2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 02 May 2021, Online-only
Lama began with referring back to the last paragraph in Friday afternoon’s session, to include a sentence that was missing from the oral transmission – “In that case, some other wealthy benefactor who is rich in enlightened activities, a donor who fills up that empty vessel, would have to exist somewhere else.” (page 95, second new paragraph, 3rd sentence). Returning to the text, The Lake-Born Vajra continues to elaborate on emptiness, and comments, “When you know the way these things actually are and acquire confidence, appearances manifest as displays of the kāyas and facets of primordial consciousness.” Lama emphasizes the importance of this ‘acquiring confidence’, noting that it is far beyond understanding, experience and realisation. It is when the realisation has gone so deeply into your being that you won’t lose it, and a fundamental and irreversible shift has taken place in your perspective on reality. Therefore, as the Lake-Born Vajra pointed out, once you have acquired confidence regarding the way things actually are, you cut through the conditioned mind and you are viewing the way things actually are from the perspective of pristine awareness. Resting effortlessly in that flow, you see all “…appearances manifest as displays of the kāyas and facets of primordial consciousness”. Continuing on in the text, Lama highlights how ‘space’ takes a very prominent role once again, as it did in Phase 1 and Phase 3. The Lake-Born Vajra emphasises that “Appearing objects that seem to be other than space, are not other than space”. Exploring this further, Lama refers to the views that have been posited by cutting-edge theoretical physicists that space and time are not objectively out there. In reflecting that while we can conclude from this view that space doesn’t exist from its own side, and therefore is empty of inherent nature, he underscores that this conclusion was already drawn more than 2,000 years ago by Nagarjuna. Lama points out the congruence in views stops here, because in considering how phenomena come into existence, Madhyamaka has long emphasised the central role of the conceptually designating mind, but modern physicists still do not acknowledge any role at all for consciousness in the natural world. Despite this ongoing discrepancy, Lama shares that he is optimistic that a ‘cure is at hand’. He predicts that there will be a forthcoming third revolution in physics, and a first revolution in the mind sciences, and the two will be simultaneous. For this to occur, he suggests, there needs to be a renaissance in contemplative inquiry. The Lake-Born Vajra continues to elaborate on space, and Lama clarifies that while the space that we experience within the context of deceptive reality obscures the absolute space of phenomena, at the same time, it is not identical to that absolute space, and it is not other than it either. Lama suggests that here the Lake-Born Vajra is inviting us to shift our view of space to that of relative space and ultimate space, with the latter being completely fused with the deepest understanding of consciousness - primordial consciousness. He points out that individuals with the deepest understanding of space, see it not only as empty of inherent nature from its own side, like cutting-edge theoretical physicists, but they see it as indivisible from dharmadhatu, the ultimate ground of being, which is indivisible from pristine awareness. Lama concludes with outlining how when you begin practicing Dzogchen with the guidance of a teacher, the mind with which you first glimpse pristine awareness is still the mind of a sentient being, therefore it will probably not entail a realisation of the emptiness of the inherent nature of Rigpa. Whether you are a person with sharp faculties, or one with dull faculties following a gradual path, it is a path of understanding, which transforms into experience, which transforms into realisation, and then when you realise Rigpa, you shift from realisation to acquired confidence, the fundamental, and irreversible shift in your perspective on reality. The meditation starts at 01:06:33, and focuses on resting in awareness while releasing all aspirations, desires, and goals, and thus approaching liberation through the door of the absence of aspiration.
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, 02 Apr 2021, Online-only
We return to meditation to further polish the practice of settling the body, speech and mind in their natural state, this time with an emphasis on settling the mind. The shavasana posture (corpse pose) is ideal for this practice as it takes no effort to sustain it. In this practice of we’re not cultivating the qualities of stillness and vigilance but through the absence of grasping and by resting effortlessly we’re unveiling the natural effortless stillness of awareness. The meditation is on settling body, speech and mind in their natural state, with an emphasis on settling the mind in its natural state, starts at 00:21:39. After the meditation we return to the text. “As not even one action is established as being real, virtuous karma comes down to nothing but the appearances of wholesome conduct.” Appearances don’t have an inherently existent referent, they’re just appearances. Within relative reality, however, how do we determine what is ethical, because actions do have consequences. An action is determined to be virtuous or non-virtuous by the recognition of its basis, i.e. what the action is about, the referent, the motivation (intention), the nature of the action itself, the attitude upon the completion, and its results. As we see our actions unfolding within this lifetime, we can see whether our actions are conducive to our own and others’ wellbeing. For this we need to have a clear understanding of the distinction between mundane pleasure (hedonia) and authentic, sublime wellbeing (eudaimonia, samyak sukha, sat sukha). Hedonia can be pursued through pleasurable stimuli including wealth, power and status. Eudaimonia comes from having a clear conscience through living a benevolent, non-violent way of life. A deeper sense of wellbeing comes from the cultivation of the mind (samadhi), authentic intention, conative intelligence, attention, cognitive intelligence, emotional intelligence. The pinnacle is the cultivation of wisdom, knowing reality as it is. The actions that are conducive to cultivating our own and others’ genuine wellbeing, rooted in ethics, mental balance and wisdom are virtuous. This is radically empirical and dogma-free. As you observe the consequences of your actions you can see whether they turned out well. This is in line with the definition of mindfulness in the Milindapañha (37-38), as explained by Nagasena, which enables us to discriminate between beneficial and non-beneficial tendencies by way of their consequences. In the context of emptiness, in the absolute space of phenomena, dharmadatu, there is nothing real but the appearances of wholesome deeds and their consequences continue to manifest. When you’re in pain there is no inherently existent pain but there is the experience of pain, and if you care about that you need to be interested in the appearances of virtuous deeds and cultivate them. For as long as we prefer happiness over unhappiness, pleasure over pain, we need to be interested and vigilant in terms of our actions and their consequences. Faculty of Appearances asks whether there is no benefit of virtuous deeds to the mind. The Lake-Born Vajra replied that the context of this conversation is still within the context of the absolute space of phenomena (emptiness) and asks where in the mind they may be of benefit (inside, outside, front, back, etc)? If neither that which benefits, not that which is benefited is determined to be real there certainly is no benefit. This can be applied equally to negative actions and their consequences. Lama-la gives the analogy of a cell phone to explain that the image sent from one phone to another is neither in the electromagnetic wave, nor in either of the two cell phones. Similarly, the imprints of virtuous and non-virtuous deeds are not to be found in the subtle continuum of mental consciousness yet the actions do have consequences from one lifetime to another. So, it behoves us to cultivate ethical intelligence. To conclude, Lama-la invites us to dedicate the merit of this session.
