← B. Alan Wallace

Dzogchen Retreat 2015 - Realising our true nature (part 6)

B. Alan Wallace · 2015 · 1 h 30 min · Vajrayana Institute via Internet Archive

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  • 5:21

    What is Dharma? I've used the word a lot, and I'd heard it many, many times by the time I asked him this question. I asked him, what is Dharma? We're practicing Dharma, we take refuge in Dharma, etc., etc. What is Dharma? Just please now, give me a bullet. And he said, Dharma is a way of viewing reality and a way of engaging with reality that leads to a lasting state of well-being, a lasting quality of well-being. In other words, eudaimonia, the Greeks called eudaimonia, genuine well-being.

  • 19:20

    To Dzogchen practice altogether, it's perhaps the most important key, although there are a number of important ones, is that we're shifting the whole platform for practice. Shifting the whole platform. The basis, the ground, the framework, the context, the perspective, all of those. It's a fundamental shift. It's a radical shift. So generally in the sutrayana, so I hope you have some familiarity with the terminology, but just like the bodhisattva yano or the path to becoming an arhat,

  • 32:04

    But then you're resting in awareness. You're not activating your mind. You're not responding to the mind. You're not identifying with the mind. You're just resting in awareness. Well, awareness is not a mind. And awareness, check it out. Awareness. Do you find anything intrinsically when you're just resting in awareness? This is my symbol, of course, an unflickering candle flame. Very simple. That's my symbol. When you're just resting in there, in the utter simplicity, and not even bound up in English or English with an Australian accent and so on,

  • 36:51

    of the preceding discussion points to the reason for the initial entry into the practice and that is of letting go, of releasing, releasing your awareness into the body right down to the ground, releasing your body, relaxing, setting it at ease, releasing all control over the breath, releasing the mind. And coming to settle, coming to rest in utter simplicity, without doing anything,

0:27 So as we're still more or less at the beginning of the retreat, I thought I would try to be candid, as I usually try to be, but something very explicit in that is let you know my aspirations. I came here with a desire to this retreat. And the desire, my aspiration, which I hope to see fulfilled, is that by the time we come to the end of the retreat, everyone who's come here, some from considerable distance, that by the time we depart on, I guess it's Tuesday afternoon, That you'll have a real taste. The practices we're doing. There aren't many of them. And they are simple. They're not complicated. They're not extremely difficult. But my aspiration is that when we all go our separate ways on Tuesday, that you have a real taste. Report an error

1:10 You really know. It's just like going to a restaurant. You know what the food's like. You taste it. And then you know, is this place you might want to come back to? Because this is just an hors d 'oeuvre, right? But you might. Then you could know. Report an error

1:22 And then if it's not the taste you're looking for, then that'll be good. That'll be valuable information as well. If this isn't your cup of tea, if this isn't what you're looking for, then it's good. If something's learned, you look elsewhere. So one is the meditation itself, that we're not here just for me to give a lot of teaching, oral transmission and all of that. Report an error

1:41 It's important, but this really is a time of practice, as we all know. So that's one aspiration. And the other aspiration is in terms of the teaching itself, that by the time we come to the final page, Report an error

1:54 None of it will be in clouds. None of it will be vague and nebulous. What on earth does that mean? What's up with that? It's all clear. You look at it and the text kind of speaks to you. Some of the sentences I know are quite long and I just did my best. That's all I can say. Not so transparent. But with the commentary, hopefully it's just all clear. So you look at it from start to finish. Report an error

2:17 And you really hear Dujum Lingba's voice shining through 120 years and the message is clear. If it's clear, then you also have good grounds for knowing, is this something I'd like to pursue further? Or maybe this is enough. So that's my aspiration and for that reason then, in this retreat I'd really like to be taking advantage of having more time for practice. Report an error

2:41 I commonly lead retreats where we have three hours, three hours. And then a bit of time in the evening just for practice and discussion. And depending on the situation, I will have a bit more sessions for meditation, a bit less. This time I'd like to have a little bit more. So what I'd like to do after a few more comments is to have two back-to-back sessions. I'd like to be doing that. Back-to-back, 24 minutes. Report an error

