← B. Alan Wallace

Transform Your Mind & Change Your Life Retreat - 7-Point Mind Training from Atisha (part 47)

B. Alan Wallace · 1 h 12 min · Vajrayana Institute via Internet Archive

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  • 1:58

    In the practices here, a mindfulness of breathing, if pain comes up, if it's mild, if it's not very distracting, you simply let it be and focus on the object of mindfulness, which is the breath, the sensations of the breath in one way or another. And the pain is not that, so that's selected out. If you're settling the mind in this natural state, focusing the mind, well, physical pain is not in the space of the mind, and so you select it out. You simply don't attend to it.

  • 9:54

    But this approach, where you're taking it in, but you're dissolving it without trace. So you are taking it in. You are attending. And you are taking it in and imagining the person you're attending to being freer, freer, freer, lightning, and then the load is gone. But you're taking it in and dissolving it there in an inexhaustible source, into the infinity of your Buddha nature. So you could be looking at six million people, you could look at seven billion, you could look at as many as you like, but it's never infinite, and this is limitless. So you take it and you dissolve it, and then I think you'll find that as a very effective way to be able to attend to and not get burnt out in the process.

  • 31:11

    Flower petals, it's mostly flower petals, dried and then ground. A little bit of Tsamba, parched barley meal, to give it some substance. A bit of yak butter, just to hold it together, and honey to hold it together. And then a few spices, but nothing exotic, no LSD or mescaline, nothing like that. They're all mundane substances. And the only thing about the flowers is you mustn't choose any toxic ones. But they're not special super-duper flowers. They're just flowers usually from the highlands.

  • 37:04

    Sure. Is there much Buddhist research on the effects of meditation and dementia? This is one of my passions, actually. It is, yeah. I'm very interested and I do travel a lot, meet with scientists all over the place. Brazil, Australia, Singapore, the list goes on and on. I've been around for quite a number of decades now and I've met a lot of really interesting people. Which is one reason, again, I'm happy to be the HIM. There's very serious interest. But right now, have studies been done to show the long-term effect of daily meditative practice and dementia?

  • 1:05:15

    So I'd be very happy if she can just make this her life and her living. It's good work. Good work. Alan, the other question was around finding a guy or a guru or whatever. How is it just going about that? Ask Claudio. Or ask this lady over here, Rachel. Or ask Rhonda. Or ask Shugila. When I first went to India, I had a letter of introduction for one Tibetan in India.

0:21 So we have a few written ones. What I'd like to do is, if there are questions for you right here in person, I'd like to alternate back and forth. So here's from Anonymous. If pain arises in the body during meditation, and it's already there when starting, do you simply observe it, Report an error

0:51 shall maybe encompass it into your awareness, or drill into it, giving it a color or texture or shape to resolve it, what you recommend. It depends on the practice you're doing. So pain arising in the body, of course, is very, very common. So it all hinges on which practice? Because there are practices such as, for example, the Vipassanā practice. Report an error

1:13 Vipassanā practice of the close application of mindfulness to the body. As a Vipassanā practice, it's not aiming to be shamatha, it's not trying to dissolve into the substrate consciousness. You're closely applying mindfulness to the body to understand the nature of the body and what arises in it. So in that context, which we've not done, it's not a Vipassanā retreat. Then should pain arise in the body, then that's exactly what you're attending to. Report an error

1:39 You're rising in the body and you're attending to the body. Within that field that is your focus of mindfulness, pain arises. Then you examine it. You examine it very closely. Report an error

1:49 And you probe into its nature. You may dissolve it by doing so. You may pose questions to it. But that's for other practices. So that would be another retreat. In the practices here, a mindfulness of breathing, if pain comes up, if it's mild, if it's not very distracting, you simply let it be and focus on the object of mindfulness, which is the breath, the sensations of the breath in one way or another. Report an error

2:14 And the pain is not that, so that's selected out. If you're settling the mind in this natural state, focusing the mind, well, physical pain is not in the space of the mind, and so you select it out. You simply don't attend to it. Resting in awareness of awareness, the same. Select it out. No thank you. I'm busy doing other things, right? Because everything has its place. Report an error

2:37 If you're resting in, if you're doing non-meditation, then of course there's no selecting here or there at all. There's no selecting at all. But since you're not identifying with it, it may, if you're practicing well, simply arise in the space of awareness and then just dissolve away without an owner. Report an error

2:53 But that's all if it's quite moderate pain, moderate discomfort. But if you find it really kind of distracting, and it's just then, do you find it distracting or not? Then if it is distracting, for the type of practices we're doing now, then I would see if you can avoid it. Find a more comfortable posture. And if the two postures, supine and sitting, sitting across lake or in a chair, if they don't do it, if the discomfort is still there, then you might experiment with other kinds of chairs. Report an error

3:23 So we have a lot of high-tech chairs now. I'm sure you can find plenty here in Sydney. These kind of ones that are really contoured to the body can really support you. So if you can find a way to sit, number one, with the spine straight, that's important. But apart from that, everything else is kind of open. Report an error

3:39 And not have discomfort arise in the body. That's generally preferable. But then I know friends who have chronic discomfort. And no matter what their posture is, they're always in a state of discomfort. In which case, you can do multiple things, of course. But in the context of the practice we're doing here, one, you can say, all right, nothing I can do about it, so no big deal, and just get on with it. Report an error

4:03 But the other one, you'll recall that, remember three objects, three poisons and three roots of virtue. Here's something uncomfortable. And then you can immediately reflect, this is uncomfortable, I don't have a perfect body. I'm probably... In the majority of human beings who don't have just a splendid body that doesn't have any discomfort in it, especially if you get older, it's kind of a larger and larger group. Report an error

4:28 And so as you're experiencing that, then you can practice Lama and say, as I'm experiencing this suffering, so are there countless other beings experiencing this suffering or much more and then wishing them well. Report an error

4:43 Here's one person, here's a thousand people, that kind of thing. And attend to them and imagine taking it in. But especially for healers, doctors, nurses, psychologists, clinical psychologists, people who you've chosen a profession where you must be attending to people and their pain. Report an error

5:00 People don't come to doctors, therapists or anybody else because they're feeling so good, unless they just see your friendship. And so if they're coming to you professionally, then your job is to attend to and care for. Health care, it's a good term, health care. And so, it's ... Your job. It's your job. That's what people are coming. It's not only what you're paid to do, but it's what people are coming for. And I think that sometimes it's forgotten in big hospitals. Report an error

5:28 That's what I was told when I was at this hospital at the National University of Singapore. Because I spent a lot of time with doctors there, very intensively for 10 days. And as I mentioned before, I think the burnout rate is very, very high, especially in intensive care units, like 50%. Because I think they just can't withstand that emotionally, just that day after day after day, attending to people's intense pain, their trauma. They probably are engaging with family members who are distraught, fearful and so forth. Report an error

5:57 And so how can one face that and give the care that is needed? Because people are caught not coming to a machine shop to have some robot arms come out and fix this and snip this and then put them on a conveyor belt and send them out, you know, like a repair machine. They're coming for care. And I think we have a practice right here. Number one, cultivating the Shanta, cultivating that inner sense of ease, stillness and clarity. Report an error

