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- 5:26
And he refers to these many, many times, not just in that one discourse, of mindfulness of breathing as a shamatha method. So here it is in the notes. Breathing in long, one knows I breathe in long. Breathing out long, one knows I breathe out long. That's the first phase. So, it's awfully simple. But there's a little bit of subtext there, and that is, if you've just walked up to your meditation cushion, maybe you've walked quickly, you've been exercising, or you've been engaging in conversation, or the mind is just kind of turbulent, excited, and so forth, then when you first sit down in meditation, just because your whole body-mind system is rather stirred up,
- 8:50
One could really say it doesn't rise to the level of being human. That is, there's nothing distinctively, let alone uniquely, human about the type of knowing that we're sustaining in the practice of shamatha. I'm just knowing breath is long or short. I mean, that's pretty primitive kind of knowing. And moreover, we don't have to think, oh, that was long, that was pretty long, that was kind of short. We don't need the conceptual or internal verbal, how do you say, commentary, any more than when I look at a red shawl, I need to think, that's red, before I can know what color it is.
- 13:53
So that's the third phase. And then, fourth phase, this is really simple. I shall breathe in calming the composite of the body. I shall breathe out calming the composite of the body. Thus one trains. So there's the coarse body. Well, you can get pretty calm just by lying down and you're calm. But here I think he's talking about the more subtle dimensions of the body. And again, in modern parlance, we call it the nervous system. The whole nervous system is settling into really a deeper, finer and finer state of equilibrium.
- 23:54
So there's our basis. There's the basis. There's the core instruction that Buddha gave, in fact, on many occasions. Over the 45 years or so that he was teaching. And that's in the early Pāli canon, very strongly emphasized in Theravāda Buddhism. But now if you look, well, how about the Mahāyāna tradition, which flourished all over Asia and of course is really utterly central, foundational in Tibetan Buddhism. Does the same practice of mindfulness of breathing crop up in the Mahāyāna teachings attributed to the Buddha? The answer is, as we see right here, yes, the Perfection of Wisdom Sutras.
- 31:37
Having turned off that tap, then maybe you might get some drips from the other tap. And the drips from the other tap are a sense of, the first one is soothing. Now that the mind is piped down, now they're getting a bit of continuity. And finding, well, that wasn't blissful, that wasn't ecstatic, it wasn't ambrosial dwelling, it wasn't sublime, but that was kind of nice.
Transcript
0:09 So we'll go right back to the meditation, but this time we will kind of move into second gear, so to speak. And that is move into a second phase of mindfulness of breathing. And this time it will be a different balancing act. We can always go back and, like this evening or whatever you like, go back to the full body awareness. But now explicitly to begin cultivating, enhancing, strengthening the stability of attention, which really means the continuity, maintaining, staying in the core, so to speak. Report an error in the passage at 0:09
0:39 For that, we're going to be shifting the focus of attention to the rise and fall of the abdomen. This is called the Burmese technique. It's also practiced in Zen, focusing on the abdomen, the rise and fall of the Hara, or the energy center there in the abdomen. And now, very simply put, because I want to go to the practice very quickly, the balancing act now is to gradually, very gently, but persistently... Report an error in the passage at 0:39
1:03 Enhance the stability, and that is really releasing the rumination and maintaining more and more of a continuity of attention upon your chosen object. So that's what we're trying to do, enhance stability. But the balancing act is to do so without tightening up, without the constriction, without sacrificing the sense of looseness, ease, relaxation, comfort in body and mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:03
1:26 So the stability should emerge out of a sense of looseness, relaxation, ease, rather than at the sacrifice of this underlying foundation of relaxation. So that's the key. We'll find out about it, not by talking about it, but by practicing. So please find a comfortable position. The supine position is very good for this, but we can always sit as well. Report an error in the passage at 1:26
· · · silence, 1 minute
2:50 So Report an error in the passage at 2:50
· · · silence, 1 minute
3:44 you'll recall that the Buddha characterized the quality of awareness emerging from such practice. First of all, as peaceful. And that correlates very strongly with the increase of stability. As if you had faced a tempest of rumination and conceptual agitation and turbulence. And then it calms, it just gets quiet, it's peaceful. It corresponds with stability. Sublime, ambrosial, that tends to be more associated with vividness. Report an error in the passage at 3:44
4:13 Now there have been many books written about mindfulness of breathing, but the Buddha's own instructions on this practice are very concise. And in his classic discourse, it's called the Ānāpānasati Sutta, the discourse on mindfulness of breathing in and out, he actually breaks down the practice of mindfulness of breathing into 16 phases. Report an error in the passage at 4:13
4:33 So it gets very, very subtle. 16 phases, sequential. And the first four of the 16... are really focusing on the practice of mindfulness of breathing as a shamatha practice. That is, it's about contemplative technology. It's about developing serviceability of the mind, the stability, the clarity. And so it's that focus of just making the mind very fit for being used in the practice of vipassanā or insight meditation. Report an error in the passage at 4:33
5:01 And that's how the practice of mindfulness breathing is used for the final 12 phases. Then it's vipassanā. Come to the culmination of the 16th phase and you're an arhat. So in fact mindfulness of breathing can be a complete path of shamatha vipassanā culminating in liberation. But for the time being, since this week is just on shamatha, we'll focus just on the four stages that he highlights, that he begins. Report an error in the passage at 5:01
5:26 And he refers to these many, many times, not just in that one discourse, of mindfulness of breathing as a shamatha method. So here it is in the notes. Breathing in long, one knows I breathe in long. Breathing out long, one knows I breathe out long. That's the first phase. So, it's awfully simple. Report an error in the passage at 5:26
5:46 But there's a little bit of subtext there, and that is, if you've just walked up to your meditation cushion, maybe you've walked quickly, you've been exercising, or you've been engaging in conversation, or the mind is just kind of turbulent, excited, and so forth, then when you first sit down in meditation, just because your whole body-mind system is rather stirred up, Then, relatively speaking, the volume of air that your body will need from breath to breath is bound to be rather large, just because the whole system is very active. Report an error in the passage at 5:46
6:16 And so, when the body needs a lot of air, then it stands to reason that the in-breath will be relatively long, the out-breath will be relatively long. Report an error in the passage at 6:16
6:26 But as you continue sitting there, especially if you don't do just one session, maybe do a few sessions, or maybe you're meditating all day, for day after day, Then in this progression you can imagine with your whole body mind settling down, just physically but then also psychologically, just getting calmed down, then you probably already know from your own experience that the sheer volume or quantity of air that your body needs decreases. Report an error in the passage at 6:26
