2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 06 Apr 2021, Online-only
Resting in Awareness, Observe the Reification of Mental or Physical Objects
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 12 Apr 2021, Online-only
Lama Alan reminds us of the purifying nature of resting in awareness and observing all manner of mental activities. He points out that the Pali Cannon has 40 different topics for achieving samatha and the dhyanas and among the are 10 kasinas, or archetypal representations of the elements and colors throughout the universe. The last two of these 10 kasinas are space and consciousness. When we focus on space, we can just rest in space without any object. That gives you a break from dualistic grasping. However, a more subtle practice is focusing on space itself in the 9th kasina. Here, by attending to it as something, not nothing, which has defining characteristics, we can actually achieve samadhi on the subtle dualistic grasping which occurs there. By focusing on space, we are bringing about a very subtle form of knowing. Dzogchen provides us with that probe which observes the indeterminate nature of the mind and allows us to sustain that knowing. We can, in the upcoming meditation, attend to that specific instance of the same of the mind as conditioned space. This is called Barnang. Lama Alan gives the example of us being able to observe the space between him and the camera. Similarly, with mental awareness, we can observe the space where thoughts emerge, appear, and dissolve. This will be the object of today’s meditation. Lama Alan reviews how in his previously having covered the Four Applications of Mindfulness elsewhere, meditation with the kasinas were described as giving rise to having preliminary signs (tangible), acquired signs (mental), and counterpart signs which emerge from the form realm. When you’ve left the desire realm and shifted to the form realm, you have achieved the first jana. Lama Alan hypothesizes that the counterpart or primal nature of space in the form realm is the substrate, because when you achieve samatha, all that is left of your mind is the substrate from which consciousness emerges. Thus, he proposes, that the substrate is the counterpart or archetype sign of space in the form realm as viewed from the desire realm. Meditation, in this way, continues to purify us and help us release the remaining subtle grip of dualistic grasping. Meditation begins at 00:12:09 Before continuing with the text, Lama Alan, comments that this type of meditation is very susceptible to blanking out, dullness, or laity because normally we maintain our sharpness by focusing on something (via dualistic grasping). One should note the swiftness with which you detect movement of the mind and be aware that any lag means you just didn’t catch the activity or have gotten caught up in something. Returning to the text, “Likewise all objects that emerge as appearances of sounds in the field of radiant mentation are called auditory consciousness.” This same quote is repeated in the text as it applies to olfactory, visual, and tactile fields. Lama Alan explains that, for all perceptual fields, the mental conjoins with the perceptual and appropriates things. Appearances and the consciousness of them are of the same nature but not inherently the same. If they were identical, when one disappeared the other would disappear. Though we reify each all the time, none of these perceptions exist by themselves and the consciousnesses of them don’t either. They are mutually interdependent. The implication of this is further outlined in the text when it says, “By ascertaining that no philosophical stance can be established for actual experiences, you are freed from all philosophical assertions.” Lama Alan explains how the Prasangika Madhayamaka middle way of Nagarjuna debates other viewpoints by using their own logic which, when examined, will lead them to absurdities and contradictions. In this way, Prasangika Madhayamaka is able to show that everything other schools though existed, doesn’t. This strategy is being applied to us internally. If you think you inherently exist, examination will show an absence of ‘I’ or ‘self’. Yet causality exists, as evidenced by our continued functioning in the world, so we can’t not exit. Our existence is indeterminate. And, so it is with the mind which is found to be indeterminate. Lama Alan explains that as our conceptual awareness of the absence of our existence is sustained and refined, it then slips over to a non-conceptual perception of emptiness. “Philosophical analysis comes to its perfection when it transcends philosophical analysis.” With further examples, Lama Alan explains how no one description of our senses re-presents them as they really are. While it is true for our coarse senses that damage to the physical organs of the senses and/or the brain will affect our perceptual ability, that does not explain the occurrences of perception by those whose brain has flat-lined in the operating room, or the experiences in samadhi or in the bardo. Lama Alan asserts that there is a lot of commonality between the Buddhist ideals open mindedness, criticalness, rationality and the ideals of scientific inquiry. Buddhism states that all appearances to the sensory doors arise in mentation. So, it is a categorical error to try and figure out where something non-physical occurs in physical space. Lama Alan quotes a paragraph from William James’ 1890 book, The Principles of Psychology, which concludes that each of us willfully chooses, by what we attend to, what sort of universe we will inhabit. Thus, “for the moment, what we attend to is reality.”. This links the discussion to how Eurocentric civilizations have not attended to the discoveries of other cultures (India is used as an example) and how scientific materialism refuses to acknowledge the existence of phenomena that do not lend themselves to physical assessment. The text is returned to at this point and the process by which we grasp onto an “I” is outlined. Inwardly a transformation of appearances by our consciousness creates all phenomena. The way to ascertain the actual nature of those phenomena is to examine their relative nature. Via our examination of their origin, location, and destination, with further investigation we can gain the realization of great emptiness.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 14 May 2021, Online-only
Lama Alan welcomes us back to the four applications of mindfulness and reminds us of vipashyana being like an expedition and samatha a kind of retreat. When we devote ourselves to samatha practice as a “psychological hygiene”, this entails a temporary, strategic retreat from samsara, seeking a respite to withdraw from all mundane concerns, from our body and mind, into simple awareness. The practice of taking the mind as the path is not a full retreat, we’ve retreated from an involvement in and appropriation of the activities of the mind. From that vantage point we’re observing the mind from a safe place. It’s a place from which to re-view how to live our lives. Sooner or later and when we’ve made our minds serviceable, we’ll have to come out of retreat, and we need to return to the burning house of samsara. But we need an exit strategy, coming back to the desire realm but reviewing everything, taking nothing for granted, not even the existence of ourselves and others, and find the Middle Way. That’s what the four applications of mindfulness are all about, not running away but returning to the body, the feelings, the mind, in order to understand them phenomenologically and ontologically. Lama-la points out that in his pith instructions on the close application of mindfulness to the mind the Buddha focuses on recognising the presence or absence of attachment, hostility or hatred, delusion, laxity or dullness and excitation. He’s a trouble-shooter. He could have focused on the presence or absence of loving kindness instead. One of the reasons for not doing that is that by purging or even just subduing the mind of all mental afflictions (or at least the five obscurations), there’s a surprise waiting: bliss. We don’t need to do anything in addition to samatha to discover the bliss that is already there: bliss, luminosity and non-conceptuality. That’s what you discover when your mind is unobstructed by the five obscurations. In the application of mindfulness to the mind, the Buddha is focusing on the removal of the afflictions so you don’t get trapped by them. Lama-la draws a parallel to modern media that tends to focus on the negative. When we hear about the crises in the world, this is a call to arms: now is not the time to be complacent, we need to do something. So, if we were able to eliminate the evil and misconduct that we perpetuate, we wouldn’t need to do anything else to find peace on earth. This is what the Buddha dharma is about: by cultivating virtue, the four immeasurables, know that these are skilful means to discover the nature of reality as it is and that will give you all the reward you ever hoped