Shamatha Retreat with Alan Wallace 2012 (part 31)

0:21 As always, settle your body in its natural state, your respiration and its natural flow. For a little while, calm the discursive mind with mindfulness of breathing. Report an error in the passage at 0:21 Highlight the passage at 0:21

· · · silence, 4 minutes

4:27 Eyes be at least partially open, even if just a little bit, to let the light in. Report an error in the passage at 4:27 Highlight the passage at 4:27

4:38 And then direct the full force of your interest, of your mindfulness, to the space of the mind at one out of six domains of experience. Report an error in the passage at 4:38 Highlight the passage at 4:38

4:53 And let's attend for this session to the thoughts, the images, the events that arise more objectively within this domain. Report an error in the passage at 4:53 Highlight the passage at 4:53

5:01 Du Chumlingba gives the example of observing the thoughts, attending to the thoughts, like a cowherder attends to his cows, just watching over them, Report an error in the passage at 5:01 Highlight the passage at 5:01

5:17 that kestrel kiting into the wind, that your awareness hold its own ground, remain in its own stillness, Report an error in the passage at 5:17 Highlight the passage at 5:17

5:33 and observe the appearance and the disappearance of thoughts, of images that come and go. Report an error in the passage at 5:33 Highlight the passage at 5:33

5:46 But see if you can so relax, be so loose, so free of grasping. Report an error in the passage at 5:46 Highlight the passage at 5:46

5:52 That you simultaneously experience the stillness of your own awareness together with the movement of thoughts and images. Report an error in the passage at 5:52 Highlight the passage at 5:52

6:04 Your awareness like space, thoughts and images, like the comings and goings of events within that space. Report an error in the passage at 6:04 Highlight the passage at 6:04

6:30 Set aside all hopes and fears, all notions of accomplishing anything or achieving anything and Report an error in the passage at 6:30 Highlight the passage at 6:30

6:41 simply let the natural stillness and luminosity of your own awareness rise up to meet you. Report an error in the passage at 6:41 Highlight the passage at 6:41

6:51 Gradually discovering shamatha rather than developing it. Report an error in the passage at 6:51 Highlight the passage at 6:51

· · · silence, 5 minutes

12:03 This practice of shamatha, like all other practices of shamatha, entails the utilization and refinement of two faculties, not just mindfulness, but also introspection, to more and more carefully monitor the flow of attention, recognizing the two imbalances of laxity and excitation, then applying the remedies. Report an error in the passage at 12:03 Highlight the passage at 12:03

12:31 So let's continue practicing now in silence. Report an error in the passage at 12:31 Highlight the passage at 12:31

· · · silence, 15 minutes

28:01 Settle your body and your respiration, and for a little while calm the mind with mindfulness of breathing. Report an error in the passage at 28:01 Highlight the passage at 28:01

· · · silence, 3 minutes

31:10 And for a little while direct the full force of mindfulness to the space of the body and to the tactile events that objectively arise up to meet you, those associated with the earth, water, fire and air element, Report an error in the passage at 31:10 Highlight the passage at 31:10

31:28 objectively arising in the space of the body and Report an error in the passage at 31:28 Highlight the passage at 31:28

31:35 simply attend to them without distraction, without grasping. Report an error in the passage at 31:35 Highlight the passage at 31:35

· · · silence, 1 minute

32:59 Now within this field of the body, note that there's more than simply raw tactile sensations of firmness and so on. Report an error in the passage at 32:59 Highlight the passage at 32:59

33:12 Some of these sensations are experienced as pleasant. Others is unpleasant. Some is neutral. So feelings of pleasure, pain and indifference also arise within the body. Report an error in the passage at 33:12 Highlight the passage at 33:12

33:31 In the Buddhist understanding, these feelings do not arise objectively, but rather they're in the subjective mode in which we experience the objective. Report an error in the passage at 33:31 Highlight the passage at 33:31

33:44 Sensations are experienced in a pleasant fashion. They're experienced as being pleasant. But it's in the subjective mode that the pleasure arises, or the displeasure. The pleasant and unpleasant. It's not simply dished up objectively, purely objectively. Report an error in the passage at 33:44 Highlight the passage at 33:44

34:07 So attend closely to these sensations and the affective component that is subjective. Report an error in the passage at 34:07 Highlight the passage at 34:07

34:22 Observe these events, these tactile events and the feelings arising in the space of the body. Observe them both, the sensations and the feelings, without distraction, without grasping, as much as possible even without identifying with either the sensations, Of the elements and so on. Or of the subjective mode that we feel them, that we experience them as pleasant or unpleasant. Report an error in the passage at 34:22 Highlight the passage at 34:22

34:56 Just observe them. Observe their nature. Report an error in the passage at 34:56 Highlight the passage at 34:56

· · · silence, 2 minutes

36:48 And then with your eyes at least partially open, your gaze vacant, Report an error in the passage at 36:48 Highlight the passage at 36:48

36:56 direct your attention to the space of the mind and to the objective events, the thoughts and images that arise. And Report an error in the passage at 36:56 Highlight the passage at 36:56

· · · silence, 2 minutes

39:07 then observe the feelings as well. The feelings of pleasure, of displeasure. The feeling of equanimity or indifference is also a feeling, a neutral one. Report an error in the passage at 39:07 Highlight the passage at 39:07

39:20 And as a preliminary exercise you may, if you wish, deliberately generate a feeling, an emotion of any kind. Think of something, remember something that arouses an emotion. When Report an error in the passage at 39:20 Highlight the passage at 39:20

40:01 an emotion does arise, you may indeed experience some somatic sensation simultaneously in the heart, in the gut. But in this practice keep your attention focused right there in the domain of the mind, not diverting to the somatic field, just to the mental. Report an error in the passage at 40:01 Highlight the passage at 40:01

40:26 Observe what happens when you closely attend to the feeling, the emotion. Does it immediately disappear? Does it change? Is it reinforced? You Report an error in the passage at 40:26 Highlight the passage at 40:26

· · · silence, 3 minutes

43:32 keep your attention fixed right here and now in the space of the mind without letting your attention be diverted to the referent of the emotion, the thought, the image. Report an error in the passage at 43:32 Highlight the passage at 43:32

43:46 Keep your awareness hovering in the immediacy of the present moment, attending single-pointedly to the space of the mind and whenever mental events arise within that space. Report an error in the passage at 43:46 Highlight the passage at 43:46

43:59 And let's continue practicing silently. Report an error in the passage at 43:59 Highlight the passage at 43:59