Transform Your Mind & Change Your Life Retreat - 7-Point Mind Training from Atisha (part 2)

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0:45 So we'll begin this afternoon in terms of guided meditations, Report an error in the passage at 0:45 Highlight the passage at 0:45

0:51 a series of exercises designed to bring about balance in the body, speech and mind, especially to make our minds serviceable, ready to be applied for the rest of the retreat. So we'll do this again and again throughout these six days. Report an error in the passage at 0:51 Highlight the passage at 0:51

1:16 So let's begin. In this first session I'll use quite a few words as the sessions go by. I'll use fewer and fewer words to instruct. In this initial settling of the body, speech and mind. Classic instructions going back to Padmasambhava 1,200 years ago. I invite you to begin by letting your awareness descend into the body. Report an error in the passage at 1:16 Highlight the passage at 1:16

1:40 Bringing your awareness down into the body, right down to where your body is in contact with the chair, the cushion, the yoga mat. Let your mind be silent. Report an error in the passage at 1:40 Highlight the passage at 1:40

1:57 Simply witnessing the sensations arising in the contact between your body and that which supports your body. The chair, the mat, the cushion. Report an error in the passage at 1:57 Highlight the passage at 1:57

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2:46 In these tactile sensations we call the sensations of the earth element, the sensations of solidity and firmness. Report an error in the passage at 2:46 Highlight the passage at 2:46

2:57 Then let your awareness rise up and fill the whole space of your body, through your legs, your torso, your arms up to the top of the head, and be mindfully present throughout this entire somatic field, aware of the sensations arising throughout the space of the body. Report an error in the passage at 2:57 Highlight the passage at 2:57

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3:50 And as you become more explicitly aware of your own body from this first-person perspective, you may note areas that feel tight, Report an error in the passage at 3:50 Highlight the passage at 3:50

4:01 Where there's tension. For Report an error in the passage at 4:01 Highlight the passage at 4:01

4:06 many people, I'll find it in the shoulders, the base of the neck. Wherever you feel tightness in the body. As you breathe in, gently attend to or focus on these areas. Report an error in the passage at 4:06 Highlight the passage at 4:06

4:18 And as you breathe out, surrender your muscles to gravity. Loosen, relax, let go. Breath by breath. Report an error in the passage at 4:18 Highlight the passage at 4:18

4:43 Especially bring your awareness to the face, which can be something of a magnet for tension, often showing up in our facial expressions. And soften, soften all the muscles of the face. Muscles around the mouth and the jaws. Report an error in the passage at 4:43 Highlight the passage at 4:43

5:25 Let your forehead feel open and spacious. Let there be a spaciousness between the eyebrows. Soften all of the muscles around the eyes and soften the eyes themselves. Report an error in the passage at 5:25 Highlight the passage at 5:25

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6:11 In short, let your whole face rest, relax in an expression of repose and Report an error in the passage at 6:11 Highlight the passage at 6:11

6:22 settle your entire body in a posture of ease, comfort and relaxation. Report an error in the passage at 6:22 Highlight the passage at 6:22

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7:07 Insofar as your body is comfortable, you should find it easy to remain still throughout this session and adopt a posture of vigilance with your spine straight, your sternum slightly lifted, your abdominal muscles loose and relaxed, so that when you breathe in, the sensations of the breath go down to the belly, which expands as you breathe in and falls back as you breathe out. Report an error in the passage at 7:07 Highlight the passage at 7:07

7:51 In this way settle your body in its natural state imbued with the three qualities of relaxation, stillness and vigilance. Report an error in the passage at 7:51 Highlight the passage at 7:51

8:24 Then move on to the speech. We settle the speech in its natural state which is resting in effortless silence. Report an error in the passage at 8:24 Highlight the passage at 8:24

8:34 You've probably achieved this already in terms of your public speech, your vocal speech. But then there's the speech of the mind, the internal chit-chat, the rumination, the internal commentary. And it's not so easy to settle the voice of the mind. In a state of effortless silence. But that is the challenge, Report an error in the passage at 8:34 Highlight the passage at 8:34

8:58 to let the mind be silent when there's nothing to say. At ease, at rest, relaxed and still. To Report an error in the passage at 8:58 Highlight the passage at 8:58

9:25 facilitate this, we settle the respiration in its natural rhythm, which means to allow the breath to flow in and out, effortlessly and without impediment or constraint. Report an error in the passage at 9:25 Highlight the passage at 9:25

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10:36 The key to this is the out-breath. Report an error in the passage at 10:36 Highlight the passage at 10:36

10:43 With every exhalation, relax your body more and more deeply. Letting go, surrendering your muscles to gravity. Report an error in the passage at 10:43 Highlight the passage at 10:43

10:55 With every out-breath, release the breath and continue releasing and releasing. Report an error in the passage at 10:55 Highlight the passage at 10:55