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 03 May 2020, Online-only
Lama Alan returns in this session to the six primary mental afflictions, turning now to the mental affliction of ignorance-delusion. As an introduction to the new affliction, Lama Alan explains that we are working through the six mental afflictions, the five obscurations, and the four immeasurables in an interrelated way. That is, as we looked at the first obscuration of hedonic fixation, which is directly related to the first mental affliction of craving-attachment, we saw that loving-kindness imbued with conative intelligence (intelligence that actually understands the true causes of happiness) serves as a remedy. Further, we saw that for ill-will, compassion imbued with an understanding of the causes of mental afflictions can serve as a remedy. Now, in this session, Lama Alan turns to the mental affliction of ignorance-delusion (avidya-moha), explaining that when we see that all other mental afflictions come from ignorance-delusion, and that all "contemptible behavior" comes from mental afflictions, then the only reality-based response to "contemptible behavior" or any other behavior rooted in ignorance-delusion is not contempt or aversion, but compassion. The meditation on "Compassion for Our Ignorance and Delusion" begins at 37:47.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 09 Apr 2021, Online-only
Lama Alan starts by addressing some omissions in the oral transmission from the previous day. He specifies that Manjushri, Avalokitesvara, Vajrapani etc are personifications of the qualities of great wisdom which is non-dual from pristine awareness. Great wisdom is not a person, not a deity, but using it as a basis of designation, as appearances arise from it, it is suitable to conceptually designate the 3 personifications of the 3 fundamental qualities of a buddha’s mind: wisdom, compassion, power. Lama-la introduces the practice of Taking the Mind as the Path; he emphasises that we don’t try to stop thoughts from arising or inhibit mental afflictions but cultivate complete impartiality. According to Lerab Lingpa, this practice is the foundation of all the subsequent samadhis of all the practices of the stage of generation and completion. In The Heart Essence of Vimalamitra it’s also presented as the foundation for the cutting through and crossing over of Dzogchen. In this practice we cultivate the ability to be aware of our thoughts without thinking them, resting in the stillness of awareness. This practice is invaluable for maintaining mental balance as it helps us become aware of the spark of the emotion before it manifests in behaviour, including mental action. Lama Alan defines free will as the freedom to make wise choices that are conducive to our own and others’ wellbeing. He quotes from Yangthang Rinpoche’s root text (View, Meditation, and Conduct) where he states in the context of this practice: “If you wish to look into the mirror of the actual nature of your mind, do not look outward. Rather, look inward.” Lama Alan adds that when we look outward we almost always reify. Lama introduces the term cognitive intelligence for the ability to recognise what reality is dishing up from moment to moment without projections or conceptual blockages. This is the foundation for developing emotional intelligence, enabling us to see emotions arising and recognising whether they’re constructive, neutral or destructive. Meditation starts at 00:37:00: Taking the Mind as the Path in which thoughts are not blocked, but one does not think them. Lama Alan returns to the text (“As for the pristine awareness that is present as the ground” p. 64), commenting that the preceding paragraph covers samatha where one settles in substrate consciousness, not activating one’s human body, speech or mind. On the basis of recognising all phenomena as dream-like we proceed to something that is not obvious to everyone who’s realised emptiness: not only are phenomena empty of inherent nature but they’re our own appearances, creative expressions of pristine awareness. This is an added insight. Lama Alan states that in these two paragraphs we have samatha, vipasyana and cutting through to pristine awareness. After explaining the etymologies of the Three Jewels, Lama, yidam and dakini Lama ends by saying that the objects of refuge are all displays of our own pristine awareness and the highest way to express our devotion to them is by resting in pristine awareness.
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 07 May 2020, Online-only
Lama Alan comments that we will be crossing the threshold form the Shamata practice of observing whatever arises within the space of the mind, by highlighting our awareness to the domain in which these mental events are taking place and posing some questions about its characteristics. Meditation starts at 20:15. Form Shamata to Vipassana on the space of the mind. First, settling body, speech and mind and cultivating a deeper sense of calm and relaxation with mindfulness of breathing. Then taking the mind as the path for a few minutes and inquiring into the characteristics that can be perceived about the space of the mind. Returning to the text, commenting on the great struggles one will undergo when seeking the path due to the purification that happens when traversing the path. Afflictive mentation is being purified, so the road will not be easy, rough experiences will happen. Then Lama Alan expounds on the answer to the question posed in the text: Are thoughts something to be cleared away or not? Ends by elaborating on the Four Yogas.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 02 May 2021, Online-only
Imbuing your awareness with bodhicitta, understanding of emptiness, and the view of the Great Perfection, rest in awareness while releasing all aspirations, desires, and goals; and thus approach liberation through the door of the absence of aspiration.
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 17 May 2020, Online-only
Lama Alan begins by introducing the meditation practice as an approximation of resting in the substrate consciousness, simply awareness of awareness, and observing how the various levels of the mind bring our perceived reality into being through the various steps from avidya (the substrate), "I-sense" (klishta manas), to the reification of appearances as "other," and so on. In this way, we can approximate the process as actually witnessed by yogis like Lama Karma who can go in and out of samadhi, and also fall asleep into dreamless sleep and dream state lucidly and observe the way the mind constructs our perceived reality. In this meditation, we observe the connate "I sense" and see if we can spot delusions sprouting up and beginning to reify things. "The Murmuring Glowering Sense of Me" meditation begins at 24:27. After the meditation Lama Alan returns to the text, reminding us of the key point that the "I" is not equivalent to the basis of designation for it, and is also not equivalent to its parts or the collection of its parts. Next, the Lake-Born Vajra turns to an analysis of the emptiness of others parts of the body, beginning with the nose. From the body parts, the text turns to persons, and then to various objects, followed by the elements, and then even to the names of objects themselves, as well as the various nominal descriptions of the nature of reality such as like an "illusion." Lama Alan emphasizes that with each of these examples, they each stand for all other realities like them, such that if we realize the emptiness of a house, we can also realize the emptiness of all other phenomena like a house, and so on. Lama Alan relates the presentation of emptiness in the text to the developments in science from the time of Democritus up to the current discoveries of Quantum Cosmology. He then cites Nagarjuna and Tsonkhapa on the nature of emptiness as it pertains to the emptiness of even names. Finally, he mentions that HH The Dalai Lama spoke to the connection between Madhyamika and Quantum Physics many times in his recent talks. One question raised is whether the insights made in Quantum Physics, which are arrived at from an external and conceptual perspective, have the same purifying effect on the mind as the contemplative Madhyamika investigation of reality. Lama Alan sees this as an amazing time in history when all of these various streams of knowledge are coming together to create what might be a revolution in the way we understand reality.
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 30 Apr 2020, Online-only
Tong Len
Shamatha, Vipashyana, Mahamudra, and Dzogchen, 21 Apr 2016, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Italy
Alan explains that phenomena that arise to the mind can be affirmations or negations. The negations can be further divided into simple and complex negations. In the discourse of the Arhat Nagasena with the king, the discussion leads to the conclusion that a chariot is not to be found as an inherently existent object. This is an example of a simple negation. A treeless plane is an example of a complex negation: trees are negated but a plane is confirmed. Alan emphasizes that the object of the practice “Taking the Mind as the Path” is the space of the mind and everything that arises in it. This meditation instruction has to be very clear. Alan gives instructions for the meditations which was silent. During the session he wants us to closely apply attention to the interval between thoughts. Eventually he wants us to answer the question: Is the space of the mind a sheer absence of appearances? Or is the space of the mind something that has characteristics? What do you see? The Meditation is on “Taking the mind as the path” while analyzing the intervals between thoughts. A quick poll after the session revealed that no one is of the opinion that the space of the mind is a simple negation, meaning that it is a sheer absence of appearances. Everybody confirmed that it is instead a complex negation, with the space of the mind having its own attributes. When Alan asked about the attributes of this empty space, the participants were responding with simple negations only. One person mentions that it is clear, meaning having no color, no shape and no sound. Others mentioned the attributes boundlessness and unobstructedness which are still negative qualities. Alan encourages us to answer his questions quickly, directly and precisely, regardless whether it is right or wrong. The discussion then will resemble debates in Tibetan monasteries, which are fresh, light, and frisky and wake the mind up. Another attribute mentioned is potential, but here the subject, that is the observer, has a “sense of potential”. This is a quality of the observers’ discerning intelligence as he attends to the object. However, potential is not an attribute of the object but rather a conceptual imputation of the observer. Alan asks us to check out the attributes of the space of the mind again, without imputing anything on it. In the mentally perceived let there be only the mentally perceived. Then we should report what we have seen. Meditation is silent (not recorded). ___ Please contribute to make these, and future podcasts freely available.
