← B. Alan Wallace

Shamatha Retreat with Alan Wallace 2012 (part 35)

B. Alan Wallace · 2012 · 1 h 16 min · Vajrayana Institute via Internet Archive

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  • 4:34

    Yeah, don't conjure up anything at all. If you conjure up something, then whatever you're attending to will simply be your mental conjuration. It's kind of like a totality. The space of the mind is what's left over. So we can do this whole thing by a process of elimination. And that's sometimes the most effective way to proceed. If one has never attended the space of the mind, I mean, and some people, there was a whole book that I read many years ago. The whole premise of the book was introspection was impossible.

  • 8:57

    But now as there is a domain related to each of the six senses, the visual domain, the auditory and so forth, there's also a domain in which mental events arise. It has to be. Otherwise you'd pick him up with something else. You'd pick him up with sight or sound or what have you. There's a domain that is uniquely mental. And in terms of giving some sense of the scope, the dimension of the domain of mental awareness, for example, if you...

  • 19:18

    Attending to others, their well-being. Attending to them not just as appearances, like a kaleidoscope or mirages and so forth, but attending to them as being every will as we ourselves. Attending to them and attending then to their joys, their successes, their delights. And attending to that, taking satisfaction in it, taking delight in it. This is all genuine happiness. Because it's not something you're getting from the world. It is a type of happiness.

  • 48:08

    That there's something left over apart from the five physical senses. There's another domain of experience wherein we can observe things happening. And I think the easiest kind of thing to observe is mental images. Thoughts do, because thoughts have content and thoughts have reference, they refer to something. It's just, you know, you've been around for a few decades, several decades and so have I. That's a lot of time to habituate that when some talk comes up,

  • 1:05:32

    Then that can be quite nice. And then you say, oh, but this is what subtlety is about. This is what vividness is about. I get it. You don't get it down here. Oh, I can see. Now that the whole system is calming down, the volume of the breath is subsiding, sensations of the breath getting subtler. Oh, I see. This is vividness of attention. I have to really pay attention here, but I'm not getting tight in doing it. This is sweet.

0:05 We'll have two silent sessions and I would invite you to follow the method of your choice, whatever you find most beneficial at this time. And there is just a very brief comment, there's a central theme that runs through all of the shamatha practices, implied by the very name itself, shamatha or quiescence, calmed, still. Report an error

0:23 And that is that one does come to a kind of stillness that's not stillness that's caged. We can always force ourselves to be quiet or, you know, like being imprisoned. One can always do that, kind of hold it in with constriction. I'm very familiar with this by now. And then as soon as you release the grip, then the mind's going to be off again, just like frowning at a child. Report an error

0:44 And then as soon as you're off, then the child's off again. But the idea here is to release, release, release, especially the grasping. And so when it comes to a stillness that is effortless, you're just poised. There's a nice word right there. You're just poised in stillness. It's not lethargic, it's not heavy, it's not closed down. It's just still, so that from that type of loose, clear, attentive, very present stillness, if you act, then one can call that really is an action. Report an error

1:15 Whereas if one is already in motion, already caught up in grasping, already caught up in a whole conceptual network, including rumination, then we'll certainly be acting a lot. But it's bound to be much more of kind of reaction. Reaction. Often just driven by habit. And so here's a way to be breaking down habits by coming just to stillness, which is free of habit. It's just a stillness. And then with that clarity, if we rise into action, then it's coming from a place of clarity, of stillness and so forth, rather than just out of sheer flow of habit. Report an error

1:48 So, probably a sane thing to do. So, whatever your posture, now if you're feeling a little bit tired, now would be a very good time to go supine. But whatever you choose, two sessions of your own choice for the method. I'm just keeping the time. Report an error

· · ·

2:39 So I think we were right at the midpoint yesterday evening, so let's just continue scanning from my right to my left, going right over here. Report an error

2:56 Hello, my name is Diane. I wanted to ask a question about accessing the space of the mind. When we did the meditation last night, I actually found it really unsettling and I felt very agitated because And we'll start right here, please. Report an error

3:14 Compared to finding my nostrils, finding the space of my mind was quite a difficult task. My nostrils were really easy to spot. So at first I found it almost impossible. I did what you suggested. I imagined an image which I then let sort of slide away. And what was there behind it was a very small sort of grey space that was quite nervous. Report an error

3:37 I felt it was not a comfortable spot. So this morning when we've done this again, what I've sort of come to realise, I suppose, is that the mind doesn't have a location. But I'm trying to conjure something. So what I've done now is I've imagined, in a sense, I suppose, that the mind is over my whole body. My mind is there, it's mine and it covers all of me, but it's ephemeral. Report an error

4:03 So I'm somehow trying to access that. But I still find it quite... I can feel myself contracting because I'm trying to conjure up... I mean, should I be imagining, you know, a large space or an ocean or... Would that be helpful? Or in fact a tiny small room? Could I ask one other question as well? I only wanted a time. Oh, okay. Well, that's one. Report an error

4:31 Don't conjure up anything at all. I wanted to do, yeah. Report an error

4:34 Yeah, don't conjure up anything at all. If you conjure up something, then whatever you're attending to will simply be your mental conjuration. It's kind of like a totality. The space of the mind is what's left over. So we can do this whole thing by a process of elimination. And that's sometimes the most effective way to proceed. If one has never attended the space of the mind, I mean, and some people, there was a whole book that I read many years ago. Report an error

4:57 The whole premise of the book was introspection was impossible. So if you're not good at it, you'll come up with all kinds of reasons to argue that your limitation is the norm and everybody has the same limitation. Report an error

5:12 But the way we did it just once, and it might be worth doing again, to hone in on among six domains of experience, hone in on just one of them. Report an error

5:23 So we started out with something really easy, and that is the visual space. Boy, that's hard to find anything easier than that. Can you attend to just the visual domain, which if you have two eyes that function, it's an elliptical domain, kind of this way. And can you attend to that and just focus on that? But then you may also notice, like right now, for example, as you're attending to the visual image of the front part of my body and I'm attending to yours, you may also notice that not only in this visual domain that's appearing to you right now, not only are there shapes and colors, which of course there are, But right now, are you not directly, immediately aware, do you not directly perceive that there is space between us? Yeah, there it is. Report an error

6:07 And so, these colors, these shapes are arising in a space, and you can also, right now, you can withdraw your focus, as I did, I think, earlier with Cameron, I believe it was, and that is just withdraw, not with Ken, I believe, but just withdraw the attention and have it hover in between and say, okay, now I'm just looking at the space. Report an error

6:25 I haven't blacked out. I'm not looking at nothing. I'm looking at the space in between. And that really makes sense. It's really very experiential. And so it's easy to do. And then we shift over to the auditory field and we attend to sounds, the domain in which the sounds arise. Something that's also easy to do is the tactile field. So now we're attending just to what immediately sense with our tactile sense organs. Report an error

6:52 Inside the body, on the surface of the body. And once again, you may have a pretty clear sense, hey, these tactile sensations are arising in a type of space. Right? And moreover, it's a three-dimensional space. Because you can sense the volume. And so, seeing that, attending to the space, attending to the sensations arising in space. Report an error

7:13 So we've covered the visual, the auditory, the tactile. We're not very olfactory kind of critters. I mean dogs are, various species are, but we're not. We don't pick up a whole lot with the nose and we're not eating anything. There's not much going on in terms of taste either. So we can kind of set those aside for the most part. And then we can ask by a process of elimination. You can do it right now. Report an error

7:33 By a process of elimination, is there anything else of which you are immediately aware that is not visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory or tactile? Report an error

7:44 Anything else that is immediately presenting itself to your awareness? Report an error

7:53 I'm just trying to corner you into a really simple answer, and that is, are you immediately experiencing anything right now that you're not picking up by way of your five physical senses? Report an error