6:23 As you cultivate this more and more deeply, a sense of inner calm is bound to arise, serenity. And then out of that, a sense of well-being may very well arise. And if you have that as a place of refuge, not ultimate refuge, but nevertheless, a place like a nest you've been cultivating. A place of refuge, a place of stillness, of calm, of sweetness that you've been cultivating. You can't buy it, but you can cultivate it. If you can come back there at will, then even if you're facing other people's very intense grief, pain, fear and so forth, when you step back, you can step back into a place that is a retreat. Report an error

7:02 And it's a really good retreat, good for everybody, such that when you come out to the next patient, the client and so forth, you're coming out rejuvenated, you're coming out fresh. So that's one point. Back to simple shamatha. Now, I'm probably going in too long, but there was a time when I was not facing a lot of people's grief, but I was teaching twice the course load of a full professor. Report an error

7:24 So lots and lots of courses, in addition to having graduate students and board meetings of faculty. And I was teaching in the community, teaching Dharma as Dharma, whereas in the university they wanted me to teach it in a secular fashion. But it was a very intense workload. And it was not that of facing grief and all of that, but it was just an awful lot of very students who are, you know, they want stuff. Report an error

7:47 They want your time, they want your attention, they have questions. Office hours come and I always had a line and there we are, next, next. And so as soon as the, I know what I have, I got through like four years of that. And happily, it was a very, I have no regrets about it. It was four years in the university as a lecturer. Report an error

8:05 But the way I got through them very happily was, as soon as I was off, as soon as it was not office hours and nobody needed me, I'd lock the door. I just first started. And I would lay out my yoga mat on the floor of my office and put the cushion there and I would just go right into meditation. And so nobody's going to reprimand me. Report an error

8:26 I wasn't neglecting my duties. But as soon as I was off duty, I was in there, out. You know, gone. And then I'd come back and I'd be fresh. But I would do that multiple times a day. That was very helpful. But more specifically then, again, since that's not the intensity of being a doctor, a healer and so forth, or a therapist, not at all the same, I know that. Report an error

8:45 But for those who are in these professions where on a regular basis you're meeting people's distress, then the practice of donling we've been doing here, finally administered. And that is what can easily take place. If you meet with the grief of family members who are afraid for their loved one, it's very easy to take that on. If you attend to them, loving people, compassionate people do that. Report an error

9:10 We attend too, and we take it on. And you take it on once, and you take it on twice, and after a while you just can't take it on anymore. And that's because it's coming onto your shoulders. It's coming onto your body. It's coming onto your psyche. And there's only so much we can withstand unless you're a great, great bodhisattva. Report an error

9:27 And so this is why there are different ways of teaching and practicing Donglen. But especially when I'm teaching like this, when I'm here only for six days and then I'm gone, I want to make sure that I don't do anything that harms you, or that you would harm yourself on the basis of what I teach. I'm trying to minimalize that to vanishingly small. And so this approach to Donglen, there are other ways that are more intense, very powerful, and I'm not teaching them. Report an error

9:54 But this approach, where you're taking it in, but you're dissolving it without trace. So you are taking it in. You are attending. And you are taking it in and imagining the person you're attending to being freer, freer, freer, lightning, and then the load is gone. But you're taking it in and dissolving it there in an inexhaustible source, into the infinity of your Buddha nature. Report an error

10:17 So you could be looking at six million people, you could look at seven billion, you could look at as many as you like, but it's never infinite, and this is limitless. So you take it and you dissolve it, and then I think you'll find that as a very effective way to be able to attend to and not get burnt out in the process. Report an error

10:34 No overload. So, anything from you here? Yes, please. Donald, Report an error

10:43 wave in the corner. Report an error

10:48 It's so nice to see you again. I've seen you year after year after year. Steady as the monsoon. Which is very refreshing. How are you doing? Greetings. Creeky. Creeky. Creeky, I forget. I'm after you, I'm running after you. I'll get to creaky good pretty soon myself. I've got a couple of questions for me. Report an error

11:16 Yes. Report an error

11:20 doing it, I chose to do it in relation to a relative, who is not a parent. Who? He was long dead. He was long dead, yes. As soon as I started doing the practice, I was almost entirely overcome by a strong emotion. Report an error

11:45 Choosing variables because I caused suffering. Understood. They were nothing dramatic. I mean, I was just disappointed in their hopes. Understood. Understood. I was doing it for that reason, but then I was concerned that maybe it wasn't purely that, but maybe it was some kind of self-centeredness. In that I was trying to, mainly in my sense of self or something, was trying to protect itself, trying to imagine itself as pristine and untainted and so on. Report an error

12:20 I didn't like to be associated with this idea that I was acknowledging that I'd done something and regretted it. So I'm just concerned that the motivation for my being was an extra. The question I thought might resolve back was... What feelings would I have had, or wouldn't I have had feelings at all, if I'd been doing it completely over-compassion? Report an error

12:49 That's the first question. When I pass there, good. My ram is fairly small. And so, very good. There are two issues here, and they're both actually good, but they may not be good at the same time. And so, just this afternoon, it's very timely, just this afternoon, we looked at these four remedial powers. Report an error

13:09 So I sense that in your relationship with this person, you regret that perhaps you could have handled it better. Sometimes we have to disappoint people. There's no choice. I'm going to take a very brief escapade. When I went off to India when I was 21, my dad was very upset, very unhappy. And that was just the way it is. Report an error

13:26 I couldn't do anything about it. I just couldn't stop doing that to please him, because then I would have been miserable for the rest of my life. So I had to disappoint. I don't think I did it as skillfully as I might now, but there are occasions when disappointment is just... I'm sorry, but this is the way it has to be. Coming right back to you. So in this case, the details are entirely your business, but there are two issues here. And one is, if you look back and you feel, well, it wasn't out of malice, but perhaps there could have been greater sensitivity, greater wisdom. Report an error

13:56 Maybe I could have done it better. And if discipline was necessary, needed, my dad had to be disappointed. I could not fulfill his desires and possibly follow the life I wanted to follow. And afterwards, all of my life and not his. Report an error

14:10 That if there's remorse, then don't go to Donglenya. Go to the four remedial powers. Go to the four remedial powers. Look back and say, now my deed, my deed, the way I handled that, it could have been better. And maybe there was some self-centeredness and so forth. And so remorse for the deed, and then each of the other three, which I won't go through right now, but each of the other three, and then purify that. Report an error

14:35 It's something separate. On the one hand, On the other hand, then there's that person. So you're attending to your own garden, pulling out the weeds. And then we have as a separate practice, I think not doing them simultaneously, that this person, who's now passed away, experienced distress, disappointment, suffering. Report an error

14:54 And that was at least catalyzed by your behavior. But that's now not the issue. That was the issue for remedial powers. That was your issue. But now you're setting yourself aside. It's worth doing that, but now you're attending to that person and not you, that person, be that person. And then in this regard, then leave aside, I wish I hadn't done it, because that's another issue. Report an error

15:20 And then it's simply Tonglen. But now here's a very important point in this regard, because of course I encounter many people, engage with many people who are concerned over loved ones who died. Of course, we all have. We all have. And they would like to do something, or perhaps they're grieving. Maybe it's a very recent loss. And they're grieving over the very recent loss of a loved one. And I think the very important point is that as we attend to that person, there's no point in attending to that person who's dead because that person doesn't exist anymore. Report an error

15:57 That person in that body doesn't exist anymore. So there's no reason then to develop compassion for someone who's not there anymore. They're gone. But then, unlike the materialist, would say, you're right, they're gone, they're finished, there's nothing left to them. Well, that's just, as you know, I'm utterly persuaded, that's just false. Report an error

