Glen Svensson: Gelug Tradition of Mahamudra (part 6)

0:08 Right, so let's now, we're on page 5 at the top and so let's have a look at now how we then progress in the shamatha practice here by focusing on the mind itself. Report an error in the passage at 0:08 Highlight the passage at 0:08

0:24 So point 2 there says, Firmly tighten the focus of mindfulness on the mind which has the nature of clarity and awareness. And look at it single pointedly and nakedly. So again, there's a couple of things here important. First, this first paragraph, the first phrase there, firmly tighten the focus of mindfulness. Report an error in the passage at 0:24 Highlight the passage at 0:24

0:53 So here again, we have to be very careful when we see those words. Because as I mentioned yesterday, we tend to come into meditation agitated, tense, stressed. And so when we see firmly tighten the focus, we clamp down on the object more hard. So we are very agitated. We're over tense. We're coming in very tense. And this is going to create problems for us. So again here, I think Alan Wallace has some very good advice on that. Report an error in the passage at 0:53 Highlight the passage at 0:53

1:29 So let me read that out to you. Report an error in the passage at 1:29 Highlight the passage at 1:29

1:35 He says... Thus our practice of mindfulness consists of prolonging our awareness, and he's using an example of the breath. While this requires an alert mind, such concentration should not be tense but rather balanced. When we discover that we have become distracted from the meditation object, it may feel natural to clamp down more forcefully, tightly concentrating the mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:35 Highlight the passage at 1:35

2:06 You can see this in the facial expressions of people who try to concentrate in this way. Their lips become pursed, their eyebrows draw together and their foreheads become furled with wrinkles. They're becoming... Report an error in the passage at 2:06 Highlight the passage at 2:06

2:23 I really sometimes see that with people. They're becoming concentrated but like orange juice, most of the fluidity is being drained from their minds. If you want to concentrate for a short time and don't mind the side effects of tension and fatigue, you can follow the above strategy. But if you want to follow the path of shamatha, you'll need an alternative. I had to discover this fact through experience. Report an error in the passage at 2:23 Highlight the passage at 2:23

2:58 During my first extended shamatha retreat, I was filled with enthusiasm. I wanted to take full advantage of the rare opportunity that was before me. For I was meditating in India under the guidance of the Dalai Lama. I had no financial worries and my material needs were easily met. All I had to do was to put the instructions into practice. I threw myself into this training with all my might. Each morning I would rise at 3.30, except once I slept in until 3.45. Report an error in the passage at 2:58 Highlight the passage at 2:58

3:37 Got upset with myself for slacking off. Enthusiastic I was, but so uptight. The Tibetan manuals on shamatha meditation that I had studied over the years stated that the type of attention needed when one began such practice was, quote, highly focused. Firmly tighten the focus, exactly the same. So I tried as hard as I could to keep my mind from wandering. Report an error in the passage at 3:37 Highlight the passage at 3:37

4:07 Within a matter of a few weeks, devoting many hours each day to meditation, I could sustain my attention on my chosen object for up to half an hour. I was elated by making such fast progress. As the weeks went by, however, I found myself becoming more and more fatigued I was draining myself both physically and mentally. My joy in the practice was diminishing accordingly and I felt my attention was not developing any further. Report an error in the passage at 4:07 Highlight the passage at 4:07

4:38 What was wrong? I was trying too hard. The cultivation of shamatha involves balancing the mind and that includes balancing the effort exerted in practice with relaxation. I think this points to a cultural difference between traditional Tibetans Living in the highlands of Tibet and modern people living fast-paced lives, their senses constantly bombarded by telephones, email, the media and noise. Report an error in the passage at 4:38 Highlight the passage at 4:38

5:09 Years of such existence conditioned the nervous system and the mind in ways that might have been considered torture in rural Tibet. One traditional Tibetan doctor whom I know once commented on people living in the West. So he's quoting the doctor here. He says, From the perspective of Tibetan medicine, you are all suffering from nervous disorders. But given how ill you are, you are coping remarkably well. Report an error in the passage at 5:09 Highlight the passage at 5:09

5:40 Though Report an error in the passage at 5:40 Highlight the passage at 5:40

5:46 we dwell in Boston, Buenos Aires, Berlin or Beijing, our minds are conditioned to be more high strung and engaged in compulsive thinking than the minds of Tibetan nomads and farmers living a century ago. So when Tibetan meditation manuals advise beginners to focus their attention firmly, exactly what it says, the instructions are aimed at a very different reader than the average city dweller in the 21st century. Report an error in the passage at 5:46 Highlight the passage at 5:46

6:16 Before we can develop attentional stability, we first need to learn to relax. There we go. So don't forget that. And I really also still, when I do some retreat, I really have to consciously work on that. Even my last retreat I did just last year, after a couple of weeks I noticed exactly this happening. I was too tight. Report an error in the passage at 6:16 Highlight the passage at 6:16

6:42 I didn't realise it. But after some weeks I noticed these things happening. I was getting fatigued, tense, agitated. I really had to relax, relax, relax. And so that's something very important we need to really work on. Report an error in the passage at 6:42 Highlight the passage at 6:42

7:01 Also here it says that in this practice of course we're looking at the mind which has the nature of clarity and awareness and look at it single pointedly and nakedly. So here in this practice we're simply looking at the mind which has the nature of clarity and awareness and then also whatever is appearing in that mind. Report an error in the passage at 7:01 Highlight the passage at 7:01

7:23 And so we are to look at it, it says here, single pointedly and nakedly. Nakedly here means not thinking about it, not interpreting. What's there? Not investigating, not analysing, why is that thought there? Where did that come from? I mean, not analysing, investigating, simply observing, nakedly, with what's called bare attention, not thinking about the mind. Report an error in the passage at 7:23 Highlight the passage at 7:23