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 24 Apr 2020, Online-only
Lama Alan starts by describing how, in the Dzogchen approach to mindfulness of breathing, not only the body heals itself, but also the mind. As we observe the rhythm of the breath, the prana system restores its equilibrium, but also the healing power of pristine awareness flows through the ray of awareness, in which we are resting in this approach. Meditation starts at 9:14. After the meditation, Lama Alan draws a parallel between responsible responses to the kleshas and to the coronavirus. Just as we must be able to distinguish the symptoms of the latter from other diseases such as the flu, so we must also be able to distinguish the kleshas from things that look like them but are not. Lama says we should be careful not to overstep, thinking that everything that disturbs the mind is to be avoided. For instance, empathy for others and fear are not necessarily afflictions. They can be neutral or constructive also. He finishes with a brief discussion of the affliction of craving-attachment. It makes us treat contaminated phenomena – that arise to us as manifestations of our own klesha and karma –mistakingly as sources of pleasure from their own side. Keywords: Dzogchen approach to mindfulness of breathing, kleshas, craving-attachment.
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 20 Apr 2020, Online-only
Lama Alan gives a short preamble on the practice of Merging Mind with Space.
Meditation starts at 2:17. Merging Mind with Space.
Lama Alan returns to the text on the section: How Individuals with Specific Faculties May Enter the Path, explaining that categories change by engaging with practice and talks about the differences on the path between persons of superior, middling, and inferior faculties.
He explains what is meant by external space on the instruction, “first merge this mind with external space”. Then he covers the other practices listed in the text: fixing attention on a visual object and visualizing a bindu at the heart (he warns this last practice can be dangerous and should be done with close guidance).
He comments on the method for individuals with superior faculties from the advice given in The Enlightened View of Samantabhadra.
Shamatha, Vipashyana, Mahamudra, and Dzogchen, 24 Apr 2016, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Italy
Alan begins the session with a brief introduction to meditation that will follow, instructing us to meditate on the Shamatha method that we find most useful, and not to be worried if the method is advanced or not. We then move to a silent meditation. After meditation, Alan concludes the commentary and the oral transmission of the text 'The Cultivation of Śamatha', by Karma Chagmé (page 23). This section explores the highest stages of Shamatha, including the Form realm and the Formless realm. Alan adds that for a long time, the Indians thought this more rarefied states were the pinnacle, the irreversible freedom. But then came Gautama Buddha and discovered that these high levels of Samadhi were not enough, you were still left in samsara. Later on Alan again warns about the perils of people thinking that they have achieved dhyana, having being told by their “teachers”, without even showing the basic signs and characteristics of each level of dhyana. Alan thinks that this is like giving false medicine and leads people to not move forward on the path. He further comments on Buddhadharma becoming global and not falling on the view of being in a degenerate era that nobody can achieve shamatha or liberation anymore. Those who think that way will naturally be poised not to move in the high stages of the path and, on the other hand, the only people who will reach the path are those who believe that it is possible. On the last ten minutes of the session, we move back to Panchen Rinpoche Text (page 19), on the serenity (shamatha) section. Alan also gives a short comment on the role of beauty in Dharma and being in a pleasant environment and finishes listing the Six Preparatory Practices and conditions that give rise to serenity (available as supplementary resource and listed below). Meditation is silent and not recorded. Note: Six Preparatory Practices
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 08 Apr 2020, Online-only
Taking the 4 Empowerments, from Natural Liberation
Fall 2012 Shamatha and the Four Applications of Mindfulness, 08 Oct 2012, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Teaching pt1. Alan continues with the series on the 4 greats with great empathetic joy. Unlike empathetic joy in the Pali canon, great empathetic joy is an aspiration. There’s a similar liturgy. 1) Why couldn’t all sentient beings never be parted from happiness free of suffering? This doesn’t refer to hedonic pleasure but eudaimonia. It also refers to freedom from all three kinds of suffering. 2) May we all never be parted from happiness free of suffering. 3) I shall do it. 4) May I receive blessings from all the enlightened ones to do so.
Meditation. Great empathetic joy. Let your awareness illuminate the space of the body and the space of the mind. The human body is imputed upon the appearances within the space of the body, and the human mind upon the appearances within the space of the mind. Yet these appearances are empty of body and mind. Imagine pristine awareness as an orb of light at your heart chakra. Withdraw all appearances into this orb, and reimagine your human form as transparent, radiant light with the nature of Avalokiteshvara. Inquire 1) Why couldn’t all sentient beings never be parted from happiness free of suffering? What would be needed to bring this about? Arouse the aspiration 2) may we all never be parted from happiness free of suffering. Arouse the intention from your pristine awareness 3) I shall do it. 4) May I receive blessings from all the enlightened ones to do so. With every in breath, blessings in the form of light come in from all directions and fill your body. With every out breath, light flows out in all directions, bringing sentient beings to happiness without suffering.
Teaching pt2. Try to achieve a smooth transition between meditation sessions and post-meditation sessions. In between sessions, act as an illusory being. This instruction helps withdraw reification of body and mind.