16:17 It's just a mistaken idea. That the continuity is there. And so for loved ones who've passed away, or someone, you know, could be a close relative and we feel there was unfinished business, or I wish I hadn't said that and now the person is gone and there's nothing I can do about it. And the answer is yes, there is. Report an error

16:33 That person is in that incarnation, that embodiment, of course that's finished. But we can pray, we can practice Donglen for the person that person has become. And we don't need to know where, we don't need to know the person's name. We have a karmic connection with that person. That's clear. That karmic connection is there and is not going away. Report an error

16:54 And so the continuity of that person having passed away was in the bardo for some period and then has moved on. If this is years and years ago, we would have moved on to another incarnation after that. There's no telling. But the point here is the karmic connection is there. And so if you focus on that individual, knowing that that particular manifestation, that crystallization of that person is gone, but the flow is still there, then you can focus on the person, whoever it may be. Report an error

17:23 Now, in their current incarnation, that person is real as anybody in this room. And you may not recognize, you probably won't recognize. But your prayers, your thoughts, your loving kindness, compassion will touch them. Because the karmic connection is there. And then leave the past behind. Because you dealt with that with the four medial powers. Finish it, clean it. And then it's not about me at all. It's about you and just sending them loving kindness. Report an error

17:51 And whatever travails or whatever challenges, whatever suffering they may be experiencing now, there's a karmic connection. There's a sense of caring, for sure. A sense of caring, that's flowing spontaneously. So then practice, with a clean slate, practice Dalai Lama for that person, whatever that person is embodied right now. Report an error

18:11 And that will strike the target. Absolutely. You've answered the first part of my next question. The first part of it is, which was exactly about the substrate and the common connection, and that was, in a sense, the mechanism on which whoever the person was becoming, you could still... I'll tell you in the future. Report an error

18:35 Yes, indeed. And especially, as I mentioned before, it's not a trivial point. Where there are those karmic connections, it just makes it a closer connection. The likelihood, the chance of that person actually having an impact is greater. If it's a distant person you've never met, they don't know who you are, you don't know who they are, but you know about them by the way with the media. Report an error

18:57 I mean, that little boy that I saw, that so many of us saw, the Syrian refugee, unlikely to ever meet him. Of course, he has no idea who I am. So I can certainly embrace him in compassion, as so many people do. I've just seen that photo, I'm sure, arouse compassion in many, many people. But the likelihood of there being a strong karmic connection is very remote. So cultivate compassion, of course. But when there's a connection, a karmic connection of any sort, blood relationship, friendship, and so forth and so on, then it can actually have this impact. Report an error

19:27 You've attended so many of my riches. I think you have part two, but I'll give you this short story. It's interesting. You might recall it, because I know you've attended probably years and years now, retreats and I've passed through town, but it was teaching the practice of settling the mind in its natural state, observing thoughts and so forth, to a group of scientists, I think it was about 35 scientists, all academics, pretty hardcore, very serious or professional people, but they were open-minded enough to come to this Buddhist guy in his seven-day retreat on the mind, so they were open-minded enough to show up, and that's a lot. Report an error

20:00 And so among them was one person who I got to know rather well, a very fine man, very ethical, very, very fine professor, took very good care of his graduate students. I think he's a loving father and hated religion. He couldn't stand religion of any sort because he got burnt out. He got burnt out from his upbringing. Report an error

20:20 So even when he came to Dharamsal and he saw religious stuff, he just started freaking out a bit because he loathed it so strongly. But that was just that niche. That was just that he loathed, that otherwise he's a very nice person. He just thought religious people were quite stupid. So that hampered our communication a little bit. But he showed up. He still showed up, you know. Report an error

20:39 And so there we were about five days into this retreat where people are meditating hours a day. And we're going more deeply into settling the mind, just uninhibitedly allowing whatever to come up. And then about day five, then he raised his hand and he said, Alan, I had a very interesting memory in the last session. He was about 60 years old at the time. Report an error

20:59 Very accomplished. Psychologist he was. And he said, what memory came up is I had a memory of a girl I knew about 50 years ago when I was 10 years old. We were classmates. And the memory came out of the blue. There was no trauma or it wasn't my first love. It was nothing like that. It was just a little girl I knew when I was 10 years old. Report an error

21:20 But the memory came up so vivid of encounters with her, her name and who she was and the contact. And they came up so vividly, I said, I couldn't doubt, could not doubt that these were true memories. I wasn't conjuring them up. And I said, I just simply found it curious, that it came up so vividly, and I had not thought of this girl for decades. Report an error

21:40 And that was just interesting. He's a scientist, and he was saying, well, that was interesting, that it kind of just bubbled up out of, he would say, the subconscious, I presume. And so it was interesting. And I said, well, that's interesting indeed. And then we moved right on. A couple of days later, the retreat came to an end. About a day or two later, very shortly after, I received an email from him. And he said, Alan, something very strange happened when I got home. Report an error

22:05 And that is about a day or so after the retreat, a woman emailed me and she said, Dear Professor XYZ, you probably don't remember me, but I was just thinking about you a couple of days ago. Report an error

22:22 If you know an academic, everybody can find your email, right? It's just given. It's very easy to find an academic. So she remembered his name, John Doe, and she looked him up, she nailed his email, and she said, I just was curious to be in touch. How are you doing? You just came to mind and I thought I would drop you a note. And so Professor Doe then, in his email to me, said, Alan, I'm very skeptical about many aspects of your worldview, you know, reincarnation and all of that. Report an error

22:51 But now, a little bit less. Report an error

22:58 So this is very innocent, very lightweight. But I think he also just raised a great big question mark. Like, coincidence? Really? That explains something? Or what? That it was just so bizarre. But it was innocent. It was lightweight. There was no trauma. There was no first romance. Any emotional charge. But there was a connection. They were good pals when they were ten years old. Report an error

23:24 And he tweaked his string over here and ripple, ripple, ripple, ripple, triggered over something over there and boom, came right back. So I don't think that's a coincidence. I think it's, if it happens once in a hundred years, okay, then anything can happen in a hundred. But this kind of thing, it happens so often that especially when there's a karmic connection, then it's really plausible, quite possible. Report an error

23:47 Perhaps on a conscious level, like this woman really was motivated enough to seek him out and send him an email. But it can also be, as we know that our minds work on multiple levels, there may be an impact that works on some subconscious level. That can happen too. And it can also happen with respect to physical healing. Report an error

24:05 Physical healing. Some people are very gifted as healers, and they may do that a lot. But even if one is not a healer as such, if one has been cultivating compassion, cultivating these qualities of Dharma, and one's motivation is pure, and one simply practices Dhammen. Then there are many cases where one's thoughts, one's prayers, one's visualization actually may alleviate suffering. So that's possible too. Thank you. Report an error

24:32 That might in fact be related to what the second part of my question was, which is, in addition to the karmic connection that works through the substrate, is it possible too as a reinforcement of... The explanation for why Tonglen works for dead people is part of that to do with, if you see it from the point of view of Pro Audio Consciousness Rūpa, with its fourth time, then in a sense in Rūpa, the fourth time everything comes together, so there is no separation of time. Report an error