6:54 Which means that as we move to phase two, breathing in short, one knows I breathe in short, breathing out short, one knows I breathe out short. Report an error in the passage at 6:54
7:06 The volume is likely to decrease. The duration of the breath is likely to decrease. So the whole system is settling down there. But he does make this point, breathing in long, you know you breathe in long. Breathing out long, you know you breathe out long. There are very few words here, which means every single sentence, every single word really has some real significance here. There's no fluff. And so it is absolutely imperative in the practice of shamatha, of any kind, any method of shamatha. Report an error in the passage at 7:06
7:37 That you are maintaining a flow of knowing. You're not just being non-conceptual or just being very peaceful. It really is absolutely crucial to maintain a flow of knowing. But thereon hangs the tale, so to speak. And that is an abnormal way of knowing all kinds of things. If you're in business, knowing how to run your business. Report an error in the passage at 7:37
7:58 If you're a parent, knowing how to raise your child and so forth. Our normal mode of knowing in day-to-day activities. It tends to be totally locked into and operating by way of a conceptual framework. So we're always knowing with thoughts. We're labeling, we're judging, remembering, anticipating. But just the whole context for it, the medium in which the knowing takes place is a conceptual medium. Report an error in the passage at 7:58
8:26 There's nothing wrong with that. It's very useful. We know things about the past. Well, not by being clairvoyant, peeking into the past, but conceptually and likewise, we know certain things will happen in the future. Conceptually and so forth. But now what we're doing here is cultivating, I use the word primal, I think it's pretty accurate. We're cultivating and sustaining a more primal. Report an error in the passage at 8:26
8:50 One could really say it doesn't rise to the level of being human. That is, there's nothing distinctively, let alone uniquely, human about the type of knowing that we're sustaining in the practice of shamatha. I'm just knowing breath is long or short. I mean, that's pretty primitive kind of knowing. And moreover, we don't have to think, oh, that was long, that was pretty long, that was kind of short. Report an error in the passage at 8:50
9:13 We don't need the conceptual or internal verbal, how do you say, commentary, any more than when I look at a red shawl, I need to think, that's red, before I can know what color it is. Boom, I get it, the label comes after, but the label doesn't really add anything more. It doesn't tell us something more that we didn't already immediately know. It's just giving us a label. So it's more like a packaging. This is unpackaged knowing at a very, very primitive level, very basic level. Report an error in the passage at 9:13
9:42 But it turns out that that can be quite significant. So that's the quality of knowing, the dimension of knowing. It's pre-verbal, it's non-conceptual, it's immediate. And it's knowing from a kind of a deeper space than our normal acculturated, conceptual, verbally bound. Way of knowing. So there's two out of four. Moving very quickly. And then, one trains thus. Report an error in the passage at 9:42
10:08 I shall breathe in, experiencing the whole body. I shall breathe out, experiencing the whole body. Report an error in the passage at 10:08
10:17 And there should be a... That's fine. So breathing, experiencing the whole body. Obviously one can read that literally, but the Theravāda tradition, which really highlights this practice more than any other tradition, the Theravāda commentaries, that is the commentaries from Southeast Asia, Report an error in the passage at 10:17
10:34 Just about uniformly interpret this whole body as not experiencing the sensations of the breath in your ankles, in your thighs, your abdomen and so forth and so on. Not your whole body body, but rather the whole body of the breath. The whole course of inhalation, the whole course of exhalation. So if we translated that into modern terminology, we say when you're getting to this third phase, first the volume of the breath is fairly long, it's fairly coarse. Report an error in the passage at 10:34
11:03 It's pretty easy to attend to. Over time, the volume becomes less. The breaths become shorter. And then as you're just stepping deeper, deeper into the practice, getting more mellow, the continuity of attention is getting better and better so that you can attend to the whole course of one breath and then sequentially the whole course of two breaths and without missing a beat, three breaths and never falling off, never becoming completely distracted or losing your object. Report an error in the passage at 11:03
11:30 Then you're entering into a psychologist. Now commonly called flow. It becomes more and more effortless, more and more continuous, soothing, peaceful and it may actually go beyond peaceful. But that's what he's getting at. So I mentioned in the guided meditation that you really take this on as a full-time job. And it's very easy, I mean extremely easy not to. Report an error in the passage at 11:30
11:54 Just like chewing gum, it doesn't need to be a full-time job. You can chew gum and... Play with a yo-yo, you can chew gum and ride a bicycle. It can be really a part-time job and be perfectly good at chewing gum. And likewise, you can note this breath is long, this one's short. That can easily be a part-time job. And we find it often is, right? You probably have already found. And that is... Report an error in the passage at 11:54
12:19 Breathing in, yeah, yeah, but what about this? Breathing out, yeah, cool, whatever. Breathing in, yeah, yeah, yeah, got it, no problem. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And so we're going on these little larks, these little excursions while kind of, yeah, I got it in, breath out, breath, nailed it, no problem. Report an error in the passage at 12:19
12:33 But we're doing something more interesting. We're entertaining ourselves with rumination, but keeping an eye on the mindfulness of breathing and saying, hey, this was so easy, I can do this in my spare time. Report an error in the passage at 12:33
12:43 And so we're actually then cultivating multitasking. And Shantideva is very much about moving away from multitasking. And I've spoken to a number of psychologists now. They show that study after study shows that multitasking really is not an efficient way to get anything done. It's much more really, bring your full attention. In other words, psychologists are now saying, without using this term, whatever you're doing, if it's worth doing it all, then do it and do it with Samādhi. Report an error in the passage at 12:43
13:07 And that is, give it your whole attention. And then move on and give something else your whole attention. When we're getting to this third phase of attending to the whole body of the in-breath, the whole body of the out-breath, thus one trains, you're getting into this motion where it's almost like a figure-eight loop. Report an error in the passage at 13:07
13:29 It gets a very silky quality and the flow of the breath itself may get very silky, not choppy, but very smooth and silky. And then as you're just going through that outward and inward movement, of course you're just tending here to the abdomen, but... Just something very smooth, very silky without being chopped up, without being interrupted by invasive thoughts. Report an error in the passage at 13:29
