← B. Alan Wallace

Shamatha Retreat with Alan Wallace 2012 (part 40)

B. Alan Wallace · 2012 · 1 h 2 min · Vajrayana Institute via Internet Archive

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  • 0:45

    Second session, we'll go a bit further, kind of pushing the envelope in the other direction, in this practice of awareness of awareness. And just for shorthand, this combination of like the infirmary, or at least mindfulness of breathing, and settling the mind, I've called balancing earth and wind. Just shorthand. But earth in the sense of really getting grounded, mellow, like that earth element. And wind is facing into the wind of all the thoughts, images and so forth. So just shorthand. And this one would hear of this, again, resting in mindfulness of breathing and then moving on to awareness of awareness, balancing earth and sky.

  • 5:44

    So then one lion is just laid down. And now you're kind of into an arena that could be really fertile. You might actually get to the root of genuine unhappiness. Stop pointing the finger outwards. As they say, when one finger points outward, three fingers are pointing inside, towards yourself, and start saying, what is it in my own mind that I bring to every situation that I ever encounter, every person, everything I encounter, what are the processes, the events, the tendencies that are taking place in my own mind that give rise to suffering, whether or not I have... Outside help. And likewise, what are the processes in my own mind that give rise to happiness? Whether or not I have outside help. And now you've entered into a whole new domain of exploration.

  • 11:20

    And so we need an in, a way to get a crack in the dike so that slowly, slowly the water can flow, we melt and get on our way. And I've given it, but I will highlight it. There is a key that can get you in, and that is the out-breath. The out-breath is a natural time to let go. I mean, you are letting go, otherwise the breath doesn't come out. And so in that initial settling of the respiration in its natural rhythm, the out-breath is the key and it's a time of just utterly releasing.

  • 20:05

    But bring your awareness down. And that means simply attend, pay attention. Bring your awareness into the body, the sensations, and then this breathing out, every outburst, just relax, release thoughts, release thoughts, release thoughts. So simply continue practicing phase one of mindfulness of breathing, full body awareness, with the awareness coming down. Get it not up in the upper part of the body, down to the lower parts of the body, and remain there. And in the earth element, you've got a lot of contact with the bed, and all those points of contact where you feel the firmness of the bed, that's earth element. So come down to the earth element.

  • 34:47

    Except people do, and once you've had one, you know beyond any doubt that it's possible. And then in that recognition, in the midst of a lucid dream, you know beyond any shadow of a doubt that your awareness of the dream is not immersed in the dream. It's not part of the dream. It's not part of the drama. It's something separate. It's illuminating the dream, but it's not caught up in it. You are simultaneously awake. You're wakefully attending to the dreaming mind.

0:14 So even people who have been meditating for quite a long time, when we kind of get into the flow of it and get the rush of it, it's easy to forget that this process entails an ongoing deepening of the sense of ease and relaxation and not just getting relaxed and then getting on with it. So let's come back for the first session in silence. Report an error

0:33 To whatever practice you prefer, I would imagine it would be one of the three modes of mindfulness of breathing, but with a point of really kind of pushing the envelope of relaxation, loosening up, loosening up. Second session, we'll go a bit further, kind of pushing the envelope in the other direction, in this practice of awareness of awareness. And just for shorthand, this combination of like the infirmary, or at least mindfulness of breathing, and settling the mind, I've called balancing earth and wind. Report an error

1:01 Just shorthand. But earth in the sense of really getting grounded, mellow, like that earth element. And wind is facing into the wind of all the thoughts, images and so forth. So just shorthand. And this one would hear of this, again, resting in mindfulness of breathing and then moving on to awareness of awareness, balancing earth and sky. Report an error

1:19 So, no big deal about the labels, but sometimes just for shorthand it can be useful. So, please find a comfortable position. We'll have one session in silence, and the second session will be guided. Report an error

· · ·

2:19 Olasso. Report an error

2:24 I mentioned a day or two ago about this unfolding from the substrate which is resting kind of an unknowingness and then unfolding out of that the substrate consciousness coming, emerging and out of that this coagulation of this congealing of a sense of self, pre-articulate, pre-verbal but still a sense of being in here and then out of that emerging this manas, the mental cognition that distinguishes subject-object starts to classify, to differentiate. Report an error

2:54 And then on the basis of that, then conceptualization kicking in and then going big time to find objects and objects that have attributes. And then among the objects we encounter, some seem to give us pleasure. Now that we've coagulated and see, okay, those attributes, those appearances belong to that object. Report an error

3:14 Well, then we find some objects and when we encounter them, we experience pleasure. And so then we think, me like. And other objects we encounter, people, places, situations. Report an error

3:25 Unhappiness arises, me not like. And so then we find good objects and bad objects and then craving and hostility arises and then everything else happens. And so in this process, as I mentioned before, we're kind of rolling back the carpet. We're rolling back the carpet, but we can see that the outermost perimeter is as if this, as we roll it back and trying to go right into the inner resources, the very nature of consciousness itself. Report an error

3:48 It seems like there are different portals or different kind of benchmarks along the way, each one guarded by a lion. So to speak, Report an error

3:56 the guardians and the lion, the outermost lion could be just insofar as we are just fixated on the pursuit of hedonic pleasure and the avoidance of hedonic displeasure and blaming basically everything around us or praising or attributing everything around us to I'm happy because of her, I'm unhappy because of him and this makes me happy and this makes man happy and I wish that would stop and I wish that would continue and now let's live. Report an error

4:24 If that's where we are, then the lion has just devoured you. You're not going to step inside because all the attention is going outwards. And that will give you a lot of motivation for developing better technology and knowledge of the outer world, of the physical and so forth. And it will give you no incentive whatsoever to look inside because everything that's happening that's real is outside. And I think we're justifying modern education. Report an error

4:49 That's why modern education has no training whatsoever in introspection. Not in any branch, not education, philosophy, religious studies, psychology, none of it has any really rigorous training in attention and developing introspective skills. And that's because it's all oriented towards the outside. It's an institutionalization of hedonic, the pursuit of hedonic pleasure and the pursuit of the avoidance of hedonic displeasure. Report an error

5:11 And after some time we may wise up to recognize that even if nobody's bugging me, I can still be unhappy all by myself. Sitting in a room by myself, I can be miserable. And I can't just find anybody to blame. And also, the upside of that is I can sit in a room by myself and I can experience a deep sense of contentment and fulfillment and actual happiness. Report an error

5:34 And there's no one to praise, nobody to say thank you to. No, it didn't come from outside. It's not something I got from the world. There it is, it's coming from inside. So then one lion is just laid down. And now you're kind of into an arena that could be really fertile. You might actually get to the root of genuine unhappiness. Report an error

5:53 Stop pointing the finger outwards. As they say, when one finger points outward, three fingers are pointing inside, towards yourself, and start saying, what is it in my own mind that I bring to every situation that I ever encounter, every person, everything I encounter, what are the processes, the events, the tendencies that are taking place in my own mind that give rise to suffering, whether or not I have... Report an error

