Glen Svensson: Gelug Tradition of Mahamudra (part 5)

0:07 Good morning everyone. Report an error in the passage at 0:07 Highlight the passage at 0:07

0:12 I thought it'd be nice to start with a short meditation. Since we're in the middle of talking about the shamatha section, I thought it'd be nice to try a little shamatha meditation, particularly sort of following a maha mudrā approach to shamatha. So let's begin with that. Report an error in the passage at 0:12 Highlight the passage at 0:12

0:42 Find a nice comfortable posture, Report an error in the passage at 0:42 Highlight the passage at 0:42

0:49 keeping the back nice and straight. Report an error in the passage at 0:49 Highlight the passage at 0:49

0:59 And as always we can begin by preparing the body. So allow your awareness to descend into your body, filling the entire space of the body, becoming aware of sensations throughout the body. If Report an error in the passage at 0:59 Highlight the passage at 0:59

1:37 you notice any areas of tightness or tension, then to the best of your ability, relax and release that tightness or tension. Bring Report an error in the passage at 1:37 Highlight the passage at 1:37

2:09 your awareness to your face. Report an error in the passage at 2:09 Highlight the passage at 2:09

2:13 Soften and relax the muscles in the face, particularly in the area of the mouth, chin and jaw. Report an error in the passage at 2:13 Highlight the passage at 2:13

2:31 Your forehead be open and spacious, the eyes soft and relaxed. Report an error in the passage at 2:31 Highlight the passage at 2:31

· · · silence, 1 minute

3:18 And allow your breathing to settle into its natural rhythm without trying to force or control the breath in any way. And Report an error in the passage at 3:18 Highlight the passage at 3:18

3:47 with each out breath, relax deeper and deeper. And with each out-breath release any thoughts that may have arisen. Report an error in the passage at 3:47 Highlight the passage at 3:47

· · · silence, 1 minute

4:38 And then settling our mind in its natural state, a state of ease and relaxation, by letting go of any hopes or fears, worries or expectations about the past or the future. Report an error in the passage at 4:38 Highlight the passage at 4:38

4:59 In particular, letting go of any expectations with regard to this meditation. Letting go of all of these things and very gently coming into the stillness of the present moment by focusing on the breath. Report an error in the passage at 4:59 Highlight the passage at 4:59

5:21 So we can focus on the breath either at the entrance of the nostrils or at the rising and lowering of the abdomen. Report an error in the passage at 5:21 Highlight the passage at 5:21

· · · silence, 2 minutes

7:32 Now release your focus breath and with your eyes at least partially open bring your attention to your own mind. Report an error in the passage at 7:32 Highlight the passage at 7:32

7:48 Focus. On the space of your mind and whatever is arising in that space. Thoughts, feelings, images, memories. Simply observe the space of your mind and whatever is arising in that space Report an error in the passage at 7:48 Highlight the passage at 7:48

8:21 without following thoughts, without trying to get rid of thoughts. Simply allowing them to arise and to pass without grasping, without distraction. Report an error in the passage at 8:21 Highlight the passage at 8:21

· · · silence, 1 minute

9:54 If you're having difficulty locating the space of the mind, then deliberately generate a thought. Any thought will do. Simply watch that thought and observe it as it disappears back into the space of your mind. Report an error in the passage at 9:54 Highlight the passage at 9:54

10:17 And then keep your attention right where it was. This is the space of the mind. Simply wait for the next thought to appear in that space. Report an error in the passage at 10:17 Highlight the passage at 10:17

· · · silence, 2 minutes

12:41 Whatever arises of the mind, Let it be without preference, without trying to alter the contents of the mind in any way. Whether Report an error in the passage at 12:41 Highlight the passage at 12:41

13:00 the thoughts appear to be pleasant or unpleasant, simply let them be. Simply observe them arising and passing, without grasping, without distraction. Report an error in the passage at 13:00 Highlight the passage at 13:00

· · · silence, 6 minutes

19:01 And release all appearances and allow the mind to come to rest in its own place, illuminating its own nature. Report an error in the passage at 19:01 Highlight the passage at 19:01

19:14 So without trying to do anything at all, without even trying to meditate, simply be present, simply rest in the present moment, just be aware. Report an error in the passage at 19:14 Highlight the passage at 19:14

· · · silence, 1 minute

20:05 Appearances will continue to arise, simply ignore them. Just be aware of being aware. Report an error in the passage at 20:05 Highlight the passage at 20:05

· · · silence, 2 minutes

21:47 And then while maintaining that awareness of present moment, slowly end this meditation and begin. Report an error in the passage at 21:47 Highlight the passage at 21:47

22:28 Let's begin with a little bit of a review of what we did yesterday so we haven't forgotten everything, so we know where we are and we can build on that. Report an error in the passage at 22:28 Highlight the passage at 22:28

22:43 So we're following this text here called The Main Path of the Victors, a root text for the precious Gelug Kagyu tradition of Mahamudra. Report an error in the passage at 22:43 Highlight the passage at 22:43

22:58 And so remember Mahamudra, the word Mahamudra. Report an error in the passage at 22:58 Highlight the passage at 22:58

23:08 And Maha means great. So Maha Mudrā is the great seal or great stamp. And so what Maha Mudrā is referring to is the nature of reality. Report an error in the passage at 23:08 Highlight the passage at 23:08

23:22 That emptiness or sunyata, which we're going to be looking at a little bit later today, is describing the nature of reality. That things are empty of independent existence. And so everything that exists is stamped or sealed by emptiness. Meaning that everything that exists has its nature emptiness, that everything is empty of independent existence. Report an error in the passage at 23:22 Highlight the passage at 23:22

23:54 And emptiness or shunyata is referred to as being great because by coming to realize emptiness or shunyata, we can overcome the ignorance in our mind, the ignorance misunderstanding nature reality, which according to Buddhism is the root of all of our problems and suffering. So if we can overcome this ignorance by coming to realize this shunyata or emptiness, we can go completely beyond all suffering and its causes. Report an error in the passage at 23:54 Highlight the passage at 23:54

24:27 So hence, emptiness is referred to as Mahamudra. Now, Mahamudra is a system of meditation where we can come to realize this emptiness, but in particular in Mahamudra practice, we are focusing on the mind itself. Report an error in the passage at 24:27 Highlight the passage at 24:27

24:51 So hence, Mahamudra practice is often referred to as coming to understand and realize the nature of our own mind. Report an error in the passage at 24:51 Highlight the passage at 24:51