8:04 Yeah, that's quite true. I didn't feed that to you. I'm not trying to brainwash you, but you don't figure out the presence of thoughts by inference or some other way. I mean, you just immediately sense it, but you're not seeing them. Can you just answer? Report an error

8:17 With the eye, hearing them and so forth. You're not picking them up with the five physical senses. And so there's thoughts, chit-chat, rumination and so forth. We're aware of it arising. And then of course, can you recall what your mother's face looks like? Yeah, so there it is. So right now an image comes to mind. Report an error

8:35 Okay, well you're not getting that with the eyes either. So now just for starters, you're immediately aware of discursive thoughts, the chit-chat, the rumination and mental images. And so you're getting that by a process of illumination. That is, you're not picking these up in any of the other five ways. This must mean you're picking them up with a sixth mode of perception, sixth mode of consciousness. Report an error

8:57 But now as there is a domain related to each of the six senses, the visual domain, the auditory and so forth, there's also a domain in which mental events arise. It has to be. Otherwise you'd pick him up with something else. You'd pick him up with sight or sound or what have you. There's a domain that is uniquely mental. And in terms of giving some sense of the scope, the dimension of the domain of mental awareness, for example, if you... Report an error

9:29 Down here in the Southern Hemisphere I think you have a very clear vision, I think through most of the year, or maybe all of the year, of the Southern Cross. It's true, isn't it? Southern cross. It's really easy to find, isn't it? And so when you're looking up at that, then you're seeing a cross, right? Report an error

9:48 Well, no you're not. Not if by seeing we're talking about vision, because there's nothing connecting the dots. Visually, I mean, it's just a bunch of black space. Mentally, you are, of course, you're seeing, oh yes, there's a southern cross, and you're literally connecting the dots, but you're connecting the dots with mental awareness, and the cross you're seeing. Report an error

10:08 Isn't there. Those are just some points of light in the sky. Now we have the Southern Cross, but then we have constellations. We have bears, we have scorpions, we have rams, we have twins, fish and all kinds of things that people have been seeing for centuries. So how big is the space of your mind? Well, the twins, the bear, the Southern Cross in the Northern Hemisphere, the Big Dipper is the easiest one to find. Report an error

10:33 There it is. Well, we're seeing those. We're seeing those designs. With mental awareness, because it's something we're projecting, right? On just dots, but we are connecting the dots. They don't connect themselves, right? So that suggests that the space of your mind is as big as space. Because, look, you're connecting dots that are light years out, way out there. And so, what is the space of the mind? Well, just as we identify the domain of the mind and its contents by a process of elimination, then likewise, in those little intervals, When you can't detect any distinct mental events, but you're focused right where they were, then don't conjure up anything because that'll just be more stuff that's being projected out, just like the Southern Cross, the Big Dipper and so forth. Report an error

11:19 But during those intervals when you're not detecting any mental activity, don't introduce anything fresh. Just be content with that and then see, all right, in the process of elimination, what's left? What's left? And just attend to that. And don't be surprised if you don't master it the first day. Report an error

11:38 This is an easy desert, kind of easy in from the shallow end of the pool. But this is why we have all these meditations leading up to it. Full body awareness, so easy. And then rise and fall of the tummy, that's pretty easy. Here, not that hard. And then observing thoughts, right off the bat, you are able to recognize, oh yeah, I can see thoughts coming up. Report an error

11:57 Yes, that's the image of my mother. And so there you are. Now you've placed your attention in the mental domain. You're only one step away. From being able to have, just as you can now, attend closely to and ascertain the space between us and look at it. So you can develop the ability to attend to the space in between thoughts and then attend. Report an error

12:19 And then you can start getting not something you conjure up, but something that reality is dishing up to you. Is it gray? Well, gray is an appearance. Why do you call that a space? Report an error

12:30 I have grayish hair. That's not space. That's a gray color arising in space. But the space between you and me, does that have any color? I don't think so either. And you can then check with the space of the mind. Does it have any more color than the space of the visual domain? Or if there's a color arising, is that simply one more mental image? Report an error

12:51 Image of your mother, image of gray. I mean, they're just both images, mental images. But in between the images, in between thoughts, then... It does call for increasing subtlety, but that's why we're doing this on day four of the workshop rather than day one. So we edge into it easily, not getting frustrated, just taking it step by step, but overall approaching it by a process of elimination tends to be a very effective, practical way of doing it. Report an error

13:15 Okay? You're welcome. Good. We'll scan left and then two right in a row. I'll go way to the back first and then we'll come up here. Report an error

13:28 Hi, I'm Megan. Megan, hi. I think it was two days ago now that You were talking about, I think, that bliss is being the antidote to the excitation of guilt. I can't quite hear. Breathing in, breathing out? No, you were saying, I think, that bliss is the antidote to the excitation of guilt and shame. Maybe the microphone is just a little bit further from the mic. It's getting quite muffled to my ear. Report an error

13:53 Okay, try it again. I think you were talking about bliss being the antidote to the excitation of guilt and shame. Bliss? Bliss, yeah. Bliss to something and shame, to excitation and shame. Yes, quite so. But that it's very difficult for bliss to arise when guilt and shame are present. That's for sure. That can get in the way of... That's for sure. Just as, for example, single-pointed attention is the antidote towards craving, clinging, fixation on hedonic pleasures. Report an error

14:27 So when you're right in the midst of hedonic pleasures and craving and clinging, boy, single-pointed attention is the last thing on your mind. It ain't happening, right? But the point here is that, just to draw, you know, just shift it over, when your mind really is single-pointed in your meditative practice, at that time, there's no space. Report an error

14:45 There's no way for the hedonic fixation to come in because you're occupied. So likewise, if you can tap into bliss one way or another, if you can tap into bliss, and not just the hedonic bliss like eating ice cream or listening to beautiful music, that's very... All very well, but it's not the bliss talked about here. If you can tap into a kind of bliss that's arising right from the nature of your awareness, then when that's present, then excitation and guilt just won't happen. Report an error

15:11 So I guess my question was, I'm good at eating ice cream. I couldn't bite here? I'm good at eating ice cream. That bit I can do. Exasperated? Report an error

15:22 I still can't hear. Report an error

15:26 You're good at eating ice cream. I am too. I can bite it. Let's look out for an ice cream day at one of these. Okay, so I'm an ice cream fan too. But so, how in just normal daily life, so a life that doesn't involve retreat at the moment, how then can you work on that? Report an error

15:46 Right, good, good. Happily, although the kind of bliss that arises from samādhi, again, it varies from one person to another. Some people, they go on a one week retreat and they start having bliss coming up a lot. It happens. And other people, oh, not for weeks or months. So it just differs from one person to the next. So not something to be holding your breath for. It happens, it doesn't happen. But if we consider this hedonic well-being, hedonic pleasure, hedonic, excuse me, just the opposite, genuine happiness, eudaimonic well-being, right? Report an error

16:20 If we consider that, that that's the type of well-being we're talking about here and not just hedonic. There's nothing wrong with hedonic. I like my scream as much as anybody else. But the kind of bliss that acts as an antidote to excitation. And guilt is not the hedonic list because that just agitates the mind more. It's just more the same old, same old. But then we consider, okay, what are the different kind of dimensions or avenues by which genuine happiness, eudaimonic or eudaimonia arises? Report an error

16:52 And then we can go back and we can throttle back and say, okay, in our lives, where does it naturally arise? And where it naturally arises, baseline. Without going into retreat, and frankly without meditating, is ethics. Ethics. And so, in a very mild form, the Buddha spoke of the joy, the sukha, it's the same word, sukha, sense of well-being or happiness, that arises from blamelessness. Report an error

17:21 Just having a clear conscience. Just having a clear conscience. That's pretty sweet. But that's more kind of freedom from having behaved in an injurious way, harmful, belligerent and so forth and so on. But there is a certain kind of contentment, a sense of ease, a sense of well-being that comes by living a non-injurious, non-violent, non-harmful way of life. Report an error