3:06 Hopefully this is not so long that you start feeling any really significant physical discomfort. If you do, I would suggest finding another posture, one that you don't have physical discomfort. And so we'll do a 24-minute session, we'll take a little break, and then we'll have another one right there, so you just have a smooth continuity. In terms of posture, if you already know that you can be sitting in a really good posture, and I'll show you the wrong posture. Report an error

3:30 The wrong posture is like this. This is not going to be good for the back or the neck. This is, what is it, three kilos? I think it's fairly heavy. I've never actually had mine in my hand. It's a lot of weight to have hanging over. Report an error

3:47 This is not so good. So your head is being totally supported by the neck with balance and not muscle. And then if you like to slightly tilt your head, which is done in the Tibetan tradition, that's fine, but it's like this and not like this. It's kind of important. Supai position is flat out. And so if you know that for two back-to-back 24-minute sessions you can really be comfortable, relaxed, loose and sitting upright, then it's just quite clear. Report an error

4:16 This is generally the preferable posture. There's no question, it's really good, right? But if you know that by the time you get to the second session, maybe halfway through, you're going to start feeling your back, your buttocks, your knees, or what have you, then I would suggest in the second one, just avoid that and go into the supine position. Report an error

4:35 Or if you're sitting, you like to sit, okay, cross-legged and then on a chair. There are empty chairs available. Generally speaking, sitting upright is very good for clarity. It can be sustained in supine. I know, I've spent thousands of hours in supine and it can be. It can be just fine. But you do need to cultivate that skill. Generally sitting upright is very good for clarity and the supine very good for the sense of ease and for calmness and silence and stillness. Report an error

5:01 And so going back and forth between the supine and the sitting, supine sitting, you can do that for quite a few hours a day with no wear and tear on the body. Okay? So, then just a couple of comments. And that is one of my earliest teachers, Geshingon Taiki, when I asked him, What is Dharma? I've used the word a lot, and I'd heard it many, many times by the time I asked him this question. I asked him, what is Dharma? We're practicing Dharma, we take refuge in Dharma, etc., etc. Report an error

5:32 What is Dharma? Just please now, give me a bullet. And he said, Dharma is a way of viewing reality and a way of engaging with reality that leads to a lasting state of well-being, a lasting quality of well-being. In other words, eudaimonia, the Greeks called eudaimonia, genuine well-being. A sense of flourishing. Well-being is a really nice word in English. Well-being, well-being. And so that's what Dharma is. And this type of well-being is not stimulus-driven. Report an error

6:04 And it's not stimulus-driven at all. That is when we go deeper into it. And so stimulus-driven, well, we know that. Okay, eating really tasty food. But then we all know that if you eat too much, then it's no longer pleasurable. And that goes for all the sensory ones. If you just get too... There's a point at which... Report an error

6:21 It's no longer really enjoyable, and then it's painful. And then when you stop the stimulation, then the joy ceases. And so that's hedonic pleasure, stimulus-driven pleasure. And there's nothing wrong with it intrinsically. I mean, enjoying a really good meal, and for that matter, enjoying a really pleasant conversation with a friend. There's nothing wrong with that at all, but it is hedonic. Report an error

6:42 And when the friend goes, then that pleasure is gone. But there's also internally generated stimulus-driven pleasure. And that can be by all kinds of things, imagination, going down memory lane, nostalgia, happy fantasies, thinking about your next vacation or what have you. We can stimulate ourselves internally and that can be done in a purely, let's say, hedonistic fashion. But we can also generate a lot of internal stimulation spiritually. Report an error

7:11 And that is by, you know, arousing the mind, thinking thoughts, imagining this, imagining that. There's certainly nothing wrong with that. Imagine Tara. Imagine this. Imagine that. It's good. Arouse, arouse, arouse. And there's nothing wrong with that. In fact, it's quite virtuous. But of course, when you stop, that kind of pleasure tends to taper off. There's an awful lot of activity in Tibetan Buddhism with liturgies and the rituals and the chanting and the mudras and the dancing and the visualizations. Report an error

