Shamatha Retreat with Alan Wallace 2012 (part 2)

0:27 When we have our three-hour sessions in the future, over the mornings and the afternoons, we'll begin each time with two 24-minute sessions. And then after the break, roughly midway through, then we'll begin with one 24-minute session and then have whatever talk or discussion afterwards. So the first half was anomalous, big long lecture. But now we'll have one session. And this one session will be kind of preschool to shamatha. Report an error in the passage at 0:27 Highlight the passage at 0:27

0:55 It's the practice of settling body, speech and mind in natural state. And so I don't want to talk about it right now. Let's just go right into it. We'll do it by practicing it. So please find a comfortable position. And I will add, I see somebody's been notified already. We do have plenty of floor space. So at any time from now on, at any time, if you'd like to engage in any of the sessions in the supine position, then you're very welcome to do so. Report an error in the passage at 0:55 Highlight the passage at 0:55

1:20 You never need to ask. So the point there is that That your body be free of discomfort. And so if the supine position is the way to go, or sitting on a chair, cross-legged, whatever you like, it's your choice. So, right now, let's just find a comfortable position and jump right in. Report an error in the passage at 1:20 Highlight the passage at 1:20

· · · silence, 1 minute

2:22 So that's called settling the body, speech and mind in the natural states. And for each of these three phases of body, speech and mind always entails a sense of balance. So the first one, even in the supine position, We're going for total relaxation. There's not a single muscle that needs to be tensed to lie in the Shavasana or the corpse position. Even there there's a sense of balance, of deep relaxation and yet physically there's something more psychological in the supine but it's still a posture of attention. Report an error in the passage at 2:22 Highlight the passage at 2:22

2:55 If you're sitting upright then you really are sitting very erect. You're sitting in a proper meditative posture. Very vigilant, very straight and yet very relaxed. The breathing relaxed that is no element of constraint of holding back and yet no effort to forcefully expel or inhale the air. And likewise for the mind that it's very relaxed, it's still and yet it's clear. So each of these cases is a balance. To settle the body, speech and mind is to all other forms of meditation. Report an error in the passage at 2:55 Highlight the passage at 2:55

3:29 A pilot does when getting into the cockpit before taking off, first checking all the control panels to make sure the airplane's in proper working order before you take off. So likewise before any other meditation, whether it's Vajrayana or lamrim meditation, discursive meditation and visualization and so forth, first of all just to settle the mind, the body, speech and mind, so that you're balanced and then venture in. Report an error in the passage at 3:29 Highlight the passage at 3:29

3:52 Good idea. So I'd like to make just one point and then we can turn to discussion. The remainder period is now 4.15. And it's going back to the time of the Buddha himself, to his departing from home at the age of 29. Report an error in the passage at 3:52 Highlight the passage at 3:52

4:13 I've spoken at some length before the break about what it means to practice Dharma. But clearly the Buddha didn't need, or Gautama, the prince at the age of 29, he didn't need to leave home to practice Dharma. He could have stayed home. After all, there was Hindu Dharma, there was not yet Buddha Dharma. He hadn't revealed that yet. Report an error in the passage at 4:13 Highlight the passage at 4:13

4:32 But he could have lived a very virtuous life, a very ethical life. The themes of ahimsa, of non-violence, run through the whole Indian tradition. So he didn't leave home, abandon all security, his family, everything. He didn't make this complete sacrifice of all security, become a homeless beggar, which is a rather, how do you say, steep incline from being a king, top of the heap to the bottom of the heap. Report an error in the passage at 4:32 Highlight the passage at 4:32

4:56 He didn't make that transition in order to practice Dharma, because he could have done that at home. There was one very clear motivation for his making this very abrupt departure, this great discontinuity in his life. Report an error in the passage at 4:56 Highlight the passage at 4:56

5:11 And that was this passionate, all-consuming yearning or aspiration to achieve liberation, to bring about some irreversible, radical transformation and release from suffering and the causes of suffering, to achieve genuine moksha or liberation. And that's why he left. And so if you know his life story, very briefly put, he first sought out one and then a second extremely accomplished samādhi master, because that was a great contemplative technology of India at that time. Report an error in the passage at 5:11 Highlight the passage at 5:11

5:45 It was already very, very highly developed 2,500 years ago. Being the prodigy that he was, he quickly achieved those states of samādhi, but found that just by the achievement of samādhi, by bringing the mind to extremely rarefied states, A very deep meditative concentration that no irreversible change, nothing had been radically altered, transformed, liberated in his mind stream so that when he came out of meditation, even though there is a lingering effect from the meditation, the seeds of discontent, the seeds of mental afflictions and so forth, the seeds of suffering are still there. Report an error in the passage at 5:45 Highlight the passage at 5:45

6:21 And so he found that samādhi by itself didn't do the trick. It did not satisfy. He just had such sensitivity of awareness that he recognized, That doesn't liberate. It simply attenuates. It makes your mental afflictions and so forth go dormant, but it doesn't liberate. So then for six years, this tremendous array of austerities that he engaged in, of fasting, of breathing exercises, physical exercises, tremendous austerity, tremendous dedication to this path. Report an error in the passage at 6:21 Highlight the passage at 6:21

6:51 But after six years of that, finding that it just depleted him, exhausted him, the body became weak, emaciated. And since the mind is rising independence upon the body, he found his mind also was weak. And that just couldn't be it, as mightily as he strived. And so then he accepted some food. It was yogurt and rice from some young woman named Sujata. And I think at least a couple of people here, I know at least two, I think more. Report an error in the passage at 6:51 Highlight the passage at 6:51

