Fall 2012 Shamatha and the Four Applications of Mindfulness, 21 Sep 2012, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Teaching: Continuing from Asanga’s Shravakabhumi, Alan introduces the 4th thorough training by way of the 16 phases: 1) breathing in, 2) breathing out, 3) the whole body, 4) tranquilising the bodily activities, 5) joy, 6) happiness, 7) formations of the mind, 8) tranquilising formations of the mind, 9) experiencing the mind, 10) gladdening the mind, 11) concentrating the mind, 12) liberating the mind, 13) impermanence, 14) eradication of obscurations, 15) freedom from attachment, 16) cessation of the aggregates.
Alan elaborates more on sukkha and joy which may arise from engaging in the practice.
Alan addresses the sudden enlightenment of the Buddha’s disciples.
Meditation: mindfulness of breathing per Asanga followed by mindfulness of phenomena (aggregates).
I) Mindfulness of breathing per Asanga. Know exactly when the out breath ends, how long the interim out breath is, when the in breath starts, when the in breath ends, how long the interim in breath is, and when the out breath starts.
II) Mindfulness of phenomena (aggregates). 1) recognize form as form (pure perception), 2) observe feelings as feelings arising in the body and mind, 3) with recognition, not that you are discerning, 4) direct attention to the mental formations in the space of the mind, 5) draw awareness to consciousness itself. Release awareness into all 6 sense fields and the events arising therein.
Q1. Does prana have the same quality in the in and out breaths?
Q2. Because body and brain decline with age, is age a factor to consider in achieving shamatha?
Q3. In Asanga’s mindfulness of breathing, I’m not sure what to do with the awareness of all 6 sense fields? It seems so busy.
Q4. In Asanga’s text, why is there so much emphasis on breathing?
Q5. In awareness of the body, there’s a sense of bliss. What insight is there to be derived from bliss pervading the body?
Q6. In Asanga’s text, these 16 phases which include shamatha and vipasyana may offer a bridge to Tibetan lamas who don’t seem to place much importance on practicing shamatha.
Q7. Asanga explains the causes of breathing as being propelling karma and space. Is this the cause for our involuntary breathing or is that caused by something biological?
Q8. Why are men more prominent in buddhism? Women multi-task better, so perhaps that’s a disadvantage to achieving shamatha?
Meditation starts at 20:53
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 16 Apr 2021, Online-only
While resting in awareness, look even deeper into your experience of your own personal identity—you—and see if you can detect a sense of a self that exists by its own characteristics, prior to and independent of any conceptual or verbal designation.
Fall 2012 Shamatha and the Four Applications of Mindfulness, 13 Sep 2012, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Alan comments that mindfulness of breathing and settling the mind are highly complementary. Mindfulness of breathing allows the prana system to settle and converge at the heart chakra which in turn allows the mind to settle. Settling the mind allows breath and prana to settle. In mindfulness of breathing, the breath can serve as the baseline. In settling the mind, the space of the mind can serve as the baseline.
In order for a shamatha retreat to bear fruit, it is also important to have as few activities as possible—i.e., dealing with people who are engaged with samsara. They will pull us out of shamatha, and we will be subject to the same samsaric oscillations. We need to be protected like a little baby in an incubator.
Meditation: settling the mind. Let eyes be open, gaze vacant. Direct mindfulness to the space of the mind and whatever arises therein. If needed, maintain peripheral awareness of the breath. Relax deeply and fully, breathing effortlessly. Take special interest in the intervals between thoughts when the space of the mind is most evident, and observe closely.
Throughout the day, allow the breath to flow naturally and mind to settle in its natural state.
Meditation starts at 7:20
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 17 May 2021, Online-only
First cultivate relative aspirational bodhicitta by way of the “four greats,” and then relative engaged bodhicitta with the intention to engage in stage of generation practice. Then, while viewing all phenomena as empty of inherent nature and as being appearances of your own pristine awareness, cultivate ultimate aspirational and engaged bodhicitta.
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 25 May 2020, Online-only
Returning to Shantideva
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 12 May 2020, Online-only
Who are you without your story?
Fall 2013 Shamatha and the Seven-Point Mind Training, 09 Sep 2013, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
In this next practice "Setting the mind in it's Natural State" we withdraw our attention from the space of the body and observe the state of the mind and the mental events occuring within. Here we become aware of our emotions, thoughts and stories without cognitively fusing with them. We are distinguishing between our awareness of the mind and what happens within the space of the mind.