for. Lama-la cites Santideva from the 5th chapter on Introspection: “When mindfulness stands guard at the gate of the mind, then introspection arrives, and even if it departs, it will return. At times, upon first recognizing that this mindset is faulty, I should remain still like a piece of wood.” He comments that “stands guard” means to protect, watching over, looking after, caring for the mind. Introspection is the indispensable aid, the assistant to mindfulness, the “quality control”. Introspection can be intermittent, but the guard has to be there continuously, without distraction and without forgetfulness. Introspection checks in as frequently as needed. “Faulty” means that the mind has been beset by mental afflictions. To recognise them generically, each of the 6 primary and 20 derivative mental afflictions each has their unique qualities, but they all have something in common. The way we know that the mind is faulty, the afflictors have come, is that we see that the equilibrium of our mind has been upset, we’ve lost our balance, there’s a disturbance. If our introspection is well honed, we’ll see that our way of apprehending reality is warped, distorted. Anything that does that internally is a mental affliction. As soon as we recognise through mindfulness, coupled with introspection, that our mind needs servicing, it’s not a time to use it but to remain still. We mustn’t let the virus spread and infect our thoughts, speech and physical actions. We may not give others our mental afflictions, but we can easily trigger their own, they’re contagious. Lama Alan comments that following on from “zeal” (meaning a delight in virtue, enthusiasm, and has to do with conative intelligence), Santideva advises us to stabilise the mind in samadhi, by way of refining attention. This is because a person whose mind is distracted “lives between the fangs of mental afflictions”. We need to notice when our psychological immune system is down, be on the alert regarding mental afflictions and not get caught up in OCDD (Obsessive-Compulsive Delusional Disorder). Lama-la invites us to recognise that the most detrimental virus that’s ever besieged humanity is that of mental afflictions – with all its variations, 6 primary, 20 secondary. These are at the root of every conflict and act of violence. We’re freed of all physical viruses at death but what afflicts the mind continues in the bardo and in all future lives. Lama-la reminds us to follow Santideva’s advice – when we see that our mind is infected by the klesha virus (something that presupposes that we know the symptoms, not be non-judgemental), we should “be like a piece of wood”, until the symptoms subside. And then, if you need to bring about change, do that when your mind is not afflicted. Once symptoms subside, you may be ready first for a retreat, then an expedition. Welcome to Dharma. Let’s practise! Meditation on this topic begins at 00:42:24.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 24 May 2021, Online-only
Lama Alan continues with his presentation of mindfulness of phenomena after yesterday’s presentation on the five aggregates. He ended with his whimsical story which reminds us that our skandhas are not the basis for our identity. Though we often attach our definition of ourselves to one or more of these aggregates, such as our bodies or our intellect, they are, just as in the story, only appearances. Next, Lama Alan talks about the six internal and external sense bases. The relevance of this topic is it addresses how is it that we are conscious of these six modes. Buddhism has a lot to say on that front, whereas science does not. Science can describe physiologic occurrences in the various sense cortexes, but, to the extent, it imputes a sort of communication between one physiologic event and another as in describing neurons as “talking to each other”, it is engaging in complete nonsense, or what Lama Alan calls neuro-mythology. This is because information can be transmitted only if there is a consciousness that has a referent and none of these physiologic occurrences have a consciousness. It is as if the spirit world, which was eliminated with the rise of modern science, has now been resurrected by neuro-scientists (without acknowledging it) and offered housing in the brain when they talk of one part of the brain sending signals to other parts of the brain. Again, meaningful information needs a referent to be conscious of it, but a neuron, dendrite, or chemical process doesn’t have a consciousness. Science, in fact, has no scientific theory of consciousness which explains the nature of consciousness, its origins, what happens after death, and how consciousness interfaces with the brain. It’s current unscientific musings in this pseudo-scientific way confuse and obscure the ignorance which needs to be uncovered to move forward. However, the Buddha offers us a theory via the Satipatthana Sutra that we can test. Instead of imputing brain cells as having consciousness, step-by-step, we are invited to denude phenomena of our projections upon them and, hence, we learn to view phenomena as phenomena. Each sense is approached in a similar way: For example, if we examine our ear and hearing faculty, one knows sounds and one knows the bonds (bond = fetters, clinging, attachments) that arise dependent on our ear and hearing. And, one knows how an un-arisen bond can arise, how an arising bond can be removed, and how a future arising bond can be prevented. The same systematic examination and deconstruction is applied to all our senses – visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile, and finally, mentation (manas, or mental consciousness). At this point, Lama Alan elaborates on the analysis of causality involved, which is not mechanistic, but completely rational based on experience. From the forms or the objects which are perceived via the sensory faculties including mentation arise the six modes of consciousness. For five modes of sensory consciousness, the dominant necessary condition is a physical sense faculty which, if damaged, would either impair or terminate that faculty. This is consistent with the scientific view. However, when it comes to mental consciousness, there is no physical faculty upon which mental consciousness is dependent. Although, it is true that damage to the brain can impair functioning, there is no evidence that mental consciousness vanishes completely whether by impairment or even death. There is, in fact, powerful evidence that when the brain stops functioning, mental consciousness does not cease. The dominant condition of mental consciousness is mentation which is non-physical. Preceding moments of mental consciousness give rise to current moments of mental consciousness. In the case of emergence from deep dreamless sleep, mentation is the prior moment of consciousness and that emerges from the substrate, to the substrate consciousness, to afflictive mentation, subtle mentation, coarse mentation, and, in dependence upon these, arises mental consciousness with all of the mental factors. In the case of the fetus, the mental consciousness, similarly emerges from the substrate or bhavanga. Lama Alan moves toward a conclusion in this session by asking how does the Buddhist view interface with the scientific view? He points out there is no scientific theory of what the causes and conditions were that needed to be in place for the first conscious organism on the planet to emerge. Similarly, there is no theory for when a fetus becomes a conscious being. In contrast, Buddhism has one theory which is based upon experience and is empirically testable. Non-physical consciousness interacts with the brain in non-mechanistic ways. There is no mechanism that connects something physical with something non-physical. Lama Alan suggests we should invite modern physics into the mix. Let’s stop looking for a mechanical explanation where one does not exist. He concludes by pointing out that modern physics can only account for a tiny fraction of the types of interactions that happen in nature. Semantic information, i.e. meaningful information, is obviously not physical and does not exist independent of consciousness. Nevertheless, non-physical semantic information has a demonstrable effect on our brain and our actions. An example Lama Alan uses to demonstrated that is that this audio transmitted via our physical computers is imparting meaningful information (non-physical) which can have an impact on our thoughts and actions-i.e. meditating or not meditating in the next 24 minutes. Meditation begins at 00:35:25 in which we bring a motivation to understand the mind in order to heal it and heal the world from all the damage done from mental afflictions.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 11 Apr 2021, Online-only
Take your Mind as a Means for Transcending your Identity as a Human Being
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 05 May 2021, Online-only
Take your impure mind as the path, with the view that all the appearances to your awareness are nirmāṇakāyas.