7:21 We're on the pilgrimage that we just recently went to India. And remember we stayed at Sujata Hotel, Sujata Hotel in Bodhgaya. So named after this young woman who offered some simple food to Gautama, the ascetic, helped him restore his health, his vitality and so forth. But then if we put ourselves in his shoes, what must he feel like? If we just try to, you know, just imagine after spending six years, And all in effect that he'd done was ruin his health and regain it. I mean, really, what else had he achieved? I mean, he learned a lot. Report an error in the passage at 7:21 Highlight the passage at 7:21

7:55 He learned of ways not to achieve enlightenment that didn't work. He already knew that living just a luxurious life in the single point of pursuit of hedonic pleasure, he already knew that didn't work. And then he went off to the ascetic extreme and did that for six years, found that that didn't work. Report an error in the passage at 7:55 Highlight the passage at 7:55

8:13 Ruined his health, but got it back again. And now he is at 35. I mean, just wonder if we think of him as a human being, not as a god or some perfect enlightened being, but just a human being. What must he be thinking at this point? He's 35 years old. Six years, he hasn't seen his son. He hasn't seen his wife. No family. Hasn't progressed. Hasn't achieved anything, really. Report an error in the passage at 8:13 Highlight the passage at 8:13

8:35 And yet he seems to have explored all of the types of contemplative technology, the tricks of the trade. Of ascetics of his generation, you know, all bent on achieving moksha and none of them worked. And so one might wonder whether he was kind of at his wits end, wondering now what? I know the life of luxury doesn't work, the life of asceticism doesn't work, I tried samādhi, that by itself didn't work, fasting didn't work, breathing exercise didn't work, didn't work. Report an error in the passage at 8:35 Highlight the passage at 8:35

9:05 I found all these different ways that didn't work. And all I've done is restored my health, which means I'm back to square one because I had my health when I left home. I can imagine like, whoa, what now? Report an error in the passage at 9:05 Highlight the passage at 9:05

9:17 And so he meditated. He meditated. I think the basic question was, what now meditation? What now? What shall he do? He's not going to make the same old mistakes all over again. He's smart. And so he was reflecting, where's the way ahead? Report an error in the passage at 9:17 Highlight the passage at 9:17

9:36 And there at the age of 35, Then a memory arose in his mind stream, and this is according to his own account. A memory arose in his mind stream of a time when he was a youth, we don't know exactly how old, maybe 12, 13, maybe. It was in the springtime, and his father, who was a king, was out performing a ritual, a royal ritual, to start the planting season. Report an error in the passage at 9:36 Highlight the passage at 9:36

10:01 And so the father was out plowing a furrow. He's not a farmer, but he's doing a ritual. Presidents, my ministers, kings, they always have to do rituals. That was the ritual of the day. So his father was out plowing this furrow in a field to start the whole planting season and his son was off duty. He wasn't part of the ritual. And so young Gautama, this young prince, he was sitting, as he said, under a rose apple tree, in the shade of a rose apple tree, off duty, just chilling. Report an error in the passage at 10:01 Highlight the passage at 10:01

10:31 And while he was sitting there on this probably a hot spring day, again because of just this Tremendous kind of spiritual momentum he brought to that life. He just spontaneously achieved shamatha. He just sat there. And he just went right into what is called the first jhāna, the first meditative stabilization. Report an error in the passage at 10:31 Highlight the passage at 10:31

10:52 But he achieved shamatha. Just by sitting there, his mind just withdrew. And he just achieved with no effort. He just slipped right into it. And he came out. But at the age of 35, he's recalling that. That gift, almost as if by grace. But it wasn't somebody who gave it to him. But just that spontaneous immersion in this sweet state of extraordinary mental balance that is still, non-conceptual, clear, radiant. Report an error in the passage at 10:52 Highlight the passage at 10:52

11:19 And at the age of 35 he recalled that, that slipping into the first jhāna. And here's what he said. This is what he recounted to his own disciples sometime later. There at the age of 35 I thought of a time when my Sakhin father was working out plowing the field. And I was sitting in the cool shade of a rose apple tree. Report an error in the passage at 11:19 Highlight the passage at 11:19

11:44 Physically, that's what he's doing, not much at all, just sitting there. But mentally, the all-important mental, quite secluded from sensual desires, so he wasn't looking around for sensory stimulation, disengaged from an unwholesome thing, so he wasn't caught up in rumination, resentments, anger, craving, and so forth and so on. Report an error in the passage at 11:44 Highlight the passage at 11:44

12:08 Quite secluded from sensual desires, disengaged from unwholesome things, I entered upon an abode in the first meditative stabilization. Which is to say the first jhāna, which has actually five qualities, five jhāna factors. It's accompanied by coarse and precise investigation, which is to say that his intelligence was right there. Report an error in the passage at 12:08 Highlight the passage at 12:08

12:27 If he wanted to engage in some coarse investigation of any topic of his choice, he knew that he was ready to do that. He was not so zoned out in some kind of a deep meditative trance that he couldn't activate his intelligence, his discerning abilities to investigate on a coarse level as well as a subtle. Report an error in the passage at 12:27 Highlight the passage at 12:27

12:44 More analysis. They were both right there. His mind was accompanied, his awareness was accompanied by coarse and precise investigation, as well as a sense of well-being, an overall kind of ambience of well-being called sukha. A sense of well-being suffused his mind, as well as bliss, not only the general more ambience of well-being, but a sharper edge of bliss suffused his mind, a bliss born of seclusion. Report an error in the passage at 12:44 Highlight the passage at 12:44

13:12 That is to say, inexplicably, the sense of bliss that was arising was not stimulus-driven. It was secluded, isolated, withdrawn from all stimulation, both sensory as well as mental. He wasn't sitting there thinking happy thoughts or having some nice chemical stimulation of his brain or anything sensory, aesthetic, intellectual. Report an error in the passage at 13:12 Highlight the passage at 13:12