25:05 And here it says we are following this Gelug slash Kargyu tradition of Mahamudra. So remember, Mahamudra approach to practice came to Tibet through great Indian masters, Talopa Naropa, passed on to great Tibetan masters, Mapa Milarepa. So this is how the oral Mahamudra lineage came into Tibet. And then this was the basis of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. Report an error in the passage at 25:05 Highlight the passage at 25:05

25:36 But then also we have a lineage of practice coming into Tibet from Lama Atisha called the Lamrim lineage, stages of the path practice. And then this came down to a great Tibetan master Lama Tsongkhapa. Who then synthesized the lamrim, stages of the path approach, together with this oral Mahamudra tradition, to form the Galuk tradition of Mahamudra practice. Report an error in the passage at 25:36 Highlight the passage at 25:36

26:08 Hence, it's called Galuk slash Kagyu tradition. And so that's what we're following here. And the text, of course, is by Panchin Lohsan Chuggi Gelsen, the first Panchin Lama, who... Wrote down instructions from this oral tradition that had been passed down through Lama Tsongkhapa. And in the text here we see that there's three main sections to the text. Report an error in the passage at 26:08 Highlight the passage at 26:08

26:36 There was the preliminaries, the actual practice and the conclusion. Preliminaries is about the foundation of our practice. What are the practices that we need to work on as a foundation for engaging in Mahanudra practice? So here we saw in the first sentence that it says, in order to have a doorway for entering into the Dharma and a central pillar for the Mahāyāna, sincerely go for refuge and generate bodhicitta. Report an error in the passage at 26:36 Highlight the passage at 26:36

27:09 So here we can see that as the door of entry in general, we need to really develop this idea of refuge, going for refuge to the Buddha, his teachings and the spiritual community, the three jewels. and that we need to develop a... A motivation of bodhicitta. Bodhicitta, of course, is the aspiration for enlightenment so that we can help liberate everyone else from suffering. Report an error in the passage at 27:09 Highlight the passage at 27:09

27:39 And so here, not only do we need to develop those as an entry point, but as it says here, as the central pillar, as the support of our practice. So even though our main focus of practice here is this insight into the nature of our mind, We need to make sure that that's in the context of having this bodhicitta motivation. And so we mentioned yesterday briefly that it was very important to have both of these aspects of the path, the wisdom and the compassion aspects, to not forget one or the other, to really work together to balance our practice with the wisdom and the compassion aspects. Report an error in the passage at 27:39 Highlight the passage at 27:39

28:22 And so here the compassion aspect is mentioned here in terms of... Generating this idea of bodhicitta. But of course here Panchen Lama says that we should work on developing our refuge in bodhicitta without these being merely words from our mouth. Report an error in the passage at 28:22 Highlight the passage at 28:22

28:41 And so to be able to do that then we need to contemplate on a few points so that it doesn't just become words from our mouth. So we had a look at those yesterday. Those ideas are called the four thoughts that turn the mind. Report an error in the passage at 28:41 Highlight the passage at 28:41

29:01 The first two of those, of course, were to reflect on our precious human life and death, to really appreciate the situation we find ourselves in, so that we are not lazy when it comes to spiritual practice, so that we don't get caught up in a lot of rather meaningless activities, that we don't waste our life. Report an error in the passage at 29:01 Highlight the passage at 29:01

29:24 To really appreciate the opportunity we find. Ourselves in and the fact that it's not going to last forever and Report an error in the passage at 29:24 Highlight the passage at 29:24

29:35 thereby we can prioritize our life and focus on things that are meaningful for us. And the third reflection was the idea of karma to understand law of cause and effect in terms of our behavior to really help us to establish an ethical foundation to our life. And then the fourth reflection was the unsatisfactory nature of saṃsāra, to come to really appreciate our experiences, to come to really appreciate the fact that our sense Report an error in the passage at 29:35 Highlight the passage at 29:35

30:14 pleasures, our pleasurable experiences are not really the happiness, the lasting happiness that we're seeking, that they're simply transient, temporary, pleasant experiences. But we tend to chase after those, hoping that they're going to really give us some fulfillment and satisfaction in our life. Of course, they're never going to be able to do that simply because they are transient and they always come to an end. Report an error in the passage at 30:14 Highlight the passage at 30:14

30:45 And so to really appreciate that so we don't get caught up in chasing after them and grasping and clinging to them. But at a deeper level with this reflection, to really understand that... As long as we have ignorance and disturbing emotions in our mind, we are stuck. We're going to always have the potential for some form of problem or suffering to arise. Report an error in the passage at 30:45 Highlight the passage at 30:45

31:10 And so if we can appreciate these points in that fourth reflection, then we can turn the mind away from looking for happiness out there and start to look for happiness inside. So that's going to really help us to really sincerely go for refuge and then on that basis also we can sincerely try to develop this mind of bodhicitta. Report an error in the passage at 31:10 Highlight the passage at 31:10

31:36 But also in the text here in the preliminaries it talked about these four what normally called special preliminaries. The first one was the going for refuge generated bodhicitta and then we see Vajrasapha meditation mandala offering guru yoga. These particularly are We have preliminary practices to prepare us, particularly for the higher level of practice, the tantra level of practice. So all of them have a very tantric flavour to them. Report an error in the passage at 31:36 Highlight the passage at 31:36

32:08 But even at our level as a beginner, I think we can understand from these four that there are four aspects that we also need to work on as a preliminary to our level of practice. And of course the going for refuge generating bodhicitta I've already mentioned. The Vajrasattva meditation is all about purifying our mind of negativities. So I think also we also need to put some effort into purifying our mind of negativities. Report an error in the passage at 32:08 Highlight the passage at 32:08

32:40 And we looked at these four opponent powers as an effective way to do that. But not only do we need to purify our mind of negativities, we need to increase the positive potential of our mind, the positive imprints in our mind. By engaging in virtuous activities. And so mandala offering here is one specific way of doing that. Report an error in the passage at 32:40 Highlight the passage at 32:40

33:02 But of course we as a beginner can also just in general try to engage in as much virtuous positive actions as possible. And then the fourth point here, the Guru Yoga is to, at the highest level practice, the Guru Yoga practice is to get to Develop a very close connection with our teacher so that they not only inspire us, but we leave ourselves open for them to be able to directly plant the seeds of wisdom in our mind. Report an error in the passage at 33:02 Highlight the passage at 33:02

33:41 Of course, if we're not really at that level yet, at least what we can do here in terms of a guru yoga style of practice is to make a connection with a teacher or someone who inspires us and to make... Try and get that close connection with them to open ourselves to get inspiration from them because if we can get inspiration from them that will put our mind in a very good state in terms of our practice. Report an error in the passage at 33:41 Highlight the passage at 33:41