17:41 That's true. But then it gets all the sweeter when we go to the other side of the ledger and we actually go out of our way to live in accordance with the principle of benevolence, of kindness, attentiveness. Dalai Lama, kindness is my religion. A good heart is my religion. And so psychologists have studied happiness quite extensively and there's some really good insights that have come up. Report an error

18:04 And one of them is that people who consider themselves to be happy, you know, and for this they just do polls, you know, what do you think on a scale of 1 to 10, how happy do you think you are? But the people who consider themselves to be happy, when they do a bit more research, they find that those people are the ones who find many things to be happy about throughout the course of the day. Report an error

18:26 It's not the person who just won $640 million in the jackpot in America. That person's probably having a very good day today. Report an error

18:36 Now when he sees that he just lost a third of it to income tax, maybe not his happiest day, but he's thinking, okay, there's still a lot left over. But then from then on it's going to be a mixed bag and all kinds of studies have been done of people who win the lottery. They get a big spike of hedonic pleasure and then it's a mixed bag after that and they pretty much go back to... Report an error

18:53 Go back to the norm afterwards. However happy they were before, now they're a lot wealthier, but pretty much the same level of happiness. And so, that's very hedonic, but this theme of can you find many things to take satisfaction in, to take delight in, and it doesn't have to be all I-centered, and that is, this is a very major aspect of practice, to be attending to, which I really elaborated on yesterday. Report an error

19:18 Attending to others, their well-being. Attending to them not just as appearances, like a kaleidoscope or mirages and so forth, but attending to them as being every will as we ourselves. Attending to them and attending then to their joys, their successes, their delights. And attending to that, taking satisfaction in it, taking delight in it. Report an error

19:38 This is all genuine happiness. Because it's not something you're getting from the world. It is a type of happiness. That you're bringing to the world, right? And so the more we are cultivating that in a myriad of ways, so many different ways, just by the way we're attending, by the way we're acting, by the way we're speaking, we can just bring just a heavy seasoning, you know, many, many episodes. Report an error

20:06 And this is without any meditation at all. But to bring a sense of satisfaction, of contentment, of gladness, of joy into the life. And the more that's there, Then the easier, well, number one, you can imagine, excitation would naturally subside. Guilt would naturally subside. Because it's kind of intuitively obvious, I think. Report an error

20:28 And so the more those two are subsiding, more of a sense of restedness, of ease, of relaxation, of looseness, of comfort in one's own body and mind, then excitation won't arise so much. And the less that one is engaging in harmful behavior and so forth, the less one will have any grounds for guilt or shame. So when you're approaching the cushion, And you'll already be coming in with kind of a higher level of eudaimonia just from the start. And that will undermine the prevalence or the dominance of excitation and guilt while you're actually meditating. Report an error

21:01 So this is really the lovely dynamic. And then what one sees here is that it's not just one-way traffic or that is a one-way causality that is ethics, ahimsa, nonviolence and benevolence giving rise to. They are facilitating the cultivation of samādhi and then the cultivation of samādhi facilitating insight and wisdom and understanding. Report an error

21:23 Although that is true, it's also true, and this relates to the question a little while back, I think it might have been from Cassandra, about shall I wait altogether about Vipassanā? He said, well, I'm not there yet, I haven't achieved shamatha, why should I mess around with trigonometry when I haven't mastered algebra yet? But the point there is, Do you have a mind that's somewhat serviceable, somewhat stable, somewhat clear? Can you practice Vipassanā and gain some benefits, some insights? Well, those insights are bound to ricochet right back to your samādhi practice and nurture that. Report an error

21:58 So there's top-down effect. And the more stable, the more clear, the more calm and centered your mind is, the easier it's going to be to avoid injurious behavior. The easier it's going to be to be benevolent. And other studies have shown that happy people tend to also be more generous, more benevolent, altruistic and so forth, whereas people who are pretty grumpy don't tend to display that kind of behavior in the world. Report an error

22:22 So it's all going every which way, up and down. Okay? Report an error

22:29 Yes, indeed, right there, in the black sweater. Report an error

22:37 My name is Sandra. Sandra? Sandra, and I am a friend. Thank you. She mentioned... You to me in an email. Thank you, Sandra. Thank you. My question is related to text. You have provided us with an amazing range of rich texts to dip into and to have available to us. If I'm leaving this retreat, and this is my first shamatha retreat, and I'm going back to a... Report an error

23:12 My desert island and I want to take one text with me that will help me sustain and maintain my practice. What would your recommendation be? Don't ask any author that question. A text by somebody else because my texts are really a waste of time. Mine are awful but his are really good. Report an error

23:35 But this is the beauty of it frankly. I mean for shamatha itself. Gen Lam Rimba was one marvelous yogi. He's passed away now. But he was really one incredibly wonderful human being. Wonderful yogi. Yogi's yogi. I knew him quite well. We lived together for a whole year. And so his book, which is probably still out there, Calming the Mind, from a very classic perspective, but a very seasoned, experienced, benevolent, gentle. Report an error

24:01 Oh, such a good man. Such a good man. And his teachings were coming from very fine eruditions, very fine scholar. But above all, he was really a practitioner. So if you like a really classic approach, that was really nice, very sweet. His oral teachings to a group of people who are about to devote a whole year of their lives just to practice shamatha. Report an error

24:20 Now if you like a really authoritative, hardball, definitive, very sophisticated, not easy text on shamatha, then I've translated another one. It's out there. I saw a copy or two. What was it called? Mind? No. Balancing the Mind. Balancing the Mind. Well, the core of that text is a translation of a really definitive presentation of Shamatha on Shamatha by Tsongkhapa. And he was one of the most brilliant scholar contemplatives in the whole history of Tibet. Report an error

24:49 I mean, we're talking 1,200 years there. He was formidable. And this was his, really, very definitive, extremely erudite, but rich with experience, a presentation of Shamatha, again focusing on a mental image as the object, but he brings an incredible erudition to it. It's not an easy read, it wasn't intended to be an easy read. And it's classic, it's really within the Buddhist context, presented for Buddhist practitioners. So it's not in the 20th century, like Gyan Lam Rimba teaching to Westerners, but Gyan Lam Rimba knew this text inside and out, and he's drawing on that and presenting it to Westerners. Report an error

25:23 There's My Attention Revolution, so that draws from multiple traditions. Theravāda, which I find so helpful, especially from mindfulness of breathing, but also their unpacking of the five obscurations, so helpful. Their unpacking of the five jhāna factors, really helpful, not so highlighted in Tibetan tradition, but core Buddha Dharma. And so I draw on that, and then I personally have found, and I've been teaching a long time, practicing a long time, among the wide variety of shamatha methods to which I've been exposed, some of which I've practiced, of course I'm finding these three really helpful. Report an error

25:52 So I keep on teaching them again and again. So attention revolution, very practical, very accessible, well edited. So that's a good one. For this practice we've been focusing on the last two days, the settling the mind. Report an error

26:08 I think probably the commentary that I gave, which is called Stilling the Mind, it's a commentary to a text, a 19th century classic. It's one long excerpt from The Vajra Essence by Juju Lingva. The text itself is brilliant. The text on which I'm commenting, it's about 30 pages, and I gave an oral teaching on that a few years ago. It was edited, polished, and there it is, stilling the mind. Report an error

26:30 But in terms of really unpacking this practice in rich detail by a tremendous, I mean, tremendous teacher. He was awesome. And I hope I've elucidated, not obscured, his teaching in this book. But that's a really good one. His teachings are marvelous there, really outstanding, for that particular practice, settling the mind in its natural state. Report an error

26:51 So that would be for starters. And then, you said one text, but, you know, that'd be for starters. Why settle with one? For broader context, because what's important here is that, you know, it's important not, and I don't think you're even inclined to this, but it's very easy when one is introduced to a certain type of meditation. Report an error