7:55 Now, we did that a little bit this morning, and some of you may have found that a little bit difficult. To do, particularly if you've never done that before. Again, maybe a little bit of advice on this practice, which I think could help us in this regard. Because often when people do this practice initially, often there's two main sorts of experiences people have. Report an error in the passage at 7:55 Highlight the passage at 7:55

8:27 Most common probably is they try and look at the mind and they just get completely swept away all the time. Swept away, swept away. The other experience that's quite common for beginners is they look and there's nothing really there. They look at the mind, something sort of starts to come, so people find that they can't really observe their thoughts. Report an error in the passage at 8:27 Highlight the passage at 8:27

8:52 Nothing seems to be there. That, as a beginner, most often is because we're too tight. See, what's happening is that Our mindfulness now is quite weak and so we tend to, as Alwal said, we tend to overexert ourselves, we tend to clamp down because we're worried about getting distracted by the thoughts and getting swept away so we really clamp down. Report an error in the passage at 8:52 Highlight the passage at 8:52

9:18 But what happens then is, of course, apart from the side effects of fatigue and agitation, what happens is that that intense focus is... With that mindfulness we are taking up most of the bandwidth of our mind. So what we're doing is there's no space for thoughts to really come up because we are, because of that intense focus, we are taking up all the bandwidth. Report an error in the passage at 9:18 Highlight the passage at 9:18

9:45 And so the mindfulness is sort of blocking anything really coming up. So what we need to do there as a beginner is, of course, one, to relax a little bit so we don't get agitated and fatigued. And then you'll find that there'll be more space for the thoughts to come up. But anyway, a little bit of advice here that I think is very helpful on this practice that Alan Wallace has got. Report an error in the passage at 9:45 Highlight the passage at 9:45

10:10 He says here, when you first begin the practice of settling the mind in its natural state, you may have difficulty identifying the intangible domain of the mind. Or even if you do settle your awareness there, After some time your attention may become vague, disoriented or spaced out. If you are having difficulty identifying the domain of the mind or sustaining attention there, consciously bring up a thought such as, what is the mind? Report an error in the passage at 10:10 Highlight the passage at 10:10

10:41 and attend to it. Don't think about this question or try to answer it. Just observe the thought itself. Watch it. Watching it emerge into the field of consciousness and dissolving back into that space. Once it's gone, keep your focus right where the thought was and see what comes up next. If you slip back into a kind of lax, mindless vacuity, deliberately generate the thought again and observe it with bare attention. Report an error in the passage at 10:41 Highlight the passage at 10:41

11:12 When you become familiar with this practice, you will no longer need to generate such a thought. To crystallize your awareness and locate your attention. That will happen by itself as thoughts arise and pass of their own accord. There's more to say, but just on that point. So again, sometimes with the mindfulness of breathing, of course the object is the sensations. Report an error in the passage at 11:12 Highlight the passage at 11:12

11:42 So that's something sort of tangible that we can focus on. But here we're focusing on the mind. The mind is not really something tangible. It's not really a thing. And so when we begin this practice, often people have the difficulty because they're looking for a thing, this thing called the mind, just like the sensations. Report an error in the passage at 11:42 Highlight the passage at 11:42

12:02 They're looking for this thing. But the mind here, which says it has the nature of clarity and awareness, is really a space within which thoughts and emotions come up. So it's not really a thing, it's more like a space where things come up. So if you're looking for a thing, you're not going to see the mind. Report an error in the passage at 12:02 Highlight the passage at 12:02

12:27 So we need to keep this in mind. So if we can't really locate or rest in that space, then as what Al Walsh says, what we can do is to deliberately generate a thought, focus on that thought, watch it disappear. And keep your attention right where it was. Then when it disappears, then that is the space of the mind. And then just stay there and wait for the next thing to appear in that space. Report an error in the passage at 12:27 Highlight the passage at 12:27

13:01 So that's something we can do as a beginner to help. Report an error in the passage at 13:01 Highlight the passage at 13:01

13:08 Yeah, the gap. And that's going to come up a little bit later down the bottom of page 5. is what's going to happen, of course, now for most of us is our minds are completely... One thought after the other. So this space or gap between thoughts, there won't be. There'll be one thought after another, just bombardment. In fact, in the normal shamatha process, we talk about these nine stages to go to shamatha. Report an error in the passage at 13:08 Highlight the passage at 13:08

13:41 In the Mahamudra approach, because we have a slightly different approach, they often don't use this nine stage model. They use more like a four stage model. And there, because here we're talking about nine levels of mental abiding, of abiding on the object better and better. Report an error in the passage at 13:41 Highlight the passage at 13:41

14:04 Whereas in the Mahamudra approach, what we're simply doing is looking at the mind and whatever's coming up. And initially there'll be a whole barrage of stuff coming up. And as we continue this practice, the amount of content coming up will start to subside. Because we're not feeding it anymore. And eventually the mind will become still. So it's the same result, but that process then is described not in terms of better and better focusing on the object, but in terms of what's appearing in the mind. Report an error in the passage at 14:04 Highlight the passage at 14:04

14:38 So in the four stage model here, often you'll hear the first stage of practice is that there will be a waterfall of thoughts. That the mental content will be like a waterfall crashing down. That's our experience. It's just crashing down. One thought after another and after another is just full of stuff. Then as we progress in this practice, the amount of content will start to reduce and then we'll start to get a little bit of a gap between thoughts. Report an error in the passage at 14:38 Highlight the passage at 14:38

15:07 That's the space of the mind, that gap. And so the analogy is instead of a waterfall crashing down, it'll be like a fast-moving river. Still quite a lot of thoughts, but a little bit more subtle, a little bit of gap. then it'll It'll quieten down more, so there'll be less thoughts, bigger gaps, and the analogy is like a slow moving river, and then eventually the mind will become still, so there'll just be the gap, there'll just be the space of mind, and the analogy there is like an ocean or a lake. Report an error in the passage at 15:07 Highlight the passage at 15:07