Meditation starts at: 05:04
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 10 Apr 2020, Online-only
Investigation of Mind as Agent
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 07 May 2021, Online-only
First arouse relative bodhicitta by way of cultivating great loving-kindness, the, imbued with bodhicitta, settle your mind in its natural state; and finally invert your awareness in a spirit of inquiry into the actual nature of the mind that is meditating, which is ultimate bodhicitta. These are the primary preliminary practices for Vajrayāna practice.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 28 Apr 2021, Online-only
Closely examine those phenomena you misapprehend as being yourself. See the emptiness of yourself in the body, feelings, mind, and other phenomena. Then examine how you misapprehend appearances as inherently existent objects by conflating the bases of designation of those objects with the objects themselves. Then recognize the emptiness of those objects as existing from their own side. This is the door to liberation as emptiness.
THE SCIENCE OF MIND, 15 Nov 2021, Online Retreat
The Science of Mind - Day Three, Session Two, Meditation Only Simultaneously distinguishing the stillness of awareness and the movements of the mind
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 16 Apr 2020, Online-only
Inquiry into the Lived Experience of the Immutable Self
Fall 2012 Shamatha and the Four Applications of Mindfulness, 09 Oct 2012, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Teaching pt1. Alan continues with the series on the 4 greats with great equanimity. There’s a similar liturgy beginning with 1) why couldn’t all sentient beings abide in great equanimity free from attachment to those who are close and aversion to those who are far? There are various levels of equanimity. In settling the mind, still awareness and a lack of preference for all arisings are crucial for the mind to settle in its natural state. If you respond with anything other than equanimity, you are not doing the practice. In vipasyana, subjective awareness itself is established as empty as are the appearances arising to the mind and their referents. In dzogchen, samsara and nirvana are not only equally empty but equally pure and equally expressions of rigpa.
Meditation. Great equanimity. Let your awareness illuminate the space of the body and the space of the mind. Your body is neither the space nor the sensations, either individually or collectively. Rest in the emptiness of your body. Your mind is neither the space nor the mental events, either individually or collectively. Rest in the emptiness of your mind. If your subjective mind is empty, so are all the sense objects out there. Rest in the emptiness of the environment. Release all grasping, and let your awareness come to rest in its ground state. Imagine pristine awareness as an orb of light at your heart chakra. Inquire 1) why couldn’t all sentient beings abide in great equanimity free from attachment to those who are close and aversion to those who are far? Arouse the aspiration 2) may we all abide in great equanimity. Arouse the intention 3) I shall do it. 4) May I receive blessings from all the enlightened ones to do so. With every in breath, blessings in the form of light come in from all directions. With every out breath, that light flows out in all directions.
Teaching pt2. Imperturbability, equanimity, and balance are signs that your practice is working.
Those in long-term shamatha retreat have a clear preference for a good environment. Equanimity is dharma practice, not just shamatha practice, and we should develop equanimity towards all appearances (mind, body, and environment). It’s about the quality of awareness we bring to reality, not the quality of the experience rising to meet us.
Meditation starts at: 11:55
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 24 Apr 2020, Online-only
Developing Metacognitive Awareness
Fall 2012 Shamatha and the Four Applications of Mindfulness, 11 Oct 2012, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Teaching pt1: Alan completes his commentary on the section on mindfulness of the mind in Ch. 13 of Shantideva’s Compendium of Practices. The mind is not really seen anywhere—e.g., inside, outside, in the skandhas, in the elements, etc... From what does the mind arise? Does the mind arise from an object? If so, are they the same or other? Mind cannot see itself just as a blade cannot cut itself. Ordinary mind is never still, being conscious of one thing after another. A stable mind is still, single-pointed, not agitated, not scattered, single-pointedly quiescent, and free of distraction. One should dedicate oneself to purifying the mind which also purifies the body and the environment. One should always retain the ultimate reality of the mind—i.e., mind is like an illusion. Whenever you experience attachment or aversion, probe right into the referent, since klesas are rooted in reification of the object. Whenever your mind is tormenting you, look for it, and see that it is not there.
Meditation: Mindfulness of the mind preceded by mindfulness of breathing at the nostrils.