6:16 Outside help. And likewise, what are the processes in my own mind that give rise to happiness? Whether or not I have outside help. And now you've entered into a whole new domain of exploration. And so you can venture inwards. You may venture inwards then beyond all of this, how do you say, the cognitive noise of conceptualization, rumination, rumination, rumination, penetrate in. Report an error

6:40 Beyond that to a quieter space where you can see with greater clarity, not so much filtered and conditioned, configured by concepts, memory, language and so forth, penetrating in and now coming right into this practice we just did, then you remember once as you're moving in, even beyond this distinguishing of outer and inner so forth, but just coming right into the nature of awareness, as you're kind of moving in, Inside of manas, inside of that differentiation of all these phenomena and different types of appearances. And why? Because you're not attending to any of them. Not interested. Report an error

7:14 Not interested in distinguishing between subjective appearances and objective appearances and so forth because you're withdrawing from that. So you're kind of shutting down manas. It's out of work in that way of distinguishing among different appearances because you're just pulling right in. But there's another lion at the gate. And that is, now we're getting very close to the substrate consciousness. Report an error

7:34 And you'll recall what is immediately in the unfolding, what comes right after the emergence of the substrate consciousness, is this kristamana, this afflictive cognition, which is exactly the congealing, this pre-verbal, very primal sense of me over here, me over here as the observer, the agent, but not you, not over here, not over there. Report an error

7:55 And so now in this practice, we're probing right in upon the lived experience of being. Something in here, amorphous maybe, doesn't have clear shape, form or something, but nevertheless real, because I'm really over here, and looking right into that experience of that, that's a lion at the gate. Until that lion lays down, you won't penetrate to the substrate consciousness. So, we continue, we continue, but I say I'm really, I have a lot of unpaid bills here, in terms of unresponded to mail, not really bills, but mail. Report an error

8:28 Oh, they've gotten thicker since the last time I looked, and some of them look like their whole Chapters, Report an error

8:37 epistles. Here's one I have read and it's anonymous and I will keep it that way. It's simply referred, but I think the response may be useful to others. It refers to what I would say is a very auspicious dream and when especially, well at any time, but especially when one's doing a lot of dedicated meditation. Report an error

8:55 Some very unusual dreams may arise. Some may be very, very auspicious. The one described here I think is very auspicious. And so when that happens, then what do you do? And the... The tendency could be either to inflate it and think, oh gosh, I must be really getting somewhere, I'm special and so forth and so on, or this is just a manifestation of my ego, I'm really a schmuck, I'm embarrassed, I wish it had never happened. Report an error

9:16 And so either way, that's not going to be very productive. And so that is exactly this dream, and it was a good dream, it was an auspicious dream. Treat it as a nyam, treat it as a nyam. So we don't have that word in English, but I translate it, okay, meditative experience, but that doesn't tell us much. Report an error

9:35 An anomalous psychosomatic or purely psychological experience that arises that's catalyzed by meditation. And they can be from the awful to the sublime. But as they come up, attend to them. You may honor them in the sense of giving them your attention. And just let them be. To try to interpret them, read into them, try to build on them, work with them and develop them and so forth. Probably not so useful. Just let it be. Report an error

10:02 Let it be. In this one, I say this is a gift. Now, a gift from where? Well, let's just say it's a gift. And it arose there. It was very, very nice. It was auspicious. Let it be. Receive it gratefully. Release it. Move right on. Generally good advice. It won't harm you anyway. Report an error

10:24 Yes, developing the skill of letting go seems crucial for meditation. It certainly is. Often I sense I'm fixing, changing or suppressing mental events rather than letting go. Can you explain more how to let go? What do you experience when letting go? Sure, we do need, I mean, all of this is very true, and we do need a strategy. Just to say, let go, let go, let go, sometimes just doesn't cut it. Report an error

10:50 Also, to give a physiological analogy, if one has gone into a spasm, some kind of a spasm, and you're just seized up, maybe you got really freaked out by something, and your body has just gone into a spasm, and then somebody says, well, just let go, let go, and you say, ha! Report an error

11:10 I'd like to. Where do I start? Well, that's for the physiologic. It would be the same thing mentally. I mean, we know what it's supposed to do, but we need a strategy, some kind of a formula. And so we need an in, a way to get a crack in the dike so that slowly, slowly the water can flow, we melt and get on our way. And I've given it, but I will highlight it. Report an error

11:31 There is a key that can get you in, and that is the out-breath. The out-breath is a natural time to let go. I mean, you are letting go, otherwise the breath doesn't come out. And so in that initial settling of the respiration in its natural rhythm, the out-breath is the key and it's a time of just utterly releasing. Report an error

11:49 And we know what to do. I mean, it means release the breath. Don't hold any back. Just that. Just don't hold any back. But it's a subtle thing. You're not blowing it out. You're not expelling it. You're not giving effort for it to go on, let alone trying to get it all out. You're not doing that like you're retching the breath out. Report an error

12:11 You're not doing any of that, it's just simply, but something you can do, just let it out, but continue to let it out until there's nothing more to let out. So the key is the out-breath, but the key to the out-breath is the very end of the out-breath. And bear in mind, the posture is important, better than the one I just had. And that is, if you're sitting upright, there's no crunching over, there's none of that. Report an error

12:35 If you're on your back, then it's no problem, everything's open. But the diaphragm lifted, the belly's soft, so when you breathe out, Report an error

12:43 I'm going to exaggerate a little bit, but I'm not pushing. Report an error

12:59 When the next breath came in, it was given. I gave everything away. And for that next breath not to come in, I'd have to exert effort. Then I'd have to close the door and say, I'm going to hold my breath. I'm not going to do that. But it's giving it all away with this kind of trust. It's kind of a silly term maybe, but it is kind of a trust that if I give it all away, I won't suffocate. Report an error

13:26 That the next breath will come in. And it will come in in its own sweet time. And it will come in in its own sweet volume. That is just what the body needs. Because I'm going to get out of the way. I'm not going to inhibit it when it comes in. But I'm not going to pull it in out of anxiety or fright that maybe it won't come in. But if you give it all away, the breath will flow in. Report an error

13:44 And so you're not forcing it out. You're not keeping it in. You're not doing anything. You're allowing it to take place. But when you can really learn how to be very mindfully attentive to the breath. Report an error

13:57 And utterly let it be. Then that's really, that's a big crack in the door. Then you really have learned how to release. And as you're breathing out, make a point of keeping your introspection active and noting if any chitchat, flow of thoughts, involuntary thoughts arise, just let them go. Here's a nice image. I don't know why I always think of a little girl, but I do. Maybe it's the red balloon or something. Report an error