25:16 So the fact that you are practicing Tonglen in relation to someone... who at one time was dead and at another time wasn't, in a sense becomes irrelevant. just that person or that entity has been affected. Very true. I have a short answer to that. Yeah, it's very deep. The answer is yes. So that's it. And everything changes. I mean, we just bring in another whole dimension as soon as we do any of these practices from the perspective of Rigpa, even a facsimile of it, approximating it. Report an error

25:52 When it goes from Rigpa, then statements like, I mean this one, if one tears this out of context, you think, this is just so airy-fairy baloney that what are you saying? I shall liberate all sentient beings from suffering and bring each one to perfect enlightenment. If you walk down to downtown Sydney and just say that, see what happens. Report an error

26:16 Hello, we have an emergency. Out of context is completely baloney. You know, it's nonsense. But that's because most people are not aware of Rigpa. And from Rigpa, that makes sense. But yeah, from that perspective, sure. All right, I'll do a written one, or a tend to, a written one. Report an error

26:42 So this is from Patrick. And so if you're... Patrick? Hi, Patrick. I recently read a historical recount where a Tibetan monk was observed traveling in a meditative state called, oh, Lung Gomba. Yeah, it's called Lung Gomba Chien. Lung Gomba Chien, yeah. Have you ever tried it yourself? Report an error

27:03 And could you explain what's happening? Let me try. Report an error

27:12 California is really nice. Report an error

27:16 You don't have to laugh that hard. No, I haven't tried it. But I know a fair amount about it, because there are people in living memory who have witnessed it happen, and it's quite remarkable. If you would like to see some of the... Could you please explain it? Report an error

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27:32 Just the really cool, weird stuff that happened to that. Read the writings of one of the most remarkable women in the history of Buddhism, and not a Tibetan yogini or Dakini, Alexander David Neal. That woman was wild. She's a French woman. She lived to about 99 years old. And I won't tell the whole story of her, but her writings, they're actually authentic, I would expect. Report an error

27:54 And she's writing back in the 1930s, 40s, a long time ago. One would expect, I mean, there are other ones that are complete charlatans, like Loh Tsong, Loh Tsong Ramba. It's complete baloney. He just made up a whole bunch of rubbish. So don't take any of that. But this woman, I've read her writings as a scholar, a study Tibetan. There's no rubbish there. And the things she perceived, the things she saw back in 1930s, 1940s, before the whole invasion, you just think it was another planet. Report an error

28:23 Weird stuff happened there. And then, of course, I've spoken to many Tibetans who were living in the 30s and 40s, and they saw things. Or what is that one? Tuku Ogin's book. Report an error

28:35 Tuku Ogin's book, what is it? Where he's giving an account with anybody. Blazing Splendor. Blazing Splendor. There's a book. Blazing Splendor. That's a wonderful book. And it's again one of the old ones. He's passed away now. But Tuku Ogin was the father of Tsoknyarambache, Mingyarambache, Chuknyarambache. Report an error

28:55 Remarkable man, but he tells stories, his autobiographical story, of things he witnessed. And they're just amazing, you know. So, lungam, now I'll answer your question. Lungam is a type of practice, and it manifests what's called a mundane city. But what it is, is you gain mastery over, lung means prāṇa, and gom is meditation. Report an error

29:18 So it's prāṇa meditation, but lungom in this particular context, because that could mean a wide variety of things, it's a way of mastering the subtle prāṇa within the body. So that if anybody's read Carlos Castaneda, it crops up there, interestingly enough. There's a strong parallel. It looks like it's the same thing, and that's in a shamanic setting in Mexico. Report an error

29:38 Let's just keep on the track with Tibet. You master this, and then you set out, and it's running, it's running. But you can run with your eyes closed. You can run through the night. And there's just something very mysterious taking place. And you just run and run and run and run. But it's nothing like a person running a marathon, which you take lots and lots of training and his muscles and all of that. This is going undercutting all of that, going right to prāṇa. Report an error

30:06 And apparently with extraordinary speed and endurance, but also just being able to run through the night. It's very mysterious. But it was witnessed certainly as late as the 20th century. And I don't know anybody who teaches it or practices it. I was not so intensely curious that I sought it out myself. Report an error

30:27 But it certainly is interesting. And there are documented cases. Tibetans take this completely seriously. So there it is. And it was actually, the practical thing was, it was actually a way to get from here to there very effectively. Report an error

30:44 As a parallel, I just need a little bit of chit-chat. Hopefully nothing is too incredibly urgent. But something I did look into a bit more, with greater interest, because for decades I was very poor. I never missed any meals, but really couldn't plan ahead much. Didn't need to. But I got very curious early on in something called the Medok Chuleng. Report an error

31:05 Medok is flour, chit means vital essence, and len is taking. It's a type of pill that you make, and it has... Flower petals, it's mostly flower petals, dried and then ground. A little bit of Tsamba, parched barley meal, to give it some substance. A bit of yak butter, just to hold it together, and honey to hold it together. Report an error

31:23 And then a few spices, but nothing exotic, no LSD or mescaline, nothing like that. They're all mundane substances. And the only thing about the flowers is you mustn't choose any toxic ones. But they're not special super-duper flowers. They're just flowers usually from the highlands. And you put all of this together, there's a very specific formula for them, and you make pills about the size of a smaller than, like a large marble, smaller than a golf ball. Report an error

31:50 About something like that. Maybe that's about one and a half centimeters or something. You make these, and you roll them in the hands, you make them, you dry them, and then, I will tell the experience of one of my teachers. His name was, again, Jambawandip. He accomplished this. And so, because he was a monk that went through all the basic training. Report an error

32:10 of the Prajamparamita and Mahjyamaka. That's about 10 years of pretty intensive training. But he didn't want to go out and become a Geshe, get a big degree and follow that. He just learned enough Dharma so he could really launch off and go into retreat and apply himself full-time to practice. But he had no money. And so he found a little enclave of really hardcore yogis, led by one in particular, Tehor Gyopanaramuji. Report an error

32:35 He was like a total male arepa. This is the 1940s, 1950s. And so he went up through this little community of yogis, really hardcore, absolutely dedicated. But they had no food up there. It was very far, very remote up in the mountains. And so the whole idea of these flour, nutritive essence taking pills, is you make them of these physical substances. Report an error

33:01 And they have some calories in them, a bit of yak butter and so forth, a little bit of Tsampa. The rest is just flours mostly. And then what you do is you take these, your pills, like a bag of them, and then, that's the physical part, but then you go into samādhi. You go into samādhi, you practice stage regeneration practice, you generate yourself as a deity. And then by the power of your visualization, and you want good samādhi for this, you imagine drawing in the nutritive essence of the five elements from the surrounding environment. Report an error

33:31 And you imagine this coming in in the form of five-colored light. And you imagine just drawing in like a big magnet, drawn in by the power of your samādhi, and drawing this from around the environment, maybe one kilometer, two kilometers in radius, and drawing it in, drawing it in, drawing it in. So you've empowered this with the power of your samādhi, your practice, stage-to-generation practice, some understanding of emptiness. You empower them, and then your task is to, you have to wean yourself off of coarse food. Report an error

34:04 But you do it abruptly. You just stop eating anything. And you don't drink anything other than water. So you basically go on a fast. But you get three of these pills a day. That's it. But it's really not much. Three of these pills a day. And if you succeed, then over a period of two, three weeks, then your body just shifts gears. Report an error