1) mindfulness of breathing. Let your awareness illuminate the space of the body, especially the sensations associated with the breath. Focus on the sensations of the breath at the nostrils. From there, give increasing attention to the space of the mind, until all your attention is focused on the impure mind.
2) mindfulness of the mind. Where is this impure mind? Do you see it? From what does it arise? Invert your awareness on the subject who is inquiring. Is the mind still or in motion? If the mind is in motion, where does it come from, and where is it going? Rest in the emptiness and luminosity of your own awareness free of concepts.
Teaching pt2: Atisha commented, “Achieve stability, and let the mystery be revealed.” Shamatha cultivates the unflickering flame of awareness that investigates its own nature.
Q1. Can the arts be a way to introduce buddhist teachings?
Q2. In settling the mind, are feelings mental states associated with physical sensations? I find myself attending to both feelings and physical sensations, since it’s easier to detect feelings via physical sensations.
Q3. Is it possible to recognize an emotion before it is manifest in the body? If so, is this a sign of clarity?
Meditation starts at 36:15
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 01 May 2020, Online-only
Eradicating the Depths of the Ocean of Suffering & Its Causes
Shamatha, Vipashyana, Mahamudra, and Dzogchen, 03 May 2016, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Italy
Alan begins by talking about the fact that he would love to see a revitalization of contemplative inquiry, and he reiterates the idea emphasized by His Holiness the Dalai Lama that in Buddhism there is a science of the mind, not just a philosophical or religious tradition. Not everyone who reads science wants to become a scientist, and likewise, this retreat is not for everyone. It is intended for those seeking the path. For the scientific assertions within Buddhism and other traditions to be tested and intersubjectively validated to add to the pool of consensual knowledge about the mind, one needs a reliable tool for observation - a telescope for the mind, shamatha. Alan also reminds us that we don’t want to be introduced to Rigpa too soon. As with Madhyamaka, you don’t want it to go to your head; you want it to go to your heart. The meditation is Padmasambhava’s placement exam on merging the mind with space. After the meditation Alan tells us that we will be returning to Panchen Rinpoche’s text this afternoon and not to be overwhelmed, saying that outside of the teaching sessions we should focus on the practices that we find most helpful for the remainder of the retreat. And, if your mind is beating you up, release it. Then he tells us what Padmasambhava says we should do if we are of medium or dull faculties. The meditation starts at 19:49 ___ Please contribute to make these, and future podcasts freely available.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 26 Apr 2021, Online-only
While resting in awareness, cultivate empathetic joy in the myriad paths leading to liberation and perfect awakening.
THE SCIENCE OF MIND, 17 Nov 2021, Online Retreat
The Science of Mind - Day Five, Session Two, Meditation Only Padmasambhava on awareness of awareness, continued
2019 8-Week Retreat, 05 Apr 2019, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Tuscany, Italy
Guided meditation is on Mindfulness of Breathing Focusing on the Whole Body
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 04 Apr 2021, Online-only
Resting in Awareness Observing All Appearances Arising and Passing
THE SCIENCE OF MIND, 15 Nov 2021, Online Retreat
The Science of Mind - Day Three, Session One, Meditation Only Sequentially distinguishing between the stillness of awareness and the movements of the mind
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 13 Apr 2021, Online-only
Practice the Third Phase of Shamatha without a Sign as Taught by Padmasambhava in Natural Liberation
Fall 2012 Shamatha and the Four Applications of Mindfulness, 08 Sep 2012, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Alan presents tips on dealing with subtlety in the shamatha practices.
1) mindfulness of breathing. The breath becomes increasingly subtle, and treat this an invitation to increase calm and clarity. Do not change the place you are attending to the breath. Rather, choose a baseline such as the nerve endings at the nostrils, and continue attending to the baseline and any fluctuations throughout the whole body of the breath.
2) settling the mind. When the space of the mind appears quiet, something is still there. It is just more subtle than your awareness. Again, choose a baseline such as the space of the mind, and attend to both the baseline and any fluctuations from there.
The second of the 4 immeasurables, compassion is also an aspiration, not an emotion.