Shamatha, Vipashyana, Mahamudra, and Dzogchen, 04 Apr 2016, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Italy
This afternoon we finish the cycle of four immeasurables by meditating on equanimity. Alan says that this is the grand finale, the indispensable basis for bodhicitta. Equanimity has different meanings in different contexts but in the context of our practice it means the even-heartedness when attending to other people, other sentient beings. As long as we attend to people as objects, some appear agreeable and others disagreeable. The point of this practice is to place ourselves in the position of others, in their shoes, to see things from their perspective. If we do so, it appears that we all act out of a wish to be free from suffering and to find happiness. The motivation is the same, while the behaviour is different. And the difference is the degree to which one is subject to mental afflictions. As we seek to develop this even sense of caring, equanimity arises, and the heart opens equally to all sentient beings. If one can attend to the whole spectrum of beings - from those who seem to come from hell realms to those who act like sources of pure land - this is immeasurable equanimity. Alan introduces the meditation by explaining that in the preceding practices we were sending out the light of loving kindness and compassionately taking in the suffering of others. In the practice of equanimity we shall combine the two - sending out and taking in - in one practice known in Tibetan as tonglen. The meditation is on Equanimity. After the meditation, Alan briefly comments on how the four immeasurables act as remedies when one of them goes astray. So when loving kindness descends into self-centred attachment the remedy is equanimity. Then we return to Karma Chagme’s text “Naked Awareness” page 28. Alan explains that when the first ground (bhumi) is reached and the ultimate bodhicitta arises it means that the arya bodhisattva has the first unmediated realisation of emptiness. This is the Sutrayana Mahayana interpretation. In Dzogchen (and Mahamudra) view relative bodhicitta is the same but ultimate bodhicitta means the direct realisation of rigpa (i.e. primordial consciousness), not of emptiness. In Dzogchen ultimate bodhicitta is equated with rigpa. When resting in rigpa relative bodhicitta arises, so there is no alternating between relative and ultimate bodhicitta, because they are non-dual. Further in the text Alan comments on the aspirational and engaged bodhicitta and explains the two lineages of taking the bodhisattva vows. He also points out that while monastic vows are valid for one life only and can be given back, the bodhisattva precepts are taken until enlightenment. However, this also means that by taking them one is in a way “hooked” to the path for all future rebirths, because one has “unfinished business”. Commenting on giving away one’s wealth before taking the precepts, Alan explains that the important thing is to give away all attachments. As an example, he tells the story of Milarepa and his lame goat. Subsequently, Alan provides a more detailed commentary on the ritual of purification and accumulation of merit described in “Naked Awareness” (page 29). He underlines that the purification of obscurations and the accumulation of merit never ends until one is perfectly enlightened, and therefore the preliminary practices should not be treated as something that can be done and finished with, but have to be practiced continuously. As a culmination of today’s teachings, Alan guides the group into taking the bodhisattva vows. After that, to conclude, he discusses the trainings and actions of a bodhisattva and he reads the passage from The Advice to a King Sutra. Alan says that we all are kings in our jobs, families etc. and therefore we should remember that the most important thing is to always have the underlying motivation of bodhicitta. If this motivation is present in all our activities, then even the most simple things like taking a walk, resting or making a tea can mean accumulating merit. Meditation starts at: 12:12 ___ Please contribute to make these, and future podcasts freely available.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 23 May 2021, Online-only
First taking refuge, then arousing bodhicitta and the view of emptiness, rest in awareness that is primordially still, and view the occurrence of such mental processes as reification, laxity, and excitation, without identifying with or reifying them.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 09 Apr 2021, Online-only
Taking the Mind as the Path, Not Blocking and Not Thinking the Thoughts
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 04 Apr 2021, Online-only
Resting in Awareness Observing All Appearances Arising and Passing
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 27 Apr 2021, Online-only
Practice mindfulness of breathing simply by noting the rhythm of the respiration
Sadhana Class with Yangchen (Eva Natanya), 25 May 2022, Online, Recorded at Miyo Samten Ling, Crestone, CO
Yangchen begins the session with the 7 line prayer, refuge, bodhicitta and the 10 branches. Then she points out that the offering should be set higher than yourself sitting. Today’s teachings are the continuation from yesterday and pick up at “The Concluding Stage” last verse page 12 of very last version (22/05/23) of the long Lake-Born Vajra sadhana. Yangchen notes that interacting with material objects helps you feel more real the presence of the Jinas and see the celestial palace as something more concrete. P.13 First verse: "“Arali”" has a sense of ecstatic joy. The verse is conceived as a song and describes what is going on. (p.139 in Vajra Essence details the substances and object offered). Second and third verses are borrowed from a different sadhana (Guyasamaja). P.13 Second verse: The Samaya taken by the Buddhas need to be “activated” by us by practicing properly. The “rulu rulu hung” in the mantra awakes the feminine wrathful. P.13 Third verse: atonement literally means at-onement, as re-joining that which has been separated by ignorance. Yangchen underline the profundity of this verse. P.14 First verse: you can see all the substances offered emanating light rays P.14 Second verse: this is a confession. P.14 Third verse: practice of liberation extremely simplified. We should ask ourselves “What does it take to cut off the life force that is perpetrating the life force within us?” The term “maraya” means to kill, and negative life force is what we need to kill in so far as it’s the base of suffering. In the Vajra Essence p.143 Düdjom Lingpa explains the ultimate meaning of liberation, with the difference that in the ganacakra the residue of samsara instead to be dissolved into absolute space, is offered in the form of the food to be consumed, which we’ve already turned in the mountain of flesh and blood and other inner substances, so now it’s the pure quintessence of the energy of samsara. Because we should imagine the food going through our subtle body and being burned by the inner/secret fire, this is a kind of food tummo. In solitary practice you could practice tummo here if you received the teaching. WE ARE NOT EATING THE OFFERING YET. P.14 Fourth verse: here we remember that when we eat the offering we are actually offering them to our three roots (guru, yidam and dakini). It’s Guru Rinpoche offering the ganacakra to dispel the maras. P.15 First verse: the appearances when awakened they disappear, they dissolve in the ground. Four visions refers to the “direct crossing over” [thögyal]. HERE WE PARTAKE THE TSOK OFFERINGS. P.15 Second verse: can be sung while partaking the Samaya substances. Dedicating the Leftover Torma: Even if all as been done properly, some residual appearance may still be there, so deceptively they are offered to the illusory guests. P.15 third Verse: Requesting protection. All these protectors dispel obscuring forces each in a unique way. We can think to redirect our materialistic superstitions about negative forces to a “different level” of superstition where protectors are powerful, even able to bound our materialistic world, our work, our technologies at the service of Dharma and of our Dharma activities. P15-16: Proclaiming the Command to Obey P.16 First verse: refer to p.149 of the Vajra Essence. P.16 Second verse: Nurturing the Female Tenma (sisters “earth mothers”) Protective Deities with Cleansing Water, you can have a clean water bowl to perform it. P.16 third verse: Stomping the Hayagriva Dance The Tibetan syllable È refers to the absolute space where demons are entrapped in the triangular incarceration box in the belly of Yama as described in the Vajra Essence. P.17 First verse: the mantra is repeated several times in the sadhana and here is repeat at the end of the ganacakra. P.17 Second verse: this concludes the ganacakra offering. After going through the whole ganacakra reciting the 100-syllables mantra three times rebalances the energies shaken up by this new world you’ve just been through. P.17 Third and fourth verses: they must be done even when you don’t perform the ganacakra, every time one ends a sadhana. P.18 First and last verses: Refer to the Vajra Essence (p.146-147). P.18 Mantra: very auspicious to recite it at the end of a sadhana. There is no meditation with this teaching.
