2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 15 Apr 2021, Online-only
Lama Alan gives commentary on the text from the 2nd full paragraph on p. 81 to the 2nd full paragraph on p. 84. He says that by imagining appearances they are actualised. By focusing on them, the contributing conditions for them to appear become present. Appearances are imputed and conceptually designated and they become causally efficacious. Lama la says that in Stage 3 mostly mundane beings are designated upon and that they are the result of impure body/mind. In Stage 4 (the Stage of Generation, the crucial point) mundane beings are transformed/purified into Janasattvas (emanations/qualities of enlightenment, dharmakaya). By radically purifying appearances in this stage, the identity of an enlightened being is adopted. Lama Alan mentions that by recognising all appearances as being none other than your own appearances great mastery is achieved over the life-force of Samsara and Nirvana. All (that is external and internal) are just “fields of potential” (possibilities) with nothing already actualised prior to and independent of the acts of observation, measurement and conceptual designation. Those fields don’t inherently exist either so it is a mistake to reify them. Meditation starts at 00:16.00 and is about resting in awareness, non-conceptually investigate the one in here. Who are you? Not “who do you think you are” but “how do you experience your own identity?”
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 20 Apr 2021, Online-only
Going Deeper in the Practice of Loving-Kindness: We are All Worthy of Love
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 30 Apr 2020, Online-only
Balance of Earth and Wind
2022 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 3, 01 Apr 2022, Online from Miyo Samten Ling in Crestone, Colorado, USA
Lama Alan prepares us for the teachings on the wrathful mandala by looking back to Phase 2, where we – ideally – have reached shamatha and identified the empty nature of our own mind through the practice of vipashyana. We were then prepared to receive some pointing out instructions, just enough to get a taste of pristine awareness. Lama describes how every time we are able to rest in the clear light nature of our mind a purification happens. Only on that basis are we ready for the practice of Stage of Generation, which we begin by dissolving ourselves and our environment into emptiness by reciting 'OM SWABHABA SUDDHA SARWA DHARMA SWABHABA SUDDHO HAM' – 'All things are by nature pure, that purity am I.' Then Lama makes clear that only with the above described preparations one is mature enough to receive teachings on the wrathful mandala, which are meant to transmute – out of Great Compassion - the darkest parts of the human psyche and which entail horrific imaginary. Quoting the tertön Lerab Lingpa Lama-la describes how we may gain the priceless ability of being immune to the harm of our own mind by practicing 'taking the impure mind as the path', which will eventually lead to a disappearance of our mental afflictions. For the sustainability of this and all further developments, Lama-la teaches a refined method of settling one`s respiration in its natural rhythm using Asana's approach. The meditation is on settling one's respiration in its natural rhythm. It starts at 1:31:00. After the meditation Lama-la describes how the three root mental afflictions craving, hostility and ignorance are transmuted into facets of primordial consciouseness through the advanced practices of Stage of Generation and Cutting Through
Fall 2014 Shamatha, Vipashyana, Dream Yoga, 22 Aug 2014, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
The meditation was Mindfulness of Breathing with a literal interpretation on the theme from the Pali canon “When breathing in long one knows that one breathes in long”. Alan starts by reading from Dudjom Lingpa’s Vajra Essence, the beginning passage of the first three bardos or transitional phases. Alan stresses that in order to get the most benefit out of these teachings, we should recognize who is presenting the teachings to us. It is important that we don’t reify the teachers, but see through the lineage of teachers that passed this down to us right to Samantabhadra, who stands for our own pristine awareness. According to the Vajra Essence, we are in the transitional phases as long as we are not liberated. The essential nature of the transitional phases is pristine awareness. But since we don’t realize this, pristine awareness cristalyzes into the ethically neutral state of substrate consciousness, which itself doesn’t wander in samsara, but becomes the ground from which a sentient being within the six realms arises. Dudjom Lingpa then lays out the sequence in which the coarse mind of a sentient being manifests out of substrate consciousness. The substrate itself is of the nature of unknowing, and therefore as long as the substrate consciousness is dissolved in the substrate, like a sword being hidden in its sheath, it is in a state of only implicit awareness. Then due to the germination of karmic seeds, the substrate consciousness gets catalyzed and it becomes explicit. Then from the substrate consciousness afflicted mentation (klishta manas) arises, which is the primary root of self-grasping, the raw sense of “me” being over here and “not me” being over there. Then out of this, subtle and coarse mentation (manas) arises, with the subtle mentation being still non-conceptual, a simple differentiation of this versus that, and the coarse mentation being fully conceptual, enabling us to make sense of the world. Finally, the coarse mind (citta) arises in response to appearances. Questions: Q1: In the metaphor of the sword and the sheath, what is the sheath referring to again? Q2: Why does the Vajra Essence state that the substrate consciousness is being free throughout the three times? Meditation starts at 08:02 min
Shamatha, Vipashyana, Mahamudra, and Dzogchen, 28 Apr 2016, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Italy