15:38 So waterfall, fast moving river, slow moving river into the still lake. So that's usually the analogy given here. And I've got more to say on that coming up. Report an error in the passage at 15:38 Highlight the passage at 15:38

15:49 So just a few more things. Alan is saying here, he says, The practice of attending to the space of the mind and whatever events arise there is like taking a naturalist's field trip into the wilderness of your mind. Report an error in the passage at 15:49 Highlight the passage at 15:49

16:05 you first embark on this inward journey, you may perceive very little. But as you grow more accustomed to the practice, you will begin to identify an increasing quantity and range of mental phenomena. Some some of of them them are are discreet, like thoughts and images, while others are nebulous, like emotions and This practice provides you with experiential access to a domain that cannot be observed with any of the instruments of modern science or technology. Report an error in the passage at 16:05 Highlight the passage at 16:05

16:37 The most they can do is to detect the neural and behavioral correlates of the phenomena you are directly observing. You have become a naturalist of the mind. And a whole new world is opening up to you that for most people remains largely unconscious. Report an error in the passage at 16:37 Highlight the passage at 16:37

16:58 In this practice the locus of awareness gradually descends from the superficial level of coarse mental activity that is immediately accessible through introspection down into the inner recesses of the mind that are normally below the threshold of consciousness. You discover in this training that the border between conscious and unconscious mental events shifts in relation to the degrees of relaxation, stability and vividness of attention. Report an error in the passage at 16:58 Highlight the passage at 16:58

17:30 Especially when you engage in this practice for many hours each day, for days, weeks or months at a time, you dredge the depths of your own psyche. doing so, you remember... Long forgotten experiences, both pleasant and unpleasant, and a wide range of desires and emotions. I can really testify that from first-hand experience, particularly during retreat. Report an error in the passage at 17:30 Highlight the passage at 17:30

17:58 As you do this practice and the mind starts to settle down, as Alan said, depending on how focused you are, the relaxation, stability and vividness you have, you're going to start to gain access to things at a deeper level of the mind, which for us now are mainly unconscious. Not only unconscious, but often what you find is that because our mind is so agitated, we can't tap into that. Report an error in the passage at 17:58 Highlight the passage at 17:58

18:26 Often we also are actively suppressing a lot of stuff that we don't like. In this practice, of course, as our attentional focus improves, we'll be able to tap into that more subtle content of our mind. Also, part of this practice, of course, is not suppressing stuff. So you're going to find a lot of stuff comes up. And I know from personal experience, like, you know, sometimes you're there and a memory will pop up of when you were like four years old and you probably not have accessed that memory since the original event. Report an error in the passage at 18:26 Highlight the passage at 18:26

19:02 You think, where did that come from? Also, of course, what you're going to find, as Alan said, is you're going to have a lot of pleasant and unpleasant experiences coming up because we're suppressing a lot of stuff and that's going to come up. But as he's going to say, by suppressing a lot of this stuff, we're not dealing with it. By suppressing, it just usually manifests in physical illness and also it's something that haunts us in the back of our mind. Report an error in the passage at 19:02 Highlight the passage at 19:02

19:34 And often we project a lot of this stuff outside. So anyway, read the next paragraph. He says, what happens here is a kind of luminously clear, discerning, free association of thoughts. Mental images, memories, desires, fantasies and emotions. You are plumbing the depths of your own mind, undistracted by external diversions. Report an error in the passage at 19:34 Highlight the passage at 19:34

19:59 Once hidden phenomena are unmasked through the lack of suppression of whatever comes up. This is potentially an extraordinarily deep kind of therapy and the more intensively you practice it, the more important it is to proceed under the guidance of an experienced Compassionate teacher. And one of the reasons, of course, for that is a lot of stuff will come up and particularly as you get deeper and deeper, you're going to get quite a lot of intense memories come up and it's easy then, as we do now, to get overwhelmed by the contents of our mind. Report an error in the passage at 19:59 Highlight the passage at 19:59

20:41 So here he's saying that really as we're really going deeper and deeper, it's helpful to have a compassionate teacher who can help guide us through this, to help us avoid becoming overwhelmed, identifying with this content, you know the old idea of a cognitive fusion, to really help us to move through this. Report an error in the passage at 20:41 Highlight the passage at 20:41

21:04 He says here, during your meditation sessions internalise the wisdom of this contemplative tradition and make sure that you implement the core instructions of this practice whatever arises in the mind do not be carried away with it and do not grasp onto it or identify with it fusion Just let it be. Watch thoughts, feelings and other mental events arise with discerning intelligence, be aware of their nature and let them slip back into the space of awareness without any judgment or intervention on your part. Report an error in the passage at 21:04 Highlight the passage at 21:04

21:40 This is the key to... Letting the knots of the psyche unravel themselves as the extraordinary healing capacity of the mind reveals itself. This is the path to deep sanity. Report an error in the passage at 21:40 Highlight the passage at 21:40

21:54 So this is one of the very good benefits of this practice. Now we are the slaves of our mind. We identify with the contents of our mind. We get overwhelmed by the contents of our mind. Report an error in the passage at 21:54 Highlight the passage at 21:54

22:15 But with this practice, We are learning to become the masters of our own mind, to simply observe mental events without identifying with them, without getting caught up in them, without getting overwhelmed by them, without suppressing them. And so therefore it's very therapeutic, very healing practice as well, really healing the afflictions of the mind, particularly suppressed and repressed emotions and memories. Report an error in the passage at 22:15 Highlight the passage at 22:15

22:51 Then let's look at the next two points because there's more to be said about this, particularly just what I've just mentioned. So step three and four, or point three and four here, is what to do with thoughts when they arise. Now there are basically two approaches and the first one is step three. is the approach we generally use here in this Mahamudra style of practice, where it says, when looking in this way, whatever thought arises, simply recognize it as that particular thought. Report an error in the passage at 22:51 Highlight the passage at 22:51

