Four Applications Of Mindfulness Retreat 2013 with B. Alan Wallace (part 22)

0:02 So we'll return to meditation once again and we'll begin with the mindfulness of breathing, really bringing the awareness to the body and perhaps especially in light of the talk I just gave, highlighting certain central points of Buddhist understanding of feelings and their relevance, it might become all the clearer then why in this phase of shamatha, for example mindfulness of breathing, why we are focusing on an object that is In terms of the sensations coming in, not particularly pleasurable, that is, they don't tend to arouse craving or attachment, nor are they unpleasurable, arousing aversion or quite neutral, very neutral. Report an error in the passage at 0:02 Highlight the passage at 0:02

0:49 And then we abide in that and not trying to cultivate some positive attitude, positive thinking, anything like that, just staying in neutral, the quality of awareness being neutral, the quality of optic being neutral. And then out of that neutrality, where neither craving nor hostility, craving nor aversion, are being aroused, out of that neutrality, out of that neutral feeling, many people find, I mean, it's normal, that out of that neutral feeling arises, first of all, just a sense of peace, just a kind of serenity, it's quiet, it's kind of nice, it's more peaceful than normal, more peaceful than having the mind... Report an error in the passage at 0:49 Highlight the passage at 0:49

1:26 It can be yanked by one sensory stimulus after another or be dragged away in chains by the chains of rumination, by the lines of wandering thoughts. This is kind of a nice respite. And so nothing special, nothing to write home about, as we say. But, well, it's a bit peaceful. And I was kind of expecting that. Report an error in the passage at 1:26 Highlight the passage at 1:26

1:44 I wanted peace, so I practiced shamatha and I got a bit more peace. Shamatha means peace or serenity. So one sees that. And so that's a good start. And so the practice of mindfulness is kind of like going on, I think it's the same phrase in Australia, cold turkey, you know that? It's the same word, isn't it? Cold turkey, if you're a drug addict, cold turkey, it's a very unpleasant period where you're absolutely off the drug, you have no access to cocaine or heroin or whatever addictive drug you're on. Report an error in the passage at 1:44 Highlight the passage at 1:44

2:15 And so it's a transition time, it's time to get over your addiction to that and start afresh and then have more meaningful desires and behavior and so forth. And mindfulness of breathing is kind of cold turkey. That is, we're disengaging for the time being from the many stimuli and so forth that just tend to compulsively arouse craving and attachment. Report an error in the passage at 2:15 Highlight the passage at 2:15

2:36 And then on the other side, of course, it's like, you know, left and right. If there's craving and attachment, there's going to be hostility and aggression because everything isn't going to go your way. And when it doesn't, then the response is likely to be getting pissed off and then escalate all the way up to rage. And so taking a respite. Report an error in the passage at 2:36 Highlight the passage at 2:36

2:54 From that whole syndrome of hastening after this and then warding off that, slipping into something that is just neutral. So the old mental afflictions are not being catalyzed. It's like having a disease, but the symptoms have subsided. And then out of that neutrality, so far that's what one would expect. Report an error in the passage at 2:54 Highlight the passage at 2:54

3:16 If one never meditated, one would think, well, it's probably very peaceful. Because your mind's calming down, you're not caught up in all the sensory attractions and so forth, or sensory disattractions. And so imagine it would be peaceful. So good guess, that's what's happened. What you wouldn't guess, and you don't know unless you really meditate and you cultivate and develop this ability, is out of that neutral space, where you're not being pleasantly stimulated or unpleasantly stimulated, either one, out of that neutral space, out of that feeling of indifference, Arises serenity, kind of peace, very mildly pleasurable. You like it. But then out of that emerges, as the mind gets more and more unveiled, settles into a deeper state of equipoise, free of excitation and laxity, a sense of well-being starts to come up. Report an error in the passage at 3:16 Highlight the passage at 3:16

4:04 Now that's genuine. That's not stimulus-driven, because nothing there made you start to feel good. On the contrary, you're attending to a neutral stimulus. It's still a neutral stimulus. But your way of experiencing it is different. You start actually enjoying mindfulness of breathing. You enjoy maintaining the mindfulness of those sensations. Report an error in the passage at 4:04 Highlight the passage at 4:04