34:09 And so having done these preliminaries then we can then engage in the actual practice. But again as mentioned in the text here we shouldn't think that these preliminaries are simply something we do at the beginning. And then eventually we wash our hands of them and don't do them anymore. As mentioned in here, we shouldn't, you know, do not think that they're merely preliminaries, even though they have been explained in the context of the preliminaries, but rather practice them by integrating them into your actual practice. Report an error in the passage at 34:09 Highlight the passage at 34:09

34:47 So we shouldn't think that these are just something we do as a beginner and then we sort of... Forget about them later. We need to integrate them into our practice. We need to put a lot of effort into these continually if we want some success in our practice. So we should never forget that. And then in terms of the actual practice, we saw yesterday that this text is describing two levels of practice, what's called Sūtra and Tantra. Report an error in the passage at 34:47 Highlight the passage at 34:47

35:16 Tantra level of practice. What we briefly mentioned there yesterday was that at the tantra level of practice, what we're trying to do is to gain access to a more subtle level of our mind. This is called the mind of clear light. Very subtle level of our mind. Very difficult to gain access to this, but in tantra there are techniques to be able to do that. Report an error in the passage at 35:16 Highlight the passage at 35:16

35:43 And if we can gain access to this very subtle, clear light mind, we can... Use that then to try to penetrate nature of reality. And because it's a much more subtle level of mind, it's much more powerful, which means that we can wipe out ignorance in our mind more quickly. So at the tantra level of practice, it's said that if we have all the necessary conditions together and apply ourselves, it is possible to actually achieve enlightenment in this very lifetime. Report an error in the passage at 35:43 Highlight the passage at 35:43

36:13 But of course, if we hope to practice at that level of practice, Then also as a foundation for that, we need to be well practiced at the sūtra level of practice. So I think that's where we really need to put a lot of our energy now, at that level of practice. So that's what we're mainly focusing on in this text, the sūtra level of practice. And as we saw yesterday here, in the sūtra level of practice, there are two core practices that we need to engage in. Report an error in the passage at 36:13 Highlight the passage at 36:13

36:47 Of course here we're talking about coming to realise the nature of our own mind, realise the nature of our reality. So this wisdom practice in Sanskrit is called Vipassanā. So Vipassanā or Vipassanā in Pāli simply means insight. And of course we can try to gain insight into many different things in our practice. Report an error in the passage at 36:47 Highlight the passage at 36:47

37:11 Into impermanence, into the... The unsatisfactory nature of saṃsāra, selflessness, emptiness. Of course here we are particularly trying to develop Vipassanā or insight into the nature of our own mind, insight into emptiness or shunyata. Report an error in the passage at 37:11 Highlight the passage at 37:11

37:33 Now if we are to do this, if we are to come to directly realise the nature of our own mind, the nature of reality, to do that we need a stable, clear mind. Report an error in the passage at 37:33 Highlight the passage at 37:33

37:46 So to develop that stable, clear, focused mind, we need to engage in what's called shamatha practice. So shamatha practice is all about developing this single-pointed concentration, developing a stable, calm, clear, focused mind. Report an error in the passage at 37:46 Highlight the passage at 37:46

38:05 And so that's where we are now. We're in the middle of talking about this shamatha practice. And so yesterday then... We talked a little bit about the prerequisites for shamatha practice, those six prerequisites, in terms of having a supportive environment, having few desires, being content, having few activities, an ethical lifestyle, and then trying to eliminate any compulsive, obsessive thinking. Report an error in the passage at 38:05 Highlight the passage at 38:05

38:38 And then we are actually looking at the actual practice. And here we had a little bit of a look at this chart yesterday afternoon, the shamatha chart. And basically it says in the shamatha practice that we use eight antidotes to abandon five faults and thereby we progress through these nine stages up to shamatha. Report an error in the passage at 38:38 Highlight the passage at 38:38

39:07 And so we had a look at the faults yesterday in terms of laziness. How to overcome that by really understanding the benefits of this practice. So we develop some faith in the practice, then we have some aspiration, put some effort into the practice. Forgetfulness, the antidote was mindfulness. Because remember here we're trying to focus on a single object and forgetfulness is getting distracted, forgetting the object. Report an error in the passage at 39:07 Highlight the passage at 39:07

39:38 So here the antidote is mindfulness. Again mindfulness. In the diagram was described as symbolized by the rope and so we are trying to rope or tie our mind to the object with the rope of mindfulness. Report an error in the passage at 39:38 Highlight the passage at 39:38

39:55 But then of course we notice that we get distracted very often and so then we need another tool called introspection which is like a little spy in the corner of our mind which notices when we've become distracted and then Hook our mind back to the object and then again hold it with mindfulness. So here we see in the diagram the two main tools we're using is the rope of mindfulness and the hook of introspection to overcome these faults here. Report an error in the passage at 39:55 Highlight the passage at 39:55

40:27 And so remember we said that in single point of concentration we're trying to develop these two qualities of stability and clarity. A stable mind so that we're not distracted. But also a clear mind, that the object appears clearly. And the two faults that are stopping that is distraction, or here more specifically excitement, and laxity or dullness. Report an error in the passage at 40:27 Highlight the passage at 40:27

40:53 And so we are trying to overcome this laxity and excitement to develop these two qualities. Report an error in the passage at 40:53 Highlight the passage at 40:53

41:03 Then we had a brief look at how we're progressing along these nine stages. That's basically where we are now. So what I'd like to do now is talk about the specific practice of shamatha within a Mahamudra context. Now, in general, in shamatha practice, we can focus on any one of many objects. In fact, in the meditation manuals, it talks about many different objects to use as an object of focus. Report an error in the passage at 41:03 Highlight the passage at 41:03

41:42 Again, in the Tibetan tradition often emphasised an image of a Buddha. I think many of us find that quite difficult to focus on an image of a Buddha. Another object that is often emphasised in many traditions is the breath itself. And just a few words on the breath now before we go to look at the mind is the breath itself has many advantages. Report an error in the passage at 41:42 Highlight the passage at 41:42

42:08 In fact, the meditation manuals Say that if we're the sort of person that has a lot of discursive thinking, a very conceptual mind all over the place, then probably the breath is the best object for us. Why? Because the breath is physical, meaning if it's physical, its sensations only happen in the present moment. Report an error in the passage at 42:08 Highlight the passage at 42:08

42:36 So by focusing on the breath... We are tying our mind into the present moment because with a discursive mind, we're always in the past and always in the future, jumping all over the place. So it helps to tie us in the present moment. Also, it gets us out of the head and into the body because we're all very much in the head. Report an error in the passage at 42:36 Highlight the passage at 42:36

