2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 05 Apr 2021, Online-only
Today’s lecture is focused on demons which Lama mentions the text uses in two ways. The first usage we can easily identify with refers to our enemies, or people who threaten us in any way (examples include politicians, races, countries). The second, we are less familiar with, but exists as belief in more traditional cultures of demonic forces which influence our mind and body. Lama gives examples of the many types of Lojong that can be applied to transform our perspective on our enemies. One source of instruction is Buddhaghosa’s Masterpiece, The Path of Purification, in which a whole list of Lojong for overcoming resentments and shifting attitudes are given. In the Mahayana teachings, Lama reminds us that, the Sixth chapter on Patience in Shantideva’, Guide to The Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, addresses this issue. And, he cites several other sources of mind training for overcoming habitual resentment, anger, and viewing others as demons. However, the one presented here is the most powerful, or, even deeper is resting in awareness. Remember though in Phase 3, to be able to derive full benefit, you will have achieved samatha, have insight into the emptiness of the mind and have some taste of your own pristine awareness. Here, to deepen these realizations and to protect and sustain these insights, these teachings are offered on the actual nature of reality. They are directed at the deconstruction of demons, first people we see as demonic and secondly actual demons as more readily viewed through the eyes of traditional cultures. Lama Alan recounts how he witnessed what appeared to be His Holiness’ first encounter with the concept of self-hate or low self-esteem and a Mind and Life Seminar in 1990. While common concepts among Eurocentric civilizations, among Asian cultures, this was virtually unheard of at the time. Lama prepares us for the meditation which will be an ontological probe into the nature of demons. He will invite us to recall a time when we regarded ourselves with self-loathing and then examine the nature of this person within ourselves who is labeling us in this way. Deconstructing our fear and hatred of others must begin with deconstructing our fear and hatred of ourselves. This approach is similarly applied by His Holiness to our development of loving-kindness. To foster that development towards others, we must first develop it towards ourselves. Finally, Lama reminds us that we are “nangpa” or “insiders”, using a contemplative approach to understand the mind from the inside out. Meditation begins at 00:14:53. During the meditation, Lama Alan invites us to remember a time when we had an unworthy sense of ourself. He then systematically helps us deconstruct this reified notion of our unworthy self. Resuming his talk Lama Alan begins by pointing out there are many different kinds of Vipassana. All, however have proven to be effective methods. He reminds us that the Buddha is a great physician and Buddhism provides us with many types of medicines and meditations to realize emptiness/shunyata. He talks different approaches to Vipasyana. He mentions how many misinterpret such analyses to be advocating nihilism. But the Buddha never said we don’t exist, that the “I” doesn’t exist. What is being refuted is the self-existent self or I. This we examine in meditation with our systematic inquiry and then when we come out of meditation and have all these appearances of people, things, and states of mind, we must then ask, “How do they exist?”. They exist as dependently arising events. Once you realize that you do, in fact, exist as a dependently arising human being (dependent on causes and conditions), you can develop yourself with practice, renunciation, bodhicitta, etc. and IT WORKS! Lama Alan emphatically makes the point that we are not just espousing doctrine, but applying principles that have pragmatic value in diminishing our afflictions and reducing our non-virtuous behavior. Buddhism may not be the only way, but it is a way to have this practical effect. The method that is being applied here from the Nyingma tradition is to focus on whatever you are attending to and to examine its origin, location, and destination. We see the emptiness of existence and non-existence, starting with the mind itself in Phase 1. Now, in Phase 3, we’re applying this search for origin, location, and destination to “demons”. Whenever we are regarding anything or anyone with a mental afflictions(hostility, craving, attachment, greed, lust, envy), these are our true enemies. We reify them. This whole chapter is about deconstructing and eradicating reification. It is a form of radically empirical depth psychology. At 53:50, Lama Alan returns to the text. The text refers to demons as our terrible enemies. Our ontological analysis begins by asking ourselves, where do they first arise? Are they born from the physical elements? If you think they come from the elements, examine those substances and reduce them to smaller and smaller particles. You will find there is no origin found by such an inquiry. If you think demons don’t come from matter but reside in the consciousness itself, apply the same analysis of origin, location, and destination. Lama points out, we don’t have to achieve samatha to apply vipasyana. For the demons that we think we can see (people, institutions, political parties), we find they are nowhere to be found. In that