13:53 So that's the third phase. And then, fourth phase, this is really simple. I shall breathe in calming the composite of the body. I shall breathe out calming the composite of the body. Thus one trains. So there's the coarse body. Well, you can get pretty calm just by lying down and you're calm. But here I think he's talking about the more subtle dimensions of the body. And again, in modern parlance, we call it the nervous system. The whole nervous system is settling into really a deeper, finer and finer state of equilibrium. Report an error in the passage at 13:53
14:27 Or in terms of first-person physiology, where they speak of vital energies, subtle energies flowing through the body, you're now just really fine-tuning, the whole system becoming very balanced. And again, not heavy, not lethargic, because that would just be slipping off to one extreme, but not our habitual agitation, restlessness, fidgetiness and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 14:27
14:48 Something where the whole system is settling into kind of a dynamic equilibrium that is very peaceful, very calm, at the same time energetic. Report an error in the passage at 14:48
14:58 So normally when we're calm, we're lethargic. When we're energetic, we're restless and turbulent. So this is a balancing act. Now this stands in stark contrast to the way that Report an error in the passage at 14:58
15:12 Attention, sharply focused attention, sustained attention is experienced in the world, especially by people whose professions or whose hobbies or games or sports require a very high level of attentional prowess. So, for example, Formula One race drivers, if they let their attention wander, they will imperil their own and other people's lives. Report an error in the passage at 15:12
15:34 So the whole, I mean, Indianapolis 500, 500 miles, 500 miles, you just have to be focused the whole time. I can imagine when they're coming out of the driver's seat, they must be just toast, psychologically. I mean, if they won, they'd be exhilarated. But that's going to be extremely draining on the attention. I don't know any studies of Formula One race drivers, but I do know of studies done of jet fighter pilots. Report an error in the passage at 15:34
15:59 And that's exactly it. If they're in the cockpit for four or five hours, they'll need about 24 hours of just rest and relaxation, rest and recreation. afterwards to repair the damage they did to themselves while they are white-knuckling their way through the sky at Mach 1, Mach 2, let alone if they're in a dogfight. Report an error in the passage at 15:59
16:16 A couple of years ago I was teaching at a Vedanta Center in the Bahamas and actually had the opportunity to interview, to speak with a fellow who was attending my retreat who was a war veteran of multiple wars. He was an Israeli jet fighter pilot in their Air Force. And so I had to ask, what's it like when you get out of the cockpit? And he confirmed with all the studies, he said, oh, you're toast, you're wiped out. You're just wiped out, so drained. Report an error in the passage at 16:16
16:41 And this turns out, I've spoken with musicians, not the same as being a jet fighter pilot, but if you're performing for two or three hours on the stage before an audience, you feel pretty pooped, pretty tapped out by the time you've finished. That's what people tell me, I'm not a professional musician. Chess players, air traffic controllers, the list goes on and on, of people who have to be really, really focused when they're engaging in whatever endeavor it is. Report an error in the passage at 16:41
17:06 And so psychologists have studied this for decades now, and they find that when the attention is really aroused, it's done with effort, often with a lot of desire, a lot of ego is there, and it comes through contraction, through clamping down, and we often do that visually. Report an error in the passage at 17:06
17:22 So a scrunching down, the furrowing of the forehead, the eyes getting hard, the jaws getting clenched and so forth. Now I'm really concentrating. And so all of that, well you can imagine, that's going to be just tapping you out. So that's the way the world, so to speak, that's the way in mundane activities people get very, very focused. Report an error in the passage at 17:22
17:41 Through sheer effort and sustaining that. And I know a number of people who've brought exactly that mentality and that strategy to developing shamatha. One of those people was this guy, he's quite a young guy, he was only 30 years old. His name is Alan Wallace. When he went into his first Shama to retreat, the poor guy, you know, he'd been training with Tibetans for the last 10 years. Report an error in the passage at 17:41
18:04 And the Tibetans, you know, so many of them mellow. I mean, back then, they'd all been raised in Tibet, meditated in Tibet, low-key, cool. And they're teaching this young guy from California. So I was actually under the guidance of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He was, you know, magnificent. Report an error in the passage at 18:04
18:20 When I went into that meditation hut, it was just pedal to the metal. It was like, you know, no pain, no gain. I'm Californian, I'm 30 years old, and by gum, I'm going to scale the peak of Mount Shamatha, and I'm going to do it in record time. And so that whole notion of very goal-driven, very strong effort, I know the discipline, I know how to do it, I'm going to achieve it, I'm going to really impress it, I'm going to make some waves here. Report an error in the passage at 18:20
18:45 Well, it works really well. For the short term, in fact, it really does succeed. That's what's so, how do you say, tricky about it. It doesn't just fail. I was just watching my attention get better and better for the first week, two weeks, three weeks. Wow, I was starting to do a little graph and saying, OK, given this rate of increase, I should be at the top of Mount Chamata, you know, in a certain number of days. Report an error in the passage at 18:45
19:07 And just a nice graph. And then, lo and behold, then the body started catching up. And the sense of tiredness, of exhaustion, of stress, of fatigue started setting in. And lo and behold, the attention did not get better and better. That kind of flattened out. And then an increasing quality of heaviness, of tightness started setting in. Because, I mean, I was there for as long as my visa would allow me. Report an error in the passage at 19:07
19:32 I stayed there for five months in a very intensive retreat. And I had to leave the country. I couldn't come back for a while. Just because of visa, that's all. It doesn't work. That's the long and the short of it. If you want to spend four hours in the cockpit of a jet fighter, yes, it will work. You want to do a two-hour recital as a musician, yes, it will work and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 19:32
19:52 So it works pretty well for mundane activities. But if you're going into retreat meditating ten hours a day for months on end, it doesn't work. So you can either take my word for it or you can make the mistake all over again and waste a lot of time. And I've known other yogis as well doing the same thing. Report an error in the passage at 19:52
20:07 Thinking they're way, you know, way far advanced on the stages of shamatha, like stage 7 or what have you. Very far advanced. I know one who claimed this and a very good practitioner. None of these people are stupid. I wasn't stupid. But by sheer just pushing, pushing, persevering, persevering, one person told me, I think, you know, I was on stage 7. Report an error in the passage at 20:07
20:30 And how long can you meditate? About 40 minutes. And I said, oh, then you're not on stage 7. It's a facsimile. It's a facsimile of stage seven. I've known people on stage seven. One of them meditated 11 hours straight regularly. That's stage seven. You're mellow as jello. It's so soft, you're so relaxed that you can meditate for hours on it. That was a bit exceptional. But nevertheless, two or three, four hours is just normal. Report an error in the passage at 20:30