42:56 We've lost touch with our own body, so it helps us to get in contact with our own physical body again. Also, particularly with the breath, particularly if you're focusing the sensations here at the nostrils, there's one big advantage and that is that there is this sort of biofeedback loop which you don't get with any other object. Report an error in the passage at 42:56 Highlight the passage at 42:56

43:19 And you may have noticed that already if you've done a little bit of work focusing here, is that as our mind starts to calm down a little bit, you may have noticed that your breathing becomes very soft, very relaxed. Which means the sensations here become very, very subtle. Which of course forces you to focus better, closer, to pick them up. Report an error in the passage at 43:19 Highlight the passage at 43:19

43:44 Equally well though, if our mind gets a little bit agitated, then what happens is our breathing tends to get a bit rough. Which means the sensations get easier to detect. So it helps us to avoid getting distracted. So there's this sort of automatic biofeedback loop happening. Very helpful for us. Now, with the breath, also a recommendation, and often the recommendation is that for a beginner it's good to start with the breath, particularly if our mind is very agitated and discursive. Report an error in the passage at 43:44 Highlight the passage at 43:44

44:23 So remember we're trying to develop these two qualities of stability and clarity. But remember also yesterday we said that I think... We, in our modern society, also need to emphasise another quality that wasn't really traditionally emphasised, and that is relaxation. Report an error in the passage at 44:23 Highlight the passage at 44:23

44:43 Because we tend to come into meditation completely stressed, agitated and tense. And as we're going to see in a minute, the instructions in shamatha is to firmly or to tighten our focus on the object. But if we come into meditation completely agitated, stressed and tense, then we do that. Then we really get even more tense. And that's going to create a lot of problems for us in meditation. In fact, most of the problems that people experience in meditation is simply because of this. Report an error in the passage at 44:43 Highlight the passage at 44:43

45:16 Too tight, too tense. So we really need to come in with a relaxed state of mind. So the first thing we really need to focus on before stability or clarity is relaxation. Otherwise... We're probably going to find we're going to get very tense and agitated and have a lot of difficulties. Now with the breath, what we can do, and so we really need to work on them in this order. Report an error in the passage at 45:16 Highlight the passage at 45:16

45:45 First relaxation, then stability, then clarity. So what's very helpful here with relaxation is to simply, with mindfulness of breathing, is to simply become aware of sensations throughout the body as we breathe. And to emphasize relaxation. So if you're trying to do a shamatha meditation at the nostrils or any method and you're finding you're very tense and agitated, drop focusing here. Report an error in the passage at 45:45 Highlight the passage at 45:45

46:18 Continuing to focus here while you're agitated and tense is not going to help at all. It's just going to create problems for you. So get out of the head, out of the nostrils and just simply focus on the sensations in the body. And here also... What can be helpful to help the relaxation is that you can also do this meditation lying down. So you can lie down and you can use what's called in yoga the Shavasana posture or the corpse posture. Report an error in the passage at 46:18 Highlight the passage at 46:18

46:51 Simply lying flat on your back, your legs a little bit apart, your hands downwards, the backs of your hands down and this way. So using this posture, Just relax, relax, relax and then just very gently focus on sensations throughout the body, emphasizing relaxation. For stability, what can be helpful there to emphasize that is to focus on the abdomen because the sensations here are easy to detect and so you can use that to work on stability. Report an error in the passage at 46:51 Highlight the passage at 46:51

47:26 If you're finding you're focusing on the nostrils and you're always getting distracted, Then go back down to the abdomen because it's easier to detect and so it's helpful there to develop stability. Also what's helpful here as a beginner people find sometimes is counting the breath. If we're very distracted then by counting the breath what you're doing is you're occupying the mind with useful conceptual activity because counting the breath is still conceptual but it's better to do that than to think about breakfast. Report an error in the passage at 47:26 Highlight the passage at 47:26

48:03 So, if you find that you're getting distracted a lot, try counting the breath. But only use counting as long as it's helpful, because as we progress in this, counting actually becomes an obstacle, because counting itself is a conceptual activity. But as a beginner, if we have a lot of distraction, counting the breath can be useful to avoid that distraction. So, try it, and if you find it useful, use it. Report an error in the passage at 48:03 Highlight the passage at 48:03

48:33 But remember, even if you are doing counting the breath, the main object is the sensations of the breath. Don't turn it into mindfulness of counting. So the counting should be very subtle and not occupy our mind all the time. But if it's useful, use it. So for stability, again, very helpful to focus on the abdomen. Report an error in the passage at 48:33 Highlight the passage at 48:33

48:56 But that focus here is not going to be very helpful for clarity. Because it's a very coarse object. For clarity, we need to work with more subtle object, meaning here at the nostrils. And again, often the instructions at this area is start fairly broad. You know, you can say anywhere here if you notice any sensations in this whole area. Report an error in the passage at 48:56 Highlight the passage at 48:56

49:23 And then as our practice progresses, We need to narrow down this area to just maybe the entrance and then eventually often the instruction is pick a little like pinhead point just here below the entrance. So what you'll find is if you, as you progress in this practice, narrow down the area and the smaller the area, the more subtle the object, of course, it forces you to focus more intently. Report an error in the passage at 49:23 Highlight the passage at 49:23

49:54 Clarity will improve. So you can use these variations depending on where you are in your practice. But again, if you're using the nostrils and you're really finding that you're getting agitated and tense, get out of there. Don't continue. You're just going to create, long term, a lot of problems for yourself. Go back to the abdomen or even go back to just focusing on sensations in the body, emphasizing relaxation. Report an error in the passage at 49:54 Highlight the passage at 49:54

50:22 So really, really, really be careful. About getting too tight, too tense. Report an error in the passage at 50:22 Highlight the passage at 50:22

50:31 But now let's have a look at the mind itself. Because that is the object that we are focusing on here, Mahamudra practice. But actually just before we do that, there's a book here, Attention Revolution by Alan Wallace, which is actually all about this practice, how to practice shamatha. Report an error in the passage at 50:31 Highlight the passage at 50:31

51:01 In it, he gives some recommendations about how to progress here in terms of what objects to use. So I think his recommendations are very good, so I'll just briefly read out what he says. Report an error in the passage at 51:01 Highlight the passage at 51:01

51:16 He says, to guide meditators along these ten stages. So ten stages means the nine stages plus shamatha is the tenth. I have chosen from Buddhist teachings... Three techniques that I have found effective for people in the modern world. These three techniques are the basis for the three divisions of this book. Report an error in the passage at 51:16 Highlight the passage at 51:16

51:40 For the first four stages, that's the four stages in here, you should practice whatever method you find easiest, meaning focusing on the breath, an image, the mind, whatever. Report an error in the passage at 51:40 Highlight the passage at 51:40