14:20 But just imagine a little girl, like a six-year-old, a cute little one, holding a big handful of helium balloons, like 20 of them. Not so many that she's actually lifted off the ground, but that's a lot of helium. And imagine this little girl then holding all of these multicolored helium balloons, and they're just going, takes very little effort to release, but then what do the balloons do? Report an error

14:42 Of course, they just... And so that kind of release of just... Do that with your thoughts. That is, the thoughts of the balloons. And they're clinging close because you're holding on to them. But just like the little girl with the balloon, just let them flow away. They'll do it all by themselves. They'll just dissolve right back into the space of the mind. So that's a real key. Get good at that and then your ability for letting go will just increase, increase, get better and better. Report an error

15:13 Oh yeah. In the past five days I feel like my practice is going well, it is deepening, and yet my sleep has been terrible. Report an error

15:22 Yesterday you mentioned the relationship between practice and insomnia, suggesting there are problems with one's practice if sleep is poor. Could you please expand on this? Yeah, this is interesting and not at all unusual. So I keep on emphasizing, get a good night's sleep, get a good night's sleep. And once again, there is a point where it's important to have kind of confidence. Report an error

15:44 And that is, are you or am I, the person who's conveying information, practice and so forth, or you yourself, Who's willing to implement them? Are we introducing into your system anything alien, disruptive, weird, toxic, anything like that? Report an error

16:03 And is something happening to you? Are you doing something yourself that's going to screw you up, disrupt, disturb, make you sick? And I can't think of anything. I mean, we're breathing. We're already breathing. We're mindful. We've already been mindful. We already have thoughts arising. We're being aware of them. So actually, we're not bringing any It's just like your very strict customs here in Australia. Even a nut. I have to declare chocolate. They don't want to see it. Report an error

16:34 But I go into the other line like, chocolate, huh? Even chocolate. Packaged chocolate. You have to declare it. Okay, I do. I'm happy. But really, why? Report an error

16:46 I'm not sure there are reasons, but just they don't want any outside toxic elements coming into this country and disturbing the ecosystem and so forth and so on. So basic rationale makes perfectly good sense. About whether it makes sense for chocolate, I'm not quite sure. But it's a similar thing here, that we're not introducing anything alien. Report an error

17:03 Any strange flora or fauna into your mind stream. So that should give some kind of confidence. So if as a result of meditation, when you're putting in, what, four or five hours together here, then in addition to whatever you might be doing to the breaks, as long as you're not introducing anything alien, exotic, creepy, weird into your system, then if the system does get disturbed and you find you're not sleeping well, maybe not sleeping at all on occasion, then There may be some confidence here that it's not because I'm doing some strange, exotic, ill-conceived practice. What are we doing? Be mindful. But rather this practice, which is sound, which is sensible, transparent, not occult, is actually stirring up. Report an error

17:47 Stirring up thoughts, desires, memories and so forth. It's getting in there and stirring up what many people would call the subconscious and that's manifesting when you're trying to fall asleep and it's creating some agitation and therefore insomnia. So in other words, it's dealing with an issue, a problem, one could say, that is not freshly manufactured. Report an error

18:09 It's not manufactured, created by the practice. That could happen in principle. But how can we say this is created by the practice? I don't think that's very sensible. Now, could it be unveiled by, catalyzed by the practice? Oh, absolutely, yes. And it's very common. It's very common, especially in very intense practice. You can have all kinds of dreams coming up. You may be unveiling so much brightness, clarity of your own awareness that even if the mind is not agitated, you just have a hard time falling asleep. Report an error

18:37 The light is like a thousand watt bulb going, you know, and you don't fall asleep. So, what to do then? Number one, a lot of this can just sort itself out. So if I didn't even answer to this question, probably it would just sort itself out by continuing the practice. And doing it in this sensible, rounded, synchronistic, or what's the other word, synergistic way of deepening relaxation, not getting top-heavy with a lot of clarity, but without the underlying stability and relaxation, that'll give you an insomnia. Report an error

19:08 Too much brightness, not enough stability or relaxation, that'll keep you awake and make you hypersensitive during the daytime. But keep on coming back to the pyramid, back to relaxation, back to relaxation. That ease, that letting go, the infirmary and all of that. And so if you do that, then the insomnia will probably just work itself out. So not to worry. Report an error

19:27 But in the meantime, if it's one o 'clock in the morning and there you are bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, knowing you really have not had enough sleep, you will not be fully refreshed the next day if this is all the sleep you get. Report an error

19:39 And then you try to fall asleep, which is an oxymoron altogether, and you can't. Then what I would suggest is, Go into the supine position and just go into the infirmary. And very importantly, get your awareness out of the head. Out of the head, get it down to the, below the heart actually, down to the waist, the thighs and knees, down to the feet, way down to the feet. Report an error

20:05 But bring your awareness down. And that means simply attend, pay attention. Bring your awareness into the body, the sensations, and then this breathing out, every outburst, just relax, release thoughts, release thoughts, release thoughts. So simply continue practicing phase one of mindfulness of breathing, full body awareness, with the awareness coming down. Get it not up in the upper part of the body, down to the lower parts of the body, and remain there. Report an error

20:30 And in the earth element, you've got a lot of contact with the bed, and all those points of contact where you feel the firmness of the bed, that's earth element. So come down to the earth element. It's that wind element that's agitating you. It's keeping you buzzy. Come down to the earth element, that's just the opposite of buzzy. That's just grounded. Report an error

20:48 And so if you should do that, and I do have experience here, if you should do that, and let's imagine you wake up at one o 'clock in the morning and you don't get back to sleep until seven o 'clock in the morning or whatever, and you say, okay, time to get up. So six hours. If you spent six hours not getting frustrated, not getting anxious, not freaking out, not any of that business, but just saying, hey. Report an error

21:11 Can't fall asleep? This is what's happening. If you spent that six hours just mellowing out, releasing, releasing, being ever so patient, just releasing, mellowing, releasing, releasing, do that for six hours, that's about as good as three hours of sleep, more or less. Doing that is about half as good as sleep. Sleep is really important, but if you can't sleep, just relaxing fully in the body, relaxing the mind, relaxing thoughts, releasing, releasing, gives a lot of rest. Report an error

21:38 It's really, and moreover, it's... It's an awful lot better than tossing and turning and fretting that you're not getting asleep. That really wipes you out. So, there's that. And it will probably pass. Just let it be. There's a PS. I've been practicing mindfulness of breathing in bed until my mind becomes dull and focus impossible. Report an error

22:00 I'm not then falling asleep. I'm exhausted now. Congratulations. So what you can do, of course, this is the beauty of being in a retreat. And that is, you can fall asleep while we're together here. We have all these sessions where every time I'm inviting you to go into the supine position. And if you fall asleep, who cares? Report an error

22:22 It's only the snoring that bothers us. And so just place yourself near a person, you know, with your arms out there. Toggle me. You can even write it in the palms. Toggle me. Should you start snoring? And then the person toggles until, you know, until the snoring stops. We're not trying to wake you up, by the way. Report an error