23:30 Such a technique relies upon introspection. So here again, what we're doing is we are simply observing thoughts as they arise, to recognize them, to witness them, to observe them. Without trying to get rid of them. Whereas the point four is more the technique we use when we're focusing, say, on the breath. Report an error in the passage at 23:30 Highlight the passage at 23:30

23:58 Which says, alternatively, just like the swordsman's battle with the archer taught in the Vinaya scriptures, having generated strong mindfulness introspection, as soon as any oppressive thought arises, cut it off completely, not allowing it to continue. So here, This is one of the main instructions for if we are focusing, say, on the breath. If we're distracted by a thought, we let it go and come back to the breath. Report an error in the passage at 23:58 Highlight the passage at 23:58

24:28 Let it go and come back to the breath. So here it means to cut it off. Cut it off means to not let it go immediately, come back to the breath. Report an error in the passage at 24:28 Highlight the passage at 24:28

24:39 So the difference here in, say, focusing on the breath and the mind, In what to do with thoughts. With the breath, you let go of thoughts as soon as you notice them. Let them go, come back to the breath. In this practice of looking at the mind, we simply let thoughts be. Let them be without identifying with them, without trying to get rid of them, without cutting them off. Let them be. Report an error in the passage at 24:39 Highlight the passage at 24:39

25:10 So there's letting them go and letting them be. So here we are letting them be, which highlights a little bit of a difference, a fundamental difference between focusing on the breath and the mind. Focusing on the breath, thoughts are problems. Focusing on the mind, thoughts are not problems. Grasping onto thoughts, identifying with thoughts is the problem. Report an error in the passage at 25:10 Highlight the passage at 25:10

25:38 Which means, actually, it Report an error in the passage at 25:38 Highlight the passage at 25:38

25:43 doesn't matter in this practice whether our mind is still or there's thousands of thoughts. It doesn't matter. Report an error in the passage at 25:43 Highlight the passage at 25:43

25:53 Whether the mind is still or lots of thoughts there, equal, no difference. What we need to do is avoid identifying with the thoughts, grasping on the thoughts, getting carried away by those thoughts. So here also then is a thing that we need to pay attention to. Normally in this sort of practice, particularly the goal is shamatha, a still, calm, clear, focused mind, we can come into practice, Again, with expectation, which here previously said, get rid of any hopes or fears or expectations, drop it. But generally we tend to come into a meditation, a shamatha meditation, with a hope or an expectation of the mind becoming still. Report an error in the passage at 25:53 Highlight the passage at 25:53

26:45 Which means, of course, if our mind is full of thoughts, we get upset and we label that bad meditation. And if our mind is still and no thoughts, We're happy about that, we become attached to that and label it good meditation. Completely wrong. Because if we do that here, we're going to get caught up in the whole hope and fear game. Report an error in the passage at 26:45 Highlight the passage at 26:45

27:15 Hoping that our mind is still in this meditation, fearing that there's going to be a lot of thoughts. And then we're going to get in the whole attachment and aversion game. Being attached to a still mind, having aversion for a mind full of thoughts. But here we're saying, Thoughts are not problems. Identifying, getting carried away with thoughts are the problem. So, a good meditation here is simply one where we're observing the mind and whatever's coming up to the best of our ability, without grasping, without distraction. Report an error in the passage at 27:15 Highlight the passage at 27:15

27:51 If we're doing that, regardless of whether our mind is still or there's millions of thoughts, good meditation. A bad meditation is simply one where we're not trying to Simply observe and we're allowing ourselves just to get carried away all the time. We're not trying to observe. In other words, we're not applying mindfulness and introspection. Report an error in the passage at 27:51 Highlight the passage at 27:51

28:17 That's it. And that's going to come up in number 6 and 7, point 6 and 7, is very helpful in helping us to overcome this idea that if there's lots of thoughts, there's a bad meditation. Nothing to do with that. In fact, we can't control. Report an error in the passage at 28:17 Highlight the passage at 28:17

28:38 Now, what our mind is doing. Sometimes our mind is more quiet, sometimes it's more active. Again, in this meditation practice, it doesn't matter if our mind is still or lots of thoughts. In fact, in some ways, having a lot of thoughts is better because it's helping us to maintain that mindfulness. It forces us to be more mindful if there's thoughts there. Report an error in the passage at 28:38 Highlight the passage at 28:38

29:00 So in some ways, having lots of thoughts is good. So that's something we need to keep in mind. Report an error in the passage at 29:00 Highlight the passage at 29:00

29:13 Let's move on to point five then. It says training the mind after having eliminated conceptual thoughts. So here also there's some very good practical advice. And it says the following. When the proliferation of thoughts has been finally severed and the mind is still, then without losing mindfulness and introspection, immediately loosen your tight focus and relax in a state of meditative equipoise. Report an error in the passage at 29:13 Highlight the passage at 29:13

29:42 And then there's two quotes from two great Mahamudra practitioners. As said by Machik Labdron, Relax by loosening a firmly tightened focus. Remain where the mind has been placed. Moreover, said by Saraha, also great Indian Mahasiddha, he says, If you relax the mind that is bound by tightness, it will undoubtedly become free. Report an error in the passage at 29:42 Highlight the passage at 29:42

30:07 In this way, relax without becoming distracted. Report an error in the passage at 30:07 Highlight the passage at 30:07

30:14 What it's saying here is that as a beginner of course we need to have quite firm focus because our mindfulness is quite weak. Report an error in the passage at 30:14 Highlight the passage at 30:14

30:27 And so then of course as we progress in the practice over the various stages and as said here when our mind starts to become a bit still then if we continue to have that firm focus, that firm mindfulness that itself will create some agitation. So then we need to relax the grip a little bit becoming distracted. Report an error in the passage at 30:27 Highlight the passage at 30:27