13:35 It was a sense of bliss arising from the very nature of his awareness itself, the mind being in this splendid state. So those are four out of five. The mind is imbued with coarse and precise investigation, investigation, analysis, sense of well-being, sense of bliss. And then what he doesn't mention here, but it's part and parcel of the first jhāna, is that his mind was totally composed. It was single-pointed. Single-pointed attention. Report an error in the passage at 13:35 Highlight the passage at 13:35

14:02 That's the fifth jhāna factor. So he recalled this, that quality of awareness imbued with these five qualities. And there at the age of 35, wondering what now? Report an error in the passage at 14:02 Highlight the passage at 14:02

14:14 And having just recalled this experience from his youth, he said, I thought, might that be the way to enlightenment? Not, might that be enlightenment? He knew it wasn't. But might that be the way? Might that be the vehicle? Might that state of consciousness itself carry me to liberation, enlightenment? Report an error in the passage at 14:14 Highlight the passage at 14:14

14:37 It was a question. A question he posed to his own awareness, his own intuitive awareness. Then following that memory, there came the recognition. That this was the way to enlighten. This was the marga. This was the entry to the path. Not the dysfunctional mind of OCDD. Not the mind that flip-flops between agitation and laxity or dullness. Not the mind that is burnt out with asceticism or the mind that is totally caught up in sensual pleasures and indulgence. Report an error in the passage at 14:37 Highlight the passage at 14:37

15:10 But a mind that is profoundly relaxed, very stable and clear, composed. It's diffused with a sense of well-being and bliss, but also has the ability to investigate, to analyze. In other words, by itself it's very pleasant, but it doesn't liberate, not by itself, but it's a platform. It's a platform from which one could really probe into the nature of reality and perhaps seek liberation through knowledge and not simply liberation through samādhi or bliss or serenity. Report an error in the passage at 15:10 Highlight the passage at 15:10

15:45 And so with that recognition then, He, I think rather shortly thereafter, he once again achieved shamatha. And we'll look at the nuances later on, but he achieved shamatha, he achieved the first jhāna all over again. It actually took him a while. He didn't just get it suddenly. He had to work at it. But he achieved it again. And having achieved it, then he sat there beneath the bodhi tree where we sat not long ago, some of us. Report an error in the passage at 15:45 Highlight the passage at 15:45

16:11 He sat there with, I must say, just an absolutely astonishing level of confidence. The confidence being that he had this intuitive sense, what else to call it, that he was so close to enlightenment, that the fruit was now within hand's reach, the moksha, the liberation that he'd been seeking all along, that he was so close, that he had this confidence that I'm going to sit down under this tree and I will not move. Report an error in the passage at 16:11 Highlight the passage at 16:11

16:39 I'm not going to move. I'm not going anywhere until I've achieved liberation. This is it. He must have just known, I'm so close now. I know here's the platform, shamatha is a platform, and from that I will make the final expedition and radically and irreversibly liberate my mind of suffering and the causes of suffering. Report an error in the passage at 16:39 Highlight the passage at 16:39

17:02 He sat down, he didn't move, and in a very short time he had his great night, the most historic night in the whole history of Buddhism, of his liberation to the first, the second, the third watch of the night. I won't go into all the details of that, but when the sun arose, he had achieved what he had sought. The liberation was won. And so Samadha played a crucial role, an indispensable role, not sufficient, but necessary. Report an error in the passage at 17:02 Highlight the passage at 17:02

17:32 Not sufficient, but necessary. And so, after having achieved this enlightenment, then one could say he rather enjoyed it for 49 days. He simply sat there, he explored it, one could say he just rested in it. Rested in that bliss of his own enlightenment, his complete freedom and awakening, until he was moved by compassion to share this with others, to seek out others who could benefit, who would themselves ignite, awaken. Report an error in the passage at 17:32 Highlight the passage at 17:32

18:04 Then he began, he set out to, on foot, now some of us know how far that is, from Saranat to Bodhgaya, long walk. But he's still a wandering mendicant, he's a beggar, and he walked that whole way, sought out his five previous companions. And set the wheel of Dharma in motion. But the theme here, and why I mention this, is this theme of marga, of path. It runs through all the Buddhist teachings. Report an error in the passage at 18:04 Highlight the passage at 18:04

18:28 The Four Noble Truths, the Fourth Truth, is the path to liberation from suffering and the causes of suffering. In Theravāda Buddhism, early Buddhism, the Shravakayana, the Theravāda tradition, they speak of achieving the marga, achieving path, achieving a point of irreversibility. Achieving a point of transformation so profound, so radical, that you'll never fall back. And the first stage of that, if we look at early Buddhism, is to achieve the statement of stream entry. Report an error in the passage at 18:28 Highlight the passage at 18:28

18:57 Stream entry, where you've gained your first clear, unmediated, non-conceptual glimpse of Nirvāṇa. By way of a fusion of shamatha and vipassanā, of insight meditation, and you have opened the door. You've opened the door in an irreversible way. That is, you are now Arya, you are a noble being, you are... Report an error in the passage at 18:57 Highlight the passage at 18:57

19:15 One who is firmly and irreversibly on the path to liberation. And now it's only a matter of time. It's like falling into a very deep river with a very fast current. So that no matter what you do, whether you swim upstream, across stream or downstream, no matter what, that stream will carry you to the ocean. Report an error in the passage at 19:15 Highlight the passage at 19:15

19:37 It just doesn't matter what you do. You can hasten it, you can get to the ocean very quickly, you just really swim right down to the ocean, they get there very quickly. You can slow things down by swimming. Upstream or whatever, swimming across, but it's now guaranteed you will achieve liberation. If you've become a stream entry, you will achieve liberation. Report an error in the passage at 19:37 Highlight the passage at 19:37