Meditation: compassion. Visualize a white incandescent orb of light at your heart chakra filling the body with light. With each in breath, arouse the aspiration, “May I be free of all hedonic suffering—i.e., unpleasant.” Visualize all suffering as darkness which converges at and dissolves into the orb. “May I be free of all (internally generated) suffering and their causes—i.e., disturbing emotions.” Visualize all suffering as darkness which converges at and dissolves into the orb. Imagine that you are free from all that obscures pristine awareness. Repeat the sequence with another individual (or group) of your choice or who comes to mind.
Meditation starts at 4:10
Fall 2014 Shamatha, Vipashyana, Dream Yoga, 29 Sep 2014, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Alan starts the session recalling Gautama’s experience when he endured extreme hardships, which made him lose his samadhi. Alan emphasizes the importance of mindfulness of breathing in order to repair the damage that has been done by neglecting the body. For this reason, it is crucial to master the shavasana posture, to breath effortlessly while relinquishing any control in order to meditate well. The meditation on balancing earth and wind combines mindfulness of breathing with taking the mind as the path. Also in this practice we have been introduced to the world of emanation and transformation of mental appearances. After meditation, Alan uses an analogy to describe the feeling of lucidity as opposed to a wandering mind. Then, we move on to the next section of the book: the world of emanation and transformation. Alan gives advice on how not to lose stability in the dream after becoming lucid. In dream yoga practices we train to transform our dream body into our own personal deity. In this way, one develops pure vision. When dreaming we are in deep samadhi. On the other hand, daytime awareness is very diffuse since we are also attending the sensory field. Taking advantage of this vividness of samadhi, one can transform everything in the dream into manifestations of enlightened beings. Here, one is deepening insight into emptiness through active engagement with transformation practices. These practices prepare oneself for becoming lucid in the transitional phase of the bardo. It is especially important in order to subdue demonic apparitions and upheavals. For this reason, we practice taking the mind as the path during the night time. Alan gives advice on how to take the worst nightmares as the path. At the beginning one doesn’t dare due to clinging to self-grasping. However, with familiarity and a good realization of emptiness, one realizes that whatever comes up, nothing whatsoever can harm you. Therefore, there is no reason to escape and to avoid the situation. The critical point of all this is training in the illusory body and the dreamlike nature of daytime appearances. This enables one to powerfully anticipate the dream state. Meditation starts at 29:38
Fall 2012 Shamatha and the Four Applications of Mindfulness, 22 Sep 2012, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Teaching: Alan talks about the fifth of the five obscurations afflictive uncertainty. While it is appropriate to be uncertain about that which is uncertain, when we wonder about whether or not it is possible to make progress in our practice or attain enlightenment we need to apply its antidote close investigation. As the Dalai Lama says, something becomes hopeless, the moment we’ve given up hope.
Alan introduces the fourth of the 4 immeasurables equanimity. People appear to us differently, so how can we attend evenly to a reality that’s uneven? We need to look more deeply until we find common ground: just like me, every sentient being wants to be free from suffering. How can we attend to all sentient beings? Every sentient being you encounter, either physically or those who come to you, represents all sentient beings.
Meditation: equanimity. Direct attention to the space of the mind, settling the mind in its natural state. When someone comes to mind, attend to that person carefully until you find common ground. Then practice loving-kindness and compassion. With every in breath, “May you be free from suffering and the causes of suffering,” and imagine suffering and its true causes as darkness in that person converging at a white orb of light at your heart chakra and dissolving completely. With every out breath, “May you be find happiness and the causes of happiness,” and imagine light suffusing this person and fulfilling his innermost desires. Allow this appearance to dissolve and see who else comes to mind, repeating the practice with the in and out breaths. Now with every in breath, imagine the light from all the buddhas filling you completely, purifying body and mind. With every out breath, give this light out evenly, excluding no one.
Meditation starts at 36:52
Fall 2012 Shamatha and the Four Applications of Mindfulness, 07 Sep 2012, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Settling the mind in its natural state is the shamatha practice corresponding the applications of mindfulness on feelings and the mind. This practice itself lies on the cusp between shamatha and vipasyana, but it’s presented within the mahamudra and dzogchen traditions as a shamatha practice for dissolving the coarse mind into the substrate. Awareness of thoughts and emotions frees us from being trapped by our minds and facilitates wiser choices in our behavior. A Tibetan saying goes like this, “When you’re with others, watch your mouth. When you’re alone, watch your mind.”