34:24 I mean, it just shifts its whole something profound shifts on the, how do you say, the whole digestive tract, the whole GI tract. From stomach all the way down. And something shifts. And during that time you drink a lot of water. And so you evacuate any feces. So you have a clean, clean, as much as you can, totally clean intestinal tract. And you eat no solid food except for this. But then from that point on you have no bowel movements at all. Report an error

34:52 Because your body absorbs entirely, everything. And this is all essence. So there's nothing, there's no chaff. There's nothing to flush out. You drink as much water as you like. And then you can live on these pills for months and months and months. And then you don't need to have any patron to bring you food. And flours are pretty available, so you can make more. Report an error

35:12 And yak butter, a bit of samba, is easy to get. Somebody will give you some. And so he said he tried three times. Three times. The first two times he would get into this, and then he would think, just a little snack. Report an error

35:26 You get really hungry. Just a little snack with a heart. And it would completely throw it off. But it was, you know, just like a fairy tale. It was the third time as a charm. The third time he just carried right through. And then he lived on them for months. And he was one of my teachers. And so it's not just hearsay, but he did this. And that was a way for two things. One is now you don't have to eat any food, because this will do. Report an error

35:50 But the other one is when your body is living on that, then it's not having to expend any energy. Of all the hard work of the whole digestive tract to separate this from that and flush this out and assimilate that, it just goes right in and boom and the body absorbs it all. So what this means and how this plays out is your mind becomes much subtler and clearer and lighter. So then your ability, mental ability from meditation and so forth is very much enhanced by that. Report an error

36:20 So it's not just a way to be able to skip food, but in fact it's done so they can really enhance, lighten, brighten. Your mental awareness, you can apply yourself much more effectively to meditation. So that's kind of a related thing. It is one of those parts of Tibetan culture that's completely true and utterly inexplicable by modern science. Report an error

36:39 That was just a story. Okay, yes, anybody? Yes, please, not heard from you. Report an error

36:48 I'm Hi, Sammy. Both my parents, as you mentioned, my dad died last year. In the last year? Last week. Yes. And my mum's currently got quite severe dementia, so I'm actually quite interested in keeping my brain healthy. Sure. Is there much Buddhist research on the effects of meditation and dementia? This is one of my passions, actually. Report an error

37:12 It is, yeah. I'm very interested and I do travel a lot, meet with scientists all over the place. Brazil, Australia, Singapore, the list goes on and on. I've been around for quite a number of decades now and I've met a lot of really interesting people. Which is one reason, again, I'm happy to be the HIM. There's very serious interest. But right now, have studies been done to show the long-term effect of daily meditative practice and dementia? Report an error

37:39 Not quite, but very close. Near miss. So I can tell you two sources, and they're easy to find. One is from the Shamatha Project, which I initiated, and I was the contemplative teacher, and then we had a great, great team of scientists. This was for two, three-month retreats. Each group was about 30 people that were scientifically studied. And they're practicing shamatha and the four measurables. And they're practicing quite a few hours a day, so it's not something most people could do, because they're in retreat. Report an error

38:06 But one of the surprising and very welcome outcomes of this very multifaceted research that was done, because they collected an enormous amount of data, was over these three months of reasonably intensive practice. Report an error

38:21 That there was a very clear impact on the telomerase and telomeres, which I can't explain right now in detail, especially when there are doctors in the room, but the paper is published. And the effect of it, the gist of it, was that this slows down the aging process. It slows down the aging process. So no specific relevance to dementia, but just the chromosomes. The chromosomes and the telomerase, telomeres involved in this. Report an error

38:50 That they're repaired, and so the chromosomes don't get damaged over time as they would otherwise. They're repairing themselves. So that was a surprise. And a woman who's become a Nobel laureate was in charge of that aspect of the research. Her name is Elizabeth Blackburn. Very, very fine scientist. Very lovely person as well. Report an error

39:08 Very pleasant person to engage with. And if you wanted to see the paper, I can't cite the paper, but I know where you can find it. If you go into your search machine, let's say Google, And you Google Clifford Saran, S-A-R-O-N, Saran, Shamatha Project, then he has a whole website that he's created. I think it's Saran Lab, something like that, at University of California, Davis. He has there, happily, he did this in the last year or so, he's now put online all of the published papers from this study. Report an error

39:43 And there's a lot of them, and that's one of them. So there's one data point. That's promising, not definitive. That's promising. Then there's a woman named Sarah Lazar. L-A-Z-A-R, I'm pretty sure. Sarah Lazar. And she's at Massachusetts General Hospital. She's related to Harvard, Massachusetts General, one of the very famous hospitals in the United States. She's now done two studies that I know of. Report an error

40:06 And the first one was maybe ten years ago. And this was studying people with just a regular but quite ordinary daily practice, I think just basic mindfulness, very, very basic, basic Vipassanā. But doing it for year and year. And this one was published quite a long time ago. It's a well-cited, well-regarded, peer-reviewed paper. And what her study showed was that people who are meditating regularly have less cortical thinning. Report an error

40:31 And cortical thinning corresponds in a pretty significant way to loss of cognitive ability. So there's that one. And then just recently, over the last year or so, I got another notice. I'm not sure I have the exact details, bibliographical details, but I did see a notice. She's published another paper, and as I recall, if I remember correctly, again, people who are meditating regularly, they're talking about 20 minutes a day, half an hour a day, and very basic stuff. Report an error

40:59 I think, frankly, not much of the sophistication we've had in these methods. But basic, elementary, good. And here, as I recall, I think she found that people who were meditating regularly, if I recall correctly, but you can check this out, it's not too hard to find, greater neurogenesis, that is greater formation, creation of fresh neurons, well into the 50s, 60s and 70s. Report an error

41:22 And that bodes well. So even though the number of neurons, compared to 100 billion for the brain as a whole, it's a small percentage, like it's 100 million here, 100 million there. So it sounds like a big number, but not compared to 100 billion. That's a tiny fraction. But it turns out that little 100 million here, 100 million there, that actually has a real significant impact. Report an error

41:42 And so these are suggestive, that's what I can say. But I've spoken with people in Spain, in Brazil, and very recently in Singapore. And I'm sure there are other people around the world who are raising this question, because I will speak for myself, I'm baby boomer. Baby boomer. 1950. And so there are a lot of us that are crowding in now into that area where people, you know, in this area, 60, 65, 70 and older, these symptoms start showing up, you know, of either gradual dementia or getting hit with a sledgehammer of Alzheimer's, variations on the theme. Report an error

42:17 And so I'm quite passionate about this and I try to be a matchmaker. You know, I find people interested and just make sure everybody knows who they are that I meet. I love doing it. And what needs to be done, and I'm telling you this all over the world, when I meet people interested, is what we need is about a 10-year study. And we should have something like about a thousand people in the study. Report an error

42:39 Because then you have statistical significance, yeah? But they should start maybe when they're in their 40s, latest in their 50s. And they should do some practice they can do regularly. So we don't have anything awesome here. But it would be nice if it had a bit finesse. Like relaxation, stability, clarity. That might be a big step in the right direction. And not just being mindful. But even just being mindful. Okay, that. Report an error

43:02 But having a study like that with a large group of people and doing it regularly and then monitoring over the period. And it wouldn't be after a lot. It would be questionnaires pretty much. It would probably be sufficient. But monitor them and then track them 10 years later and 20 years later. And it's a very simple question to be asked. Report an error