4:26 You enjoy it. You'd really like not to stop and not to go off to the refrigerator and eat something or anything else. Thanks, I'm okay. And you want to continue. A sense of well-being arises, and I'm fast-forwarding this. It doesn't all happen in one session usually. But a sense of well-being arises, and then out of that, something much sharper can arise. Report an error in the passage at 4:26 Highlight the passage at 4:26

4:47 It frequently does. And it's a sense of real joy. Real joy. And that's authentic. Because it's, once again, a symptom of a mind that's really now becoming healthy. And the mind that's healthy feels good. And the mind that is, insofar as it's afflicted, the mind feels bad even when it's not being stimulated in a negative way. Report an error in the passage at 4:47 Highlight the passage at 4:47

5:06 It's homegrown, genuine unhappiness. Because it's just coming from the mind that is in a state of unrest and imbalance. So we'll start there. We'll start with mindfulness of breathing. And then roughly halfway through, then we'll return and venture into this great exploration of the nature of feelings and we'll continue this morning just feelings arising in the body. Report an error in the passage at 5:06 Highlight the passage at 5:06

5:27 We care about them too, very importantly. Report an error in the passage at 5:27 Highlight the passage at 5:27

5:58 Let's begin as usual by settling the body, speech and mind and the natural state, calming the mind with mindfulness of breathing, and as usual make a special emphasis on releasing fully with every out-breath, especially relevant for those, all of us, living in this modern world. To unwind, loosen up and release the energy behind all that turbulence of the conceptual mind. Report an error in the passage at 5:58 Highlight the passage at 5:58

· · · silence, 2 minutes

8:52 Now let your awareness illuminate the entire space of the body, this whole field, tactile sensations. The space itself and whatever sensations arise within it attend closely to what is appearing to your awareness. Those sensations correlated with earth, water, fire, air. Report an error in the passage at 8:52 Highlight the passage at 8:52

9:16 And if you detect any other appearances that fall outside of those four categories, Attend closely, report later on. Report an error in the passage at 9:16 Highlight the passage at 9:16

9:44 In the sensed, let there be just the sensed, in other words, see these appearances as nakedly as you can, now Report an error in the passage at 9:44 Highlight the passage at 9:44

· · · silence, 3 minutes

12:36 with precise examination or the very close application of mindfulness, as you sense discomfort arising in the body, some irritating sensation, unpleasant, disagreeable. Report an error in the passage at 12:36 Highlight the passage at 12:36

12:57 See if you can discern now the distinction, or if there is a distinction, between the sensations themselves. And the way you're feeling them. Because again, the hypothesis is that the feeling tone is in the mode of apprehension and not intrinsically in the nature of the object itself. It's how we are experiencing. In this case, the tactile sensation. Can you experientially distinguish between the nature of the sensation itself, bare, raw, tactile, primitive, and the way you're experiencing it, which you experience as being pleasurable or unpleasurable or neutral? Report an error in the passage at 12:57 Highlight the passage at 12:57

13:39 Examine closely. With a special highlight or emphasis on examining the feeling tone, the experience of pleasure or displeasure or neutrality itself. If Report an error in the passage at 13:39 Highlight the passage at 13:39

· · · silence, 2 minutes

15:43 the pleasure or displeasure in a sensation is actually in the sensation itself, if it's objectively given, then we may have only two options, either to experience it or to block it. If it's intrinsically, let's say, unpleasant or painful. But if that displeasure Or painfulness is rather in the mode of apprehending the objectively given sensation, then we may be able to modify it. Report an error in the passage at 15:43 Highlight the passage at 15:43

16:17 So let's run an experiment. If there's some region of your body right now where you experience some discomfort, Report an error in the passage at 16:17 Highlight the passage at 16:17

16:29 clearly demarcate that area of discomfort, draw a border around it, your target area. And then with a very quiet mind, as little conceptualization as possible, with the power of your concentration, Bear attention. Bore right into the sensations themselves. Really concentrate. Focus. Penetrate. Report an error in the passage at 16:29 Highlight the passage at 16:29

