, empowerments, transmissions, etc. So when I'm watching them, listening and repeating what needs to be repeated, and then he gives the instruction, the transmission, and he says do like a hundred repetitions of this everyday. Is that then a samaya or commitment with him, even though I'm not present there physically? So one of the parts was that he said to repeat the instruction or this mantra like a hundred times a day, so you follow that? **Yongyi** On the first day we covered the prerequisites for achieving shamatha. I found some of those conditions really demanding. Also I remember on the second day you mentioned that even if we practice for like eight hours a day, but if we're not careful enough in between sessions, it will be like taking 2 steps forward and 3 steps back. So my question I guess is twofold. Would you recommend the general population to practice shamatha, even knowing that there's no way they can achieve it? Because most of them in modern society, they don't have the luxury of keeping other activities to the minimum. And the other question is, how can we keep the continuity of practice when we're off the cushion, while at the same time not disengaging from the world? **Susan** I had a comment and a question last night, but today the question was answered through Padmasambhava, so now I just have a comment. I wish to basically bear witness to the truth that you, throughout the week, have spoken of the vast benefit of recognizing events of the mind as events of the mind. With regard to PTSD, some years ago, about 6 years ago, I was the "victim" of a violent crime, and I say that in quotes because I'm so grateful not to identify with that statement, it's the statement of the judicial system. And for many of the last 6 years I have struggled deeply and gone through therapies and therapies and on and on and on. And last fall in New York at the Garrison center for the dream yoga retreat, my dear friends brought me to this experience and it was radically life changing with regard to the PTSD, which prior to that point, even last year I would have debilitating episodes where at times I could not even physically move, like paralyzing. And throughout the rest of the time it was like huge surges of having to deal with that, and so I'm just so happy to report the efficacy of that practice. Just in the months between last September and now, I would say that the analogy I think of most is, it's like a tiger that was defanged. Before my mind would be bloodied, and often physically I would have very difficult symptoms. And now it's like, every now and then it'll be gumming me, and it's annoying and sometimes it brings disruptions but nothing like what I experienced before. Exactly just some saliva but not anything of lasting import, so I give thanks and I'm thankful to you on behalf of myself and my partner who has experienced alongside me these things and now bringing into the world this little being who is on his way. I thank you on his behalf as well. **Laura** I think you know I'm getting ready to go into retreat and I was going to ask you about this, and then I realized it was kind of a good question that actually follows up on what you were just talking about. I'm kind of the person that you just mentioned in that when I started practicing seriously my daughter was about 2, and she's almost 30 now. I'm a grandmother now but that's a lot less requiring. So what I wanted to ask you about was, I had this really interesting experience, because when she was little I would do the week longs, but I couldn't do much more and then I don't need to reiterate because you said the exact same trajectory. When she went to college I was able to do longer and my first 30 days and so on, and so over the last few years I've done increasingly, you know 3 to 5 months retreats on and off as you know. And one thing that I noticed, I don't know if I'm refuting you but I would question you because I haven't heard you refer to this directly. You're absolutely right, when I'm on full time retreat and I'm practicing, I notice there's a certain momentum that goes. And then when I come out of formal retreat, even though my life is pretty radically simple at this point, I live in the country, pretty simple, but I noticed the practice kind of diminishes in its vividness and its clarity of course because I'm doing other things. But what I have noticed is when I go back into retreat, that momentum isn't lost. One thing that you talked about, the ways you can get derailed by getting too intense and headaches and all that, I've been there, thank you. But there was one derailment that happened last time that I haven't heard you mention, and I wanted to mention it and just kind of ask you about it because I guess it will come up again. When I was in my last retreat maybe 3 years ago, my last full time retreat, I had this explosion of art, like a whole new art form came out just like BOOM, but it totally derailed my practice. I just figured it out in the last year, what happened is there was so much energy of creativity that came out that the next thing I knew, my retreat cabin turned into an art studio. And I was practicing but all of a sudden, and I mean it took a long time to figure out what had happened, my meditation and the little bit of art that was just supporting my meditation practice had something to do with my hands when I was listening to Dharma talks, became me doing a lot of art and there was a little Dharma playing in the background. And so as I'm getting ready to go back into retreat, I will obviously probably still create art, I want to keep that from happening again so any advice on that? **Chris** So if you were me, a beginner meditator, just having received this radical download, I don't have children, a spouse, these things, what would the next week, month, year of your life look like? **Diego** I almost think my question is redundant because it feels very related to all of the previous ones, but today you talked about the sacred tension, and I think you said that we shouldn't assume or aim to always be on one side of the spectrum. And so my question is how do we know we're making the right choice when going back and forth, when switching, or maybe it's not always a choice per se? **Rick** You mentioned a couple of days ago that you had gone into a 2 year agreement with Wisdom Publications, I think you mentioned that. Does that include more online classes? I'm a believer in those courses, I'm just about to finish my 7th of your courses, when I found out you were coming I told my wife: "I have to go meet my teacher".
2018 8-week retreat- The Essence of Clear Meaning, 25 Apr 2018, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute in Pomaia (Pisa), Italy
After yesterday's brief introduction to non-meditation, Lama Alan began the session with the message that by the end of this retreat, we should be so familiar with the 3 types of practices explored so far (shamatha, vipashyana and non-meditation), that we can be confident enough to know if we're doing them well or not. Probably due to how subtle and challenging they can be, he also emphasized we should have a flexible approach to the path, in which we don't get caught up in the extremes of either (i) thinking we shouldn't be doing these practices because they're very advanced, (ii) but also we shouldn't proceed disregarding all other more foundational practices, that form the basis for all of Vajrayana and Dzogchen. As always, striking a balance is the key point. The session then proceeded with commentary on the last paragraph we explored yesterday, for further clarification. Among other topics, Lama Alan offered detailed commentary on the practice of non-meditation, and specifically how hard it can be to avoid modification, negation or affirmation of what comes up in the mind, as the text at one point reads. He also made the key distinction with regards to the practice of non-meditation, that we either do the practice, or we don't do it at all. As an example, if our minds go into thinking mode, it's not the case that we're practicing non-meditation incorrectly, we're not practicing it at all. In that moment, what we should do is just to re-start the practice. After these explanations on non-meditation, we then proceed to explore what happens when we do mistakes, which follows in the section "If you do not identify this path…". Just prior to the meditation, Lama Alan offered some extra commentary about the preliminaries and their extensive benefits for the practices of shamatha and vipashyana, which he once again reinforced as being of essential importance for a fruitful Dzogchen practice. The meditation (which was a mostly silent) non-meditation session, begins at 60:04. Text p. 61
2017 8-Week Retreat, 05 May 2017, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
This session we head back into vipashyana, beginning with an excursion through the Chittamatra view. Alan explains the complete congruence of Dudjom Lingpa’s presentation with that of Prasangika Madhyamika proponents such as Je Tsongkhapa. It’s not a presentation of whether the domains of the internal, external and the appearances between actually exist, but how they do exist. Understanding that the domain of reality they inhabit makes sense for each sentient being, we can avoid feeling contempt for people whose views may well be contemptible. Alan suggests this is one of the reasons Dzogchen is known as the “great encompassment.” During the meditation, we examine the nominal existence of conceptual designation as well as the boundaries between the inner world of mind, the in-between world of appearances and awareness of them, and the outer physical world of things. Training to observe these domains non-conceptually eliminates the need for us to grapple with conceptual issues such as existence and non-existence and understand how these domains interrelate. Without this understanding, even achieving shamatha does not move us one hair’s breadth on the path. We pick up the text on page 15 as Dudjom Lingpa is giving an account of teachings he received from Vidyadhara Dudul Dorje on “Dissolving the Grasping at the Permanence of Things.” It doesn’t take long for Alan to relate the teaching to the findings of Quantum Mechanics and he has brought along some quotes that are breathtakingly similar to the Buddhist Middle Way view. Guided meditation starts at 34:39
Spring 2010 Shamatha Retreat, 04 May 2010, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
We start with an introduction on the three different dimensions of suffering and pick up briefly on this morning's topic of becoming lucid in the waking state.
The deep practice that follows is indeed a Compassion practice but its focus is on this lucidity.
After the meditation we have some open questions focused on the practice, such as "how does vividness manifest in the practice of settling the mind in its natural state," and other general questions that might be good for all! We passed the microphone around so there are a lot people giving their experience and asking their own questions this time.
Another photo by Ale! As you can see she had quite a nice trip and gave me a bunch of awesome pictures. I know I already used this one but I had some technical problems!
2017 8-Week Retreat, 17 May 2017, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
With this session Alan continues the series of teachings on the stages of shamatha with the first stage, Directed Attention. It is crucial that we understand both the path to shamatha and the signs that shamatha has been achieved. If we don’t have a clear understanding of this, we may think that we have achieved shamatha, or a certain stage of shamatha, when we haven’t and then stop practicing. Alan says that there is widespread agreement throughout Buddhism on the sages of shamatha. Despite this, many people are not well informed, or are confused about the stages of shamatha, perhaps because the Buddha’s instructions are open to interpretation. Directed Attention hones the ability to focus on a chosen object. The power by which this is achieved is by hearing and learning. The major problem on this stage is that there is no attentional continuity due to coarse excitation. This lack of ability to focus has been widely noted, both within and outside of Buddhism, and is entirely normal. Hence, Alan says, there is no need to be frustrated by your inability to focus when starting out in the practice. The type of mental engagement needed during the focused stage is focused attention. The quality of the experience is motion. During this stage you realize how chaotic your mind is. Lama Mipham Rinpoche has given the analogy that the first stage of shamatha is like a cascading waterfall. When your attention is abducted apply the remedy of relaxation, then release grasping onto thoughts, and return to the object of meditation. In order to achieve stable, sustainable attention, cultivate relaxation without sacrificing clarity. In this morning’s silent, unrecorded meditation, the practice is your choice of any of the varieties of mindfulness of breathing.