2022 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 3, 25 May 2022, Online from Miyo Samten Ling in Crestone, Colorado, USA
Yangchen begins the session with the 7 line prayer, refuge, bodhicitta and the 10 branches. Then she points out that the offering should be set higher than yourself sitting. Today’s teachings are the continuation from yesterday and pick up at “The Concluding Stage” last verse page 12 of very last version (22/05/23) of the long Lake-Born Vajra sadhana. Yangchen notes that interacting with material objects helps you feel more real the presence of the Jinas and see the celestial palace as something more concrete. P.13 First verse: ""Arali"" has a sense of ecstatic joy. The verse is conceived as a song and describes what is going on. (p.139 in Vajra Essence details the substances and object offered). Second and third verses are borrowed from a different sadhana (Guyasamaja). P.13 Second verse: The Samaya taken by the Buddhas need to be “activated” by us by practicing properly. The “rulu rulu hung” in the mantra awakes the feminine wrathful. P.13 Third verse: atonement literally means at-onement, as re-joining that which has been separated by ignorance. Yangchen underline the profundity of this verse. P.14 First verse: you can see all the substances offered emanating light rays P.14 Second verse: this is a confession. P.14 Third verse: practice of liberation extremely simplified. We should ask ourselves “What does it take to cut off the life force that is perpetrating the life force within us?” The term “maraya” means to kill, and negative life force is what we need to kill in so far as it’s the base of suffering. In the Vajra Essence p.143 Düdjom Lingpa explains the ultimate meaning of liberation, with the difference that in the ganacakra the residue of samsara instead to be dissolved into absolute space, is offered in the form of the food to be consumed, which we’ve already turned in the mountain of flesh and blood and other inner substances, so now it's the pure quintessence of the energy of samsara. Because we should imagine the food going through our subtle body and being burned by the inner/secret fire, this is a kind of food tummo. In solitary practice you could practice tummo here if you received the teaching. WE ARE NOT EATING THE OFFERING YET. P.14 Fourth verse: here we remember that when we eat the offering we are actually offering them to our three roots (guru, yidam and dakini). It’s Guru Rinpoche offering the ganacakra to dispel the maras. P.15 First verse: the appearances when awakened they disappear, they dissolve in the ground. Four visions refers to the “direct crossing over” [thögyal]. HERE WE PARTAKE THE TSOK OFFERINGS. P.15 Second verse: can be sung while partaking the Samaya substances. Dedicating the Leftover Torma: Even if all as been done properly, some residual appearance may still be there, so deceptively they are offered to the illusory guests. P.15 third Verse: Requesting protection. All these protectors dispel obscuring forces each in a unique way. We can think to redirect our materialistic superstitions about negative forces to a “different level” of superstition where protectors are powerful, even able to bound our materialistic world, our work, our technologies at the service of Dharma and of our Dharma activities. P15-16: Proclaiming the Command to Obey P.16 First verse: refer to p.149 of the Vajra Essence. P.16 Second verse: Nurturing the Female Tenma (sisters “earth mothers”) Protective Deities with Cleansing Water, you can have a clean water bowl to perform it. P.16 third verse: Stomping the Hayagriva Dance The Tibetan syllable È refers to the absolute space where demons are entrapped in the triangular incarceration box in the belly of Yama as described in the Vajra Essence. P.17 First verse: the mantra is repeated several times in the sadhana and here is repeat at the end of the ganacakra. P.17 Second verse: this concludes the ganacakra offering. After going through the whole ganacakra reciting the 100-syllables mantra three times rebalances the energies shaken up by this new world you’ve just been through. P.17 Third and fourth verses: they must be done even when you don’t perform the ganacakra, every time one ends a sadhana. P.18 First and last verses: Refer to the Vajra Essence (p.146-147). P.18 Mantra: very auspicious to recite it at the end of a sadhana. There is no meditation with this teaching.
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
Shamatha, Vipashyana, Mahamudra, and Dzogchen, 06 May 2016, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Italy
We continue to follow the strategy presented by Panchen Rinpoche, examining carefully the way we abide, in contrast to the mode of appearances. As we all know, we appear in very different ways, ever changing - even from day to day, we don't look the same. But in contrast, when we think of our childhood, we think ‘that was me when I was a child’. Or when someone says something about us when we were adolescents, we feel 'it's referring to me'. There is something that abides. What is it that bears that continuity? We've already examined that but it's worth coming back to it. It's very helpful not to be locked into this appearance or that appearance, but to have a sense that there is something that continues over time, in this lifetime, and in a bigger picture, from lifetime to lifetime. Alan recalled that once the Dalai Lama was asked by someone in the audience to talk about his actual realization as a way of inspiring people, and he said 'I can remember being with the Buddha'. So, even the Dalai Lama has this sense of continuity. We die every night and we're born every morning - what is this person that abides and appears, and how do we apprehend this person? Padmasambhava, right after he's finished settling the mind in its natural state and he says 'do this until you're finished', he goes to the vipashyana chapter and the first stage is 'engaging in the search for the mind'. When you're stripped down to the substrate consciousness, to the flow of self-illuminating awareness, you can't remove the luminosity nor the cognisance, the same way you can't take out the heat of the fire. And then we go to the next meditation, we search for the mind and then he points out rigpa. We can't find the mind and then we identify what's left, pristine awareness. We identify what abides The meditation is on vipashyana. Alan returns to the text of Panchen Rinpoche, reading the verses of Shantideva on which our last meditation was based: "an individual is not earth, is not water, not fire, not air, not space, is not consciousness, is not all of them. Where then apart from these is the individual?" And then Shantideva suggests, as Padmasambhava and the Buddha also suggested, that we examine empirically each one of the aggregates, searching for the I. We examine even the self that we hold in our memory, which is not a fiction at all. There is an essential nature of the mind and you identify that when you achieve shamatha; there is an essential nature of fire - it's hot and burning. And there is someone who does abide overtime: Can you find yourself? It's not an absence, it's a presence. Phenomenologically, you first identify it, and then, ontologically, you search for it. Is there anybody there to be found or is it all just appearances? A person has multiple basis of designation but these basis are never equal to the person. Panchen Rinpoche explains why it is not possible to equate a person with each one of the aggregates, individually or collectively, and also why a person cannot exist separate from the aggregates. And then, Alan comments that when we rest in the substrate consciousness and engage in the search for the meditator, we do not find - that was the last possibility of existing outside the manifold of appearances. Not to be found! When we first gain a realization, enabled by an idea - not to be found - this will be a conceptual insight; then we should stop further cogitation and rest in single-pointed equipoise. From within equipoise, examining as before, we maintain the mind in the space-like equipoise. When we come to the point of unfinding and seeing the unfindability, then there is just this openness, spaciousness, suddenly there is emptiness and that is called space-like meditative equipoise. If you're not familiar with the view, fear will arise; if you are, joy will arise. That's why one of the mahayana precepts is 'don't teach emptiness to those who are not ready'. Fear of annihilation can arise even with shamatha practice. Alan ends by saying that by the power of seeing the emptiness of yourself, you see how you and the sentient beings arise in mutual interdependence. And that very insight into emptiness will enhance your compassion. The grasping to an independent self undermines empathy, compassion, bodhicitta - all other beings are on the other side of the fence. And this is very lonely. Ironically, by realizing the emptiness of yourself, manifesting in a myriad of ways, all interrelated with all beings - we're all intertwined, our very existence, our very being is one of interdependence - how can we not care for the other? Finally he cited Shantideva: "Do I really have to take on my shoulders the burden of the world?" He posed the question to himself and the answer was: "Yes, you do!" The question comes back: "Why?" And the answer is "because suffering has no owner". Meditation starts at 13:03 ___ Please contribute to make these, and future podcasts freely available.