Alan starts explaining that throughout times, lamas have given pointing-out instruction on the nature of the mind. With respect to this it is crucial not to conflate the different dimensions of consciousness. During the day we experience different states of mind, like sleeping, dreaming, waking, or being immersed in a conceptual or non-conceptual mind. In all these cases the common nominator of the mind is consciousness. Alan explains that the defining characteristics of the mind are luminosity and cognizance. Furthermore, it has no material attributes. It is luminous in that it manifests all modes of appearances. It is cognizant like the in the Tibetan term “rigpa”, meaning being aware of something. He distinguishes between the coarse and subtle mind. While the coarse mind is a mode of knowing, which is embedded in conceptuality, the subtle mind is non-conceptual, discerning, and imbued with the five jhana factors (single-pointedness, coarse investigation, subtle analysis, well-being and bliss). Alan presents the pointing-out instruction for the essential nature of the mind from the Vajra Essence: While the substrate consciousness illuminates appearances, it does not enter into them. It is largely free of cognitive fusion. An understanding of this is crucial for the instructions on the shamatha practices “awareness of awareness” and “settling the mind”. In “awareness of awareness” we do our best approximation of viewing awareness from the perspective of the substrate consciousness. And in “settling the mind” we try to best approximate viewing the appearances arising in the space of the mind from the perspective of substrate consciousness as well. In both cases we illuminate the objects without grasping and distraction, and without cognitively fusing with them, i.e. without entering into them. Finally, Alan comes to the Dzogchen view of the nature of the mind. Here the pointing-out instructions refer to the synonym terms: primordial consciousness, rigpa, Dharmakaya, Buddha Nature and pristine awareness. These instructions are often nonverbal and symbolic in nature, but one classic way is giving teachings that draw sharp distinctions between mind and Dharmakaya or between substrate consciousness and rigpa. In addition to these three types of the nature of the mind, there exists a fourth one: emptiness of the inherent nature of the mind or the ultimate reality of the mind. Alan then emphasizes that if it is true, that subtle continuum of consciousness is empty of inherent nature, it is a real “game changer”. This would mean that we are sentient beings, only relative to a conceptual framework - this changes the view on the entire universe. Alan summarizes that under the umbrella of the nature of the mind we have (1) the conventional nature of mind, (2) the substrate consciousness, (3) the emptiness of inherent nature of mind and (4) rigpa. He emphasizes that rigpa is not the same as “the emptiness of inherent nature of mind”, but is Dharmakaya. When we first experience the luminous and cognisant nature of the mind we realize the most superficial level of rigpa, like looking at the moon through three layers of clouds. First we peel away the layer of the human mind and arrive at the substrate consciousness. Then we get rid of grasping onto true existence and finally we release the identification with the conditioned consciousness. Thus we arrive at rigpa which is like seeing the moon with no clouds. At the end, Alan recommends to keep an ongoing flow of the cognizance and luminosity of our own awareness throughout the day. Meditation is silent and not recorded. ___ Please contribute to make these, and future podcasts freely available.
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 26 Apr 2020, Online-only
Hovering in the Immediacy of the Present Moment
Fall 2012 Shamatha and the Four Applications of Mindfulness, 17 Sep 2012, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Teaching: Alan draws parallels between settling the mind and mindfulness of breathing.
In settling the mind, in principle, being present with all mental arisings sufficient for the mind to undo its knots and heal itself. Don’t be the agent of thoughts! Sustain flow of mindfulness without distraction, without grasping. In reality, we grasp, and there are knots we cannot seem to undo on our own. In such instances, we may benefit from the counsel of spiritual friends and putting them into practice. The mind’s ability to heal itself remains the substantial cause.
In mindfulness of breathing, being present with the space of the body, truly letting the breath settle in its natural rhythm without preference, should be sufficient for the prana system to sort itself out. Don’t be the agent of the breath! We must release rumination at every out breath. In reality, we may encounter blockages which are not releasing themselves. Similarly, we may benefit from the help of spiritual friends. In the end, the body and mind have capacities to heal themselves if we get out of the way.
Meditation: mindfulness of breathing. Let the healing agent awareness illuminate the space of the body. Settle the respiration in its natural rhythm. Relax deeply with every out breath, neither retaining nor expelling the breath. Utterly release rumination with each out breath. Release all concerns about the past and future, and let the present suffice. Let awareness come to stillness. When the breath is long, know that it is long. When the breath is short, know that it is short.
In post-meditation, maintain an ongoing flow of mindfulness of breathing to keep rumination from throwing the whole system out of balance.
Meditation starts at 28:26
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 01 Apr 2021, Online-only
Settling the Body, Speech and Mind for the First Time Ever
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 23 May 2021, Online-only
While resting in awareness, identify the different specific mental processes that arise from moment to moment, recognizing which are wholesome and while are unwholesome, and realize their impermanent, unsatisfying, and selfless nature.