Fall 2010 Shamatha Retreat, 18 Nov 2010, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Alan begins the first session of this week by a useful explanation on the sources of suffering in Modernity and the impediments that arise in our path to bliss, luminosity and non-conceptuality. Modernity seems to be perfect to increase Obsessional-Compulsive-Delusional-Disorder (OCDD), through work, stress, entertainment... In this pathological context, OCDD is taken to be normal. Contemplative traditions (Buddhism has not the monopoly here) come to the scene by claiming: “this might be normal, but this is not healthy”. If the source of suffering is internal (in our own minds), -rather than external (lack of sufficient external stimuli/hedonic pleasure)- then there is no point in “trying to get the world to turn out right”. The hedonic row always ends in a tragedy. Comparatively, the Dharma path is a comedy, because it has a happy ending. Five obscurations can be obstacles in our meditative way to substrate consciousness: 1. Craving to sensual pleasures, 2. Ill will, 3. Laxity and dullness, 4. Excitation, (including remorse, regret, anxiety and fear), and 5. Uncertainty (in our own capacity). Five remedies or antidotes can be applied to overcome them, respectively: 1. Single-pointed attention, 2. a sense of Well-being, 3. Applied thought (coarse examination), 4. Bliss (enthusiasm for the practice eventually creates bliss, and once it arises, fear vanishes), and 5. Subtle investigation, applied thought (perseverance in the practice). A rich and clear introduction precedes a guided meditation on Settling the Mind in its Natural State. This practice can not only subdue these mental obscurations, but actually terminate them.
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 15 May 2020, Online-only
Session 13: Resting in awareness (probing) 1. Review 2. The two approaches 3. The actual practice 4. Meditation - resting in awareness (probing) 5. Prerequisites for shamatha 6. Q&A In todays session we continue with the practice of resting in awareness, this time with an added element of inquiry. Glen quotes Padmasambhava from Natural Liberation when speaking about the two modes of practice, which are either first being introduced to the view and then meditation, or vice versa. Padmasambhava states that the superior method is to first do meditation in order to be directly presented with the view of pristine awareness. Otherwise, our intellectual view of pristine awareness can become an obstacle in our meditation. In the meditation we are presented with questions such as “who is the one who is observing,” “who is the one who is releasing the mind,” etc. Therefore, this meditation is structured as both shamatha and vipashana. Meditation starts at 18:16 According to Tsongkhapa there are six pre-requisites in order to achieve shamatha, which are: a supportive environment, having few desires, being content with what we have, having few activities, pure ethical discipline (social, environmental, and psychophysical), and dispensing with compulsive ideation. The outer preliminaries help to cultivate the internal pre-requisites. The most important pre-requisites, according to Tsongkhapa, are pure ethical discipline, seeing desires as disadvantageous, and dwelling in an appropriate environment. Also, regarding the 6 paramitas, each previous perfection is needed in order to cultivate the following. For example, to cultivate ethical discipline one must already have a sense of generosity. By following that line of thought, one must have cultivated the first four perfections in order to accomplish the perfection of samadhi.
Shamatha Teachings Presented by Glen Svensson, 15 May 2020, Originally part of 2020 8-week retreat
Session 13: Resting in awareness (probing) 1. Review 2. The two approaches 3. The actual practice 4. Meditation - resting in awareness (probing) 5. Prerequisites for shamatha 6. Q&A In todays session we continue with the practice of resting in awareness, this time with an added element of inquiry. Glen quotes Padmasambhava from Natural Liberation when speaking about the two modes of practice, which are either first being introduced to the view and then meditation, or vice versa. Padmasambhava states that the superior method is to first do meditation in order to be directly presented with the view of pristine awareness. Otherwise, our intellectual view of pristine awareness can become an obstacle in our meditation. In the meditation we are presented with questions such as “who is the one who is observing,” “who is the one who is releasing the mind,” etc. Therefore, this meditation is structured as both shamatha and vipashana. Meditation starts at 18:16 According to Tsongkhapa there are six pre-requisites in order to achieve shamatha, which are: a supportive environment, having few desires, being content with what we have, having few activities, pure ethical discipline (social, environmental, and psychophysical), and dispensing with compulsive ideation. The outer preliminaries help to cultivate the internal pre-requisites. The most important pre-requisites, according to Tsongkhapa, are pure ethical discipline, seeing desires as disadvantageous, and dwelling in an appropriate environment. Also, regarding the 6 paramitas, each previous perfection is needed in order to cultivate the following. For example, to cultivate ethical discipline one must already have a sense of generosity. By following that line of thought, one must have cultivated the first four perfections in order to accomplish the perfection of samadhi.
2017 8-Week Retreat, 30 Apr 2017, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
This morning we transition from the cultivation of the Four Immeasurables to the cultivation of the Four Greats. The practice of equanimity views all sentient beings evenly, recognizing they are all worthy of loving kindness, compassion, and empathetic joy, and today’s practice takes that another step as a bridge to the development of the Greats. In order to cultivate the Mahayana motivation of bodhichitta, a good start is found in Shantideva's instruction for cultivating the equalization of self and others. In order to do so, you use your imagination, the luminous aspect of consciousness. Alan quotes William James, sharing an excerpt of his writings on attention in which he explains that by focusing only on one's own reality, one fails to attend to others, whom we hence view as imaginary. Alan says that most people have an I-it relationship with the self we will be right after we have died and entered the bardo. Likewise, young people typically have an ”I-it" view of the person they will be at middle-age. And, if you could see the one you will be in your next life, you would certainly see this person as a stranger, another I-it. By contemplating in this way, you can cultivate an I-you relationship with yourself, and practice extending that to all sentient beings. Alan then guides us through a meditation in which, while resting in your best approximation of substrate consciousness, you imagine being someone who feels great attachment towards you. You then view yourself from this person’s perspective before dissolving the visualization back into the space of the mind and proceeding through the same sequence with someone who is jealous of you; someone who experiences contempt; envy; and so on; through all five poisons. You then proceed in the same way with someone who views you with unconditional love and finally from the compassionate perspective of a Mahasattva, who views all beings equally. Guided meditation starts at 38:26
Fathom the Mind. Heal the World., 03 Oct 2022, Online and in person from Blazing Mountain Retreat Center, Crestone, Colorado
Before formally starting with the retreat, Lama Alan gave a short overview of the previous two days and elaborated on the darsanas (views) of pre-buddhist traditions (Charvarka, Samkya, Vaishesheka, Yoga, Vedante, Non-vedic traditions, Jainas) as well as indo-tibetan schools and gave a brief historical account of the development of the darsana in Europa from the 18th century onwards. Lama Alan, then started to give an introduction to and an overview of the practice of mindfulness of breathing in 16 stages. He draws from a passage of a great volume of the 4th century from Arya Asanga which was never translated before, sravakabhumi—the stages of spiritual evolution to achieve arhatship. Lama la encourages us to derive the greatest possible benefit from these five days by taking every breath as an invitation to dance with the dharma by being mindful of the in- and out breath and by keeping our speech to a minimum. Even though sravakabhumi is about becoming an arhat we can use the practice of mindfulness of breathing also in the Bodhisattvayana when we augment the motivation of the spirit of definite emergence with Bodhicitta. Lama la then commented about the extraordinary life and the superb accomplishments of Arya Asanga, his writings on the Sravakayana, Bodhisattvayana and Tathagatagarbha, the mind-only philosophy and its comparison with science. Wrapping up, Lama Alan correlated the three turnings of the wheel of dharma with contemplative science, contemplative philosophy and contemplative religion. This session does not include a meditation.
The Seven Preliminaries according Düdjom Lingpa, 13 Apr 2020, Online - Originally part of 2020 8-week retreat
Eva (Yangchen) starts today’s session with a short meditation following the brief recitation of the Düdjom Tersar, up to the practice of bodhicitta. Meditation starts at 1:28 After meditation Yangchen clears out the question of the refuge precepts. Rather than precepts, a literal translation would be ‘refuge training’, she states. Meaning, these indications are things to train on, in which to get better and better everyday. She draws from Lama Tsongkhapa’s Lamrim Chenmo to clear out what the meaning of worldly deities can be in different contexts. She emphasizes the importance of having a correct view of the reality we take refuge in, and encourages us to discern wisely between the objects that can provide ultimate refuge, and those that are merely relative sources of reliance, and to relate to them accordingly. Eva then moves on to the teaching on bodhicitta in A Treasure House of Blessings. To begin, one develops the mind through the four immeasurables, then one performs the actual ritual, and finally one trains in prayer and engaging bodhicitta. Yangchen will just give some brief commentaries on the four immeasurables, covering what Düdjom Lingpa says in the text. First of all, what to do after the Lake Born Vajra has said that training in bodhicitta in a dualistic way, like a mother looking upon her child, is “like hoping that the son of a barren woman could become the head of a household”? Well, this is the way to train (dualistically) until we are mature enough to be able to rest in pristine awareness. Yangchen reads the four analogies to the four immeasurables given in the text. What stops us from feeling unbearable compassion? What is the subtle distinction between loving-kindness and compassion and how are they linked? What does it mean to generate the last two immeasurables, of joy and equanimity? Yangchen addresses all these things briefly.