43:22 And that is, statistically speaking, those who have done that, do they have 30 % greater chance of not succumbing to these problems? 30 % would be fantastic. If it's 10%, a lot of people say, I'll take 10%. If it turns out to be 60 % or 70%, we'll have people lining up. But this is very significant. The partner of my stepdaughter, I don't want to... Report an error

43:50 I'm not going to say anymore. I don't want to invade anybody's privacy. But there are people, just generally. If your parents have, there may be a genetic proclivity. And so it's like resting with an anvil over your head and a rat eating the rope and just wondering, will I be gone before it hits? And so nobody wants to live in anxiety. And if we can do anything that is reasonable, that is sensible, we can do it on a regular basis, that's going to be beneficial anyway. Report an error

44:19 It might decrease significantly the odds of succumbing. Absolutely. So I think this study really must be done. And it's not that expensive. And it has nothing to do with any sectarianism. Religion doesn't have to be involved. I think probably if it were involved, it would probably be helpful. But let it be for each person. Report an error

44:38 Let the Christians do it. Do this in a Christian context. And the Jews and the Jews and the Buddhists and Buddhists. But just generally speaking, there's a lot of evidence of this. Is that if people have a rich religious life, Even people who hate religion know this is true. If people have faith and they're cultivating the virtues of Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism and so on, it tends to be really good for them, health-wise, physically and mentally. Report an error

45:02 So if it's there, then encourage people, let this be part of, embrace this, integrate this with your religious practice, your religious way of view. And it's bound to only help. Rather than trying to somehow artificially secularize it, keep it separate. I don't see any value on that at all. I think it's going to happen. Because there's just so many of us getting into that age bracket. Report an error

45:26 And mindfulness has become very popular. That has positive aspects to it. And it just has to be a matter of time where people put two and two together and say, is this worth $10 million? It might be $10, it might be $5. But is this worth a significant amount? To find that it is statistically significant. Report an error

45:44 To decrease the chances. It's so obvious that it should be done. And people in the field are intelligent and many of them are very caring. So I think it will happen. But the more we talk about it and let the word out and see where it goes, then the faster will happen, I think. Okay? Report an error

46:03 You're very welcome. So back to another written one here. We have a bit of time here. Report an error

46:12 What about the first people of this country? Did they not have experiences of very deep samādhi? People who've studied the native people of Australia will know much better than I. In shamanic traditions generally, I really have not studied. Is there a proper use? Is aboriginals okay? Is that okay? Yes. All right, I'm glad. So, good. So, the aboriginal culture here. I've not studied it. I've been curious a bit from the outside, but it's not been my focus. Report an error

46:37 But obviously it is a focus of other people. But we do find in shamanic traditions around the world, in Tibet, in Mongolia, and elsewhere, that... Systems of samādhi developing very deep concentration. Nobody has a monopoly on it. And while you find it in the classic traditions like Hinduism, Buddhism and so on, you find it in the shamanic traditions as well. Report an error

46:58 And so where that is to be found, then you're going to find a lot of related issues. Just by and large, here's a rule of thumb that works pretty well. And that is among the world's religions. Those religions that have a deep, a strong samādhi culture in them. They tend to be very strong in affirming reincarnation. Hinduism, in your face. And Buddhism, in your face. Report an error

47:24 Taoism, in your face. Early Christianity, first four centuries, before it was outlawed. Very clear. And even from the top down. Church father, I mentioned earlier. Sufism, it's there. It's generally frowned upon because there's so much emphasis on orthodoxy. But it is there. And then, in other shamanic cultures around as well, you find it. Report an error

47:45 So the answer is, I don't know, but I would be not at all surprised if they did. Generally, living in a place like the Outback, it's so spacious. I mean, I've not spent time out there, but I know desert. I've lived in desert before. And it's so spacious. I've spent months in the desert in total solitude. Report an error

48:05 It clears the mind. The mind really calms down. It's just, there's something so clean. I've lived in the high desert. I've had multiple long-term retreats, well, six months. At a time, almost entire solitude. And there's something so clean and austere about desert and the night sky and the simplicity, the awesomeness, the austerity of the environment itself. Report an error

48:28 It tends to, if you don't find it unbearable because it's so austere, it tends to really calm the mind. Calm the mind. And then samādhi is easier. The fact that there were so many yogis in Tibet, I mean a high density of yogis for the population, a lot of Tibet is high desert. Western Tibet, Ladakh, that kind of area. Central Tibet also. It's only in the eastern part. You have a lot of forests and so forth. But that kind of altitude helps and that kind of landscape really helps to calm the mind. Report an error

48:56 So that's that. Did they have experience of ditsamari? Very possibly. Somebody must know. What about dream time experience? What? Go ahead. Go ahead. Yes, Chukila. You're studying that? Good shit. Maybe a microphone can come. Because you are studying it. And I never have. I'm ignorant. And yet I'm the one answering. Report an error

49:18 Go for it. Report an error

49:23 I have no story. There's no story. I've finished. It's in different languages, but the last one is called didiri. It's like a deep listening, you take yourself away, you go, so I'm looking at the similarities with that. Yeah. Report an error

49:44 Deva-eer, you certainly know of. Clear audience. Clear audience is one of the types of existential perception that comes out of samādhi. When you're hearing things from afar, there's remote viewing. Where you're mentally seeing things afar, and you can also mentally hear things from afar. It's called clairaudience or in Buddhism, the deva ear, the divine ear. Report an error

50:04 Back to you. Then they had samādhi. I'm almost certain they had samādhi. So why don't we keep the microphone, because there's more coming that I can't answer. What about the dream time experience? Any comments on dream? That's famous, even I've heard of it. But Dreamtime, any comments? You have to know more about it than I do. Report an error

50:33 They'll raise their hand if they do. Report an error

50:42 It's Dreaming, but Report an error

50:52 it's more about the cultural worldview and how creation happens, Report an error

51:03 talk to a story. But it's not a separate time. Understood. Okay, not finished. Report an error

51:15 Charlie's World, the actor. I'm totally clueless. Charlie's World, the actor. Going once, going twice. I have no idea what that's referring to. And is having a hip replacement a bad thing for the prāṇa system? Report an error

51:36 Ask the creaky people. Well, my first response would be, probably not nearly as bad as not having a hip replacement. Report an error

51:48 So I'd go for the hip replacement and be happy. Hallelujah. I mean, many of the perks of modern medicine are fantastic. Knee replacement, hip replacement, hallelujah. Report an error

51:58 Great. Good. Anything else coming up? Yes, please. Chris. Just a question about practice. Okay. Good. The one is how I find a guru. By the way, I'm from Melbourne, the capital of Australia. So how do you find a guru? But that's the easy one. The other one is I've been meditating for quite some years and I've been through these retreats and I don't know if other people have experienced life. Report an error

52:22 It was great to hear the question last night. But I'm there for a while and then I've gone. And you know, 20 minutes can pass. Today I thought I was doing really well, I'm right here, and then boom, and I went off. Last night I wrote this fantastic email, I'm lucky I didn't send it, and that was the whole 20 minutes of my meditation. Report an error

52:40 And I've just come to accept that that's my lot with meditation, and that I think in a previous retreat we talked about the number of hours you do per day, and getting out of some threshold. Anyway, what I can probably manage is 10 sessions a week, two a day for most days, and missing a weekend. So I just want to, yeah, it was great to hear you suggesting some things last night around moving around to your breath and shifting around you in the course. So that's been, I'll be trying that. And the other thing I would think of was actually going for a short time because at least the money was for, you know, by half the time and the time it got every 12 minutes and at least it's only 12 minutes of being, I don't know where I go. Report an error

