Alan Wallace Shamatha Teachings Fall 2010 podcast

11.19.2010

Session 79: Happy Gratitude and Empathetic Joy

Alan begins this session with an inspirational story about one of his foremost teachers, Geshe Rabten. This humble lama, who had completed years of scholarly work and consultation studies with the Dalai Lama, found true contentment in life as...

11.19.2010

Session 75: Compassion Practice and the Urge to Become

The deepest level of suffering is caused by the three poisons, particularly the grasping to “I am.” While the “message of modernity” is that suffering is inescapable during life, Buddha’s message is that suffering will in fact cease if we...

11.19.2010

Session 74: Attending to the Space of the Mind, and a Discussion of Dharmadatu and Dharmata

In the intro, Alan explained the difference between the space of the mind with its 6 fields of experience (dharmadatu) and ultimate reality, nirvana, emptiness, absolute space of phenomena (dharmata). Like Dudjom Rimpoche said: dharmakaya it’s the nature of...

11.19.2010

Session 72: Settling the Mind and Applying No Antidotes

Good Morning to All Shamatha Minded Sentient Beings, This morning Alan went into more detail on settling the mind in its natural state. He opened with a quote from Dujom Rinpoche. “Whatever comes up in the mind don’t apply any antidote.”...

11.18.2010

Session 70: Settling the Mind and Being a Student of Buddhism

This morning we began the cycle of Settling the Mind in its Natural state following the instructions that the Buddha gave to Bahia “In the seen let just the seen be…” “In the heard let just the heard be”,” In...

11.18.2010

Session 68: The Build-up to Mindfulness of Breathing (Apertures of the Nostrils)

This morning Alan used the Russian-dolls imagery (the dolls that stuck within each other) as his mold. First, he applied it to our mindfulness of breathing practice. Settling the body, speech, and mind are all contained within one...

11.18.2010

Session 66: Refining Mindfulness of Breathing with Stability

“So with the man who has daily inured himself to habits of concentrated attention, energetic volition, and self-denial in unnecessary things. He will stand like a tower when everything rocks around him, and his softer fellow-mortals are winnowed like...

11.18.2010

Session 65: Freshening Up Our Loving Kindness Practice

Discursive meditation, because it is repetitive, can become stale. Between sessions, look for sentient beings with whom to interact, each time is a fresh interaction. Add fresh yeast to the practice. Invite more and more beings into the...

11.18.2010

Session 64: Back to the Infirmary and the Pure Land of Tushita

Pressure in the head and headaches are not habits we should build while meditating. Therefore, this morning, Alan gave a detailed reminder of how this should be approached: back to Infirmary. This is by giving special...

11.18.2010

Session 63: (Discussion Only) Spiritual Friends, Setting a Sleep Schedule, the Suffering of Bodhisattvas, etc.

Following a silent meditation session, Alan addressed a wide range of questions from students: Post-retreat advice regarding refuge, ethics, and the importance of spiritual friends • Can I drink one or two beers without affecting my meditation? • How to adapt...

11.18.2010

Session 62: (Discussion Only) What it Means to Have a GREAT Meditation

We started with a silent meditation with free choice on practicing one of the Shamatha practices. Then Alan gave some examples of the path of Shamatha. He joked that commenting on your daily meditation practice as being “bad” or...

11.18.2010

Session 61: (Discussion Only) Encouragement for Practice, Expanding Awareness, Controversial Lamas, etc.

We started with a silent meditation with free choice on practicing one or more of the Four Immeasurables. Then Alan gave a little bit of advice and encouragement to all the meditators about dealing in a healthy way with all...

11.18.2010

Session 60: Tonglen Suffused with Equanimity

This evening we return to the practice of Immeasurable Equanimity, with some profound instructions drawn from Karma Chagme Rinpoche, a great Tibetan master and patriarch of the Mahamudra and Dzogchen lineages. Alan discusses the ways in which the Dharma we...

11.18.2010

Session 59: Having Appropriate Expectations in our Awareness of Awareness Practice

In this session Alan made an analogy between the practice of visualizing a Buddha image in the first stages of shamatha and the clarity we can expect to have in the first stages of the practice of awareness of awareness....

11.18.2010

Session 58: Equanimity, Karma, Free Will and Penetrating Past Appearances

Alan explains that Equanimity is similar to the Serenity prayer: God grant me the serenity  to accept the things I cannot change;  courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. It’s not being indifferent. You remain calm. It’s...

11.18.2010

Session 57: Awareness of Awareness and More on Catatonia-Inducing Materialism

The point of awareness of awareness is NOT to prove that there’s no one who is aware because there is. Not finding any-specific-one who controls the attention and concluding that we don’t exist (and therefore no one else exists)...