20:59 If you're on stage seven, 45 minutes, why did you stop? Well, we know why the person stopped. You're getting tired. And that's still too much effort, still getting there by contraction rather than how we started, by the opposite of contraction, of relaxation. So, the words I just shared could save you an awful lot of time. Report an error in the passage at 20:59
21:18 That's that. So, the culmination of this, for those of you who have seen the, anybody who studied Tibetan Buddhism for a while, you must have seen the winding road of the nine stages of shamatha with the monk chasing after the elephant. It's a lovely pictorial representation of the nine stages of shamatha. Report an error in the passage at 21:18
21:36 And I highlight it right now. I don't have it with me right now. I have a couple of versions on my computer. But in this regard, one point that's really worth noting is that when the monk first steps out and sets out on this path of shamatha and the mind is very turbulent, very coarse excitation, then on the side of the road, it's all symbolic of course, on the side of the road is a big bonfire. Report an error in the passage at 21:36
21:59 And then as the monk progresses along this path and If excitation, dullness or laxity are gradually subsiding, then that which starts out as a bonfire gets to be a smaller fire, smaller fire, smaller fire. And then finally you get up right towards the end, stage eight, and there's no more fire. The fire is gone. And so what does the fire represent? Report an error in the passage at 21:59
22:23 Effort. So at the beginning, relatively speaking, and I have to really emphasize that, relatively speaking, the amount of effort you're giving is, compared to later stages, quite large. I mean, you really have to pay attention. But as you become more adept at it, then the quality of attention is getting finer and finer, and the amount of effort needed to sustain it and to improve it gets less and less and less until you come to the culminating phases, stages eight, nine, and then achieving shamatha, and it's actually effortless. Report an error in the passage at 22:23
22:57 And it's still getting better, effortlessly. Now that might imply, quite rationally imply, Well, that must mean at the beginning you really try hard. And then you try less and less as you go. But in fact, if you try really hard, you don't even get to stage two. Report an error in the passage at 22:57
23:16 My hand always does this. This is the mudrā of trying really, really hard. And that should tell everything. So it's not to say that you start out effortless. There needs to be effort. But the sheer magnitude of effort, the coarseness of effort. Does decrease when the practice is going correctly. Until finally, you calm the whole composite, this whole composite of the body, the whole energy system and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 23:16
23:42 It's calm, there's a serenity there, the breath becomes extremely shallow. So subtle that an outside person, unless a medical doctor really knows how to measure, might think you've stopped breathing altogether. Report an error in the passage at 23:42
23:54 So there's our basis. There's the basis. There's the core instruction that Buddha gave, in fact, on many occasions. Over the 45 years or so that he was teaching. And that's in the early Pāli canon, very strongly emphasized in Theravāda Buddhism. But now if you look, well, how about the Mahāyāna tradition, which flourished all over Asia and of course is really utterly central, foundational in Tibetan Buddhism. Report an error in the passage at 23:54
24:17 Does the same practice of mindfulness of breathing crop up in the Mahāyāna teachings attributed to the Buddha? The answer is, as we see right here, yes, the Perfection of Wisdom Sutras. This one in particular, there are multiple versions, up to 100,000 verses. Here's 10,000 verses of standards. Here the Buddha addresses one of his principal disciples, Shariputra, known for his great wisdom. Report an error in the passage at 24:17
24:39 Once again using an analogy which runs throughout Buddha Dharma all over the place. Shariputra, take the analogy of a potter or a potter's apprentice spinning the potter's wheel. If he makes a long revolution, he knows it is long. If he makes a short revolution, he knows it is short. So we see. Very similar to earlier. Shariputra is similarly a bodhisattva, a great being, mindfully breathes in and mindfully breathes out. Report an error in the passage at 24:39
25:06 If the inhalation is long, he knows the inhalation is long. If the inhalation is short, he knows the inhalation is short. If the exhalation is short, he knows the exhalation is short. We just covered the two out of the first four phases. Shariputra, and then he just stops here. Shariputra, thus a bodhisattva. Report an error in the passage at 25:06
25:30 So now he's firmly planting this in the Mahāyāna context to say that this is as much a Mahāyāna practice as it is Theravāda or so-called Hinayana practice. Shariputra, thus a bodhisattva, a great being, by dwelling with introspection and mindfulness, eliminates attachment and disappointment towards the worlds by means of non-objectification and he lives observing the body as the body internally. Report an error in the passage at 25:30
26:00 So again, Report an error in the passage at 26:00
26:04 Each phrase bears such meaning, so full of meaning. Through this simple practice of dwelling with introspection and mindfulness, mindfulness of the breathing, introspection, monitoring the flow of mindfulness, that this ever so simple practice eliminates attachment towards the world. Report an error in the passage at 26:04
26:26 So attachment is referring to mental affliction, mental affliction of attachment, in which we lock onto some object. It could be another person. Meaning this person is a source of my happiness. This person makes me happy objectively. This person is just a little bundle of happiness. I just have to bump into this person. Report an error in the passage at 26:26
26:43 There's my happiness. It could be a person. It could be a possession. It could be a place. It could be an occupation. It could be looking at the numbers in your bank account. Oh, I'm happy. Look. It could be something quite abstract like reputation, power, the regard that other people hold you and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 26:43
27:04 So all of these, of course any kind of sensual object as well, locking onto it as being somehow intrinsically a source of happiness, of well-being, and locking onto it, craving it, clinging to it, that's the mental affliction of attachment. And it often, if not invariably, entails an embellishment, an exaggeration, a cognitive bias of seeing the object, whatever it is, Highlighting its attractive or desirable qualities, seeing even its neutral qualities as still attractive and its negative qualities kind of getting sifted out. Almost like they're filtered out. Report an error in the passage at 27:04
27:45 Don't notice them. When attachment really rears up and gloms onto an object, we tend not to see the negative qualities at all. They just tend to become invisible. The attractive qualities, really attractive, and even the neutral qualities are nudged over into the positive pile. And so it is a cognitive bias. It's a conative bias. And where does it come from? Of really thinking the source of my happiness lies outside. Report an error in the passage at 27:45
28:12 And then locking on to that. Well, what are we doing in mindfulness of breathing? And it's so simple. I mean, it's kind of almost like breathtakingly simple. I mean, you're noting it's long, it's short, okay? Where's the interesting part? Where's the sophisticated part? Where's the powerful, profound, heavy-duty part? Report an error in the passage at 28:12