22:39 We don't care whether you sleep or not. If you're really sleepy, then you should be sleeping and not meditating. Because sleep comes first, meditation comes after you've gotten enough sleep. So, just go there. If you fall asleep, you fall asleep. Big deal. And if you don't snore, that's fine. And maybe you'll hear the chime. Ding, ding, ding. If you don't, we all understand. Report an error

22:59 No problem. Okay. Let's see. At night, here's another nighttime deal. At night I become disturbed by my partner's snoring. Report an error

23:14 You have to get that toggle rule going. And I'm becoming fixated by this. It seems to be single-pointed focus in the wrong way. Yeah, one can really develop samādhi on somebody else's snoring. Report an error

23:25 It's true, definitely. Some of us probably were practicing single-pointed concentration on little children laughing yesterday. Quite clear. If it were a single sound that passes by, like an airplane flying overhead, I could withdraw my focus from it. However, the ongoing, somewhat disjointed aspects of the snoring Report an error

23:47 On the quality of my sleep and consequently I do not feel so refreshed the next day, what can I do to remedy this situation? Report an error

24:00 Well, part of it of course is that the partner, is that partner, is that just temporary? Like, is anybody doubling up in rooms here? I guess somebody must be doubling up in rooms if there's, you know, like that. So if this is just like two strangers who happen to be sharing a room, well that problem is going to be solved tonight or tomorrow morning. Report an error

24:17 You know, problem solved. If it's a partner who is, you know, longer term partner. Actually, occasionally, I mean, this is personal but not at all embarrassing. Occasionally I snore, not very often, but once in a while. And my wife is an extremely light sleeper. I mean, we lived out in the country once and she would wake up by the hummingbird sucking the nectar out of flowers. Report an error

24:43 You know the sound. Report an error

24:48 She is the lightest sleeper. She's pure wind. She's just pure wind. She's vata all the way. And so she's an extremely light sleeper. And so should I ever snore, she's the first one to know about it. Report an error

25:02 And she basically just with no restraint whatsoever practices the toggle rule. And she just yanks me until I stop. And often, at least in my case, I'm not a major league snorer. I'm kind of like an amateur snorer. Report an error

25:21 But if you're that, often it can simply be a change of posture. And for me that does it. Usually it's just a change of posture. Or she wakes me up enough that I can hear the snoring and then I stop it. And then I just roll over and find some method there. Beyond that, I know that this is a problem. I mean, people are sleeping in the same room all over the planet. Report an error

25:41 And I know there are medical, I'm not talking about surgery, something very lightweight from a chemist shop or a drugstore. But things that can be done, I think sometimes pinchers on the nose or different kind of things like that. So you want to be really practical, but I totally get it. If somebody is going... Report an error

25:59 That's hard to get used to. It's really hard to get used to. I get it. I understand. I sympathize. So try to work out something totally pragmatic, including earplugs. And then I have what I use all the time on airplanes. For me, they're worth their weight in gold. It is noise cancelling. Report an error

26:21 And there was one season in Phuket where in the adjacent land, a large plot, 20 acres or whatever, they were cutting down a whole plantation of rubber trees. And that was with, of course, with chainsaws. And they were going about seven or eight hours a day. And it was right outside my window. And they would go, and then when somebody mentioned it, then... Report an error

26:48 They were really disrupting the peace of our mind center. Then they got out two chainsaws. I mean, they were doing that benevolence. They weren't being sarcastic. But they got out two chainsaws to try to get it over with earlier. But they wanted to mow down this whole rubber tree plantation so they could put up condos. Report an error

27:06 So we'll see what happens there. But when it was clear, there's nothing I knew about it. I mean, they own their land, so they're doing what they want with their land. I mean, where's the objection, really? That's their land. This is our land. We don't own the whole environment. And so then what I did for that period, because I was meditating nine hours a day, which means a lot during the daytime, what I did then was I put in earplugs and then on top of that the noise-canceling headphones. Report an error

27:31 That really worked. That combination, that muffled it so much that even though that really, I don't need to imitate the sound of a chainsaw, but it's pretty abrasive, it softened it so much that it really was not a problem. Okay? Report an error

27:47 They say that thorn, they say that noise is a thorn to samādhi. It's one thing that tends to be quite piercing. Even for rather experienced meditators, Gyanam Rimba, he's the one that led that one year retreat 24 years ago. Very accomplished meditator. But he said sometimes when he was really quite deeply in meditation, but the sense is not completely withdrawn. Report an error

28:11 He said on occasion, it wouldn't happen often because he's living way up in the mountains, high, high up in the mountains. Sometimes there would be some really sharp, abrasive, piercing kind of sound, and that would shatter his samādhi. But if it happened just once, then it would shatter it, but then he could release around it and then go right back into samādhi. Report an error

28:31 But in that same session, if that sound was repeated, it was exactly the case of dropping a Coke bottle twice. The first time it drops, but it doesn't shatter. The second time it shatters. If it happened twice, then he'd break the session. And then just kind of relax, walk around, chill. Okay? Olas, has anybody, has anyone, has anyone ever called you a Buddhist nerd or geek? Report an error

29:03 Not to my face and to tell the tale. I don't know. Not that I can recall, but then what people say, you know, when I'm not there, they probably say all kinds of things. How does your wife cope? Well... Report an error

29:22 I have to say in full disclosure that she knew what she was getting into because she knew that I was a monk for 14 years. I did not offer back my precepts and we both know this and happy to tell the world, I did not give my precepts back because of her. I gave back my precepts because there was no context whatsoever or support for being a monk in North America. No abbot, no benefactor, no monastery, no fellow monks and I just felt that was too alienating. Report an error

29:48 And so I felt either go back to Asia, where I'd probably have a short life because I got really sick when I was there, living there, or I'll stay in the West and then try to live the most meaningful life I can without the robes and be of service in some ways that maybe would not be so effective if I were wearing robes. Report an error

30:02 So that was the reason. So a year or so after I gave back my precepts, then I started seeing her. But she knew exactly what she was getting. And she also knew that my, to use the old-fashioned term, courting her or seeing her, Obviously leading to marriage, she knew also that my giving up my precepts was not even an iota of a disenchantment or disillusionment with Dharma. Report an error

30:27 It was just that lifestyle didn't work for me in the West. I think it still wouldn't. I still don't know a single monastery I'd want to live in, in North America anyway, not that I would feel comfortable in. And so what's happened over our last 22 years of marriage is periodically I'll go off into six-month retreats. Report an error

30:44 But she also, she is a very independent soul. She came to the United States when she had an eight-year-old daughter. She had ten dollars, got a visa to come to the States and she's very independent, very independent. And so we have a very loving relationship that doesn't have a whole lot of attachment to it, which means not a lot of, we don't make each other suffer very much. Report an error