19:54 There's now no question. You have entered the stream and it will carry you. Maybe very quickly, maybe as many as, what is it, nine lifetimes, I think. That would be the slow. If you kind of tarry, you dawdle around a bit. But you have achieved marga. You've achieved a point of irreversible, of no return, of irreversible transformation that will carry you all the way to liberation. Report an error in the passage at 19:54 Highlight the passage at 19:54

20:15 In the Mahāyāna teachings, many of you I'm sure have received teachings on the five paths. It always comes back to Marga, path of accumulation, preparation, path of seeing and so on. But the point of the path being that you are now, to use a modern term, you are now spiritually evolving. You're not just practicing Dharma. You're not just gaining good karma. Report an error in the passage at 20:15 Highlight the passage at 20:15

20:38 Just doing good, just practicing meditation, doing a bit of this and a bit of that. That's all good. It's all well and good. To do a bit of this and a bit of that. But what the Buddha left home for, what he found and what he shared with others that was absolutely central to his whole teaching, is that there actually is a path of irreversible transformation. Report an error in the passage at 20:38 Highlight the passage at 20:38

20:58 Even within the context of one lifetime, that's a pretty monumental thing. But if we consider in the Buddhist worldview, whether we like it or not, whatever we believe, that death, whether you regard this as fortunate or unfortunate, Death does not entail the absolute termination of individual consciousness. That there is a preservation of consciousness in the universe, very much like the preservation of mass energy. Report an error in the passage at 20:58 Highlight the passage at 20:58

21:22 And whether you'd like to commit ultimate suicide, a total annihilation, total freedom from reality, whether you'd like that or not, it doesn't really matter because it's not an option. Report an error in the passage at 21:22 Highlight the passage at 21:22

21:33 Some people dread that, the notion of annihilation. What will become of me? I'm going to die. I'm going to be annihilated. Some people freak out at that notion. Other people savor it. Well, it kind of doesn't matter. It's not an option. I'm not saying you should believe what I'm saying just because I'm saying it. But I can say I'm utterly convinced of the truth of it and I must find it very daunting. Report an error in the passage at 21:33 Highlight the passage at 21:33

21:54 I don't find that, my sense of that, I mean, I've been looking into this for more than 40 years and I'd have to say my confidence is very, very deep. But that confidence, it comes along with that notion that my own individual consciousness cannot, there is no possible way in the entire universe that that consciousness can simply come to an abrupt halt and I will become nothing. Report an error in the passage at 21:54 Highlight the passage at 21:54

22:14 I can't say that I respond to that with a sense of jubilation. Oh, yippee. It's kind of like, oh my, Report an error in the passage at 22:14 Highlight the passage at 22:14

22:24 you mean there's no exit ever? This will never end? Ever? I mean, really ever? Report an error in the passage at 22:24 Highlight the passage at 22:24

22:34 That there's just no way to stop. There's no little hole in reality that you can creep through and say, no thanks. I just want out. We're stuck with reality forever. The notion of marga, if this is true. And it's one of the enormous questions that, I must say, for the West, we've left that, unfortunately, I think tragically, in the realm of metaphysics and belief, as if somehow the nature of death, what happens at death. Report an error in the passage at 22:34 Highlight the passage at 22:34

23:02 So many philosophers and other people have considered that just be one of those intrinsically unknowables. They're just assuming that. Report an error in the passage at 23:02 Highlight the passage at 23:02

23:13 Does the Earth go around the Sun or does the Sun go around the Earth? Until Galileo discovered the phases of Venus, that was an unknowable. Report an error in the passage at 23:13 Highlight the passage at 23:13

23:21 Copernicus had his theory. Ptolemy had his theory. They both accounted for the appearances quite well. So, tomatoes, tomatoes. You know, who can say? Before 1610, 1609, one could say, who can say? It's one of the nob. How do we ever know? How could the human mind fathom something like that? Which is going around which? Because, you know, appearances can be... Report an error in the passage at 23:21 Highlight the passage at 23:21

23:48 No, but then you develop it in technology and then suddenly that which had been for centuries in the realm of metaphysics now is no longer in the realm of metaphysics. But Ptolemy was wrong. Copernic was right. End of story. Because there was empirical evidence. The right technology came along. What's the shape of DNA? What's the form of DNA? Report an error in the passage at 23:48 Highlight the passage at 23:48

24:07 Until you have microscopes, until Crick and Watson came along with a good idea, that was in the realm of metaphysics. Are there planets around other stars? Until about 30 years ago, that was in the realm of metaphysics. Is there only one galaxy in the universe or are there more? Until the 1920s, that was in the realm of metaphysics. Report an error in the passage at 24:07 Highlight the passage at 24:07

24:25 But modern science, happily, with science, this great union of science and technology, the shamatha and vipassanā of the West, technology being the shamatha and science being the vipassanā, the great union of technology and science, has pushed back the borders of metaphysics and expanded the field of empirical knowledge, but it's left us almost entirely in the dark about the nature, the origins and potentials of consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 24:25 Highlight the passage at 24:25

24:49 That's just not the strength of modern science, which is all focused outwards to the physical, the objective, the quantifiable. And unfortunately or fortunately, consciousness is not physical, it's not quantifiable and it's not objective. So you need another kind of technology. And if you don't have it, the nature, origins and what happens to consciousness at death will remain forever in the realm of metaphysics, which means you can't test it empirically. Report an error in the passage at 24:49 Highlight the passage at 24:49

25:13 Well, shamatha is a way to test that question empirically. But moving on, Again, we can practice Dharma, whether or not we have a certain belief about what happens at death, what doesn't happen at death. But I would say, as a Buddhist, with a lot of confidence, based upon years of study and practice, there's overwhelming evidence from contemplatives that consciousness cannot be terminated, like it or lump it. Report an error in the passage at 25:13 Highlight the passage at 25:13