way, we disempower the object and then disempower the fear and/or mental affliction. We free ourselves. In Tibet, however, and many other traditional cultures, people believe there are diabolical beings that are intangible in the form of demons, ghosts, spirits, etc. Western European culture had a similar set of beliefs. Lama Alan outlines the 300-year historical period in Western Europe (1450-1750) in which 40,000-100,000 people (mostly women) were tried and convicted of being demonically possessed. During that period, there was an unquestioning reification of angels, devils, spirits, saints and the like. This period peaked at 1560-1630 when the scientific revolution began with Copernicus. Scientists were trying to make sense of what goes on in nature and find order in what otherwise looked like chaos. Science came into being as the medicine to help people come to their senses. By mid-18th century, the world was making sense. Angels, devils, spirits, and gods were not composed of matter. There was still the question of what to do with the devil. Thomas Sprat in 1667 wrote a monograph declaring that Christianity had prevailed and rendered the devil impotent. Furthermore, he declared (with no further evidence) that the non-existence of spiritual entities had been proven by experiments. His rationale was that if you haven’t heard or seen one, they don’t exist. This is very flawed reasoning: it’s the common mistake of taking the absence of evidence for evidence of absence. (Recall gravity, photons, electromagnetic fields which we don’t see.) Newton, was not so satisfied with this interpretation, but redefined the spirit world and evil spirits as mental disorders. All demons would be internalized. Later psychoanalysis would deal with them in the subconscious. Thus, the human soul was removed from the domain of science. The progression was theism, to deism with an inert god, atheism and materialism. And, now, here we are.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 25 Apr 2021, Online-only
Rest in the awareness of all that you have understood
Fall 2012 Shamatha and the Four Applications of Mindfulness, 27 Aug 2012, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Meditation: focus attention on the in and out breath at the belly. With the in breath, arouse your attention. With the out breath, release any thoughts and relax.
In order to maintain attention, it is important to develop relaxation first. Otherwise, we get tired easily.
Normally, our default mode is rumination, where we become susceptible to mental afflictions. We need to develop a new default mode: continuity of attention, continuity of non-conceptual knowing. When your breath is long, notice you are breathing long, when your breath is short, notice that you are breathing short. Sustain the clarity of awareness. With this exercise, we open the doors to intuition.
Meditation starts at 6:40
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 11 May 2021, Online-only
Experientially discern the difference between stimulus-driven, mundane feelings and feelings of genuine well-being, distress, and equanimity, which are symptomatic of your current level of mental health and balance.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 16 Apr 2021, Online-only
While resting in awareness, look even deeper into your experience of your own personal identity—you—and see if you can detect a sense of a self that exists by its own characteristics, prior to and independent of any conceptual or verbal designation.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 04 May 2021, Online-only
While taking the mind as the path, introspectively follow the courses of the activities of the mind, recognizing those that are beneficial and those that are unbeneficial, as Nāgasena counsels when he defines authentic mindfulness. Note the difference between observing a mental affliction and appropriating it. Also note when there is recognition and intention, for that’s when karma is being accumulated. But recognize, too, that nonvirtues may be committed out of ignorance, which does not seem to disturb the mind, though the karmic results, for example, of breaking one’s vows and samayas are disastrous.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 27 Apr 2021, Online-only
While resting in awareness, when you view mental appearances with direct perception, unconfigured with conceptualization, they are not categorized as existent or nonexistent. When you probe into the nature of your own mind as a conceptually designated subject, examine whether it can be identified within the context of the eight extremes of conceptual elaboration.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 12 May 2021, Online-only
After dissolving all appearances and objects into emptiness, sequentially generate your own appearance as each of the five buddhas, while assuming the divine identity of each one. Then dissolve the final pure vision and divine identity into emptiness, and conclude with viewing all appearances and your own ordinary identity as empty of inherent nature.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 03 May 2021, Online-only
Practice mindfulness of breathing while noting the occurrence and absence of the five obscurations, and see for yourself whether they obscure the natural luminosity of your awareness, which is like a clear pool of water (1) mixed with various color, (20 that is boiling, (3) covered over by moss, (4) whipped by the wind, and (5) turbid and muddy.