27:14 It happens a lot in Vipassanā. And Vipassanā is very good. I have no criticism. But people are introduced to that. And especially the simplified version, Vipassanā is basically just being mindful, and mindful is really just basically bear attention. There are quite a few people out there that think that's what meditation is. Report an error

27:30 And if you're not doing that, you're not meditating. And then we get really silly statements by very intelligent people, saying, we neuroscientists should have figured out how meditation works within five years. Report an error

27:44 It's really a silly statement. But that's because the neuroscientist, who's a very bright person, very well informed for neuroscience, but not for meditation, let alone for Buddhism, has then reduced it down to a little thin strand, a very nice strand, bear attention and said, we'll have this figured out in terms of neural mechanisms. Report an error

28:02 But this happens a lot. So he's, you know, he's not a, how do you say, he's not a very well informed meditator, but a lot of people. Probably 30 years ago, people probably thought, well, meditation is basically TM. You know, TM, meditation, and it's all to induce a relaxation response. That's what meditation is really for, a relaxation response, based on Herra Benson's research. Report an error

28:22 So it's very easy to limit it down. Or if people have been only training Galupa tradition, they may think meditation is all about discursive meditation and visualization. That's it. That's it. Well, what's important here is to recognize this word meditation that we're translating from Sanskrit, bhavana, It means to cultivate, so it's very rich, it's broad. It may include mantra, visualization, discursive meditation, meditation on the breath, meditation on the mind, a wide variety. Report an error

28:52 So in terms of context, and I'm a great believer in context, there's another book that I wrote that provides, I think, a very meaningful context for shamatha, places it in a larger framework. And so the text is called Genuine Happiness. There may be a copy, I can't remember if it's out there. But it starts with shamatha, which is a very good, sensible way to start. Get your mind serviceable. That makes sense. But then, now that the mind is somewhat serviceable, we're not speaking of absolutes here, the mind is relatively stable and clear. Report an error

29:19 Good. Now jump right into vipassanā and bring your mindfulness and closely apply it to your body, feelings, mental states and so forth. Start really inspecting your lived world, you know, of lived experience. And that's through vipassanā, the four applications of mindfulness. So now, okay, well that's really the primary reason for developing shamatha, is to really start exploring the nature of reality, first hand through your own experience. And so that's very cognitive, really leads to understanding, insight. Report an error

29:48 But then one might want to pause for a moment and recognize, wow, there's a bunch of people here, it's not me alone. And so being aware that one is surrounded not merely by appearances, but by a whole bunch of sentient beings, and they were all on this great big... Spaceship called Planet Earth all together as a community. Then want to really take that into account in one's meditative practice. So opening the heart to empathy, loving kindness, compassion, empathetic joy, equanimity. Report an error

30:16 Well a whole chapter on that. That's really connecting horizontally with all the world of sensual beings around us. So that's very rich. And then beyond that, then we come back to the mind. Well what about that mind? And then probing into the nature of dreams. And the whole theme of dream-like nature of reality that crops up in contemplative traditions all over the world. And saying, well, okay, what is the nature of dreams? Report an error

30:37 Can we start being cognizant of dreams as we're dreaming, going into dream yoga? Then it comes daytime practice, nighttime practice, and all really about the exploration of the nature of the mind, going to real depth. So that adds another whole dimension to it as well. And then finally, in this book, then, well, how about, what's the ultimate nature of consciousness? What's the bedrock? Report an error

30:57 What's its... What's its core nature? And then in Buddhism we call that Buddha nature or pristine awareness, primordial consciousness. And many people regard that's just the very pinnacle of all of Buddhism. That's where we're really going. Following the Delphic Oracle, know thyself, but now to the most penetrating level, right down to the ground, the root, the core. Report an error

31:16 Who are you? Who are you fundamentally? And so that was basically another pitch for another book. But I didn't make up any of those topics. Those topics, I'll stand by them. I didn't make up any of them. But they're sterling. The first one's so sensible. Just this afternoon I was reading an article in the Washington Post about ADHD and how they're just still flummoxing around. Report an error

31:39 Five million American kids have it. It costs $50 billion a year in expenses of kids having ADHD and so forth. And yet there's no clear strategy of how to deal with it. And usually it's pediatricians who are diagnosing it. But this isn't their specialty. But generally, those are the people doing the diagnosis. And what are they supposed to do? What on earth are they supposed to do when they have a child? Report an error

32:03 Okay, I think you have ADHD. I went through the checklist. You have five out of nine symptoms of ADHD. I think you're just... Yeah, okay, you have ADHD. You have five instead of four. It's not very scientific. But these benevolent people, I mean, I think pediatricians generally are very benevolent. They're there because they love kids. What's he supposed to do now? Report an error

32:22 You've got a kid with ADHD bouncing off the walls, having problems in school, the chances are you're going to give him a drug. What else do you know about? And so attention is a really good place to start for attention, for education, for ADHD, for mental health. I mean, they just have all the ramifications and it's so common ground. Report an error

32:41 And then step by step, then the richness of kind of the scope of Dharma becomes quite evident. And then you can see where everything fits in. And then that's kind of the injection or the inoculation against reductionism. To think, oh meditation is just shamatha. That's what it really boils down to. Anybody serious, they're just doing shamatha. Because that's what Alan Wallace teaches. Just one more form of reductionism. No, it's really Vipassanā. No, it's really love. Report an error

33:08 No, it's really dream yoga. No, it's a lovely bouquet. And we see the broader context and each of these enriches all the others. So I gave you no answer at all. Look to one book. Can't do it. Report an error

33:28 So over to Peter. Thank you. Peter, could you give some additional commentary on the phenomena known as post-traumatic stress disorder for war veterans, refugees, victims of childhood sexual abuse? Oh my goodness. And would you like me to deliver more coals to Newcastle? Because he's a professional psychologist. Report an error

33:53 I don't know that I have any special insight there. It really is. Of course, the term doesn't even exist in Tibetan, so I can't draw from kind of formal training in Buddhism. This tends to be more of a strength of modern clinical psychology. I have heard, I've heard it said, but I'm really an outsider here, but reading, I do take an interest, that very well-meaning, benevolent and experienced psychotherapist. Report an error

34:19 Trying to do their best to help such people, whether it's PTSD from war veterans or from childhood abuse and so forth. Especially with war veterans, I've heard that one type of therapy or approach, strategy, is to encourage them to relive. To relive the episodes that were so traumatic. Try to bring it forth almost like a purgative. Almost like a catharsis. A catharsis to try to live it and be able to cope with it as you're bringing it up. Report an error

34:47 Process it, understand it. And be able to move through it. And I can imagine that might work in some cases and I think in other cases it aggravates the symptoms. People can't handle it. So, just let me pause for a moment. Report an error

35:11 Okay. Where I go to is a parallel. Not at all post-traumatic stress disorder. But people who are very stressed by being executives in the business world. It's not necessarily post-traumatic stress disorder, not necessarily disabling. It can be very fatiguing, very stressful. And it's... And they're experiencing kind of things that I, for the most part, really haven't experienced. I'm not a businessman, I've never run a corporation or anything like that. So if I were to try to approach such people, businessman to businessman, then I have the short end of the stick, because I don't know what I'm talking about, right? Report an error

35:45 And so there's just no reason for me to approach them that way. I am a professional too, I'm running the Santa Barbara Institute. That's not going to cut it. And so when I speak with such people, then I think, as I mentioned before, I just approach them as a human being. And so, you know, I know you have your profession, I have my profession. Report an error

36:01 But that's not where I'm approaching you at. That's not the level. I'm not diminishing or disparaging in any way, devaluing your profession. That's not at the level I'd like to approach you right now, to engage with you. It's just human to human. And look for the common ground first. Because you're a businessman. Report an error