The 4 Yogas of Mahamudra 2019 Retreat, 18 Jun 2019, Shambhala Mountain Center
Note: Our sincere apologies, this session was particularly challenging because the equipment was especially sensitive that day, and we may have gotten some interference from cell phones. The good news is that we later got some help to further tweak the recording equipment, so the rest of the sessions should sound much better. **Brad** I'm not criticizing any teaching of the sutra or tantra teachings. It just occurs to me that we finished the first yoga and it's all shamatha. Ok then we haven't gotten to what we call the view in Dzogchen. I know we've alluded to primordial awareness and so forth. Because what appears from the text as written is we get all the way through the first two halves of the bodhisattvayana just with shamatha. You've been clear about that both in this retreat and many retreats before, but that's not what the text says. But he has this nigh on the path of seeing just at the end of the first yoga here. I understand we're seeing things from a vajrayana perspective and not a sutrayana perspective but you just mentioned in the last talk we had a few minutes ago, you mentioned the spirit of definite emergence. He hasn't even paid any kind of lip service to that, he hasn't mentioned uncontrived bodhicitta, there's not even any kind of hint of that. **Victoria** I got super excited when you mentioned, I think it was yesterday, mathematics and the form realm. That was absolutely fascinating, it took some calming down. What is the source of these realms? Is it the substrate? Since we each have our own individual substrate if I understand it correctly, so every appearance appears to me as you said, so the desire realm in which I'm right now is my individual desire realm and has as its source the substrate, my own individual substrate. I'm a mathematician so bear with me. So I was pondering in my walk this morning, how is it that we are sharing the same seeming reality, and I was thinking that the only logical explanation, because there is some logic to all of this, is that we are connected karmically. I think all of us who are here, we have these invisible karmic connections, which connect our substrates in some way, and then we share this reality. Would that make sense? So every person that I see in this room, I have a karmic connection with, totally unaware of them since I hadn't met anyone. But that should be the reason why we're sharing the common experiences or the common appearances that we see. Would that make sense? **Henri** I'd like to just clarify the points regarding the actual achievement of shamatha. You explained that you have the acquired sign, and then you what happens is that dissolves and then the counterpart sign comes. But when this happens you actually achieve shamatha? Ok because, for example, it's like a major transition and lots of stuff happening like you hear in Asanga's explanation, like the extraordinary mental joy and all the heaviness and all this that's related. So just to clarify this, when you go, you see the counterpart sign, these thoughts happening now and then you fall back and they're still happening or you stay there and it's happening and then you fall back, like a little bit of the details of this? Because it seems a little bit like contradictory that you achieve it but then you fall back. **Laura** First of all I would like to thank you for your generosity. It's a great gift, and it is very much like drinking from a fire hose, a fire hydrant. In light of what you just shared, which is akin to what I had thought to share, let me try. I'm a creative so I hope you're patient. The way these teachings are delivered, how they are conveyed is enormous to me, and specifically what we might call the use of analogy, it doesn't operate in the way of offering an explanation. It doesn't operate like a metaphor. It itself is the revelation, and particularly the analogies then involve natural references. The bird, for example, is a revelation. It is an occurrence and it arises from shall we say the substrate. So then between sessions doing my practice I had a moment, an occurrence and it stopped my mind, it was simply the puddles, it was a drop in concentric circles, and before I had language, before anything arrived, it arrived in completion. So I thought to share that last night and I didn't, and then this morning when you were speaking about physicists who attempt to write or speak to this and are condemned and exiled. I was reminded of a very dear friend of mine who again, I believe you know, his name is Shimon Malin. He worked as a physicist at Colgate and he wrote a book called "Nature loves to hide" and that was precisely my experience. It reveals itself when [speechless]. And I see how you are in your precision, in openness these practices are real. I just defaulted to the habit there. **Ken** The approach to shamatha seems very similar to the approach to inner fire yoga. Both seem to be active gateways to non-dualism. Can you comment on the differences? Is there a difference?
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 12 May 2020, Online-only
Lama Alan takes us into Phase 3 of the path that can lead to the great rainbow body. He said that you might have a qualm about not yet having reached shamatha, meanwhile the teachings are already on phase 3. Lama Alan says that being introduced to higher practices is common to guide disciples through all the steps of a whole path so that you have the big picture of all the steps in addition to corresponding practices that meet you where you currently are on the path. He said the preliminaries will keep us occupied for a long time and they also provide us sustenance while we also sow seeds for future ripening of our mind stream to these higher practices. Then, Lama Alan guides us to come to certainty that we are ‘sem chen’ a ‘mind haver’ and as a mind possessor are responsible for our conduct. The mind is primary and we so, we are taking the mind as the path. He reminds us the first phase is to examine the mind, which we tend to reify, where does it originate, where is it located and where does it go, and through that investigation you find that it is empty as is the agent. The second phase is the sharp Vajra of wisdom that we use to unveil the obscurations to the path pristine awareness. On this path all the afflictions of the mind subside into the substrate. You still have a human mind but when you follow Padhmasabhava and Yanthang Rinpoche’s advice to do shamatha without a sign and peel away all the things of the mind that you thought were yours until there is only the unconfigured essential mind. Lama Alan says that this is what you have left over. He says from this perspective invert your awareness in on that subtle mind which is experiencing the substrate, identify where it is located, where did it come from and where does it go, and then cut through the substrate to pristine awareness. This mind is not that of a human being. This strategy of examining very closely origin, location and destination, that can be enough to cut through. Lama Alan says to release any preference for the bliss, luminosity and non-conceptuality and cut through and then you enter the path to the Great Perfection. When you recognize the unfindability of the mind doing the searching of existence or non-existence, that is emptiness which we are told is Dharmakaya. Lama Alan says that we will cross the threshold into Phase 3 in the meditation and then the text. Get familiar with the one who has a mind, the sentience. Then follow the classic Vipashyana of personal identitylessness. Who is the individual who has this subtle mind. Who is the referent of the word ‘you’ when you think ‘I am’?. Ask, “I wasn’t always here, so where did I come from? I won’t always be here, so where will I go”? It is grasping to the ‘I’ that is the root of all mental afflictions. Lama Alan says the ignorance of what the ‘I’ is and the delusion of who ‘I’ am is important to recognize. There are two modes of delusion. One is conjured up misapprehension mistaken identity. We make up a story about ourselves that we take very seriously. He says that we were not born with this afflictive views of ourselves and gives an example such as low self-esteem. He said we might deal with that one and then build up a new story of how excellent we think we are compared to everyone else but this leads to arrogance and superiority which are also afflictive. Lama Alan then points out that the other mode of delusion is connate ignorance of ourselves and all others not knowing who we actually are and then getting it wrong. So, the next step is Phase 3, which Lama Alan explains begins with this, cutting away the conjured-up stories of who we are and then reaching the bases of self-grasping. After the meditation Lama Alan gives some context prior to going to Phase 3 in the text. He said each phase given in the Vajra Essence are to bring you onto the path. In terms of the five paths in the Mahayana this brings you to the Bodhisattva Path with a special augmentation that you also enter the Dzogchen path. Lama Alan was first introduced to these paths some time ago and he just wanted to know how to reach the small Path of Accumulation. He explains how with continuous cultivation of Bodhicitta, your mind actually becomes Bodhicitta, the mind becomes the dharma when your primary motivation for every act is to attain enlightenment in order to benefit sentient beings. One then works through the 6 perfections. He said that when you reach the small path of Accumulation, you generate Bodhicitta. Lama Alan worried at that time time whether it is possible to lose Bodhicitta and fall from the path back into samsara. The answer was it is possible to relinquish this Bodhicitta mind. So, wanted to know is there a point where it is irreversible and one will always be a Bodhisattva never separated from Bodhicitta? In the medium stage of the Path of Preparation. Lama Alan advised that you can protect your Bodhicitta through honing wisdom and the Four Close Applications of mindfulness to realize nature of suffering and ascertaining that the body and mind is empty of you. That realization of personal identitylessness that is your titanium armor to protect your Bodhicitta. There is no intrinsically evil sentient being. Meditation ‘Who are you without your story?’ starts at: 33:43 minutes. [Keywords: Phase 3, Bodhicitta, personal identitylessness, path, Bodhisattva, path pristine awareness]
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 28 Apr 2021, Online-only
Discerningly note the relative duration of each in- and out-breath, and how the respiration gradually becomes shallower as your body-mind calms and your respiration settles in its natural rhythm.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 12 Apr 2021, Online-only
Resting in Awareness, Examine the Arising, Presence, and Vanishing of Objective Appearances within the Space of the Mind
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 07 Apr 2021, Online-only
Take Refuge, Arouse Bodhicitta, and Settle the Mind in its Natural State
Fall 2012 Shamatha and the Four Applications of Mindfulness, 04 Sep 2012, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Alan uses rats as an analogy for thoughts. When a cat (mindfulness) is present, rats (thoughts) stay away. During the bubonic plague, rats (thoughts) carried fleas (disturbing emotions) which carried the bacterial infection (e.g., depression or anxiety). Therefore, we need to treat rumination as public enemy #1. According to Tsongkhapa, we must complete eliminate rumination in order to achieve shamatha.