7:39 And then there's more recitation. And so there's a lot of ways of stimulating ourselves, especially in Tibetan Buddhism. We've got a lot of things going on. And then you stop and then it's over. Or you do it too much and that's just exhausting. So this eudaimonia, as we're approaching this meditatively, it's a quality of well-being that's not dependent upon any kind of stimulation, neither sensory nor intellectual or even spiritual stimulation. Report an error

8:07 And again, there's nothing wrong with stimulation, but when it stops and the resultant pleasure is gone. And there is a general theme in Buddhism. I think it's just a general theme of reality. That is, whatever we acquire, we lose. You acquire it. If you didn't have it and you acquired it, then it's only a matter of time before you don't have it anymore. I used to be fluent in German, really quite fluent. I'm not anymore. Report an error

8:29 I haven't used it. But I used to have that language skill and now I don't. I studied mathematics for years. I could do advanced calculus and I was doing quantum mechanics. I can't anymore. I haven't used it. I studied Sanskrit for three years. I haven't used it. Etc. Right? And skills picked up but then dropped. I've memorized two, three hundred pages of material verbatim from the Tibetan during especially monastic years. Report an error

8:54 No longer. I don't know where they are. There's some place in there, but I can't find them. So that which we acquire, we're going to lose sooner or later. But Yudha Mani is not acquired. It's not acquired. It's not something you get. It's something you discover. So how do you discover it? And this is going to be right to the point because I'm eager to get back to meditation. Well, we're right on the fast track. In this practice here, this ever so simple mindfulness of breathing where most of the awareness is just resting and being present and just peripherally aware. Report an error

9:27 Yes, the breath is coming in. Yes, it's going out, but without having to say so. You don't need any conceptual commentary. You know it before you start talking about it. We're going here and we're getting a little bit of stimulation. A little bit. The sensations of the breath, that's stimulating, right? But not much. And I imagine, probably for all of us, the stimulation, the arousal that we experience by feeling the ebb and flow, the fluctuations corresponding to the breath, it's neither something that we get attached to, that we desire, clinging, grasping, craving, nor is it something unpleasant that we wish it would stop. Report an error

10:08 It's really like, I think it's like this, let's see. Yeah, that's water. And that's all it is. It's just water. It's not even fizzy. I know I don't want fizzy. But it's not even fizzy. Fizzy is a bit interesting. Sparkling water. I like sparkling water. It's a bit interesting. This is sparkling water that died. It just sits there. It's still. That's what it's called. Report an error

10:34 Still water, right? I mean, it's just water. Nothing wrong with it, but nothing really good about it either. It's just water. Because I'm not really thirsty. It's just kind of like there. It's wet. That's good. That's good. That's the best drink. You don't get attached to it, but it's there when you need it. And so this is actually quite a crucial point. Report an error

10:56 As long as we're attending to, giving our attention to, stimulation, or it's taken by, our attention is taken by stimulation. As in the case of injury, your body is shouting at you. It's robbing of your attention, calling your attention, right? We don't like it, but it still gets it. It's basically robbing, taking our attention. Report an error

11:22 When the attention is captured by something either disagreeable or, frankly, captured by something agreeable, you know, some kind of a fixation, a desire, an attachment and so forth, the doors for experiencing eudaimonia is pretty much locked. They're blocked. Of course, they're caught up in stimulation. And so in this practice, I made quite a strong point. Report an error

11:47 Please be very physically comfortable in the practice. It's not helpful. It's anti-helpful. To have the body in pain, discomfort, it's better not. But nor do you want to have a really good massage while you're having doing it. Or, you know, be eating ice cream while you're, you know, that would not be helpful either, right? We're removing ourselves to a very large extent from stimulation. Report an error

12:15 If we just had a retreat center here full of, like, you know, 45 sensory deprivation tanks, I would definitely have you spend some time in that. That would be interesting, but we don't have them. But we're getting a reasonable approximation by just withdrawing the awareness from the surrounding environment, letting the primary thrust of awareness be right where it is and just picking up the space, the ambience of the space that's fluctuating. Report an error