Meditation starts at 8:15
Shamatha, Vipashyana, Mahamudra, and Dzogchen, 16 May 2016, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Italy
The “four immeasurables” we meditated on last week are common to many Buddhist and non-Buddhist traditions. They can be cultivated while striving for individual liberation. Today, however, we cross the “continental divide” - as Alan calls it - to the “four greats”. Starting with the great compassion, Maha Karuna. It is sometimes referred to as “unbearable compassion”, as even an arya bodhisattva, overcome by compassion, can burst into tears. Especially in the 21st century, in face of so much suffering, so much inequality in the world, one may easily feel disempowered - says Alan. One may therefore wish to become rich, powerful and famous in order to be able to do something to alleviate this suffering. Hence one looks outside for greater wealth, power and prestige - and this attitude is encouraged by the prevailing materialistic worldview. So what can we do to move from immeasurable compassion to great compassion? From the wish and aspiration that all sentient beings be free from suffering and its causes to an actual pledge, a resolution to make this happen? The only way we can do it is from the perspective of rigpa, of our Buddha nature. To make this possible we need to adopt pure vision, to realise our Buddha nature. To illustrate this theme, Alan reads the famous parable of a prince who became a beggar and forgot about his royal origin (the parable is found in Karma Chagme’s “Naked Awareness”, chapter 4), followed by Karma Chagme’s commentary. “Sometimes a story is worth a thousand words of philosophy” - concludes Alan. The meditation is on the cultivation of Great Compassion Basta! If you are tired of being a sentient being, just dissolve it, shatter it, release it - says Alan after the meditation. You don’t have to wait three countless eons. There is a faster way. “There is no way to enlightenment, enlightenment is the way”. The meditation starts at 25:30 ___ Please contribute to make these, and future podcasts freely available.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 19 May 2021, Online-only
Lama Alan comes to the end of his discussion on the close application of mindfulness to the mind. He reflects on the night of the Buddha’s enlightenment and comments that of all the experiences and insights that arise due to the practice of buddhadharma, the greatest strength of the inquiry into the nature of reality is the insight into the nature of mind. He then reflects on the history and advances in modern science, which he describes as largely hedonic and gives an example of one of the advances as the ability to have this online retreat. He compares the two historic developments, dating back 2,500 years: one starting with the Buddha and the other with Pythagoras and Democritus. The first of the two lacks knowledge of technology and maths and the second lacks knowledge of deep insights into the mind. He describes these two great wisdom traditions now coming together with their strengths on both sides and sees the need of each one for the other – both needing some revitalising and a reviving of a spirit of open-minded evidence-based inquiry. He describes how this is his passionate conviction and the rationale for creating the network of centres for contemplative research; bringing everything together rooted in ethics, motivated by compassion and uniting wisdom with wisdom. He begins the culmination of his discussion of the application of mindfulness to the mind and describes how this will be probing as deeply as possible not only into the appearances of the mind and closely applying mindfulness to them but cutting through appearances to the deepest dimension of consciousness. He comments that he has already cited sources in the Pali Canon suggestive of this dimension: an unborn, unconditional dimension of consciousness. Lama Alan comments that to know who we are and what is ours, we need to penetrate to primordial consciousness He explains the four reliances. These were discussed by the Buddha shortly before his parinivana. Lama Alan discusses the refrain and how we can know each other and be at ease with each other by knowing others’ minds ‘externally’ and by ‘internally’ recognising truths that are true for ourselves as for others. We can also observe how we influence each other – ‘internally and externally’ – recognising that there is no real boundary. He explains how this can develop our understanding of others’ needs above our own and give rise to relative bodhicitta. Viewing the mind as a natural phenomenon, we can observe the mind ‘arising and passing away’. Through mindfulness of the mind in this way one is free from ‘clinging to anything in the world’. Lama Alan explains how this can lead to realisation of the emptiness of the inherent nature of mind and ultimate bodhicitta. Meditation starts at 00:36:40 and is on observing the movements of your mind, shifting perspective to “exchange yourself for others” and recognising that none of these mental events have an owner.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 14 May 2021, Online-only
By recognizing the need to take refuge in the Three Jewels, do so by arousing admiring faith, aspiring faith, and invincible faith in the Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha, ultimately taking refuge in your own pristine awareness.
Fall 2012 Shamatha and the Four Applications of Mindfulness, 02 Sep 2012, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Alan gives a brief introduction to the 4 immeasurables. Whereas shamatha and vipassana attend to reality that is already manifest, the 4 immeasurables concern the realm of possibility and aspiration.
Meditation: loving-kindness. Begin with the aspiration for yourself by asking, “What would make you truly happy?” Visualize your own awareness as a white orb at your heart chakra, and with every out breath, light fills your entire with the aspiration “May I find happiness and the causes of happiness.” Light flows outwards and repeat visualization, attending to 1) a loved one, 2) another person, and 3) all sentient beings.
Meditation starts at 4:02
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 21 May 2021, Online-only
While Resting in Awareness, Review each of the Five Aggregates as Aggregates
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, 09 Apr 2021, Online-only
Lama Alan returns to the text (“The essential nature, great primordial emptiness, is unborn primordial consciousness, the dharmakaya,” p.65) and continues elucidating the etymologies, each highlighting a nuance of pristine awareness. There is a fusion of that which was never separate in the first place, the primordial non-duality of dharmakaya and emptiness (dharmata). Lama explains the etymology of dharmakaya, sambhogakaya and nirmanakaya. Lama Alan highlights the irony of the common view of religion as escapism, whereas it’s people caught up in dualistic grasping who cannot cope with reality. The first thing the Buddha talked about is the reality of suffering. Our ultimate refuge is cutting through and seeing reality as it is, resting in pristine awareness. The Lake-born Vajra addresses the core themes of Mahayana Buddhism: taking refuge, ascertaining the actual nature of each of the objects of refuge, then on that basis turning to the cultivation of bodhicitta. Within the context of Dzogchen, the ultimate way to arouse relative bodhicitta is to ascertain ultimate bodhicitta, from which it will emerge spontaneously, effortlessly. On this swift, direct path to enlightenment, where we take the fruition as the path, Lama encourages us to let all our practice be oriented around realising our own Buddha nature, cutting through to pristine awareness, which is sustainable only with the insight into great emptiness by way of vipasyana, which is sustainable only by way of samatha, the cultivation of which is sustainable only by way of motivation, renunciation, commitment, and an authentic Vajrayana relationship with a guru. Lama Alan asks, if you can’t see your guru, whom you’ve chosen on the basis of their greater realisation than your own, with pure vision, as a Buddha, empty of inherent nature, then what chance do you have of seeing yourself as a Buddha? The great samaya (pledge) is to cut through to pristine awareness and not to fall away from it back into samsara. All vows are to protect you from falling back into the unwholesome routines. Once we’ve taken a vow, this pledge is 24/7 and it takes ethical intelligence not to break them as this constitutes a great danger and harm. Lama Alan addresses the question of when samsara started. Look no further than the present moment. Right now, as we witness appearances, in the very instant of not being aware (avidya – unawareness) of the actual nature of appearances, we see them as being over there, then we enter into the delusion of grasping them as inherently existent (moha – delusion, actively getting it wrong). Samsara is starting every single moment when we view appearances as being other and apprehending objects as being inherently real. To break that cycle we need to understand how phenomena exist (appearing but not really there) to replace avidya with vidya (knowing, but also rigpa). Then we’ll be able to see all appearances as our own appearances, empty of inherent nature, all of equal purity, uncontaminated by dualistic grasping. In terms of the practice of Taking the Mind as the Path, aren’t we viewing thoughts as being over there? This is a phase in the path until the mind dissolves into its relative ground. Until then, what keeps samsara going is appropriating our thoughts as I or mine. Every time we think a thought, get caught in the grip of an emotion or carried away by a desire we are perpetuating samsara. When we’re not identifying with these appearances nothing can harm us. This practice is skilful means. Meditation starts at 1:03:58. While resting in awareness, as if you were lucidly falling asleep, observe the dualistic mind, caught up in discursive thoughts, dissolve back into coarse mentation, that dissolves back into subtle mentation, and so on, culminating in dissolving the coarse mind in the substrate consciousness.