28:29 And it's just, no, that's it. That's the technique. But in doing that, of course, there's an awful lot that we're not doing. We're going cold turkey. Do you use that term here in Australia? Okay, then no problem. You're just going cold turkey on this very old habitual addiction to looking for things that will make us happy, including conjuring up, you know, fantasies and going down nostalgia lane and entertaining the mind with all kinds of ruminations and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 28:29
29:00 People, you know, so many people, especially young people nowadays, the notion of walking without headphones seems like, you know, just too much to handle. So you've got to have that iPod there, you've got to have the iPhone something, you know, okay, now I can be happy. Because I'm getting pleasurable stimuli, just boing, boing, boing, boing, take those away. Hey, where's my iPhone? So it's, what do we call that if not an addiction, right? Report an error in the passage at 29:00
29:22 And, of course, that's just one, that's just the tip of the iceberg. In this practice, no iPhone, no music. No entertainment. We're even shutting down internal entertainment, releasing it with every in-breath. So we're just going totally cold turkey, total abstinence. Like, you know, joining the Alcoholics Anonymous and just, hey, welcome. Now absolutely no alcohol, not even a thimbleful, total zero, stopped. Report an error in the passage at 29:22
29:49 You're now a non-practicing alcoholic. So we're a non-practicing hedonic addict when we're doing this practice, that while we're doing it, But now in turning off the tap, that question came up, I think it was from Cameron yesterday, turning off the tap, turning off the fascination, turning off the hope of maybe the hedonic will still turn out well. Report an error in the passage at 29:49
30:11 Maybe I'll still find, I just didn't look in the right places. Or as one person said, if you think money can't buy happiness, you just don't know where to shop. So thinking, I just haven't found the right person, the right object, the right job, the right place to live in and so forth, still holding out hope. Report an error in the passage at 30:11
30:29 When you go into this practice, at least for the time being, you just release all hope. You just release it, you just turn off the tap and say, I'm just not going there. I'm going to rest right here in the present moment and I'm going to attend to something that provides me with no hedonic pleasure at all. But on the other hand, it's not painful. Report an error in the passage at 30:29
30:46 This is not asceticism. This is not cognitive self-flagellation. We're not punishing ourselves by attending something really disagreeable. Just flat out like, pretty much like this. Report an error in the passage at 30:46
30:59 That water was just what I expected it to be. I mean, I'm not going to develop any craving for it, unless I'm terribly thirsty. But no aversion, it's just good, fresh water. Report an error in the passage at 30:59
31:09 Neutral. Neutral. And that's what these sensations of the breath are. They're not bad, they're not good, and we need them, just like we need water. And so in so doing, having turned off, really clamped it down, shut it off, turned it off. That fascination, that addiction, that orientation, that yearning, oh, give me some stimulation, I'm still hopeful. Having just turned that off and then sustaining that, attending to the whole course of in-breath, whole course of out-breath. Report an error in the passage at 31:09
31:37 Having turned off that tap, then maybe you might get some drips from the other tap. And the drips from the other tap are a sense of, the first one is soothing. Report an error in the passage at 31:37
31:50 Now that the mind is piped down, now they're getting a bit of continuity. And finding, well, that wasn't blissful, that wasn't ecstatic, it wasn't ambrosial dwelling, it wasn't sublime, but that was kind of nice. That was peaceful. That was serene. That was restful. That was really okay. Like a moderately good massage. And so that's just the first glimmering. That's the first glimmering of the sukha, the bliss that may eventually shine through. Report an error in the passage at 31:50
32:23 It's a little bit of the light from a deeper source shining through. And you're finding, If that had gone on for a couple more minutes, that would have been okay by me. I was kind of, it was really okay, it was peaceful. I'll go ahead and say, I enjoyed it, not much, but a little bit. And so that's the first level, that just a bit of contentment, a bit of soothing, calming, peaceful. And so you've just begun to open up the tap of genuine happiness, because it's clearly not stimulus-driven, and it may be coming only in a trickle, unlike the rush. Report an error in the passage at 32:23
33:00 Of hedonic pleasure we can get by listening to our favorite music or an incredibly great movie or other sensual pleasure we all know about. Here it comes in more of a trickle, but finding, interestingly enough, this trickle, it doesn't require novelty. Report an error in the passage at 33:00
33:16 Take your favorite movie and watch it four times in a row in the same afternoon. See how much you enjoy it the second, let alone the third or the fourth time. You'd probably pay to leave by the time you're watching it the fourth. Oh, I'll give you ten bucks. I just don't want to see it a fourth time. It's a great movie, but, you know. Report an error in the passage at 33:16
33:32 That means that. It's a simple truth, but such actually a profound one, that that movie was not a source of pleasure. It was not a source of joy, because if it were, it would deliver the goods every single time. I think there's a nice analogy, one that really strikes home for me, is an artesian well. I spend a lot of time meditating in the desert in Eastern California, just above the land where I go into retreat. Report an error in the passage at 33:32
33:55 There's just a crack in the granite. And big towering peaks up behind, up to about almost 4,000 meters. But we get this crystal clear mountain water flowing through the granite and then down through a granite bed. And it's cool and it's so, I mean, it's just, you know, it's what people pay a lot of money for per gallon. I mean, right out of the earth, of course. So, there we are, natural spring. Report an error in the passage at 33:55
34:19 Well, that's a true source of water. I'm not speaking ultimately. But I am saying every time you go to that... That artesian well, and it flows year-round. It's a real gusher. That every time you go there, you always get water, and it's always really good water. It never varies. So we'd say, relatively speaking, that is a true source of water. You go there, every time you get water. It's never lemonade, it's never strychnine, it's never anything else. Report an error in the passage at 34:19
34:44 That's a source of water. And so then, take your favorite movie. Is that an artesian well of pleasure? And take any appearance, any stimulation. Is it an artesian well of pleasure? That is to say, every time you bump into that stimulation, you get pleasure. I was just reading a brief reference to something ghastly the United States government did back in the 50s and 60s. Report an error in the passage at 34:44
35:12 They were, of course, petrified of the Russians and how they were using chemicals to alter the brain and so forth. So I read this just a few days ago. And what the CIA did... Is in the San Francisco area and I think someplace back on the East Coast, maybe Boston or New York, but in San Francisco area, no, they would inadvertently slip LSD into people's drinks, including policemen, just people off the street. Report an error in the passage at 35:12