2023 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 4, 20 May 2023, Crestone, Colorado and Online
Lama starts by adding to his answer to yesterday’s question on distilling the teachings into a daily practice. He emphasises that one will engage in the preliminary practices until one is a buddha. Starting on the firm ground of the four noble truths, the three principles aspects of the path, as well as ethics, samatha and the four applications of mindfulness (the foundation for vipashyana), the four immeasurables (the foundation for bodhicitta), and on that basis the teachings on reincarnation and karma, Lama suggests to put all these practices into the bowl of the Seven Point Mind Training (lojong) as a daily practice which is not too difficult but intelligent and transformative. On that basis we can then turn to the explicit preliminary practices for this lineage, starting with the four revolutions in outlook. For every day Lama recommends to cultivate the foundation which he likens to three basic food groups: samatha, vipashyana and the four immeasurables. Lama stresses that before practising samatha it is important to settle the body and speech in their natural states in order to cultivate sanity. This type of daily practice will ensure that we can die without regret. Returning to the Vajra Essence on p. 260 Lama comments that the following sentence is addressed to people who have been practising everything covered in the text so far (samatha, vipashyana, ascertaining rigpa, stages of generation and completion) but have not yet come to the culmination: “In doing so, if you acquire confidence by growing accustomed to pristine awareness holding its own ground, the appearances of this transitional phase will be cut off, and you will gain mastery over the magnificent, manifold displays of ultimate reality.” It is for such mature practitioners that the six transitional phases are outlined here. Lama-la refers to daytime and nighttime dream yoga as the icing on the cake for such practitioners who can support their access to pristine awareness by samatha and vipashyana, which is the meaning of “holding its own ground”. These practitioners will be able to transcend the transitional phase of dreaming (“the appearances of this transitional phase will be cut off”). Lama reiterates that the transitional phase of living is the indispensable foundation for the transitional phase of meditation which is the indispensable foundation for the transitional phase of dreaming as a launching pad for enlightenment. This in turn is the indispensable foundation for the transitional phase of dying as maintaining lucidity as one is falling asleep into the substrate is the perfect preparation for dying lucidly and thereby transforming the dying process. Moving on to the transitional phase of dying, it is “like falling into the hands of an evil assassin and it refers to the period from the time you are struck by a terminal illness until your inner breath at the heart ceases with a gasp”. There are three signs that one has entered this phase, i.e. one’s feces do not emit any vapor, one can’t see through one’s fist and the hum in one’s ears has vanished. One is then advised to apply oneself to ritual practices for the sake of accumulating merit. Lama-la then prefaces the six methods of what to do during the dying process by emphasising that it is extremely important not to do phowa practice prematurely and stressing that it is preferable to die with a clear mind so that one can guide one’s consciousness. He also reiterates that these methods are intended for practitioners who are “Olympic athletes” in all the practices outlined so far rather than for beginners. By contrast, Lama points out that we need something practical that we can all do and suggests that this is the seven-point mind training. Lama then comments on the five powers to be applied at the time of death, as outlined by Atisa in his seven-point mind training. 1. “resolve never to be separated from the two bodhicittas during the transitional phase of becoming”: this can be done by alternating the practice of tonglen (relative bodhicitta) with one’s closest approximation of ultimate bodhicitta (by resting in awareness with no grasping which can take you through the dying process). 2. “familiarization means maintaining the continuity of the practice of the two bodhicittas through life and through death”: whatever we do during our lives from going shopping to going to the bathroom, it is essential not to lose the ‘scent’ of cultivating the two bodhicittas at all times. 3. “positive seeds of constant devotion to spiritual practice”: here, Lama stresses the importance of having a broad range of spiritual practice so one is never in a situation where one cannot practice dharma but can turning one’s whole life into practice. 4. “abhorrence towards self-grasping and self-centeredness”: These are the roots of samsara so it’s crucial to be disgusted with them. 5. “prayer entails disclosing all misdeeds and taking refuge”: if there’s anything to disclose it’s important to do so and it’s never too late to do it and to burn those seeds as one dies. “making offerings and asking for blessings to sustain the two bodhicittas; and to meet spiritual mentors who can guide you on a path that leads to your continuing spiritual maturation both during the intermediate state after death, the bardo, and in future lives.”: Lama shares that he prays for this every night. In addition to these five powers Lama-la stresses that everything we need to have confidence to be born in sukhavati is contained in the one text referenced earlier, The Lotus Garland: practice that and you’re in! Integrating this with the five powers is everything we need to know to be born in sukhavati where one will become a bodhisattva. Lama-la then gives the oral transmission of the various methods to try at the time of death as stated in the Vajra Essence. For the meditation which starts at 01:05:30, we are going back to Padmasambhava’s pith instructions with Gyatrul Rinpoche’s commentary. After the meditation Lama-la shares briefly how helpful he finds reflecting on something that is true, i.e. that it's only a matter of time when we'll be in the bardo, and wondering whether when the time comes one will be able to remember the teachings from today. The aural transmission starts at 00:26:35 and covers the text on page 260 “Taking your understanding of this as the basis, train in regarding all appearances as dreams; then recognize dream appearances for what they are.“ until page 261 “This counsel will bring greater clarity to the dying process, for it is like a message sent by a king.“
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.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 17 May 2021, Online-only
First cultivate relative aspirational bodhicitta by way of the “four greats,” and then relative engaged bodhicitta with the intention to engage in stage of generation practice. Then, while viewing all phenomena as empty of inherent nature and as being appearances of your own pristine awareness, cultivate ultimate aspirational and engaged bodhicitta.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 18 May 2021, Online-only
Observe the movements of javana with and without identifying with them, and examine the consequences in your mind and behavior of “appropriated” and “unappropriated” mental processes. Then observe the impact of the observation on the observed: the nature of observer-participancy. Finally, examine the actual nature of the mind that observes, cutting through the dualities of existence and nonexistence and so on to a dimension of consciousness that is signless, boundless, and all-luminous.