12:40 And the avenue to eudaimonia is going to be right there in the middle, where we're not being drawn to or captured by pleasant stimulation, nor drawn to or captured by Unpleasant stimulation, both of which will keep us bound up. This one with desire and this one with aversion. This one with hope, this one with fear. Report an error

13:05 We're going to be caught in that spin cycle indefinitely. So we're going to a place that at first glance is just bound to be, for many people anyway, boring. Report an error

13:22 Oh, when does something interesting happen? Okay, I know when. Exactly when my mind starts wandering and just goes into, you know, spin. At least it's noise. I mean, it's not a good channel, but at least it's some stimulation. And so that happens. But the idea here is to just remain as much as possible, that we're not stimulated even by the mind, by thoughts, memories, rumination. Report an error

13:49 Release them with no interest. Just, there's no interest. And just stay right there. And in that stillness that is not bound up in stimulation. It's right from there, right in that middle, between pleasure and displeasure, right in that equanimity, that neutral feeling. That's where something comes up. Report an error

14:12 That's where something comes up. And since our time is short together, I think there's no harm in kind of giving you some suggestions. I'm leading the witness, but I don't think there's a problem here. Report an error

14:24 And that is, what comes up is a very mild sense of enjoyment. This is peaceful. Report an error

14:39 It's preferable to being stimulated and it's preferable to just being caught up in one wandering thought after another. You prefer it. It's not a big preference, but you do prefer it. I'd rather be still and clear and at ease than not. So that's the first thing. And then you find it's just more peaceful. And peaceful is good. Peaceful is serene. Peaceful has a definite attractive quality to it. Report an error

15:08 Rather than be anxious, upset, ill at ease, agitated, peaceful is good. And then out of that emerges quietly, gently, just like the sun just slowly coming over the horizon, a sense of well-being, kind of like, I would like to continue, I would like to continue. Report an error

15:36 And then out of that, like rays of light shining through clouds, You may start experiencing some real enjoyment. It's really odd, but some real enjoyment. You can call it bliss if you like, but joy, bliss, some really definite positive feeling that has a sharper edge to it than simply an overall sense of well-being. Report an error

16:00 It's called pritti in Sanskrit. A real sense of even bliss. And you look around, metaphorically, and you just see there is no stimulation that is arousing this. It's just not coming from outside at all. This is being discovered and not conjured up. And that will just go deeper and deeper. So the Yudomoniya comes out of the center. Report an error

16:27 There's Yudomoniya that comes out of just cultivating finer and finer balance of the mind. And that can give rise to quite strong bliss. And then you add, you bring in, almost like having music that starts with one part of the choir and then another part of the choir comes in with a harmony. You bring in the part of the choir that's known as the Vipassanā section, the insight section, the inquiry section. Report an error

16:48 And you let that meld with the vipassanā, with the shamatha section. And then a deeper sense of bliss, a profounder sense of well-being emerges as you're not simply balancing the mind, but some insight is coming in that's really having an impact. Report an error

17:06 And then with that combination, you go deeper and release all striving, enter into the final phase of meditation that we'll do in this retreat called non-meditation. Your best approximation of not doing anything whatsoever and doing that vividly, luminously and cognizantly. And you may then cut through to pristine awareness itself, which is a dimension of bliss that is immutable. Report an error

17:32 That's something quite pretty something. So that's the simple trajectory, but it has to start in the middle. It can't come while you're engaged in activity and stimulating yourself with one thing or another. And this to my mind is, boy, this is... This is an emergency intervention for the modern world because of where we are here in 2015. I think our species has never seen it before. Report an error

17:59 What we're doing to ourselves right now, and there's no bad guy, I'm not going to point in any direction, but just what we're doing to ourselves right now. The degree of addiction to stimulation and to doing I think is unprecedented in world history. Our inability to sit quietly I think is unprecedented in human history. Report an error

18:18 It's quite recent, but even the last 15 years, more than the preceding decade, for all ages, I see my 10-year-old grandson, I see young people, middle-aged people, and even elderly people, I travel on airplanes all the time, and people are either asleep or they're doing something, generally speaking. Report an error