35:37 They would slip LSD into their drinks and then monitor their behavior. And one policeman actually was so disoriented that he tried holding up a bar when he was tripping. And so I read that and I said, wow. We hit another low of doing that and they went on for about 10 years until somebody thought maybe we should stop. But the point there, that didn't really surprise me because I've heard of that kind of thing before. Report an error in the passage at 35:37
36:06 But what was interesting is something I kind of knew but it was nice to get refreshed and that is take a drug like LSD, powerful drug, and there are other ones, mescaline, we probably know the list, but LSD was the one used. What kind of experience will you have when you've just taken LSD? And the little word of wisdom there, which anybody who's tripped knows about already, is it has so much to do with context. The drug is the drug. Your brain is the brain. It doesn't shift that much from day to day. Report an error in the passage at 36:06
36:35 The drug's the same drug. But take that drug in this context, this environment, these people around you, and you'll have one kind of trip. It could be an incredibly bad trip that you can't wait for it to be over. And exactly the same drug in a brain that's functioning pretty much the same in a different context has an entirely different effect. Report an error in the passage at 36:35
36:55 In other words, LSD is not a true source of genuine happiness. Because if it were, it would work every single time. So not even drugs, not ecstasy, not LSD, not psilocybin, not alcohol, not nicotine, none of them, not cocaine, not heroin, none of them actually can you guarantee, oh, this will make me happy. Report an error in the passage at 36:55
37:17 So, coming back to this point here. That by going cold turkey on all of the stimulation, both chemicals, sensory, intellectual, aesthetic and so forth, then as the other tap opens up and you start to experience the flow of its quality of well-being, it starts with a sense of peace, of serenity, it starts to build up into a sense of well-being and then eventually, especially when clarity really kicks in, it turns out to be actual bliss. Report an error in the passage at 37:17
37:43 I mean real bliss. Bliss, bliss. But it's not stimulus-driven bliss and it doesn't require novelty and it doesn't wear off. That's quite different. That's really qualitatively very, very different. So as you tap into another source of peace, of well-being, of joy, of bliss, and you see, oh, this wasn't dependent on anything outside of me, then of course your attachment for things outside just naturally wanes. Report an error in the passage at 37:43
38:12 So that's where priorities start to really shift. It's not I'm going to go a starvation diet now, that I'm going to be truly ascetic and not care about happiness anymore. No, you found another kind of happiness, a true source of happiness, that you can go back to again and again and it's like an artesian well, contrary to sex, drugs, music and sports and extreme sports and all of that, which it always requires novelty, something fresh. Report an error in the passage at 38:12
38:36 Let's do it differently this time. Do something different, something different. Otherwise it just starts to wane. Not this one. So when you find this, then the fascination for the other, it dissipates. And then, of course, as we do, for example, if we develop a sexual or romantic infatuation with another person, feeling, oh, I've been looking for you my whole life, all the romantic jargon. Report an error in the passage at 38:36
39:02 And I am happily married, so I'm not putting down romance or marriage or any of that, happily married. But if it's a real sexual infatuation, then one may focus on this other person with attachment and feeling, Oh boy, I now find my happiness. You're it. You just make me happy. And I just want to be with you. Whenever I think of you, I get happy. I see you, I get happy. I hold you, I'm happy. Kiss you, I'm happy. Even touch you, I'm happy. Smell you, I'm happy. Report an error in the passage at 39:02
39:34 Oh, you're an artesian well of happiness for me. And people can do that with a brand new Porsche. I knew a guy who had a $350,000 Porsche. I think for a while he was regarding that as an artesian well of bliss. I can see why. I wrote on the passenger sheet. But sooner or later, we all know. So now what I'm about to say, everybody knows, except we forget. And that is, after a while, it just turns into disappointment. That, you know, you seem so promising, but as I got to know you better, Report an error in the passage at 39:34
40:06 you didn't quite live up to my expectations. Disappointment. And then, well, oh, but look at her. Oh, oh, oh. Disappointment. Report an error in the passage at 40:06
40:17 Oh, hope rises again. She's the one. She's the one. You, I thought, but that was a big mistake. But no, she's the one I've been always looking for. I have a nice day. And we play the game. It's just amazing. It kind of staggers the imagination how the extent to which amnesia sets in. Report an error in the passage at 40:17
40:38 When we go from one fixation, one addiction, one fascination to another, one attachment to another, and then keep on coming up with disappointment. Report an error in the passage at 40:38
40:51 This eliminates both the attachment and the subsequent and almost inevitable disappointment. Unless you start, for example, in a romantic relationship. It may start out with a lot of infatuation, especially when we're young. It kind of goes with the territory. But then if the relationship matures, then we know. Report an error in the passage at 40:51
41:09 Then it turns into more caring about the person rather than simply regarding that person as a source of my pleasure. And then love comes in and trust comes in and respect comes in and helping each other comes in. And deep friendship comes in. And shared values and shared endeavors come in. And then you say, whoa, this is the keeper. This is the keeper. Report an error in the passage at 41:09
41:28 This is a really meaningful relationship. And that one doesn't need novelty all the time because it's tapping into a deeper source. So something that starts out with infatuation may wind up that way or it may just dissolve away into disappointment. But here, there it is. It's within your own mind that by doing this, this eliminates attachment and disappointment towards the world. Report an error in the passage at 41:28
41:50 By means of non-objectification. So one can impact that in different ways. I'm just going to keep it simple. And that is non-objectification, not looking at any object, whether it's an intangible like fame or power or reputation, Report an error in the passage at 41:50
42:08 or whether it's a tangible like a new car or a new stereo system, a new iPhone, or whether it's a person or a new dog. A brand new puppy. Oh, this puppy is going to just love me. This puppy is just going to make me so happy because this puppy really loves me. Whatever it is, that objectification on any object, a person, an animal, a thing, an intangible, whatever it is, a place. Report an error in the passage at 42:08
42:34 Now that I've moved to New Zealand, now I'm going to be really happy all the time. And don't tell me that they have the highest suicide rate of any developed country in the world. Report an error in the passage at 42:34
42:44 I heard that. I thought, whoa, that's strange. It's so beautiful. How could anybody be depressed there? But the highest suicide rate of any country in the developed countries. And that means, I think, any country. Because the developed countries tend to be rather big on suicide. So, non-objectification. Not to a country, not to a person, not to anything. You just get over it. Report an error in the passage at 42:44