25:42 Experiments have been run, discoveries have been made and replicated thousands of times, just not by us. So, either way, We come back to this central theme, which is relatively small. I have to say it's kind of like a peanut. If we can be guaranteed liberation from suffering and the causes of suffering just by dying, then the notion of marga before we die is not that big a deal. Report an error in the passage at 25:42 Highlight the passage at 25:42

26:08 I mean, I'm already almost 62, so most of my life is finished already. So if all I have to do is wait, you know, wait until my body falls apart, I die of an injury or illness or just my body just flakes out because it's so old. Report an error in the passage at 26:08 Highlight the passage at 26:08

26:22 If I've got guaranteed liberation, then it's not that big a deal. I'll just hang out. At death, I'll be liberated. I'll be obliterated. But at least there'll be no more suffering than causes of suffering. So if it's just this life alone, then I'd have to say that Marga is not that big a deal because Marga is built into the program. That is, Marga or the liberation is built in because all you have to do is die. Report an error in the passage at 26:22 Highlight the passage at 26:22

26:44 So that's kind of simple. Then we can throttle back a bit. Well, not a big deal. I have liberation at the end of life anyway. But if the whole Buddhist tradition is correct and that death does not entail liberation but just transition, then the notion of marga becomes pretty enormous. In fact, perhaps it's the most enormous thing there is. Whether we achieve liberation in this lifetime or some other lifetime, that's not that important. I mean, most of us won't. Report an error in the passage at 26:44 Highlight the passage at 26:44

27:08 Chances are. Right? It's always a minority. Not that big a deal if we don't achieve liberation in this lifetime. You know, let's not cry in our beer. There's another life. If we do, fantastic. That's not the most important question. But if there is continuity, and if there is such a thing as marga, of a path, then we're talking about a sense of spiritual evolution, of transformation, of development, transformation, liberation, that can carry on, carry on, until we are indeed liberated, or actually become Buddhas ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 27:08 Highlight the passage at 27:08

27:45 In which case, then we see, well, the marga is the whole, what it's all about is marga. It's all about is marga. The mere fact that one practices Dharma, practices shamatha, does recitations, does discursive meditations and visualizations and mantras and devotional practices and liturgies and chanting and receives empowerments and so forth, all of that, and does good works in the world, acts of generosity and so forth, all of that is practicing Dharma, but merely practicing Dharma doesn't necessarily mean that you're following a path. Report an error in the passage at 27:45 Highlight the passage at 27:45

28:18 And so the Buddha himself pointed to this. He said, okay, where's the way? Where's the path? Where's the path? Because again, he could have stayed home and practiced Dharma. Or he could have hung out in the jungle and just practiced Dharma. Practice loving kindness, practice generosity, all kinds of good things to do. Report an error in the passage at 28:18 Highlight the passage at 28:18

28:34 But he's looking for a path. And he's pointing out here, in his own words, that in order for your spiritual practice, your practice of ethics, your practice of Dharma altogether, for that to really transform into a path that leads to irreversible change, then shamatha is indispensable. Report an error in the passage at 28:34 Highlight the passage at 28:34

28:54 Whether you're practicing Theravāda Buddhism or East Asian Buddhism or Indian Tibetan Buddhism, any of the four schools of Tibetan Buddhism, Vajrayana, irreversible transformation doesn't take place without shamatha. Shamatha by itself does not lead to irreversible transformation. It's necessary but not sufficient. But you have to have a serviceable mind in order to derive the full benefit of the Vipassanā, the wisdom teachings, stage of generation, stage of completion, Mahamudra, Dzogchen. Report an error in the passage at 28:54 Highlight the passage at 28:54

29:26 Sazen, Shikantaza, Zen, Chan Buddhism and so forth. It's one of the indispensables. So in that regard, all by itself, not that big a deal. I mean, it's very pleasant, the mind is serviceable, all good. But if all you've achieved is shamatha, you're actually not on a path yet. It's very much like being at the on-ramp of a freeway. Report an error in the passage at 29:26 Highlight the passage at 29:26

29:54 America, where I live in Southern California, where I live part of the year. There's a lot of traffic there, so often when you're on the on-ramp, they'll have a little stop light, green, red, no yellow, but just green, red, green, red, to get the people on the on-ramp to come in step by step and not all rush and create a big congestion. Report an error in the passage at 29:54 Highlight the passage at 29:54

30:12 You have that in Australia also? No. Well, we have so many cars in Los Angeles. There we are. But when you're on the on-ramp and you have a red light in front of you, it's not letting you on yet, then you can say, are you on the freeway yet? No, you're not. You're one green light away. Right? It just has to turn green and then you can hop right on and then you're in the slow lane of the freeway. You can go to the middle lane, the fast lane and so forth, but then you're on the freeway. But you're just on the on-ramp and you're facing the red light. Report an error in the passage at 30:12 Highlight the passage at 30:12

30:40 You're not on the freeway yet. And shamatha is on the on-ramp. And if that's all you achieve, then it's on the on-ramp with the red light. But take your shamatha practice and then conjoin that with vipassanā, with insight practice. Then the light turns green. And that's how you get onto the freeway. The freedom way. Report an error in the passage at 30:40 Highlight the passage at 30:40

30:59 A marka to liberation. So in this regard, then Samatha plays an enormous role, very significant, as a servant for, to facilitate, to empower all other forms of meditation. I'll end this because we can have some time for discussion, but I'll end it with a metaphor. It comes up later in the notes, which will start tomorrow. And tonight we'll just have discussion. Report an error in the passage at 30:59 Highlight the passage at 30:59