11:03 Release it all, all the way to the end, without holding anything in reserve. Not forcefully expelling the breath, but letting it flow out until it's all flowed out. Report an error in the passage at 11:03 Highlight the passage at 11:03

11:22 And with every out-breath, release any thoughts or images, any memories that may have come to mind. Let them go. Release them into the space of the mind. Let them dissolve away. Report an error in the passage at 11:22 Highlight the passage at 11:22

11:37 Setting your mind at ease with every out-breath. Report an error in the passage at 11:37 Highlight the passage at 11:37

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12:29 And once you've breathed out fully, then simply allow the next breath to flow in effortlessly. And whether it's long or short, deep or shallow, don't pull it in and don't obstruct it in any way. Report an error in the passage at 12:29 Highlight the passage at 12:29

12:45 Simply allow it to flow in. However it flows in, deep or shallow, let it be like receiving a gift. And then breathe out again, relaxing in every way with each exhalation. Report an error in the passage at 12:45 Highlight the passage at 12:45

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13:35 In this way we allow the respiration to settle in its own natural rhythm. As breath by breath the body establishes its own equilibrium, sometimes with deep breath, sometimes with short, until an equilibrium is found and the breathing gently, gradually, becomes rhythmic. Report an error in the passage at 13:35 Highlight the passage at 13:35

14:16 And finally we turn to the mind, settling it in its natural state, relaxed, still and clear, to relax the mind, to set it at ease. Report an error in the passage at 14:16 Highlight the passage at 14:16

14:30 Release all concerns, thoughts, hopes and fears about the future and the past. Just for the remaining minutes of this session, set Report an error in the passage at 14:30 Highlight the passage at 14:30

14:41 it all aside. Allow yourself the leisure and take advantage of the opportunity to let your awareness rest right in this present moment. Report an error in the passage at 14:41 Highlight the passage at 14:41

15:09 In the freedom from such hopes and fears, desires and aversions, awareness comes to rest. Naturally, effortlessly, it comes to rest in stillness. Report an error in the passage at 15:09 Highlight the passage at 15:09

15:20 Stillness in the present moment. And awareness is by nature naturally clear, bright, alert. So rest your mind then in this state of dynamic equilibrium. We call resting the mind in its natural state in which your mind is relaxed, still and clear. Awareness resting right where it is without doing anything. Report an error in the passage at 15:20 Highlight the passage at 15:20

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16:51 Now for the remainder of this session, we'll begin to explore a method of mindfulness of breathing drawn from the Dzogchen tradition, the great perfection tradition. Of Tibetan Buddhism, which draws the ambience, the perspective of this tradition into this simple, very basic method of mindfully attending to the in and out breath. Report an error in the passage at 16:51 Highlight the passage at 16:51

17:18 The method is this. Continue to rest your awareness in stillness. A mindful, non-conceptual, non-talkative presence of mind. Report an error in the passage at 17:18 Highlight the passage at 17:18

17:38 Awareness resting in its own place, holding its own ground, unmoved by sensory stimulation. By sounds and other sensations, unmoved by thoughts and memories, resting in stillness, free of grasping. Report an error in the passage at 17:38 Highlight the passage at 17:38

18:08 Without moving from this stillness, resting right where it is, without deliberately attending to the tactile sensations associated with the respiration. Report an error in the passage at 18:08 Highlight the passage at 18:08

18:24 As you simply rest in this present moment, awareness resting in its own nature, without trying, Report an error in the passage at 18:24 Highlight the passage at 18:24

18:35 you can very easily be aware of the rhythm of the breath, with no effort at all. Just aware of the rhythm of the breath flowing in, the breath flowing out, with Report an error in the passage at 18:35 Highlight the passage at 18:35

18:51 only the most peripheral of awareness or peripheral attention. You can note the duration of each in and out breath, whether it is long or short. Report an error in the passage at 18:51 Highlight the passage at 18:51

19:04 So the method is to primarily rest in the stillness of your own awareness, like 80 % or so of your attention. Resting, right in awareness, resting in the present moment. And just your peripheral awareness, maybe something like 20%, noting. Report an error in the passage at 19:04 Highlight the passage at 19:04

19:23 The rhythm of the breath, with each in-breath, noting whether it is long or short, each out-breath. Noting ever so simply, without talking, without labeling. Report an error in the passage at 19:23 Highlight the passage at 19:23

19:37 Noting when the breath is long, when it is short. Report an error in the passage at 19:37 Highlight the passage at 19:37

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21:50 Continue to primarily rest in the stillness of your awareness, in that stillness. Loosely, relaxed, resting in that stillness. Like an unflickering candle flame, unmoved by thoughts, memories and so on. Report an error in the passage at 21:50 Highlight the passage at 21:50

22:11 And peripherally maintain an awareness. Almost effortlessly of the rhythm of the breath. Report an error in the passage at 22:11 Highlight the passage at 22:11