Fall 2012 Shamatha and the Four Applications of Mindfulness, 25 Aug 2012, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Meditation: Settling body, speech, and mind in the natural state; Bare attention; Application of mindfulness on the body
Teaching: Alan begins by distinguishing between mindfulness, bare attention, vipassana, choiceless awareness, open presence, and dzogchen.
As an entry point to vipasyana, it necessary to undo the conflation between that which is being presented and our superimposition of labels, memories, like/dislike, etc... Vipasyana is an expedition which attends to and engages with all appearances of reality without falling into old ruts. Someone suitable for the expedition possesses 3 qualities: 1) being perceptive, 2) being open-minded, and 3) putting teachings into practice.
In the Sattipathana sutta, the Buddha calls the 4 applications of mindfulness the „direct path“ to the „realization of nirvana“.
Samadhi is prerequisite for the wisdom teachings to penetrate, purify, transform, and liberate the mind. The foundation of samadhi is sila (ethics).
Meditation starts at 00:00
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 21 Apr 2021, Online-only
Buddhaghosa (Path of Purification): Stages of the meditation Focus on a person who is wretched and miserable, wishing, “If only he could be freed from this suffering and its causes!”
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 02 Apr 2020, Online-only
Settling the body, mind and speech in the natural state and shift over to Dzogchen approach to Mindfullness of Breathing.
Shamatha, Vipashyana, Mahamudra, and Dzogchen, 05 May 2016, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Italy
Alan reminds us that we are now more than five weeks in retreat and during that time he taught a variety of methods for shamatha, vipashyana and mahamudra. All the teaching he is transmitting are responses to the questions: What do you want? What is your heart’s desire? What will truly bring you happiness? These questions can initiate a dialog with our deepest dimension, our Buddha nature. From our conscious mind we may ask our heart what we truly desire. The Meditation is about loving kindness for ourselves and the four vision quest. Meditation starts at 4:45 ___ Please contribute to make these, and future podcasts freely available.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 07 Apr 2021, Online-only
Lama Alan encourages us to question what we hope and fear the most, and whether our faith in dharma is strong enough to reach ‘escape velocity’. He points out that we are all taking refuge in something; looking for happiness and wishing to be free from suffering, but where have we placed our deepest hopes and fears? He makes a strong distinction between those whose main concerns are the affairs of this life and look outside to find refuge, and those who follow a Buddhist path and look inside to place their hopes for freedom from suffering. He states that unless we have become thoroughly disillusioned with samsara and have recognised the enormity of our futures beyond this lifetime, we are not practising Buddhadharma. Lama Alan reminds us of the Four Revolutions of Outlook and the necessity for Buddhists to turn their view completely in the opposite direction to the flow and values of modern life. When following an authentic path, our real fears are towards our mental afflictions, non-virtuous deeds of body, speech and mind and fearing we might go astray and die as an ordinary being. There is no guarantee we will be reborn in a human body. He refers to four types of grasping and warns how if we cling to samsara, put our interests above others and grasp onto and reify everything, renunciation will be impossible, and we will never apprehend the true nature of reality. Before the meditation, Lama Alan comments that hope and fear drives dharma practitioners to a large extent. Outer and uncommon preliminary practices inspire us along the path and arouse strong desire before our practice. Then we release all of that. Resting in awareness and taking the impure mind as the path, we give up all hope and fear. Meditation starts at 00:34:08. Lama Alan returns to the text, commenting on how samsara is brought into being by our dualistic minds: the first moment is perceptual, mental awareness latches on, appropriates that and infuses the experience mentally with conceptualisation. This sets samsara in motion. We may then bring this dualistic grasping to our practice and reify buddhas and buddhafields, creating a false refuge. Lama Alan looks at scriptures that describes how Christians also reify the divine. If we are viewing buddhas as autonomous, we can examine this using the classic investigation of origin, location and destination. There then follows an analysis of the reification of buddhas and buddhafields, leading to the collapse of the false cave of hope. We are warned to not place our ultimate hope in a reified buddha and buddhafield, as these are not ultimate sources of refuge and therefore can cause us much damage.
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 17 Apr 2020, Online-only
Experiencing Mindfulness of Breathing with (from perspective of) Your Own Buddha Nature
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 19 Apr 2020, Online-only
How Awareness Exists
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 22 May 2020, Online-only
Experiencing the Middle Way View
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 16 Apr 2020, Online-only
Resting in Awareness, Attending to the Field of the Body
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 14 Apr 2020, Online-only
Riding the Ray of Pristine Awareness
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 08 Apr 2020, Online-only
Inquiry into What is Primary
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 22 Apr 2020, Online-only
Placement on a 5-colored Bindu at Your Heart
Fall 2012 Shamatha and the Four Applications of Mindfulness, 12 Sep 2012, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
In these practices focusing on the mind, it is useful to stabilise them with a reference point: 1) awareness resting in its own place as a subjective reference point or 2) space of the mind as an objective reference point. These practices counter the common belief that we think thoughts rather than thoughts just happen.