31:24 Meditation, discussion. If there's nothing to discuss, we just go to bed early or go for a walk or whatever. But we will have our seven to nine session tonight. Ha. But I'll just end this talk with an analogy the Buddha gave, highlighting the importance of shamatha and its relationship to vipassanā, or insight meditation. Report an error in the passage at 31:24 Highlight the passage at 31:24

31:44 And the story, simply a metaphor, a parable, was of a king who had a very unruly son, who he had appointed to be the governor of some outlying province of a kingdom. But unfortunately, the son was something of a scallywag, a rogue. And that is, he didn't take his governing responsibilities seriously. He was just into womanizing, gambling, drinking and just being a jerk. Where he should have been governing and taking care of people in that province, he wasn't. Report an error in the passage at 31:44 Highlight the passage at 31:44

32:14 He was just using his own self-gratification, exploiting and just being kind of a toad. And so the father heard about it, of course, and he was very dismayed at the behavior of his son. He knew he had to bring him back into line. And so the king called his chief minister. He said, minister, I want you to go out to that province. Report an error in the passage at 32:14 Highlight the passage at 32:14

32:34 And get my son to shape up. Tell him he must stop, desist from this unworthy behavior, debauchery. And get in line and be a good governor. Govern the province for the sake of the people. Take care of the people. That's your job. And you're not doing it. So minister, chief minister, my ambassador, go out and get that prince to step in line and stop this now. Report an error in the passage at 32:34 Highlight the passage at 32:34

32:59 And the minister turned to the king and said, oh king, if you send me out by myself, I'm going to show up at the doorstep of the prince, he being royal blood, aristocracy, the prince, and I being a mere minister. I'm going to show up and I'm going to start telling him what you told me. He's going to cut off my head. He's not going to give me a chance. He's going to just cut me right down. So I'm sorry, but I'm not going to go. I'm not going to follow your command unless you give me a very formidable bodyguard. Report an error in the passage at 32:59 Highlight the passage at 32:59

33:30 Give me some troops. So if he wants to cut off my head, he can't do it. And the king said, oh, you're right on that one. Good, I grant your wish. I'll give you a very formidable bodyguard and now get going and get my son in line. So, of course, the minister went out. He encountered the prince with all of his bodyguard there. He came right up to the prince and he got him to step in line very quickly because the prince knew he really had no recourse. Report an error in the passage at 33:30 Highlight the passage at 33:30

33:57 He could not retaliate because this guy is protected. And so that was it. So, in this parable, the minister is Vipassanā. It's the sharp edge of the sword that cuts the root of delusion, cuts mental afflictions at their root, the insight, the insight directly that directly counteracts or remedies the ignorance and delusion that lies at the root of saṃsāra, the root of suffering. Report an error in the passage at 33:57 Highlight the passage at 33:57

34:22 The minister is the Vipassanā, but the bodyguard, the troops with him, they're the shamatha, they're the shamatha. And it's that conjoining of the two that were able to subdue the unruly prince. Report an error in the passage at 34:22 Highlight the passage at 34:22

34:36 If you practice Vipassanā all by itself, and for that matter practice, Vajrayana, practice Mahamudra, practice Dzogchen, practice any of these very, very esoteric, very profound wisdom practices, but without shamatha, without the bodyguard of shamatha. Report an error in the passage at 34:36 Highlight the passage at 34:36

34:55 You're bringing in these wisdom practices, basic Theravāda, Vipassanā, Mahāyāna, perfection of wisdom, Madhyamaka, philosophy and so forth, Vajrayana practices, stage of generation, completion, Tekshut, Tutkel, Mahamudra, you're bringing in the wisdom practices. Report an error in the passage at 34:55 Highlight the passage at 34:55

35:14 But your mental afflictions are stronger than you are and they will shred you. Chances are. In that confrontation, mental afflictions are going to be stronger than your wisdom practices. You've got a lot of momentum behind them and they'll likely unravel your practice sooner or later. Report an error in the passage at 35:14 Highlight the passage at 35:14

35:36 Whereas if you bring the shamatha and then conjoin that with all these wisdom practices, then the mental afflictions will be subdued by your shamatha practice and then cut off at the root. By your wisdom practices. So that's the relationship between the two. And that in short is why we have shamatha as the foundation for vipassanā. Report an error in the passage at 35:36 Highlight the passage at 35:36

35:56 Why it plays such an indispensable role. So that's that. So we have about 12-15 minutes. Any questions or comments about anything we've touched on thus far before we have our two hour break and come back just for meditation and then possibly discussion if there's anything to discuss between 7 and 9. Report an error in the passage at 35:56 Highlight the passage at 35:56

36:15 Anything come up so far? If not, we can just take a break. Report an error in the passage at 36:15 Highlight the passage at 36:15

36:32 Yes, we'll start. And if you would, each one, you'll get the microphone so we can have this for recording. Thank you, right here. And before you pose your question or comment, it doesn't have to be a question, you could be sharing your experience, what have you, if you would just say your first name so I can at least hear it. Report an error in the passage at 36:32 Highlight the passage at 36:32

36:46 I'll try to remember, probably have to hear it twice. Say your first name and then we can continue. Hi, my name is Cameron. Cameron, For me establishing good ethics is difficult. Part of which I seem to reconcile in terms of renunciation, this idea that to really keep precepts and to establish a very good foundation, regular practice and so forth, does require that renunciation, that wisdom that already recognizes that this is my path and that mundane, and it seems very hard. Report an error in the passage at 36:46 Highlight the passage at 36:46

37:24 It's of course very reconcilable with Buddhist psychology that you can't have both. You can't have both? What's both referred to? I can't have all of the goodness of the mundane and then also develop a great spiritual practice. If you're trying to open both valves full throttle at the same time, that's not going to work out. Report an error in the passage at 37:24 Highlight the passage at 37:24