36:23 I'm not. So that's not common ground. That's uncommon ground. I'm a Buddhist, you're probably not Buddhist, so that's uncommon ground too. So now let's cut down, where's the common ground? And any businessman who comes to a workshop or a seminar or a lecture that I'm giving is not, in all likelihood, is not coming there for the pursuit of hedonic pleasure. Report an error

36:43 Why would they come to me? Probably not. They'll be going to some really snazzy, hot shot person and tell them about optimal performance and the bottom line and how to squeeze more out of their employees and so forth. They'll find other people that do that. It'll cost them a pretty penny. But if they're coming to me, a former Buddhist monk who's a meditation teacher, that's not why they're coming. So I'm assuming they're coming from kind of a deeper level. Report an error

37:05 They're just wanting to make more money and have a more successful business so they can die with more money in the bank. They probably had some second thoughts. Maybe something else is going on. So taking that as a parallel, then we come back to people who have suffered abuse or less just for the time being focused, post-traumatic stress disorder. Report an error

37:23 Where's the common ground? That's where I would approach it. I can't say that my life has been stressful in that way. Not in that way. Childhood abuse, I didn't have any. Report an error

37:35 And again, so many cases of genocide and so forth, I've not been through that. So, relatively speaking, I've had a pretty comfortable life. My own difficulties, but not like that. So, once again, if I approach something there, it would be without common ground. I don't know what it's like to have post-traumatic stress. I've never been in a war. Report an error

37:54 It was very clear in mind, very clear, as a footnote, in my mind when I was twenty, I will not go to that war. No matter what, I'm not going. I will go to Canada. I like Canada. I don't want to go to war in Vietnam and I won't go. As it turned out, I didn't need to go off to Canada, although that would have been a happy alternative for me. Report an error

38:13 So I don't know what it was like to be there during that war. It sounded horrific. I mean, really horrific. And the first Iraq war. So many repercussions, horrific. Then the second Iraq war. And then Afghanistan war. We've had certainly plenty to deal with. But I don't know what it's like. So where I would go with, okay, cutting through that, knowing uncommon, uncommon, uncommon. Report an error

38:32 Okay, how far do we need to go to what's common? And I think we can find it. And say, all right, where are we common? Report an error

38:43 Right now. Right now, I'd like to have a sense of contentment, a sense of ease, a sense of lack of anxiety. I'd like to have a sense of confidence. That I'm a person of worth. I like to live a meaningful life. And that is not a sense of worth just because I'm pumping up something, but a sense that I attend closely and see, yes, my life has worth. Report an error

39:05 My life has value. What I'm bringing to the world has value. I'd like to have that confidence. That means something to me. I'll bet the people with PTSD do too. I would like not to be burdened by my past. Because I've had unpleasant memories, now who hasn't? I've had some very unpleasant memories on occasion. I've done things that I've regretted over 62 years. I've had some opportunities. But I'd like not to be burdened by those, not to feel trapped by my past of things that I brought to the world that I wish I could bring back. Report an error

39:34 Can't. Or things that have happened to me that I wish never had. Can't. So there are some things in the past that are immutable. I can't not receive them and I can't not give them out. But here I am in the present. I'd like not to be entrapped by either what came to me or what I gave out. So how can I then work with that in the present moment? Report an error

39:55 How can I find contentment here? How can I be freed from the past and review it in ways that are actually constructive, conducive? So where I've done things that are wrong, I can't undo them, but I can learn from them. I can learn from them. I can become wiser. I can become more sensitive. I can be very attentive in the future that if I'm even inclined to repeat that, my antenna will be up and I'll say, hey, you remember? That's not the direction you want to go. Report an error

40:22 Maybe I would be bound to do something worse than I did in the past. But I see, well, since I did that and that was bad, but this could be a lot worse, I'm already going to be veering away from that. Thank you, no, burn me once, shame on me. Burn me twice. No, shame on you. Burn me once, shame on you. Burn me twice, shame on me. That kind of thing. And so we can actually grow in wisdom from our own mistakes. Report an error

40:43 And of course when we have been the recipient of harm, whether in war, whether in abuse and so forth, that can be transmuted. It can really be deeply transmuted. So much of Dharma is all about that. Of transmuting that into compassion. Am I the only one who ever suffered from this? Or do I have some fellow travelers here? Report an error

41:04 And to have that sense of I'm not the only one and empathy for anyone who's been in a similar situation. And then in the midst of all of this, there's something really core. And that is such Report an error

41:24 sadness I call hedonic sadness. You'll recall hedonic sadness, hedonic unhappiness. Because something happened to me that made me unhappy, right? Just like hedonic pleasure, something happened to me and I'm happy because it stimulated happiness. So there's hedonic happiness because something nice happened and there's hedonic unhappiness because something I didn't want happened. Report an error

41:45 Or something I did want didn't happen, but whatever, it was an event taking place towards me. But as there is genuine happiness, there's also genuine unhappiness. And this arises from within. And so when one sees this, then one sees that although that past happened to me, and I can't undo it, nevertheless right now I do have the capacity to develop genuine happiness, to overcome genuine unhappiness, and to be better, how do you say, better prepared. Report an error

42:16 To face hedonic unhappiness in the future. So it brings us back to, if we use a Buddhist term, back to renunciation. Back to renunciation. And that is with post-traumatic stress disorder, saṃsāra didn't turn out very well. For a while, it didn't turn out very well. We got traumatized. We got beat up. Report an error

42:34 Well, it happens. It just happens. Big time, small time, it happens. So in the midst of a world that can be pretty rough, how can we then... In that case, I think I'm not going to invest all my time, my effort, my imagination, my intelligence into trying to make the world turn out well. That is, you know, to massage it, to give me hedonic pleasure, since so much is really beyond control. Report an error

42:57 When we recognize that, then we start developing a hedge fund of cultivating, saying, all right, there's so little I can control out there. What's the guarantee I won't have another event that will give me more trauma? Where's my guarantee? And so why don't I already start developing an immune system, start developing my own field here, cultivating my own field, so that should I encounter another adversity, that I can be much better prepared than I was last time. Report an error

43:23 Because last time I wasn't very prepared at all, that's why I'm suffering now. So developing this kind of more of a sense of inner strength, of a vision, and a vision that one really is not disempowered. A way of re-empowering oneself in a very benevolent, very constructive way. That one is not simply a victim of circumstances. Not of the past, the present or the future. That one can really cultivate these inner resources and that way be free. Report an error

43:52 So there's my person who's never done any serious study of PTSD. Scanning left or right? Yes please. No, right back here. We're just doing right this time. We'll get to you suddenly. But right here. Report an error

44:09 Hi, Peter. Peter, yes. This exercise of... The mind, examining the mind space. I've found it difficult, which I suppose a lot of people have, and that's no surprise. But when I defocus my eyes and look at space in front of me and wait for thoughts to arise, thoughts do arise, but then instantly I am the thought. Report an error

44:43 Cognitive fusion, yes. Yes, I think it perhaps should be called cognitive fusion. no, confusion, cognitive fusion. Confusion. Confusion. If I can interrupt you, it's quite cute. I knew a very lovely man. He was the head of the Neuroscience Institute at Stanford. He was a Christian, but very open-minded and profoundly non-dogmatic. Report an error

45:03 And he said, I'm of the Confusionist sect of Christianity. Carry on. Confusion. Gotcha. I could maybe found one of Buddhism. But... It seems there's a basic dilemma there because then at some stage I say, oh, I'm meditating and I'm waiting and I'm watching thoughts. I'm not being the thoughts. That's a problem. Well, are we sort of presupposing that there's some other... Report an error

45:34 The thing is, it seems to me I'm identifying with my thoughts. Sure, that's very natural. I am my thoughts. Yeah, that's totally natural and habitual, sure. But then we... Seems to be, is there a presupposition that there is some non-thought entity that can look at the thoughts? So then there are two somethings inside my totality, some that can look at thoughts, and then the thoughts which I identify with most of the time and think, yeah, what I think is me. Report an error