Fall 2015 Stage of Generation, 21 Sep 2015, Araluen Retreat Center, Queensland, Australia
We go directly into the meditation on resting awareness with single pointed attention on the space of the mind. Alan resumes the oral transmission and commentary of the Mahamudra chapter from pages 161 to 165. He emphasises that Karma Chagme makes it clear he is focussed on Shamatha with its 9 stages mapped onto initial, intermediate and culmination metaphors of moving water. The first 3 stages are like a cascading waterfall. Then stage 4 Shamatha is the initial metaphor of a stream in a narrow gorge. The intermediate metaphor is like a river flowing through a valley – equivalent of Shamatha stage 6. The culmination water metaphor is an ocean unmoved by waves, Shamatha stage 8. Alan says we must know these pith instructions (pp. 161-162). Continuing with the text, Alan comments on the fact that it is very easy to mistake the lower accomplishments for higher ones and this has been happening for a thousand years. However, this Mahamudra chapter is our guru to check these mistakes. Alan further comments on the text that we need to be aware of meditative states accompanied by grasping. The meditation starts at 0:19. ___ 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, 17 Apr 2019, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
Lama Alan begins the session with a discussion of Shamatha as a technique embedded within its proper context of Buddhist ethics. Just as mindfulness in itself is not inherently virtuous, likewise the practice of shamatha is a type of contemplative technology that is ethically neutral. In order for it to be considered virtuous from a Buddhist standpoint, shamatha ought to be motivated and sustained by a worldview rooted in ethics, particularly one that takes into account the possibility of all future lifetimes. Moreover, the aspiration for virtue itself may be tainted by the eight mundane concerns predicated on seeking reward in exchange for deeds, which in turn perpetuates self-grasping and diffuses the significance of the deed with respect to future lifetimes. The difference tainted virtue and authentic dharma comes down to hedonic pleasure as opposed to genuine eudaimonic well-being. Shamatha can be considered a virtuous act insofar as it directly contributes to liberation, untainted by self-grasping. Therefore the practice of shamatha should be motivated by bodhicitta, imbued with loving kindness, and conducive towards the cultivation of humility. Meditation begins: a guided meditation on loving kindness reading from Düdjom Lingpa’s Mud and Feathers, as well as some verses from Shantideva. After the meditation session, Lama Alan turns to questions and answers from the audience pertaining to meditation on the kasinas, the practice of balancing earth and wind, and an etymological discussion of the words “mind”, “consciousness”, and “awareness”. Meditation starts at 14:31
2019 8-Week Retreat, 18 Apr 2019, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
Olaso. This morning we are returning to the preliminaries, one of them. Many teachers will not give teachings to students without having them completed the preliminaries and here Lama Alan speaks on the profundity of the preliminary practices in this lineage citing Dudjom Rinpoche and Gyatrul Rinpoche. Lama speaks on the common and uncommon preliminary practices that are indispensable to launching into Shamatha, then Vipashyana, and so on. How do we make the preliminaries meaningful? We also hear about the Lam Rim and other practices that are the ‘heavy lifting’ for the Vajrayana Path. Lama Alan describes how we must view sentient beings as our kind parents, and cultivate relative Bodhicitta. Recall the kindness of your parents. Feeling compassion for each being until tears flow from one’s eyes. Compassion is an aspiration, not an emotion. Remember about motivation at the beginning and dedication at the end of all activities. Lama Alan guides a discursive meditation here by using verses from Shantideva: Question on the note: How does understanding that appearances that come into existence by conceptual designation…? Lama Alan responds before question is complete: Appearances do not come into being due to conceptualization. Appearances are prior to conceptualization. He gives the example of reflections in a mirror. Reflections are not on the surface of the mirror. The reflection has causal efficacy, but it is not actually there. Interesting. Daily activity: Never forget the constant vigilance in not getting involved in mind wandering. Mental afflictions will not go away by themselves. Do not identify with the mental afflictions. Do not get entangled with the mental afflictions. Do not reify them, do not identify with them, and let them self-release. Meditation begins at 24:25
2017 8-Week Retreat, 10 May 2017, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
Alan discusses two major themes in this session: 1) we need a clear description of what it is like to achieve shamatha; 2) achieving shamatha is crucial for progressing along the path beyond shamatha and for stabilizing our realizations. Alan says that we now have a variety of methods at our disposal to proceed along the path to shamatha, but, he says, he has found that many descriptions of the destination of shamatha are vague. As we get closer to achieving shamatha, a clearer description of shamatha becomes essential. In this talk, Alan reads passages from The Vajra Essence in which the Lake-Born Vajra gives pointing-out instructions on what occurs when shamatha is achieved. This provides us with a road map that can guide us along the path and allow us to recognize when we have achieved shamatha. Alan recalls comments of Dudjom Lingpa that indicate even 150 years ago not many people were achieving shamatha. This continues to this day, when shamatha practice is not emphasized and is often overlooked. Alan thinks that part of the reason for this is that people get impatient and want to get to the “main event” (e.g. Vajrayana or Dzogchen practices). However, without the foundation of shamatha, Alan says that any practices we will do will be liked half-baked clay. Alan emphatically states that we need to rise to the gold standard of what the Buddha actually taught, and that the methods and opportunity are available in the “palm of our hands” to progress along the path and achieve shamatha. The guided meditation is on awareness of awareness, in which peripheral attention is given to the appearances and subjective impulses arising in the space of the mind. When laxity or excitation occur, they can be aids to the practice. After recognizing them, we release the grasping that caused the attentional imbalance to occur. Guided meditation starts at 15:33
Spring 2010 Shamatha Retreat, 03 Jun 2010, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
If you have been subscribing to the podcast, you are probably very familiar with today's meditation. We practiced Settling the Mind in its Natural State by first coming in through different domains of experience, following to the instructions that the Buddha gave to the wandering ascetic Bahiya. I have linked to them directly in the past so I won't do so here, however Alan paraphrases them very clearly in the introduction. Alan also gives a brief recap on a point about non-conceptual experience from a few days ago, and details a "smooth gradient" from being fully-fledged psychotic to being a Buddha. Shortly thereafter, we go into the practice with the prospect of becoming sane, first with respect to our own minds, then in our dreams, and then in all experience, thus becoming lucid in the waking state.
Enjoy!
This beautiful local photo is from Daniela!
2017 8-Week Retreat, 24 Apr 2017, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
Today in our exploration of the Four Immeasurables, Alan moves on to the cultivation of compassion. He emphasizes that neither compassion nor loving kindness are an emotion or a feeling. Rather, they are both aspirations with compassion being the heart-felt wish that all sentient beings be free from suffering and its sources. Skillful compassion must be imbued with wisdom. As an example, Alan mentions the loving parents who don't give their child a third serving of the dessert they insist on. The cultivation of compassion should start with oneself and spread from there outwards to others. Even though self-directed compassion is not found in the traditional teachings of the Pali Canon, it is important as an antidote to the self-loathing endemic in western culture. Alan highlights the distinction between compassion and pity. In the case of self-pity, you completely identify with your suffering. To see through this, the practice of Settling the Mind in Its Natural State can be a tremendous help. Pitying others can easily degenerate into contempt, a form of moral superiority. Authentic compassion does not conflate the person with her behavior. Another distinction between compassion and pity is that compassion sees hope and light at the end of the tunnel. That is, compassion sees the possibility of an end to suffering, whereas pity does not recognize the prospect of freedom. Following the guided meditation on cultivating compassion for yourself, Alan briefly highlights the benefits of witnessing the afflictions of others. But, he also cautions that we need to be on guard for our own afflicted responses to others’ behavior. If someone praises us, it can generate pride. If they praise others, it can generate jealousy. If they are cruel, it can generate anger. And no matter what people do, we tend to reify them and thereby generate delusion. Guided meditation starts at 23:30
2017 8-Week Retreat, 21 May 2017, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
The session begins with a meditation session in which Alan guides us through four successive retreats or withdrawals of awareness until resting in awareness of awareness and the recognition that appearances and awareness are non-dual. After the meditation, Alan describes two main avenues in Dzogchen for the realization of rigpa. The first one will lead us to rigpa by resting in a state utterly devoid of activity. He uses the example of someone who is able to lucidly dissolve all dream appearances into the substrate and then while resting lucidly in deep, dreamless sleep, they cut through to rigpa from that near domain. The second approach is the way epitomized by Naropa’s sudden shift of perspective from non-lucidity to lucidity after getting a slap from Tilopa’s sandal. We pick up the text again on page 31, with the Teachings of Mañjuśrī, the Lion of Speech. Düdjom Lingpa poses the question, are all the diverse manifestations of buddhas and their pure realms none other than my own appearances in the same way as I know the physical world and its sentient inhabitants to be? While discussing the meaning of the term kāya as the great variety of entrances to the path, Alan ponders whether in the 21st century, science might be an avenue to pristine awareness? He says that despite the reigning materialist orthodoxy of most of science there are inspiring and mainstream scholars taking a different view. He cites two fresh perspectives in neuroscientist Donald Hoffman and physicist Christopher Fuchs. The similarities of their views to Madhyamaka philosophy may herald an unprecedented convergence between religion and science on the nature of the world and the role of mind in it. The guided meditation starts at 0:0:10
Fall 2011 Shamatha Retreat, 24 Sep 2011, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Alan starts by explaining the concept of rang dröl (self-liberation or natural liberation) in the context of shamatha practice. He then talks about the 5 obscurations and its antidotes, which are:
The five factors of stabilization remove the five obscurations
1. The factor of coarse examination removes the obscurations of laxity and dullness.
2. The factor of precise investigation removes the obscuration of uncertainty.
3. The factor of well-being removes the obscuration of malice.
4. The factor of bliss removes the obscurations of excitation and anxiety
5. The factor of single-pointed attention removes the obscuration of sensual craving.
Water similes of the five obscurations
1. Sensual craving is like water mixed with various colors.
2. Malice is like boiling water.
3. Laxity and dullness are like water covered over by moss.
4. Excitation and anxiety are like agitated water whipped by the wind.
5. Uncertainty is like turbid, muddy water.
Today we continue with the practice of settling the mind in its natural state, now focusing on both the objective as well as the subjective aspects of the foreground
Meditation starts at 44:33
Questions (69:17):
1) What does it mean to achieve shamatha in the water, air, earth, etc elements?