Meditation: mindfulness of breathing method of your choice. For each breath cycle, arouse attention at in breath to counter laxity, and relax at out breath to counter excitation. In this way, refine your attention and dispel rumination. Breathe effortlesly as in deep sleep.
Meditation starts: 9:27
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 15 Apr 2021, Online-only
Resting in Awareness, Identify which Mental Processes are Calming and which are Disruptive
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 13 May 2021, Online-only
Observe how the mental events the Buddha highlighted in his pith instructions arise in dependence upon the causes and conditions and how they pass, noting their impermanent, unsatisfying, and impersonal nature.
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 22 May 2020, Online-only
Sera Khandro's Pointing Out Instructions
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 01 Apr 2021, Online-only
Settling Body, Speech and Mind More Deeply
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 08 Apr 2021, Online-only
Rest in Awareness, Viewing All Phenomena as Empty and as Creative Expressions of Pristine Awareness
2023 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 4, 22 May 2023, Crestone, Colorado and Online
Our last week of retreat starts with a Q&A teaching about the following topics and answers from Lama la: - The secular practice of dream yoga has very helpful techniques but never questions the nature of waking reality, so it is not transformative. What are the effects of living out hedonic fantasies in lucid dreams? This will reinforce habitual tendencies during the waking state, very likely not beneficial tendencies. Contrary to that, according to Yangthang Rinpoche, harmful acts performed in non-lucid dreams do not accrue negative karma, because one is completely delusional. When, while being lucid, the dream fades, one accesses the substrate with one’s coarse consciousness. That’s very different from the brilliance experienced when one accesses the substrate when achieving samatha with the substrate consciousness. When lucid, the dream state should be used in meaningful ways. - Is there a difference between asking for blessings and praying? One can call upon Tara for blessings for oneself and for others, even for mundane issues. All Four Immeasurables can be viewed as a form of prayer. Prayers of gratitude are very common in the Christian tradition. Supplications are done towards one’s Guru (for swift blessings) and one’s Yidam (for deep blessings), calling upon blessings for one’s spiritual maturation, to dispel obstacles, and the like. Praying wisely, which may entail not asking for the obvious but for what is of greatest benefit, is a skill that can be developed. - The skill of transformation during lucid dreaming serves to comprehend the nature of the dream: the fluidity of our perceived reality through the process of conceptual designation as described in Prasangika Madhyamaka. During daytime, the realization of emptiness imbued with samatha may bring with it the ability to manifest miracles, like transforming water into wine. But it is not that just anything can be changed in the way one likes, because, unlike as in dreams, sentient beings have karma, and even the Buddha cannot turn back the karma of sentient beings. - A question about the difference between false and valid facsimiles, the latter being an approximation towards a spiritual attainment. Lama la answers this question with the example of caring relationships approximating the Four Immeasurables. - The person asking has suffered from insomnia for 30 years, and with the attempt to practice nighttime dream yoga, this has become worse. Lama la advises not to do this practice if it interferes with one’s sleep but explains that one can still practice daytime dream yoga as taught in the Seven Point Mind Training. Although medication does not cure insomnia it can be helpful, and it is not incompatible with the spiritual path. A medical check should be done first. Psychological issues may be treated with medication at first, then with a caring talk therapy, until one is stable enough to practice meditation. Lama la then, as a spiritual teacher, gives some practical advice on how to calm oneself to be able to fall asleep. - The person asking is grieving the recent loss of a loved one. Lama la describes how grief, like all emotions and mental events, takes place in the mind—and how solace can be found by resting in awareness, experiencing only its luminosity and cognizance. A freedom that can be cultivated is to de-personalize the emotion and to observe it as an event taking place in the space of the mind. The question “Who is aware?“ is at the core of vipashyana, and resonates with the ancient Greek aphorism “Know thyself“. Then Lama la points to the truth of entropy: wherever there is meeting there is parting, whatever comes up goes down etc. This applies to all of our relationships, and to develop good cheer in the face of these truths is a sign of a good practitioner. Lama explains how grief is often self-related, and encourages us to recognize that the death of a virtuous person can be a relief for them, leaving behind a disabled body, and taking a fortunate rebirth. And we can always pray for the deceased. - There is a difference between the practice of Taking the Mind as the Path, with no appearance arising, and the practice of Awareness of Awareness: in the first practice, one focuses on an empty field, the substrate, whereas in the second practice, one focuses on awareness itself. All practices of shamata within the Indo-Tibetan tradition culminate in the practice of Shamata without a Sign. Space is established by direct perception or by conceptual designation. - At the end of this teaching Lama la kindly shares a story of how he and his wife experienced the power of Venerable Gyatrul Rinpoche’s blessings.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 14 May 2021, Online-only
Identify “mental afflictions” (kleśa) by the criteria that they disrupt the balance and equilibrium of the mind, and they distort (kliṣṭa) our awareness of reality.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 09 May 2021, Online-only
While resting in awareness, distinguish among the three kinds of feelings—pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral—in the mind. Examine the impact of observing the feelings on the feelings themselves: do they increase, decrease, or remain unaffected? Examine the conditions that give rise to them, their own nature while present, and the manner in which they disappear.
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 22 May 2020, Online-only
Lama Alan shares his aspiration for all retreats the conducts: that the students end it with confidence in both the examination of the theoretical part and in the practice, and with inspiration to practice. Lama says that a qualm could arise during the practice of taking the mind as the path: “this seems a little bit too easy”. And it is, indeed, easy to get complacent, creating a bad habit in the practice. To make sure that the practice is meaningful, if it is done in the context of refuge, bodhicitta, and guru yoga, it will be. Taking the mind as the path already has a flavor of effortlessness, even though it is not entirely effortless, because you are not resting in pristine awareness. Introspection is the way to make sure you are “polishing that jewel”. Lama also says that, to draw the full benefit of the practice, continuity in and off the cushion is key. Meditation 1, “Sera Khandro’s Pointing Out Instructions”, starts at 15:50. Meditation 2, “Giving Ourselves Away: Relative Bodhicitta”, starts at 40:10. Keywords: taking the mind as the path, Sera Khandro, Ultimate Bodhicitta, Relative Bodhicitta.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 12 Apr 2021, Online-only
Practice the First Phase of Shamatha without a Sign as Taught by Padmasambhava in Natural Liberation
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 24 May 2021, Online-only
Lama Alan begins this teaching session with the meditation: After taking refuge and cultivating bodhicitta, we then arouse the view of emptiness and the Dzogchen view. While resting in awareness, coextensive with space, with no center or periphery, we view all appearances as self-illuminating, expressions of our own pristine awareness. After the meditation Lama Alan continues in the text which describes the dying process: During a gradual death, the five bodily senses shut down one by one until finally, the mind vanishes. What follows are the spacelike white appearance, then the spacelike red emergence and finally the dark near attainment, which is nothing other than the substrate. These three states are of deceptive nature, veiling pristine awareness. The substrate then is shattered, and what appears is the clear light of death, the ground pristine awareness. When one has in his training achieved shamatha, one can follow the dying process lucidly, like someone who is trained in lucid dreaming can enter dream and dreamless sleep lucidly. But only when one’s training has led one to some familiarity with pristine awareness, one will be able to recognize the clear light of death. This is called the child clear light, path pristine awareness, which crawls on the lap of the mother clear light, ground pristine awareness. When stability is achieved there, this is called ‘Thukdam’, a state that transcends life and death: all life functions of the body have stopped, but the corpse does not decay, for days or even weeks. Even in our times, this attainment has been witnessed several times. This might lead one to lucidly pass through the bardo, directing one`s consciousness towards the next incarnation. Or it might even lead to perfect awakening by way of the Dharmakaya, culminating in rainbow body. Then Lama Alan introduces us to a chart that shows the different stages of the dissolution process during dying. This chart is included in the retreat notes. The question may arise, how these states can possibly be reported. Yogis, who were able to sustain lucidity during the dying process, the bardo and being conceived in their next incarnation, reported on this countless times, and the scientific research of the University of Virginia not only documents cases of children remembering their former lives but some also remembering the dying process and/or being in the bardo. Lama Alan also points us to the research of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross who documented many near-death experiences. Science developed through superseding theories, based on finer and finer technology, but did not lead to a coherent scientific view, but to a diversity of views. Lama Alan raises the question if this might point towards the absence of a real world “out there”, but rather to