Four Applications Of Mindfulness Retreat 2013 with B. Alan Wallace (part 26)

0:00 Oh, that's so. Let's go directly into practice. We'll return to settling the mind in its natural state, but venture into then the Vipassanā practice of closely applying mindfulness to feelings, mental feelings. Report an error in the passage at 0:00 Highlight the passage at 0:00

· · · silence, 1 minute

0:54 I'll emphasize this point again just because it's so enormously important for the practice. And that is bringing to the practice of Vipassanā, this close application of mindfulness to feelings, to observing the mind as a whole. Report an error in the passage at 0:54 Highlight the passage at 0:54

1:09 It's imperative that there be this sense of inner looseness, relaxation of ease. If we approach it with the mind tight, bound up, it won't work. We'll be grasping onto or be carried away by whatever comes up. Report an error in the passage at 1:09 Highlight the passage at 1:09

1:25 So first of all, deliberately, slowly, settle body, speech and mind in the natural state and gently calm the turbulence of the conceptual mind with mindfulness of breathing. Report an error in the passage at 1:25 Highlight the passage at 1:25

· · · silence, 2 minutes

3:37 As you settle your mind in its natural state, see if once again you can hover, hover in the present moment without grasping onto or dropping your anchor into anything, your breath or any other object, Just let your awareness rest free of grasping in the present moment without distraction, without latching onto anything, just being present. Report an error in the passage at 3:37 Highlight the passage at 3:37

· · · silence, 1 minute

4:49 And now let's once again go in gradually to avoid disorientation, to avoid unnecessary frustration. Report an error in the passage at 4:49 Highlight the passage at 4:49

4:59 And let us once again let the light of your awareness illuminate the space of your body Report an error in the passage at 4:59 Highlight the passage at 4:59

5:07 so that you are able to clearly discern the type of tactile sensations arising within that field as well as the feelings, pleasure, discomfort. Neutral feeling. Let your awareness be still, unmoving, while observing the comings and goings of tactile sensations and feelings. Report an error in the passage at 5:07 Highlight the passage at 5:07

· · · silence, 1 minute

6:44 Observe the objectively appearing tactile sensations that you can look at, but also be aware of, as you closely apply your mindfulness to, the feelings which are more the mode of apprehension rather than objects of apprehension. Report an error in the passage at 6:44 Highlight the passage at 6:44

7:02 And observe how your awareness of the feelings influence the feelings themselves. Report an error in the passage at 7:02 Highlight the passage at 7:02

· · · silence, 2 minutes

8:42 As you're focusing your mindfulness on the space of the body and the events arising within that domain of experience, monitor the flow of mindfulness with introspection so Report an error in the passage at 8:42 Highlight the passage at 8:42

8:56 that you are aware when thoughts, ruminations pull your attention away. Maintain a peripheral awareness of the activities of the mind while primarily focusing your mindfulness on the space of the body. Report an error in the passage at 8:56 Highlight the passage at 8:56

· · · silence, 2 minutes

11:28 And now shift emphasis, move next door so to speak. Let the primary focus of mindfulness now shift to the space of the mind. And what are the thoughts, images and emotions, feelings, raw basic feelings of pleasure, pain, indifference, arise within the space of the mind, but while maintaining now a peripheral awareness, some kind of an anchor, a point of orientation, Report an error in the passage at 11:28 Highlight the passage at 11:28

11:57 a peripheral awareness of the in and outflow of the breath, primary focus, space of the mind and the thoughts and feelings that arise therein. To Report an error in the passage at 11:57 Highlight the passage at 11:57

12:30 give yourself a bit more traction, you may find it helpful, for a little while anyway. To go back to the routine of arousing and focusing, taking a real strong interest in the space of the mind, its contents, with each inhalation. Then as the breath flows out, sustain your focus on the space of the mind and thoughts and feelings, but relaxing deeply as you breathe out, Report an error in the passage at 12:30 Highlight the passage at 12:30

13:00 arousing and relaxing. Report an error in the passage at 13:00 Highlight the passage at 13:00

· · · silence, 5 minutes

18:02 And then see if you can pull up the anchor and just float. And that is without deliberately giving any attention to the breath or any sensory appearances. Of the five physical senses, focus single-pointedly to the best of your ability, on the space of the mind, whatever thoughts, emotions arise. Report an error in the passage at 18:02 Highlight the passage at 18:02

18:25 And if you need a bit of help, then feel free to deliberately generate a discursive thought, anyone you like, Mary had a little lamb or anything else, syllable by syllable, focusing on it, seeing that you can be aware of the thought from its genesis. You can observe it through all its phases, its origination, its presence and its disillusion. Report an error in the passage at 18:25 Highlight the passage at 18:25

18:50 When you generate it. Report an error in the passage at 18:50 Highlight the passage at 18:50

18:54 So you may crystallize your attention in the space of the mind by deliberately generating a thought or an image or a sequence of images. So try that whenever it's helpful to refocus your attention on the space of the mind and its contents. You Report an error in the passage at 18:54 Highlight the passage at 18:54

· · · silence, 2 minutes

21:16 may also generate a feeling. Why not a happy one? You may recall very deliberately some very pleasant memory. Bring to mind a person who you love who gives you happiness or catalyzes happiness or some fantasy. Maybe a vacation you'd love to follow or something in the future you'd love to see happen. Do whatever it takes to generate thoughts, images, memories that arouse a pleasant feeling in the mind and then observe the feeling and observe what happens when you observe the feeling. Report an error in the passage at 21:16 Highlight the passage at 21:16

21:55 It's factors of origination, it's nature and the factors of disillusion. Report an error in the passage at 21:55 Highlight the passage at 21:55

· · · silence, 1 minute

22:52 Observe also neutral feeling. It's not an absence of feeling. It's an affective sense of equipoise. Neither unhappy nor happy, simply resting. Bear Report an error in the passage at 22:52 Highlight the passage at 22:52

23:17 in mind it's from that middle point that Report an error in the passage at 23:17 Highlight the passage at 23:17

23:22 genuine happiness emerges, not riding piggyback on hedonic pleasure or hedonic suffering, but Report an error in the passage at 23:22 Highlight the passage at 23:22

23:33 from the zero point. Report an error in the passage at 23:33 Highlight the passage at 23:33