Four Applications Of Mindfulness Retreat 2013 with B. Alan Wallace (part 17)

0:06 Before we venture into the next session, just a couple of comments, and that is coming back to this basic entry of settling body, speech and mind in the natural state. Report an error in the passage at 0:06 Highlight the passage at 0:06

0:17 Very simple. But establishing a baseline, establishing when there's nothing that needs to be done, to be content, to be resting mindfully, to settle the body in its natural state, and not be fidgeting, not be moving just for the sake of moving, moving because we can't stand being still. But relaxing into stillness. This is a point of dynamic equilibrium. That is, I'm ready to continue resting. I'm ready to go backwards or forwards, to act or not act. Report an error in the passage at 0:17 Highlight the passage at 0:17

0:49 But a position of poise, of clarity, relaxation, stability and clarity. Likewise for speech. It's very easy when people gather just to start talking as if this is as natural as breathing. Report an error in the passage at 0:49 Highlight the passage at 0:49

1:05 It doesn't have to be. For people to come together in friendship or what have you, when there's nothing to talk about, to actually feel at ease in silence. It's kind of a novel thing. Report an error in the passage at 1:05 Highlight the passage at 1:05

1:18 And not feel uncomfortable, like, oh, something's wrong, we're not talking. As if our ground state should be talking, no matter about what. I mean, it's really externalized rumination. That that should be because it's familiar, it's normal, it's habitual. That just my mind is just an ongoing blabbermouth, always talking, talking, talking. Report an error in the passage at 1:18 Highlight the passage at 1:18

1:39 But somehow that would be also a good ground state for speaking, that we just keep the banter up, keep it going, keep it going, just because it fills the space. Somehow we abhor the void, we abhor silence, where silence can be restful, delightful, pleasant, soothing, relaxing, restorative. So keep on coming back to that ground state of just not torpid, lethargic, dozing off stillness, but stillness imbued with relaxation and clarity, the speech ready to speak, As soon as there's something really worthwhile to speak about. And likewise the mind coming to rest, savoring that, being so relaxed, so free of grasping, not tightly bound into silence or into stillness, but so releasing all the fretfulness, all the grasping, anxiety, hopes and fears, just coming to rest and letting that be your baseline, your default mode. Report an error in the passage at 1:39 Highlight the passage at 1:39

2:33 And then going into activity when there's something really meaningful to do, but not just thinking because there's nothing else to do. So, very good skill to cultivate in solitude and with others as well. Feeling comfortable with stillness. Stillness imbued with clarity. So, find a comfortable position. It can be, again, always sitting or supine. Report an error in the passage at 2:33 Highlight the passage at 2:33

3:04 This practice has been found to be healthy. It can be very good because as you're settling in, here's a good rule of thumb, which I'm quite persuaded is true, and that is where we... Focus our attention, especially with some degree of concentration. Focus our attention within the body, focusing on your abdomen or your forehead or wherever you're focusing. Report an error in the passage at 3:04 Highlight the passage at 3:04

3:27 When we focus with some continuity, especially, wherever we're directing the attention, we are directing prāṇa. Something physical is taking place. Prāṇa is one of the things that's physical but not material. It's not anomalous, it's not occult or mystical. There are many things that are physical and not material. As I mentioned, an electromagnetic field. Report an error in the passage at 3:27 Highlight the passage at 3:27

3:47 It's not material. There's no matter in it at all. But it certainly is physical. It can be measured. It has physical impact. It interfaces with matter, but it's not matter. So there are many things that are physical, but not material. Everything that's material is physical. Prāṇa is physical, but it's not material. Prāṇa interacts with the bodily organs. Report an error in the passage at 3:47 Highlight the passage at 3:47

4:07 It influences movement, influences speech and so forth. It's correlated with mental activity. It is physical. But it's not material. You can detect it. It's not just something you need to believe in. You can directly experience it. Many, many people do. It is physical. It's in the body. It can move and so forth. But it's not made of atoms or elementary particles of matter. And so wherever we direct the attention, lo and behold, it turns out to be the case, direct the attention within the body, prāṇa gathers there. Report an error in the passage at 4:07 Highlight the passage at 4:07

4:39 This is known, however they phrase it or explain it, it's known in biofeedback. Focus your finger single-pointedly on your fingertip and it will very likely get warmer. It can be, you know, just temperatures can get hotter. And what's happening there, which biologists or medical doctors or, how do you say, biofeedback technicians can detect, is the capillaries in the tip of your finger, they're opening up and blood is flowing more and your finger heats up. Report an error in the passage at 4:39 Highlight the passage at 4:39

5:05 And so this has been known for quite a long time in biofeedback, that by directing your attention that that influences that part of the body, especially in terms of blood flow. That influences temperature and so on. And now in this practice, I do not know when it was first formulated. It doesn't really matter that much. Report an error in the passage at 5:05 Highlight the passage at 5:05

