Shamatha Retreat with Alan Wallace 2012 (part 5)

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:04 We begin every session by letting the awareness descend into the body right down to the ground, letting your awareness permeate the whole field of tactile or somatic sensations, letting Report an error in the passage at 1:04 Highlight the passage at 1:04

1:33 your body at ease. If you're in the supine position, total meltdown, total relaxation. If you're in the sitting position, it's a balance of relaxing every muscle you can that's not needed to maintain this upright posture. All the other ones are on vacation. Report an error in the passage at 1:33 Highlight the passage at 1:33

2:00 All the muscles of the face soft and relaxed, the eyes soft, relaxed, the body still. And even in the supine position you are psychologically adopting a stance, a posture of vigilance. Report an error in the passage at 2:00 Highlight the passage at 2:00

· · · silence, 1 minute

3:00 Now the key to relaxation really revolves around the breath. If you can learn how to breathe, you can learn how to relax. Learning how to breathe is relinquishing all control, fearlessly. Report an error in the passage at 3:00 Highlight the passage at 3:00

3:42 It is to breathe egolessly with no agent, no one in control, no one intervening, no one exerting any will or preference. Every Report an error in the passage at 3:42 Highlight the passage at 3:42

4:10 out-breath is an opportunity to relax more deeply in the body, to Report an error in the passage at 4:10 Highlight the passage at 4:10

4:38 more and more fully release the breath, Report an error in the passage at 4:38 Highlight the passage at 4:38

4:51 and as if the out-breath were a great sigh of relief, utterly and luxuriously releasing all the activities of the mind, Report an error in the passage at 4:51 Highlight the passage at 4:51

5:07 as if you were laying your mind down to rest Report an error in the passage at 5:07 Highlight the passage at 5:07

5:13 observing it with the quiet, clear light of awareness. We're Report an error in the passage at 5:13 Highlight the passage at 5:13

· · · silence, 1 minute

6:02 not even exerting any effort to inhale. We simply allow the breath to flow in and we get out of the way. Allowing the breath to flow in, the body to take just what it needs, to give back just what it doesn't need. Report an error in the passage at 6:02 Highlight the passage at 6:02

· · · silence, 1 minute

7:02 If there's a pause at the end of the out-breath, let there be a pause. We're not imposing any preconceived rhythm upon the breath. But allowing the respiration to find its own rhythm, to settle in its own natural rhythm. Whether it's rhythmic or arrhythmic, long or short, whatever it may be, let it be. Report an error in the passage at 7:02 Highlight the passage at 7:02

7:29 Let the body breathe and establish its own equilibrium by way of the respiration. Report an error in the passage at 7:29 Highlight the passage at 7:29

· · · silence, 2 minutes

9:35 Outside of this retreat, of course, you have your own personal history, you have a future to look forward to. But whatever has gone by in the past or may come in the future. Report an error in the passage at 9:35 Highlight the passage at 9:35

9:51 Right now, release it. Release all concerns, hopes and fears and let your awareness come to rest in stillness, non-conceptionally, in the immediacy of the present moment, within the field of the body. Report an error in the passage at 9:51 Highlight the passage at 9:51

10:10 Stay home within this somatic field. Report an error in the passage at 10:10 Highlight the passage at 10:10

· · · silence, 2 minutes

11:44 Let your awareness be diffuse, not tightly focused. Report an error in the passage at 11:44 Highlight the passage at 11:44

11:51 Like a fragrance filling a room, let your awareness fill the space of your body. And Report an error in the passage at 11:51 Highlight the passage at 11:51

12:00 ever so simply, simply note, The duration of each in and out breath in broad strokes, long or short. Maintain a flow of knowing, but relaxing more and more deeply with each out breath. Report an error in the passage at 12:00 Highlight the passage at 12:00

· · · silence, 1 minute

13:23 And maintain this flow of knowing without thinking. There's no need for thought, not on this occasion. And whatever thoughts arise, just let them go. Report an error in the passage at 13:23 Highlight the passage at 13:23

13:43 Let the out breath carry them away. Allow them to dissolve into the space of the mind. Report an error in the passage at 13:43 Highlight the passage at 13:43

· · · silence, 15 minutes

28:27 Once again, let your awareness descend into. And fill the space of the body, Report an error in the passage at 28:27 Highlight the passage at 28:27

28:39 immediately setting the body at ease, releasing excess muscular tension, softening. Report an error in the passage at 28:39 Highlight the passage at 28:39

28:52 And in this mode of comfort and ease, let your body be still, apart from the movement of the breath, Report an error in the passage at 28:52 Highlight the passage at 28:52

29:11 while sitting or even lying down in a posture of vigilance, using the supine position, the shavasana, only for meditation, never for just resting or napping or anything else. So by association. As soon as you slip into this posture, you know this is for training the mind. And Report an error in the passage at 29:11 Highlight the passage at 29:11

· · · silence, 1 minute

30:21 gradually develop this ever so subtle skill of attending closely to the sensations of the breath, which is so easy to modify with your will, with your preferences. Report an error in the passage at 30:21 Highlight the passage at 30:21

30:37 But while attending closely to it, relinquishing all control, Report an error in the passage at 30:37 Highlight the passage at 30:37

30:46 letting your awareness be as passive as possible. Report an error in the passage at 30:46 Highlight the passage at 30:46

· · · silence, 1 minute

31:32 The subtlety of this practice comes at the very end of the exhalation, Report an error in the passage at 31:32 Highlight the passage at 31:32

31:41 at least to the very last drop, all the breath. Report an error in the passage at 31:41 Highlight the passage at 31:41

31:50 Release and release until there's nothing more to let go. You Report an error in the passage at 31:50 Highlight the passage at 31:50

32:03 simply allow the breath to flow in without taking it in, without exerting yourself, Report an error in the passage at 32:03 Highlight the passage at 32:03

32:19 without in any way inhibiting the inflow of the breath. You just get out of the way. And Report an error in the passage at 32:19 Highlight the passage at 32:19

32:32 whether that in-breath is shallow or deep, out of the way, Report an error in the passage at 32:32 Highlight the passage at 32:32

· · · silence, 2 minutes

34:39 releasing your awareness into the present moment, letting it remain there in stillness, not tightly held, but rather completely released. Report an error in the passage at 34:39 Highlight the passage at 34:39

34:51 Clearly illuminating the space of the body, maintaining this flow of knowing, the in and out breath. You've Report an error in the passage at 34:51 Highlight the passage at 34:51

35:09 turned off the valve of the pursuit of hedonic pleasure, of stimulation, of entertainment. Report an error in the passage at 35:09 Highlight the passage at 35:09

35:19 You rest in simply being aware of the breath and being content to do so. You Report an error in the passage at 35:19 Highlight the passage at 35:19

35:31 have no sense of achieving this and accomplishing that. No sense of the future or the past. Keeping Report an error in the passage at 35:31 Highlight the passage at 35:31

35:44 it simple. Every Report an error in the passage at 35:44 Highlight the passage at 35:44

· · · silence, 6 minutes

41:20 time you find that your mind has wandered, regard that as an invitation to relax more deeply. To release the thought more deeply into a state of rest, Report an error in the passage at 41:20 Highlight the passage at 41:20

41:39 without losing the clarity with which you began. Report an error in the passage at 41:39 Highlight the passage at 41:39