31:08 We love being together, but when we need to be apart, Then we understand. And then happily we have technology to help us because I Skyped with her this morning and had a lovely conversation. My stepdaughter was there, also had a nice conversation there. So that's that. It's get personal but no problem. So I just, does she wait for you to go on retreat? No, Report an error

31:32 we actually really enjoy being with each other. Report an error

31:39 And at the same time she doesn't mope when I'm gone. Nor are we on each other's nerves when we're together. It works out pretty well. It works out pretty well. And I'm looking forward to her joining me in Scotland this summer. We'll be on retreat together there. Hopefully she can come to Russia when I'm teaching there. Report an error

31:57 She may do some teaching herself. She's a very, very good Buddhist scholar. And then we'll probably connect up in Mongolia as well this summer. And then I'll come back. And then I'll be in a six-month retreat at home in the little cottage behind our house. And then she'll do the... She doesn't need to cook for me, but the shopping would be really nice. Report an error

32:16 I go for myself. But then I'll have one companion. I'll be dropping in and out, but pretty much just doing my own thing and retreat. So it's an unusual marriage, but it works. Report an error

32:27 I have been staring at the hairy knuckle. I have been staring at the hairy knuckle for years, and now I think I might have just caught a glimpse of the moon. I think you're referring to the finger pointing to the moon and the hairy knuckle. Excellent. Very glad. Excellent. Here's a long one I've been avoiding just because it's so long. Okay, now. Report an error

32:49 From a beginner, firstly, okay, many thanks. I have learned and progressed more with mindfulness of breathing a couple of days with you than over the past two years. I'm very glad to help. That's my job. My fundamental job is to save you some time. My question relates to awareness and particular relationship separation between awareness and mind. Report an error

33:07 Awareness and mind. Very good. And very crucial. You hear the term body and mind. Why not body, mind and awareness? It. Mind and awareness, if mind and awareness are separate. Yeah, this is very good. We're going into deep area. I think it would be, it is very meaningful to speak of body, mind and awareness. Report an error

33:28 And of course it's semantics. It really is. I mean, we are determining or defining these terms. So I'm going to try to say other thoughts kind of flood in my mind. I'm going to ward them off and stay focused here. But body, mind and awareness, I mean, we've heard this phrase, body, mind and spirit. That comes up a lot, doesn't it? In Christian tradition and so forth, body, mind and spirit. Well, what is spirit? Report an error

33:52 One can say, well, what is spirit apart from esprit or geist or just awareness? So I wouldn't have any problem calling it spirit. Just not, you know, let's not get spooky. Report an error

34:02 Awareness is something that undeniable exists. One may get queasy about spirit and wonder whether you're talking about ghosts and so forth. But there it is, that awareness is not the same as the activities of the mind. That is a liberating insight, and it's a valid insight. And it's right there in that practice of settling the mind in its natural state. It's an insight not easily won, but if you win it, it is very liberating. Report an error

34:27 And it's so similar to, it really is remarkably similar to becoming lucid in a dream. And that is, if one has never been lucid in a dream, it's very easy to say, no one can. And then give all kinds of reasons why no one can do what you can do, because you can't be awake and asleep at the same time. Case closed. Nobody ever has lucid dreams. Report an error

34:47 Except people do, and once you've had one, you know beyond any doubt that it's possible. And then in that recognition, in the midst of a lucid dream, you know beyond any shadow of a doubt that your awareness of the dream is not immersed in the dream. It's not part of the dream. It's not part of the drama. Report an error

35:06 It's something separate. It's illuminating the dream, but it's not caught up in it. You are simultaneously awake. You're wakefully attending to the dreaming mind. I think it's probably a pretty accurate statement. That is, you're drawing on waking knowledge. This comes a lot in Stephen LaBerge's instructions on lucid dreaming, and I recapitulated a lot in my next book, Dreaming Yourself Awake. Report an error

35:31 It'll come out next month from Shambhala publications. On sale now. But it's a good book because the material is so good. Stephen LaBerge's material is really good and that's in there. And then there's very rich and deep material from Dream Yoga and that's really good. So I can praise the book because it's all from other people and thank you. And I'm just the waiter that puts all the food on the table. But what was the point there? Report an error

35:57 You started laughing, you threw me off. It's Stephen LaBerge's work, his insight. His insight. Just that... He calls it a critical reflective attitude of being aware of what's going on and being able to assess it not from inside the dream but bringing this waking quality to it. Report an error

36:21 But there's a simple case. There's an awareness of the dream and the dream consists of a wide array of activities of the mind but you're not enmeshed in it that cognitive fusion has not taken place. So as that can occur in wakeful, that is lucid dreaming, so can it occur in wakeful mind. That is, or lucid mind during the waking state. So that's a distinction very much worth making. And then, of course, as you follow the trajectory of this settling the mind, you are resting in awareness and gradually the mind is dissolving, but you haven't gone unconscious. Report an error

36:56 That's a remarkable thing. And if the Buddhists are correct, here's a great big hypothesis. It would just be great to bring it out into the public domain, studied scientifically, objectively, so we can find out what is true and what is not true. And here's an assertion. It's an empirical assertion. And that is in the dying process. When you come to the dead end, this darkness, this dark and irritatement at the end of the dying process, for most people, you really have gone unconscious. Report an error

37:23 Just like fainting or being comatose or in deep dreamless sleep. You just don't know anything because your consciousness is completely dissolved into the substrate. And it's a blackout. It's just not knowing anything. It's the very nature of unknowing. Of avidya, not awareness, unawareness. And so there are very, very smart people, philosophers, scientists and so forth, that say, and I've read this just recently, that death, experience of being dead, is one of those things that by nature is intrinsically unknowable. Report an error

37:55 Because until you're there, you don't know it. Once you're there, you don't know it. And afterwards there's no knowing anyway. So therefore unknown, unknown, unknown. It's just wall to wall, intrinsically, absolutely unknowable. Report an error

38:07 I agree. All they're doing is making a dogma out of the limitations of their own experience and then saying nobody else can either. And then they should go, it's a bit, it's not scientific. It's not scientific to say I can't do it, therefore no one else can do it. So with just shamatha, which of course doesn't require any particular belief system, Christian, Buddhist, atheist, whatever, you need to have a sufficient motivation, inspiration to carry through. Report an error

38:34 But if you achieve shamatha, then you're very well prepared to go through the whole dying process, step by step by step, lucidly. And get to the terminus, the dead end, literally the dead end, the dead zone. And that is the point where your mind, your mind has completely collapsed into the substrate consciousness. And it's possible to be there lucidly. Just as it's possible to achieve shamatha. Report an error

38:56 Well, if you've achieved shamatha, you've already gotten a taste of the substrate consciousness and the substrate. So it's like, hello darkness, my old friend. Back to Simon and Garfunkel. You know, you've been there, you've done that, and now it's being dished up. And this is prior to the clear light of death, which goes really deep because that's going to rikpa, pristine awareness. Report an error

