← B. Alan Wallace

Shamatha Retreat with Alan Wallace 2012 (part 14)

B. Alan Wallace · 2012 · 1 h 6 min · Vajrayana Institute via Internet Archive

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  • 1:10

    then as we get more and more accustomed to it, more adept in the practice, then we find the real synergy among the cultivation of all three of these qualities of relaxation, stability and vividness, that they all start kind of dovetailing into each other or enhancing, supporting each other. And that's when the practice really starts flowing. So please do find a comfortable position, sitting or supine as you wish. So the first session will be a little bit of a refresher course, second session, new territory.

  • 12:04

    Then another unique aspect of this one practice, it's unlike all the others, all other shamatha practices. A unique element arises, and that is the more your mind does stabilize, maintain this continuity of attention of the breath, then as you're calmed, as you're soothed, as your whole system is settling into a finer and finer state of equilibrium, as I mentioned before, the sheer volume of air that you need, that the body needs, diminishes. If you're really anxious about something, fearful about something, you've just gotten really angry or really passionate about something, that being all psychological, more breathing, or you get really exasperated.

  • 26:36

    An issue that would probably come up even in a few days that we're together, but has come up numerous times for dozens of generations. We're talking about a very long track history here of people doing this practice, and doing it professionally, 8, 10, 12, 14 hours a day, is that as people engaging in this practice exactly as we did, I mean, that was a very classic method that we followed in that second session. As people, often monks, but not just monks, Engaging in this practice, it's happened to many, many, that is they really get mellowed out and really calm and the breath becomes subtler and subtler, that they are attending closely.

  • 45:28

    Then, when you're confident, this must be an acquired sign, then, rather like one of those old-fashioned rockets, I think they still have them, but we have multiple, what, Rocket engines on a single rocket. So it uses the wall as fuel and then it's dropped off and then the second one ignites and you go further. So the rocket engine of the preliminary sign has now spent its fuel. You could stay there, but it's not the most effective way to proceed.

0:29 We'll begin, of course, with two sessions. The first one will focus on the balance between enhancing stability without sacrificing sense of relaxation. Report an error

0:39 In the second session, we'll move to a third mode, which is really a classic mode of mindfulness of breathing, the one that's most commonly taught in the Theravāda tradition that will take you a long way along this path, and that will be for the enhancement, explicitly for the enhancement of vividness, but then without sacrificing stability. Report an error

0:59 So each of these phases entails a kind of a balancing act. And then when we fully engage in this practice, especially this third mode that we'll do in the second session today, then as we get more and more accustomed to it, more adept in the practice, then we find the real synergy among the cultivation of all three of these qualities of relaxation, stability and vividness, that they all start kind of dovetailing into each other or enhancing, supporting each other. Report an error

1:26 And that's when the practice really starts flowing. So please do find a comfortable position, sitting or supine as you wish. So the first session will be a little bit of a refresher course, second session, new territory. More Report an error

· · ·

3:19 and more deeply one ventures into this practice of shamatha, especially the mindfulness of breathing. It becomes clearer and clearer how it is exactly a preparation for venturing into the practice of apashana, for which the central... The theme to be realized is this very absence of there being an independent autonomous ego, a controlling self that somehow stands apart from the body and mind and is the CEO, the director, the controller, the decider of what takes place within the body and mind. Report an error

3:51 But that's insight. But here is not yet explicitly an insight practice. But the fact that we're attending so closely to a physiological process, the respiration, That we can so easily influence or even control. We can all hold our breaths. We can hold it in. We can hold it out. We can breathe deeply. I mean, do all kinds of things with the breath. Report an error

4:12 Not total control, but we have a lot of control and it's very easy to implement. Even having a preference that can already start to nudge the breath one way or another. A preference for rhythmic breathing as opposed to arrhythmic breathing. Thinking, oh, that must be better. And then imposing our will on the breath. So it's very, very easy to do that. Report an error

4:32 Generally speaking, and this would be a psychological issue, I don't know whether what I'm about to say is true or not, but I kind of suspect it is, and that is generally speaking, if we carefully focus our attention on something, anything at all, that we can control, that we can modify, we do. Report an error

4:55 We get in there and add our, in American we say, add our two bits, add our little nudge, or maybe just try to totally take control. Report an error

5:05 And here we are attending very closely to the breath, which we can very easily nudge, modify, control, regulate. And there's a central theme of the practice. Yes, attend very closely to the whole course of the in-breath, whole course of the out-breath. But don't get in there and manipulate it. Don't run it. Report an error

5:25 Don't give effort to it. But do watch it very closely. That's not a combination that comes up much at all in ordinary life. And so what we're doing here is, with respect to one task, one activity, namely breathing, we are practicing egolessness. That is, it doesn't say that it cuts to the root of this reification or grasping onto I am as an autonomous agent, an autonomous doer and decider. Report an error

5:56 We're not getting to the root of it. But that sense of I am the controller, autonomous and all of that, we're temporarily just putting it out of work. Because we're just sitting there, especially in the supine position. I mean, you're just flaked out, you're emulating a corpse. And the breathing goes on, but you're trying to let it be as impersonal as possible. Report an error

6:15 Just the body doing its thing. The body breathing, like the body digesting, the body circulating blood through the vessels and so forth. And so we're preparing ourselves through this practice of egolessness, of really breathing egolessly, having gotten into the mode of that. Just letting it flow, letting it be. Then on that basis with a very serviceable mind, stable and clear. Then probing into nature of our own bodies, minds and investigating by way of Vipassanā. Report an error

6:50 Is there or is there not? Am I or am I not an autonomous self? So it's in that way very subtle. It's a very deep choice of a meditative object. As I mentioned before, among the 40 some practices that the Buddha taught, As shamatha methods, taught a wide variety. He did say, and I'm quite sure I mentioned this before, that for those people who by temperament, by psychophysiology, by inclinations or proclivity, are especially dominant in rumination, obsessive, compulsive thinking, and he said, of all the methods I've taught, this is really the only one that's appropriate for you folks back in rural India 2,500 years ago, and that is mindfulness of breathing. Report an error

7:35 So it is said. But then one can wonder why. Well, what often happens with the other ones, if you generate a mental image or something like that, that if you're bringing a conceptually turbulent mind to that act, like, for example, a horse that's just been traumatized. I understand that horses can be really freaked out by fire. So if a horse is inside a barn and the barn goes to inflame, they don't just get frightened, they get terrified, they freak out. Report an error

8:03 So imagine you've just taken, you've just pulled a horse out of a burning... And it's really freaking out. It's agitated. It's a bit crazy. And then you want to calm the horse. So what you do is you just tie its four legs together and then tie its neck to a bar. Report an error