THE SCIENCE OF MIND, 17 Nov 2021, Online Retreat
The Science of Mind - Day Five, Session Two, Meditation Only Padmasambhava on awareness of awareness, continued
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 25 May 2021, Online-only
Buddha: “Breathing in long, one knows ‘I breathe in long,’ breathing out long, one knows ‘I breathe out long.’ Breathing in short, one knows ‘I breathe in short,’ breathing out short, one knows ‘I breathe out short.’ One trains thus: ‘I shall breathe in experiencing the whole body,’ one trains thus: ‘I shall breathe out experiencing the whole body.’ One trains thus: ‘I shall breathe in calming the bodily formation,’ one trains thus: ‘I shall breathe out calming the bodily formation.’
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 14 Apr 2021, Online-only
While Resting in Awareness, Ask “Who do I think I am?” Are You Unchanging, Unitary, and Independent?
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.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 16 Apr 2021, Online-only
While resting in awareness, notice which mental processes have a calming and balancing effect on your mind, and examine how they arise, how they are present, and how they vanish. Observe the mind and note the factors of origination and of dissolution of the five poisons: delusion, attachment, hostility, pride and envy.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 17 May 2021, Online-only
While resting in awareness observe the stream of consciousness from which all subjective mental processes emerge, and the space of the mind from which all mental images and appearances arise. In so doing, closely apply mindfulness to the nature of arising—the factors of origination—of the mind.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 02 Apr 2021, Online-only
The Synergy between Settling the Body, Speech and Mind in their Natural States
2023 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 4, 19 Apr 2023, Crestone, Colorado and Online
- Q1: 'How can a Vidyadhara perform mundane activities without conceptual thinking? How can they perform the planning necessary to do so?’ Lama-la emphasised that, as he has not obtained Vidyadhara status, this is a question that is rather beyond him and is not quite the right time to ask it. However, the example of Drubpön Lama Karma working as a scribe for Pedgyal Lingpa's four volume Kusum Gongdü treasure cycle was cited as to how executive functions can still emerge out of stillness. It is perfectly possible to attend, understand and action an intention non-conceptually - not in a trance-like way, but through inner stillness and absolute presence. Like a well-trained orchestra playing without a conductor, we can go about our duties perfectly well without the supervision of our mental chit chat and conceptualisation. Conceptualisation is not welcome during mindfulness of breathing, but they are not obstacles during taking the mind as path regardless of their character. The analogy of the mind being neighbours across the street is used: there is no need to do anything other than observe these appearances from a distance to ensure we don’t enmesh ourselves in what comes up, but dredge the content. During sessions, we do not change what comes up, but alter our level of mindfulness when viewing this content. However, after formal sessions we just have to accept that we need to remain conceptual - there’s a time for thinking. This is not at odds with our ability to remain mindful during our daily lives, however. - Q2: How much of recognising a thought as a thought is enough without immediately delving into its referent? When is a thought a message that should be acted on, for example? Lama-la shared his own experience of handling this exact issue very recently: during meditation he observed several original ideas popping up relating to the recent controversy surrounding the Dalai Lama’s interactions with an Indian child. Lama-la instinctively thought that they, if shaped into an op-ed, could be of meaningful service once published. However, he had to make a choice of whether to get up from meditation to put these ideas to paper or to stay in sitting and hope they would remain accessible after his session. He decided to temporarily abandon meditation to write up these thoughts, freeing him to then return to meditation subsequently with a clearer mind and the contentment of a job well done. - Q3: Is Shamatha sustainable once achieved? Can you lose it? Once revealed, Shamatha is mostly sustainable. This state is able to fine-tune the whole prana system, something that - unlike the ever-shifting nature of mind - stays robust over time. All this creates the correct conditions for irreversible change. However, exceptional circumstances that affect brain functionality (drugs/ alcohol/ illness or injury) or derail practice would likely prevent the practitioner from returning to Shamatha. - Q4: When you tell us to put our awareness in space, I assume this isn’t literal? Does this space have a location? It’s vital the practitioner learns that they are not ‘inside their head’. They need to rest in awareness to do this - understanding absolutely that the expansiveness of our awareness, of our minds, is coextensive within the space of awareness itself. We need to not obsess about where we put our attention - that’s not the practice (unless you are meditating on space itself). We should instead treat placing our awareness into the space in front of us like parking and leaving our car in a shopping mall - something we don’t really turn back to and think about once the job is done. - Q5: How do I deal with the automatisms that come up via my visual