51:57 By stage five, the mind is relatively stable. And you can move on to subtler techniques. For achieving the first four stages, I recommend the practice of mindfulness of breathing, variations of which can be found in Zen, Vipassanā and Tibetan Buddhism. Mindfulness of breathing means settling your awareness on the sensations involved in breathing, continually returning your attention there whenever your mind wanders. Report an error in the passage at 51:57 Highlight the passage at 51:57

52:29 Beginning with the fifth stage, I recommend a method called settling the mind in its natural state. In this technique, you direct your attention to mental experiences, all the events, thoughts, mental images and emotions that arise in the domain of the mind. This method is drawn from the Zogchen, or Great Perfection lineage, but is found in other Buddhist traditions as well. And that's what we're going to be talking about now. Report an error in the passage at 52:29 Highlight the passage at 52:29

52:59 He calls it settling the mind in its natural state. With the instructions for the 8th attentional stage onward, we move on to a still subtler practice of maintaining awareness of awareness itself. The technique is called shamatha without an object. Here the practice is not so much one of developing attentional stability and vividness, As it is of discovering the stillness and luminosity inherent in awareness itself. The training in mindfulness of breathing may be helpful to anyone, including those seeking to prevent or treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorders. Report an error in the passage at 52:59 Highlight the passage at 52:59

53:45 Many people find the second practice, that of settling the mind in its natural state, to be more challenging. But some meditators take to it naturally. Likewise, the practice of awareness of awareness is subtler still, but it may be optimal from the beginning for those who are strongly drawn to it. You may use any of these three methods to progress along all ten stages of attentional development, or you may follow the sequence described in this book. Report an error in the passage at 53:45 Highlight the passage at 53:45

54:17 How fast you progress will depend on your level of your commitment and the degree to which your lifestyle and environment support such practice. Report an error in the passage at 54:17 Highlight the passage at 54:17

54:30 So what he's saying is that in general mindfulness of breathing for most people is the best to start with. Report an error in the passage at 54:30 Highlight the passage at 54:30

54:44 But he says also some people are naturally drawn to the technique which we're about to describe, the one we actually did in the meditation this morning. So that meditation was this practice that we're now going to describe. Some people are naturally drawn to that. And then he also mentions a third approach is awareness of awareness, or sometimes called shamatha without an object. And we did that a little bit in the meditation. Report an error in the passage at 54:44 Highlight the passage at 54:44

55:12 Right at the end I said, let go of all appearances, simply rest, simply be aware of being aware. That is this third practice. Some of you may have found that very difficult. Some of you may have found it actually quite easy. Again, depends on our character. So that is a third practice. So the difference between the practice that we're describing now and that is that this practice of settling the mind in its natural state, which is what we mainly did this morning, we have an object. Report an error in the passage at 55:12 Highlight the passage at 55:12

55:45 The object is the space of the mind and whatever is appearing there. So we are simply observing all the thoughts and emotions coming up and the mind itself from which everything arises and goes back in. So that's our object. Whereas with this more subtle practice, which we did for a few minutes right at the end, awareness of awareness, we are not interested in any appearances. Report an error in the passage at 55:45 Highlight the passage at 55:45

56:09 We are simply resting in the raw awareness of the mind itself. Simply resting in awareness. Of course, thoughts and emotions will continue to appear, but unlike the previous practice, here in this awareness of awareness, we simply ignore them. We're not observing them. We just simply ignore them. We simply rest. Report an error in the passage at 56:09 Highlight the passage at 56:09

56:30 In the knowing of knowing, in the awareness itself. So this is also a possibility for doing shamatha practice. But what we're going to focus on now is that second one, where we're simply looking at the mind itself and whatever is arising in that mind. What Alan Walz calls settling the mind in its natural state. So let's have a look at that practice and how to do that, as described in the text here. Report an error in the passage at 56:30 Highlight the passage at 56:30

57:01 Any questions on any of those three techniques before we dive in? Sure. Report an error in the passage at 57:01 Highlight the passage at 57:01

57:11 Sure. Report an error in the passage at 57:11 Highlight the passage at 57:11

57:25 Empty of independent existence. Yeah. Everything. Physical world, us, our mind, everything. And we're going to be looking at this in a little bit of detail this afternoon, this idea. And generally when we start to look at this, see for us now there's basically two possibilities. Either there is a solid me, solid world, or there's no me and no world, generally. For most of us, there's only these two possibilities. Report an error in the passage at 57:25 Highlight the passage at 57:25

58:00 Either there is a real solid functioning me, a real solid functioning world out there, or there's no me, no world. That's really the only two possibilities we see. So, what often happens is when we start to investigate this idea of emptiness, often people think, oh, there's no me and no world. I don't really exist. But that's not the case, because that's nihilism. That's an extreme. Report an error in the passage at 58:00 Highlight the passage at 58:00

58:30 So what this view of emptiness is saying is that there's a third possibility. That there's no independent me, no independent world, but there is a me in a world. Which means the me that does exist is a dependent me and a dependent world. What that really means, we're going to look at this afternoon. What does it mean that I exist dependently and there's a dependent world? Report an error in the passage at 58:30 Highlight the passage at 58:30

58:57 focus of our discussions this afternoon. usually that's the difficulty people have with this view, it undermines, of course, this view of emptiness is undermining the fact that there's a solid independent me and an independent world. for most of us, that seems to imply that there's no me and no world. that's not the case. Report an error in the passage at 58:57 Highlight the passage at 58:57

59:19 Was that your question? Yes. Okay. Yeah, that's a very common thing. And that's something we're going to look at this afternoon. Okay, so let's have a look at how to practice this settling the mind in its natural state or simply observing our own mind and whatever is arising in it. Because I think even though for some of us we may find it difficult, there's a lot of advantages to this practice and we're going to look at that now. Report an error in the passage at 59:19 Highlight the passage at 59:19

59:54 So if we're down on page four, down towards the bottom, it says... Number one there, training the mind while keeping it in its natural state. It says, within that state where appearances have contracted, do not contrive anything with thoughts such as hopes thinking about accomplishing certain goals or worries concerned about whether or not certain undesirable things will eventuate. Report an error in the passage at 59:54 Highlight the passage at 59:54

1:00:19 Without wavering, that is without dwelling in the past, without anticipating the future and without moving around in the present, Rest in a balanced way within that state for a short while. So there's a couple of things here that are important. First off it says within that state where appearances have contracted. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:19 Highlight the passage at 1:00:19

1:00:40 That goes back to the previous paragraph in bold further up where we were preparing ourselves at the beginning of the meditation, generating refuge in bodhicitta and then doing this... Guru Yoga practice of absorbing our teacher within to ourselves. By doing that preparation, then hopefully our mind is in a very positive state, but in a quite non-active state, not agitated and scattered. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:40 Highlight the passage at 1:00:40