8:22 Well, that'll work. It certainly will be still. But it may break its neck or break its legs or be completely traumatized for a long time afterwards because there's just too much energy there. And if you clamp it down and say, stay horse, do not move your legs, do not move, maybe even put a muzzle on it so it can't go, you know, can't be neighing or anything. Well, on the surface of it, it might look like, whoa, this horse is a lot calmer there, it's hardly even moving. Report an error

8:47 It's not neighing, it's not screaming anymore. But we all know it's happening, we just bottled it all up. Now you're even traumatizing the horse on top of the trauma of the fire, right? So, I mean, that's an extreme example, but maybe it's in the same drift. Take a mind that has been just agitated and made turbulent and so forth and so on with sensory bombardment and anxieties about the economy and this, that and the other thing and then say, okay, mind, shape up. Report an error

9:15 I'm in charge here. I'm coming in, Mr. Muscle Man, and I'm going to come in and I say, okay, sit down and shut up and focus on this object and stay. Otherwise, I'll just beat you. Well, maybe you can intimidate your mind into quieting down, but in the process of that, you may really quickly get totally stressed out, just exhausted. Report an error

9:39 So in contrast to that, this practice here, we don't have one object that's just a lock-on that stays stable, immobile, and then we just fixate, like nailing a nail into a board. But rather we have a process. We're attending here to a process that actually does change a bit. Every breath is not the same, as you've discovered, but it's more of a flow. Report an error

10:05 So the ambience here of rather than kind of being like a drill sergeant telling the troops to march, hut, hut, hut, it's more like sitting on a beach and watching the waves wash in. Say, okay, now just attend to the waves for a while. Your whole system is agitated, your prāṇa system is all turbulent, your mind is spewing out rumination. Okay, here's a nice warm beach, here's an umbrella, lie in the sand and watch the waves, watching up and going back and up and back and try to do that for 24 minutes. Report an error

10:35 Well, you might get a bit bored, but you won't get freaked out. And in fact, as you soothe, as you calm down, as you mellow out, then actually... Some people kind of enjoy, when the mind's really quite calm, just watching the waves wash up and back, up and back. Quite soothing. Or to use another analogy, in cold climates, some people just like gazing into the fire and seeing the flames flickering up. Report an error

11:00 Nothing new, but you're not waiting for anything. It's just kind of like soothing. And so that mood, think about the horse whisperer, of course, but that mood of attending to this gentle undulation. The flowing of the breath and then noting that it's not quite as boring as it might seem at first glance and that sometimes you get a big whoosh, like a big inhalation coming in and then a big exhalation coming in. Report an error

11:25 Sometimes there may be a pause after exhalation, just let it be. Sometimes it may be quite shallow, sometimes a bit faster, sometimes slower. And what you're watching is your body basically sorting itself out, finding its own balance, its own rhythm, its own equilibrium by way of Its ongoing sustenance of the air. And so in this way it's a very soothing, a very gentle way. And then as the whole system calms down, and you do find this peaceful quality, maybe even a sublime quality, but on the whole your nervous system, your mind is becoming soothed, gentled, calmed. Report an error

12:04 Then another unique aspect of this one practice, it's unlike all the others, all other shamatha practices. A unique element arises, and that is the more your mind does stabilize, maintain this continuity of attention of the breath, then as you're calmed, as you're soothed, as your whole system is settling into a finer and finer state of equilibrium, as I mentioned before, the sheer volume of air that you need, that the body needs, diminishes. Report an error

12:40 If you're really anxious about something, fearful about something, you've just gotten really angry or really passionate about something, that being all psychological, more breathing, or you get really exasperated. What do we do? I'm Report an error

12:56 so exasperated. Oh, give me a break. So it can be purely psychological or, of course, physical. If you've been really exerting yourself physically, then a lot of error, of course. But as emotionally and physically as the whole system is calming down, The volume of air that's needed gets less and less and so what happens to the sensations of the breath? Of course, less passage of air, especially right here at the apertures of the nostrils. Report an error

13:24 Here's where it's most evident. As less air is coming in and out, the sensations of the breath become subtler and subtler. Now that's unique. In all other shamatha practices, the more adept you become, the more stable, the more refined your attention becomes in all the other shamatha methods. The clearer and clearer, the brighter, the sharper and sharper, the more vivid and vivid the meditative object becomes. Quite naturally, you're getting more and more stable and clear. Report an error

13:53 But in this practice, there's a unique feedback loop that arises. And that as you settle down and the sensations of the breath get subtler and subtler, this means they're getting harder and harder to detect. Not easier and easier, vivider and vivider, they're getting subtler and subtler, which means then, if you are going to remain engaged, maintain that continuity and not just go slipping off into rumination, if you're going to keep the engagement of your mindfulness with the meditative object, and the meditative object is getting subtler and subtler, then how must the quality of your attention shift in the process? Report an error

14:32 As you're attending to, successfully, attending to a subtler and subtler and subtler object, your attention has to become more and more vivid, finer and finer, more and more acute. And so that's the feedback loop that sets in. It gives you a greater challenge. And then you get more mellow. Okay, I rose to the challenge. Now I'm really mellow. Report an error

14:57 Good. Now the sensations of the breath will get subtler. Oh, another exam, eh? And then you get... And then another exam, it just keeps on going, subtler and subtler and subtler. Now if you'd like to see a sneak preview, what happens if you put in 10, 15, 20,000 hours into this? I mean really going absolutely full blast into shamatha. And you achieve shamatha and you achieve the first jhāna and the second jhāna and the third jhāna and the fourth jhāna. Report an error

15:25 All of this is on one trajectory of ever subtler, finer, more and more stable, more and more refined attention. It really is just that. Achieving shamatha, which is access to the first jhāna, and then achieving the full jhāna, second, third, fourth. Well, when you achieve the fourth jhāna, and this is not done so frequently nowadays, and I think there's a lot of, frankly, false claims in this regard nowadays, because there's a lot of watering down and people practicing without much understanding. Report an error

15:53 But, in classical Buddhism, I think there's a lot of evidence, a lot of good reason to believe that many people did achieve not only shamatha, but the fourth jhāna. And in the fourth jhāna, the breath stops altogether. It just goes flat, zero. And, this sounds like a really quick recipe for major brain death. Report an error

16:16 You know, you have one really good session and then you come out and go, you'll be vegetated for the rest of your life, if you even survived. So this is a very strong claim, but not an experiment easily done. But this is the uniform claim. There's actually no... Discussion or debate about this in any Buddhist school. Achieve the fourth jhāna. It's called jhāna in Pāli. Jhāna in Sanskrit. Big deal. But achieve the fourth jhāna, your breathing stops entirely. Report an error

16:42 It's like a damped sine wave. So a sine wave goes like that. There's a sine wave. And then a damp sine wave Report an error

16:55 just flattens out. Well, this is a damp sine wave that actually just goes flatline of the oscillations of the breath. So one would think that would be major brain damage. Well, that's one more anomaly. No brain damage at all. But what's really remarkable, according to the most authoritative recounts we have of this, through all schools of Buddhism, is that when you achieve that level, which is way beyond shamatha, that you can remain in that state of samādhi for days or even weeks at a time without moving. Report an error