perceptual faculties when I have to let go of physical space during meditation? The visual is irrelevant here and there has never been any instruction to ‘let go’ of physical space. The practitioner must instead focus on releasing their awareness into physical space. - Q6: How do I manage the chest pains that come up when I’m on intensive retreat? It helps a little when I get up from meditation, but returns as soon as I resume. The clue here is in the word ‘intense’. This nyam will not be helped by this contracted mindset. Instead, going into deep retreat should be approached as a releasing and - beyond the inevitable upheavals that do emerge - relaxing experience. Using the word ‘intense’ anchors our experience and likely the body's response to it. Instead, we should all come at this process with the intention of letting go and finding restoration out of the experience, not tension or psychological burdens. Full-time yogis don’t view their experience as intense, for example - it’s just their reality. We should take up the same view, not counting each day but enjoying our fortune at having the leisure to contemplate freely and without clamping down or putting excess pressure on the experience. We should seek to find joy in retreat, not intensity - so go into retreat like an elephant finding a cool pool of water on a hot sweltering day in India. Submerge and enjoy! - Q7: During Shamatha meditation, I often feel like there’s too much energy or tension in the body even when trying to just view these as experiences. Can you recommend any techniques to relax the body in such circumstances? Energy is always going to come up and buzz - much like the last question involved the buzz of ambition and tension. The way to release this is just to view it as a nyam and, when on the cushion, just be aware of it and don’t appropriate it, reify it or identify with it. When off the cushion then apply remedies through physical exercise including walking or yoga. - Q8: Although I understand the value of merging body, speech and mind with the guru shouldn’t this come at the end of practice when the meditator is a more settled recipient of this blessing? Our aim is always to merge body, speech and mind with Samantabhadra and this is something we should aspire to at the beginning of practice, to bless our practice, much like state of regeneration. We need to look beyond our conceptual, identified and cramped minds and instead seek out emptiness and blessing as we come to sit. It is with this sense of inspiration that gives us better proximity to pristine awareness and the sacred vantage point we need to engage in meaningful practice. While there is of course benefit to blessing the end of our practice, this is something that has less value when departing from the cushion to go about our daily lives. Instead, we should focus on dedicating merit to conclude our practice rather than calling for blessings. - Q9: It seems easier to have the vividness and luminosity when using mind as path when I don’t allow my awareness to expand in front of me. There also seems to be a trade-off between luminosity and non-locality - should I first master mindfulness of breathing? This is suggestive that the practice is not being done correctly: the room is not expanding, so awareness itself is not expanding. We have to remember that our awareness is not constrained to our physical perceptions of space; just take our ability to imagine what is beyond the confines of the walls around us. Again, mental space far exceeds the parameters of the five senses or the confines of our skulls, but is co-extensive with the space of awareness. It’s always a good idea to really ground yourself in mindfulness of breathing. Once the inner voice of the mind is silenced, that’s the perfect opportunity to take the mind as path. That said, this perceived trade-off between non-locality and luminosity doesn’t immediately make sense and Lama-la couldn’t really comment. - Q10: I notice that I have an undercurrent of reacting to thoughts during meditation and an aversion to them when then off the cushion. Can you comment on how to view these appearances as 'natural expressions of awareness’? Lama-la intuited that this person meant pristine awareness when mentioning awareness. This is absolutely true in so far that all appearances are creative emanations from this fundamental source and - whether there is natural aversion or preference - should instead be treated equally, as one taste, much like the expression ‘gifts from god’. All of us can relate to having an aversion to thoughts - we all wish that our minds would be quieter and wouldn’t get caught up obsessively in a theme or line of thinking. However, we have to remember we are not responsible for these thoughts - they just come up. As such, we have the choice to step away from this content and release everything that comes up via mindfulness of breathing. We need to gently but persistently release and release and release until the mind settles down. Eventually, once we get more adept and are proceeding down the path using mind as path, we have to take the view of letting things be and viewing thoughts that create positive affect and those that create negative affect non-preferentially - as one of the same - but don’t appropriate either type. When off the cushion we then need do our utmost to let go of aversion: aversion means that we are still caught up in the thoughts and are appropriating them and ruminating on them to our detriment. - Q11: What accounts for the qualic differences between perceptual outward-looking mind vs those that are more inward-looking or introspective? Our external worlds are constrained by