30:52 So we're not letting go of mindfulness and just letting our mind become distracted. But we are, as suggested here in this chart, you know, here we're talking about the force of our focus, which is the flame. As we move up here, the flame gets smaller, which means that as we move along here, as our mindfulness improves, The effort that we need to hold, we need to relax it. Because if we continue to have that strong effort, our mind will become a little bit agitated. Report an error in the passage at 30:52 Highlight the passage at 30:52

31:28 That's what's being said here. A little bit more to say, but let's read the next two paragraphs first. It says, If your focus is too tight and you think that excitement is arising, relax it a little. If your focus is too loose and you think that laxity is arising, Tighten it a little. By finding a balance between the two, the mind is drawn away from the movement of thoughts. However, it is necessary to be cautious of laxity when there is a factor of stillness. Report an error in the passage at 31:28 Highlight the passage at 31:28

32:01 And then he's quoting another great master, Master Chandra Goeman, who says, If I rely upon exertion, excitement will arise. If I give it up, laxity will occur. Since it is difficult to find an appropriate balance, what should I do with my agitated mind? So this highlights a problem in general in meditation. Now we have these two extremes or faults of laxity and excitement. Report an error in the passage at 32:01 Highlight the passage at 32:01

32:33 And so again we need to balance our mind as mentioned on the previous page. We need to have a balance between laxity and excitement. And so again here the analogy is like a guitar string. If a guitar string is too tight or too loose it doesn't play well. Likewise here, if our mind is too tight or too loose, it doesn't go very well in this meditation. In fact here, he's talking about the mind being too tight. Report an error in the passage at 32:33 Highlight the passage at 32:33

33:05 In fact, quoting Saraha here, he actually, in his text, there's a longer quote which says, and he uses an analogy, when tied up, a camel tries to wander in all ten directions. When freed, It stays immovable and firm. I have come to understand the mind to be like a stubborn camel. I Report an error in the passage at 33:05 Highlight the passage at 33:05

33:36 think this also, I mean this is talking a little bit about a little bit later stages of the practice when our mind becomes a little bit still that we need to relax a little bit. But I think this applies to us from the very beginning because we tend to come into meditation too tight. Now here is some very practical advice. Report an error in the passage at 33:36 Highlight the passage at 33:36

33:58 Which we did a little bit in this morning's meditation on how to balance the mind. Because we need to balance between dullness and agitation, excitement. Again, if our mindfulness is too tight, we're too tightly focused, our mind is going to get agitated and distracted. If it's too loose, we're going to become dull and the object's not going to appear very clearly. Report an error in the passage at 33:58 Highlight the passage at 33:58

34:23 So what we can do as a beginner to help balance... Because generally people tend to gravitate to one extreme or the other in their meditation. They become completely dull or they're completely agitated and distracted often. So what we can do in our meditation to help balance continuously in the meditation, and we did that a little bit this morning I think, Report an error in the passage at 34:23 Highlight the passage at 34:23

34:52 but I think I actually forgot to mention meditation. What we can do is on every breath use the in-breath, To focus, consciously focus. And use every out breath to relax consciously and to let go of any thoughts that have arisen. Now I'm talking back on the mindfulness of breathing. So we can use every breath in that way. We can use in breath for the focus, out breath to relax, to emphasise relaxation. Report an error in the passage at 34:52 Highlight the passage at 34:52

35:31 So also with looking at the mind and what's coming up. We can also note, we can in the background notice a little bit of breathing and so when we're breathing in, we're focusing intently on the mind, we're breathing out, we just relax. We relax that focus. So therefore we can balance between dullness and agitation. If we're too tight or too loose, we can get that balance happening on every breath. Report an error in the passage at 35:31 Highlight the passage at 35:31

35:56 So that's also something we can use to help balance the mind between too dull and too agitated. Report an error in the passage at 35:56 Highlight the passage at 35:56

36:20 Any questions on that? About the balance between too tight, too loose? Report an error in the passage at 36:20 Highlight the passage at 36:20

36:29 Yeah, it's called Attention Revolution. Report an error in the passage at 36:29 Highlight the passage at 36:29

36:40 Let's look at point six and seven and then I think it's just about lunchtime actually and we've just about finished the shamatha section actually. Even though there's quite a little bit more print there, there's not a lot more to say. Point six and seven. So point six says... When you look at the nature of any thoughts that arise, they vanish and a clear vacuity dawns. Similarly, if you investigate when the mind is still, there is an unscured clear vacuity and clarity. Report an error in the passage at 36:40 Highlight the passage at 36:40

37:12 In seeing that there is no difference between the former and latter states, it is well known to meditators as the mixing of movement and stillness. Report an error in the passage at 37:12 Highlight the passage at 37:12

37:22 And so here again, Report an error in the passage at 37:22 Highlight the passage at 37:22

37:27 and this is what Tracy mentioned just before, is about this gap. It says here, when you look at the nature of any thoughts that arise, they vanish. So you may also have the experience, you know, you sort of look at a thought and it very quickly vanishes. And that is because we are not feeding it. Normally a thought comes up, we identify with it and that leads to another thought and the whole big story follows. Report an error in the passage at 37:27 Highlight the passage at 37:27

37:56 But here what we're doing is we're simply observing the thought that comes up and the thought will come up with a certain amount of energy so it may be there for a short time. But if we're simply observing it, it can't go anywhere and it'll simply finish, it'll collapse. And then it says here, they vanish and a clear vacuity dawns. Report an error in the passage at 37:56 Highlight the passage at 37:56

38:15 That clear vacuity is the space of the mind. That sort of so-called gap between this thought ending and the next thought starting. Report an error in the passage at 38:15 Highlight the passage at 38:15