39:14 But it's a parallel that this is on a mundane level or relative level, recognizing the substrate consciousness as the substrate consciousness when you're dead. Report an error

39:23 And then when that implodes, when there is a natural breakthrough from that to the clear light of death. Which is what naturally happens. Then if you've already had some experience of rikpa, it's called path rikpa, and that is realization that comes along the path as you're meditating and gradually a clear and clear insight into rikpa, this deepest dimension of consciousness. Report an error

39:44 If you've had that while you're alive and well, hopefully repeatedly, then when you've passed through the dead zone and there's this clear light of death, which is the natural manifestation of rikpa, you're very well prepared to realize that. And again, Lama Rinpoche did and he remained in that state for five days. After he died, then he remained his body unmoving, not deteriorating, no decomposition in samādhi, no signs of life. Report an error

40:12 And it's, I think, the best way to describe it because he did it and a number of other my teachers have done it as well. This is not that uncommon and it is publicly witnessed. Medical doctors all over the place have now seen this. This is not open to debate. It happens. People remain that day for a week, two weeks, three weeks. Report an error

40:27 And this has been all noted just within the last couple of decades. But when the yogi is in that state, then one can say from that person's perspective, or even just looking at the body, it would be kind of easy to say this body is neither alive nor dead. Because dead bodies, we know about dead bodies. People study dead bodies and how they decompose, at what rate and in what way, at what temperature. Report an error

40:52 I was with Francisco Varela, Richie Davidson, Greg Simpson and Cliff Saron, four top-notch neuroscientists back in 1992, and we went and witnessed a yogi whose Clear Light of Death experience had just finished hours before we got to him. We were there on the seventh day. His final meditation ended on the sixth. But these neuroscientists, all of them are atheists. I mean, they tend to be, you know, materialists. Report an error

41:13 And almost you need to get that stamped in your passport before you can get a degree. They were a bit spooked. Because they knew, these guys all, you know, they know a lot about biology. This corpse that had stopped breathing seven days earlier, and this was in the fall, so the ambient temperature was maybe 18, 17, 18, 19, 20 degrees centigrade, Celsius. Report an error

41:37 It should have stung to high heaven. It should have been repugnant, disgusting, like it wouldn't even want to be anywhere near that room. And yet it had no offensive smell or odor at all. And so they were just quite, I think they were a little bit intimidated by this that shouldn't be happening. So all that is to say that, yes, it makes really good sense based on experience, not just some belief system. Report an error

42:04 Body, mind and awareness is a much more valuable demarcation than simply body and mind. And the point here being that awareness continues on and mind devolves. Withdrawals back into a continuum of awareness. That's a very different way of looking at human existence. My main reason for this line of question is that in settling the mind in its natural state, I don't yet perceive a separate mind space or possibly more correctly, I'm not observing a separate mind space. Report an error

42:33 A mind space. Well, you may be looking for something that doesn't exist, in which case then we'll just be going back to the instructions. Report an error

42:44 Hopefully those comments that I made about the process of elimination can be helpful. And that is, is there a space of visual awareness? We may have never thought of that before. We think, no, this is the room. What space of visual awareness? This is the space of the room. But then it's, no, wait a minute, let's cut back a bit. Let's move away from the whole notion of objects, like that's a pillar and that's a window and those are lights and so forth, objects that have attributes. Report an error

43:06 Let's just scale back a little bit, go to more of the immediacy of experience and just say, okay, how about appearances? Let alone objects that have appearances as their attributes. And then we see, oh, well, yes, there is, because I have two eyeballs and they both work. Here's an elliptical field, and yes, there's space, and yes, there are events that uniquely arise in that visual space. Report an error

43:26 Sounds don't. Smells don't occur in visual space. And so likewise the auditory. And so by this process of elimination, when you've moved your awareness away from the visual, the auditory, the tactile, olfactory and gustatory quickly, And then you say, okay, what's left over? And then you see, are you immediately experiencing anything? The answer is, yeah, thoughts. Good, where are they? And we're going to say, where are they? Report an error

43:51 They're in a sixth domain. You're not seeing them. They're not in visual domain, auditory and so forth. They are in their own domain. And here's the real clincher. That's the only domain left over when you've fallen asleep and you're dreaming. When you're dreaming, you are certainly experiencing a lot of things. But they're not in the visual space. Report an error

44:09 Your eyes are closed. They're not in the auditory space. Your auditory consciousness has gone dormant. Everything you're experiencing in the dream is taking place within the mental space. So if you can identify that, that's worth looking for. Report an error

44:26 And in terms of the progression, once again, of settling the mind as a natural state, that very first, the first benchmark, is as you're attending to thoughts, images coming up, and then simply noting, as you try to maintain some continuity, Recognizing that sometimes you detect movement in the mind, but not always and not homogeneously. Right? It comes in spurts and eruptions and it calms down a bit and then more. Report an error

44:54 It's not even, it's not rhythmic either. It's like that snoring partner in bed. Erratic and spotty and snorting. But there are those intervals between the eruptions of thoughts, images and so forth. And to maintain your attention there and recognize without having to label it, okay, that's relative stillness. Report an error

45:12 And then the thoughts start churning again, that's relative movement. Still movement. Again, you don't need the labeling because you know it before the labeling takes place. But to have that discernment of recognizing the periods of movement, the periods of stillness, relative stillness, and then the next stage, the first real benchmark of mindfulness. Report an error

45:35 And this is a really critical juncture. It's when you, from your own experience, not being brainwashed or indoctrinated, you know from your own experience that you can be still and a thought can come and go and you weren't dragged by it. Whether it's an image, whether it's a discursive thought, again the analogy, because it's a strong one, is like just sitting quietly in a room, just sitting on your bed quietly doing nothing and then hearing some noise from the adjacent room, conversation. Report an error

46:03 And you're just sitting there. And you're not even dreaming of participating in the conversation. They don't want you to. It's their conversation. But just sitting there and then hearing maybe a snippet here and then another voice comes in. You can hear some of it, understand some of it. And then there's a pause. A bit more comes. And you're just absolutely not part of it. You're not an agent. Report an error

46:26 You're not thinking it. You're just witnessing it. Then you are simultaneously experiencing stillness and motion. The motion of your own thoughts, the stillness of your awareness, that you're not caught up in the drama, in the dialogue, in the associated thinking and so forth. Report an error

46:44 Possibly of relevance is that I find it very, very difficult to visualize. It shouldn't be a problem. It really shouldn't be a problem. That is, if you can easily visualize, then when you settle the mind in its natural state, you'll probably have a lot of mental imagery coming up early on. But even if you can't, I won't ask, you know, I'll keep this anonymous. Report an error