11.18.2010

Session 56: Taking Delight with Empathetic Joy

Alan reviews for us the process of cultivating empathetic joy. It is possible to find many rewards in this practice as he explores the unfolding of empathetic joy in its three flavors: Attending to the kindness shown to...

11.18.2010

Session 55: Awareness of Awareness and Cutting Firewood

If you want firewood, you can trim off all the leaves and branches and wait for the tree to die and fall over. OR you can cut the tree down at its base - at the root, and you...

11.18.2010

Session 54: Empathetic joy and Achieving Greater Balance by Attending to the Good in the World

Strong mental afflictions catch our attention. We do not notice good deeds as much as bad. This is especially true of the media. We need to make a conscious effort to have an antenna up for joy....

11.18.2010

Session 53: Keeping it Simple in our Awareness of Awareness Practice

Awareness of awareness is “the most profound practice” according to the Buddha, and he gave us this morning very meaningful advice on how to know we’re doing it correctly. You may wonder that if you’re doing such a profound practice, you...

11.18.2010

Session 52: Compassion For Those Who Are Grasping

Grasping the “real I” and “really mine” is at the root of suffering. How do we get rid of grasping? All of Dharma. After 8 weeks we may find that although our thoughts are still like a...

11.18.2010

Session 51: Settling the Mind in its Natural State and the Ever-Present Substrate

Alan starts the session with an explanation of mindfulness of breathing, saying that, with time and practice, there may be a moment where you do not detect the breath anymore, and you can no longer find any sensation. He recommended...

11.18.2010

Session 50: Compassion Practice for the Suffering of Change and the Dissatisfying Nature of Hedonic Pleasure

This evening Alan taught us more about the cultivation of compassion, but now going deeper, from the compassion for the blatant suffering of sentient beings to the compassion of the suffering of change which emerge from the 5 obscurations (attachment,...

11.18.2010

Session 49: A Discussion of the Elements and Settling the Mind Without Conceptual Designation

Good Morning, This Mediation is settling the Mind in Its Natural State. Alan said that because he didn’t answer two questions last night he would answer them this morning. The first question was about the elements. The second question was about grasping. After...

11.18.2010

Session 48: Two Approaches to the Four Immeasurables and a Practice in Compassion

This evening, as we return to the theme of Immeasurable Compassion, Alan offers an expansive and truly remarkable presentation of how the Buddhist approach to suffering runs directly against the grain of modernity’s approach to suffering, and finally how the...

11.18.2010

Session 47: Settling the Mind and Avoiding Reification of Appearances and Emotions

This can be a challenging practice. In today’s approach, drawing from the teachings of the Buddha to Bahia “In the seen let it just be the seen”, we applied it to the visual field, then the auditory, the tactile and...

11.18.2010

Session 46: Extending the Field of Loving Kindness

This afternoon Alan deepens into the subject of Loving-Kindness. He cites sources from the Mettā Sutta found in the Pali Canon; the Visuddhimagga (The Path of Purification) written by Buddhaghosa , and, of course from the Buddha itself when he says we shouldn’t doubt...

11.18.2010

Session 45: Mindfulness of Breathing (Apertures of the Nostrils) and Fighting the Good Fight

This morning Alan raised the emotional issue of the warrior returning home from the front. Going down memory lane he recalled the various ways heroes have been greeted upon their return. Some were welcomed and accommodated with gratitude; others were...

11.18.2010

Session 44: Loving Kindness and Attending to Others with the Correct Magnification

Alan reminds us that the practice of loving-kindness first begins with loving ourselves. As so often is the case in meditation practice, we often discover our own shortcomings rather than our assets. Being judgmental, feeling self-contempt and lack of worth...

11.18.2010

Session 43: Synergy and Balance - Mindfulness of Breathing with Stability

Alan discusses synergy this morning. In the “infirmary” this is experienced while one balances maintaining the initial state of clarity with deepening relaxation. With this practice alone one can dispel 95% of the troubles with meditation. In mindfulness of breathing...

11.18.2010

Session 42: Loving Kindness and Going Against the Grain

In the prelude to this afternoon’s meditation, Alan reminds us that mainstream society is in a frenzy to consume the earth. We are categorized as consumers and told to get spending to stimulate the economy. In the thrust of modernity,...

11.18.2010

Session 41: Addiction/Withdrawal, A Review of the Practices, and a Trip Back to the Infirmary

We are starting for the 3rd time the cycle of meditations starting with the Infirmary, this wonderful practice to get grounded and enhance relaxation. In his opening 20-minute lecture, Alan talked this time about the parallelism between Shamatha and the 4...

11.18.2010

Session 40: Equanimity, a Balanced Foundation for Practice

Alan makes two important points about equanimity and balance. Alan’s first point is that equanimity is the balanced foundation needed to achieve Bodhicitta. Just as Shamatha provides the cognitive balance needed for Vipassana, equanimity provides the affective balance needed for...