38:26 So what this paragraph is saying here is this mixing of movement and stillness is that when we look at these things in this way we can understand that this gap or this vacuity and clarity of the mind and thoughts are not two different things. That thoughts themselves are the nature of clarity and awareness. And so that's what it means by the mixing of movement and stillness. Report an error in the passage at 38:26 Highlight the passage at 38:26

38:58 And the analogy here to highlight that is often that the mind is like an ocean and the thoughts coming up in the mind is like a wave coming up in the ocean. So the wave, of course, is of the same nature as the ocean. It's water. It's just a manifestation of that ocean, a wave. So it's not something different, which can help us to get over, again, what I've mentioned previously, to get over... Report an error in the passage at 38:58 Highlight the passage at 38:58

39:27 The idea that a still mind is something we want and a moving mind is something that we don't want, we don't like. To overcome this whole attachment, aversion, gain. If we know that whether the mind is still or there's thoughts, same nature of clarity and awareness. It doesn't matter. So this point here, we come to appreciate this. It can be very helpful. Report an error in the passage at 39:27 Highlight the passage at 39:27

39:54 In overcoming this game that we find ourselves in, the hope-fear game, hoping that the mind is still and fearing that our mind has a lot of thoughts, the whole attachment aversion game. And actually the next point comes to something very similar, which says, alternatively use the following method for preserving the state. Report an error in the passage at 39:54 Highlight the passage at 39:54

40:16 No matter what thoughts arise, do not stop them. So again here we're not trying to suppress thoughts. Thoughts are not the problem. Report an error in the passage at 40:16 Highlight the passage at 40:16

40:26 Identifying and following thoughts is the problem. So recognize where they're coming from and where they're going and by so doing observe and rest in the nature of these thoughts. By resting in this way the moving mind will eventually cease and the mind will become still. And again here's a very useful analogy. Report an error in the passage at 40:26 Highlight the passage at 40:26

40:47 It is similar to the analogy of releasing a bird that has been held for a long time on a ship in the midst of a great ocean. Preserve this state in accordance with that said in Zarahar's Song of Realisation. It is similar to how a raven released from its ship circles in all directions and settles back there again. Report an error in the passage at 40:47 Highlight the passage at 40:47

41:07 So remember in the old days when the ships were going out and looking for land, sometimes they had a bird on the boat and they'd let it go and it'd fly off. And if it didn't come back, there was a pretty sure sign that it found some land. So here the analogy is of course in the middle of an ocean. The bird flies off, it can't go, there's nowhere to go, it simply comes back to the boat. Likewise, when a thought emerges from our mind, it can't go anywhere and it'll simply settle back into the mind itself. Report an error in the passage at 41:07 Highlight the passage at 41:07

41:41 So also this is another analogy to help us to understand that thoughts themselves here are not problems, are not a problem, they can't go anywhere. They can't do any damage unless we identify with them, grasp with them and follow them. We simply observe them coming up, in this analogy here, coming up from the mind, hanging around a little bit and then disappearing back into the space of the mind. Report an error in the passage at 41:41 Highlight the passage at 41:41

42:11 And then here to summarise that, I think this next quote is very nice. It says, Do not view discursive thoughts as faults. And do not intentionally cultivate non-conception. Rest the mind in its natural state and keep a distant watch. And the meditation will arrive at shamatha. So I think that pretty well summarizes what we've been saying here. Discursive thoughts are not the problem. Report an error in the passage at 42:11 Highlight the passage at 42:11

42:42 Grasping onto them, identifying with them, getting carried away by them is the problem. Also it says here, do not intentionally cultivate non-conception. Do not intentionally hope for or wish for or try to develop a still mind because that is hope, that is attachment and of course if we're trying to make our mind empty of thoughts we just get more thoughts. Report an error in the passage at 42:42 Highlight the passage at 42:42

43:15 So we're not trying to empty our mind of thoughts. We're not trying to here intentionally cultivate non-conception. We are simply... Resting the mind in its natural state, meaning we're not trying to do anything with the mind, we're not trying to alter it, we're not trying to get rid of thoughts, we're not trying to make the mind still. Report an error in the passage at 43:15 Highlight the passage at 43:15

43:34 We're simply resting the mind in its natural state and keep a distant watch. So we're just being like the witness or the observer, simply observing our own mind. Not trying to manufacture anything, not trying to change anything, not trying to make it still. And it says if we do this, the meditation will arrive at shamatha. Because now our mind is full of thoughts and emotions. Waterfall, crashing. Report an error in the passage at 43:34 Highlight the passage at 43:34

44:04 And of course we identify with these thoughts, we get carried away by them, we get overwhelmed by them, we have a lot of problems as a result of them. But here it says all we need to simply do is to keep a distant watch. Be like the witness, the observer. The impartial observer simply watching the show of our mind. Sit there and watch it. Don't try and manipulate it in any way. Report an error in the passage at 44:04 Highlight the passage at 44:04

44:34 Don't try to get rid of whatever's coming up. Simply observe it. If we do that, what's going to happen is, of course, the habit of thoughts and emotions. We're not feeding them, which means they'll come up, they'll pass, they'll come up, they'll pass, they'll come up, they'll pass. Then the habit of having those thoughts come up will get weaker and weaker and weaker and eventually, as the analogy, waterfall to fast moving river, slow moving river into the still lake or ocean. Report an error in the passage at 44:34 Highlight the passage at 44:34

45:04 The same will happen with our mind. If we simply do this practice, observing, then the waterfall of thoughts crashing down will become a little bit less, some gaps appear between thoughts. The amount of thoughts becomes less and less and less, bigger and bigger and bigger gaps. Eventually, the mind will become still. We will achieve shamatha. Report an error in the passage at 45:04 Highlight the passage at 45:04