17:24 Your sense is completely imploded, your mind radiantly clear. But it's said to be the perfection of mindfulness and the mind has settled in such a state of equilibrium. That you've moved even beyond the oscillations, the perturbations of pleasure, of joy, of bliss. You've just come into kind of an ocean of equilibrium, an ocean of equanimity that doesn't even have a hint of displeasure or anything unpleasant about it. Report an error

17:50 But it doesn't have a hint of anything pleasurable either. It's just completely in the even. So one would say that's a very spick and span lab. And that is no... No emotional biases, no mood biases, not even the excitement of being really happy or blissful. And so in the very early, early centuries of Buddhism, there's a strong emphasis, you know, for the monks, the nuns especially. Report an error

18:16 Go for it. Achieve all four jhānas. That's the perfection of mindfulness, perfection of equilibrium. And now you're really set to do some very deep exploration and achieve liberation. Report an error

18:29 But then one can ask, is it really necessary to go that far on the trajectory of Shantideva, to achieve all four jhānas? And then the answer is no. And we saw an indication of that in that earlier quote from the Buddha, when he remembered having slipped into just the first jhāna. Could that be the way to liberation? In other words, is that enough? Not to achieve the fourth jhāna, to achieve just the first jhāna. Is that enough? Not enough that just achieving that will liberate you, but in terms of your samādhi power. Report an error

18:56 It's almost like the horsepower under your hood. of your car, you know, to go up a really steep incline. How much horsepower do you need? Well, it would be nice to have 300, but 200 horsepower will get you up this very, very steep incline. Something like that. Or you may talk about traction of tires and so forth. So it would be always nice to have more. But if you say, well, okay, what do I really need? You may say, I don't have a whole lot of time. Report an error

19:20 Life is passing. I don't know when I'm going to die. I don't want to get surplus for the sake of surplus. I want to get enough to really get the job done. So I know about ethics, non-violence, benevolence, okay, I got that, I'm going to be attending very closely. That's foundational. But now for samādhi, just how much do I really need? And I think there's very good reason to believe, I've seen this from the Theravāda tradition and it's very, very clear in the whole Indo-Tibetan current, with very few exceptions, that the first jhāna is necessary. Report an error

19:51 The first jhāna. Second, third, fourth, not necessary. First jhāna is enough. But now let's do a little bit of hair-splitting. And it's actually pragmatic hair-splitting. It's not just theoretical or conceptual. And that is later contemplatives, that is after the time of the Buddha. In the Theravāda tradition and in this whole Indo-Tibetan current of Buddhism that went from, let's say, Sri Lanka up to Mongolia, that whole axis there, both in Southeast Asia, Theravāda Buddhism, as well as this whole current of, let's say, Tibetan Buddhism, a distinction is made between access to the first jhāna and the full achievement of the first jhāna. Report an error

20:27 So it's subtle, but it's a real distinction. And it's based upon yogi's experience. It's not a bunch of philosophers getting together and talking about it a lot and coming to some conclusion, legislating what is true. But yogi's actually finding this is a distinction between access to the first jhāna and then the full ajip in the first jhāna. So then, now that one has made this distinction based upon experience of lots and lots of yogis over hundreds of years, then one can ask, okay, In terms of your samādhi basis, do you need the full achievement of the first jhāna or could you get by with just access to the first jhāna, which is right on the cusp, sometimes called threshold, threshold of the first jhāna, access to the first jhāna. Report an error

21:13 Oh, and there is consensus in the Tibetan tradition, rooted in India, access is sufficient. That's sufficient. So, to give a little bit, maybe I'm going on too much here. But it's just that the full jhāna is a bit more robust. That is, it's said, Buddha Goza says, he's the most authoritative commentator for the whole Theravata tradition. Report an error

21:41 He says, if you've achieved, fully achieved the first jhāna, fully achieved it, then you can sit in meditation, come and rest in jhāna, maintaining this extraordinary balance of attentional stability, vividness, and you can sit there uninterruptedly for 24 hours at a stretch. Report an error

22:03 He said, like a strong man who can remain standing for 24 hours at a stretch without falling down. And, bear in mind, it's effortless. It's not like, oh, is it going to ever be over? You're in a non-conceptual mode, so you're just cruising. You're in flow form. It's effortless, it's blissful, so you don't really have any incentive to come out. Report an error

22:23 But 24 hours. Now, if we go to the Tibetan tradition, for example, Tsongkhapa. Tsongkhapa's magnificent tradition, which is so definitive. There's a broad consensus there that if you've achieved not full jhāna, but just access to the first jhāna, in Tibetan it's called Samdin Dambu Nyato. If you've achieved that, so you're right on the cusp, right on the threshold, then how long can you effortlessly remain in samādhi with your senses totally imploded, single-pointed, non-conceptual, blissful, and so forth and so on. Report an error

22:54 So how long can you stay if you've not achieved the full jhāna, but just access? Four hours. Four hours. His Holiness often comments on this. That's minimum four hours. Many people will be able to do more. But four hours should be easy. No problem. So then when you start speaking about having four sessions a day, that's classic yogic style, four sessions a day. Yeah, good. Four times four. Report an error

23:18 Sixteen hour a day. Meditative practice. I've heard stockbrokers sometimes put in sixteen hour a day. Venture capital. People are really eager to succeed hedonically. So people put in sixteen hour a day. Report an error

23:33 They're totally wiped out at the end of the day, pretty much. But 16 hours of samādhi, pretty sweet. All right, so that's the feedback nature, and that is, I mentioned just the end point, kind of giving something of a panoramic or distant view of where this all goes. But just coming back to stage one, stage two, leading up to shamatha, that you'll find a lot of... Report an error

23:57 Working out of kinks, rather like these myoclonic jerks. Working out of the breath. You kind of move smooth, move smooth. And then a big breath will come in. And then you may have an out breath and no in breath for 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 seconds. With no sense of gasping, no sense of oxygen deprivation. It's just the body says, don't need any breath for a while. Chill. Report an error

24:21 And then after a while, oh, here comes one. And so it'll be working itself out. And not by superimposing on the respiration, some kind of a preordained rhythm, letting the body find its own rhythm, keeping the posture correct and so forth and so on. But over time, then you will find that you're moving from long in and out breaths to short in and out breaths, which means that sine wave is gradually becoming damped. Report an error

24:49 It's toning down the volume, the amplitude of the sine wave, the volume of the amount of air taken in and given out. It's gradually subsiding, the sensations of the breath. Or getting subtler and subtler. But now might it happen? Now we're coming back to our practice. Might it happen as you're tending to these increasingly subtle sensations at the apertures of the nostrils that your mind just starts wandering. Report an error