Meditation: settling the mind. Eyes at least partially open, with gaze resting vacantly. Turn the full force of your interest and mindfulness to the mental domain and the thoughts, images, and emotions arising therein. If you’re new to this practice or when you’re feeling spaced out or disoriented, give yourself a distinct mental target such as the sentence, “This is the mind,” focus single-pointedly on that thought, allow the thought to fade, keep your attention right there, and see if you can observe the next thought or image arising in that space. Simply observe mental events as mental events, without distraction and without grasping. Now, also observe the nature of feelings triggered by those mental events. As before, sustain flow of mindfulness with the support introspection and remedies as needed.
Meditation starts at: 5:00
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 17 May 2020, Online-only
The 3rd Great: Empathetic Joy
The Shamatha Trilogy, 30 Apr 2022, Online from Miyo Samten Ling in Crestone, Colorado, USA
The Shamatha Trilogy - Part 2 - Taking the Mind as the Path
THE SCIENCE OF MIND, 13 Nov 2021, Online Retreat
The Science of Mind - Day One, Session One, Meditation Only Settling the body, speech, and mind in their natural states
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 21 Apr 2020, Online-only
Shamatha: Placed on a Physical Object
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 06 May 2020, Online-only
Lama Alan returns in this session to the theme of identifying the obscurations that keep us from realizing the purity of the substrate consciousness through shamatha. He briefly mentions the necessity of proper preparation for embarking on the journey of shamatha, specifying deep renunciation, Bodhicitta, and cultivation of the first four perfections (the fourth and fifth will be cultivated during and after shamatha). He also mentions the various Lam Rim textual presentations of the path within the Indo-Tibetan tradition as models of how to prepare for the practice of shamatha and vipashyana. In this context, Lama Alan then speaks to the heightened importance of shamatha in our current times, as it is a direct method for understanding the nature of consciousness and breaking through the so-called "mind-body problem," and the constraints of scientific materialism. Lama Alan then returns to his presentation of the five obscurations in relationship to the four immeasurables. In this session, he also adds the various dhyana factors that arise through the practice of shamatha as direct antidotes to the five obscurations (hedonic fixation: single-pointedness; ill-will: wellbeing; dullness/laxity: coarse examination; excitation/anxiety: joy; afflictive uncertainty: precise investigation). Lama Alan then reviews the immeasurables that can serve as remedies for each of the five obscurations and also offers the various similes that describe the way each obscuration distorts the crystal clear water of the substrate consciousness. After this, he turns specifically to the obscuration of excitation/anxiety and offers immeasurable impartiality as an antidote to this obscuration, relating it to the way in which we rest in deep impartiality to the arisings of the mind when we are taking the mind as the path. The meditation on "Immeasurable Impartiality" begins at 24:30.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 18 May 2021, Online-only
With the view of emptiness and of the Great Perfection, rest in awareness in complete inactivity. Then, shifting to stage of generation practice, first call forth all your inner demons, and serve them a feast by attending to them closely. Then, once you have faced them all, arise in the wrathful form of a deity designated upon your own mirror-like primordial consciousness, and expel them from the space of your mind.
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 03 Apr 2020, Online-only
Meditation: A Progression to Vipashyana
If you like to write short synopsis or transcribe, please email info@sbinstitute.com
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 22 Apr 2021, Online-only
Focus on those who have shown you kindness, on your own good fortune and virtues, and on everyone’s virtues and joys
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 22 Apr 2020, Online-only
Lama Alan welcomed everyone. Lama Alan wants to go into one session to do a practice from the text that the Bhagavan, the Lake Born Vajra, says to do continuously for one week. Visualise your awareness, which is empty, as taking on the form of an incandescent bindu of rainbow light, like an orb in the centre of your heart. Do this from the inside out. And just do that continuously. Lama Alan said that HHDL14th gave him these instructions, to bring his awareness out of his head down to his heart chakra, 40 years ago and he found it very hard to do. You need to bring your awareness to be located in the heart and not the head. Mental awareness is not inside your head. You need to do this practice gently and reverently in a way that has less wear and tear because it is very powerful. Do the preliminaries of taking refuge, raise bodhicitta, guru yoga and then bring your awareness from your head to your heart and keep it there.