47:05 Because I'll do that as a default mode. You may not be able to visualize, but can you dream? And do you dream with images? If so, then that capacity is there. Do you ever experience hypnagogic imagery, that really clear imagery when you're on the cusp between waking and sleeping? So what I'm suggesting here is just by settling deeper and deeper into this practice, letting your mind settle in its natural state, images will start to arise. Report an error

47:29 And it has nothing to do with whether you can visualize or not. These are happening to you. Like a slideshow, like little video snips and so forth. So I see two options. There are likely to be others. Persevere with settling the mind in its natural state. If so, some hints or suggestions for my block. So I gave them. But overall, I'll come back and mention the thing I mentioned earlier with respect to insomnia. Report an error

47:53 And just overall, it's just this loosening up. This loosening up. And that you can practically do with the three phases of mindfulness of breathing. First, going right back to the ground. Deepening central relaxation of ease and letting go. And then gradually just calming the sheer volume of thoughts coming up. Report an error

48:13 And just by letting them go, letting them go, rise and fall of the tummy. And just so you're not overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude or volume, quantity of them. Just that. So it subsides. And then if you bring greater clarity to it, and when you hear the apertures of the nostrils, start highlighting that introspection. Report an error

48:30 But you still have a rope to hold on to. You have that flow of tactile sensations of the breath, the actual passage of the air. You have something to hold on to, and as you're doing it, holding on to that, then you'll note thoughts, and they won't drag you away so much because you have something to hold on to, because you're focusing on the breath. Report an error

48:47 So that can be very useful. And, good, focusing on mindfulness of breathing, this seems to be progressing well for me. Then I say, probably I didn't need to respond to your question. I'm happy to do have sense, so hopefully it's useful. But if you can simply progress more and more deeply in those three qualities and mindfulness of breathing, the rest of the problem will probably be solved. Because you're all set up. You're set up for it. Report an error

49:13 Yeah, and very true. Settling the mind is a very good preparation for Vipassanā. If relevant time permits, the difference between awareness and consciousness. I'm using, generally when I'm teaching, for all the really important nouns and verbs, I'm translating directly from Tibetan. Because I kind of then feel, I know where it's coming from and I have a lot of confidence. Report an error

49:33 And the two words, there's one word shepa, I'm translating uniformly as consciousness. Another word rikpa, I'm translating as awareness or depending on context, pristine awareness. In Tibetan, these two terms are used interchangeably. That is on a relative level. Are you aware of, are you aware of, are you conscious of, interchangeably. Report an error

49:54 It's only when rikpa is used in the deeper sense, as rikpa as in pristine awareness, then it's no longer equivalent to shepa, which is simply consciousness. But overall, Awareness consciousness, when I'm speaking, unless I add a modifier, like pristine awareness or primordial consciousness, which is another term, ye she, primordial she, she ba, is then, that once again is essentially equivalent to Rikpa, pristine awareness, primordial consciousness. Report an error

50:19 So, awareness consciousness, synonyms. Report an error

50:27 Very good, very good. Okay, a little bit more. A couple of long ones, here's one moderate. Could you please explain more about the use, effect and requirement of the preliminary practices? My galukpa-based understanding is that one should generally consider themselves merit deficient in terms of attaining higher realizations such as shamatha, Mahamudra, etc. Report an error

50:50 So the preliminaries are practiced in order to build merit, to accumulate merit and to soften the mind, purify the mind. It was interesting here you suggest that in today's world they could be replaced with meditation and psychotherapy. Oh, I wouldn't quite say that. I think that when one is practicing the preliminaries in a very effective way, with a lot of faith, a lot of focused attention, deep sincerity and so forth, that they're doing more than medication and psychotherapy. Report an error

51:19 I think they're working on a deeper level. That is my belief. So the implication was that they are required only to overcome major obstacles. No, I really am very traditional there. I think these preliminary practices, Vajrasatva and so forth, can be very, very useful and there's nothing quite in modernity that is their correspondent. Report an error

51:37 I don't understand the theory or power behind the preliminaries. Is it mainly a matter of simple self-belief? Please enlighten me, many thanks. Do you mean to discuss their importance or are you just adjusting the teachings for the audience? That's very, very good. Happy to respond. Report an error

51:56 If we go, because I've had 20 years of really solid training in Galupa by some outstanding teachers, so I'm fairly familiar with that tradition, much of that time as a monk. If one goes to the kind of the classic treatises by Tsongkhapa and other great Galupa masters, the lamrim, the stages of the path, the so-called preliminaries, so-called preliminaries like Vajrasafra practice, mandala offering, prostration and so forth, they're not there. Report an error

52:22 They're not there. I mean, I've read Tsongkhapa, I've translated Tsongkhapa. It's not there. What is there is a very strong emphasis on developing authentic motivation. We call it renunciation. Disengaging from our addiction, our fixation on hedonic pleasure and hedonic displeasure. Developing authentic motivation, recognizing what are the true sources of happiness and of suffering and then getting real. And that's on an individual track, your own track of, think about liberation and not just running around in the hedonic treadmill. Report an error

52:53 And then on that basis, then the next major phase of lamrim is expanding your awareness to include all sentient beings in a spirit of empathy, of benevolence, of loving kindness, compassion, developing bodhicitta. On that basis, then living a lifestyle in accordance with that, oriented towards generosity, ethical discipline, developing patience, fortitude, inner strength, developing a joy, a delight, enthusiasm in the practice. Report an error

53:17 And then on that basis, create big sections on shamatha. Big sections in Samatha. And then after that Vipassanā, after that comes Vajrayana. And I'm glad to be as old as I am because I've heard a lot of teachings by now. And one of them was during the Dalai Lama's first teaching tour of the West. He was in Europe, just in Switzerland and in Greece in 1979. And I had the wonderful opportunity, the privilege to be his interpreter. Report an error

53:46 He went down to Greece and there were some students there of a very, very fine Gagyupa Lama by the name of Kalur Rinpoche, quite renowned. He had like 150 centers, 200 centers around the world. He was like Lama Zopa Rinpoche, but earlier. And so he had a small, like just a cluster of students in some little town in Greece. Report an error

54:04 And the Dalai Lama, this was 10 years before he won the Nobel Prize, so it was easier to get him to come. It wasn't so much in demand. So he visited this little tiny center with just a few people. And they voiced this concern, basically this concern. And then we'll take a break. Report an error

54:21 That Kaldur Rinpoche, who is a marvelous Lama, he's one of my Lamas, I received initiation from him, and very traditional, he encourages students really quite uniformly, okay, if you're really serious, you really want to follow the path of Vajrayana, follow Milarepa, Marpa, Naropa and so forth, the great adepts of the Gagyut tradition and its predecessors. Report an error