25:13 And you just get caught up in some old memory and that memory arouses some emotions whether they're happy or sad, whatever they are. But then you've gone off on a picnic and the breathing continues to happen. But of course it's not going to get subtler and subtler. If you start ruminating in a way that's arousing strong emotions, what's going to happen to the breath? It's going to come back and get coarse again. Report an error

25:36 Say, oh, you want to go into one more emotional frenzy, do you? Report an error

25:42 Then the breath starts becoming stronger and then the sensations become coarser and easier to attend. So it's really like the whole practice here is your friend. That is, when you're going really well, then it keeps on leading you, step at a time, to subtle and subtle sensations, encouraging you to develop, hone, sharpen the vividness of your attention, get sharper, sharper. Report an error

26:02 But if you drop the ball, if you disengage, you forget about the practice, you get caught up in rumination, which is probably where you're going to go. And then these emotions start coming in again and desires and so forth. The mind gets coarser. Then more volume was needed. And so it's like the breath comes in. Oh, you lost your way, did you? Report an error

26:19 Here, how about this? Is this coarse enough for you? Hello? Hello? Oh yeah, that's coarse enough. I'm gasping. And then it kind of says, okay now, stay with me here. Stay with me. And then takes you down subtle lane again. And it does get subtler and subtler. Report an error

26:36 An issue that would probably come up even in a few days that we're together, but has come up numerous times for dozens of generations. We're talking about a very long track history here of people doing this practice, and doing it professionally, 8, 10, 12, 14 hours a day, is that as people engaging in this practice exactly as we did, I mean, that was a very classic method that we followed in that second session. Report an error

27:02 As people, often monks, but not just monks, Engaging in this practice, it's happened to many, many, that is they really get mellowed out and really calm and the breath becomes subtler and subtler, that they are attending closely. They're not caught up in mind wandering, but as they're attending there, right in the target area, right in here, they're not getting anything at all. They're not sensing the passage of breath at all. Report an error

27:30 And then one might wonder, hey, this is supposed to be mindfulness of breathing and I'm not getting any sensations of the breath. So now what am I supposed to do? It looks like the cinema's shut down, there's nothing showing, and so what now? And so this came up like 1,500, 2,000 years ago. And it was written down, the monk finding, hey, I've lost the target. So he gets off the cushion, he goes to his meditation teacher and says, hey, what do I do? Report an error

27:57 I was looking for the sensations, couldn't find any, and I was paying attention. But I couldn't pick up anything at all. This is a classic account from... The Path of Purification by Buddhaghosa written in about the 5th century of the Common Era. And the wise old meditation mentor gives the advice. I think it was a little bit of tongue-in-cheek. A bit of tongue-in-cheek. He turns to the yogi and just said, I'm not picking up any breath at all. And the response is recorded in this classic text. Report an error

28:29 The teacher's response is, oh, well let me ask you this. Are you an unborn fetus? Are you still in the womb? Report an error

28:42 And why ask a question like that? Because unborn babies don't breathe. So that's a possibility. Check. Nope. Okay. Have you achieved the fourth jhāna or higher up into the formless realms? Because they don't breathe either. Nope. Are you dead? Dead people don't breathe. Nope. All right. Then we've just done our checklist here. Report an error

29:10 Process of elimination. You must be breathing. And if you are breathing, there must be some sensation. But the level of the subtlety of the breath is here, high, and the subtlety of your attention is here, low. Therefore, those sensations are in your subconscious or your superconscious. They're outside of your bandwidth because they're subtler than your awareness is. Report an error

29:34 So, get back to your meditation cushion and pay closer attention, but don't get uptight in the process. Don't get... Report an error

29:45 And then you start freezing up and destabilizing the mind and so forth and so on. So that's why we have these balancing acts all the way through. Develop your stability, don't lose relaxation. Develop vividness, don't lose stability. It's really a dance all the way through. But that was the instruction. Basically, don't bug me anymore, get back to your cushion and pay closer attention. Report an error

30:05 And know, since you're not an embryo and so forth, that in fact there must be some sensation there because you are still breathing. So you just have to pay closer attention. In that regard, I have found it very helpful to note, something is not very difficult actually, and that is even in between breaths, if you're attending closely, there is a flow of sensation there. Report an error

30:29 And so then that's kind of your baseline. If we gave the analogy of modern cosmology, there's all kinds of radiation coming in from supernovas and galaxies and quasars and so forth and so on. There's a lot of radiation happening all over the universe. But in addition to all of these pulses of this, that and the other thing, of bodies of mass, mass energy in the universe, there's also something called the background radiation. Report an error

30:53 And that's kind of like an echo of the Big Bang, but that's always there. No matter how many galaxies and so forth are spewing out their radiation, there's a background radiation. So just as an analogy, there's always a background radiation, a background buzz, some sensation, tactile sensation there. And if you pick that up, Then at least you always know where the target area is. You have to have always something to connect with. And then using that as your baseline, it's really like a scientific measurement, using that as your baseline. Report an error

31:21 I've got a lock. I'm recognizing this. Then you can see, are there any pulses that rise above that baseline? The pulses of the in and out breath. Report an error

31:32 So if that problem doesn't happen to you within six days, maybe it'll happen on the seventh day or in two weeks or something like that. But it's good to know about. And it is important and it's really, really crucial. And that is in this practice like all other shamatha practices. It's imperative to maintain a flow of knowing. Report an error

31:50 It's not enough to maintain a flow of non-conceptuality or just inner silence. It's not enough. That can just lead to a trance. It can actually lead to stupor. And that's not something we need to cultivate. Report an error

32:06 We can raise then another kind of a technical point, but it's a very interesting one. And this again, something really probably not so relevant during these six days that we're together. But if you take a liking to this practice, you find you really like to do it over the long term. Maybe someday take off a month, six months, go to Phuket, take off a year or two. Report an error

32:26 Maybe someday you really want to achieve shamatha. Should that happen, that you get to a point where you're really devoting a lot more time to it. Like even in eight weeks, it's not uncommon. In an eight-week retreat in Phuket, if people are practicing this, then what I'm about to say actually can become relevant. And that is, first of all, start off with a qualm. Report an error

32:47 For those of you who have studied the Bodharma somewhat extensively, maybe the writings of Tsongkhapa, then you'll know that if you're going to achieve shamatha, achieve access to the first jhāna, which means you're crossing the threshold. From what's called the desire realm, the kamadatu, into the form realm, the rupadatu. You're venturing into another whole dimension of reality. Report an error

33:10 That is what happens here. Not nirvāṇa, just another dimension of reality. Somewhat akin to general broad analogy with the platonic whole realm of ideas, of pure ideas. Report an error

33:23 Possibly the Jungian notion of a realm of pure archetypal forms. I think probably the resemblances are not trivial or just... You know, casual. There may be something to it. But this is something, not to say that Jung and Plato, Socrates, Pythagoras for that matter, not to say they were just conjuring up this out of sheer imagination, but in Buddhism it's not coming from imagination at all. Report an error