2) How does the physical world map to the model of the 3 levels of consciousness, as related to this morning's talk?
3) Advice on what to do when one experiences waves of energy and a sense of "buzz" while practicing loving kindness
4) If one who has achieved shamatha but didn't have time to proceed along the mundane or supramande paths...what should this person do in order to avoid losing it in his/her future lives?
Fall 2015 Stage of Generation, 04 Aug 2015, Araluen Retreat Center, Queensland, Australia
The five obscurations (like fixation on hedonic pleasure etc.) obscure what? Substrate Consciousness. A single pointed mind is a natural remedy for all of the obscurations. Just breathing in an out doesn't trigger craving or aversion. If you can get over the hump of boredom, there's a sequence leading to well being, then clarity and stability until the experience becomes blissful. That's what gets you down the home stretch. That is the beauty of this method. The third and final point of the common preliminaries describes how we are like "reckless lunatics" riding "the wild steed of spiritual sloth" without reins to guide it. This is what happens if you miss the boat of Dharma. If you think you have experienced depression, when you understand this, it is like being cosmically depressed. This is the view of samsara from the point of view of a Vidyadhara where samsara and nirvana are equally pure It's unimaginable! Dudjom Lingpa's rigpa is speaking to your rigpa. So if it resonates, don't second guess yourself, go for it. When we fathom the reality of our own suffering, it gives rise to authentic renunciation. When you extend that out to other beings, it turns into compassion, then unbearable compassion for all beings, even the perpetrators of atrocities. Everything hinges on insight into these common preliminaries. Silent Meditation begins at 21:10 and is not recorded ___ 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, 23 May 2019, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
Olaso. Lama Alan begins with some light humor around being the dummy of the ventriloquist of his Lamas. Today he will be doing something a bit unusual and teaching in the third phase of the text on the six bardos at the end of the Vajra essence. Lama begins on Page 5. Today the meditation will be the practice of the Daytime dream yoga, released like a flock of doves! Turning to the text, the analogy is holding aloft a lamp in a dark room. He speaks of the parallel track of falling asleep. As we relax more and more, we go more into dullness. Lama speaks of two paths of deep realization speaking about those who don’t sleep at all, and those yogis who sleep every opportunity they get. Remember that the bardo of dreaming is an opportunity for enlightenment. Lama shares stories of His Holiness, Shantideva, among others. Lama Alan then moves to the description of the perpetuation of Samsara in the form of grasping. There is a grasping to ‘I’ and as a rebound there is a cooperative outer appearances. He talks about the oscillation of the daytime and nighttime appearances. There is a common acceptance that the waking state is ‘real’ and dream appearances are ‘not real’. Lama discusses this point around this dynamic. He refers to the Vajra Essence text and describes that we will be going into more depth of this subject in two years if things go as planned. He talks about the differences of the Mahayana and Dzogchen views on viewing the waking state. Lama discusses the practice of awareness holding its own ground, and taking the mind as the path. Don’t be distracted, and don’t grasp. There is an interesting point here about subjective and objective appearances to awareness and their relation to substrate and substrate consciousness. The encouragement is to develop this ability in order to release the friction and grasping in the our daily lives. The more grasping, the more we are exhausted. Remain firm and still when the mind is upset. Lama then speaks of lucidity in the dreams and then after one is dead. Dream yoga can prepare us for the bardo of becoming. Being lucid, stop interacting with the appearances, they will disappear, and you will go right into the substrate; and imbued with the view and realization, you can crash the doors of substrate to pristine awareness. This is how one becomes enlightened in the bardo of becoming. For the meditation, the pith instructions is try to bring the view that all these appearances are manifesting in the substrate, just like in a dream. Then rest in your own awareness holding this view. Lama releases the group to meditate wherever they like. Walking, sitting, lying, or standing. 30 minute meditation with no guidance. Lama Alan continues recommending that practicing daytime dream yoga will have more benefit for shifting the whole way we view reality. The Dzogchen view is that this is a dream, and there is a perspective from which that is true. There is also a relative truth that is also true where we are a human being and this is not a dream. Lama tells stories of interactions with Gyatrul Rinpoche, Zong Rinpoche, and the 6 Yogas of Naropa. He then gives advice on lucid dreaming by having anticipatory resolve. Alan refers to Alexander Berzin and Serkong Rinpoche to read some articles: https://studybuddhism.com/en/tibetan-buddhism/spiritual-teachers/tsenzhab-serkong-rinpoche https://studybuddhism.com/en/tibetan-buddhism/spiritual-teachers/tsenzhab-serkong-rinpoche/a-portrait-of-tsenzhab-serkong-rinpoche Lama Alan continues with speaking on lucid dreaming and fathoming the dream and practicing emanation and transformation. Then he moves to how classic dream yoga once can change anything you like in the dream. Just as in practicing shamatha will dredge your psyche, so too will the practice of dream yoga catalyze your worst nightmares. When you are thoroughly lucid, you just release yourself into that dream. Once you are there, then you can travel to purelands in a dream, and receive teachings. Your intelligence is the judge of the teachings. Lama finishes by stating how one can achieve enlightenment in the dream transitional phase. Silent meditation begins at: 45:35
Spring 2010 Shamatha Retreat, 09 May 2010, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
This session was the first of the meditations with less spoken guidance. However, Alan made up for it with the great introduction and outro!
The talks are based on the importance of looking for genuine happiness, focusing on the more and more common condition of "General Anxiety," (or reality-based anxiety) its causes, and how society is depending on more and more brain drugs to band-aid the symptoms. The outro is particularly enriching; it details how a cooperation between the Pharmaceutical Industry (which can be absolutely necessary), Psychiatrists (talk treatment), and Dharma could work in synergy towards a real focus on healing the mind on all levels.
This local photo is courtesy of Daniela.
Last but certainly not least, happy mothers day weekend! We love you and miss you mothers!