46:04 There's a kind of something has to be sorted out there. I agree. If it's not sorted out, it's fused together, which is confusion. That's right. And one thing it makes me think of is something Ken Wilber said about when you graduate or evolve beyond a stage, you actually disassociate, you disidentify, and what was subjective becomes objective. Report an error

46:34 Now that seems to be sort of parallel to evolving beyond. This total identification with every thought that comes into my head. Yes. Whether it's good or bad. If it's bad, I'm guilty. If it's good, I'm terrific. And I'm going up and down like a yo-yo from day to day and hour to hour. Right. I need some distance from that, but it seems to me problematic to get into two entities. Yeah. Report an error

47:02 Yeah. I think maybe that's enough said. No, that's fine. You articulated very clearly. It's good. Good. All good. Good. And we also have a nice leisurely time. Excellent. Within the domain of mind, there's not only two entities. There's all kinds of phenomena taking place within the domain of mind. The space of the mind and thoughts, they're not the same. Space and thoughts are not identical. But also discursive thoughts. Report an error

47:31 Mary had a little lamb. There's a discursive thought. And then... An image of a little girl with a bonnet and a lamb, those are two different things. So mental images, discursive thoughts, they're different. But the fundamental distinction that we're drawing here, that we explore experientially, is that the thoughts are not the same as the awareness of thoughts. Report an error

47:55 And this is, well, I think just to take this step by step in terms of this nice sequence, and that is as one is attending to this one domain, again by process of elimination finding it, That there's something left over apart from the five physical senses. There's another domain of experience wherein we can observe things happening. And I think the easiest kind of thing to observe is mental images. Report an error

48:19 Thoughts do, because thoughts have content and thoughts have reference, they refer to something. It's just, you know, you've been around for a few decades, several decades and so have I. That's a lot of time to habituate that when some talk comes up, We immediately attend to what the talk is about, what it's referring to, which means we are identifying with the thought and we're attending to what the thought is about, mom or sailboats or whatever it is. Report an error

48:44 Whereas with an image, of course it may be an image of someone, like there's an image of the mother and then you think about mother, but it's a bit easier when you just conjure up an image, like how about a golden triangle, an equilateral triangle, golden in color. Report an error

49:05 That probably doesn't conjure up golden triangles you have known, like something else. I mean, it's just like, okay, that's so simple, I guess I'll just have to deal with that. There's a golden equilateral triangle. Nothing else is coming to mind. Just, okay, now what? It's just that, but you really can attend to it. And you're not fused with it. I mean, it's really like an image that's been conjured up in space, and there it is, it's golden, and it is an equilateral triangle. Report an error

49:34 Or how about a square? How about a circle? How about a tube? How about a cylinder? They come up so easily. Just boom, boom, boom. How about the number two? Just the numeral. The numeral two. Report an error

49:48 It probably doesn't have you gyrating to all the twos in the world that you ever thought of. It's just there's a numeral. Okay, whatever. And so it becomes quite clear that it is possible to be aware of mental events without being fused with them, without having been sucked totally into them. It's like watching television or watching a slideshow. Just images coming up. Report an error

50:07 When one gets more adept at that, and you see, I can totally do this. There's awareness, and the awareness is not the same as the images. There's an awareness of the images. The images come, they go, and during the interval, there's just a space, and there's awareness of that space. When you become kind of adept at that, and find, well, this is something I can definitely do, then you can very deliberately, if you want to take this really step by step, then you can very deliberately, ponderously, premeditatively, Then conjure up, now's the time to conjure, conjure up a discursive thought. But as you do it, you do it syllable by syllable. Report an error

50:47 So let's do one we all know. Mary had a little lamb whose fleece was white as snow. That's probably enough. Mary had a little lamb whose fleece was white as snow. Report an error

51:05 You could just look at that thought and it's a little nursery rhyme. You can just look at it without thinking about Mary and sheep and fleece and what's the cost of wool this year. You don't need to go into association. It's just flat. I'm just looking at, just like Mary had a little lamb. And just look at the thought. There's nothing really interesting about it. We've heard it decades ago, so there it is. And just say, okay, that was a thought I wasn't totally trapped in, wasn't thinking it. Report an error

51:32 I was just throwing it up and attempting to Mary had a little lamb. And just observing it like little puffs of smoke or puffs of cloud arising in the sky. And it's rather like watching an image of a little girl. We'll call her Mary with a bonnet and then a little image of a lamb. And maybe she holds a little crook staff and that kind of thing and just getting images coming up. And we say, well, that wasn't really harder than imaging a little girl or a lamb. Report an error

51:59 It was just now it's thoughts coming up. And so we're doing that deliberately. Whether it's a nursery rhyme or it's your dress or anything else, but doing it very deliberately, premeditatively, so you know what's coming up. Then you say, hey, I can do this. I don't have to be absorbed in every thought that comes up and be focusing on the referent. So that's one way of doing it, kind of step-by-step, kind of a block-wise approach. Report an error

52:23 But another way, there's more insight. Again, that's more developmental, really doing something to facilitate or develop the ability that wasn't there before. But another approach is the one we've already taken for the first two days of this workshop or retreat. And that is just by getting mellower and mellower, softer and softer and softer, quieter, more relaxed and more still in mindfulness of breathing. Report an error

52:47 Just doing that. And just making this habit from breath to breath to release thoughts, all the chit-chat, just bye-bye, releasing, releasing, releasing. And not just releasing, but coming back to a target. So the sensations of the nostrils. Quite soothing, gentle, focused, calming. And then as the sheer volume, the quantity of thought subsides and you do have something of an anchor, you do have something to lock on to, to fasten your attention to with a rope of mindfulness. Report an error

53:19 So here's your awareness, here's the tactile sensation and the rope of mindfulness connects them and holds them so you're not forgetting the sensations of the breath. As you have that anchor and you are attending the whole course of the in-breath, whole course of the out-breath, Then with introspection you're bound to note some thoughts coming up. But since you have an anchor here and you're really holding on there, these thoughts won't grab you so easily. Report an error

53:41 Because you really have a lifeline to hold on to. I'm sorry I'm busy, I'm holding, but I am aware that you're there. I'm not oblivious of that fact, but I'm holding on here, thanks very much, but bye, and I'm holding on here. Well as the whole system gets more relaxed and more continuous, thoughts will continue to come up sporadically, but they won't grab you as much. And that immediate How do you say, almost precognitive or certainly involuntary, involuntary fusion with them will loosen up because you have something else to hold on to. Report an error

54:11 Like, I like holding on to a rope when there are big waves. Well, the waves keep kind of washing over you, but you still have the rope to hold on to. You're not swept away. And so if you develop that, not only over two days, but if this seems like something worthwhile doing, develop that over days, a couple of weeks. Report an error

54:28 And just develop that deeper mellowness, the lightness, the looseness. Then you'll find from that, that then thoughts will start cropping up that really don't seem to have an owner. Report an error

54:41 Really much more like overhearing a conversation in an adjacent room in a hotel. Like, I had nothing to do with that. I didn't think it. I overheard it. Report an error

54:52 And now you're on your way. Okay? Report an error

54:59 Yes. Oh yes, indeed. Sure. Of course. I'm not really sure. Your name again. Oh, Vanessa. Vanessa, thank you, Vanessa. I'm not really sure about my question, except I've had a lot of trouble with settling the mind. It's not easy. It's not easy. Because you keep saying it's easy. I don't mean that. If I said easy, but there are two words that are easy to intermingle. One is simple, the other one's easy. It's very simple. Report an error

55:25 It doesn't feel either. Oh, but it's not complex. There's not a whole lot to remember. Like a mandala with 720 deities, that's complex. Doing this, this is simple. But easy, no, I mean a few people find it easy, that's because they're gifted. Some people can just sit down and start playing piano really easily. But overall it's not easy, but it is. Methodologically, that one page, that was really ample. Report an error