45:28 Sounds good, huh? We could do with that. But again here, we have to be very clear about the instructions. Particularly, do not intentionally cultivate non-conception. Again, very important in this practice to get out of this hope and fear game. Hoping for a still mind, fearing thoughts. Expecting something. Expecting the mind to become still. All of these things are going to block our progress. Report an error in the passage at 45:28 Highlight the passage at 45:28

46:03 They're going to end up with us in the whole hope-fear game, the whole attachment-aversion game. And this is just going to generate more thoughts, more problems, more identification and disaster. So, again, simple instructions. Thoughts are not the fault. Don't intentionally try and make the mind still. Simply rest the mind in its natural state. Keep a distant watch. Report an error in the passage at 46:03 Highlight the passage at 46:03

46:31 Be the impartial observer, witness. Simply observe the show of the mind and over time that show will settle down and come to shamatha. Report an error in the passage at 46:31 Highlight the passage at 46:31

46:41 Easy, huh? No, it's actually, these instructions are very simple but not so easy to implement because we have strong habits now. So strong habit to, whenever a thought or motion comes up, we identify with it, we get carried away by it. So in this practice we are changing our habit of identifying, identification is just cognitive fusion, identifying getting carried away. Report an error in the passage at 46:41 Highlight the passage at 46:41

47:13 We're changing our habit to simply be, to keep a distant watch, observe without getting caught up. So by doing that we're going to become the masters of our mind, not the slaves like now, the slaves of our mind. We'll become the masters of our mind and our mind will become not only clear and focused and stable, but of course stability implies, so we're going to develop that. Report an error in the passage at 47:13 Highlight the passage at 47:13

48:10 Seems like you're doing a little bit of an imaginative way of not getting caught up in them. Again, like the other instructions as a beginner, like the breath, to help with stability we can use this little trick of counting and that can be helpful at the beginning stage to help to count the breaths. But again, at the higher level of practice, counting is still a conceptual activity and we need to drop it. But it's like training wheels, counting breaths. Report an error in the passage at 48:10 Highlight the passage at 48:10

48:44 And so maybe what you're doing is a little bit like training wheels. Helping you in a very imaginative way of not identifying with those thoughts and emotions. But what you're going to find is any little trick like that at more later stages of practice will itself become an obstacle. But at a beginning phase we can use a few little tricks like that to help us stabilize a little bit. But we should be careful not to overuse them and certainly later in the practice. Report an error in the passage at 48:44 Highlight the passage at 48:44

49:17 Those sorts of things are going to become an obstacle. Counting the breath will become an obstacle eventually because it's a conceptual activity and we're supposed to be focusing on the sensations. But as a beginner, if we're completely distracted all the time, counting can be helpful to minimise that a little bit. So with that, what you're doing, I think we need to be a little bit careful and not overdo it. Report an error in the passage at 49:17 Highlight the passage at 49:17

49:39 But actually on that point, and then we'll stop for lunch, again here Alan Wallace has got some very good advice. About how to deal with these sorts of experiences. Various experiences. So read this out and then we'll break for lunch. So again here I think he's got some very important advice. In particular here, one thing that he's going to talk about first is this idea of fear. Report an error in the passage at 49:39 Highlight the passage at 49:39

50:08 See, now we identify with the contents of our mind. In fact our whole identity. is based on the contents of our mind. I'm an angry person, I'm a such and such person. We identify with these contents of our mind as not only our emotions but our memories and all that. That's who we think we really are. That's what we identify with. I'm such and such a person, I work here, I do that. Report an error in the passage at 50:08 Highlight the passage at 50:08

50:40 When someone asks you, who are you? We generally say this. I'm such and such, I grew up here, I got this job, blah, blah, blah. We're just talking about our memories, our habits, Report an error in the passage at 50:40 Highlight the passage at 50:40

50:57 experiences. It's talking about all that contents of our mind. So we identify with that and identify with that's who we are. Now what's going to happen here in this practice is, as I said, now we identify with who we are with all this stuff. But as we do this shamatha practice, The waterfall of thoughts and thought crashing down will get less and less and less, more and more gap, more and more this open spaciousness, less and less conceptual activity, which means all this conceptual activity has been substantiating our sense of me. Report an error in the passage at 50:57 Highlight the passage at 50:57

51:33 That will get less and less and less and then we'll be in this very open spacious state. And when that starts to happen, a lot of people in this practice develop a lot of fear. Because their sort of sense of identity is crumbling. Because they've identified with all this stuff as who they are. And so some good advice on this here. Report an error in the passage at 51:33 Highlight the passage at 51:33

51:55 And then also a couple of other things. A little bit related to what you just mentioned. The purpose Report an error in the passage at 51:55 Highlight the passage at 51:55

52:14 of settling the mind in its natural state is especially known for unveiling the suppressed and repressed contents of the mind. And these vary widely from one individual to the next. There is no way to predict beforehand what kinds of experiences you may have. One of the most common challenges in this practice is the emergence of fear. Report an error in the passage at 52:14 Highlight the passage at 52:14

52:38 As you release your grip on the contents of the mind, you are undermining your normal sense of personal identity, which is constantly reinforced by thinking, by recalling and identifying with your personal history, hopes and plans. You are now disengaging from these familiar supports for substantiating your ego. As lapses between thoughts occur more and more frequently and for longer periods, your awareness hovers in a kind of empty space, a vacuum devoid of personhood. Report an error in the passage at 52:38 Highlight the passage at 52:38

53:14 You may come into the grip of fear as your normal sense of who you are loses its footing. The teacher, Genlamrimpa, warned his students that such dread may well arise during their training. It is crucially counseled to not identify with it or to give it any credence. Some kinds of fear are based in reality. They protect us from danger, filling the body with energy so that we can flee or protect ourselves in whatever way necessary. Report an error in the passage at 53:14 Highlight the passage at 53:14