33:46 It's coming from straight meditative experience by the very deep development of samādhi, that you break through this This world that we're familiar with, this physical world of mind and matter and chunky stuff, and you break through that to a much more rarefied, subtler dimension of reality called the form realm. Report an error

34:04 Beyond that is the formless realm. And Shantideva is leading you in that trajectory. And so Tsongkhapa and many other great masters of Indian and Tibetan Buddhism, they comment that if you're going to practice Shantideva effectively, that will lead you all the way to transcending the desire realm, Our world that we're familiar with, which is the world of science, whereas the world of mathematics actually might be dealing with the realm of form. It's possible, form realm. Report an error

34:33 I kind of think it is. Some really brilliant mathematicians like Roger Penrose at Oxford, George Ellis, I think he's retired now, but a university in South Africa, a very, very fine mathematician. And some others, some other really brilliant mathematicians have suggested there's another dimension of reality that's just pure form. Report an error

34:51 Pure mathematics. And that the extraordinary degree to which the laws of nature are in fact mathematical laws to tremendous precision, to 100 decimal points, is because this whole physical world is actually emerging from another dimension of reality that's just pure math. So there's an idea that's been around for as long as Western philosophy, for as long as Pythagoras. And it's akin to, not the same as, but akin to. Report an error

35:20 This whole notion of form realm. Well, now let's get practical. Tsongkhapa and others say, if you're going to choose a meditative object that's going to take you all the way to the achievement of shamatha, transcending the desire realm, gaining access to the form realm, then your meditative object has to be mental. Report an error

35:41 It cannot be sensory. Because if it's sensory, like looking at a candle or a stick or simply gazing at a Buddha image or listening to music, Or listening to the sound of a mantra. All of that's very well. It may calm the mind somewhat. But the point there is that if your attention is locked onto something, some object, within the five sensory fields, the five sensory fields are all located within the desire realm. Report an error

36:06 So it's like being in a sailing ship and just dropping your anchor in a certain bay. If you've dropped your anchor in that bay, then you're not going to go out into the deep sea. It's holding you there. So if you've dropped the anchor of your attention, In any of the five physical senses. You've dropped the anchor of your attention in the desire realm. And as long as you're focusing there, you will not get beyond it. You're not going to be able to drag that anchor out into the deep blue sea of the form realm. Report an error

36:35 So therefore, your meditative object has to be mental. Therefore, when Tsongkhapa and many other great teachers in all four schools of Tibetan Buddhism, when they teach Samatha, they commonly teach Samatha in terms of its meditative object. They teach, focus on a mental image of the Buddha. That'll take you all the way. Take you all the way. And moreover, that type of practice, which again emphasizes, it's absolutely legitimate, perfectly good practice. Report an error

37:02 If you can do it effectively, then that will take you all the way. It's very good preparation for those people who want to really commit themselves to very deep professional level of training in stage of generation, stage of completion in Vajrayana. And why stage of generation, which of course is the initial phase. Report an error

37:20 Entails very great utilization of your visualizing ability. Visualize yourself the deity, the mandala, many beings in the mandala, many activities in the mandala and so forth. And so if you've spent 5,000 hours, maybe longer, developing shamatha, focusing on a mental image, well then you're all primed to take that skill, which is now all oriented towards mental imagery, and to apply that then. Report an error

37:48 To the mental generation, visualization of mandala, deities and so forth and so on. Pretty good preparation. Report an error

37:58 So that said, here we are focusing on the tactile sensations of the breath. Tactile sensations, these are in, these are, so, we're attending to one of the five sense fields, the tactile. Report an error

38:12 So doesn't that imply that as long as we're focusing on tactile sensations, whether it's in the full body, rise and fall of the abdomen, Or the sensations at the passage of the breath, at the nostrils. Doesn't this mean that we've dropped anchor in the desire realm, which means we'll never achieve shamatha? Report an error

38:28 So I asked a question maybe that wasn't on the tip of your lips, tip of the tongue, but there's a good question. So to answer the question, if you remain focused on the tactile sensations and you never budge from that and your mind gets subtler and subtler, stabler and stabler, will you achieve shamatha? Report an error

38:48 The answer is no. Nope. For the reason I just gave. You dropped anchor in the desire realm. You will not transcend that dimension of reality. Your mind will become very stable, very clear, but you won't achieve shamatha. So then why are we doing it? Well, as I said, this practice has been around for many hundreds of years. It was old when Buddha Gosar wrote really a very definitive, authoritative account of mindfulness of breathing. Report an error

39:14 He did so on numerous occasions, but in his Path of Purification, it's a beautiful account. And there he unpacks... How this is not a meditative object that will take you all the way, but it is a meditative object that can get you very well started. So what Buddhaghosa, speaking now for the whole Theravata tradition, what he calls the sensations of the breath, and now very specifically at the apertures of the nostrils, he calls that, as a meditative object, he calls that the preliminary sign. Report an error

39:46 The preliminary sign. Well, the sign is just an optic meditation. You don't need to read anything more into it than that for the time being. It's a preliminary object. Focus here, number one, it's not that hard. So you can achieve stage one like the first time you try. Can you sense the sensations of the breath at your nostrils? If you can't, well then you better go back to the full body. But if you can, good, you've found the object. You've achieved stage one. Report an error

40:11 And so it's something where it's kind of easy entry. And then as you settle into it, then it's soothing, it's peaceful, and you're getting into the flow of it. You get some confidence. Hey, I think I can do this. I'm getting better. I'm still flawed, of course, but this is working. This is working. And it's soothing. Report an error

40:30 It's peaceful. The mind is getting more stable. The sensation gets subtler and subtler. The mind is getting sharper, clearer, more serene. So, good start. Good start. Now, what happens here, and now we have centuries of experience behind what I'm about to say, is you simply do this practice. Something quite unexpected happens. Now, once I've said it, it won't be unexpected, but for the people who never had any instruction first, it would come like, whoa, what's that? Report an error

40:59 And that is you're focusing there and your awareness is really unfolding in upon these sensations in a very, getting into flow, real continuity of attention, very focused, not tight, not constricted, but very focused, very soft, but very clear. And then after some time, and I have to keep that very vague because it varies from one person to the next, as you're focusing on those sensations, and bear in mind you're focusing with mental awareness, this is really important, not visual awareness at all. Report an error

41:29 If you do that, I know people who have done that, and the same thing happens to all of them. They start developing headaches. Headaches, tension headaches, a lot of tension all over the head, and then it turns into a migraine, and they start getting really depressed. And then they say, I can't do this anymore. And then some stop meditating. So please don't do that. I mean, this is, again, a place you can save some time. Keep your eyes totally disengaged. Report an error