Meditation: mindfulness of the mind. Release into the body, and release the body. Release into the breath, and release the breath. Release into the mind, and release the mind. As Shantideva said, “Release everything in an instant. That is nirvana.” 1) Release appearances, and let your awareness fold back onto itself, hold its own ground, rest in its own space. 2) With your eyes open, let the light of awareness illuminate the space of the mind. 3) Illuminate the entire system of your awareness and the space of the mind. Know when and where javana emerge, remain, and dissolve.
Q1. In settling the mind, when I realise that I’m viewing the referent rather than the thought, I intervene with statements which redirect me to the thought. I find it helpful, but is this appropriate?
Q2. In settling the mind, why do we practice with out eyes open?
Q3. Is the space of the mind a vacuity in our heads or in our head/body?
Q4. Within the 5 obscurations, you mentioned excitation/anxiety. I feel anxiety when lucid in a dream, so are the remedies the same?
Q5. I’m not sure about the experiential difference between awareness of awareness viewing the space of the mind and just space of the mind. I find it much easier to engage with the space of the mind coming from awareness of awareness than mindfulness of breathing.
Q6. You mentioned the 5 elements and assigned elements to each of the shamatha practices. Should we take these into account when balancing the 5 elements in our daily lives and our practice?
Q7. In nature of mind practice, how do we remedy laxity and excitation?
Meditation starts at 17:05
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, 30 Apr 2021, Online-only
With a primary emphasis on sustaining continuous mindfulness of the respiration, monitor as needed, the occurrence of any of the five obscurations. When they are relatively absent, relax; when they are present, arouse your awareness, watching them vanish of their own accord.
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 04 May 2020, Online-only
Smoothing the Voyage of "Taking the Mind as the Path"
Fall 2012 Shamatha and the Four Applications of Mindfulness, 31 Aug 2012, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Teaching: Alan gives a brief teaching on Dromtönpa’s quote „Give up all attachment to this life, and let your mind become dharma.“ In shamatha practice, releasing excitation corresponds to giving up attachment, and resting in awareness, 5 antidotes naturally arise to counter the 5 obscurations to the substrate and rigpa: 1) sukkha vs. malice/ill-will, 2) single-pointed attention vs. desire/attachment/fixation, 3) coarse investigation vs. laxity/dullness, 4) bliss vs. excitation/anxiety, and 5) precise analysis vs. afflictive uncertainty.
Meditation: mindfulness of breathing method of your choice. If there is tension, you may want to practice full-body awareness. If there is rumination, you may want to practice mindfulness of breathing at the abdomen. If the mind is loose and calm, you may want to practice mindfulness of breathing at the nostrils. For any of the practices, use staccato counting if helpful. As always, monitor the flow of mindfulness with introspection and apply antidotes to laxity and excitation.
Meditation starts at 12:53
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 21 Apr 2021, Online-only
From Buddhaghosa’s Path of Purification Meditate on the effects of hatred and of patience. Begin with: “May I remain free of animosity, affliction, and anxiety, and live happily” and extend this aspiration to all others.
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 11 May 2020, Online-only
Dzogchen View: Guidance from Yangthang Rinpoche
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 22 Apr 2020, Online-only
Meditation: Placing the Sentry of Mindfulness at the Nostrils Meditation begins at: 30 minutes
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 01 May 2020, Online-only
Resting Unwavering in Stillness of Awareness
Fall 2012 Shamatha and the Four Applications of Mindfulness, 16 Oct 2012, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Meditation: Settling the mind preceded by settling body, speech, and mind.
1) settling body, speech, and mind. Let your awareness come to rest in its own place. There may be knowing of knowing. Let your unmoving awareness illuminate the space of the body and the objective/subjective experiences. Observe them like an out-of-body experience.
2) settling the mind. Let your eyes be open, gaze vacant. Direct mindfulness single-pointedly to the space of the mind and its contents. Begin with mental images and discursive thoughts. Awareness in stillness illuminates the movements of the mind without distraction, without grasping. Monitor with introspection. If distracted, relax, release, and return. If spaced out, refresh, refocus, and retain. Let mindfulness include subjective impulses like feelings and desires. Take special note of the intervals between thoughts. Can the space of the mind be ascertained? The space where appearances of the mind arise from, remain, and dissolve into. With the mentally perceived, let there be just the mentally perceived.
Teaching: Alan speaks about how to make the teachings on emptiness practical. These teachings are designed to cut the root of mental afflictions by critiquing our views of reality. According to the Prasangika Madhyamaka, all the phenomena we experience arise in dependence on conceptual designations. We can see this process happening in our experience. Mindfulness of breathing cleans the lab. In settling the mind, awareness stops being jerked around, and with discernment, comes to view mental events as mere empty appearances in both meditation and post-meditation. You come to non-conceptual certainty that nothing in your mind can harm you, whether or not thoughts have ceased. Upon achieving shamatha, the power of samadhi flows right into sleep. The dream yoga practice of emanation and transformation strengthens the conviction that there is nothing here from its own side, just a world of possibility waiting to be designated. Sentient beings reify everything they experience. In practicing the 4 applications, ask yourself, “Do I reify anything?” When you experience craving or hostility (arising from delusion rooted in reification), identify the referent and probe its existence.