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 13 May 2020, Online-only
A Mother's Great Compassion for All Sentient Beings
2022 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 3, 20 Apr 2022, Online from Miyo Samten Ling in Crestone, Colorado, USA
Lama Alan begins the session by reading and discussing a refined translation of the first two sentences of the text on page 161 that he transmitted the previous day. At 00:13:15, he returns to the aural transmission on the same page with the paragraph beginning "How is it to be named?“ Expanding on the sentence "...all the many names that may exist are ascertained as names of the sugatagarbha," Lama Alan notes that the outcome on many spiritual paths, Buddhist and non-Buddhist alike, can be construed as a synonym for sugatagarbha. He notably and emphatically excludes materialism, which he brands as a "delusion." The paragraph transmitted, ending on the top of page 162, etymologizes "ultimate bodhicitta" (Tib. don dam byang chub kyi sems). In an easily understood metaphor, Lama Alan compares the stages of the path of Dzogchen to establishing basecamps in climbing the mountain on the way to buddhahood. He notes that shamatha, vipasyana and some brief glimpse of rigpa is the lowest basecamp from which to launch the climb; the stage of generation represents the next highest basecamp; the stage of completion a higher basecamp yet; and trench the camp from which one can launch a push for the summit. He says that some climbers of extraordinary skill may be able to go ""straight up the face of the mountain,"climbing from camp 1 directly to camp 4, bypassing camp 2 and 3. But, he says even the best of climbers will almost certainly fail without the "rope" of guru yoga; i.e. truly, authentically and unerringly seeing the guru as buddha. Lama Alan then offers and explains two longer quotes (included in the notes) on investigating the nature of mind, one from Karma Chagme, the other from Tsultrim Zangpo. By realizing the emptiness of the inherent existence of mind, we can detonate the inherent existence of all phenomena. However, merely studying the the works of all the masters of Madhyamaka without direct experience in meditation will not suffice. Lama Alan concludes by discussing three paths: the path of the pandita; the path of the kusuli, which relies exclusively on practicing the pith instructions; and a path intermediate between the two. All three paths can lead the same result, but only if practiced diligently. There is no meditation with this teaching.
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 15 Apr 2020, Online-only
In this session Lama Alan returns to the shamatha practice of mindfulness of breathing according to Arya Asanga's approach of attending to the sensations of the breath in the whole body. He comments on the importance of relaxation within losing the clarity with which we began the session. He also emphasizes a distinctly Dzogchen style of mindfulness of breathing within which one does not "collapse" awareness down to the object of mindfulness, but rather maintains a spacious awareness while still attending continuously to the object.
Meditation begins at 7:35.
After the meditation Lama Alan addresses another question regarding the preliminaries. The question was about whether or not we have to do 100,000 accumulations of each preliminary, or how and when we should practice the preliminaries, etc. Lama Alan responds by sharing his own experience with the preliminaries during his time with Gyatrul Rinpoche. He explains that while Gyatrul Rinpoche taught the preliminaries extensively in the context of his teachings on Natural Liberation, he never asked him to do the 100,000 style accumulations in the context of his Dzogchen teachings, but only when Lama Alan requested trul kor instruction. Lama Alan also comments on the issue of three year retreats, and other issues concerning the various ways in which Buddha Dharma has been taught and practiced throughout history. Overall, what Lama Alan points to as most important is "finding the path" and setting out on the path, not the specific format one uses to find the path. Finally, Lama Alan offers a helpful breakdown of essential "daily practices," listing shamatha, wisdom practice (vipashyana/study), heart practices (four immeasurables, Bodhicitta, and devotion or reverence practices). Of course, he says, if one is in retreat specifically for shamatha, then that practice will take precedent and the others will act as support for that practice.
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 24 May 2020, Online-only
All Encompassing Inquiry
2023 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 4, 15 May 2023, Crestone, Colorado and Online
After correcting the omission of one word in the oral transmission of the text from yesterday at 00:06:20, we return to the text in the middle of page 257, as the Lake Born Vajra continues to elaborate on the transitional phase of living. Beginning with outlining how those of different faculties attain enlightenment, Lama provides extensive commentary and adds an updated translation of the sentence beginning “Those of middling faculties…”. He highlights that those of superior and middling faculties escape dying, through great transference rainbow body or by being liberated in ultimate reality, respectively. While those of inferior faculties achieve it in the bardo of dying or the bardo of ultimate reality. Then the Lake Born Vajra gives pointing out instructions for training in phowa, the transference of consciousness, so that “In the intermediate period, when you recognize that you have died, simply by bringing this to mind, the appearances of the intermediate period will shift to those of a buddhafield, [472] and you will achieve liberation.” Lama provides commentary on the context for this practice, whereby from the buddhafield/pureland of Akanistha in the centre, we see all five buddhafields corresponding to the five buddha families. Reminiscent of Stage of Generation practices done in Phase 4, although much more concise, this practice entails visualisation. Before leading us through the practice, Lama-la reminds us that if we’re not good at visualisation practices, he encourages us to do the practice by simply imagining that such visualisations are there. The transmission on this practice concludes this section on the transitional phase of living, the first of the six transitional phases. Then, for those who find visualisation challenging and prefer a more unelaborated path, Lama-la highlights a ‘Plan B’—the opportunity to be born in a pure realm such as Sukhāvatī, one of the five buddhafields/purelands. Lama shares with us some teachings on Sukhāvatī, by Karma Chagmé in ‘A Spacious Path to Freedom’. After leading us through this text and making extensive commentary, Lama-la highlights that “… it is possible for ordinary individuals with mental afflictions to be born there ….[and] and you may go from there to the realms of other Buddhas”. Lama concludes that these teachings on Sukhāvatī are like a safety net for us, encouraging us to practice with enthusiasm not fear. Even if we may not have progressed far on the path, or even achieved shamatha yet, by praying to be born in Sukhāvatī, we can be confident that we are setting things up for the most favourable outcome in the dying process and in terms of what happens to us after death. For specific practices to prepare for rebirth in Sukhāvatī, Lama advises us to study Karma Chagmé’s text 'The Lotus Garland'. Once again, in today’s meditation, which begins at 01:02:08, Padmasambhava Guides Us in Identifying Pristine Awareness. The aural transmission starts at 00:06:20 and runs from the middle of page 257 until the middle of page 258.
Shamatha, Vipashyana, Mahamudra, and Dzogchen, 21 Apr 2016, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Italy
Alan begins the session by frontloading the silent meditation session, and in the follow up of the morning session, asked us to investigate the distinctive qualities of space and awareness. To help us in that investigation, we brought forth the idea that space implies the quality of extension, unlike awareness. That being the case, these were the questions we were to contemplate: (i) is the space of the mind 2D or 3D?; (ii) has it got a colour, is it either black or transparent?; (iii) has it got a shape? Is it a sphere or a cube?; (iv) does the space of the mind has a center and/or a periphery? He proposed the meditation session to be divided into 2 parts, with the first being mindfulness of breathing, in full body awareness mode, and only the second part of the session being dedicated to Settling the Mind, as outlined above. The reason for doing mindfulness of breathing in the first part of the session is that by paying attention to the somatic field of the body, we attend to a space that is by nature non-conceptual. There, the presence of only physical senses and feelings, that do not have a referent, help us quiet the mind. After that, we can more effectively attend to the space of the mind, and specifically to the spaces between thoughts, where we were to remain single-pointedly focused on the space of the mind. After the meditation, we went back to chapter fifteen of Karma Chagmé’s “Great Commentary to Buddhahood in the Palm of Your Hand”, which is on shamatha. Alan continued the oral transmission, first on a section focused on The Cultivation of Shamatha With Characteristics, which included a succinct section on the path to shamatha (for more details, please see Alan’s book: “The Attention Revolution). He then proceeded to a section on The Cultivation of Shamatha Without Characteristics, a progression which is very typical in Mahamudra and Dzogchen. The meditation is silent (not recorded). ___ Please contribute to make these, and future podcasts freely available.