41:54 Your face like a baby. Just open, loose, relaxed, soft. And just your mental awareness, focusing on the target area. Okay. So you have a cheap stage 2, 3, 4, 5, something like that. And what's happened many, many times, including, happens occasionally there in Phuket, and of course other places, that's just a place I know about. I have no monopoly on anything. Report an error

42:19 But as you're focusing there, an image will spontaneously arise, just come to mind. It's a mental image. It's a mental image. And of course mental images come to rise all over the place. I mean rumination, memories, thoughts, imagination, so all kinds of images come to mind. So what's the big deal about this one? Well bear in mind that This is in a phase of your practice where you're really very centered, you're very focused, the mind has become quite calm, so you're not getting pelted by one image after another, it's actually to the contrary, the mind getting quieter and quieter, and then something out of the ordinary, not some remembered image, not some desired fantasy, but an image, for some people it can be like a garland of flowers, or for many people it's just like a single star, like just a spot of light. Report an error

43:10 It may be a different color. It could be blue light. It could be an orb of light. It could be like gauze. But some mental image comes. And it's not just a memory. It's kind of like a stranger. It's not alien. It's not like something transcendent. It's just like, where do you come from? Because it's coming right into the target area. Right where you are focusing your attention. That's right where it appears. Right in this area here. Report an error

43:36 It presents itself to you. Well, it may be just a distraction. If it comes up only once, then just release it, come right back to the tactile sensations. But this is called the acquired sign, where the preliminary sign first, the acquired sign. The acquired sign arises spontaneously, it varies from one person to the next. Bodhicitta gives a list of the possibilities in my book, Attention Revolution. Report an error

43:59 I give that same list, based upon a lot of experience. Certain variety there, but what distinguishes it from just junk, or just noise, or distraction coming up, Is that it comes up when your mind is very balanced, very focused. So not when the mind is all caught up in all kinds of stuff. So it's coming there, and then it's persistent. Report an error

44:21 It comes in, and then you bring the session to a close. And the next session, the same image comes in again. It kind of lingers there until you maybe dismiss it, go back to tackle sensations. And then you come out, and then the next day, there it is again. Again. It keeps on coming back, and it's the same image. Report an error

44:39 Again and again. And it's coming in. So a few characteristics. It's repeated. It's coming in right where you're focusing your attention. It comes especially when the mind is very calm, not when the mind is very distracted. Because then you get all kinds of mental images. And so when that takes place, this is something that might be useful to you a month from now, six months from now, a year from now. When you're on your own and wondering, oh, could this be the acquired sign? Report an error

45:02 Or is it just noise? Is it just distracting images coming up? Then go back to the tactile sensation. But again, to run it off again, where is it appearing? Right in the target area. It occurs when your mind is very stable. It's a very good session, not a cluttered session. And it's persistent. It's the same image coming up again and again and again. When that happens, when you see those criteria fulfilled, this is really coming, it's repeated and so forth. Report an error

45:28 Then, when you're confident, this must be an acquired sign, then, rather like one of those old-fashioned rockets, I think they still have them, but we have multiple, what, Rocket engines on a single rocket. So it uses the wall as fuel and then it's dropped off and then the second one ignites and you go further. Report an error

45:48 So the rocket engine of the preliminary sign has now spent its fuel. You could stay there, but it's not the most effective way to proceed. So drop that. You disengage your attention now away from the tactile sensations and focus single-pointedly on this acquired sign, this purely mental image. Report an error

46:08 You focus on that. So now the breathing has gone way to the background and you're focusing on a purely mental image. But bear in mind it's not one that you visualize, not one you intend, you deliberately generate, given to you. And you simply accept it and attend to it. At some later session, should it not arise, then you know what to do, you can go back to the tactile sensations again. Report an error

46:32 But as you become, especially if you're doing a lot of practice, it's continuous, you're in retreat doing this full time. Then the chances are it will gradually arise again and again and again and it then becomes your major meditative object. And you focus on that. Simple sign, a spot of light, a garland, a wreath, various things. Report an error

46:50 Not a very long list, but a certain variety there. Depends on physiology and so forth, varies from one person to the next. So now for the long term, now we're practicing in accordance with Tsongkhapa's injunction, focus on a mental image, but not one visualized, one that was simply presented to you spontaneously. Report an error

47:06 You continue on that through stages, however, wherever you are among the nine stages, when that comes in, you engage with that object, let's say it's stage four, then stage five, six, seven, eight, nine, you continue focusing on that acquired sign. Report an error

47:22 And then, having achieved stage nine, now your senses have really withdrawn, and you can sustain hours of practice, three, four hours, maybe even more, even before achieving shamatha, your mind is radiantly clear. Free of even subtle laxity or excitation. Sense is completely imploded into mental experience. Single-pointedly focused on that acquired sign. Report an error

47:47 So now you're very, very close to shamatha. And moreover, now it's effortless. You haven't even achieved shamatha yet. But you just slide through. It's just total flow of focusing single-pointedly with stability and clarity, radiant clarity, on that acquired sign. Then, at some point, then you achieve shamatha. Report an error

48:08 Now, this is a unique account from the Theravāda tradition, because they're the ones that use this mindfulness of breathing as a shamatha method all the way to shamatha, whereas for the Tibetan tradition, I think they very rarely did, almost never. They'll focus on something else. The two other methods that we'll start with tomorrow, that was practice a lot. Focusing on a Buddha image, practice a lot. Report an error

48:29 On a bindu, in a chakra, they did that a lot. At this stage of regeneration, for they're very gifted, they would do that. And so, But mindfulness of breathing, that just wasn't strongly highlighted or emphasized in Tibet. That just wasn't their baby. Maybe the ear was too thin. I don't know. But whatever the reason, it wasn't strongly emphasized. Report an error

48:47 But in Southeast Asia, I've lived in Sri Lanka. I know Thailand pretty well by now. Very, very common practice. Standard, mainstream practice. So here, what are the accounts? Now, generations, many generations of yogis who have fully achieved shamatha, access to the first jhāna, by way of mindfulness of breathing. Go from the preliminary sign. Report an error

49:06 The acquired sign. And then when you actually achieve access to the first jhāna, which we'll call achieving shamatha, then something else arises. Another discovery is about to be made. And that is, and it's very hard for words to capture it if you've not had the experience, but the words that are used are that as you're attending now single-pointedly to this acquired sign, as it were, it breaks apart and something appears where it was. Report an error

49:36 And this is a sign that Buddha Gosha says is a hundred and a thousand times subtler than the acquired sign. And where is it coming from? Its origin is the form realm. The origin of the acquired sign was your own mind in the desire realm. But now you've crossed the threshold, crossed the threshold from the desire to the form realm. And the indicator of that, almost like a little beacon coming out to welcome you, is this counterpart sign. Report an error

50:11 Now once again, of course, words are used, but Buddhagosa, others who write about this with authority, they say, well, you know, whatever comes to mind when we give you the description of the counterpart sign, you will not be able to imagine it, because it's coming from another dimension that you've not gained conscious access to. Report an error

