Four Applications Of Mindfulness Retreat 2013 with B. Alan Wallace (part 15)

0:08 We'll continue straight away with meditation. We'll continue with the close application of mindfulness to the body. And in this session, as in the coming sessions, we'll have our kind of background shamatha practice as the baseline, the platform, the foundation for the Vipassanā practice. So I'll explain that a little bit as we go into the guided meditation, but the background will be the kind of just ongoing flow of something that's familiar, that we can kind of get grounded in. Report an error in the passage at 0:08 Highlight the passage at 0:08

0:36 And that is the awareness of the sensations of the breathing throughout the body. But then we'll be inquiring into really the nature of the body as we experience it in first person. So please find a comfortable posture and we'll go right in. Report an error in the passage at 0:36 Highlight the passage at 0:36

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:54 So generally from now on we'll begin each session with settling body, speech and mind in the natural state and devote a few minutes to mindfulness of breathing with counting if you want it helpful, otherwise without counting. Report an error in the passage at 1:54 Highlight the passage at 1:54

· · · silence, 3 minutes

5:36 Now for just a little while, Simply be still. Let your awareness be still without focusing on any object in particular. Simply being present, sustaining the flow of awareness in the present moment without distraction, without being carried away by rumination or anything else, without grasping onto any object. Report an error in the passage at 5:36 Highlight the passage at 5:36

5:59 Just be present. Your awareness like an unflickering flame of a candle. Report an error in the passage at 5:59 Highlight the passage at 5:59

· · · silence, 1 minute

6:46 And now without moving, let the light of your awareness illuminate the space of your body. By this I do not mean visualize some light, but simply let your awareness make manifest whatever tactile sensations are arising within this somatic field. Report an error in the passage at 6:46 Highlight the passage at 6:46

7:08 In other words, be mindfully present, clearly aware of the entire field of the body. Take it all in. And Report an error in the passage at 7:08 Highlight the passage at 7:08

· · · silence, 1 minute

8:10 now within this field, let's closely apply mindfulness. Take a special interest in the tactile sensations associated with the earth element. This is very simple. Those sensations by which you sense solidity, firmness. Obviously where your body is in contact with the cushion or the floor. Report an error in the passage at 8:10 Highlight the passage at 8:10

8:41 But if you're sitting with your hands on your lap, there's earth element there, that point of contact. And anywhere else within this field of the body that you sense solidity, firmness. Report an error in the passage at 8:41 Highlight the passage at 8:41

8:54 Use those words, the concepts, to identify those sensations. And as soon as you recognize them, release the words, the labels. Release any mental imagery and just focus on the bare tactile sensations themselves. Report an error in the passage at 8:54 Highlight the passage at 8:54

· · · silence, 2 minutes

11:05 Now to carry you through the session, you may maintain a peripheral awareness of the sensations of the in and out flow of the breath, something to give you continuity. But let the primary focus for your attention be first of all on the sensations of the earth element, observing them closely as they present themselves to your tactile awareness. Report an error in the passage at 11:05 Highlight the passage at 11:05

11:43 Then move on to the water element, any sensations of moisture, fluidity within the body. This will most likely be just in your mouth, the moisture of saliva. We have the words, but then attend single-pointedly to the referent of the words. What are they pointing to? The actual sensations themselves. Focus upon them without the embellishment, the elaborations of conceptual projections and labels. Report an error in the passage at 11:43 Highlight the passage at 11:43

· · · silence, 1 minute

13:32 As we did in the practice of shamatha, utilize not only your faculty of mindfulness, focus on the meditative object, but also introspection. Report an error in the passage at 13:32 Highlight the passage at 13:32

13:42 Monitor. When your attention wanders away or becomes vague, and apply the antidotes as before. Report an error in the passage at 13:42 Highlight the passage at 13:42

· · · silence, 1 minute

14:28 Then selectively focus on the fire element. This is the whole gradient from the sensations of coldness to heat. The greater the heat, the stronger the fire element. Report an error in the passage at 14:28 Highlight the passage at 14:28

14:43 Using words to identify these particular sensations, then focus just on the sensations themselves. Report an error in the passage at 14:43 Highlight the passage at 14:43

· · · silence, 1 minute

16:18 We detect this by way of any sensations of movement, whether it's tingling or vibration, whether it's the movement of the breath, any type of movement. What I Report an error in the passage at 16:18 Highlight the passage at 16:18

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17:07 mean throughout these practices is to attend closely to what is presented to your perceptual awareness and distinguish between what is given and all of the overlays that we project in terms of concepts, images, preferences, liking and disliking. Report an error in the passage at 17:07 Highlight the passage at 17:07

17:30 In the sense, let there be just the sensed. Report an error in the passage at 17:30 Highlight the passage at 17:30

· · · silence, 1 minute

18:53 Let's turn now to the fifth element, the element of space. The space, the tactile or somatic space in which these sensations arise and see for yourself, is this space? In which these sensations arise and pass, is the space itself observable or Report an error in the passage at 18:53 Highlight the passage at 18:53

19:18 something you can only imagine? Is Report an error in the passage at 19:18 Highlight the passage at 19:18

19:24 it something presented or projected? Examine closely. Do Report an error in the passage at 19:24 Highlight the passage at 19:24

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20:17 you detect any clear boundaries of the space of the body? Certainly you can imagine them. You can imagine the shape and size of your body. But the space itself, when you seek to observe it directly, does it have a shape, a size? Does it have borders? Are Report an error in the passage at 20:17 Highlight the passage at 20:17

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21:14 you able to identify the target, the domain of experience? That is the optic of mindfulness. We seek to stabilize that mindfulness with shamatha, bring clarity to it by way of shamatha. And then by way of vipassanā we pose questions. Report an error in the passage at 21:14 Highlight the passage at 21:14

21:33 In terms of the events arising within the space of the body, Report an error in the passage at 21:33 Highlight the passage at 21:33

21:40 can you detect any that are unchanging, that persists through time, stable, static, or is everything there in a constant state of flux? Report an error in the passage at 21:40 Highlight the passage at 21:40

· · · silence, 1 minute

22:43 All the sensations arising within this field, can you identify any of them as being authentic well-strings or... Veritable sources of pleasure, of joy, such that whenever you attend to them, joy arises. And for as long as you attend to them, joy continues. Report an error in the passage at 22:43 Highlight the passage at 22:43

23:27 Among this whole array of sensations arising within this field, can you identify any of them that by their own nature, you can recognize as being your own, belonging to you and not simply something that you witness? Report an error in the passage at 23:27 Highlight the passage at 23:27