5:21 But it certainly traces back to Goinka's teacher's teacher. His teacher was Ubakin. Sounds like an extraordinarily wonderful, benevolent, wise man who was an administrator in the Burmese government. He learned it from a forest ascetic, a monk. Whether it traces back before that, I have no idea. There's no evidence for it. Who knows? And frankly, who cares? Report an error in the passage at 5:21 Highlight the passage at 5:21

5:42 It's a good method. But the idea here, as we're scanning through the body with fairly concentrated folks' attention, we're then getting the prāṇa to move, to flow. As the attention is flowing through the body, we get the prāṇa to also flow. It starts to break up blockages or areas where there's little pranic circulation. Report an error in the passage at 5:42 Highlight the passage at 5:42

6:02 I can't speak about blood circulation, but pranic circulation. And you experience that first person. And just overall, when you do this on a regular basis, you may feel just greater kind of vitality, vibrancy, energy in the body as you're just opening up the flow of energy as almost like taking tangled hair and just gently bringing comb through it and comb through it until all the knots are untangled and then it just free flow right through the hair. Report an error in the passage at 6:02 Highlight the passage at 6:02

6:27 So that's what we're doing. We're taking the comb of mindfulness, awareness, combing it through the body and tangling blockages, knots within the flow of prāṇa. And in so doing, it's a very good mindfulness technique. It's also very good for you physiologically on a subtle energy level. So that's the practice. And let's have one session. Report an error in the passage at 6:27 Highlight the passage at 6:27

7:02 We begin as always by settling the body and speech and mind in the natural states and spend a couple of minutes in mindfulness of breathing. Report an error in the passage at 7:02 Highlight the passage at 7:02

· · · silence, 2 minutes

8:51 Let's more narrowly focus the attention, our mental awareness, on the very crown of the head, the surface of the head, Report an error in the passage at 8:51 Highlight the passage at 8:51

9:06 an area just a few inches across, like Report an error in the passage at 9:06 Highlight the passage at 9:06

9:17 a disc of a disc. On the top of the head, note whatever sensations arise there, right on the surface. Report an error in the passage at 9:17 Highlight the passage at 9:17

9:34 In first identifying the location in the body, you may want to visualize, but as soon as you've found the location, release the mental image and focus just on the sensations themselves. Report an error in the passage at 9:34 Highlight the passage at 9:34

10:03 Now expand this disk of mindfulness, this field of mindfulness, to four or five inches, as if you were wearing a cap of awareness, closely attending to the sensations arising within that more or less flat field on the surface of the skull. Report an error in the passage at 10:03 Highlight the passage at 10:03

10:45 And now we'll set this field of mindfulness in motion as if we're moving it along the surface of the head. Move it from the top of the head down to the right side of the head, down to the ear, Report an error in the passage at 10:45 Highlight the passage at 10:45

11:01 roughly five inches in diameter, covering the right side of the head and note whatever sensations arise within that field. Report an error in the passage at 11:01 Highlight the passage at 11:01

11:23 Now gently rotate it around to the back of the head, down to the base of the neck, over Report an error in the passage at 11:23 Highlight the passage at 11:23

11:55 to the left side of the head and Report an error in the passage at 11:55 Highlight the passage at 11:55

· · · silence, 1 minute

12:27 move it up to the forehead. Report an error in the passage at 12:27 Highlight the passage at 12:27

12:52 Move this field of mindfulness down across the face from the eyebrows. Down to the eyes, Report an error in the passage at 12:52 Highlight the passage at 12:52

13:10 nose and cheeks, Report an error in the passage at 13:10 Highlight the passage at 13:10

13:25 and chin. Report an error in the passage at 13:25 Highlight the passage at 13:25

13:40 Let the field of awareness expand to include these sensations along the entire contour of the whole face, but without visualizing the face. Just attend to the bare tackle sensations. Report an error in the passage at 13:40 Highlight the passage at 13:40

· · · silence, 1 minute

14:34 Now move this horizontal field of mindfulness. Move it from the front of the head right through the interior of the head to the back of the head. Report an error in the passage at 14:34 Highlight the passage at 14:34

14:48 Noting the sensations on the exterior and the interior. Report an error in the passage at 14:48 Highlight the passage at 14:48

15:12 Move it right back from the back of the head through the interior. Right back to the front of the head, to the face. Report an error in the passage at 15:12 Highlight the passage at 15:12

· · · silence, 1 minute

16:00 Now expand this field of mindfulness to a three-dimensional volume and let the awareness permeate the whole three-dimensional field of your head simultaneously. Like turning the light on and illuminating all the sensations within the space of the head. Report an error in the passage at 16:00 Highlight the passage at 16:00