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 10 May 2021, Online-only
Lama Alan continues his presentation of the Four Applications of Mindfulness based on the Buddha’s discourse in the Pali Canon. This session continues the exploration of feelings and the causes of happiness. The teachings Buddha made on this subject moved beyond the Four Noble Truths and were for not only his devoted practitioners, but for the population at large, thus, expressing his infinite compassion for all sentient beings. Lama Alan reviews the four kinds of happiness the Buddha said could be enjoyed by a householder having a baseline of ethics. These include 1) happiness of ownership which supplies us with our material requirements for this life, 2) happiness of wealth which allows us to have added enjoyments in this life, 3) freedom from debt which contributes to a sense of lightness knowing we will not be a burden to our families, and 4) happiness of blamelessness which comes about from our examination of our mistakes, expressing our remorse, and making amends. Then, Lama Alan, shares what the Buddha said about the causes of happiness for those who are able to devote themselves to dharma. This population includes not only renunciates such as monks and nuns, but also retirees who are using their leisure after having completed their householder responsibilities to study dharma. The first cause of happiness for this group is the same as the highest cause of happiness of the householder, i.e., blamelessness. Another eudaimonic sense of well-being within this first group of causes is the contentment having been gained by giving up the constant grasping and search for more when all one’s essential needs have already been taken care of. The second dimension of genuine wellbeing is the cultivation of the mind through samadhi, for example samatha but also the four immeasurables and the general cultivation of the mind. And, finally, with the foundation of blamelessness and contentment, the third source of eudaimonia for those dedicated to studying dharma is through the cultivation of wisdom. It includes the development of samadhi and coming to know who we and all phenomena are which offers us the greatest freedom. In theism, this is coming to know God. Lama Alan, invites us to stop wasting our lives pursuing things that will never fulfill us or provide us with sustainable happiness. The Dalai Lama has said that the pursuit of happiness is the meaning of life, so don’t invest in those things that will not give you a good return. Before the meditation, Lama Alan returns to feelings and reminds us of our fundamental delusion –projecting our subjective experience on objects and then clinging to the object which sooner or later will show us it didn’t and can’t provide us with happiness as we initially thought it could. He suggests we will continue in this futile pursuit until we see there is an alternative. We need to see over and over again that feelings are the way we experience things. They are not in the object we experience. Although there are many emotions, from a Buddhist perspective, there are only three types of feelings – pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral. Each type plays a pivotal role in our pursuit of genuine well-being: while pleasant feelings may trigger attachment, they can also catalyze loving-kindness; unpleasant feelings can trigger anger, but also help us see the suffering in others and develop compassion, and, finally, neutral feelings can give us a sense of dullness or stupidity, but also help us develop impartiality and equanimity. Lama Alan ends with challenging the common materialist assumption that we only have this one life to live. He recommends two books reflecting very good science which also challenge this assumption: "Before: Children’s Memories of Previous Lives" by Dr. Jim B. Tucker, and "After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal About Life and Beyond" by Dr. Bruce Greyson. Meditation begins at 36:40 and invites us to apply the close application of mindfulness to feelings with a sharp acuity to distinguish their arising and the way we experience them as pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral.
Shamatha, Vipashyana, Mahamudra, and Dzogchen, 19 Apr 2016, Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, Italy
Alan starts off this morning's session with a story about a delightful interaction between physicist Anton Zeilinger and His Holiness the Dalai Lama that took place at the 1997 Mind and Life Conference. The story culminates a year later with discussion of physics and philosophy and a visit to Anton Zeilinger's lab, so that Anton could discuss his empirical evidence and show His Holiness how he made his discoveries. Aside from the fact that Alan likes telling stories, Alan loves the fact that Anton took them to his lab and His Holiness lept at the opportunity. Alan would have loved to have had His Holiness be able to say "Anton, would you like to come to our lab, and I'll show you the yogis... Would you like to see what's our research? What are our methodologies by which we've come to these conclusions..." Alan then goes through a list of some of the objections and scientific reservations about including introspection in the scientific study of the mind and shows how they are not insurmountable problems, especially with the appropriate mental training. The meditation is taking the impure mind as the path. With some guidance regarding making introspection a viable tool for discovery about the mind, we practice observing the mind (thoughts, images, emotions, desires, etc.) from the stillness of awareness, without distraction and without grasping. After the meditation Alan draws a parallel between this practice, where we are becoming lucid with respect to our minds during the waking state, and sustaining a lucid dream. During a lucid dream one wants to relax, maintain the stability - maintaining lucidity and the continuity of the dream, and eventually enhance the clarity, resolution, vividness and precision of the explorations of the dream reality. In a similar fashion, as we now go into non-formal practice, our practice off the cushion, experiences will arise that may cause excitation, agitation, craving, desire, etc. We should try to maintain the continuity of ease and relaxation without grasping. We should also try to maintain, with clarity and engagement, the flow of cognisance - the awareness of appearances as appearances, and not conflating them with an outside independent reality. So, now we have a full-time job... Meditation starts at 36:00 ___ Please contribute to make these, and future podcasts freely available.
Fall 2014 Shamatha, Vipashyana, Dream Yoga, 13 Sep 2014, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Alan tells us this is a good point in the retreat to refresh our motivation and guides the practice he has taught many times, the four-fold practice of arousing loving kindness for ourselves. - May I experience the fulfillment of my heart’s desire. - May I receive from the world what I need to realize my aspiration. - May I realize the inner transformation necessary to realize my aspiration. - May I experience meaning and fulfillment by offering to the world the greatest good possible with my own unique skills and background. Meditation starts at 7:00
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 03 Apr 2020, Online-only
Lama Alan starts by welcoming all to this sacred time and space where we encounter the door to the Great Perfection. He recognizes the leisure and opportunity we have to listen and phantom the nature of our existence, this confluence of circumstances is like a wish fulfilling jewel. In this time of great distress, this arouses a sense of responsibility for all those that do not have leisure or the wealth of Dharma.
Through settling body speech and mind in its natural state, we have the opportunity to step on a path in which by drawing awareness on itself, we can release the identification with and reification of our body and mind.
Meditation starts at 19:17. Settling body speech and mind in its natural state. Starting the practice with establishing the motivation to follow this path to achieve Buddhahood for the welfare of others and then relax, release, and simply rest in awareness.
Lama Alan turns to a passage at the end of the Vajra Essence, covering the first transitional phase: being alive. This phase is compared with a little bird on a treetop. We are here for a short time, as human beings we can use this short period, using our intelligence to investigate and practice the teachings, until understanding nature of mind and achieving enlightenment.