53:20 I'll go. Yeah. So any other suggestions at all that you can offer about staying present for the whole of the meditation? Report an error

53:28 Sure. You know, when Genlam Rinpoche, I've mentioned his name a number of times, the one that lived under the rock, he was the, as I mentioned, he was leading this one-year retreat back in 1988. And I was his apprentice, basically, and his interpreter during that one year. And I might have mentioned at the beginning of the year, remember, he told people, limit your sessions to 15 minutes per day. Report an error

53:49 18 a day, because they're there for a full-time retreat. But that's only four and a half hours. And frankly, that's not a lot. If you're in full retreat, I mean, there's nothing else to do there. There's just nothing. And people were encouraged to maintain silence. And so four and a half hours out of maybe 16 is a small fraction. Report an error

54:06 But nevertheless, he said, now this is how I want you to start. 15 minute sessions. But then always go for quality over quantity. So do 50 minutes and then take a break. Go walk. Or find some meaningful way to spend your time. Maybe read a little bit. But do something and then come back and fresh, fresh. Report an error

54:24 And yoga and so forth, all of that was very much encouraged. So you mentioned 12 minutes. There's a colleague of mine up in Finland and I've been up there several a number of times and I spent one time visit, I went to a sound laboratory that she set up and I think we did 32 really high quality recordings of guided meditation that I gave on variations of shamatha. Report an error

54:53 Variations, quite a few variations on the four applications of mindfulness and variations on the themes of the four immeasurables. And altogether, I think it was 32 guided meditations, each of them of 12 minutes duration. And so it's been very slow in coming, but she's about to put those onto the market and their apps. And some people got it with high tech and so forth, so they made it more interesting than just having, here's the flat recording and there. Report an error

55:17 They've made it more interesting and more user-friendly. Resilient, interactive. But something like that. So this is one, and I'm sure there are many, many other apps, but these are the ones I know about because I've done them. And I know the teachings are authentic. It's not something I've dreamed up. They have a real good lineage behind them. So having something like that. So you have that guided. So if you're listening to guided meditation, you're not nearly as likely to drift off for very long. Report an error

55:44 So that can be helpful. And you use them to the point that you no longer need them. So you don't want to become dependent on them. But it can be something to keep on helping you maintain that continuity. And just overall, short sessions are a really good idea. But also, it's just, you know, I know very well the pace of modern life. Report an error

56:03 I mean, I don't know your life in particular, but I think in broad strokes I probably got a sense of it, because you're living here and you and I, you know, we're living in the same world. And with the amount of information that we need to process. And the amount of just input and the amount of output we need to do in terms of responding and the complexity of it. Just how many things are going. As we have family spread out all over. Report an error

56:25 I do. I have family all over the place. And then students all over the place. And then colleagues and scientists and Dharma centers all over the place. And it's every day, you know, coming in. So there's many, many things pulling the attention out. And many things need attending to and they're worth attending to. Report an error

56:41 So when engaged in such a world which is unprecedented in human history, just coming back to that point, this is a very strange experiment we're running ourselves. Because aboriginal, that was much more common, or something like that, was much more common globally. And now, of course, they're on a reservation, practically. Report an error

57:04 So what can be done? I think if we keep on focusing on the... My mind isn't calm, my mind is rambling, my mind is going on, going, going. We can only focus on that and consider that to be the criterion. Report an error

57:18 Is my practice working? Is my practice working? That is, is my mind calming down? Is there less distraction? It's a very easy thing to focus on because it's right in our face. We see how much the mind strays off. And it's very easy to make that kind of a big deal or even the most important deal. Meditation is about calming the mind, getting the mind to be quiet and be focused and still and so forth. Report an error

57:41 And is it working or not? And as I keep on emphasizing, that is too limited a criterion for evaluating one's practice. Too limited. And probably self-defeating. If you had the opportunity to go, let's say, go someplace like the Himalayas, Or go to some other beautiful, natural, quiet place and go out for six months and have no email. You know, just be off the grid. And maybe do some gardening. Report an error

58:08 And maybe do some walking. Maybe a bit of yoga. Maybe a bit of very, just kind of slow paced, some Dharma study. And meditate three, four, five, six, seven, eight hours a day. Report an error

58:19 Separate. Then I think you see your mind really calming down. A lot, regularly. But it's a whole lifestyle shift. And a place shift. Report an error

58:29 It's hard to do that at home even if you shut down because of all the associations and the emails right there and so forth. And so there it's feasible. And that's how most people live for a long time, you know, slower, more grounded. What I think should be a higher priority for the likes of us living in this type of environment is thinking, first of all, can I be cultivating and sustaining a way of life that's not stressing me out? Report an error

58:56 That's a bit more accessible. And is my mind getting calmer and quieter and quieter and quieter? Am I living more grounded, more present, more attentive, looser, more relaxed? That's a deeper level than how much conversation there is going on in the mind. It's a deeper level. Actually, it's more important. And so if we focus there, not exclusively, because that's not the whole of Dharma practice by any means, but it's a great step in the right direction. Report an error

59:28 So we don't have to be thinking about stress reduction, stress reduction. Because we've shifted enough things in the way of life and the way of attending that we're just not getting stressed out and drained and uptight and exhausted. We're not doing that, even if we have a very heavy workload. Because of the quality of awareness we're bringing to that. But that again is not sufficient. Report an error

59:50 That again is like shamatha, indispensable but not sufficient. And so is this, indispensable. Because people, I know a lot of this, a lot of people meditate. They may be monks or nuns, they may be really hardcore, really serious meditators and doing a lot. But if they're not doing that, people can meditate a lot and just be tying themselves in knots. Just getting tighter and drained and pushing, pushing, pushing. Report an error

1:00:15 I mean, I know it because I did it myself. And so even if one is very dedicated, meditating a lot, that's no guarantee that you're not getting stressed out. Report an error

1:00:25 You have to attend to that. We have to attend to that. Maybe the Aboriginals didn't. Native Americans didn't. Tibetans 100 years ago didn't. But they're separate. It's almost like a different species. So this is important for the likes of us. And for the Tibetans living in India now, they're much more like us than they are like Tibetans living 100 years ago. Because they're now in our milieu. Report an error

1:00:44 They're living in Delhi and Calcutta and Bangalore. And these are fast-paced, very busy, very intense cities. Email the whole mine yours. Everything we've got in Berlin. Or in London, you're going to find it in Delhi, pretty much. But this isn't enough. If you say, that's my Dharma practice, I say, well, it's not even Dharma. Report an error

1:01:02 You're just less stressed. But if we complement that with the other aspect of attention, so we're developing attention skills, relaxation, stillness, clarity, good. But the other aspect of attention is tending to looking after, watching, or caring for. And if we're bringing that quality of attention to the people in our home, that we're not just practicing attention skills, but we're attending to them from the heart, tending to them, they're in the center of our attention, and we're giving them our full attention, our open heart, empathetically, full attention. Report an error

1:01:44 That's a big step. And then we meet strangers, people in the marketplace, in the city, people in the workplace, and elsewhere. And if we're just moving from situation to situation, and each time the person looms large, that we're giving our full attention, that is life transforming. Report an error

1:02:06 Because for the moment what we attend to is reality, and if we're really attending to each other, other people become very real for us. And it's much less likely we will regard them as objects that are agreeable or disagreeable, in my way or not in my way, helping me or hindering me, which is all about me all the way through. Report an error