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 13 Apr 2020, Online-only
Eva (Yangchen) starts today's session with a short meditation following the brief recitation of the Düdjom Tersar, up to the practice of bodhicitta. Meditation starts at 1:28 After meditation Yangchen clears out the question of the refuge precepts. Rather than precepts, a literal translation would be 'refuge training', she states. Meaning, these indications are things to train on, in which to get better and better everyday. She draws from Lama Tsongkhapa's Lamrim Chenmo to clear out what the meaning of worldly deities can be in different contexts. She emphasizes the importance of having a correct view of the reality we take refuge in, and encourages us to discern wisely between the objects that can provide ultimate refuge, and those that are merely relative sources of reliance, and to relate to them accordingly. Eva then moves on to the teaching on bodhicitta in A Treasure House of Blessings. To begin, one develops the mind through the four immeasurables, then one performs the actual ritual, and finally one trains in prayer and engaging bodhicitta. Yangchen will just give some brief commentaries on the four immeasurables, covering what Düdjom Lingpa says in the text. First of all, what to do after the Lake Born Vajra has said that training in bodhicitta in a dualistic way, like a mother looking upon her child, is “like hoping that the son of a barren woman could become the head of a household”? Well, this is the way to train (dualistically) until we are mature enough to be able to rest in pristine awareness. Yangchen reads the four analogies to the four immeasurables given in the text. What stops us from feeling unbearable compassion? What is the subtle distinction between loving-kindness and compassion and how are they linked? What does it mean to generate the last two immeasurables, of joy and equanimity? Yangchen addresses all these things briefly. [Keywords: Refuge training, view and refuge, four immeasurables in bodhicitta]
Fall 2015 Stage of Generation, 22 Sep 2015, Araluen Retreat Center, Queensland, Australia
The meditation is a combination of earth, wind and space. Meditation starts straight away. After the meditation, Alan explains that when we see this chapter is called Mahamudra, we may think there will be something very special, but the author goes back to the preliminaries and spends most of the rest of the chapter reviewing Shamatha. His strong sense is that this is to prevent the practitioner from grasping onto non- meditation. This is a wake up call and that’s why he’s going back. He returns to p. 161 to highlight the experiential comments in the two texts that are quoted, pointing out that there is nothing more definitive or authoritative. Then he talks about what it’s like to achieve Shamatha and the radical changes that happen to the physiology and the mind. Returning to p. 165, Alan comments on the four contemplations or four yogas, and talks about Lama Tsong Karpa’s view that a gifted practitioner may go into vipashyana without much Shamata, gain some realisation of emptiness and that can be the object of shamatha, so the method itself is the union of shamatha and vipashyana. Or Shamatha can be achieved by way of generation stage practice. There are also the methods discussed in the Vajra Essence. The transmission from the text continues until the end of the chapter, and Alan ends with a very clear explanation of the meaning of rang jung /self-emergence of primordial consciousness in this context. Meditation starts at 0:01 ___ 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, 14 Apr 2019, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
The material that will be covered in this afternoon session is crucially important because the whole issue of entering the path at all depends on this. In phase I the path is the development along the 9 stages. For Dzogchen, however, three streams have to come together and each of these are indispensable. Before giving a detailed explanation, Lama Alan draws parallels from the Sravakayana and Mahayana path. For Dzogchen the above mentioned streams are the common and uncommon preliminaries which are like booster rockets which propel you through Shamatha and to Vipashyana, where you gain insight into your unconditioned awareness. When these three paths enter into one, it can be said that you have entered the path. Interestingly, this is also the case in the Mahamudra tradition. Lama-la then compares the amount of time is takes to realize emptiness on the Sutrayana path vs. the path of the Great Perfection and gives explanations why this is so. He then draw parallels to lucid dreaming and eventually ventures into the afternoon meditation. Meditation is on the characteristics of the mind After the meditation Lama Alan mentions the mode of investigation we did in the meditation is typical of the Mahamudra and Dzogchen traditions and comes from Padmasambhava’s Natural Liberation. He then briefly reviews pith instructions given by Yangthang Rinpoche and illustrates the importance and idea of pith instructions to reveal our own dharmakaya by narrating the parallel of the meeting of a child and its mother who have been separated for a long time. Lama-la then gets back to the text (phase II, in the middle of Page 169) where he covers the topics of path and ground pristine awareness, view, meditation and conduct, the threefold ground path and fruition, the three kayas and the six perfections. The meditation starts at 20:18
2017 8-Week Retreat, 03 May 2017, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
Alan returns to the theme of path that he explored in this morning’s teachings. If you achieve shamatha, you may be tempted to remain in the bliss, luminosity and nonconceptuality of this state. Knowledge of the path and the view will help to propel you through shamatha so that you continue on the path until you eventually realize rigpa. Alan states that there are different paths within Dzoghen itself, and within different schools of Buddhism. These different paths may be suitable for people with different dispositions and capacities. Alan mentions that certain aspects of the path taught by Dudjom Lingpa can be bypassed by people of medium faculties who engage in certain meditations (such as merging mind with space), and who may realize rigpa without practicing vipashyana. In this afternoon’s mediation, we engage in one of these practices: non-meditation. We continue in the text on page 13, where Dudjom Lingpa is discussing how all appearances manifest from the empty ground due to grasping at “I” and reification of appearances. He provides a number of classic metaphors to help us to understand the illusory nature of reality. From the perspective of rigpa, appearances do not exist. It is crucial to understand that although things do not exist from their own side, they exist relationally. Confusion arises concerning the nature of reality because we do not understand this and because of grasping and reification. We arrive at this understanding by seeing the illusory nature of reality. A key Dzogchen admonition is that we need to “wake up.” In order to wake up we need to stop grasping at “I” and reifying appearances. Once we wake up, all virtues will flow from this source, so there is nothing else to do but this. Alan says that the Dzogchen path is simple and sensible (though not necessarily easy!). Guided meditation starts at 17:26
Fall 2015 Stage of Generation, 07 Sep 2015, Araluen Retreat Center, Queensland, Australia
Alan says this evening we will continue this morning’s meditation practice on caring in Loving Kindness by going further than the connate and affective biological constraints to now cognitively and attentionally expand the field of awareness. He notes that the Buddhist worldview is that consciousness is coextensive with caring. Alan conveys the oral transmission in Padmasambhava’s “The Natural Liberation of Conscious Awareness” regarding the meditation method of shamatha without a sign by alternating the focus and relaxation of conscious attention while sequentially extending the awareness outwards in each direction within the space of the mind. Alan then addresses questions raised by students during interviews concerning if we already possess Buddhahood within, then why don’t we know that and why wouldn’t we have already experienced Dharmadatu given our countless previous lifetimes. Alan provides a high density teaching on the first five Dependent Originations in his response to this question which brings us into the nature of the present moment of awareness. [Impossible to summarise - listen to the podcast!]. Alan concludes with some quotes from modern cosmologists and the need for physics to include the role of Consciousness. The meditation is Shamatha Without a Sign on expanding the field of conscious attention. The meditation starts at 15:07. ___ 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, 11 Oct 2011, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Dharma talk and meditation on Awareness of Awareness with the focus on the observer: Is there someone in there?
The Bahiya (of the Garment) Sutra. Bahiya received a short discourse from the Buddha and immediately became an arhat. Bahiya was a merchant who had sailed the seas. On his eighth voyage, he was shipwrecked and washed ashore naked. He used the flotsam on the beach to cover himself and the local villagers saw him and thought he was a holy man. He became well-regarded as an arhat from whom the villagers often asked spiritual and mundane advice. Eventually Bahiya began to wonder if he was, indeed, an arhat. However a feminine diva appeared to him and said that he was not, but that he should go to the Buddha who could give him instructions. Bahiya walks a long way across India to find the Buddha and asks on three different occasions for instruction. The third time, the Buddha consents and gives the short discourse on selflessness. Bahiya becomes immediately liberated as an arhat. Three days later, he is gored by a cow and dies.
There is no self/observer/agent inside, outside or in between. There is no correlate to a self in the brain.
After the horrible period between about 1400 and 1750 which saw the bubonic plague and witch hunts, there was a rise in science and a mechanistic view of the world. This continues today despite enormous evidence to the contrary. 96% of the universe is metaphysical (i.e. it can’t be measured; physicists call it “black matter” and “black energy”).
Everything we experience is appearances – non-physical (although there is a physical existence). What we see is the space of the mind.
Being awake is dreaming with physical constraints. Dreaming is waking experience without physical constraints.
The universe is enchanted with consciousness.
Meditation starts at 57:44
No Question and Answer session this time.
2018 8-week retreat- The Essence of Clear Meaning, 23 May 2018, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute in Pomaia (Pisa), Italy
Lama Alan began this afternoon session with the auspicious news that Khadro-la would join the group in a visit of the land expected to soon become the Center for Contemplative Research (CCR) at Castellina Marittima, a location close to where the retreat is currently taking place. Following the meditation, Lama Alan explored the dream analogy he has often used, to elucidate different strategies, either for going from (1) the manifest to the essential nature of pristine awareness, or alternatively, (2) to go from the essential, to the manifest nature of pristine awareness. He also shared a quote from his last book Open Mind, with more details about the Five Quintessences, as it was explored in the text some days ago. The meditation started with the Dzogchen approach to mindfulness of breathing, and culminated in resting in open presence. After the meditation, we returned to the oral transmission and commentary of the text, starting at the sentence before the section "The Closing Summary of Those Explanations". Lama Alan made a number of comments, namely about the challenges of the integration of the practices we've explored so far in daily life; also about how we can use our human intelligence to its highest potential, investigating the actual nature of reality; and finally, also on how the Dzogchen view and conduct can, and should, support each other. As we concluded Phase 6 of the text, Lama-la announced that from tomorrow we will begin focusing on selected parts of Phase 7, namely the description of the Fourth Vision, which happens just before enlightenment. As mentioned before, the remainder of the section will not be covered, but Lama mentioned it would be beneficial to detail what the end of this path, and the actual full achievement of Buddhahood actually entail. The meditation starts at 37:08 Text p. 105-106
2017 8-Week Retreat, 25 Apr 2017, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