16:54 Delve right into the sensations themselves. Report an error in the passage at 16:54 Highlight the passage at 16:54

17:00 And see if the more closely and more precisely penetratingly you examine the sensations themselves, whether the feeling becomes highlighted, accentuated, remains a stain, or fades out. Report an error in the passage at 17:00 Highlight the passage at 17:00

17:18 So run the experiment. What happens when you penetratingly, with strong concentration, Examine the sensations themselves. Report an error in the passage at 17:18 Highlight the passage at 17:18

· · · silence, 1 minute

18:44 Now let's run another experiment. I'll just take an example. Imagine the discomfort is in your knee. I'll just take that as an example. You apply it to your own experience. So now the knee, that's where the disagreeable sensations are that appear to be objective. Report an error in the passage at 18:44 Highlight the passage at 18:44

19:04 That's where the pain is, in the knee. Report an error in the passage at 19:04 Highlight the passage at 19:04

19:09 Now imagine the knee. Visualize it. If Report an error in the passage at 19:09 Highlight the passage at 19:09

19:16 it aches, it feels throbbing, imagine it red, pulsing, bulging, getting swollen. Report an error in the passage at 19:16 Highlight the passage at 19:16

19:25 And then compound this, thinking maybe I'm really damaging my knee. It's really getting quite painful. Maybe I'm getting arthritis. Report an error in the passage at 19:25 Highlight the passage at 19:25

19:36 This could really get worse. Report an error in the passage at 19:36 Highlight the passage at 19:36

19:41 Imagine the knee really throbbing. I Report an error in the passage at 19:41 Highlight the passage at 19:41

19:50 could wind up a cripple. Maybe I'm really damaging the cartilage. Who knows what this will lead. This could be really bad. So go ahead and compound it. Lay it on. Lather it on with your visualization, with your thoughts. When Report an error in the passage at 19:50 Highlight the passage at 19:50

20:12 you reify the knee. Really objectify it. It's inherently absolutely there. And you reify the pain or the discomfort in the knee. And you think about it. You lay on this cognitive bias, speculations, imagination. Report an error in the passage at 20:12 Highlight the passage at 20:12

20:28 Examine closely the feeling itself. Does the feeling remain the same? Does it get stronger? Or does it diminish? Closely apply mindfulness to feeling when you compound it with the visualization and conceptualization. And Report an error in the passage at 20:28 Highlight the passage at 20:28

· · · silence, 1 minute

21:33 once again, peel back. All these projections you've been superimposing upon the sensations themselves, the thoughts, the ideas, the images. Terminate them and Report an error in the passage at 21:33 Highlight the passage at 21:33

21:48 return to an immediate experience of the sensations arising in the body, examining how your very mindfulness of the sensations and of the feelings, the mindfulness itself, the attentiveness to them, how does that influence the feelings? Or does it have any influence? Simply paying attention to the feelings. Report an error in the passage at 21:48 Highlight the passage at 21:48

22:15 Does it accentuate them, diminish them, or does it remain untouched, uninfluenced? Observe closely. Report an error in the passage at 22:15 Highlight the passage at 22:15

· · · silence, 2 minutes

24:00 If there's discomfort, unpleasant feelings in one part of the body, one local part or region, and you direct your attention to another part of the body, what happens to those feelings of discomfort? Report an error in the passage at 24:00 Highlight the passage at 24:00

24:18 Do they diminish, remain the same, or are they augmented? Report an error in the passage at 24:18 Highlight the passage at 24:18

24:28 Examine closely the impact of observing, attending closely to feelings, and directing attention away from the feelings. How does that influence the feelings themselves? Report an error in the passage at 24:28 Highlight the passage at 24:28

· · · silence, 1 minute

26:01 Then let your attention row freely within the space of the body, attending to whatever feelings arise, and very simply observe the impact of your awareness of the feelings on the feelings. Report an error in the passage at 26:01 Highlight the passage at 26:01