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 14 May 2020, Online-only
Cultivating Great Loving Kindness
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 15 Apr 2020, Online-only
Master Asanga's Mindfulness of Breathing, with Dzogchen Ambience
Fall 2012 Shamatha and the Four Applications of Mindfulness, 14 Sep 2012, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Alan recounts the story of how Shariputra and Maudgalyayana first encountered the teachings of the Buddha. “Those phenomena that are causally created, the Tathagatha has shown their causes and he has also shown their cessation. Thus, the teaching of the Great Sage.”
Normally, we identify strongly with subjective impulses and objective appearances, but when we observe them, we see that they are just phenomena arising from and dissolving into the mind. This first-hand experience into the conventional nature of mind preps us for the dissolution of the coarse mind into substrate consciousness and for the ascertainment of the ultimate nature of mind.
Meditation: mindfulness of the mind via awareness of awareness. Let your eyes be open and rest gaze in the space before you without focusing on anything. Just be present, and sustain the flow of mindfulness in the present. Absent of grasping, there is a quality of knowing. Rest in that awareness. Note mental events emerging from the flow of awareness and watch where they dissolve into. Let the light of awareness illuminate single-pointedly the space of the mind and whatever arises therein. Observe the emergence of thoughts and images and their cessation.
Q1. In the explanation of the illusionist, whose alaya does the illusion appear in?
Q2. I have a question about the location of the mind. Javana occur in the dharmadhatu as does awareness. Do we need conceptual and/or non-conceptual guidance to pinpoint that location?
Q3. How can we make implicit knowing more explicit in our daily lives?
Q4. If the substantial cause of the illusion is the alaya, what is the illusionist doing?
Q5. My understanding of taking refuge and bodhicitta is limited. Can you explain their significance? Can they be taken at various levels? Is it possible to take refuge for a limited time? Is there danger in taking refuge too early? What happens when refuge is taken out of the motivations of fear and self-centeredness?
Meditation starts at 13:50
Fall 2012 Shamatha and the Four Applications of Mindfulness, 20 Sep 2012, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Teaching: Alan talks about the third of the five obscurations laxity and dullness. Dullness occurs when attention is no longer fully engaged with the object. It is experienced from stages 1-4, whereas laxity is experienced between stages 4-5. Its antidote is coarse investigation (aka applied thought) whereby you just check it out.
Meditation: mindfulness of breathing per Asanga. Allow your body to breathe itself as your respiration settles into its natural rhythm. Let the mind come to stillness in the present moment. Shine the spotlight of your attention on sensations of the respiration as prana flows down to the navel, and keep your attention there single-pointedly. Note the end of the in and out breaths. Note the beginning of the in and out breaths. Arouse attention at every in breath as the navel cavity fills with prana. Maintain the flow of mindfulness throughout the entire breath cycle.
Meditation starts at 6:12
Fall 2012 Shamatha and the Four Applications of Mindfulness, 19 Sep 2012, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Teaching: Alan talks about the second of the five obscurations ill-will. As shamatha dredges the psyche, it is normal for ill-will to arise in response to memories, etc... The antidote is sukkha or well-being. You are experiencing sukkha when you enjoy and get into the flow of the practice. Sukkha comes through shamatha. Further support for the antidote comes from mudita or empathetic joy. On the spiritual path, we need to make a gentle transition from 100% dependence on hedonic well-being to genuine happiness. Find interest in the breath. Find interest in the quality of awareness. The latter will come in handy through the various bardos.
Meditation: mindfulness of breathing per Asanga. Release the mind into the present. Utterly release yourself into the breath. Let your awareness observe the space of the body and in particular, the flow of the breath between nostril and navel. Relax deeply all the way through. Let the mind be especially calm at the end of the in and out breaths. With every out breath, release long-standing habit of rumination. Be right there for the beginning of each in breath.
Meditation starts at 16:45
Fall 2012 Shamatha and the Four Applications of Mindfulness, 03 Sep 2012, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Teaching: A new cycle begins this week on mindfulness of feelings. When feelings arise, there is a strong tendency for us to grasp onto them as I or mine. Therefore, we need to learn how to release grasping and identification with feelings and remain simply present with them.
As for release, Alan emphasizes the importance of learning how to breathe properly. Without proper breathing, it’s difficult for our meditation to progress, since the prana system is central to body/mind. Proper breathing is a skill we need to learn and master. Alan suggests that we first master breathing in the supine position before moving to the sitting position.
Meditation: mindfulness of breathing method of your choice. Balance vigilance with relaxation. Let the body breathe naturally. Don’t manipulate the breath by expelling out or pulling in. Get out of the way by releasing all control of and any preferences with regard to the breath. With every out breath, release (bodily tension and rumination) more deeply. The out breath provides the best opportunity to relax and relinquish all effort.
Meditation starts at 7:02
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 19 Apr 2021, Online-only
Fourfold Vision Quest
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 14 Apr 2020, Online-only
The Infirmary
Fall 2012 Shamatha and the Four Applications of Mindfulness, 24 Sep 2012, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Alan notes that we’re starting the second half of the retreat. Afterwards, when we return to an active way of life, while our shamatha practice may be maintained at best, other practices may indeed flourish. In an active life, the practices of the 4 applications of mindfulness can shift how we view reality in accordance with the 3 marks of existence, gradually becoming unstuck. Similarly, as our best friends, bodyguards even, the 4 immeasurables can be practiced in everyday life as we engage with others. Together, both sets of practices represent wisdom and skillfull means. So that we may train in the 4 immeasurables as in previous retreats, Alan will now dedicate the morning sessions to guided meditations of the 4 immeasurables.
Meditation: loving-kindness. Ask yourself the following 4 questions in sequence, envision your response clearly, practice the corresponding exercise, and imagine your vision becoming reality in the here and now. 1) What will make you truly happy? With every out breath, light from your heart flows into this vision. 2) What would you like to receive from those around you to help make your vision possible? With every in breath, receive light from sentient beings flowing in from all directions, giving you all that you need. 3) What qualities of body, speech, and mind would you like to be freed of and imbued with so that you can transform into the person you would like to become? With every out breath, light of purification transforms you breath by breath into that person. 4) What would you love to offer to the world? With every out breath, light from your heart emanates, taking the forms of all you wish to offer. Finally, may we all find happiness and the causes of happiness! With every out breath, imagine it to be so.
Meditation starts at 5:30
2022 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 3, 05 May 2022, Online from Miyo Samten Ling in Crestone, Colorado, USA
We begin the reading transmission with a sentence missed in the previous session: [317] “Recognising that the time of death is unpredictable…” up to “…Bearing in mind all the miseries you will experience then, exhort your own mind.” Then we continue with the contemplation on death and impermanence and what it is that dies or is born, with references to Pali sources quoted in Peter Harvey’s book Selfless Mind, and Francis Tiso’s book Rainbow Body and Resurrection. At 44:40 Lama Alan continues with the transmission on pages [317] - [320] “Understanding those two points and applying them to your mindstream…” up to “…the significance of actions and their consequences is like an eye that enables you to see the path.” This is the section on karma and the ten nonvirtues, with commentary on the four infallible laws of karma, and samayas as the root of the vajrayana path. A feast for those who hunger after lists. There is no meditation with this teaching but Lama Alan gave instructions to Contemplate Karma and Cultivate Impartiality
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 24 May 2020, Online-only
Embracing Shantideva's Guidance
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 22 May 2020, Online-only
Giving Ourselves Away: Relative Bodhicitta
Fall 2012 Shamatha and the Four Applications of Mindfulness, 11 Sep 2012, Thanyapura Mind Centre, Phuket, Thailand
Teaching: Alan discusses causality and the relationship between cause and effect within the context of mindfulness of the mind. According to the Sautantrika, both cause and effect are considered real. According to William James, the relationship (relata) is also considered real. In order to perceive any causal relationship, you need to observe phenomena with a wide angle over time and connect the dots.