1:01:10 That's what it means here where appearances have contracted, is because we've done that good preparation at the beginning of the meditation, now all these appearances should have sort of subsided a little bit. And that we should have a nice, positive, inspired state of mind through doing that preparation at the beginning. The breathing exercise, the refuge bodhicitta and the guru yoga. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:10 Highlight the passage at 1:01:10

1:01:33 Then it says do not contrive anything. So in this practice we are not trying to Report an error in the passage at 1:01:33 Highlight the passage at 1:01:33

1:01:45 manipulate our mind in any way. Here often there's a tendency for people, and this comes back to a lot of misunderstanding about meditation, Often people feel that the goal of meditation is to empty the mind of thoughts. And so particularly in this meditation, sometimes people try to still the mind. They try to get rid of thoughts, to empty the mind of thoughts. Don't do this. Because if you try and do this, all that's going to happen is you're going to get frustrated and you're going to have more thoughts. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:45 Highlight the passage at 1:01:45

1:02:24 So that's what it says here. Do not try to contrive anything. So to contriving anything means don't try and manufacture anything. Don't try to alter your mind in any way. Don't try to get rid of thoughts. Don't do anything, basically, except observe what's there. So this is something very important. Particularly, it says here, don't contrive anything with thoughts such as hopes or worries. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:24 Highlight the passage at 1:02:24

1:02:53 Because hopes and fears is all about the past and the future. It's all about attachment and aversion. So very important at the beginning of our meditation is to let go of any hopes or fears, any thoughts about the past or the future. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:53 Highlight the passage at 1:02:53

1:03:12 Of course in daily life sometimes we have to plan for the future, we have to make goals and plans. But here what we're saying is that we are simply trying to be present in the present moment, watching whatever is in the mind. So we're not trying to... We need to get rid of that. Particularly important here in terms of hopes and fears, we need to get rid of any expectations. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:12 Highlight the passage at 1:03:12

1:03:38 Particularly about the meditation. Very important. At the beginning of meditation, if you notice you have some expectation about this meditation, hoping that something's going to happen or expecting that you're going to get some result, get rid of it immediately. Any sort of expectations here. is going to obstruct your meditative practice. You need to drop it immediately. And we need to go into this meditation with no hopes or fears or expectations. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:38 Highlight the passage at 1:03:38

1:04:08 Get rid of all of that stuff. That's what it's saying here. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:08 Highlight the passage at 1:04:08

1:04:15 it says, without wavering, that is, without dwelling in the past, without anticipating the future, and without moving around in the present, rest in a balanced... So here, balanced way. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:15 Highlight the passage at 1:04:15

1:04:29 Often it's translated into English as this word meditative equipoise. So sometimes you see this word meditative equipoise. That's what is balanced way here. Rest in a balanced way. And that is to highlight the fact that what we talk about meditative equipoise, equipoise means balanced. Balanced here means free of the two imbalances of... Report an error in the passage at 1:04:29 Highlight the passage at 1:04:29

1:05:00 Excitation and laxity. So rest in a balanced way is saying focus without becoming dull, without getting distracted. That's what it means here. So that's also what the word meditative equipoise means. Free of laxity and excitation or excitement. And it says here within that state for a short while. That's also very important. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:00 Highlight the passage at 1:05:00

1:05:33 In general, but particularly in shamatha practice, We need to avoid making our sessions too long because, and we know this from our own experience, if we try and meditate too long, often towards the end of the meditation we just become completely dull. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:33 Highlight the passage at 1:05:33

1:05:56 And of course, if we do that, we are habituating ourselves to being dull in meditation. So that's not a habit we want to develop. So here, the key phrase is quality over quantity. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:56 Highlight the passage at 1:05:56

1:06:10 If you want to do a lot of shamatha meditation, then rather than doing one big long session, do many short sessions. Very important. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:10 Highlight the passage at 1:06:10

1:06:21 Also on this point, Report an error in the passage at 1:06:21 Highlight the passage at 1:06:21

1:06:26 we should try to keep to the same length of session. Meaning, let's say we want to meditate 20 minutes now. And the amount of time we should pick as a beginner to meditate, often it's recommended that the amount of time should be such That at the end of your meditation, your enthusiasm for the meditation is the same as at the beginning. So if you're finding in your meditation session your enthusiasm to meditate is going downhill, stop. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:26 Highlight the passage at 1:06:26

1:07:02 So pick the amount of time where you can sustain that sort of enthusiasm and focus. And that's individual as a beginner. It could be 10 minutes, 15, 20, 25, 30. But certainly here is shamatha practice often recommended to not try more than 20 to 30 minutes as a beginner. And Alan Wallace in his book tends to use an amount of time which actually in Sanskrit is called, I think, gatika. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:02 Highlight the passage at 1:07:02

1:07:33 It was a sort of unit of time which works out as 24 minutes. Why 24 minutes? Well, the way they divided up time then was... Gataka was actually 1 60th of a day. So 1 60th of a day happens to be 24 minutes. But I think that's, for me personally also, I think is roughly a good time for a beginner. You may find that maybe a little bit too much for you, maybe a little bit less, a little bit more. But it should be, I think, somewhere around that number, I think, is a good time. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:33 Highlight the passage at 1:07:33

1:08:07 Then stick to that amount of time. Don't... Because what happens often is people meditate. Let's say we're going to do 20 minutes. And one way to help is to have a clock with a timer. So you can set it to give a beep after 20 minutes. So when you hear the beep, you can slowly stop the meditation. But what often people do, of course, is that if the meditation happens to be going well, they keep going beyond 20 minutes or whatever the time is they want. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:07 Highlight the passage at 1:08:07

1:08:37 But what happens is, how long do we keep going? We keep going until it starts to go bad. Then we say, okay, now I'll stop. But then that's bad. Because what happens is we're always finishing on a meditation on a bad note. And the thing we remember most about our meditation is how it ended. We don't remember the 15 or 20 minutes of good meditation. We remember the three minutes of bad at the end. So what we do is we associate meditation with bad experiences. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:37 Highlight the passage at 1:08:37

1:09:07 That's what sticks in our mind. So then the next day we look at the cushion and go, I don't want to meditate. I have these bad experiences in meditation. Because that's what we remember. So please avoid that. So if you want to meditate 20 minutes, 20 minutes is up and things are going well, stop. In fact, I've read in some meditation manuals it says, when your meditation starts to go well, stop immediately. Why? Report an error in the passage at 1:09:07 Highlight the passage at 1:09:07