55:52 That's all the instruction you need. In fact, one paragraph of that probably would have been sufficient. But now carry on. So even with looking at the breath, the first two days, With my thoughts, it's almost like there's a veil, a veil on veil on veil and I can't catch the thoughts. I only catch them when my eyes are closed but when I get sleepy or drowsy then a thought seems to slip through. Report an error

56:20 But otherwise? So that seems to be, and then today I haven't been able to see either the mind. The space of mind or thoughts like the whole day. You've not been able to observe any thoughts all day. I'm not being sarcastic. No, no, no. So when I'm in meditation, the only time I catch a hold of a thought is when I'm getting a bit drowsy and my eyes are closing. Report an error

56:51 And then I kind of catch the end of it. And it's almost like when you're looking through lots of doorways and you're seeing a picture a long way away and it's really vague. and you're not, so, yeah. But before you're really drowsy, what are you aware of? If I'm sitting that I'm really uncomfortable or lying, I find that the breath tends to overtake sometimes. Report an error

57:20 The breath tends to? Overtake. So you know when you go from abdominal breath to then to the nose, sometimes it's hard to drown out. That's true, because this is coarser. Like this is the brass in an orchestra, this is the brass and this is the strings. It's easier to listen to the brass, it's louder. Report an error

57:38 So I'm kind of just sitting there, but I'm not really seeing, I feel like I'm not seeing anything and I'm not, I don't know what I'm doing. Good, I'm glad you asked now. Good. We are covering, I mean it's kind of obvious by now, we're covering a lot of territory in a short time. If I lived here in Sydney, And we're holding weekly meditation sessions or two or three times a week and we sat together for an hour or so. I would slow this way, way down. I'd slow it way down. Report an error

58:07 I'd probably spend a month just doing mindfulness of breathing. And just easy does it. So everybody, again, that Nyam Ti, just teach it right together with people. And actually I could do some Nyong Ti. I've done this for a while. The Nyong Ti is the experiential one. But because I'm off to Phuket on Tuesday morning, you know, then I wanted to offer, and I won't be back for another six months. Report an error

58:26 And then we'll do something different. What I want to do, I really feel like I'm a farmer and trying to sow a bunch of seeds, give background material. So she asked for one book, I gave her four. So background material, you can kind of nurture it and then you have companions here. If you'd like to meditate with other people, you can probably find a group to meditate with. And then if anybody's interested, I'll mention this, this is free. On April 6th, I will start the eight-week retreat and I'll be giving guided meditations every day. Report an error

58:54 We'll have one-hour discussion every day. Within a matter of a day or two, everything will be put up on the internet and free podcasts. So if you wanted to have further instruction, then vicariously join us for an eight-week retreat in Phuket. There will be two hours of instruction every day, six days a week. So that should be ample. And we do go exactly over these same three, in terms of shamatha, exactly these three, but then it's eight weeks. Report an error

59:19 I'm seeing people six days a week, two hours a day. That's a lot. So then we really unpack it, we go through the cycle repeatedly, have a lot of discussion coming up, everybody has a microphone when they're asking questions, so everything gets onto the podcast. And then it's really more like drip feed, rather than for the last four days or whatever, trying to drink out of a fire hydrant. And that's what people commonly say receiving teaching from me is like, head gets blown off. Report an error

59:49 I feel I'm just giving me a little squirt gun here, but that's apparently not what other people experience. And so what I would do is during this very short and very dense time, this eight hours a day that we have for six days, that's a lot. Report an error

1:00:06 And I know that when I'm giving instruction like other, I know it's very dense. I mean, I could just go off on all kinds of stories and meander around and have a lot more time for question and answer. And that's much more throttled back and easy. But will that be the best service to offer in six days? And maybe it would be, but this is the best I can do. I'm trying to give as much as I can and a coherent, as clear as I can, enough time in meditation that it's not just sheer cognitive overload, that there is some time to try to taste it. Report an error

1:00:34 But having said that, the long and the short of it is, we're covering an awful lot of territory in six days. It's just true. And so what I would suggest here, as with Peter, Peter number two, and that is to go back, Where you do feel some traction. Where you do feel the confidence. It's so important not to lose that. First of all to gain it. And having gained it, not to lose it. Report an error

1:00:58 Lose that confidence and then everything just unravels. Just unravels. And I'm talking really primarily about confidence in yourself. Not some person who's here for six days and then gone. Because you are here with yourself every day. So if you can have confidence in your own ability. In your own meditative practice. Report an error

1:01:17 Your own knowledge, your own understanding of the practice. Well, that's a real keeper. That'll serve you very, very well. So what I would suggest is to go ahead and over the next two days. Now, if you thought today and yesterday was subtle, Report an error

1:01:36 just wait until tomorrow. You know, oh boy. You know, tomorrow we're going up to 25,000 feet and 30,000 feet. And I don't give any oxygen mask at all. I mean, no oxygen. It's just freestyle, free climbing up to the top of Everest. So let's have fun tomorrow. We're going into rarefied air tomorrow. And it's very simple. Report an error

1:01:58 Really simple. Tomorrow it gets really, really simple. Not necessarily so easy, but very simple. And so what I would suggest for the next, really now we're looking basically at a day and a half, is if you can just take in as much as you can and not be at all frustrated. Or disconcerted, let alone feeling any kind of lack of confidence or anything like that in terms of what you can't assimilate in a day and a half. Just as much as makes sense, that kind of sticks, that you can absorb. Report an error

1:02:27 Good. And then go back, or often I just give a free period. I say, okay, now do whatever is most helpful. And I do that fairly frequently. We'll do it again tomorrow and Monday. But then go back to where you do get traction. The traction means, okay, this one, this one I can do. And I'm sure there's room for improvement. I can do it better. Report an error

1:02:46 But I can do it well enough that I can see how to do it better, how to be more relaxed, how to bring greater stability, how to start bringing greater clarity. It all boils down to that. Again, it's simple. And so full body awareness in the supine position. Physical discomfort is just, it's a drag. It's really a drag. Report an error

1:03:05 It also takes the fun out of meditation. If whenever you're doing it, you just feel physical discomfort. It's just, it's literally kind of like drag. I would avoid it. I really would. I just don't see in value in that. If you can practice yoga or tai chi or something like that, it gives, you know, slowly, how do you, massages and loosens up the body so you can feel less discomfort while sitting in meditation. Report an error

1:03:27 Very good. Very good. But in the meantime, as soon as you're in your own environment or here with all this floor space, forget the physical discomfort. Who needs it? I go supine. That's what I do. I go supine. Or when you're home, find a chair you're really comfortable in. Where your back isn't sagging, right now my back's a bit sagging, so I'm going to sit up a little bit better. Now I'm more comfortable. I'm not stressed, but now I'm more comfortable because I've got the support where I want it. Report an error

1:03:55 And I like sitting cross-legged, I just feel a bit more, it's a little bit narrow here, but I can handle it. But the physical discomfort is just a drag, so I would avoid it. So find a chair at home. If you like supine, if you meditate, don't get groggy, then go for the supine, it's excellent. Otherwise there's all kinds of comfortable chairs we have. Report an error

1:04:12 You know, high-tech chairs, comfortable chairs and so forth. But where your back is well supported, mine is right now, it's perfectly fine. And then, okay, this is good for 10, 15, 20 minutes, whatever feels good. And then go back to what you feel confident in, okay? Full body awareness, rise and fall of the abdomen. But then take it step by step. We just, you know, it was really fast going through that. Report an error

1:04:33 But here, what was the whole point? What was the balancing act at the abdomen? Greater stability, but don't contract. Greater stability, continuity, more composure, but still feeling that looseness, that real lightness, that looseness. And you're getting there where you're getting, you know, 30 seconds of continuity, 40 seconds of continuity, a little bit of flow. Report an error