When experiencing pleasure, enquire whether it is stimulus driven or not. Genuine happiness (sukkha) arises from the substrate when unimpeded. There are five obscurations which obscure the natural qualities of the substrate: 1) sensual craving, 2) ill will, 3) laxity/dullness, excitation/anxiety, 5) debilitating doubt.
Unlike the 5 senses, there is no physical faculty corresponding to mental consciousness. In other words, mental consciousness arises from mental consciousness. All appearances arise from and manifest within the space of the mind (alaya).
Meditation: mindfulness of the mind. Direct mindfulness to the space of the mind and the objective appearances and subjective responses therein. Identify whether pleasure or displeasure is stimulus driven. Observe closely and recognize coherent patterns. Distinguish between thoughts and emotions you generated versus those that arose spontaneously. Identify cooperative conditions and substantial cause for the discursive thought or mental image. If caught up in rumination, return to the shamatha practice of settling the mind.
Q1. Please comment on the substrate, substrate consciousness, lucid dreaming, and the death process.
Meditation starts at 46:07
2021 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 2, 24 May 2021, Online-only
First taking refuge and cultivating bodhicitta, then arouse the view of emptiness and the Dzogchen view. While resting in awareness, coextensive with space, with no center or periphery, view all appearances as self-illuminating, expressions of your own pristine awareness.
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 11 May 2020, Online-only
Lama Alan returns to the Shamata practice of taking the mind as the path, commenting on the closing sentence of Phase 1. “Since not a single one has an objective referent, they are not the thoughts of sentient beings; instead, mentation shifts to wisdom, the creative power shifts to primordial consciousness, and stability is achieved there. Understand this to be like water that is clear of sediment.” He then elaborates on the method on cutting through to pristine awareness: augmenting the practice of taking the mind as the path, with the inquiry of vipassana on that which is observed and observing. Imbuing this practice with refuge, bodhicitta, the blessings of the Guru and wisdom, is what makes this practice enough to reach the path. He teaches the method of gentle vase breathing, which can be helpful to clear blockages while doing the practice of taking the mind as the path. Meditation starts at 45:08. Taking the mind as the path. Lama Alan returns to Phase 2, commenting on the crucial point of making consciousness manifest; all the qualities of the Buddhas flow from that. This is the direct path of the Great Perfection. Following the text, he expounds on the meaning of the ever-present primordial consciousness and what individuals with different faculties will achieve. This is the end of Phase 2.
2022 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 3, 15 Apr 2022, Online from Miyo Samten Ling in Crestone, Colorado, USA
In the first part of today's teachings by Yangchen-la she gives us detailed information on the perspective and symbolism of the practice so that in the second part, the meditation, we can focus primarily on the visualizations and the induced energy flow. In all of Vajrayana the karmic energies are viewed as being the catalyst for all the appearances that arise to us. In the Stage of Completion practices we learn to take the perspective of the energies. Yangchen explains how the Middle Way View of emptiness is represented in the body by the central channel, while all impure karmic energies flow through the side channels. The main focus of Stage of Completion practice then is to bring the karmic energies into the central channel, where they dissolve into the energy of primordial consciousness. We learn that ultimately this takes place in non-meditation, where one is able the rest in the nine modes of inactivity. The danger here is that instead of practicing non-meditation one could just rest in ordinary mind, and nothing at all will be accomplished. Since this is a very subtle practice and not at all easy, we learn in Stage of Completion how to tune our energy system to be ready for the practices of tummo, where the dissolution of the karmic energies, the vayus, is practiced within our body. We are warned by Lama Tsongkhapa that here one could get stuck in the bliss that may arise from the movement of the karmic energies in the body. Then Yangchen-la plants the seeds for this Stage of Completion practices by giving commentary on the many details one learns to bear in mind: the seed syllables, their colors and the energies they carry, and how we should learn their shape so that we may visualize them from different perspectives; the visualizations of the symbols, such as the bindu at the heart and the crossed vajra at the secret chakra. Yangchen-la explains that in all of Vajrayana, great bliss is equivalent to great compassion, and this is much more sublime than any ordinary bliss we might ever experience. We are introduced to a first glimpse of tummo practice, which aims at the unification of great bliss and emptiness. This sublime bliss is offered to all the deities of the mandala; this is the ultimate meaning of all the offerings in the Stage of Generation practice. Meditation starts at minute 53:00 and guides us first to the energetic preparation of the energies in our body and then to the practice of tummo, inner fire. From the text pages 155/156 are covered
2020 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 1, 20 Apr 2020, Online-only
Enhancing Stability through Mindfulness of Breathing
2023 8-Week Retreat: The Vajra Essence – Part 4, 12 Apr 2023, Crestone, Colorado and Online
Today's session starts with a guided meditation (at 0:01:25) on external and internal space. After the meditation Lama Alan reviews some points of phase 1, first commenting on the difference of examining the origin, location and destination of the mind from the conceptual mind, and from the basis of Shamata as taught by Mahamudra and Dzogchen masters. He explains the impossibility of realizing the empty nature of mind from a conceptual basis and how, through having achieved Shamatha and directly realizing the subtle mind from which the coarse mind emerges, one can investigate the actual nature of mind and by doing so treading a very direct path to cutting through the reification of one's own mind, realize it’s empty nature and cutting through to Pristine Awareness. After commenting on the origin, location and destination of the mind, Lama Alan explores another part of phase 1 with is about the investigation of the dimensions of the so-called mind. He addresses the question: “Are the internal mind and external space the same or different?” At this point Lama Alan explains the parallel between the concept of space in physics and the concept of space as the all-encompassing space of awareness, comprising a common ground from which appearances emerge. In this context, self, others, things and sense objects are described as devoid of autonomous existence and having as a common basis, the very nature of space. Mind and all appearances, being crystallized formations of space, not separated from each other. and made manifest by the luminosity of space itself. The ground, and essential nature of the mind, is space itself. And in this way, subtle mentation and coarse mentation are explained as proliferations of appearances, like the way that reflections emerge in a mirror, depicting thus, internal mind and external space as coextensive. Lama Alan explains how the practice of taking the mind as a path can lead to the realization of the space of awareness, by dissolving conceptualizations and, at the physiological level, directing prana into the central channel that is the domain of the pervasive empty space. In the last part of the teaching, Lama Alan explains how, from the perspective of pristine awareness, the fluidity of reality, is frozen through the power of self-grasping and the mind and its mental factors arise. Towards the end Lama la comments on his essay „A Lamp for Dispelling the Five Obscurations“ on view, meditation and conduct for Shamatha, relating cutting-edge physics to space of awareness and space of mind.