physical laws (gravity/ speed of light etc.) and our internal worlds are constrained by human conscious faculties (sensory bandwidth/ conscious experience that deviates from a bat/dog etc.) but we have an ability to mentally time travel whereas in the physical domain we do not. We can abuse these impressive internal world building skills by ruminating on the past or worrying about the future - but what is the involvement of previous or early experiences in directing our tendencies in this? Likewise, how much of the world around us are we filling in by previous experience and not direct sensory input? Consciousness does not bring everything into existence (consciousness does not generate atoms, for example), but makes everything manifest. Mentation espouses appearances, not matter itself - atoms exist without an observer, but appearances do not. However, human consciousness has its own unique characteristics - for example, as Nagel points out, we will never understand what it means to experience life as a bat. However, we share a consciousness as - by his definition - this means that there is a known and lived experience to being. Appearances - both inward and outward - are indeed greatly influenced by past experience and heuristics. Conceptually, we fill in the blanks about people’s tendencies a great deal based on pre-conceived notions. - Q12: Is there a difference between volitional thought - that which we generate (e.g. the 'Mary had a little lamb’ thought experiment) - vs those that pop into our minds non-volitionally? Is the only difference that one is imbued with the appearance of ‘agency’ or identity? Absolutely - but as an additional note here, it is essential that we do not at any stage try to suppress thoughts. First of all, it’s impossible to do in practice, but second of all the practice is dedicated to watching these thoughts knock on our door and then letting them pass of their own accord. Cultivating this non-attached, unreified and unappropriated relationship with our thoughts is absolutely essential to progressing along the path. Lama-la then concluded this Q&A session by addressing the controversy surrounding the Dalai Lama. He emphasised the virtuousness that all Lamas aim to come to teaching with and the responsibility involved with these positions of supporting others’ progress along the path. A Lama should not teach if they are not acting out of their cultivated and sincere virtue. Lama-la has known His Holiness for over fifty years and is certain of his constant virtuousness. Acting from his home - essentially Little Tibet - he acted playfully, spontaneously and in a way imbued with the Tibetan customs in which he has been raised. The mother and child - and entire audience - walked away unperturbed and uplifted by his virtue. He did nothing that required apology - he only did so because people were upset by his actions and that should be the end of the matter.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 25 Apr 2021, Online-only
While resting in awareness, view your body as a body, feelings as feeling, mental processes as mental processes, and phenomena as phenomena.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 14 Apr 2021, Online-only
Rest in Awareness Illuminating the 6 Fields of Experience, Observe Your Mind “Making Sense of the World Around You"
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 18 May 2021, Online-only
With the view of emptiness and of the Great Perfection, rest in awareness in complete inactivity. Then, shifting to stage of generation practice, first call forth all your inner demons, and serve them a feast by attending to them closely. Then, once you have faced them all, arise in the wrathful form of a deity designated upon your own mirror-like primordial consciousness, and expel them from the space of your mind.
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, 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!”
THE SCIENCE OF MIND, 14 Nov 2021, Online Retreat
The Science of Mind - Day Two, Session Two, Meditation Only The Dzogchen (Great Perfection) approach to mindfulness of breathing
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 06 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. Note, too, the conceptual images and labels you project on these qualia that are in fact immaterial, for they do not exist in physical space.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 19 May 2021, Online-only
While resting in the stillness of awareness, observe the movements of your mind. When the appearances of other people come to mind, instead of viewing them merely as appearances, imagine shifting your perspective to theirs, “exchanging yourself for others,” and experiencing the movements of their minds as if they were your own. Recognize that none of these mental events have an owner, so none of them are actually yours or theirs.
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.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 09 May 2021, Online-only
After first resting your mind in its natural state, taking the mind as the path, then by way of the appearances of beings manifesting in the space of your mind, attend to individuals by way of those appearances, cultivating loving-kindness toward the loveable, compassion for those afflicted by suffering and its causes, empathetic joy for those who are fortunate and virtuous, and impartiality for friends and foes. Since you cannot cultivate these four immeasurables without encountering such beings, view them all as living-being nirmāṇakāyas manifesting from your own sugatagarbha to lead you to Awakening.
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.