Meditation starts at: 1:00
Fall 2012 Shamatha and the Four Applications of Mindfulness, 04 Oct 2012, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
In the Mahayana, equanimity is a sense of evenness or equality between self and other. In order to practice guru yoga where there is non-duality between your own mind and the guru’s mind, pure vision for both self and guru is needed.
Meditation. Equanimity from verses 90-119 in Ch. 8 of the Bodhicaryavatara. Since everyone experiences suffering and happiness, I must protect others from suffering just as I protect myself. My suffering does not affect another, and another’s suffering does not affect me. Just as my suffering is difficult for me due to clinging, so is another’s suffering for him/her. Suffering has no owner. All suffering is equally ahorrent. Therefore, I must eliminate suffering in myself and others just because it’s suffering. But how about the suffering associated with compassion? Compared to the suffering in the world, this suffering is small and must be endured for one’s own and others’ sake through habituation.
Meditation starts at 5:13
Shamatha, Vipashyana, Mahamudra, and Dzogchen, 11 May 2016, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Italy
Alan continues the meditative contemplation of compassion that we may be free of suffering and its causes by describing the aspiration as simple, yet deep and subtle. This is because there are three types of suffering that become deeper and subtler the more we investigate. Firstly, blatant suffering of pain, misery, unhappiness and so on; secondly, suffering of change in that we do not understand that our attachments to people and objects or ways to be happy etc., will change as they are not permanent; and the deepest suffering of the pervasive and basic existential vulnerability to the causes of suffering. Alan says that for our practice of compassion to be wise and effective, then we need to go deep so that we may be free of ALL suffering. The Buddha’s first noble truth is to know the reality of all types of suffering, not just blatant suffering. The second noble truth is to know the reality of the sources of suffering arising from karma and kleshas. The root of the karma is the delusion of mental afflictions themselves which are rooted in hatred, attachment and delusion. Alan says in his experience there is nothing enjoyable about anger, hatred etc. As the Buddha said when the mind is overcome by ill-will, then you are sick, as it is not conducive to your or anyone else’s well-being. The suffering generated by hatred appears more blatant than that generated by the pleasure we experience in craving or attachment. This is more subtle in that if we investigate closely there is always an element of anxiety about change. Underlying this is the pervasive existential uneasiness or restlessness as stressed in the Pali canon or from the viewpoint of the prajnaparamita approach, constant reification. This is the ground state of all mental afflictions and the root of all types of suffering. Gyatrul Rinpoche stresses that for our practice to get off the ground we need to deeply reflect on the four thoughts that turn the mind, namely: the preciousness of human life; impermanence and mortality; the nature of all suffering; and the nature of karma and its consequences. This generates the view that there is no way to be free of suffering and its causes apart from Dharma. Similar to Christian spiritual practices concerning suffering, it is very much a matter of taking suffering onto the path, rather than avoiding, ignoring or anesthetizing it. We each have to understand suffering at all levels in order to develop empathy and to have deep compassion. Similarly we have to understand our mental afflictions as part of taking the path. The meditation is on compassion - taking suffering and mental afflictions onto the path. Following meditation practice, Alan says it is not easy to deal with our reification of objects as we have to investigate how we apprehend an object in the course of the day. However there is a testable assertion that whenever a mental affliction arises it is always rooted in reification. Meditation starts at 27:47 ___ Please contribute to make these, and future podcasts freely available.
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 15 Apr 2020, Online-only
Lama talks about the presentations of Madhyamika, which first identify that which will be refuted. And they say that if I, you or anything else, were independently existent, that "self" would be unchanging and autonomous. They are pointing to this experience we have as an immutable, autonomous sovereign. And the way experience ourselves as an inherently existent "self" is connate. So the meditation is an invitation to look within, to see if one has a sense of being an agent, being really here, existent from ones own side. A sense of being the same person through course of one's life, as well as day to day. That sense of being the same "you". Through vipashyana, we are trying to identifying that which is to be refuted: that which you feel exists, but doesn't.
Meditation: Vipashyana probing into the sense of "I am an inherently existing self".
Text continues with the section on "Mind as Baseless and Rootless", emphasizing the need for using inquiry and analysis to probe into the location of mind.