37:47 You can't be 100 % invested in both. Yes. Yes. Um. And so I guess that's tricky. And I'm just wondering if you have any advice on, as someone, you know, as a practitioner who wants to aim more towards just a regular good practice, how I can develop that ethics of keeping precepts or just good ethics. Say, this is the thing that really floats my boat. That's great too, but this is my thing. And developing a lifestyle that will be consistent with that. Report an error in the passage at 37:47 Highlight the passage at 37:47

38:20 Yeah, very good. Large question. Very, very meaningful question. And what I would suggest first off, probably first off in ending the whole thing, would be that there are two approaches and they're very complementary. Report an error in the passage at 38:20 Highlight the passage at 38:20

38:32 The first 20 years of my training was largely in the Galukpa tradition, which I embrace to this day wholeheartedly. And in the Galukpa tradition, Tsongkhapa and all of his followers for the last, what, five, six hundred years, have addressed this issue with tremendous insight and wisdom. Approach taken is to make full use of your intelligence, your imagination and so forth, your reading, your study, your understanding, to engage in discursive meditation, to reflect upon such things as your own mortality, the nature of impermanence, of death, the nature of suffering, the causes of suffering. Report an error in the passage at 38:32 Highlight the passage at 38:32

39:12 So not the whole of the lamrim, but much of the lamrim literature is about exactly this, developing an authentic motivation, which we call renunciation. And then developing a profoundly benevolent motivation, which we call bodhicitta. But it's done largely through reflection, through pondering, through thinking, discursive meditation. Report an error in the passage at 39:12 Highlight the passage at 39:12

39:31 And for many people, including very much the Dalai Lama, it can be profoundly transformative. Just by attending very closely to these aspects of reality that radically shift one's priorities and make one more and more and more conscientious about one's own behavior, the consequences of one's behavior and so on. Report an error in the passage at 39:31 Highlight the passage at 39:31

39:53 Of course, on a very practical level, much can be learned also by having good spiritual friends who are leading the life and seeing by example. For example, children who have very good manners. Well, what kind of manners do you suppose their parents have? Show me the parents who have really bad manners, you know, just uncouth and so forth, and their kids have great manners. Report an error in the passage at 39:53 Highlight the passage at 39:53

40:13 It's probably about as rare as hen's teeth. So they may learn it, their parents telling them this, that and the other thing, but it's also just by sheer example. Right? And so likewise, if you have very good Dharma friends who are deeply devoted to practice and so forth, just by osmosis, because that's how people behave. Report an error in the passage at 40:13 Highlight the passage at 40:13

40:28 So that's what I would call from the outside in. The outside in. And the outside can be also the outside that is your own intelligence, but reflecting, reading, pondering, attending closely. Report an error in the passage at 40:28 Highlight the passage at 40:28

40:42 So there's one approach. And I must say it's worked in many, many cases for many, many people. Then the question can come, is that the only way? Is that the only way to develop authentic motivation? What the Buddha calls right intention or authentic intention, one of the eightfold noble path. The answer is no, it's not the only way. It's a very effective way. It works for many, many people. I've also known, since that was the first 20 years of my training, overwhelmingly in that training, which I cherish to this day, back there in the old days in Dharamsala, in 1971, 75, then living in a monastery in Switzerland, Well, I knew many people who are very intent, very devoted. These are Westerners like myself. And engaging a lot is meditation. And just getting burned out. Report an error in the passage at 40:42 Highlight the passage at 40:42

41:25 You know, so focused on precious human rebirth and I'm going to die and I can die any kind of day and every moment I'm always and just like feeling. I mean, I know for myself, just feeling it's never enough. No matter what I do, it's never enough. I'm never good enough. I'm never striving hard enough. My motivation is never pure enough. I am Just not up to snuff. I should always be trying harder. I should be doing better. I'm just not like Tsongkhapa. Report an error in the passage at 41:25 Highlight the passage at 41:25

41:56 I'm not like Mugarepa. I'm always falling short. I'm such a deep disappointment to myself. I was before I encountered Dharma and I'm such a bigger disappointment. Now that I've found Dharma, I'm a huge disappointment. And so I've seen many people. Westerners and Tibetans, for whom it's worked marvelously well, they don't fall into that low self-esteem and damage themselves, burning themselves out, and I found primarily Westerners, primarily Westerners for whom mixed, mixed, getting really tense, really tight, really judgmental with regards to themselves, and then turning that and being very liberal about being judgmental to other people as well. Report an error in the passage at 41:56 Highlight the passage at 41:56

42:36 Not only am I a failure, but you're not so good yourself, and you're really disappointing, and I saw you doing that the other day, and you're not much. Report an error in the passage at 42:36 Highlight the passage at 42:36

42:43 We all kind of suck equally, you know? And then being really uptight about it, rigid and dogmatic, that can happen easily. And as you know, I'm not pointing my finger to any person or even any tradition. I'm not pointing my finger to the Galupa tradition. These discursive meditations are practiced in Theravāda Buddhism and all schools of Tibetan Buddhism and so forth. So it has a very positive side and there are ways that it can really just start making you tighter and tighter and then unhappier and unhappier and then guilty. Report an error in the passage at 42:43 Highlight the passage at 42:43

43:12 As you start to be more and more aware of your failings and the misconduct in the past and so forth and then just feeling overburdened, wow, I'm such a bad person. So I do not, I'm simply pointing out there are multiple facets of it and I've known so many people that just absolutely flourish in that. Report an error in the passage at 43:12 Highlight the passage at 43:12