Alan prefaces today’s practice of the meditative cultivation of compassion toward others by noting that we in the 21st century not only face global crises unprecedented in their gravity, scale, and variety, but we also carry the burden of being informed about them with unprecedented immediacy and depth. Faced with this reality, we must answer two pressing questions: 1) How do we maintain hope; and 2) What can we do? Pointing out that the three qualities of a Buddha are wisdom, compassion, and power, Alan notes that modernity has made enormous advances in knowledge and power, but with no corresponding advance in compassion or in wisdom (which is to say, no progress in reducing the mental afflictions). This exponential increase in power, remaining un-attenuated by compassion and wisdom, lies at the core of our crises, and it is precisely here that the Dharma offers hope. Alan cites the Dalai Lama is an outstanding example of what fruits such compassion and wisdom may produce. As a simple buddhist monk and leader of a refugee community of a mere quarter-million people (that is to say, someone with no worldly power at all,) he has won the highest accolades and deepest respect of countless people worldwide. Inspired by his example, in just a few decades dharma centers have been established across the globe. Our challenge now is that we need not only to practice dharma; we need to find an authentic path and to follow it to its culmination. As Dudjom Lingpa has been relentlessly pointing out, we need to release all grasping to viewing ourselves as sentient beings, and identify with a deeper level of reality—the brightly shining mind of the substrate or rigpa itself. We need to become vidyadharas. There has never been a more urgent time than this. We must be visionaries! Guided meditation starts at 15:12
Fall 2015 Stage of Generation, 05 Aug 2015, Araluen Retreat Center, Queensland, Australia
Alan begins with the concept of intuition, a type of knowing which is difficult to define. It is unlike empirical knowledge with is based on observations and inferences from these observations. Alan discusses intuition as it relates to rigpa. Shamatha can train intuition by quietening and clearing the mind allowing intuition to come through. The meditation is silent on the Mindfulness of Breathing. Following the meditation Alan elaborates on the cultivation of compassion. An important step is the development of an I-It relationship to thoughts,emotions and images that arise. As Shantideva taught us, we should taunt the emotions and thoughts, dehumanise them and stand tall against them. Compassion arises from the awareness of suffering and sorrow. Is compassion the same as sorrow? Sorrow as an empathetic response is an emotion. However, compassion as an aspiration is not sorrowful. The compassionate aspiration "I shall liberate all sentient beings" has the effect of lifting us out of the veil and gloom of sorrow to the posibility of freedom. This gives great courage and conviction. Getting to the substrate consciousness is the half-way mark, the base camp. The real goal is rigpa from which great compassion arises. Silent Meditation begins at 22:46 and is not recorded. ___ 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
At the begin of the session, Alan returns briefly to the theme of balancing earth (Theravada/Pali Canon) and sky (Mahayana/Dz ogchen). In the teachings of the Pali Canon, vipashyanna is primarily handled with the Four Applications of Mindfulness, because we very naturally identify with our body, feelings, mind and mental states. By attending closely and observing those domains directly, our delusions of being identical with them can be overcome. To eradicate this delusive view within the context of Dzogchen we will look particularly at the process of designating that which is not I or mine as I or mine. We tackle this issue in the guided meditation by rolling back conceptual designation to coarse mentation (which is still conceptional but does not use language); to subtle mentation (nonconceptual but able to discern this from that); and finally to the primal, nonconceptual sense of “me” and “not me.” After the guided meditation, Alan returns to the text, Buddhahood without Meditation, and continues with the section, "Teachings of Longchenpa.” In the paragraph beginning with "I commented, 'O guru, I think that when my body...." Düdjom Lingpa is back to the same question of whether his body is not more real than a dream body. Apparently he is still reifying. Alan explains that the whole question and answer sequence between Düdjom Lingpa and Longchenpa can only be understood in the context that Düdjom Lingpa thinks he is awake while still being in a dream. Longchenpa, on the other hand, is fully awake and tries his best to convince us to wake up fully. Towards the end of session Alan returns to the question of how matter and consciousness are related and concludes stating that although the truth of reality is inconceivable, it is knowable. Guided meditation starts at 18:51
2019 8-Week Retreat, 24 May 2019, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
Lama Alan begins with a brief review of the Grasping Transitional Phase of Living. This is a very transient opportunity so don’t waste it. Cultivate your mind in a way that will fulfill your eternal longing. Lama Alan then turns to the Gradual Transitional Phase of Dying. He describes the dying process and the meditation we can do at each part. The meditation is a rehearsal of the stages of the death process. After the meditation, Lama Alan goes through the Gradual Transitional Phase of Dying portion of the text from the Vajra Essence on the six Bardos. He describes the Prana that holds the life force and its role in conception as well as at death. The energies converge at the heart during conception, death and also upon achieving Shamatha. The importance of studying the death process is to develop an anticipatory resolve. If we know what is coming, we can prepare and know what to do when these experiences arise. Lama Alan briefly discusses Ian Stevenson’s work on past life recall in his book Where Reincarnation and Biology Intersect. About 20 percent of the children with past life recall also recall the Bardo. For those who can rest in Rigpa during this life, it is called the Path Pristine Awareness or the child clear light. During death the child recognizes its mother and unites with the mother clear light, the ground pristine awareness and liberation is achieved. After finishing this section of the text, Lama Alan adds some additional comments regarding what to do if death is quick. He also discusses Sukhavati and how to be born there through faith and the blessings of Amitabha. The meditation begins at 15:06
2019 8-Week Retreat, 22 Apr 2019, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
Eva suggested that a good way to re-inspire the practice is to focus on the details. Today’s meditation will be more conventional, closely following the text. Eva provided the following with respect to some of the terminology used in the text: Sugatas – those that have gone to bliss, sublime and irreversible well-being; Cultivate the realization of Lama as Buddha – commit to becoming the Lama who is the Buddha; Outer offerings – actual things, possibly offered through the mind with the attitude of giving them back, not thinking they are real; Inner offerings – transforming the inner physical matter of our bodies and sentient being’s bodies e.g. envisioning body parts in a skull-cup boiling with the hot fire of wisdom, transforming into primordial consciousness; Secret offerings – bliss itself of the indivisible union of primordial consciousness and emptiness. Mantrayana – Vajrayana; Water endowed with eight qualities – crystal clarity, coolness, sweetness, lightness, softness, soothing to the stomach, free of impurities, clears the throat – symbolic of primordial consciousness; The Five degenerations – lifespan, time when things don’t hold their qualities so well, when there are declines in the virtue of householders (which means mental afflictions increase), declines in the virtue of sangha, and declines in physical form/health. She also recommended reading the life stories of the key figures and in particular “The Lotus Born” about the life of Guru Rinpoche from the perspective of Yeshe Tsogyal: http://www.rangjung.com/book_title/lotus-born/ Finally Eva announces that she will also be offering teachings on vows and samayas in future sessions. Meditation starts at 27:38
Spring 2010 Shamatha Retreat, 30 Apr 2010, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Tonight we had a 5 minute introduction to the practice of Compassion and how to do it properly, as well as a reflection on the effect of Tonglen.
Afterwards we go straight to the practice.
After the meditation there is a question that a group of people had. The question was about not losing touch with Dharma even though we might get swamped with mundane tasks. I think this applies to many of us.
Alan first gives a striking "bad-cop" approach to a part of the question talking about priorities. It makes a lot of sense. Then comes the real question about not separating from Dharma and alan gives a profoundly inspiring response which I believe might be very interesting and motivating to many of us all over the world (as well as the "bad-cop response")
I stripped the last part of the podcast but don't worry, I won't make you wait till Sunday! I'll upload it right after this one and it deals with how to approach a conversation about the relationship of mind and brain. A favorite!
Guess who took the picture and where it’s from!
Spring 2010 Shamatha Retreat, 31 May 2010, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
I'll try not to title all of the Shamatha episodes from today onwards with the phrase "for the last time," although we have come to the final cycle of the teachings!
My descriptions for these morning practices will really not be very verbose since it's the fourth time (or so) I podcast the full-body awareness practice.
So if you are new to the podcast, I really suggest listening to the first practices back from April. The descriptions and the practices themselves are much more throughly explained. But I'll keep uploading this cycle just so you have more practices to choose from in your Shamatha podcast arsenal!
This mostly unrelated photo of a nearby pineapple-to-be was provided by Sanjay. If you have never seen pineapples growing I must say it's quite a sight to behold! Here is another example of a more matured pineapple: http://i.imgur.com/Ho9Zg.jpg . There are fields and fields of those around the mind centre...
2017 8-Week Retreat, 26 Apr 2017, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
Alan says that when we meditate, we often have the feeling that there are three entities present: the mind; the meditator; and the one who is evaluating the meditation. This sense of self is not constant, but appears in surges, especially when grasping or reification are particularly strong. Today’s afternoon meditation is a vipashyana practice that explores this sense of “me” or “I am,” and seeks to identify the referent of this “I.” We further investigate the origin, location, and dissolution of this sense of self. Alan encourages us to read the short text, The Fine Path to Liberation by Sera Khandro, which presents her insights into the outer and inner preliminary practices and elaborates on what was presented in the Mud and Feathers text. Alan recommends that we use this text as a meditation guide, and as a way of integrating the preliminary practices into our daily life and world view. Alan then begins the teaching on Dudjom Lingpa’s Buddhahood without Meditation. Alan mentions that we can consider the Mud and Feathers text as a root text, which is expanded and elaborated upon in Buddhahood without Meditation. The text begins by describing those individuals for whom the text is intended. Dudjom Lingpa first describes the great majority of people who will not benefit from this text: those who are only concerned with worldly affairs; those whose dharma practice centers on ethics; those who practice shamatha but do not go beyond this; and those who have no karmic connection with the teachings. Those who will benefit from the teachings are the small number of individuals who are well prepared, have accumulated vast merit, and are karmically connected with the teachings. Alan says that we may wonder how we will know if we have a karmic connection with the teachings. The Vajra Essence states that if we feel intuitively drawn to and inspired by the teachings, and feel motivated to practice the teachings, then this is sufficient to assume that the teachings are intended for us. Guided meditation starts at 12:25
2019 8-Week Retreat, 25 Apr 2019, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