Shamatha, Vipashyana, Mahamudra, and Dzogchen, 20 Apr 2016, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Italy
Following up his commentary in the last few days on the description of mastering the dhyanas and the resultant siddhis, Alan says that in all traditions there is no specific “meditation manual” on achieving the dhyana levels except in the academic literature. Alan explains however that each tradition have their own practice and developmental methods e.g. lam-rim, stage of generation and completion, six yogas etc. However, all traditions agree that access to the first dhyana (shamatha) is sufficient to be able to venture into all other practices with full effectiveness in reaching the path, proceeding along and completing the path. Following the gradual path of sutrayana (without Vajrayana), you will need to achieve all the dhyanas and it will take from three to seven aeons to achieve enlightenment. All schools and sub-schools of Tibetan Buddhism use the sutrayana as a launching pad into Vajrayana practice. All the siddhis mentioned in the dhyanas arise during the Vajrayana stage of generation and completion by-the-by. The practices for realizing emptiness, for guru-yoga, for visualisations and mantras can be viewed as high-tech meditation. What are the benefits of achieving the access to the first dhyana (shamatha)? The five obscurations become dormant and the five dhyana factors are at one’s fingertips. At a subtler level there is a fundamental energy shift in the whole body and a corresponding fine-tuning of the mind which becomes pliant, malleable, supple and ready to engage in more advanced practices (bodhicitta, emptiness, tong-len, etc.). This is the big deal of shamatha. In achieving shamatha, Alan warns us that there is going to be an enormous temptation to get stuck in the experiences of bliss, luminosity and non-conceptuality. If one stops there, thinking these qualities are “as close to nirvana as I care about”, the great masters, including the Buddha, state that one has not moved one hair’s breadth towards the path to enlightenment. Alan says that we have to start being prepared now about this, by developing the skill of maintaining the stillness of our awareness in the midst of these spikes of effective practice (bliss, luminosity, non-conceptuality). When spikes come up, be at ease, loose, totally present with no preference. If you can’t do this for the small spikes that come in stage 1 to 4 of shamatha, then you’ll be sucked in when you will be up there in shamatha. Maintain the stillness, free of grasping, in the midst of the motions of bliss, luminosity and non-conceptuality. We need to break the habit of grasping to both pleasant (bliss, etc.) and unpleasant nyams (sadness, fear, depression, low self-esteem, etc.). It is ever so easy to fuse with the unpleasant nyam (I’m such a loser…, everyone else is doing well except me) and to identify with the pleasant nyam. We need this skill to keep on moving and reach the authentic path. Alan answers a question about this meditation practice concerning what to do with non-virtuous thoughts. Do you apply any antidote? Alan’s response covers cognitive fusion, stillness of awareness, other practices (four applications of mindfulness, four immeasurables, lam-rim, lojong) and faith in the inner capacity of one’s own mind. Meditation is silent (not recorded). ___ Please contribute to make these, and future podcasts freely available.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 11 Apr 2021, Online-only
Resting in Awareness, Closely Examine the Space from which All Appearances Emerge, Abide and Dissolve
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 02 May 2021, Online-only
With a primary emphasis on sustaining continuous mindfulness of the respiration, monitor the occurrence of any of the five dhyana factors of single-pointed attention, well-being, coarse examination, joy, and precise investigation. Observe how they counteract hedonism, malevolence, laxity & dullness, excitation & anxiety, and afflictive uncertainty, respectively.
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 13 Apr 2020, Online-only
Awareness of Mental Afflictions and Tonglen
Fall 2012 Shamatha and the Four Applications of Mindfulness, 16 Oct 2012, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Teaching: Alan presents the conclusion from Karma Chagme’s Union of Mahamudra and Dzogchen. Emanation of Padmasambhava’s speech, Atisha addressed how to combine all the teachings of the 3 yanas into one practice. The fivefold practices are: 1) bodhicitta as motivation, 2) meditation on one’s own body as the deity, 3) meditation on one’s spiritual mentor as the deity, 4) view of non-conceptuality (insight into emptiness and rigpa), 5) dedication. Alan also introduces the 4 reliances: Rely not on the person but on the dharma. Rely not on words but on the meaning. Rely not on the provisional meaning but on the definitive meaning. Rely not on conditioned consciousness but on primordial consciousness. Both coarse mind and subtle mind (substrate consciousness) are conditioned consciousness.
Meditation. Fivefold practice with shamatha, vipasyana, and vajrayana. Attend closely to sentient beings who all wish to be free from suffering. Arouse bodhicitta to be achieve awakening for the sake of sentient beings. Practice mindfulness of breathing to clean the space of awareness. Let your awareness illuminate the space of the body and tactile sensations therein. Monitor the space of the mind. Include the flow of knowing already present: awareness of being aware. Probe into the nature/referent of awareness, and know emptiness. Imagine personification of primordial consciousness Samantabhadra before you. Take refuge in the ultimate source of refuge. Samantabhadra comes to your crown, dissolves into light, flows down your central channel, and reforms at the heart. With every in breath, light of all the buddhas flow in from all directions. With every out breath, light flows out serving the needs of sentient beings, guiding each one to freedom. Dedicate the practice with your most meaningful aspiration.
Q1. How can we keep motivation for practice fresh and unwavering?
Q2. What advice for people who want to do retreat?
Q3. In mindfulness of breathing, sometimes I’m very aware that mind is right there. If I go into mind, it slows rumination. I’m not sure this is OK. Please explain the image of the air mattress.