Meditation starts at 4:15 minutes
When the Lake Born Vajra introduced this three-week training as a placement exam he said this might be sufficient for some with enough preparation to achieve shamatha. Lama Alan says for the rest of us a lot of upheavals might happen like being restless, maladies, heaviness, problems with the wind constitution. If that ocurs then leave this method and move to a different method. In the text (p.20), the Bhagavan says such people should just relax and leave things as they are. Lama Alan notes that we already started this part of the practice when we identified the mind as primary. Then, he says continue until that mind melts into the substrate. You are fathoming the mind that you are taking as the path. You may realise the emptiness of your mind and cut through to the substrate. So, Lama Alan says, the rest of the text is devoted to people like us who are not of superior faculties. The Bhagavan explains in detail how to leave thoughts just as they are, to keep relaxing and to take the mind as the path until we achieve shamatha, then continue with vipashnya to fathom the empty nature of the mind and so on until one cuts through to Pristine Awareness. Lama Alan refers to Yangtan Rinpoche who did achieve shamatha, vipashyana and rigpa. In his pith instructions in the View, Meditation and Conduct, he gives the same pith instructions to stay deeply relaxed and leave thoughts just as they are without grasping but without missing a single one. Yangtan Rinpoche told Lama Alan that this practice is shamatha without a sign because the main focus is awareness and not an object on which you maintain focus. Lama Alan returns to the text p. 20.
[Keywords: rainbow bindu at heart, taking the mind as the path, shamatha without a sign]
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 20 May 2020, Online-only
Discerning Perceptual Awareness
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 04 May 2020, Online-only
Meditation on "Empathetic Joy" starts @34:45 Segueing from the 2nd to the 3rd of the 4 Immeasurables, Lama Alan reviews the meaningful sequence of the first 3. Cultivation of Loving kindness, especially imbued with Wisdom, brings us to a vision of well-being that has causes we can actually cultivate. This lifts us above a mundane vision of a happiness rooted in reality and beyond hedonic pleasure. We can use the luminosity of our awareness to imagine how we and the world could be. To balance the uplifting quality of this vision, we return to actuality of reality of suffering. We cultivate Compassion, along with aspiration that we and all living beings be free of suffering and causes of suffering. Lama Alan then addresses 2-fold view of what catalyzes this cultivation of Compassion: one from Buddhaghosa and the other from the Mahayana perspective. He returns to the theme of the three dimensions/depths of suffering and, from this unique perspective on suffering, we experience a great upwelling of Compassion. Buddhism isn’t pessimistic, yet it is reality based. This brings us to discussion on a point regarding the 4 Noble Truths, which was brought to Lama Alan’s attention by a monk who is participating in the Spring Retreat from Siberia. Master Chandrakirti (7th Century CE) in a commentary on Araya Nagarjuna gives a definition of “Noble”, which Lama Alan discusses at length. The discussion revolves around the understanding of “Emptiness”: are mental afflictions inherently afflicters? Lama Alan then addresses how all 3 root mental afflictions can be seen as expressions of the divine, without denying the valid reality of suffering. He then weaves it into the Path. Continuing the quote from Master Chandrakiriti, Lama Alan then discusses at length a quote from the great Atisha “3 Objects, 3 Poisons, 3 Roots of Virtue”. The main practical crux of the discussion is how to turn adversity into the Path. Lama Alan completes the discussion by addressing the mental afflictions and Tong Len from a Dzogchen perspective, followed by a new insight into the sequences of the 4 Immeasurables & the 5 Obscurations, before ending with the meditation on Empathetic Joy.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 26 Apr 2021, Online-only
Rest in awareness and observe your body as a body, your mind as a mind, and other phenomena simply as phenomena, without imputing “I” or “mine” on any of them.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 06 May 2021, Online-only
While resting in awareness, view all appearances as appearances, arising from the substrate. Recognize that it’s impossible to peer beyond appearances into the black box of the objective reality that lies “behind them.” Then probe inwards, into the nature of that which is meditating and experiencing these appearances, and recognize that the subjective mind that lies behind appearances is equally unknowable. Then rest in awareness beyond the demarcation of subject and object.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 11 May 2021, Online-only
We return to the close application of mindfulness to feelings. Lama Alan comments on the practice of attending to feelings externally and how this practice can arouse empathy and compassion. Attending to feelings internally and externally we arrive to the conclusion that the other’s being wellbeing is our responsibility. He then comments on difference between stimulus-driven, mundane feelings and feelings of genuine well-being, distress, and equanimity, which are symptomatic of our current level of mental health and balance. Being aware of suffering can give rise to renunciation and compassion. The meditation on the close application of mindfulness of feelings starts at 00:36:25.