a world that is co-created by the observer? Fundamentalistic beliefs, whether in science or in religion, block progress in the evolution of insight. Then we return to the text, which elaborates in great detail on generating a wrathful mandala, as one possibility to transmute the dying process into a process of purification, where our true enemies, the mental afflictions, are subjugated ruthlessly. To authentically engage in this practice, one has to train effectively in the three samadhis, otherwise, it will lead nowhere. Lama Alan continues the reading transmission and invites us to visualize the long and detailed description of the mandala and the deity at the center. Various seed syllables are emanating different colors and a terrifying environment is visualized, containing an ocean of blood, a mountain of skeletons, a volcano, roaring fires, and a horrific palace, where blood drips from the walls; the environment resounds from hailstorms and wrathful mantras that sound like thunder. The deity, Heruka, is a wrathful being with three faces and six arms, holding skullcups full of blood, emanating flames and wrath. Guardians, “with their minds unmoved from the peaceful state of ultimate reality” display their wrathful acts, thereby killing and “devouring as their food the warm flesh and blood of the malevolent enemies of the doctrine.” The entire generation of this mandala serves as a template for wrathful mandalas, just as it was with the peaceful form. It is very important to keep in mind that all these ferocious displays are representations of enlightened energy, imputed upon pristine awareness for the sole purpose of subduing one’s mental afflictions. This can be a powerful method for people who are prone to anger and rage because the wrathful power rooted in the Dharmakaya vastly overpowers the hatred and malevolence that stems from ignorance. It is a skillful means when mental afflictions cannot be overcome by peaceful, enriching, or powerful methods. Lama Alan explains that while not all of us might choose to engage in this practice, it is still a teaching for all of us because it is very likely that the propensities for violence, cruelty, and hatred are stored in our mental continuum from our countless past lives. It is also very important to keep in mind that Buddhism never ever encourages violence against sentient beings. All wrath is directed towards our true enemies, our own mental afflictions. Lama Alan concludes by calling to our minds the different choices that we have been introduced to: Dzogchen is the straight path to reveal one’s own pristine awareness and to rest in it. We may enrich this unelaborated approach through stage of generation practices, thereby generating divine pride to overcome delusion, generating a peaceful mandala to overcome craving, or generating a wrathful mandala to overcome hatred.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 03 May 2021, Online-only
First arousing bodhicitta, the view of emptiness, and the view of the Great Perfection, alternately release your awareness into space with no object and then invert it into the mind with no subject. Finally, rest without activity in awareness beyond subject and object.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 20 May 2021, Online-only
While resting in the stillness of awareness, mindfully note the presence, absence, conditions for their occurrence, the means to remove them, and the prevention of their occurrence in the future of each of the five obscurations.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 15 Apr 2021, Online-only
Resting in Awareness, Nonconceptually Investigate the One “in Here”
2023 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 4, 25 May 2023, Crestone, Colorado and Online
We commence session 71 with some ‘house cleaning’, firstly with humorous discussion in relation to ‘sweetbread’ and then moving on to a correction in the text on pageg 266, “….and you are aware of the thoughts of attachment and hostility in the minds of others”, Lama previously saying “and attachment” rather than “of attachment”. Returning to the text, page 267 (00.05.47), Lama-la reminds us that it is widely acknowledged in the Indo-Tibetan tradition that the bardo of becoming lasts for a maximum of seven weeks; he reads, “After each period of seven days has passed, the appearances of the prior conditions for your death arise, so that you experience immense suffering.”. What comes next in the text is what generically occurs in the bardo, symbolic imagery being used in accordance with the four elements and the three poisons. At 00.11.00 Lama brings us back to the rigorous research done at University of Virginia regarding children recalling past lives as humans. Lama-la offers his sense that these are children with human brains/memories/senses and so if they had memories coming from another species it wouldn’t compute as the memories are not able to be brought into the human psyche. Lamas/yogis however, have expanded the bandwidth of awareness, encompassing the substrate consciousness with all the seeds there, viewing from a deeper perspective. At 00.15.30 the text reads, “In terms of your stream of consciousness, for rebirth ….”. Lama highlights the importance of the sentence, “Respectively, each of those objects appear to you to be beautiful and attractive, and you feel an irresistible attraction to them.” explaining, as you move through the bardo, you are moving in accordance to your desires, not due to fate or destiny etc, rather it is because you want to go there. By becoming acquainted with these occurrences in the bardo, rather than reifying everything, we may recognise the signs for rebirth thus becoming lucid as in a dream; the more lucid you are the greater freedom. This is the primary reason for practicing dream yoga in Indo-Tibetan buddhism. Instructions for prospective memory when falling asleep are given. Lama-la emphasizes that, as in a lucid dream, nothing in the bardo is objectively real, everything is malleable to what you bring to mind. Lama recalls Yangchen Rinpoche’s account of Longchenpa’ s guide of Mount Meru, recognizing descriptions can be perspectival. With the sentence, “At this time, if you block the entrance to the womb and bring to mind the preceding crucial points, you may still achieve liberation.” Lama-la again highlights, at any point in a dream become lucid, don’t reify, therefore don’t crave. At 00.30.26 Lama tells us of his astrologer friend’s prediction of a solar eclipse in ‘72/’73. At 00.33.00 the text reads, “Alternatively, if you do choose the entrance of a womb…..” leading to an interesting story from Ian Stevenson of a child recalling having been in the bardo with an urge to be born again, an account outside of the buddhist context yet the same. The text again emphasises the point of lucidity: “To practice the instructions for purifying the intermediate period at this time, now, earnestly consider and let this arise before your mind: ‘Alas! I have died.“ Lama stresses this is exactly like ’I am dreaming, I know I am dreaming’; you are lucid in the bardo. All appearances until now, in this human existence, have been arising due to the power of karma and klesha. Now is about purifying the intermediate period by the power of imagination, transforming as in the stage of generation. As Lama-la reads we are invited to visualize the buddhafield of Abhirati, taking it as the template for the other buddhafields. Lama explains, as in a lucid dream, if we can imagine it, it will manifest; it is our palate to paint; whatever we wish will become our reality; that’s what we’re attending to in a lucid bardo; that becomes our reality. With the next paragraph outlining, “If you succeed in this practice of transforming your appearances….”, Lama-la suggests these clear instructions follow the same format as those for prospective memory practice for lucid dreaming: ‘know it before you fall asleep, maintain prospective memory, recognise you're dreaming and then apply the instructions’. We then move on to visualisations of the buddhafields of Śrīmat, Sukhāvatī, Karmaprasiddhi, and our personal deity, applying the same template as with Abhirati. Lama-la states that by achieving shamatha, vipaśyanā and trekchö all visualisations of buddha families, buddha fields etc. can be skipped, skipping stage of generation entirely, going directly to tögal. From that transcendent space, without any cultural conditioning, these images of the five buddha families, with consorts and buddha fields will appear, thereby suggesting they are archetypal in the dharmadhatu sense; these appearances are coming from the ground of being, spontaneous displays of primordial consciousness, thus transcending any religion, space, time, historical context. Lama highlights paying special attention to the next paragraph as this the gist. It reads “The practice of occasionally imagining the appearances of going to and arriving at these buddhafields as if you were an arrow shot by a powerful archer establishes potencies in your mindstream that provide enormous relief in the intermediate period. Therefore, recognize the supreme importance of succeeding in the practice of these instructions and gaining stability in your mindstream with respect to this training.” All this has been a guide in the transitional stage of becoming; now we back track to the transitional phase of ultimate reality, the first week after death, the bardo of dharmata. Then on to the bardo of becoming, with the guide guiding, giving pointing out instructions from the realm of the living to the realm of the dead. The fine print being, “Unless the deceased has a little familiarity with the stages of generation and completion, it will be very difficult for this person to be helped by such introductions. If these words of introduction reach someone who is somewhat familiar with the stages of generation and completion, this person will experience the great relief of fearlessness.” Meditation begins at 00.06.53 with the reminder that ‘this is worth returning to again and again in preparation for a transition we will definitely be making’. Post meditation Lama-la tells how we will finish the bardo of becoming tomorrow, with the beautiful colophon of Dudjom Rinpoche on the final day.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 02 May 2021, Online-only
Imbuing your awareness with bodhicitta, understanding of emptiness, and the view of the Great Perfection, rest in awareness while releasing all aspirations, desires, and goals; and thus approach liberation through the door of the absence of aspiration.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 12 May 2021, Online-only
While resting in awareness, recognize when the mind is attached and unattached, hostile and unhostile, deluded and undeluded, contracted and uncontracted, and distracted and undistracted.