Q4. In settling the mind, sometimes everything is very vivid like I’m in right in the thick of things. Does this mean grasping?
Meditation starts at: 35:30
Outer preliminaries for Dzogchen from Lama Alan, 13 Apr 2020, Online - Originally part of 2020 8-week retreat
13 Apr 2020 Awareness of Mental Afflictions and Tonglen
Shamatha, Vipashyana, Mahamudra, and Dzogchen, 25 Apr 2016, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Italy
Alan shares with us an image that came to him this morning, originating probably from a martial arts film. In this image a trainee in martial arts is told to stand one-legged on the top of a telephone pole. And to just stay there… Our practice is much more challenging - says Alan. If your shamatha is flaky your vipashyana will be flaky, too - he warns us. But what is the foundation of shamatha? To answer this, Alan refers to Padmasambhava. Prior to practicing shamatha one should settle the body in its natural state. Then the speech - by settling the respiration in its natural rhythm. To stop the mental chatter is not so easy, but as long as there is mental activity it will prevent the respiration to settle in its natural state. It is especially important to maintain a very silent mind at the end of the out-breath to enable the in-breath to flow in effortlessly. One needs to maintain the continuity of attention without losing relaxation. Finally, one settles the mind in its natural state. And here Alan refers again to the image of a person balancing on the pole. Do not fall forward or backward, to the left or to the right - do not fall into excitation or laxity, do not grasp onto thoughts of the past or future. Stay balanced on the pole. Be “maharishi” (Sanskrit) - totally straight. The more deeply the body is relaxed and the respiration is settled in its natural rhythm, the better the mind will be able to practice shamatha. The meditation is on settling body, speech and mind in their natural states and on resting in the stillness of awareness. After the meditation Alan advises us to maintain the continuity of stillness between the sessions. If this stillness is maintained throughout the course of the day, we will be able to stay lucid and fully present, yet not caught up in whatever arises in the field of our senses and awareness. The meditation starts at 6:16 ___ Please contribute to make these, and future podcasts freely available.
2023 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 4, 17 May 2023, Crestone, Colorado and Online
Lama la started with transmitting a few missing words in the transmission from yesterday from the top of page 259 and elaborated on the section about the calves living on both milk and grass and likening it to arresting and subduing thoughts and then relaxing and letting the thoughts manifest. Lama la then explained an ever so small change in the translation from the plural “aspects” to “aspect” and explained how such a seemingly trivial change is worth lingering over. After a small review from the last two pages, Lama la reminds us first that if we “live like a pig” we will be reborn as an animal. However now we have a unique opportunity, so we should make sure to use it to live the most meaningful existence as a human being. Lama la started with the aural transmission of the text at 28:02 on the very bottom of page 259 with the chapter on the Third Transitional Phase of Dreaming. There is the “day show” and the “night show” called a dream. It’s a fallacy to think that in the daytimes we are getting things right! Lama Alan then spoke about his friendship with Stephen LaBerge and recounted a few conversations about Lucid Dreaming. He then spoke about the “I” with several examples such as the object of negation. Then he continued with the commentary on the text starting with the practices of day and nighttime dream yoga and brought forth that from the perspective of primordial consciousness our day life is a dream. Phenomena appear but do not exist.“ The meditation begins at 1:05:23 on pointing out instructions on how to clearly differentiate between primordial consciousness and the mind.
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 24 May 2020, Online-only
Lama Alan tells us we will once again have two meditation sessions, one on ultimate bodhicitta and one on relative bodhicitta. The first will draw from Atisha's instructions on ultimate bodhicitta from his 7-point mind training, and the second will return to Shantideva's instructions. Lama Alan gives a brief history and description of the 7-point mind training, explaining that it was meant for practitioners of sharp faculties who wished to truly dive into the deep end of practice. Lama Alan also returns to the relationship between emptiness and compassion by referring to HH The Dalai Lama's comments on the way in which great compassion arises spontaneously from the realization of the emptiness of one's own mind, which itself is nirvana. For it is when we realize this that we see the real possibility, the reality that all beings could in fact be free of suffering. This combines, as Lama says, an open heart, sadness for the suffering of the world, and knowledge, based in direct experience, of the fact that we actually can all be free of suffering. Lama Alan then guides us through the steps of reasoning we can use as we work through the process of deconstructing our habitual identification with our own body and mind, and reconstructing a vision of reality in which we identify with the body and mind of every sentient being, experiencing their suffering as our suffering, and their joy and liberation as our joy and liberation. From the perspective of pristine awareness, of the dharmakaya, which pervades the minds and bodies of all sentient beings, this is actually true. He compares this new relationship to other sentient beings as like a mother's relationship with her child. In this example, it is seen that the mother deeply identifies with her child's body and mind as part of her own being, experiencing the child's suffering and joy as her own. This is how the great beings experience all sentient beings. This then leads to Maha Dukkha, great suffering. But, as Lama reminds us, there is also Great Liberation, Maha Sukha, the realization of emptiness and primordial consciousness. In this, then, Maha Dukkha fuses with Maha Sukha, transcending the duality of samsara and nirvana. Meditation #1 is "Je Atisha's Ultimate Bodhicitta Lonjong" @ 15:35 In between the first and second meditation sessions, Lama Alan reads His Eminence Garchen Rinpoche's instructions on Tong-Len. Meditation #2 is "Embracing Shantideva's Guidance" @ 42: 35
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 13 Apr 2020, Online-only
Lama Alan starts introducing the next section of the text, which goes right into the inquiry about the nature of the mind, "the mind" as agent. It is interesting, Lama Alan highlights, that this investigation comes precisely after determining that among body, speech, and mind, the mind is primary.