The power of Visualization Dharma sister Eva will bring continuity of the practice from yesterday (vows and samayas) into the practice. Eva first recommends going to the website of artist who is making digital Thangkha paintings, and this may be helpful for the practice of visualization. The Thangka paintings are free and available for use in helping with visualization: Ben Christian's website for Digital Thangkhas: http://jampaydorje.com/ http://jampaydorje.com/index.php/galleries/ Eva speaks back to the practices when incorporating the visualizations and references to Christ and the Christian religion and the considerations of deeper meanings and compatibility with Buddhism and the Yidams we visualize. She discusses one of the secondary offenses of the Bodhisattva Vows in relation to these topics. Eva also speaks about the specific Dzogchen lineage Yidams and how one might use visualization to superimpose different presences within the deities we visualize and in fact being a way to deepen our insights into Emptiness. Visualizations can be a way to pure vision and seeing the deeper qualities within others. Eva also responds to a question regarding the impacts of visualization practice on the psyche. In part she describes the potentials of having a truly perceptual experience of the visualizations as we continue down a path of visualization. Then drawing upon the teachings of Lama Tsongkhapa, Dharma sister Eva describes the effortful path of achieving shamatha with the practice of visualization. She describes the practice of unveiling the visualizations rather than freshly creating them. Eva finishes her teaching with some excerpts from “Balancing the Mind” which was Lama Alan’s dissertation, and encourages us to read more from this text and from Lama Tsongkhapa. This morning's meditation is focused on visualizing the Lama in more detail, and is a more abbreviated version. Meditation begins at: 36:14
Fall 2014 Shamatha, Vipashyana, Dream Yoga, 20 Sep 2014, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
The meditation is all about going back to shamatha and Alan’s suggestions are: 1) Do whatever works, 2) As a general recommendation: balance earth and sky, so do mindfulness of breathing but then merge your mind with space. At the beginning of the talk, Alan comes back to the topic of causality, which he addressed in the morning session. He quotes George F. R. Ellis, a brilliant mathematician and cosmologist, who proposed a fourfold model of reality consisting of matter and forces, consciousness, physical and biological possibilities, and mathematical reality. Ellis argues that all of these are ontologically real and, while being distinct from each other, all related through causal links. The question Alan then raises is simply: Well exactly how real are they? He then continues to explain how mereological sums work, that is e. g. that we call the sum of all planets we know, plus the moons, plus the sun, our solar system. However, what happens if you take one planet away? Is it still our solar system? What if just the sun is left? When does it stop being a solar system? The short answer to this question: When we stop calling it that way. This then shows how the basis of designation is never the same as that which you designate upon. Alan then ventures into dream yoga, or what he calls Padmasambhava’s ontological shock therapy and quickly explains that the first step in day-time dream yoga is to recognize that things are not as permanent as they appear to be. Apart from that, Alan points out one major difference between dream yoga and lucid dreaming, namely, that the assumption underlying lucid dreaming is that when you’re awake, you are not deluded, you see things as they are. That is where dream yoga and lucid dreaming fundamentally part ways as in dream yoga as long as you are reifying things and think they are inherently real, you are most definitely dreaming. This is the best and most obvious dream sign you can have. So, wake up, wake up, wake up… Meditation starts at 6:14
2019 8-Week Retreat, 28 Apr 2019, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
Today we continue with our second session on Samayas and Vows. We start with a short meditation at the beginning. After the meditation, Eva talks about how Dzogchen is based on the 4th empowerment, and then proceeds to again explain what an empowerment is and what all 4 empowerments entail. The four are: - Vase - Secret - Wisdom (also known as wisdom-primordial consciousness or sherab-yeshe) - 4th or Word empowerment (since it's transmitted through an instruction) The first three empowerments are then each related to our body, speech, and mind, respectively. We need to understand stage of completion in order to understand stage of generation. Eva spends some time clearing some misconceptions about the symbolism in the rituals and practices around male and female figures in union, and how that is not at all related to ordinary sex. There are 5 empowerments within the vase empowerment itself, corresponding to the 5 buddha families. Eva briefly mentions that the song we covered today during the teachings in The Enlightened View of Samantabhadra can also be interpreted as a pointing out instruction or an empowerment, covering all 4 kinds. She also talks about how the Lake Born Vajra empowerment also covers all the same elements as other equivalent, more elaborated empowerments, it's just much more condensed. She then gives an overview of each empowerment, talking about aspects such as: - Specific elements that get purified - Practice for which it grants the capacity - Corresponding kaya that we will reach through this Later on she talks about all the conditions that allow us to actually receive an empowerment and purify all the obscurations and propensities from all previous lifetimes. Samayas are what help to maintain this continuum, as well as seal the empowerment, and make it real and effective. In that sense, the promise to keep the samayas is not seen as a burden but as a joy to maintain this continuity. Finally Eva talks about her plans to cover purification and the buddha families in the next session, as well as to start integrating all of these topics into our future Shower of Blessings sessions.
Fall 2015 Stage of Generation, 28 Aug 2015, Araluen Retreat Center, Queensland, Australia
Shamatha is enormously important yet profoundly inadequate. You must cross the continental divide from shamatha to vipashyana to enter a path, with shamatha alone you will eventually fall back. The meditation is Vipashyana. What do you see when you think "I"? After the meditation, Alan talks about the focus in the Pali Cannon of personal identitylessness without analysis of the world outside yourself. For Mahamudra, the big question to ask is that world really out there? Science assumes metaphysical realism; there is a real world out there. Alan quotes Francis Bacon: "I would address one general admonition to all; that they consider what are the true ends of knowledge, and that they seek it not either for pleasure of the mind, or for contention, or for superiority to others, or for profit, or fame, or power, or any of these inferior things; but for the benefit and use of life; and that they perfect and govern it in charity." Alan discusses his view that science is currently in the service of profit, fame, power and pursuit of knowledge for knowledge's sake and not driven by service for life. Science is asking questions that are simply irrelevant to eudaimonia. The idolatry of religious fundamentalism and the idolatry of science empower each other. The world has never more desperately needed a middle way. We must sharpen our internal tools with shamatha and Vipashyana and seek the middle way view. The meditation starts at 11:37. ___ 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.
Spring 2010 Shamatha Retreat, 18 May 2010, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Today's practice, the second out of the four Awareness of Awareness methods that we cover in our cycle, is a very deep penetrating practice, encroaching upon VIpassyana territory. Alan starts with an introduction on the practice and its implications, relating it to the short discourse by the Buddha to the wandering ascetic Bahiya.
After this sublime practice, the outro deals with the Buddhist middle way (warning about drawing false conclusions from this practice) and then with "I think, therefore I am" and its shortcomings, which include the reification of ourselves and of all objects (which gets us into tremendous knots and loops).
Here is the brief Bahiya sutta, with the invaluable instructions that the Buddha gave Bahiya:
http://bit.ly/aalIo8 [as Alan said, perhaps someone will read this and, not unlike popcorn, become free! if you become free, please send us an email! :) ]
And this sunset was captured by Sara here at the Mind Centre!
2017 8-Week Retreat, 12 Apr 2017, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
In the prelude to this morning’s meditation, Alan issues a rousing “call to arms,” in which he urges us to take full advantage of this 8-week retreat to integrate various practices (guru yoga, generation stage practice, the 4 immeasurables, shamatha) to make progress towards achieving shamatha. Alan says that we are living in degenerate times, and that many wonderful, extremely well qualified and gifted lamas are aging. We need to seize the opportunity that we currently have to practice the teachings seriously and with a sense of urgency, but also with a sense of joyfulness and lightness. If not now, when? Alan mentions that there are two main types of training being given throughout the world, one that emphasizes theory and study (e.g. Khenpo training) and one that emphasizes contemplation. However, he says, much of the contemplative track involves practicing individual meditation techniques, but integration of the practices with the goal of achieving shamatha is lacking. Many lamas teach with the idea that study and practice in this life will lay a firm foundation for the next life. Alan says that the reason that he is still teaching is that he sees an urgent unmet need for guiding people to integrate various meditation practices with the goal of achieving shamatha in this life. Alan hopes that the retreat land in Italy that is being explored as a contemplative observatory will provide an ideal environment for a group of dedicated students to practice and achieve shamatha. Once shamatha is achieved, then one can progress along the path to practices of Vipashyana and Dzogchen. The Meditation started with invoking the blessings of Guru Rinpoche, and a brief Guru Rinpoche visualization practice, followed by Settling the Mind in its Natural State, and Awareness of Awareness. Guided meditation starts at 30:32
2023 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 4, 06 May 2023, Crestone, Colorado and Online
Picking up where we left off yesterday, Lama-la continues to elaborate on the final qualities of a student who is a suitable vessel for the teachings to come on Tögal; summing up on the qualities previously discussed (disillusion, disgust with the affairs of this life, firm resolve, etc) he reiterates that these are not a matter of either possessing them or not but a work in progress, which suggests a strong malleability of our own minds. He stresses that from a Buddhist perspective, unlike a Western one, there is no clear demarcation between mental health and mental disease. From an Arya’s perspective, we would all look mentally ill. Lama-la then explains the Four Noble Truths (which are more accurately understood as four realities) as seen from an Arya’s perspective who sees reality as it is and is experiencing immutable bliss: 1. the reality of suffering, not just blatant suffering but the suffering of change and the ubiquitous suffering of conditioned existence is rooted in ignorance and subsequent delusion about the nature of reality. 