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, 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, 22 Apr 2021, Online-only
Taking the mind as the path, practice tonglen for every person who comes to mind
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 30 Apr 2021, Online-only
By recognizing how objects do not exist from their own side, you may their emptiness of inherent nature as a simple negation, which is ethically neutral, devoid of good or bad qualities. By recognizing the empty essential nature of awareness with the unborn luminosity of your awareness, you realize the nonduality of emptiness and luminosity, which is a complex negation. The first is the objective clear light, and the second is the subjective clear light. With this in mind, rest in awareness while releasing all “signs” in the form of thoughts, labels, symbols, and analogies; and thus approach liberation through the door of the absence of signs.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 05 May 2021, Online-only
While resting in awareness and peripherally maintaining mindfulness of breathing, observe the arising and passing of the four elements of earth, water, fire, and air within the body, noting that they are not “I” or “mine,” and are empty of “I.”
Shamatha, Vipashyana, Mahamudra, and Dzogchen, 11 Apr 2016, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Italy
This afternoon we come to the culmination of the series of discursive meditations which started with the four vision quest and the four immeasurables - bodhicitta. The definition of bodhicitta may seem religious, esoteric, abstract. Therefore, in today’s teaching Alan intends to bring it down to its roots. He begins by describing the state we often find ourselves in: we are suffering and we want it to go away. When the suffering eventually passes, there is breath of relief, but soon after a nagging thought arises: “maybe it will come back”. And so there is dissatisfaction, one is ill at ease, one knows one’s own vulnerability. Then there is pleasure - physical or mental. But again there is dissatisfaction, another nagging thought: “I’ll lose it. How can I keep it?” We cannot really be happy and at ease until we know that happiness will last. But then we want to be happier… This is primal. Because we care. His Holiness the Dalai Lama calls caring one of the primal forces. It is the definition of “sentient” as in sentient being. Humanity’s many achievements - in arts, engineering, science etc. - can be traced back to this drive. Alan then turns to the topic of science. He mentions Francis Bacon who envisioned that the natural sciences would one day alleviate suffering by understanding nature. But he of course meant hedonic happiness. For the eudaemonia, in Bacon’s times, there was religion. Nowadays, science is still considered an important tool to secure wellbeing. But when we go back to our basic wish to be free from suffering and to achieve happiness - science cannot explain it. Alan raises a number of important questions: Why do we have this aspiration? Why this lust for life? Why the will to survive? Why the drive to procreate? Why do we wish to perpetuate? Where did the desire to be happy come from? What do we need feelings for? Why do we have to be conscious? In Alan’s view science, and evolution and biology in particular, do not give adequate answers to any of these questions. They provide no satisfying explanation for human intelligence, creativity or virtue. Alan repeats the fundamental question: Why do we care? And he formulates a hypothesis, gives an answer: it is our buddha nature, the primordial consciousness. It is the only source of caring that makes sense. Of course, all sentient beings have it, but we, humans, are in a particular position having been endowed with this precious human life in which we can realise our potential and grow - from generation to generation and from lifetime to lifetime. But we are not alone - continues Alan. It is normal for human beings to care for others. Parents naturally care for their children. People care for their families, loved ones. There is a sense of kinship, a sense of identifying with a village, a religion etc. According to His Holiness the Dalai Lama there is a biological imperative to care about our close ones and our possessions. But there is a point where biology stops. There is the other side - the other people - who may pose a threat. The Dharma comes in precisely when we take this natural flow of caring and break down all the barriers until everything and everybody is on our side. This is when immeasurable loving kindness comes in. And we ought to realise that if we truly want to satisfy our desire to end suffering and achieve true happiness - the barriers must come down. Coming back to bodhicitta, Alan points out that this is what Tsongkhapa had in mind when speaking of eternal longing. To fulfil the eternal longing. This is bodhi - awakening. Since there is no duality, if I want to be free there is no sense to pursue it for myself alone. Everyone, literally everyone has to be included. To achieve freedom from suffering and true happiness for our own sake we need to realise dharmakaya. But knowing that the boundaries must be destroyed, that this caring has no limit, it extends everywhere and includes everyone - this comes at the realisation of sambhogakaya and nirmanakaya. This way, before tonight’s meditation, Alan laid out the notion of a universal, truly cosmic bodhicitta. To conclude, he recalled the advice of his teacher Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey that it is never too soon to cultivate bodhicitta. It is the only way out of samsara - adds Alan. The meditation is on bodhicitta. After the meditation Alan continues the oral transmission of the First Panchen Lama’s commentary “Lamp So Bright” to his root text on Mahamudra. Today we finish reading the part dedicated to the tantra (Vajrayana) practice of Mahamudra. Alan makes corrections to the translation and explains a few passages in more detail. In particular he comments that there is some difference of opinion as to whether ordinary sentient beings experience the clear light of death (this is the view stated in Panchen Lama’s text) or not. Alan resolves the issue by saying that in any case some degree of realisation is needed to recognise it, so even if all beings experience the clear light of death they may not be aware of it. Alan also explains the notion of “simultaneist” or “simultaneous individual”, giving the example of Bahya who after receiving the Buddha’s teachings simultaneously achieved arhatship. There have been many individuals in history who upon hearing the teachings or due to some other catalyst achieved nirvana, became vidyadharas etc. Last but not least: even though the chapter on tantra is very difficult, among the passages read today there have been some quite amusing bits, so do not miss Alan’s commentary on them! The meditation starts at 35:40 ___ Please contribute to make these, and future podcasts freely available.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 04 May 2021, Online-only
While either sitting or lying down, continue maintaining awareness of the rhythm of the respiration in the background of your awareness, while closely applying mindfulness to your body, noting whether it remains settled in its natural state—relaxed, still, and vigilant. And introspectively monitor when your mindfulness is veiled by any of the five obscurations and when it is relatively free of them.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 16 May 2021, Online-only
Distinguish between the movements of javana and the stillness of the bhavaṅga
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 13 Apr 2021, Online-only
Practice the Second Phase of Shamatha without a Sign as Taught by Padmasambhava in Natural Liberation
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.
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.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 05 Apr 2021, Online-only
Investigating the Essential Nature of Inner Demons