The first questions in the text are aimed at determining the physical attributes of the mind, which seems kind of easy! But right after it goes deep into the inquiry about the ultimate nature of the mind. So, before ascertaining the ontological nature of the appearances of/to the mind, we must ascertain how these appearances manifest. Moreover, we must learn to distinguish between a concentrated mind, a distracted one, an afflicted one, etc. Lama-la draws the analogy between Galileo's telescope and our vipaśyanā as the tools to examine the phenomenon we observe, in our case, the mind.
Lama Alan emphasizes that the miss of the mind sciences which has resulted in zero progress regarding the nature of the mind, has been to ignore introspection as a tool for looking into it, which is an essential tool by which one can gain access and start asking questions through deep observations of the mind, and this is the task of contemplative traditions/sciences. The point of all this is to respond to our yearning to be free of suffering and find sustainable wellbeing, to heal the mind of its afflictions.
Meditation starts at 17:52
After meditation Lama Alan talks about the often misleading use of the term 'vipaśyanā', reduced to mindfulness,reduced to 'bare attention'; this erases completely the buddhist methods developed to look into and ascertain the nature of phenomena, which is what vipaśyanā is for.
Now we continue with the text, on the section "Establishing the Mind as Baseless and Rootless". Lama Alan equates what is defined as 'meaningful information' by John Wheeler, physicist, with the concept of 'appearances'. With statements by Feynman, Weinberg and Arkani-Hamed, all physicists, which declare that neither spacetime, nor matter, nor energy are self-existent phenomena, Lama points out that science has turned into the investigation of appearances! But of course, in modern sciences, the big question of the nature of consciousness remains a mystery. This is precisely what we set to investigate here.
First of all, what is the referent of the word 'mind', this "all-creating sovereign"? Do we have to see 'the whole' mind to affirm that we are looking at the mind? There are many different 'events' which serve as basis of designation for the mind, so these are all events that we can investigate and we would be looking at the mind, but most interesting of all is the mind as agent. That which acts. What are the attributes of this mind? If you conclude that it does not have physical attributes, then, the text warns: do not fall into the extreme of nihilism.
Lama Alan draws examples from physics: what are the substantial causes of spacetime? These causes are different from those of matter, and at the same time there is a mutual influence: spacetime tells matter how to move, matter tells spacetime how to curve. What are the substantial causes for joy and sorrow? How does mind interact with spacetime and matter? How does anything in the external world influence our state of mind? Does the external world act merely as cooperative conditions? Where do appearances come from? What are their substantial causes? And the mind that thinks the thoughts, where does it come from?
[Keywords: vipashyana and mind, basis of designation for the mind]
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 01 Apr 2021, Online-only
Settling Body, Speech and Mind More Deeply
Fall 2012 Shamatha and the Four Applications of Mindfulness, 07 Sep 2012, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Just as in physics where matter in the universe may be considered crystallization of the energy in space, tactile sensations may be the congealing of energies in the space of the body and mental events may be crystallizations of energies in the space of the mind. It’s important to know stillness and movement in field of perception as well as stillness and movement of your own awareness. Examine whether feelings of pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral are absolutely or relatively so.
Meditation: transition from full body awareness to settling the mind.
1) full body awareness. Focus on the tactile sensations arising in the body. Identify your affective baseline (neutral) and note any fluctuations of pleasant or unpleasant. Simply observe both tactile sensations and feelings moment by moment without distraction or grasping.
2) settling the mind. Let your eyes be open, with gaze resting vacantly. Turn the full force of your mindfulness to the space of the mind (thoughts and images) and the subjective experiences. As before, identify your affective baseline (neutral) and note any fluctuations of pleasant or unpleasant. With introspection, ensure that breathing continues to be effortless. Recognize when awareness is still and when awareness is carried away.
Meditation starts at: 11:40
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 18 May 2020, Online-only
Great Equanimity with Whatever Arises in the Mind
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 24 Apr 2020, Online-only
Meditation was at 10 minutes and is "Returning to Dzogchen Mindfulness of Breathing"
THE SCIENCE OF MIND, 14 Nov 2021, Online Retreat
The Science of Mind - Day Two, Session Two