1:04:54 And then when you see, oh, I'm really relaxed, the mind is much calmer now. This is serene. The Buddha said to be peaceful. I'm getting that. This is peaceful. Then gradually you can come up here. But because you're so light, you're so relaxed, even though this is a coarser sensation. Because it's more airy and so forth. This one has a certain sweetness to it. Kind of a subtly, like a flute. Rather than always trombones and bassoons and so forth. Report an error

1:05:20 More like a flute or piccolo. It's slender, it's silvery, it's light. And so just focusing there, making sure you keep the whole face soft and relaxed, none of the contraction. Then that can be quite nice. And then you say, oh, but this is what subtlety is about. This is what vividness is about. I get it. You don't get it down here. Oh, I can see. Now that the whole system is calming down, the volume of the breath is subsiding, sensations of the breath getting subtler. Report an error

1:05:48 Oh, I see. This is vividness of attention. I have to really pay attention here, but I'm not getting tight in doing it. This is sweet. I'm really alert, but I'm really relaxed. I haven't done that before. And when you get there, when you get there, Then you're developing this mindfulness, mindfulness, now what's the other faculty you develop? In addition to mindfulness, faculty, faculty, two faculties, mindfulness and introspection. Report an error

1:06:22 Good to memorize. And so you're developing that continuity of mindfulness, but now you're poking in, you're monitoring. And it's with this monitoring of the flow of attention that you start to detect things other than the breath, namely thoughts coming up, memories coming up, and so forth. And as your introspective ability starts getting honed, it's like a muscle, it's like working out in the gym. It just gets better if you use it. That as that's coming up, getting sharper, then you're just going to have a clearer and clearer awareness of thoughts coming up, images coming up and so forth. Report an error

1:06:53 And they started to come up clearer and clearer to the point that you think, you know, I could actually shift over there to the main show and let the breathing go into the periphery. And say, okay, what's up with those thoughts? I was actually observing some of them while I was attending to the breath. I was recognizing them. So now let the breath take second stage over the side. Report an error

1:07:15 Okay, what's up with the thoughts? And you're so mellow, so relaxed, this is now feasible. Okay? So if you let that play out over a period of days at your own leisure, your own pace, then all of this can become feasible, including what we do tomorrow. Because it is, and I really mean it, it is simple. It is simple. Report an error

1:07:35 Simple in the sense of not complicated, not a whole bunch of things, not a brain twister, not like that gnarly and difficult and complicated and, oh, I can't figure it out and this is too difficult for me to understand. No, no. In that one page there's nothing that was difficult to understand, it was simple, but to apply it in practice is not easy. But it comes, and this is why we have this gradual path. Report an error

1:07:58 Go ahead, Betty Rose. And then, yeah, one and then, oh, actually we're... Report an error

1:08:06 And I will get to these written ones tomorrow, but we're out of time now. So go ahead, Betty. Just a simple question, Alan. Focusing on an image, the Buddha, bringing an image to mind. Quite. Is it better to remember a Buddha as in the one behind you or one you've seen somewhere or a picture or basically create your own? Report an error

1:08:31 Both methods are used. I'm giving now a classic answer from the tradition. Different strokes for different folks. Some people will find that it just works better for them if they have a verbal description. Some people are very, so what is it, left brain, right brain, who knows? But I could give a description. I will right now. Imagine Buddha Shakyamuni. Report an error

1:08:56 Imagine he's sitting on a lotus, sun and moon platform. These are just discs, you know that. But the lotus has kind of a pinkish tinge to it, those kind of upturned petals around. He's sitting right in the middle of it. He's sitting in cross-legged, classic Vajra Asana, or full lotus position. So the legs are wrapped up like that. And he's wearing these saffron-colored, kind of golden saffron-colored robes. They get very flowing, very soft, and they get very fluid kind of contours. Report an error

1:09:25 He's sitting there, his back is very straight. And then his hands are in the meditative posture. You've seen that. The left palm beneath, the right palm on top, the thumbs touching. And so that's how his hands are. Left hand is below. Right hand is on top of it. Palms are up. Thumbs are touching. The torso is just a nice golden sheen. Report an error

1:09:47 The arms very relaxed. They're just drooping down, culminating in the hands, one resting on top of another. And the face, he's deeply in meditation. Deeply in meditation. So the face is very serene, very soft. Very meditative. And then the hair, and these little tiny coils, little tiny coils of hair, dark, kind of black, blackish color, blue-black. Report an error

1:10:09 There's something of a sheen of light around, just kind of like a halo, a sheen of golden, silvery, kind of white light around. That was all words. Report an error

1:10:19 That was just words. I didn't give any image at all. That was just words, right? For some people, that really works. And, of course, it's three-dimensional. You're not visiting something flat. That kind of goes without saying. So for some people, a visual description like that works really, really well. And other people, that was just a bunch of talk. Show me something. One image is worth a thousand words. Report an error

1:10:41 Thanks for your thousand words. Now give me an image. And then, some people will deal better with a flat image, a tanka, where you get all the colors. Tankas, you know, rich colors. And then you gaze at it, you take it in, you saturate, you look at it, and then look away, look at it, look away. So you're really getting very familiar with that. And then when you're visualizing it, you punch it out into three dimensions. Report an error

1:11:02 So you're not visualizing a flat Buddha like he's roadkill or something. Report an error

1:11:11 Three-dimensional Buddhas. Report an error

1:11:16 So even though the image is flat, that's not what you're visualizing. No flattened Buddhas. So that's a two-dimensional depiction of a three-dimensional Buddha. So you fill it out, right? But some people find it hard to go from the two-dimensional. They want three-dimensional from the beginning. So for them, a statue is better. And they can fill in the colors. They have no problem with the colors. But give me something three-dimensional. I want to visualize three-dimensional. Give me a three-dimensional object so I can see the volume, the shape, the dimensions. Report an error

1:11:47 I want to see that. And then I'll generate that. And then I'll paint in the colors myself. So different ways. Some people, Atanka. A line drawing, some people really can go with a mental description, verbal description, some people with a statue, different ways, or a combination of the above. Okay? You're welcome. Okay, good. I have not forgotten these, we'll get to these tomorrow, but now let's just have a moment or two, a minute or two to bring the evening to a close, and Report an error

1:12:31 to use the short traditional terminology, dedicate the merit of the day, Report an error

1:12:38 but in a way that is meaningful to you. It doesn't need to be religious. What feels good for you, appropriate, suitable and meaningful? Bring your own aspirations to mind and aspire that they may indeed be realized. Your activities today lead to the realization of your most heartfelt aspirations and urnics. Report an error

· · ·

1:14:08 And let's bring the evening to a close. Report an error

1:14:23 So for the people who tend to be more of a wind disposition or humor, mindfulness, breathing is a very, very nice way to get to sleep. Just a nice quiet space, a nice hiatus, even though this has not been a particularly busy day compared to perhaps some of your days in the city. Nevertheless, to have some hiatus of just quiet, calm, gentle, easing, soothing. Report an error

1:14:45 Nice way to bring a day to a very gentle close. Fall asleep, mindfulness of breathing. And for those who find it quite easy to fall asleep, then you might want to go out with a light on. And that is settle the mind in its natural state for as long as you can as you're lying in bed. And see how far along the trajectory of falling asleep you can keep the light on before it gets snuffed out. Most important, though, it always comes back to this, getting a good night's sleep. Report an error

1:15:13 And this article I read on ADHD just this afternoon said one of the criteria they check for the children who have ADHD is, is the child getting 8 to 10 hours of sleep every night? If not, that may be the problem right there. The child isn't sleeping enough and therefore is frazzled, has attention deficit, having all kinds of problems just because of sleep deprivation. Report an error

1:15:33 So it's very important that our spiritual practice, meditative practice is not aggravating that, but actually helping us sleep better. Sleep better, the daytime is going to go better. Report an error

1:15:44 So get a good night's sleep. See you tomorrow morning. 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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