43:07 In other words, it's really kind of, I mean, one could say this is psychological maturation. You're psychologically immature if you still think that moving to a certain country... Or being with a certain person, getting a certain job, that that will actually make you happy in an enduring fashion because you've tapped into an artesian well. And if not true, well this practice actually helps you discover that which is true and then not have to suffer by living contrary to the truth. Report an error in the passage at 43:07
43:34 And he lives observing the body as the body internally so you're really aware of this whole process which is very corporeal, it's very somatic and you're doing this internally within your own body. So there, and again it's a very short instruction, there it is, but we see with very few words very great meaning. Report an error in the passage at 43:34
43:52 And then we'll get on to this point this afternoon, and that is when we're starting to emphasize stability, stabilizing, really calming, subduing the obsessive and compulsive flow of thoughts, then for that, with that in mind, we can keep it right where it was with the preceding practice. Arouse with each in-breath, relax with every out-breath. That works very well. But you may, many people find it helpful, and some don't, may find it helpful, to counter-breaths. Report an error in the passage at 43:52
44:23 And what you're doing there is seeking to replace a lot of sporadic, unpredictable, arrhythmic thoughts, just cropping up here and there and getting tangled up here and carried away there. Just these sporadic thoughts here and there. Tending to replace those with some very regular, like a metronome. Just regular thoughts. One. Two. Report an error in the passage at 44:23
44:52 And having those thoughts supplant instead of all the other thoughts. So in between counts, you try to maintain as much conceptual silence as possible. And of course the thoughts you're thinking are utterly boring. So there's no stimulation there. There's no arousal. They're not pleasant. Six is no better than seven and so forth and so on. Report an error in the passage at 44:52
45:13 It's just counting, right? So you're going back to a neutral stimulus. In other words, you keep on turning off the tap of hedonic stimulation so that another flow, an artesian well, can actually turn on. Report an error in the passage at 45:13
45:29 So, counting. Well, here it is in another Mahāyāna Sūtra, the Sūtra of the Ten Wheels of Chittagarpa, one of the disciples of the Buddha. How do you correctly note with the power of mindfulness the in and out movement of the breath? You count them correctly. That is, don't lose count. So it would be easy to think, especially in Vajrayana or in Buddhist Tantra, with a strong emphasis on visualization, on mantras, on mandalas, on emphasis on the subtle pranas, the chakras and so forth, that in Vajrayana you'd be way beyond mindfulness breathing. Report an error in the passage at 45:29
46:02 This is just primitive. This must be only sutrayana, much more kind of basic, basic, basic. And it is true that there is a very strong role for visualization, mandala, mantra recitation and so forth. That's still true, but as we see now in one of the very important tantras, the primary or mula tantra of Madhushri, embodiment of wisdom, once again a reference to mindfulness of breathing. Report an error in the passage at 46:02
46:28 Here even in Vajrayana, by resorting to mindfulness of the respiration, ideation, and this is really referring to rumination or compulsive ideation, is Report an error in the passage at 46:28
46:40 Since the mind is completely inflamed, agitated, turbulent, aroused by all the flow of compulsive ideation, fasten it firmly to one meditative object. So this is the way to subdue the mind, to tame the wild elephant or the wild steed of your mind directly with the cultivation of attention. Report an error in the passage at 46:40
47:08 The point here was that this is not a sectarian issue. It's not just Hinayana. It's not just Sutrayana. It goes through all schools. And that's because it's been found helpful at every level. It just is a very effective method for calming compulsive ideation. So, as we've moved into this realm, a very important realm of practice, of stabilizing the mind, Without contraction, which means, in other words, really going against kind of the intuitive. That is, if you really want to stabilize the attention, you want to maintain focus, then climb down. Report an error in the passage at 47:08
47:50 And people do that still a lot in meditation. And then they get all the same downsides of meditation that they do from doing other very intensive activities of just getting really tired. And I've known so many meditators, including those I know a whole retreat center. Where I spoke with the director not long ago. And people coming, again, I don't doubt their sincerity, their ethics is probably good, I don't know, but I have no reason to believe it's bad. Report an error in the passage at 47:50
48:15 But she said, people come here and in a month or two they're burnt out and they leave. One after another after another. Retreat center's been up for years. But she said, oh, hardly anybody stays. They come, they get burnt out, they leave. So they're missing something there. They're missing something there. They're probably coming in like I did in my first long retreat when I was 30. Report an error in the passage at 48:15
48:34 With a lot of... Aspiration, a lot of desire for the fruits. You know, you hear about all the glorious fruits of achieving Vipassanā, stage of generation, maybe you want some magical powers and clairvoyance, or at least you want bliss, or, you know, all the cool things. I mean, Tibetan Buddhism tells about so many benefits of meditation, and it can really pique the appetite, and really then develop a lot of desire, and then you head off to retreat center, say, okay, I'm ready, let's go for it. Report an error in the passage at 48:34
49:00 And then one month later, you're just burnt out and you're ready to leave. Well, it all comes from not knowing how to start and then continuing on the wrong track and then again and again. So it's quite counterintuitive. But the point there is not, and I have to emphasize this again, not just to get relaxed and like a little checklist. Okay, I'm relaxed. Now let's get on with it. Report an error in the passage at 49:00
49:24 But in fact, the bonfire was the largest at the beginning and that's already pretty relaxed. And then it gets less and less and less and less. In other words, the whole course of evolution along the path of shamatha. It's one of becoming more and more and more relaxed until you're just not exerting any effort at all, but now the practice is just gliding smoothly, effortlessly, like a puck across a frictionless surface of ice. Report an error in the passage at 49:24
49:51 Now, looking at one psychologist, I'm sure a number of people know this, that part of this is really very well known by psychologists, and that is whether it's riding a bicycle or whether it's learning how to drive... Standard transmission in a car. And so many other activities like that. But a bicycle is a really good one. And that is, when you first get on the bicycle, you may have to really be paying attention. Report an error in the passage at 49:51
50:12 Okay, balancing, where's the brake? And how do I turn left? And all of that. So a lot of very engaged attention to not fall over and to avoid obstacles and so forth. And then, again, you know what I'm going to say. And then as soon as we get used to it, then it becomes unconscious. So when we develop expertise, when we become habituated to and become expert at riding a bicycle or any other task of that sort, the overall tendency is, as you become more and more adept at the practice, it becomes more and more unconscious. Report an error in the passage at 50:12