18:37 Even if the stimulation is completely meaningless, better that than nothing at all. No stimulation, even if the doing is absolutely pointless. We're addicted to doing and it's coming in from all sides. This is massive stimulation, arousal, arousal, arousal and it's become normal and it's very bizarre and extremely unhealthy. Report an error

19:02 And so to step out, step out of that rather insane matrix and to step into silence and not doing really timely medicine. Final point and then we'll start. A really absolutely fundamental key. To Dzogchen practice altogether, it's perhaps the most important key, although there are a number of important ones, is that we're shifting the whole platform for practice. Report an error

19:30 Shifting the whole platform. The basis, the ground, the framework, the context, the perspective, all of those. It's a fundamental shift. It's a radical shift. So generally in the sutrayana, so I hope you have some familiarity with the terminology, but just like the bodhisattva yano or the path to becoming an arhat, Your platform is perfectly transparent, clear and reasonable. And that is you take stock of how you are, who you are, how you're doing and you read the description of sentient beings and you say, boy, that's got my name on it. Report an error

20:03 I'm a sentient being. You know, yeah, I just absolutely 100 percent. I'm sentient being. I just checked the checklist of what are the markers, what are the indicators of being a sentient being. And you hold up your hand. I'm one of them. I'm definitely one of them. And that's your platform. And then you say, I want to become an Arhat. I want to become liberated. I want to become a Buddha. Fine, but this is where I'm starting from. Report an error

20:24 This is my platform. It is as a Sanjit being that I will practice. And I will try to purify my mind, develop ethics, Samādhi wisdom, the six perfections. And my platform is the only platform I've got. I mean, what else would I be? I'm a Sanjit being. And it really feels like there's no choice. Report an error

20:46 You can't choose right now to be not human, except for dying, but as long as you're alive, that's it. You don't think about choice. Most people don't think about gender, although it seems that's a choice, it's fine, I have no objection. But your height, you don't have any choice there. You know, there's just some things we never even think about choosing. Because there's no choice. A human being, for the time being, that's it. Report an error

21:09 And then the Vajrayana comes along. And instead of taking the path as the path, Being on the path and looking to the future, to the fruition, to becoming an Arhat or a Buddha, in Vajrayana you're taking the fruition as the path. And you try, with as much intelligence and imagination and faith and reverence and so forth as you possibly can, you practice imagining that you're a Buddha. Report an error

21:38 Even though you're not, you know that, but you imagine. And you imagine that, and it's valid, it's authentic, it's not just goofing around, you know. Make believe, if you have understood that there's nothing about you that makes you intrinsically, absolutely, from your own side, inherently, a sentient being. Report an error

22:01 You are a sentient being. But are you absolutely a sentient being? From every possible perspective, are you a sentient being? Report an error

22:12 That's one way of phrasing it, right? From every possible perspective, are you, from all perspectives, all come down to one thing, you're a Buddha. excuse me, you're a sentient being. Well, we'll note that in other cases, that's not the case. I'm a grandfather, but only because I have a grandson. If I had no grandson, I wouldn't be a grandfather anymore. Report an error

22:34 And I wasn't 12 years ago. And now I am. But if I look inside of me, where's the grandfather part? Where's the grandfather that's from my own side, that my grandson is just impelled to look upon me and say, Ah, I recognize you. You're a grandfather. I guess you must be mine. I wasn't a grandfather already. That's relational. I'm a spouse as well. I wasn't always. At one point I won't be. But that's relational. Report an error

23:02 And I'm a Lama for some people. Not for most. But frankly, if one person looks upon me as Lama and I'm serving in that capacity, then I am a Lama. I've gotten really comfortable with that now. Because the whole notion of Western Lama is kind of like... Report an error

23:19 But I figure, hey, that's real easy. If one person regards me as Lama, then I'm Lama. If I'm serving in that role and that person regards me as such, I'm Lama. But then if I don't have any students, I'm off the hook. Report an error

23:31 If the students all say, I think we got everything we can from Alan, let's move on. I will say so long, farewell, farewell. And I don't have to be a Lama anymore because I won't be a Lama. Because I won't be anybody's Lama. That's okay. No Lama here. No Lama to be discovered. No Lama that's already there. Relative to some people. Not to most. So when I board an airplane, I don't say, Hi, my name's Lama Alan. Report an error

