Four Applications Of Mindfulness Retreat 2013 with B. Alan Wallace (part 13)

0:05 So as I've mentioned a time or two, these mental faculties of mindfulness and introspection are most explicitly cultivated, developed, refined in the practice of shamatha. Report an error in the passage at 0:05 Highlight the passage at 0:05

0:22 And then whatever abilities we've developed in terms of these qualities, by way of shamatha, then we apply those honed faculties, we exercise them, we use them. For really probing into, investigating, examining the nature of reality, again Loka, of our experienced reality, by way of Vipassanā. So the fundamental difference between Samatha and Vipassanā, or Samatha and Vipassanā in Pāli, is that the Samatha is really a technology, it's simply refining the tool, developing attention skills, mindfulness, introspection skills, and then Vipassanā... Report an error in the passage at 0:22 Highlight the passage at 0:22

0:59 If it's authentic Vipassanā, as the Buddha taught and has been practiced for 2,500 years, authentic Vipassanā is more than simply bear attention. It entails some mode of inquiry. You really are inquiring into the nature of reality, sometimes with conceptual elaboration, sometimes very little. But if there's no inquiry, it's not Vipassanā. Report an error in the passage at 0:59 Highlight the passage at 0:59

1:21 And so now we're about to cross the fence over into Vipassanā territory. But we will start. It's a very good place to start. As Jnanaponik Tera, this German monk pointed out 50, 60 years ago, it's really good to start with some good, clear data collection. And that is to attend very closely, closely apply mindfulness. That's what the term means, Satipaṭṭhāna. Closely apply mindfulness. But now to the immediate contents of experience. Report an error in the passage at 1:21 Highlight the passage at 1:21

1:48 So this is truly, in the spirit of William James, truly an exercise in radical empiricism. Radical empiricism. We're trying to kind of strip away all the elaborations, the ornamentation, the coverings, the cloaks, the veils of preferences, conceptualization, judgments, categories, the language and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 1:48 Highlight the passage at 1:48

2:06 Strip it down as much as we can by taking a boat that has layers and layers of barnacles and just stripping it down until you get, okay, there's the hole. And try to strip it down to the hole of simply what is being presented to our senses. Report an error in the passage at 2:06 Highlight the passage at 2:06

2:22 In terms of direct perception. And the underlying motif here, and there is a question, even in this very simple practice we're about to do, is to discern what's being presented, what's being projected. One's being given, the other one's being thrown out there. Voluntarily or involuntarily, a lot of it is involuntary, obsessive and compulsive. Report an error in the passage at 2:22 Highlight the passage at 2:22

2:47 But to do our best, we're not going to be 100 % effective from the very beginning. But we can be more effective than we were in lingering, in lingering in an ongoing flow of cognizance with what is being presented to our senses. But we see, well, this is what we've been doing with mindfulness of breathing, right? In a very limited capacity, lingering there and noting long breath, short breath. Report an error in the passage at 2:47 Highlight the passage at 2:47

3:11 Right? Very simple, but it is cognizance. And it's not a type of consciousness that requires conceptual elaboration. That is, we've already got it before we say long or short, as I've said before. And so we're taking that ability and applying that to inquiring into the nature of our lived reality. And if one wonders, well, where is this coming from, this notion of cultivating mindfulness and introspection first in shamatha and then applying it to the asana. Report an error in the passage at 3:11 Highlight the passage at 3:11

3:39 I was at this mindfulness conference in Hamburg a few years ago. And I was saying this and somebody came to me afterwards and said, well, very good, he was being very polite. And he said, and where's your evidence? Can you show me a source? He said, yeah, how about the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta? Like the most obvious source there. I mean, right there in plain sight. That's what everybody talks about in the Jaravada tradition. And how the Buddha starts that discourse after giving a brief introduction is he says, now sit, direct your attention in front of you and practice mindfulness of breathing. Report an error in the passage at 3:39 Highlight the passage at 3:39

4:08 That's the first thing. The commentary by Buddhaghosa says, yeah, practice mindfulness of breathing. Achieve the first, second, third, fourth yana if you can. That's all shamatha. And then, once you've done that, whether it's first yana or more, or you've just done it maybe to some degree, having done so, okay, you're ready to launch? Report an error in the passage at 4:08 Highlight the passage at 4:08

4:26 Now we'll go into the rest of close application of mindfulness to the body. Then we'll go to feelings, mind and mental, and then phenomena. So one doesn't need to look very far. Report an error in the passage at 4:26 Highlight the passage at 4:26