50:48 Unconscious. So now it's going quite effortless, but it's unconscious. Whereas at the beginning it's very conscious and very effortful, requiring a lot of attention. And then after a while the heart requires any attention and you do it pretty much unconsciously and you do it very well. Now this is not that. Report an error in the passage at 50:48
51:07 This is not that. It's not getting better and better at mindfulness of breathing until you're doing it unconsciously. Because then it's no longer mindfulness of breathing. But it does have the quality of becoming more and more adept at it and it getting easier and easier and easier. But now, contrary to any study I've seen in psychology, is as it gets easier and it gets silkier, And it gets better and better and better and more and more effortless. The vividness, the stability and vividness is getting better and better. That doesn't happen. Report an error in the passage at 51:07
51:37 That's not normal. So this is what the contemplative traditions, in this case it's Buddhism, brings to the table. It is really a radically different way of developing attention skills that frankly is nowhere known. I have not seen it anywhere outside of Buddhism or perhaps in Hinduism. But it's a contemplative discovery. Report an error in the passage at 51:37
51:58 It's not a discovery made in any mundane endeavor and so forth. But then consider the value. Because we all know what it's like to be very tightly focused and exhausted at the end. I mean, everybody knows how to focus for a while. But if we think of the ramifications or the implications, oh, let's just start and end with education. Report an error in the passage at 51:58
52:23 Young children. And I know someone. Susan Kaiser Greenland. Maybe she's been here to Australia already. She's a wonderful person. Used to be a really first-rate attorney, trial attorney, very smart. And then she's devoted the last 10 years of her life or so to developing mindfulness techniques for small children, for young children. Report an error in the passage at 52:23
52:44 To make it fun. Three-minute, four-minute, five-minute exercises. But little kids find fun. And so basically teaching children, young children, how to develop their attention skills, mindfulness, but also empathy and compassion. It's wonderful work. I'm something of an evangelist for her. I think what she does is great. And she does it in a secular fashion. So she's not trying to, even though she's Buddhist, she's not out there trying to get little kids to become Buddhist and freak out their parents. Report an error in the passage at 52:44
53:09 But just do something that everybody would be happy with. Oh, my child is now really composed. My child can really get down and focus and then not be all tight and stressed out afterwards. Well, this, like anything else, can become a habit. You can develop a habit of developing really good attention skills and it can start with the age of four or five. Report an error in the passage at 53:09
53:29 Imagine the whole education system that would be teaching children, along with everything they need to learn, all the basics, everything, modern education, but right together with that, teaching little children in fun little games. I'll tell you one of them. It's just so clever. Very simple, but it's clever. It was Susan Kaiser Greenland's invention, I think. But she had these little five-year-olds, little kindergarten kids. Report an error in the passage at 53:29
53:53 And she'd have them all lie down on their backs, you know, a nice cushion, a little pillow. And then she comes, when she goes to a school to teach this, she brings a whole big bag full of stuffed animals. I think especially, what is it? Stuffed bears, I think. I think it's stuffed bears. It doesn't matter. But a really cute little cuddly animal, but stuffed. Report an error in the passage at 53:53
54:13 And so she has the children lie down and then put the stuffed animal, a little bear, a little stuffed bear, what do they call it, teddy bear, a teddy bear on the belly. And she says, okay, now just lie there. Now, can you feel the belly? Can you feel teddy bear going up and down and up and down? It's, you know, something on the belly, teddy on the belly or something like that. Report an error in the passage at 54:13
54:36 And little kids, oh, the bear's going up and down and up and down. You know, if you're five years old, that's kind of entertaining. You're getting a bit of hedonic pleasure out of it. But it's something a little kid can relate to. But then, you know, do that for a minute, for a whole minute. Can you feel it going up and down, up and down? What are they doing? What we're doing here? Report an error in the passage at 54:36
54:53 I just didn't pass out the teddy bears. Report an error in the passage at 54:53
54:57 And so that kind of thing. Well, imagine that starting there at the age of four or five. And then, obviously, you get a bit more mature approach when they get to be 11, 12, into middle school, into high school and so forth. And that actually is continuous. You develop more sophisticated methods, develop methods that introduce the element of metacognition. Report an error in the passage at 54:57
55:15 And I've heard, and I don't know, but I've heard from psychologists or my readings in psychology, that children develop the ability to be aware of their own thoughts, sensations, emotions, desires and so forth, that that kicks in about age seven or so. So I've heard. I don't really know. But that's what I've heard. That at least that's when it's much more distinct, much more conscious. A conscious awareness of what's going on in our mind. Report an error in the passage at 55:15
55:37 Well then good. If that's true, maybe it is, then good. From age seven, now not only introduce some really mindfulness practice like teddy on the belly, But now introspection, can you be aware of when this emotion is coming up? Are you aware when your mind is agitated? Are you aware when you start desiring something? Are you getting bored and so forth? Report an error in the passage at 55:37
55:54 And so I'm rambling on here a little bit, but it seems like there's so much potential there. So much potential. And then if children could just make it a habit, learning from early on how to develop relaxation, stability, vividness, be able to sit down and listen to a teacher for 50 whole minutes in a row. Report an error in the passage at 55:54
56:13 And then turn to their books and be there and not stressed out, exhausted at the end, but very attentive, but relaxed. Boy, they could really get an education. So, I always say this because I really passionately believe in it. And it seems so sensible and so utterly non-ideological. That is, you don't have to believe in anything Buddhist or anything religious to go into this. But it seems like a really good idea. It's really one of the great discoveries of the contemplative traditions of India. Report an error in the passage at 56:13
56:42 That our civilization, if we ever made it, we've long gone forgotten it. And it would be a great boom. But here we are seeking our adult education and attention skills. And on that note, why don't we take a break. Come back at five minutes past the hour, 4.05. We'll go right back to meditation. And then I will introduce this next phase of counting to see how we can do that with some finesse. Report an error in the passage at 56:42
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Talk by B. Alan Wallace. Original at Vajrayana Institute via Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/ShamathaRetreatWithAlanWallace2012. Licensed CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. Transcript generated automatically and may contain errors; the audio is the authoritative version.
Recorded at Vajrayana Institute, Sydney, and archived by the institute on Internet Archive. More from Vajrayana Institute