The Shamatha Trilogy, 30 Apr 2022, Online from Miyo Samten Ling in Crestone, Colorado, USA
The Shamatha Trilogy - Part 2 - Taking the Mind as the Path
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 11 May 2021, Online-only
Observe the afflictive nature of attachment, hostility, and delusion in your coarse mind; trace them to their relative sources as bliss, luminosity, and nonconceptuality in your subtle mind, the substrate consciousness; and finally, cutting through the conditioned mind, trace them back to the primordial consciousness of discernment, mirror-like primordial consciousness, and the primordial consciousness of the absolute space of phenomena of your very subtle mind.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 23 Apr 2021, Online-only
Taking the Bodhisattva Vows
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 18 Apr 2021, Online-only
While resting in awareness, letting thoughts, memories, and images arise unimpededly, observe the array of people who appear as personifications of your own mental processes—all self-appearances. As you wish for your own well-being, wish for theirs.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 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, 04 May 2020, Online-only
Empathetic Joy
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 24 May 2020, Online-only
Embracing Shantideva's Guidance
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 09 Apr 2021, Online-only
Resting in Awareness, Observe the Dualistic Mind Dissolving
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 22 May 2020, Online-only
Giving Ourselves Away: Relative Bodhicitta
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 29 Apr 2021, Online-only
Resting in Awareness, Observing the Mind, Note the Presence and Absence of the Five Obscurations
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 24 May 2021, Online-only
Buddha: “Bāhiya, you should train yourself thus: In the seen let there be only the seen; in the heard, let there be only the heard, in the sensed let there be only the sensed, in the cognized let there be only the cognized. Thus, Bāhiya, you should train yourself. When, for you, Bāhiya, in the seen there is only the seen; in the heard, there is only the heard, in the sensed there is only the sensed, in the cognized there is only the cognized, then you, Bāhiya, are not [found] by way of that. When you, Bāhiya, are not [found] by way of that, then you, Bāhiya, are not over there. When you, Bāhiya, are not over there, then you, Bāhiya, are neither here nor there, nor in between the two. This is itself the ending of suffering.” [Udāna I, 10]
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 02 Apr 2021, Online-only
Settling the Mind in its Natural State
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 23 Apr 2021, Online-only
The Four Greats and Bodhicitta
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 10 May 2021, Online-only
Having settled the mind in its natural state, view all appearances and objects as empty in inherent existence, and release them all into emptiness, indivisible from the dharmakāya. Out of emptiness, view all sentient beings, all teachers, all created representations of the Buddha’s body, speech, and mind, and all material requisites as the four kinds of nirmāṇakāyas.
Shamatha, Vipashyana, Mahamudra, and Dzogchen, 19 Apr 2016, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Italy
We begin the session by returning to the practice of Taking the Mind as the Path. In the introductory comments to the meditation, Alan mentions the two-fold division of Buddha-nature (1. the naturally abiding Buddha-nature and 2. the evolving Buddha-nature). One is already present, while the other is evolving, transforming (the latter is a deliberate evolution or transformation towards enlightenment, this is the path). With this practice of taking the mind as the path, we rest in awareness, always luminous and cognisant, our closest approximation to resting in and being fully cognisant of our naturally abiding Buddha-nature. But we are observing our own mind, and we see that from month to month, from year to year, our mind is changing, is becoming saner, more gentle, compassionate thanks to diligent, continuous and intelligent practice. We can transform the mind with effort (through lojong training, lam-rim, stage of generation & completion) to make it a Buddha’s mind. And then we have the effortless approach of resting in rigpa (Dzogchen) and watching it happen by itself (stay home and watch the show, it turns out well!). The meditation is on Taking the Mind as the Path (silent, not recorded). After meditation, we go back to the astonishing statements of the Prajñāpāramitā sutra in hundred thousand verses. Is it possible to stroke the sun and the moon? Or is it just a joke? In the western, eurocentric world we have a common story coming from science (the universe started 13.8 billion years ago with the big bang etc.), but also in the US there are many people who are creationists. If we have been educated in science, basically we have been given one story, but there is also one story coming from the Abrahamic traditions (Christianity, Judaism and Islam). The creationist story is deeply rooted in metaphysical realism, and was believed without question by Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo and Newton. Darwin instead could not reconcile his Christian faith with what he discovered about evolution. It was a big schism. However, Darwin candidly said that he had no theory about the origin of life, and he acknowledged that God might have done it. Now we leap forward to Maxwell, who was also a very devout Christian. Then Einstein believed in a higher intelligence that created the entire universe, Spinoza’s God, and he spoke very respectfully of religion. Then in the same trajectory we arrive at Georges Henri Joseph Édouard Lemaître (1894 – 1966): Belgian