4:37 Does not need to look outside of the Buddha's primary discourse on fundamental, entry-level, foundational Vipassanā. You see, he first taught shamatha. That's where you develop mindfulness and introspection. And then you apply them in the rest of the whole discourse and all the matrices of practices in the practice of Vipassanā. Report an error in the passage at 4:37 Highlight the passage at 4:37

4:54 So, once again, we can practice this in any of four postures. But for the time being, I would suggest one of two, sitting or supine. Please find a comfortable position. And we will now venture into... The close application of mindfulness to the body, and as you're settling in, you'll note immediately, from the nature of the practice we're about to go into, that when the Buddha is referring to the body, he's not just referring to your own body, as he says, attend to the body internally, but he also says attend to the body externally, which means obviously one or more bodies of other people, and then internally and externally, but by implication, Report an error in the passage at 4:54 Highlight the passage at 4:54

5:33 And this comes up very clearly in the Tibetan commentaries like Tsongkhapa and others because he wrote a beautiful commentary to this practice in his larger commentary to the Abhisamalankara. Beautiful. Really definite. Hardly ever taught, but there it is in the text. But this close application of mindfulness to the body is not just bodies. Report an error in the passage at 5:33 Highlight the passage at 5:33

5:51 It's really the physical world. It's all of the five sensory domains closely applying mindfulness to our immediate experience of the physical world. At the center of which, from our perspective, is our own bodies. That's ground zero. So that's what we'll be doing now. So, in your comfortable position, then let's begin. Report an error in the passage at 5:51 Highlight the passage at 5:51

· · · silence, 1 minute

7:05 Step by step, settle your body, speech and mind in the natural state. And upon the conclusion of doing so, for a little while, simply practice mindfulness of breathing in any of the modes we've explored. And if you find it helpful, you may count 21 breaths to make your mind relatively serviceable for the task ahead. Report an error in the passage at 7:05 Highlight the passage at 7:05

· · · silence, 3 minutes

10:25 Let your eyes be open, just normally open. And direct the full force of mindfulness to the visual field, this elliptical field of colors and shapes. Report an error in the passage at 10:25 Highlight the passage at 10:25

10:38 And in the scene, let there be just the scene. Report an error in the passage at 10:38 Highlight the passage at 10:38

10:44 Note what reality is presenting to you, to your visual awareness. But also recognize what else is coming to mind that we ever so easily superimpose upon the visual field. Report an error in the passage at 10:44 Highlight the passage at 10:44

11:06 Distinguish between what is given and what is projected. Report an error in the passage at 11:06 Highlight the passage at 11:06

· · · silence, 1 minute

12:35 The way of phrasing this is simply see visual imagery as visual imagery. Nothing more, nothing less. Empty of anything else. Report an error in the passage at 12:35 Highlight the passage at 12:35

· · · silence, 2 minutes

14:50 Then close the eyes and single-pointedly direct your attention, the flow of mindfulness, to the auditory field, that domain of experience in which sounds arise. And in the herd, that there be just the herd, Report an error in the passage at 14:50 Highlight the passage at 14:50

15:11 at the same time note the conceptual embellishments, the elaborations, the superimpositions upon. This auditory field. Report an error in the passage at 15:11 Highlight the passage at 15:11

· · · silence, 2 minutes

17:06 Now shift the focus of attention to the olfactory field. Can you detect any scents or smells, anything at all? Report an error in the passage at 17:06 Highlight the passage at 17:06

· · · silence, 1 minute

18:04 And we turn to the gustatory. Are there any lingering tastes, even very subtle ones, that you can detect in your mouth? Report an error in the passage at 18:04 Highlight the passage at 18:04

· · · silence, 1 minute

19:14 And finally turn to the tactile field. Plenty to work with here. From moment to moment, observe the tactile sensations as tactile sensations. In the sensed, let there be just the sensed. Report an error in the passage at 19:14 Highlight the passage at 19:14

19:34 On the surface of the body, on the interior, from moment to moment, sustain this flow of non-conceptual, non-discursive cognizance, simple awareness. Report an error in the passage at 19:34 Highlight the passage at 19:34

· · · silence, 3 minutes

22:36 When you see that you are visualizing the body or other mental images are coming up, note them and release them and return single-pointedly, moment by moment, to this ongoing flux, this ever-changing flow of sensations arising within the space of the body. Report an error in the passage at 22:36 Highlight the passage at 22:36