24:04 I never say that. Because I'm not for that person. I'm just a customer. Customer, that's fine. Sentient beings. Is there a perspective from which we are not sentient beings? And of course you get the answer, yeah. From the perspective of pristine awareness. From the perspective of pristine awareness, we're not sentient beings. Report an error

24:27 From the perspective of essential beings, from the perspective of pristine awareness, our very identity is nothing other than pristine awareness, which is nothing other than Dharmakaya. So in Vajrayana, we have this middle ground, where in the back of your mind you know an essential being, but you know that you're not inherently essential being. If you don't know that, then don't try Vajrayana. Report an error

24:46 It's just make-believe, silly make-believe, like playing cops and robbers or something like that, pretending. But if you know that you're not inherently so, then you have the choice. To deliberately dissolve this constructed sense of identity as a sentient being, that is a choice you can make. If you constructed it, you can deconstruct it. Report an error

25:07 If you build a house and you own it, you can deconstruct the house. That's your choice. You made it, you can unmake it. We designate ourselves as sentient beings and that's valid. I know for myself that's entirely valid. It's 100 % valid. But it's also a construct. As is my being a Lama, a spouse, a grandfather, and so on. Constructed, relative, but not inherent. If it were inherent, it actually would be immutable. Report an error

25:35 It would always be true. A thousand years from now, ten thousand years from now, I would still be whatever. And then that's not true. And so in the Vajrayana, we're... Report an error

25:47 Dissolving that and then arising in a very conscious way, designating ourselves, imagining ourselves to be Buddhas, imagining ourselves to engage in Buddha activity, imagining the Guru as being Buddha, imagining our Vajra siblings as Vedas and Dakinis. And it's driven by the power of imagination and rooted in insight and emptiness. No insight and emptiness, forget about it. It's just, you know, playing dolls. Report an error

26:13 So there it is by the power of imagination, right? And Dzogchen doesn't do that. In Dzogchen you're not using power of imagination. It's one more skillful means that just caps them all. Because it is Vajrayana. It is taking the fruition as the path, but not by the power of imagination. You must have, to practice Dzogchen, you must have some genuine insight, some clear understanding that you're not intrinsically, inherently and absolutely a sentry being. Report an error

26:45 If you don't have that, Dzogchen is closed. You have to have that insight to open the door and enter into the great room, the great space of Dzogchen, the great perfection. So two terms, and then we finally get back to meditation. There are two terms that are used referring to sentry beings. There are more than two, but there's just two I want to mention. Report an error

27:05 One is Lüchen, Lüchen, Lüchen. Not so commonly used, but it's not infrequent. Lü means body, and Jian means haver, a body haver. So what kind of a body do you have? Well, I'll speak about mine. What kind of a body do I have? I have a human body. And it's got aches and complaints and maladies and had some surgeries and it was generated, in the Buddhist view, by karma and klesha and genetically, a long history of evolution. Report an error

27:29 And I accept that. Complimentary. I see no problem at all. So yes, this is a primate body and it grows and it's created by karma and klesha. And so this is a sentient being's body. It gets all the markings of a sentient being's body. And I have it, therefore I'm a sentient being. I'm a sentient body haver. So that's one reason, one really compelling reason for my concluding that I'm a sentient being. Report an error

27:53 Hey, I've got a sentient being's body. It doesn't belong to anybody else. I guess, yep, I control it. It's mine. So that makes me a sentient being because I've got a sentient being's body. Report an error

28:07 Then, of course, I'll lose this body. It's only a matter of time. It's on loan. So one of these days, it won't be mine anymore. It won't belong to anybody. Unless somebody really wants to own fertilizer, then they can have it as fertilizer, or ash, or whatever. But there's something a bit more existential, a bit more core than that, by which I can identify myself as a sentient being and have that confidence. Report an error

28:28 I really am a sentient being. You know, be able to say something with total confidence. I'm a sentient being. And why? Because I'm a sentient being. Report an error

28:39 I'm a sentient being. I'm a sentient being. Chen, Liu Body, Chen Hever Report an error