Fall 2012 Shamatha and the Four Applications of Mindfulness, 22 Sep 2012, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Teaching: Continuing from Asanga’s Shravakabhumi, Alan gives the detailed explanation of the 4th thorough training by way of the 16 phases: 1) long breath, 2) short breath, 3) the whole body, 4) refining the bodily formation, 5) joy, 6) well-being, 7) formations of the mind, 8) wonderfully refining formations of the mind, 9) experiencing the mind, 10) bringing exception joy to the mind, 11) concentrating the mind, 12) liberating the mind, 13) impermanence, 14) eradication of obscurations, 15) freedom from attachment, 16) cessation of the aggregates. Each practice is appropriate at certain stages, and involves vipasyana knowing coupled with the in and out breaths.
Alan outlines the 3 shamatha practices in healing the body and mind using different entry points: 1) mindfulness of breathing whereby we can watching healing via the body, 2) settling the mind whereby we can watch healing via the mind, and 3) awareness of awareness whereby we go straight to the center, without watching the body and mind sort themselves out.
Meditation: shamatha practice of choice with vipasyana.
1) Shamatha. Based on the shamatha practice of your choice,
2) Vipasyana. When you’ve settled into the flow, use vipasyana to discern its nature. Know that the body, mind, or awareness is not self nor owned by the self. Experience body, mind, or awareness as it is.
Q1. Is it possible for technology to aid in the development of shamatha—e.g., neurological signatures of various states and using neural feedback especially in the beginning? Do you see any major issues?
Q2. In Asanga’s mindfulness of breathing, I have a question about the interim inhalation and exhalation. Does it feel like a pause?
Q3. You mentioned discursive lamrim meditations as antidote for laxity/dullness. For those of us who aren’t familiar with the lamrim, what is the essence of Atisha’s advice? How does lamrim fit into a healthy diet of spiritual practices? Is the lamrim necessary?
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 18 Apr 2021, Online-only
While resting in awareness, letting thoughts, memories, and images arise unimpededly, observe the array of people who appear as personifications of your own mental processes—all self-appearances. As you wish for your own well-being, wish for theirs.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 04 Apr 2021, Online-only
Resting in Awareness Observing Thoughts as if from Afar
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 03 May 2020, Online-only
Compassion for Our Ignorance & Delusion
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 06 Apr 2021, Online-only
Recognizing the Appropriation of Tactile Sensations and Mental Events as 'Mine' or 'I'
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 29 Apr 2021, Online-only
Closely apply mindfulness to your first-person experience of the body and mind, recognizing that they are not you or yours. Then probe deeply into your own sense of identity to determine whether or not you really exist. In this way, cut through to your actual identity.
Fall 2012 Shamatha and the Four Applications of Mindfulness, 07 Sep 2012, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Shamatha should serve as a baseline or a base camp. However, people have different affinities for the various shamatha practices. Focus on the space of the mind as backdrop and note the thoughts, images, and feelings which flare up. What are the feelings triggered by? Paul Ekman speaks of emotions, moods, and temperaments. Alan asks us to explore grasping as a possible cause for moods.
Meditation: choice of mindfulness of breathing or settling the mind. If your mind wanders, stabilize by counting breaths. Apply mindfulness to feelings that arise.
Q1. Introspective silence has led to social anxiety and awkwardness when dealing with others.
Q2. Settling the mind is easy to practice during sessions, but how to embody the practice—e.g., in social interactions with others?
Q3. The Prasangika Madhyamaka rejects the alaya vijnana as posited in the Cittamatra. Is this the alaya vijnana you’ve been talking about?
Q4. In settling the mind, I notice many thoughts driven by grasping. Why can I do about them?
Q5. You’ve quoted a stanza on habituation from the 6th chapter of Shantideva’s Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life. For our practices, how can we keep a fresh beginner’s mind rather than having them become routine?
Meditation starts at: 11:10
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 10 May 2021, Online-only
While resting in awareness, distinguish between tactile sensations, tactile feelings and the associated mental feelings. Then distinguish between mental appearances and mental feelings, and finally focus in on the feelings arising in the awareness of awareness.
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 21 May 2020, Online-only
Ultimate and Relative Bodhicitta