50:29 But, this counterpart sign is a hundred and a thousand times more subtle, and then once again he gives a variety. It may appear like this, it may appear like that, it may appear like that. He gives a list, you can find it in the attention revolution, I won't go through it right now. But this now, this sign, as one 20th century, very fine Theravāda scholar, monk, he said, this is like the conceptual quintessence of whatever you were attending to earlier. Report an error

50:56 So what you were attending to earlier was the breath. The breath is a manifestation of the air element. So when you gain access to the counterpart sign, The third sign that arises in mindfulness of breathing. This is like the conceptual quintessence or may we say the archetype of the air element. The air element being the element in universe of that which is not just oxygen but anything that is light and motile, motility motion itself. Report an error

51:28 And so you're now locked onto this archetypal form emerging from the form realm and that becomes your object. Now, it's a hundred and a thousand times subtler than the object you were attending to. So, what happens when that little beacon, that preliminary sign first arises? And you've achieved shamatha. When that arises, you've achieved shamatha. You've crossed the threshold. And then in the Tibetan tradition, they tell you about all the physiological changes and it's much more elaborate. Report an error

51:59 We'll get to that later. But just following the Theravāda track here, when that very, very subtle sign appears, The chances are extremely high, again, unless you're extraordinarily gifted, that when it arises, you'll get it. It'll be like, got it. And then it's so subtle, you'll not be able to retain your attention on that very, very subtle image or sign that comes up. Report an error

52:23 And you'll lose it. And Buddhaghosa says it's like a little toddler that gets up on its wobbly little legs, stands up and then goes, and then, boop, and falls back on its bum. So you rise up to meet the counterpart sign, but it's so subtle. Then you fall back on your bum, and you lose it. Well, what happens then? Report an error

52:43 What happens then? You've just lost your object. Well, you've crossed the threshold into shamatha, you've crossed the threshold in the form realm. You fall back into a continuum of consciousness that in Pāli is called the bhavaṅga. The bhavaṅga. I translate it as the ground of becoming. Bhava, Anga. Bhava means to become. Anga has different meanings, but one of them is ground or basis. And I think it's quite close. I think it's a pretty good translation. Report an error

53:12 It's the ground of becoming. It's the ground out of which all the activities of the mind emerge. The ground into which they dissolve when you fall deep asleep. So the bhavaṅga is all you're left with when you fall into dreamless sleep. Stage 4 non-rem sleep. All the activities of the mind, sensory perceptions, imagination, thought, memory and all of that has gone dormant. So all these activities of the mind are called javana and all that's gone dormant. Report an error

53:41 So in deep dreamless sleep, all that lingers, all that remains in the activities of the mind, including the five senses, when they've all gone dormant, they're hibernating. All that's left is the bhavaṅga. So in other words, we experience the bhavaṅga regularly every 24 hours. Period. And multiple times. But again, when we fall into non-lucid deep sleep, we get there and we don't know it. It's like coming to the terminus of a railway station and you get there and you're fast asleep when you get there. Report an error

54:12 So all off, you know, everybody off the train, you're out like a light. You don't know what it's like because the mind is veiled by dullness. Whereas if you access that same dimension, that same current, that same subtle continuum of consciousness, In a process that is increasing, increasing, increasing the vividness, the clarity, luminosity of your attention, then when you get to that bhavaṅga, then you have the possibility of being radiantly clear and ascertaining it with extraordinary precision. Report an error

54:46 So it occurs, this bhavaṅga, it manifests, it's what's left over. When you faint, when you become comatose, when you fall deep asleep, when you die. So those again who have studied Tibetan Buddhism and studied the stage of the dying process. The senses shut down, memory shuts down, one cognitive and affective, so faculties of the mind, one by one, they shut down as the neurophysiological basis of the mind is shutting down. Report an error

55:14 And then, when you're really close to death, then you'll have this white appearance, a red appearance, and then black near attainment or dark near attainment, blackout, blackout, just the cessation of all appearances. Report an error

55:30 When you hit that point, in Tibetan Buddhism, that's when you're dead. That's when you're dead. And what lingers there? Have you become as unconscious as a pair of eyeglasses? Which I would say has zero consciousness. There's nothing you can do to it to waken up. Wake it up. You know, wake up glasses. You can't do it. Blow torch to it. Report an error

55:49 Nothing happens. No, you're not as unconscious as a pair of eyeglasses. What lingers there when you've now hit the dead zone, this blackout, is Bhavaṅga. That's what's left. So we access it in those multiple ways, fainting, comatose, deep sleep and death. Death is when you're really totally immersed in it and you won't get your mind back because the brain is no longer going to service that mind or support generation of mental events. Report an error

56:19 So all of those are natural ways to access it. And for the most part, when you get there, you don't know you're there. Here's a way to access that same dimension of consciousness, but when you're there, you know it. So once you've achieved shamatha, You have access to the counterpart sign, you lose it, then you slip into the bhavaṅga. And then you've got choices. Then you've got choices. Okay, what do you want to do now? Report an error

56:42 Do you want to achieve the first jhāna? Do you want to practice vipassanā? Do you want to just hang out? You've got all kinds of choices. Oh yeah, so I think that's enough for now. That was kind of going down the lane pretty far. But we're here for a short time. If we were all monks and nuns living in the same monastery, then I would have held off on that one. Report an error

57:01 You know, until... Because I would just teach a little bit and then we'd all practice until we'd achieved, you know, together. Or one-on-one, you know, until we'd achieved. And then spoon-feed. And not talk about this stuff until later. Just spoon-feed, you know, step by step by step. That's actually optimal. The Tibetans speak of shitti. Report an error

57:20 I'll end on this point before we take a break. But I like to think about the good old days. Because they're so not now in many respects. But there are three ways of teaching in the classic Tibetan tradition. Thit means to guide, to teach. And so Shet Thit, Shet means to explain. So there's explanatory teaching. This is when a teacher comes to your monastery, your town, your Dharma center, whatever, and basically just downloads, gives you a bunch of teaching. Report an error

57:46 Bodhicaryavatara, bodhicitta, lojong, majamaka philosophy, shamatha, herukha, vajrayana, chenrezi, whatever it is, downloads. The teachers, they're only a short time, probably heading off to Melbourne. Darwin or who knows where, after here. So say, okay, we've got a short time, and there's like a big dump truck going, and then beep, beep, beep, and you get out of there, onto the next airplane. Report an error

58:11 And then you try to digest it, you know, at your leisure, now that the teacher's gone. So that's one approach. And they did that in Tibet too. You know, great lamas would go from one village, one monster, another, spend a week, give a whole bunch of teachings, empowerments, and then head off to another one. Report an error