43:31 But Dalai Lama is a great example. Most of his practice has been varied in terms of, by his own account, just decades of discursive meditation, bodhicitta meditation, renunciation meditation. Of course, Vajrayana, discursive meditation of Vipassanā and so forth. And boy, it served him well. Really served him magnificently well. By his own account, he really has benefited tremendously from the practice. Report an error in the passage at 43:31 Highlight the passage at 43:31

43:54 But is it the only way? And what I found, especially in Phuket, I've been teaching a long time, but Phuket, we have eight weeks of doing nothing besides practice Dharma. And in a very good environment, a wonderful, beautiful environment. But also, we've just found every single time. But quite quickly, within an eight-week period, within the first few days, a kind of bonding of friendship, of community arises. It's really a wonder to behold, and it happens every time. Report an error in the passage at 43:54 Highlight the passage at 43:54

44:17 I'm expecting it will in a couple of weeks when we start our fifth retreat. But that sense of comradeship, that we're together here, that we're on an expedition, a joint expedition of 36 people on the same ship. Report an error in the passage at 44:17 Highlight the passage at 44:17

44:30 And in the midst of that, then people really having, we're only together two hours a day. Out of 24 hours, we're collectively there. Meditating together in discussion, two hours a day. And that means a lot of emphasis on self-reliance. People are seeing me one-on-one only 15 minutes a week. And that means, okay, 15 minutes a week with me one-on-one, two hours a day. Report an error in the passage at 44:30 Highlight the passage at 44:30

44:53 We're collectively there 22 hours a day. All but one day you have an extra 15 minutes. You're on your own. But you do have your own private room, air-conditioned, all your meals prepared for you. Your room is clean twice a week. And people are doing your laundry. So you've got nothing to do except for practice Dharma. And the Dharma we're practicing is mostly Samatha. There's four immeasurables also, loving kindness and so forth, which are discursive. Report an error in the passage at 44:53 Highlight the passage at 44:53

45:16 But really the great majority of the time is spent practicing Samatha. And what I found repeatedly now, it's so interesting, it's an observation, is that by people just going deeper and deeper into the Samatha practice, priority is starting to change, deeply. Value is starting to change. Way of life change, vision of the good life, vision of what they like to do for the rest of their lives. Changing, changing, changing, sometimes really radical and often enduring. Report an error in the passage at 45:16 Highlight the passage at 45:16

45:46 And it's not because of discursive meditation. It's not by reflecting upon death and the three aspects of dying and all of that. It's not. It's non-discursive. It's just going right deeper, deeper into the nature of your own awareness and finding through this non-discursive, non-conceptual meditation. Report an error in the passage at 45:46 Highlight the passage at 45:46

46:06 That the same thing happens. Just a powerful reorientation of shifting of priorities, a cherishing of Dharma, a commitment, a real sense of this is the source of genuine happiness. And the hedonic is all on the outside. And just seeing that. So I've seen so many people come through these. This is not a pitch for those eight weeks. Report an error in the passage at 46:06 Highlight the passage at 46:06

46:29 This is just, but this is what happens. I'm just drawing from my own experience. I'm not trying to, we're already filled for this year anyway, so it's hardly for, you know, pointless for me to try to pitch it. But it's been quite interesting, quite interesting, for people to see from their own experience that come what may, when all is said and done, Dharma is the only thing worth doing. Report an error in the passage at 46:29 Highlight the passage at 46:29

46:51 Now you know by Dharma I don't mean just shamatha or just meditation, but devoting oneself to Dharma is the only thing worth doing. And the hedonic, oh yeah, well we need hedonics so we can practice Dharma. And I've seen that happen so many times now that to my mind now it's an empirical fact that there are different ways of developing very powerful renunciation, One of the most interesting things also is people engaging in a non-discursive practice like mindfulness of breathing or just resting in awareness of awareness. Report an error in the passage at 46:51 Highlight the passage at 46:51

47:20 I've seen this happen multiple times. Just resting there. And then like just a fountain of unconditional love coming up or profound compassion coming up. And they weren't reflecting on, they weren't attending to sentient beings or trying to develop. Loving, kindness, compassion. They're just resting, resting. And then something is like sitting on top of a hole where a geyser is suddenly just and lifts you up into the air. Report an error in the passage at 47:20 Highlight the passage at 47:20

47:46 Say, whoa, how did I get up here? You know, they're just lifted up into these states. They are transient, but they're real. They're real and they're not obtained from anything outside. Not from me. You can't even say they're obtained from the practice by some technique that I taught. Uh-uh. That's not true. So where's it coming from? Report an error in the passage at 47:46 Highlight the passage at 47:46

48:06 It's coming from their own awareness. They can't be coming from anywhere else, the depths of their own awareness. And so this is then a whole approach of discovery, of discovery. And what I found now, because we ran the first three-month retreats five years ago, 1997, two three-month retreats in the Shamatha Project and now these eight-week retreats in Phuket, is that overall the kind of changes that take place tend to be quite robust, quite durable. Report an error in the passage at 48:06 Highlight the passage at 48:06

48:35 That's interesting. But happily too, it's not contingent. It's very important. It's not contingent upon one's faith in somebody outside. Not me as a teacher. I come and go. A lot of people have never seen since. They're off living in Argentina or Brazil or what have you. I'm not staying in touch with them. Report an error in the passage at 48:35 Highlight the passage at 48:35

48:56 So it's not me. A definite devotion to the teachings. But it's not the inspiration, the shift of priorities and so forth. It's not coming from outside. It's coming from the inside. And that tends to be quite robust. So, very good. Oh yeah, it's five o 'clock. So that was a good, excellent, very rich, very panoramic question to start with. Report an error in the passage at 48:56 Highlight the passage at 48:56

49:22 Let's come back at seven o 'clock. We'll go directly to practice and then see if there's discussion afterwards. Report an error in the passage at 49:22 Highlight the passage at 49:22