54:42 Well, the first thing is purify your mind and develop... Accrue merit, and that is get cracking, start doing the preliminary practices, 100,000 prostrations, 100,000 vajrasatva, 100,000 mandala offering, and so forth. You've got five sets of 100,000. That's going to take you a while. But the problem is these people had hardly any understanding of Buddhism at all. Back then, this is 1979, the only books on Tibetan Buddhism that were translated into Greek were the books of Lop Sang Rampak. Report an error

55:11 So one or two people who know who he was, he was a charlatan. Completely shard and he's selling snake oil. Total hocus pocus. And that's all they had. And then they had Kala Rinpoche. He was a superb yogi. So these poor people there in this little tiny village and little tiny Dharma center, basically somebody's home, they said, you know, he's told us we should do Vajrasattva and we're offering them mandala with Mount Meru and the four continents. Report an error

55:35 What on earth is that? I'm supposed to offer it with all these devas and all that kind of stuff. What am I doing here? Why is this accruing merit? Which part? Is this... Is that accruing merit? Or is this accruing merit? Or is this accruing? Which part is accruing? Or is it the mantra that's accruing merit? I mean, exactly, what's the merit part? Because this is totally weird. Report an error

55:55 And they didn't want to do it. And so they said, you know, what's up with this? We really need to do it. Is this really the entryway? And the Dalai Lama came right back. I was translating for him and he said, no, this is not the entry into Buddha Dharma. He wasn't refuting color, he was just saying, These are preliminary practices, and I quote him pretty much verbatim. These preliminary practices are preliminary for Vajrayana practice. Esoteric, advanced practice. Report an error

56:18 But he said that the real entry, where you should be getting your hands and working and kneading the dough, is the Four Noble Truths. What's the reality of suffering, its source, the possibility of liberation and the path? Why don't you learn about that? About the nature of renunciation, bodhicitta, get teachings on emptiness and interdependence. Report an error

56:37 Bodhicitta, the bodhisattva way of life. This is the foundation. This is what you should be really dealing with now. And when you've absorbed that, you've developed authentic motivations and bodhicitta, realization of emptiness, and you're ready then to progress on to Vajrayana, that's the time when you do preliminary practices. Report an error

56:54 So those preliminary practices are preliminary not to Buddha Dharma, not to Samatha, not to Vipassanā. They are preliminary practices for Vajrayana practice. Now, there is a text for which we've had a citation, that one page of settling the mind in its natural state. I mentioned, this is classic teaching. There's nothing iconoclastic about it. Report an error

57:14 All he deals with is renunciation, developing authentic motivation and then establishing a really meaningful relationship with your spiritual guide or mentor. And then, boom, he's right into shamatha. He said, this is the foundation for the stages of generation and completion. This makes your mind serviceable, exceptionally sane, composed, balanced. Report an error

57:33 And then immediately following that, then he goes into the preliminaries, but not preliminaries first. So, final point here, from Kalor Rinpoche himself. Back in 1980, he was in San Francisco, and somebody asked him the same question. It's kind of the chicken and the egg kind of question. Because he'd been speaking about shamatha and its importance, somebody raised a hand and said, it was Richard Barron translating, I wasn't there, but I heard it on tape. Report an error

58:00 On the one hand, we hear about the importance of shamatha, which Kala Rinpoche himself had emphasized. Why not? It's obvious. On the other hand, he was emphasizing that preliminary practices are very important. So the question was, which shall we do first? And his answer was, well, if you develop your shamatha first, you make your mind serviceable, stable, clear, focused, and then you take that finely honed mind, made serviceable, and you apply that to these... Report an error

58:26 more complex practices of Vajrasattva and so forth, then they'll be much empowered. You'll be focused, clear, stable, be able to maintain continuity. You'll really be able to do them. They'll have much more power, much more transformative power for accumulating merit and purifying the mind if you bring a serviceable mind to them rather than a junky mind that just flip-flops like a fish on the beach between laxity and excitation. Report an error

58:49 So Thank you. So, on the one hand. And then he said, on the other hand, If you are really drawn to, if you have the faith in doing the preliminary practices, you do them with sincerity, as much focus as you can, you purify, you accumulate merit, and then you go to shamatha afterwards, oh, that will make it much easier for you to achieve shamatha. Report an error

59:10 Far less obstacles. So another very well-known Lama, Chukinima Rinpoche, he's the oldest brother of Sokni Rinpoche, Mingya Rinpoche, and they're all sons of the Tuka Urgen. He's an outstanding Dzogchen master. He's really based in Kathmandu, and I met him years ago, but he's about my age. He's really, really solid. Report an error

59:33 Gagyut, Ningma, primarily Gagyut tradition. And he was asked about this, the same question. It's a big one, so I'm elaborating, then we will take the break. And that is, somebody asked him, you know, do we really have to do these preliminary practices? People have been asking this for decades by now, Westerners. And his answer was, and I have this on tape, I can share it with anybody who's interested. Report an error

59:54 Because one of my students was there and she had her mind blown by his answer. And he said, you know, look, if you're approaching these preliminary practices as a burden, you don't really want to do them. But the Lama said, the Lama said, I have to do this before I can do the practices I really want to do. Almost like, what do they call it, getting hazed in college. Report an error

1:00:13 You know, before you can join the fraternity, they make you eat raw eggs or whatever. Or having to run the gauntlet and everybody spanks you on the way through. A hundred thousand spanks from Bajrasattva. Report an error

1:00:29 If you're doing it just because you gotta, you don't really wanna, but you gotta, it's not going to be a benefit. You're just trying to get through it. So why would you think that's going to be really meritorious and purify your mind if you're just trying to get through it so you can just do something else? It's not going to be beneficial. So why don't you chill, set it aside. Report an error

1:00:48 If you don't want to do it, you don't have faith in it, not inclined to it. In which case, and then you say, well, then what should we do? And his answer blew my mind, because we only met once for about an hour, and I'm not his teacher by any remotest stretch of imagination. And he said, well, if you're not going to start with a preliminary, what you should start with would be shamatha, and the four applications of mindfulness, and the four measurables. Report an error

1:01:16 Absolutely foundational, rounded, solid, transformative, wonderful practice. And that's what I've been teaching for years now. But of course, it's not my teaching. Teachings are already there. And they are foundational. But I must say I was very gratified to see on a very independent track. I mean, he and I, we hardly ever crossed paths that he came to the same conclusion. Report an error

1:01:37 And then if at some point in your Dharma career, so to speak, your development, and if faith increases, devotion increases, then when you are so inclined, if you're drawn to doing the preliminary practices, then by all means, go for it. And they will be beneficial. And I've done them and I've found them, a number of them, very, very beneficial. I'm doing my third set of Vatra Sattva these days. Report an error

1:01:57 Not because anybody told me to. It's because I really would like to. It's beneficial. So that was a long answer, but it's an important question. It's now 5 past, so let's come back at 20 past the hour. We'll have another session. 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.

Recorded at Vajrayana Institute, Sydney, and archived by the institute on Internet Archive. More from Vajrayana Institute

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