53:45 But this kind of dread, with no clear object, has no such basis in reality. There is no danger in the empty, luminous space of awareness. You have nothing to lose but your false sense of an independent, controlling ego. The only thing being threatened is an illusion. If you don't identify with it, there's nothing to fear. If you do identify with this fear, it may bring your entire practice to a grinding halt and throw you into deep emotional imbalances. Report an error in the passage at 53:45 Highlight the passage at 53:45

54:20 So it is utmost importance to observe such fear without distraction and without grasping. Keep to the essentials of the practice. So again, when these things come up, whether it's fear or some sort of other negative state of mind, keep to the essentials of the practice. Simply observe that arising and passing. Report an error in the passage at 54:20 Highlight the passage at 54:20

54:46 you know, if... Report an error in the passage at 54:46 Highlight the passage at 54:46

54:50 Usually what happens is if we have some negative state of mind come up, it's usually because of some stimulus. Some stimulus caused that negative state of mind. And if so, what we tend to do is we go into a big story. We continue to focus on the stimulus and it becomes a huge big story. But here, what we're doing is if some stimulus provoked, of course, some negative reaction, maybe we're anxious, fear, Report an error in the passage at 54:50 Highlight the passage at 54:50

55:20 Anxiety, depression, whatever it is, then here, again, we simply stay to the essentials of the practice. We simply observe that fear, anxiety itself. And what's going to happen then, of course, is now you're looking at fear, anxiety, depression, whatever it is, you're looking at that directly. You're not focusing on what is causing that. Report an error in the passage at 55:20 Highlight the passage at 55:20

55:44 So there's nothing feeding it anymore. So if we simply observe that fear or anxiety, and of course here we're not trying to get rid of it, trying to suppress it, because often what happens with people who particularly have anxiety, anxiety comes up and they go, oh, I don't want that, which means they're having aversion to it, which means the anxiety just gets bigger, gets more, because they're anxious about the anxiety. Report an error in the passage at 55:44 Highlight the passage at 55:44

56:09 So again here, or you get anxious about the fear, the fear increases. So again, we're not buying into it. We're simply observing it, allowing it to rise, allow it to pass. And a little bit more on that. He says, another emotional imbalance that may crop up at any time throughout the training is depression, which may be related to a deep-rooted sense of guilt and low self-esteem. Report an error in the passage at 56:09 Highlight the passage at 56:09

56:38 When any of these emotions or attitudes arise during the meditation sessions, treat them like any other mental event. Watch their emergence. See how they linger, then observe them disappear back into the space of the mind. Examine them with discerning intelligence but without any emotional charge. Rather than identifying with them or owning them, let them emerge from the space of awareness and dissolve back without any intervention on your part, even without any preference for them to go away. Report an error in the passage at 56:38 Highlight the passage at 56:38

57:14 Let the space of your mind be emotionally neutral, like physical space, which could not care less whether bullets or hummingbirds streak through it. So I think that's something very important. Because in this practice, we're going to get a lot of stuff coming up, particularly if we have suppressed and repressed a lot of stuff in our life. Report an error in the passage at 57:14 Highlight the passage at 57:14

57:40 A lot of memories, a lot of maybe negative things that we've done. These will come up, but they have to come up because by suppressing them, they're harming us. They're harming us physically, they're harming us mentally and we tend to project these things outside on others, creating a lot of problems for others. Report an error in the passage at 57:40 Highlight the passage at 57:40

57:59 So they need to come up. If we keep to the essentials of this practice and simply observe them come up without identifying with them, without trying to get rid of them, observe them come up and pass, observe them come up and pass. And that would be very therapeutic because simply acknowledging these suppressed and repressed things often is enough to completely heal it. Report an error in the passage at 57:59 Highlight the passage at 57:59

58:24 Simply acknowledging it. So I think that's something important. We've gone out of time so let's stop there unless there's some last question about this. Report an error in the passage at 58:24 Highlight the passage at 58:24

58:36 in relation to what you've just said. I some people it then be sort of outside of the practice, the fact that that awareness has come up then would be causing them Yeah, exactly. Because with this practice, we're strengthening our mindfulness, which means also in our daily life, you know, this suppressing is we're actively doing it all the time. Report an error in the passage at 58:36 Highlight the passage at 58:36

59:00 But by developing this practice in meditation, then of course we're strengthening our mindfulness, we're strengthening our habit of not suppressing, not identifying. So, yes, some of this will come up in daily life. Particularly when we're a little bit more quiet. I mean usually when we're active in daily life and focused on things, that sort of doesn't give the space for a lot of this stuff to come up. Report an error in the passage at 59:00 Highlight the passage at 59:00

59:27 But we could be just simply sitting at home in a quiet time and yes, some of this will come up. But again, use the same technique. Notice it come up, observe it, don't try and get rid of it, don't identify with it and it will be very therapeutic and healing. But again, as Alan mentioned before, I think as we really dredge deeper and deeper and deeper, a lot of stuff is going to come up and it's helpful to have some teacher or someone around us to help us through those periods because some of that stuff is going to be quite intense and so even though it's a simple instruction, to actually hold that instruction in those times can be a little bit difficult because we're not. Report an error in the passage at 59:27 Highlight the passage at 59:27

1:00:10 So therefore it's important to have the guidance of a teacher who can help us through those periods. Otherwise we can go back to our old habits, you know, this stuff comes up, oh no, no, I don't want that, get away, go away. Or we identify with it and it creates a lot of turmoil. So yes, there will be some quite strong things that come up and there, as Alan said, it's helpful to have the guidance of a teacher who can help us through those. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:10 Highlight the passage at 1:00:10

1:00:37 But it's the same instructions. With a teacher there, they can help us, give us support through those periods. So I think that's something important. Okay, let's break for lunch. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:37 Highlight the passage at 1:00:37

1:00:50 then we more or less this Report an error in the passage at 1:00:50 Highlight the passage at 1:00:50