1:09:39 Because that's what you remember. Which means you associate good experiences with meditation. Which means then you'll be enthusiastic to sit down the next time to meditate. Because you remember how it ended. That's the thing you remember most. So I think this is something important. Of course, over time, as we improve our meditation, we can slowly extend that. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:39 Highlight the passage at 1:09:39

1:10:04 So maybe we start with 20 minutes. Then after some months, 20 minutes, we can extend to maybe 25 minutes. But only extend it in small chunks. Don't go from 20 minutes to 45. That's too much. So, again, here, for shamatha, keep the sessions particularly short. Otherwise, we're going to end up with laxity and dullness. Instead of developing shamatha, we're going to be developing laxity. We don't want to do that. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:04 Highlight the passage at 1:10:04

1:10:33 Not good. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:33 Highlight the passage at 1:10:33

1:10:38 Is there anything else there? Report an error in the passage at 1:10:38 Highlight the passage at 1:10:38

1:10:45 One or two more things, we'll go to the next paragraph and then we'll take a break. It says here, when resting the mind in this way, it is not that all mental attention ceases like when having fainted or fallen asleep. Rather you must station the guard of non-forgetful mindfulness so that the mind that is unwaveringly still does not become distracted. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:45 Highlight the passage at 1:10:45

1:11:09 In that way the observed object is bound by the rope of mindfulness. If, however, mindfulness degenerates, there will be a great danger of the proliferation of thoughts that will move the mind. Therefore, it is necessary to prepare introspection like a watcher to be aware of whether or not the mind is moving elsewhere due to the strength of mindfulness having become weak. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:09 Highlight the passage at 1:11:09

1:11:33 And then here is the analogy that's also the same analogy in this diagram, quoting Baba Viveka, great Indian master. The elephant of the mind that is out of control is to be bound with certainty by the rope of mindfulness to the firm post of the observed object and gradually brought under control by the hook of introspection. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:33 Highlight the passage at 1:11:33

1:11:54 So it's exactly the same as what we saw here yesterday. And then it says, in brief, accomplishing faultless meditative stabilisation does not go beyond the manner of maintaining mindfulness and introspection. Furthermore, mindfulness is principle and if this is present, then introspection, which is said to be the result of mindfulness, comes naturally. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:54 Highlight the passage at 1:11:54

1:12:18 So what we can see from this is again that the main two tools we use in practice here is mindfulness to focus on the object and then introspection to check whether or not our mind is becoming distracted and to then bring the mind back. And actually I said here is that out of those two, mindfulness is key. That if we're actually strengthening our mindfulness, then really as a by-product, our ability to introspect, to check, sort of comes naturally. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:18 Highlight the passage at 1:12:18

1:12:52 In fact, in some systems, I've noticed a little bit in the Kargu, sometimes they don't even talk about introspection, they just say mindfulness. Because it's the main one, it's the key one. And if we really work on the mindfulness, our ability to introspect, to check, sort of gets strengthened a little bit automatically because it's related. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:52 Highlight the passage at 1:12:52

1:13:19 Any question on that? Report an error in the passage at 1:13:19 Highlight the passage at 1:13:19

1:13:26 Actually, no, maybe we'll... Yeah, there's one thing I actually just skipped over before that maybe I'll mention and then we'll take the break. And that is the eyes. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:26 Highlight the passage at 1:13:26

1:13:41 Now, when we do meditation, there are a couple of possibilities with the eyes. Sometimes it said, you know, we can have them lightly closed, sometimes a little bit open or sometimes just naturally open. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:41 Highlight the passage at 1:13:41

1:13:56 Myself, when I first started meditating, found that having them completely closed was the best because I was the sort of person that was very agitated, very scattered. So letting a little bit of light in sort of seemed to... agitate me quite a lot. So I had my eyes closed. I used that technique for many years. But in the last few years I've basically just meditated with my eyes open. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:56 Highlight the passage at 1:13:56

1:14:21 I tend to just have my eyes open. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:21 Highlight the passage at 1:14:21

1:14:34 I tend to just have my eyes open. normally not sort of like half open I find personally, home and half open, they sort of flicker a bit and I find a bit annoying. Some people find it very nice, but not me. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:34 Highlight the passage at 1:14:34

1:14:36 And I find there are a lot of benefits with that. When I first started using eyes open, I find it very difficult because I wasn't used to it. But quite quickly I got used to it and now I only do that and I find it very, very helpful. A number of reasons. One is that with the eyes open, of course, you're not really looking at anything. It's sort of like vacantly resting your gaze. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:36 Highlight the passage at 1:14:36

1:15:05 A little bit like when we're daydreaming. But because the visual field is a little bit engaged, even though you're not looking at it, it somehow helps me to lock my mind more into the present moment. I find if I have my eyes closed, signal to daydream, to go off into the past and future and all over the place. Whereas if they're open, it tends to help me to stabilise. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:05 Highlight the passage at 1:15:05

1:15:29 Also, what I find is that it helps with my clarity. I find that with the eyes closed, my mind becomes quite dull, because also the eyes closed often sends a signal for sleep. Dull. So I find that also with the eyes open, my clarity is a lot better. But anyway, just to... And particularly in this looking at the mind, it's recommended that we have the eyes open. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:29 Highlight the passage at 1:15:29

1:15:57 And just to... I'll summarize that from Alan Wallace again. I'll just read a little bit from him and then maybe if you want to make a comment. He says, In this practice, and this is the practice we're looking at now, it is important that your eyes are open, vacantly resting your gaze in the space in front of you. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:57 Highlight the passage at 1:15:57

1:16:17 If you have not meditated with your eyes open, you may find this uncomfortable, but I encourage you to get used to it. Blink as often as you like and don't strain your eyes in any way. Let them be as relaxed as if you were daydreaming with your eyes open. By leaving the eyes open while focusing your attention on the domain of mental events, the artificial barrier between inner and outer begins to dissolve. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:17 Highlight the passage at 1:16:17

1:16:47 Especially in our materialistic society, we have gotten used to the idea that our thoughts and all other mental events are inside our heads. But this has never been demonstrated scientifically. All that is known in this regard is that the mental events are correlated with neural events, but that doesn't necessarily mean they are located in the same place. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:47 Highlight the passage at 1:16:47

1:17:13 Even without this materialistic assumption that the mind is nothing more than a function of the brain, we naturally have a sense that we are looking out on the world from behind our eyes. But this sense of an independent subject or ego inside the head is an illusion. There is no scientific support for such a belief. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:13 Highlight the passage at 1:17:13