2. we appropriate what is not ours (body and mind) 3. there’s an ocean of potential if we find the causes and conditions to be released from suffering 4. the path of irreversibility Lama-la then comments on the quality of stability of mind and quotes William James’s hypothesis on geniuses that “it is their genius making them attentive, not their attention making geniuses of them.” He points out that this is not the whole truth and quotes Siegfried Othmer, former president of the neurofeedback division of the Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, who conducted neurofeedback research on meditation showing that participants who meditated showed an average gain in IQ of 23 percent. (Oct. 10, 2016). After quoting other scientific research on the benefits of meditation for cognition and empathy Lama-la points out that as we gain in intelligence and clarity through continued practice, creativity also arises through meditation which is closely associated with genius so he’s suggesting that there is a two-way street between cognitive abilities and creativity/genius. Lama-la then explains the significance of meditation as a cultivation of the mind and quotes Shantideva’s verses from the wisdom chapter “Reality is recognized as being of two kinds: deceptive and ultimate. „Ultimate reality is beyond the scope of cognition. Cognition is said to be deceptive. In light of this, people are seen to be of two types: yogins and ordinary people. Ordinary people are superseded by the yogins.” He explains that yogins have yogic perception which is beyond ordinary cognition, rooted in dualistic grasping. Yogic perception is attained upon achieving both samatha and vipashyana and unifying the two. It enables the yogin to cut through the veil of deceptive appearances and apprehend the nature of reality which is at variance with how things appear. Lama then comments on Shantideva’s verse: “Due to differences in cognition, even yogins are refuted by successively higher ones by means of analogies accepted by both parties, regardless of what they aim to prove.” Yogins are able to assess each other by way of analogies held in common, e.g. by checking each other’s understanding of the ten analogies (e.g. mirage, reflection in the mirror, etc). Lama then quotes the verse “Ordinary people see and imagine things as real and not as illusions. It is in this respect that there is disagreement between yogins and ordinary people.” and draws an analogy to scientists who have superior knowledge than ordinary, pre-scientific people without such training. Lama then refers us to the two lectures by Gyatrul Rinpoche’s for which he served as the interpreter and which are available on YouTube. Lama suggests that we check each of the points previously mentioned as a work in progress. Resuming the aural transmission on p. 220 (“If such disciples are accepted and given guidance, they will undoubtedly accomplish something of great significance.”) and the list of qualities of disciples who will become maras for their teacher, Lama points out that this is not a question of good and bad people but a question of degree. Commenting on the sentence “Examine disciples and investigate them accordingly, reject those who are unworthy vessels, and devote yourself to those who are worthy.” Lama stresses that this needs to be understood not as a matter of aversion and attachment but in the sense that such people should not be accepted as disciples because they are not ready for receiving Dzogchen teachings. Moving to p. 254 (“O Vajra of Pristine Awareness, an individual who has extinguished the appearances of all phenomena into the absolute space of ultimate reality has far exceeded the tenth ground of the sūtra path known as Cloud of Dharma.”) the text points out the relationship of coming to the culmination of Tögal in which one has already realised the three visions and now realising the fourth (of the extinction of all appearances into dharmadhatu, i.e. being on the end stage of Tögal practice within Dzogchen) and the sutrayana descriptions of the tenth arya bodhisattva ground which this surpasses. So while both are heading towards the same enlightenment one has already surpassed the highest bodhisattva ground as presented in the sutrayana. The Dzogchen description therefore must be seen within the context of Mahayana-Vajrayana Buddhism rather than as something different. Such a person has implicitly reached the fourth level of a spontaneously actualised Vidyadhara but has not quite finished because of the “subtlest of latent cognitive obscurations” (the first type of obscurations, the mental afflictions are overcome on the eighth arya bodhisattva bhumi, while the cognitive obscurations are not purified during the eighth, ninth and tenth bhumi). One of these subtle cognitive obscurations is that one still sees appearances as out there when one isn’t in meditative equipoise, so appearances still lie to you. A buddha has eradicated these cognitive obscurations. “When this phase is complete, in ten days to ten months, the subtlest of cognitive obscurations vanish into absolute space” and one “knows reality as it is”. This constitutes one half of the qualities of primordial consciousness, which is about “knowing” reality while the second half is about “perceiving” the full range of phenomena, i.e. the six realms of existence, the mental afflictions of all sentient beings, etc. (“By perfecting the power of primordial consciousness that perceives the full range of phenomena, you gain mastery over the spontaneously actualized kāyas and displays of primordial consciousness.”) The meditation at 01:06:27 is on practice freedom from appropriating body, speech and mind by placing awareness in the space in front of us. The aural transmission starts at 00:50:20 and covers page 220 (“If such disciples are accepted and given guidance, they will undoubtedly accomplish something of great significance...Examine disciples and investigate them accordingly, reject those who are unworthy vessels, and devote yourself to those who are worthy.”; p. 254 "“O Vajra of Pristine Awareness, an individual who has extinguished the appearances of all phenomena into the absolute space of ultimate reality has far exceeded the tenth ground of the sūtra path known as Cloud of Dharma...As the originally pure youthful vase kāya, you are transferred to the state of a totally perfected buddha, and you become all-pervasive.“
2017 8-Week Retreat, 28 May 2017, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
Alan begins by explaining that, in the context of Dzogchen, meditation means simply sustaining the view. But, we may ask, what comes first, how do we find the view? There are two approaches, we can get to meditation by way of the view or we can get to view by way of meditation. Young people may be attracted to taking the track of meditation by way of the view. If they dedicate themselves for years to the study of Dzogchen, as in a khenpo’s training, they will reach a point at which it is necessary to see for themselves whether those teachings are true or not by inquiry and reflection. By doing so, they may gain insight and confidence based on experience and produce a shift in the way they view reality. Then they should familiarize themselves with this shift of the view through meditation, and specifically in Dzogchen, nonmeditation. But, for people not so young, taking the approach of meditation giving rise to the view may be more appealing. After practicing the common and uncommon preliminaries, and with some view of emptiness and bodhicitta, they can practice shamatha without a sign as taught by Padmasambhava in Natural Liberation. This practice cultivates the awareness of awareness and then oscillates between arousing the luminosity of awareness aware of itself and the release of awareness into space. As you progress in this practice, make the leap of observing the movement of oscillating mental awareness from the primordial stillness of rigpa, the culmination of the familiar practice of the fusion of stillness and motion. The guided meditation takes this second approach and rests in the primordial stillness of rigpa viewing the movement of mental awareness . After the meditation, we pick up the text on page 39, Teachings of Śrī Simha. In two pages the teacher of Padmasambhava and Vimalamitra presents the entire path of Dzogchen as view, meditation, and conduct. Śrī Simha also concisely describes the upheavals we may go through as we dredge not only this human mind but our samsaric history of many lifetimes. Guided meditation starts at 16:37
2017 8-Week Retreat, 20 Apr 2017, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
After emphasizing in previous sessions the cultivation of relaxation and stability in the practice of shamatha, Alan explores in this session the importance of developing clarity by focusing on the sensations associated with the breath at the nostrils or the upper lip. Being a subtler object, and one that gets more and more subtle over time, this method allows us to continuously develop a more refined sense of clarity of our attention. After the meditation, and ahead of Dudjom Lingpa’s deeper excursion into vipashyana, Alan reviews how deceptive appearances, and the critical topic of reification, are variously addressed in each of the three turnings of the wheel of dharma. In the first turning, the three marks of existence are a central topic. These three vipashyana topics include the impermanence of all phenomena, how all samsaric experience has the nature of dukkha, and the doctrine of non-self. The second turning of the wheel, which includes the Perfection of Wisdom teachings, explores the deceptive nature of all appearances. From this perspective, appearances still manifest deceptively even when we look upon reality with clear perception. Lastly, in the third turning of the wheel, the central theme is that Buddha nature is not only potential but already available to us right now if we’re only able to dispel the mental obscurations that veil it and recognize it. Alan concludes by highlighting the importance of clear perception to overcome the obstacles detailed in the first turning of the wheel of dharma, of intelligence to understand how to phenomena really exist in the second turning, and, lastly, of intuition, which allows our own pristine awareness to recognize itself when we’re presented with pointing out instructions on the ultimate nature of the mind. We then returned to the text, to a section where Dudjom Lingpa explores vipashyana practice with a discussion of “Collapsing the False Cave.” Guided meditation starts at 14:09
Fall 2014 Shamatha, Vipashyana, Dream Yoga, 04 Oct 2014, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Alan starts the session commenting on the importance of the sense of community and supporting each other. Emphasizing this, he explains a story of Ananda to illustrate that having spiritual friends is the whole of the practice. After the silent meditation and before entering into the third and final bardo that we will be focusing in this retreat, Alan does a recap from the beginning of the teachings to place in context the upcoming chapter. The overall theme is the decrease of grasping. If grasping is occurring the view isn’t there and one is not viewing reality as it is. There is a gradient in grasping from extremely coarse to extremely subtle. The aim of all these practices is to release all the layers of identification and grasping along the path. We make the segue to the next chapter on page 169 of the book Natural Liberation: the transitional process of meditation. Alan mentions that the prerequisite for the practices of the transitional process of dreaming is the achievement of shamatha and vipashyana, while the prerequisite of this next transitional process of meditation is the realization of rigpa. After that, comes the process of rigpa releasing itself from all concepts, grasping, veils and configurations. In this phase one gains mastery over pristine awareness. One can identify it and dwell on it for as long as one wishes without grasping and without conceptualization. This is where one moves to the mode that simply sustains the dzogchen view at all times, not doing anything other than resting in rigpa. At the end of the podcast Alan responds to two questions: 1.- When meditating in taking the mind as the path, a participant experiences a very continuous flow of images and wonders if this is an indication of grasping. Also he mentions that his appearances resemble those when he is falling asleep. 2.- A speculative question on a sravakayana arhat that realizes emptiness. Can he realize pristine awareness and attain enlightenment if he practices all the practices of dream yoga? Silent meditation cut out at 09:19 min
Spring 2010 Shamatha Retreat, 12 May 2010, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
In this episode, we keep working more deeply with the Four Immeasurables. As always we have our introduction which includes an answer by HH. Dalai Lama from a Mind and Life conference saying that what moves us or motivates us to do anything at all is caring. Alan then breaks this down and shows how all of the 4I stem from this basic caring, and also shows how they are deeply entangled together. For example, empathetic joy is "built-into" compassion, as it arises when the suffering is alleviated.
After the meditation, we go into an open mic Q&A session which has several questions focused on Awareness of Awareness, and then Ilse shares an experience which spurs Alan into talking about conciousness in the bardo.
The last 60 seconds (literally) are a brilliant explanation of "information" and how it only stored/retrieved/exists with reference to the person storing it or accessing it. A computer analogy was obviously present and then related with conciousness in the bardo and from life to life.
This local photo is from Rosa!