28:45 Oh yeah, that's a sentient being's mind. Anger, craving, hostility, jealousy, delusion, happy, sad, hope, fear, compassion, compassion, anger, anger, anger, love, kindness. Report an error

28:57 Boy, that's got all the earmarks of a sentient being's mind and I've got one. So I'm a sentient being. And so for those two reasons, if you're wondering whether you're a sentient being or not, check to see if you have a sentient being's body. If you do, that's pretty compelling. But if you have a sentient being's mind, that's pretty much slam dunk. Report an error

29:16 Right? You have a senjit being's mind. If you have one of those, then okay, tag, you're it. You're a senjit being. And it certainly feels like it's intrinsic. It doesn't feel like it's a matter of choice or merely something that I designated one day. It feels like it was already true before anybody designated it. Report an error

29:36 So, in the practice of shamatha, that we are now about momentarily to still have two sessions, we're going to be doing something really sly. We're coming under the radar. We're not going right to Vipassanā, which is getting out the big guns. We're not bringing in Dzogchen, bigger gun. We're just slipping under the wire, under the barbed wire. We're being sneaky. And we're just coming in here and doing like, who, me? Report an error

30:05 I'm just sitting here watching my own breath. I'm not doing anything. I'm just sitting here, minding my own business. And just, you know, breathing in, breathing out. Don't worry me. Don't worry about me. I'm just hanging out here. But when you're really resting there, the sense of having a body, the deeper you go, phase out. Report an error

30:28 It's fluctuations in a field. That's a pretty lame substitute for having a body. A body is what you see people doing in the gym. Report an error

30:38 I've got a body. Look at my body. That's why you wear the tank top, to show this is my body. And that's why I don't wear a tank top. Report an error

30:49 That's a body. It's like, what's his name? The guy with a knife. Dundee, yeah. That's a knife. That's a knife. You call that a body? That's a body. But either way, you've got a body. Well, you go here and the very label of body is gone. The visualization of body is gone. Control of body. How do I know this is my body and not that one? Because I can move mine and I can't move his. Report an error

31:25 No, it's not working at all. So that's not mine and yeah, this is mine. Got it. But you've released all control, even over your breath. You're out of work. As a body haver, you're on the dole. Report an error

31:44 You're out of work. Which means for all practical purposes, for the time being, you don't have a body. It doesn't appear to you, you're not identifying it, you're not labeling it, you're not grasping onto it. For all practical purposes, you don't have a body. You will later, you want it, it's there waiting for you. But for the time being, you don't. Report an error

32:04 But then you're resting in awareness. You're not activating your mind. You're not responding to the mind. You're not identifying with the mind. You're just resting in awareness. Well, awareness is not a mind. Report an error

32:15 And awareness, check it out. Awareness. Do you find anything intrinsically when you're just resting in awareness? This is my symbol, of course, an unflickering candle flame. Very simple. That's my symbol. When you're just resting in there, in the utter simplicity, and not even bound up in English or English with an Australian accent and so on, Not bound up in language, not bound up in the human thinking, not bound up in any human activity at all, just still, clear and cognizant. Report an error

32:47 Exactly which part of that tips you off that this is a senjit being? Report an error

32:59 Nothing. If you're a Buddha and you're just sitting quietly, still, luminous, cognizant. Right? Yeah. I mean, Dharmakai is out of time. Dharmakai is beyond time. So it's like... Ultimately still. It's neither coming nor going. It's one of the characteristics of rikpa, pristine awareness. Neither coming nor going. Report an error

33:22 Well, there you are doing your best approximation. You're neither coming nor going. You're just still and you're not doing anything. In other words, you have deactivated your sentient beings mind. Report an error

33:35 It's nowhere to be found. It's not there. Thoughts could just come skirting over like clouds covering the sun and then they're gone again. And you're just kind of like, whatever, whatever. But certainly not identifying with them, just, you know, like being clairvoyant. Oh, I saw somebody's thought will go by. I don't know whose it was, but now it's gone. You got no body. Report an error