1:17:37 And when it is inspected through rigorous contemplative inquiry, this autonomous thinker and observer inside the head is nowhere to be found. In this practice, by leaving your eyes open, but by directing your attention to the mind, this conceptually superimposed Demarcation between inner and outer begins to erode. You begin to recognize that your thoughts are not occurring in here in your head, nor are they occurring out there in space. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:37 Highlight the passage at 1:17:37

1:18:09 This practice challenges the existence of an absolutely objective space of the physical senses that is absolutely separate from the subjective space of the mind. You are now on a path to realizing the meaning of non-duality. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:09 Highlight the passage at 1:18:09

1:18:30 So, also what it's, as Lama was mentioning, also by leaving the eyes open here, it's sort of breaking down this artificial sense of me here and world there. Because when we shut our eyes, we tend to feel, have stronger sense that there is a me here and then a world there. Whereas if we have the eyes open, That sort of artificial barrier really falls away a lot. So that's also going to help for us to move into the Vipassanā practice. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:30 Highlight the passage at 1:18:30

1:19:02 So that's also another good reason. Anyone have any comments about the eyes open? Report an error in the passage at 1:19:02 Highlight the passage at 1:19:02

1:19:15 Cross-eyed. Yeah, because again, what we need to be aware of here is we're not trying to focus on anything. We're not trying to... And probably what happens is you're trying to deliberately be unfocused. That's what sometimes people do. They hear they're not supposed to focus on anything, but yet they're somehow looking. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:15 Highlight the passage at 1:19:15

1:19:33 And so they try and deliberately fuzzy their focus by getting cross-eyed or having, you know, they're trying to manipulate the eyes so that it becomes fuzzy. Don't do that. It's just going to strain your eyes. Don't strain your eyes. Just vacantly rest your gaze. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:33 Highlight the passage at 1:19:33

1:19:51 Don't focus on anything, but don't try and blur your focus deliberately. Just rest it there. One suggestion, one line I heard was, if you're finding that difficult, is you can begin by putting your hands out and doing this and just sort of focus on that space there. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:51 Highlight the passage at 1:19:51

1:20:10 Put it just like that as an example. But that's just a little trick that someone mentioned once. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:10 Highlight the passage at 1:20:10

1:20:22 Yeah, I mean that can also be helpful. One thing I think here, I find myself sometimes doing that, that there's a spot there I sort of focus on, but then I try and not really look at it, but use that as an anchor a little bit, but then just sort of let it go. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:22 Highlight the passage at 1:20:22

1:20:41 What I can recommend also about the eyes, particularly if we're home meditating, with this technique of the eyes open, try to have something very plain. If you have a lot of colours and things, you'll get pulled by those various interesting stuff. Because remember the big problem here is excitement. Oh, those flowers are nice. Oh, look at that. And this is often used like in Zen, like a blank wall. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:41 Highlight the passage at 1:20:41

1:21:09 So what I recommend is if you have a blank wall in front of you so there's nothing to pull your attention, also don't have anything moving. Have a candle flickering there. I mean that's just going to pull your attention straight away. Or curtains fluttering in the breeze. So get rid of any movement. Also the lighting. Adjust the lighting to suit. Personally I find quite dim works best for me. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:09 Highlight the passage at 1:21:09

1:21:36 Because I tend to get a little bit agitated. So dimmer is a bit better. If it's too bright I get a little bit agitated. But experiment with that. Adjust the lighting. To suit your level. Then also what you can do is your gaze. You can adjust the gaze, whether it's down a little bit or up straight. Because what you'll find is if you move the gaze up, your mind can be a little bit agitated. So if you find yourself a little bit dull, raise your gaze a little bit. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:36 Highlight the passage at 1:21:36

1:22:05 That'll sort of uplift the mind. If you find you're a little bit agitated, lower the gaze. That'll help. So you can adjust that accordingly. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:05 Highlight the passage at 1:22:05

1:22:35 And I think we sort of more intuitively or instinctively do that when we're daydreaming. Because we're occupying our mind on the daydream and not what's in front of us. So I think instinctively we sort of do that with our eyes. But again, you're not straining your eyes. Don't strain your eyes, like Frank was saying. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:35 Highlight the passage at 1:22:35

1:22:56 Don't strain your eyes in trying to make it blurry. So we're not straining the eyes. They need to be relaxed. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:56 Highlight the passage at 1:22:56

1:23:07 But I also find like... I initially start by picking a spot, something not interesting, and just sort of directing the gaze generally in that direction. Then I try and just sort of not really look at it, but keep my attention there. That sort of works for me. So we're not really looking at something. Otherwise we go, ooh, and then we're not looking at the object. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:07 Highlight the passage at 1:23:07

1:23:33 But anyway, that's some tips I can sort of recommend from my own experience. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:33 Highlight the passage at 1:23:33

1:23:49 do I just need to try and... Um... Well, I would, again, the meditations, I'd pick an amount of time and stick to that because otherwise, as we're going to see, you're going to get into this sort of hope and fear, attachment, aversion game. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:49 Highlight the passage at 1:23:49

1:24:06 So I'd pick an amount of time that is good for you to begin with. Be consistent. But again, don't be too rigid. Don't go, because that's also being too tight. But generally try and stick to that same amount of time. And then I would generally with the eyes, I wouldn't keep changing. I mean, particularly with this practice, I think try and use the eyes open, either just naturally open or you can make it a little bit more half closed if you want. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:06 Highlight the passage at 1:24:06

1:24:40 But I would try that because, like I said, when I started doing this some years ago, the first few times I'd go, whoa. It's too difficult. But actually quite quickly I got used to it and now I really only meditate with my eyes open and I find it very beneficial. Yeah, just like that. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:40 Highlight the passage at 1:24:40

1:24:59 Just naturally open. Don't force, don't. But some people find that that's a little bit too much and they sort of half close. But I find that sort of flickering effect and I find that a little bit doesn't work so well for me. But try it. And again, like I said, plain, no colour, no movement. Adjust the lighting and then adjust your gaze, sort of depending on whether you're agitated or dull, Report an error in the passage at 1:24:59 Highlight the passage at 1:24:59

1:25:28 full of colour. I mean, that would be perfect to focus on. That wall. Something very boring, plain. Yeah, not to pull your attention. Really pick something very bland. There's nothing really to distract you. And then adjust the lighting. If it's too dark, you may get dull. If it's too light, you may sort of... Report an error in the passage at 1:25:28 Highlight the passage at 1:25:28

1:25:52 Be too agitated. So adjust the lighting and then gaze up and down a little bit. But play with it a bit. But I find that many people who start to do this really have a lot of benefit in terms of clarity, in terms of staying present and so forth. So try it out. Anyway, we've gone way out of time. So let's take a break now. Short break and then we'll come back. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:52 Highlight the passage at 1:25:52