16:32 And note what type of sensations arise. Are they correlated with earth, water, fire or air or some combination? Now Report an error in the passage at 16:32 Highlight the passage at 16:32

· · · silence, 1 minute

18:02 let's set this volume. This three-dimensional volume of mindfulness. Set it in motion as you move this field down through the neck to the shoulders. Report an error in the passage at 18:02 Highlight the passage at 18:02

18:28 Setting this volume of mindfulness in continual slow motion, move it along your left shoulder, along the area of the collarbone up to the shoulder. Move it gradually down, the left upper arm down to the elbow, Report an error in the passage at 18:28 Highlight the passage at 18:28

19:05 down the forearm to the left wrist, Report an error in the passage at 19:05 Highlight the passage at 19:05

19:26 along the hand to the tips of the fingers. Report an error in the passage at 19:26 Highlight the passage at 19:26

19:49 Now move this field of awareness up to the base of the neck on the right side of the The neck, move it along to the shoulder, Report an error in the passage at 19:49 Highlight the passage at 19:49

20:02 down the right upper arm to the elbow, Report an error in the passage at 20:02 Highlight the passage at 20:02

20:26 the forearm to the wrist, Report an error in the passage at 20:26 Highlight the passage at 20:26

20:31 noting the various elements arise, earth, perhaps water, fire for sure, air, you'll certainly feel motion within that limb as you come to the wrist and keep on going right down to the tips of the fingers. Report an error in the passage at 20:31 Highlight the passage at 20:31

· · · silence, 1 minute

21:18 Let's move this three-dimensional field of mindfulness up to the torso and specifically if we take the torso like a tic-tac-toe diagram with nine segments. Report an error in the passage at 21:18 Highlight the passage at 21:18

21:29 Move it up to the left upper region of the torso, up to your chest, on the left side, upper left. Report an error in the passage at 21:29 Highlight the passage at 21:29

21:40 But again let this be a volume, a three-dimensional volume of mindfulness so you're aware of your chest, the interior of the torso and the upper left region of the back. Report an error in the passage at 21:40 Highlight the passage at 21:40

21:52 Note whatever sensations arise within this field. Report an error in the passage at 21:52 Highlight the passage at 21:52

22:18 Move this field over to the center, the upper center region of the torso and the base of the neck and the chest over Report an error in the passage at 22:18 Highlight the passage at 22:18

22:50 to the upper right region. Report an error in the passage at 22:50 Highlight the passage at 22:50

· · · silence, 1 minute

23:33 Down to the right middle region, down to the diaphragm, the mid portion of the torso, Report an error in the passage at 23:33 Highlight the passage at 23:33

24:03 the very center, focusing on the solar plexus. Report an error in the passage at 24:03 Highlight the passage at 24:03

· · · silence, 1 minute

24:39 Over to the middle left region, Report an error in the passage at 24:39 Highlight the passage at 24:39

25:03 lower left, down to the hip, the hip joint. Report an error in the passage at 25:03 Highlight the passage at 25:03

25:28 Middle of the lower region of the torso, Report an error in the passage at 25:28 Highlight the passage at 25:28

25:50 lower right. Report an error in the passage at 25:50 Highlight the passage at 25:50

26:06 Continuing in motion, shift this volume of mindful awareness down to the lower, the right buttock, along the right thigh to the knee. Report an error in the passage at 26:06 Highlight the passage at 26:06

26:24 Noting the sensations in the interior and the exterior. Report an error in the passage at 26:24 Highlight the passage at 26:24

26:49 Around the right leg to the right ankle. Report an error in the passage at 26:49 Highlight the passage at 26:49

27:05 Along the foot to the tips of the toes. Report an error in the passage at 27:05 Highlight the passage at 27:05

27:18 And move up to the left buttock. Move along the thigh to the knee. The Report an error in the passage at 27:18 Highlight the passage at 27:18

27:50 knee down the shin and the calf down to the ankle. Along Report an error in the passage at 27:50 Highlight the passage at 27:50

28:09 the foot to the tips of the toes. Report an error in the passage at 28:09 Highlight the passage at 28:09

28:27 Now let's come right back to the very top of the head. Taking less than a minute, scan quickly now through all these body parts, these regions of the body. From the tip of the head right down to the tips of the toes. Scanning quickly through into Report an error in the passage at 28:27 Highlight the passage at 28:27

29:09 the top of the head. And scan quickly through to the bottom. Report an error in the passage at 29:09 Highlight the passage at 29:09

29:34 And for third and final time, the same thing from the top to the bottom. Report an error in the passage at 29:34 Highlight the passage at 29:34

30:05 And now let the light of your awareness illuminate the entire field of the body simultaneously. And be still. Report an error in the passage at 30:05 Highlight the passage at 30:05