33:54 You got no mind. You're not activating your body by scratching and moving around and doing stuff. And you're not activating your mind by thinking, hoping, fearing, remembering. You deactivated your body, deactivated your mind, and you're resting in something that is not evidently even the mind of a sentient being. Report an error

34:14 You're shifting the platform. In a very quiet, subversive way, shifting the platform of your practice from the platform of being a sentient being and practicing Dharma as a sentient being, hoping one day to achieve enlightenment, to a status that is neither kind of here nor there. It's not markedly, in any clear, compelling way, a state of awareness that is that of a sentient being. Report an error

34:43 Where's the markers? Don't have a body, don't have a mind. It's just luminous, clear and still. But it doesn't have a clear mark of being Buddha-mind either. It's not immutably blissful and all-compassionate and emanating thousands of emanations all over the universe. It's not evidently that, but not evidently that of a sentient being either. It's right in the middle. And that's how we're, in a sneaky way, coming under the fence, slipping off the platform of practicing as a sentient being and slipping onto a new platform. Report an error

35:17 Not using visualization, not using imagination, but shifting the platform and breaking through the platform of being a sentient being and cutting through that, breaking through to the ground. That's what it's called, ground. Ground awareness. And you're practicing from the perspective of being a Buddha and not imagining anything. Report an error

35:46 That's a little introduction. So now let's just go back in our subversive. Manner and see if we can undermine all of saṃsāra. If you find a comfortable posture, we'll have two back-to-back sessions. All Report an error

· · ·

36:51 of the preceding discussion points to the reason for the initial entry into the practice and that is of letting go, of releasing, Report an error

37:02 releasing your awareness into the body right down to the ground, releasing your body, relaxing, setting it at ease, releasing all control over the breath, releasing the mind. Report an error

37:19 And coming to settle, coming to rest in utter simplicity, without doing anything, Report an error

37:32 your awareness come to rest in stillness, at ease and loose, naturally clear and cognizant. Settle your body, speech and mind in the natural state. The Report an error

· · ·

38:43 early stages of shamatha practice do entail effort. It's not simply a matter of utterly relaxed, because if we do, the mind will just mosey around with not much clarity, wandering from here to there. Report an error

38:59 It takes some effort, but it's very subtle and it needs to be as continuous as possible. The effort to release grasping, it boils down to that. Report an error

39:16 To release the grasping of hope and fear, the grasping of identification with, the grasping of desire and aversion, the grasping of being addicted to stimulation. So Report an error

39:41 in that spirit of happy surrender, Report an error

39:46 looseness of release, let your awareness come to stillness. The awareness of the very nature of luminosity, it is that which illuminates all experience, all objects, all appearances, all illuminated by awareness alone. Report an error

40:06 You're resting in the light. You are the light. And Report an error

40:15 let the outer glow of your awareness illuminate the fluctuations within the somatic field corresponding to the breath. And Report an error

40:33 practice as before. Again Report an error

40:40 and again you'll probably find that your mind has wandered. Your awareness has slipped off its throne. And as soon as you note it, Again relax, patiently, persistently, perseveringly, release, relax, release, and then naturally the return occurs of its own accord, awareness coming and settling down in its own place. Report an error

41:08 But there is one other element to look out for, and that is simply sitting with a blank mind, spacing out, not wandering, just getting dull, sinking into a semi-conscious state. This too is not the practice. So sustain that flow of clear cognizance, a flow of knowing. And if you note that it is faded, Report an error

41:37 arouse your attention, come back to the present vividly. There's very little to do but just that. Sustain the flow of luminous, cognizant awareness, primarily resting in its own state and peripherally noting fluctuations corresponding to the in and out breath. Noting the duration of each in and out breath. Let's continue practicing now in silence. Wait Report an error

· · ·

1:00:45 for a few minutes. So Report an error

· · ·

1:28:19 let's continue practicing, but practice during a break and come back at 3.50. Try to maintain that stillness within even as your body is moving about. So 3.50, we'll come back. Report an error

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Talk by B. Alan Wallace. Original at Vajrayana Institute via Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/Dzogchen_Retreat_2015. Licensed CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. Transcript generated automatically and may contain errors; the audio is the authoritative version.

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