priest, astronomer, and professor of physics at the Catholic University of Leuven, proposed the theory of the expansion of the universe, and he also proposed what became known as the Big Bang theory of the origin of the Universe, which he called his “hypothesis of the primeval atom” or the “Cosmic Egg.” Alan comments that basically all the history of science since Copernicus to Lemaître is judeo-christian science, rooted in a worldview where God started it, it was already there, it is absolutely real, and scientists are “representing” or approximating a God’s eye view. The point is that, if one is Christian or Muslim etc., God created this universe, God imbued the universe with meaning. The universe is meaningful because God made it meaningful. God is a source of eudaimonia, there is hedonia, and there is a path to salvation. But what happens if we take God out of the equation? To explain this, among others Alan quotes Stephen Hawking (1990): “The human race is just a chemical scum on a moderate-sized planet, orbiting around a very average star in the outer suburb of one among a hundred billion galaxies. We are so insignificant that I can't believe the whole universe exists for our benefit. That would be like saying that you would disappear if I closed my eyes.” However, modern science, to this day, has no answers nor a scientific testable theory to the questions about the origin of the universe, the origin of life on earth and the origin of consciousness. But scientific materialists give the public the impression that they already know that the universe originated from purely physical causes, as did life and consciousness in the universe. They don’t know this, they simply assume it and falsely claim their metaphysical beliefs to be scientific truths. This is a charade. You pretend to know something that you don’t know. We finally arrive at what Alan calls “The General Theory of Ontological Relativity”: it pertains not just to the relation between the desire realm (including the physical universe) and the form realm, but rather points to the relativity of all phenomena in relation to the methods of inquiry and the role of conceptual designation. Whether you live as an animal, a hell-being, a preta, a human or a deva, whether you live in the form or formless realms you are making measurements, and the reality that rises to you is relative to your observations. This applies everywhere, and this gives rise to the Madhyamaka constant—the emptiness of inherent existence of all phenomena—which is invariable across all cognitive frames of reference. The conclusion is that there is no one definitive description of the universe anywhere (not in Modern Science, not in Kalachakra, not in Abhidhamma, not in Dzogchen, not in Hinduism or Christianity, not in string theory or quantum theory). There is no one actually true, truly right, account of an objective universe out there, because there is no objective universe out there existing in and of itself. There is no one right story, and some stories are false - people make up stuff. Then Alan returns to Buddhism, especially Buddhist cosmology. What to do with the Buddha’s statements about Mount Meru and the four continents? Devas influencing the weather? The fact that previous Buddhas lived for thousands of years before Gautama came along? The Buddha states that what he said comes from his direct experience. If we take the perspective of metaphysical realism, we cannot have incompatible - and true - descriptions of the real objective universe. Finally Alan quotes Yangthang Rinpoche, a great Vidyādhara, who gave teachings on Mount Meru, the four continents and multiple world-systems last year. In that occasion Alan asked this great master: “Who sees this? What realisation do you need to have to see this?” Rinpoche’s response was “first dhyana.” This is what you see if you are viewing from the form realm. Different set of questions, different measurement system - different reality that rises to meet you from that different set of questions and different measurement system. In the form realm you have purely mental consciousness, but you are seeing form. In the form realm there is a sun and a moon. In the form realm you can see Mount Meru and all the four continents. The Buddha saw this from the perspective of achieving the dhyanas. He never said we can see this from an ordinary perspective. Other people can check this out by achieving the first dhyana and putting it to the test of experience. Shift your perspective, shift your system of measurement and you see a different reality. From the form realm you can reach out and touch the sun and moon. Meditation is silent and not recorded. CORRECTION in the recording: Alan said that the region of south Asia lies in the spatial region of the Southern Continent; North America corresponds to the space of the Northern Continent; Europe corresponds to the Eastern Continent, and the Pacific region to the Western continent. Instead Europe corresponds to the Western Continent, and the Pacific region to the Eastern continent. ___ Please contribute to make these, and future podcasts freely available.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 04 Apr 2021, Online-only
Resting in Awareness Observing Thoughts as if from Afar
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 07 May 2021, Online-only
First arouse relative bodhicitta by way of cultivating great loving-kindness, the, imbued with bodhicitta, settle your mind in its natural state; and finally invert your awareness in a spirit of inquiry into the actual nature of the mind that is meditating, which is ultimate bodhicitta. These are the primary preliminary practices for Vajrayāna practice.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 26 Apr 2021, Online-only
Rest in awareness and observe your body as a body, your mind as a mind, and other phenomena simply as phenomena, without imputing “I” or “mine” on any of them.