58:28 Oh, these lamas, I mean, I think Jujan Rinpoche is probably doing that right now and so many of them. I've received a lot of teachings. They'll teach five, six, seven hours a day with no meditation at that time. They're just downloading. And then hopefully you have someone in your home monastery, your home Dharma center, that can help you digest and assimilate those teachings that you got really massively downloaded in a very short time. Report an error

58:50 So of all the ways of teaching, that's the least optimal because you're getting like front-loaded. It's like your mouth just... About to explode with all the food in the mouth you haven't even swallowed, let alone digested. Everybody leaves the retreat. And then maybe you swallow or maybe you just go, let's go to the movies. Report an error

59:17 So that's one way of doing it. And then a second way, which is better than this, is called nyamti. And this is where the teacher is resident. You're residing where the teacher is, vice versa. And so then the teacher just gives it step by step. So, okay, we'll just cover all the teachings to stage one today. And then everybody practice now and they'll meet with you one by one. Report an error

59:37 And then when you've achieved stage one and you're getting towards two, okay, then I'll teach you about two. And so I'll just teach you in accordance with everybody. But of course, since everybody isn't progressing at the same pace, then you give the teachings collectively, but then it gets one on one. Report an error

59:51 So we see this in Zen, in the Zen tradition, where the Roshi will meet with the students one by one and work with a kolan. Work with their Sazen practice and so forth. But then each person going at their own pace and then the Roshi isn't giving big Dharma talks, but just giving this one-on-one guidance. Report an error

1:00:07 And that tends to be much more hand-tailored. And so it's called Nyam Ti. That is, it's together. It's guidance together. The teaching is together with going at pace with your own practice. So not giving you big panoramic views of what will future attractions, but just taking you step by step. So all the teachings are immediately put right into practice. So that's better. The best one though is called Nyongti. Report an error

1:00:33 Nyongti. And nyong is experience or experiential guidance. So it's even one better than the last. And that is that the teacher, in this case for example, has fully achieved shamatha. Knows the nine stages inside and out, all through experience. And then having that completely definitive... Direct experience of shamatha then teaches one-on-one, taking people step-by-step in the same way, but then teaching based upon his or her own experience, not just on book learning or things that are memorized and so forth, but until, oh yes, I've achieved stage 2, yeah, quite clearly, okay, you're there, okay, now I'm going to give you how do you transition from stage 2 to stage 3, but it's all then experiential. Report an error

1:01:18 We're all the way up to shamatha. The person says, I think I've achieved shamatha. And then you are not looking into the book. What did the book say? What did the book say? But what was it like when I achieved shamatha? And are you matching that? So if you have really definitive realization yourself, you're using that as a gold standard. But of course, where are you coming up from that? Report an error

1:01:35 Well, the person, your own teacher and your own teacher, you're making sure there's a gold standard going all the way back, that you're not inventing your own. And nowadays, frankly, I think there are a lot of people trying to invent their own gold standard, which then... Fool's gold standard. And I've seen this happen a lot. It does concern me. Not a whole lot I can do about it. Just try to teach as well as I can. But what I found rather common nowadays is people, I think with very sincere motivation, reading accounts of the jhānas and so forth and then going to their own experience and then interpreting the classic literature, the authoritative literature, interpreting that on the basis of their own experience. Report an error

1:02:17 And so the teachings, the classic teachings, have to conform to their experience, rather than vice versa. And then we get an awful lot of dumbing down. An awful lot of dumbing down. I mean, it really makes me gasp. There's somebody in America that will teach jhāna weekends. So you go for a weekend, and then he asks you at the end, you know, how many did you achieve? Report an error

1:02:39 One? Two? And what he's done, he's taken some sound bites, some really, really short descriptions of the first jhāna, second, and then he sees, oh yeah, I'm single pointed and I feel really good and I've got bliss and I've got a well-being and I can engage in coarse and subtle investigation. Good, I got the first John and that was easy. I did that in one day. Report an error

1:02:58 How's the second one? And it's very simplistic and then profoundly misleading, but that happens a lot. So I would want to be aware of that because, again, I don't think such people are ill-intentioned. They're just uninformed. But then they can give people a lot of false, false, Evaluations of your own practice. And then, sooner or later, it falls apart. Because if you've really achieved the first jhāna, then, oh, by the way, you should be able to meditate for 24 hours. Report an error

1:03:33 But when people are interpreting the class of teachings in light of their own experience, what they say, oh, they didn't mean that, that's not literal. Because I can't do it, and I'm sure I've achieved the first jhāna. No, you can meditate for an hour or two. And so we just get these reinterpretations all over the place. Report an error

1:03:49 People reinterpreting the classic teachings in accordance with their own practice and then dumbing it down to preschool level and then saying, oh, congratulations, you've achieved shamatha or first jhāna or stream entry or arhatship. But arhatship now is redefined. I've seen one teacher redefining arhatship or nirvāṇa. Oh, it's not that your mental afflictions are gone. It's just that you're coping with them really well. Report an error

1:04:13 They don't get you anymore. Wow. And what was the guy's justification? Well, I've been meditating for 40 years. I should be liberated by now. And I don't know anybody else who's achieved what it is actually stated in the Buddhist classic text, the Buddha himself, that when you become an arhat, you are completely irreversibly free of mental addiction. Report an error

1:04:33 You can't interpret it any other way. I mean, that's it. But they do interpret it in another way. Why? Because they check around with their buddies. Have you achieved that? Nope, nope, nope. Me neither. Okay. Well, we are enlightened after all. So therefore, that's not literal. Enlightenment is now that you're not bugged by your mental afflictions as much. In fact, not at all. They just come and go, but you embrace it all. Report an error

1:04:53 And now we have this cheesy New Age interpretation of Arhatship that's gone into another galaxy from the Buddhist teachings. And now people think, you know, they've come to the end of the line. They've achieved nirvāṇa because they're not so troubled by their mental afflictions. So I'm ranting a little bit, but if you don't want to hit a premature dead end in your practice, Then it would be good to go back to the classic teachings and really study them carefully and let your experience rise up to the classic teachings rather than dragging the classic teachings down to a really primitive level and then hastening the degeneration of Buddhadharma in the modern world. Report an error

1:05:30 So you can see there's some emotion there. And it comes out of not self-superiority, I'm not a great practitioner, but it does come out of a very deep reverence for the teachings. And for people like Tsongkhapa and Nagarjuna and Padmasambhava and so forth, these were absolutely awesome people, let alone the Buddha himself. And when we give these cheesy dumbing down of the teachings, then I think it's too bad. Report an error

1:05:54 That's what I really feel. It's really too bad. Because then we're just flushing the whole system down the toilet and making some kind of a New Age pop psychology. And we already have New Age pop psychology. There's plenty of that. Some people find it quite satisfying. That's fine. But Buddhism is something more than that. Report an error

1:06:09 So on that note, let's take a break. It's now 11 o'clock. Come back at 11.15. We'll go back to the practice. Report an error

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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.

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