1:02:23 We'll be attending to them that, oh, you're in the center of your mandala, are you? That's a big deal. You're in the center of a universe. I mean, I take that literally, and that's a big deal. Because nobody else is in the center of your universe. And as you transform, your universe will transform from your perspective. That's a big deal. There's nothing trivial about you. Report an error

1:02:43 It's impossible that you can be boring. It's not possible that you can be boring. Because just the fact that there you are, the Buddha nature, makes it intensely interesting. And that you wish for happiness, and you wish to be free of suffering. There's nothing boring about that. And so this really brings heart. Report an error

1:03:03 And those two elements, I mean, a Dharma can flourish with a thousand branches, but if we're bringing just that quality of ease, that baseline there, and we're bringing the quality of attentiveness to each other, and to human beings, and to animals, and to the environment, we could really survive, we could really flourish. Report an error

1:03:24 As a species, we're really good. And not doing that bodes very poorly for us as a species. So we start there. Although, I think, going well. What was the name of the person who's doing the meditations that you talked about? I can tell you the name of the company. She's a businesswoman. Also a very sincere practitioner. And she also has a PhD in neuroscience. Very interesting woman. And her company is Imagine Clarity. Report an error

1:03:54 Imagine clarity. What's that? It's out. Okay. For a year. Okay. I don't know anything about it. I just did it. Yeah. If it's being done, then I don't need to worry about it. Oh, Mathieu Ricard's in there. And then there was another fellow, Alan Kozlowski. Alan Kozlowski was involved with the visuals and so forth. He has a lot of high-tech abilities. Report an error

1:04:22 Yeah. Well, that's because of Alan Kozlowski. And Mathieu Ricard is just an incredible sweetheart and very charismatic and has a lot of wisdom and good heart. So he's contributed. And then the something like 32 meditations and so on. Are they all out already or maybe just the beginning ones? Report an error

1:04:55 Good. Yeah, very good. She has a very good heart, lovely person. And I know she would like to make this her life. She has entrepreneurial skills, she has a business background. Then she had a neuroscience background. Then she spent a couple of years living in Phuket, attended a whole bunch of retreats with me. Report an error

1:05:15 So I'd be very happy if she can just make this her life and her living. It's good work. Good work. Alan, the other question was around finding a guy or a guru or whatever. Report an error

1:05:26 How is it just going about that? Ask Claudio. Report an error

1:05:37 Or ask this lady over here, Rachel. Or ask Rhonda. Or ask Shugila. When I first went to India, I had a letter of introduction for one Tibetan in India. Report an error

1:05:51 That's all. I was going there, 21 years old, knowing nothing, except that that's where the Tibetans were. And I had one letter of introduction. And that got me to Dharam Zala and to the Dalai Lama's home. Because somebody had given me a letter that knew him and said, this guy, Alan Wallace, maybe you can help him. Report an error

1:06:10 And he invited me into his home. The point being that it was one letter. But then I met the Dalai Lama's doctor. And then I met this person, and this person, and this person, and this person. Report an error

1:06:21 You have to know a lot of people. So all you need to do is find one good person in Australia who knows the scene, who knows at least one good teacher. That's all you need, is one person who knows one good teacher. And he or she, can you refer to that person, but if you find a good teacher in, and I know some, if you find one good teacher in Australia, he or she will know at least another one. Report an error

1:06:45 And that person may know too, and then after a while you know the scene. T.L. is very good. He's excellent. He really knows the scene. I should say Claudio or the others here because they live in Sydney. T.L. lives in Melbourne. But he knows the country. He knows the country and he's very good. And he will know who's good. I know Malcolm Huckster is up in Darwin, I think. Report an error

1:07:10 Darwin, Malcolm Huckster. Not for Tibetan Buddhism. He knows Theravāda Buddhism very well. And he's a very experienced clinical psychologist. Very good guy. Just come out with an excellent book on mindfulness. Report an error

1:07:22 But TL's are great. I mean, TL's probably enough. And then TL will know other people. And they'll all spring up from there, yeah. And then if you're willing to travel, then of course, then you have Singapore, not too far away. And then New Zealand, some teachers there as well. Report an error

1:07:39 Okay, it's 8.30, so why don't we call it an evening and let's round off this evening as usual. So now you know there is merit. I will now say merit was accumulated today. Report an error

1:07:53 You want to be a movie star? You want to be rich? You want to have a Jaguar, a Porsche? If that's what you want, then go for it. Or if you'd like something more meaningful, this actually really does make a difference. Because nobody else, it's not fate or karma or Buddha that's determining the flow of your merit. It will give something good. Because this, what we've done today, is very wholesome, very virtuous. Report an error

1:08:15 There was nothing non-virtuous here at all. It's virtuous, it's good. And so there's a good momentum here. But where does it go? And that, I can determine that for myself, but nobody else. So it's your prayers of dedication, the aspiration, where would you like to go? And that's where it will go. So choose wisely. Arouse your most meaningful aspirations. Dedicate the merit to their fulfillment for yourself and others, for the short term and the long term. Report an error

· · ·

1:09:53 As you fall asleep, but also when you wake up. Report an error

1:09:59 These two modes, ultimate bodhicitta, relative bodhicitta, are your closest approximation. Are very balanced. The two are very balanced. So as you're falling asleep, if you can simply slip into awareness and rest there, maybe even approximating non-meditation, that's very good preparation. Very good preparation for bringing clarity to the sleep. Very good preparation for dying. Very good preparation altogether. Report an error

1:10:27 Non-meditation or resting in awareness of awareness as you're falling asleep. Very good. But also to explicitly bring some virtue. To fall asleep with a virtuous mind. That's also very good. So you might alternate sometimes, just living, just resting in that beautiful distilled water of just awareness, of awareness. Report an error

1:10:46 And then you might shift it over, and just for a little while, two or three minutes, just practice dongling. It could be for just one person who comes to mind, that has somehow come to your mind, feeling, yeah, I would like to attend to that person. And just do that for a little while, breathing in, breathing out. And then you might just come back. Report an error

1:11:04 It is the simplicity. And likewise, when you wake up in the morning, first thought, first thought, is, for example, Donglen, or practice I like doing a lot, is the one I taught a bit later, where it's not quite Donglen, but it's a variation, and I didn't make it up. It's where you just imagine bringing in all the blessings, and then sending them out, and bringing in blessings, and sending them out. That's really sweet. It's really very nice. Report an error

1:11:30 Bring in and call for the blessings, invoke blessings, and then just send them out. And then just come back and just be still, be still. So going back and forth between those two. As we'll see a little bit later in the text, Atisha said, gives specific advice for what will you do when you're on your deathbed? Report an error

1:11:48 How should you spend those last minutes or hours when you're still clear? And he suggests basically that, just alternating between relative and ultapamodhicitta. And just keep going, going, going. Report an error

1:12:02 There's just no way that turns out poorly. No matter what you believe. There's just no way that turns out poorly. What will happen, I can't say. But it won't turn out poorly, because it's all good. It's wisdom and compassion. And that never is bad. Have a good night's sleep. See you tomorrow. Report an error

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Talk by B. Alan Wallace. Original at Vajrayana Institute via Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/retreatmindtraining. Licensed CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. Transcript generated automatically and may contain errors; the audio is the authoritative version.

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