11.18.2010

Session 39: Awareness of Awareness, Stretching our Awareness of the Space of the Mind

Alan’s introduction was very interesting. He explained to us that, according to the teachings of Padmasambhava, this practice is designed to go straight to the nature of the phenomena of consciousness, “the space of awareness,” the relative space of the...

11.18.2010

Session 38: Tending to Special Relationships in the Cultivation of Equanimity

This afternoon Alan delighted us with his lecture. He gave us advice in how to continue practicing after one has finished a retreat and has to go back to the usual activities of daily life. He questioned, how does special...

11.18.2010

Session 37: Awareness of Awareness and Alan’s Wrath toward the Neurocentric View

Good Morning to All Human Beings, This is the third morning for Awareness of Awareness Shamatha Meditation. Alan was speaking like a wrathful deity this morning. He is wrathful about the way some scientists (as well as the journalists who report...

11.18.2010

Session 36: Entering the Path, A Wisdom Perspective on Empathetic Joy

This afternoon we look at Empathetic Joy – the aspiration for all beings to never be parted from happiness and its causes – and explore what this means from a wisdom perspective. Ultimately we look at it from the perspective...

11.18.2010

Session 35: Awareness of Awareness and Responding to Fear of Annihilation

In this session we practiced awareness of awareness. According to Padmasambhava, by doing this practice you may realize Rigpa or Pristine awareness. Alan talked about the differences between coarse impermanence and subtle impermanence. He referred to the individual stream of...

11.18.2010

Session 34: Empathetic Joy (Mudita) and Attending to Virtue

The third Immeasurable attends to actuality; it is not an aspiration like the first two: Loving-Kindness and Compassion. Empathetic Joy is rejoicing in the well-being of others. Isn’t that extraordinary…? Choosing to feel right! First, you sweep through your life and...

11.18.2010

Session 33: Awareness of Awareness, Buddhist Cosmogony, Non-Dharma and Renunciation

WoW! Alan was on a roll this morning. He went from discussing Shamatha and how to gain confidence in it (using awareness of awareness as an example), through the different ways of viewing the Universe according to Buddhist cosmology, only...

11.18.2010

Session 32: Compassion, the Path that Addresses All Levels of Our Suffering

The core sense of grasping derives from a delusion that all sentient beings share. In this session Alan explains the causes of suffering, how it arises and how it may dissolve. In his guided meditation he shows us how bringing...

11.18.2010

Session 31: Settling the Mind in the Space of the Mind

With this morning’s practice of Settling the Mind in its Natural State, we shift attention to the background of the events of the mind – the space of the mind. This space is none other than the substrate seen, as...

11.18.2010

Session 30: Compassion in Response to the Suffering of Change, “Dukkha”

What are the real causes of suffering and what are the catalysts? Dukkha, the suffering of change, affects everyone. Even if samsara is turning out well for you now it’s inevitable that tragedy will happen. If your happiness is based...

11.18.2010

Session 29: Settling the Mind and Pushing Past the Ceiling on our Shamatha Practice

Alan begins the first session of this week by a useful explanation on the sources of suffering in Modernity and the impediments that arise in our path to bliss, luminosity and non-conceptuality. Modernity seems to be perfect to increase Obsessional-Compulsive-Delusional-Disorder (OCDD),...

11.18.2010

Session 28: Returning to Compassion, the Best Response to Suffering

When we experience suffering there is a risk that we will respond with grief or anger. Instead Alan guides us to meditate on compassion, which is the heartfelt yearning: “May we all be free of suffering and the sources of...

11.18.2010

Session 27: Settling the Mind, A Thought-Provoking Practice

Before the meditation, Alan explained to us the importance of this practice –Settling the Mind is a crucial Shamatha practice and also has qualities of Vipassana. The practice was introduced by the Buddha. Alan explained also that there are 2...

11.18.2010

Session 26: Loving Kindness and Being of Greatest Benefit to Others

Once again, Alan shared with us some very inspiring reflections about our own capacity and potential. Remembering a question from H.H. Dalai Lama: What is our deepest impulse? He answers that our deepest impulse is caring. Caring emerges from within,...

11.18.2010

What's Alan Wallace Shamatha Teachings Fall 2010 about?

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Alan Wallace Shamatha Teachings Fall 2010 episodes:

Session 79: Happy Gratitude and Empathetic Joy

Session 75: Compassion Practice and the Urge to Become

Session 74: Attending to the Space of the Mind, and a Discussion of Dharmadatu and Dharmata

Session 72: Settling the Mind and Applying No Antidotes

Session 70: Settling the Mind and Being a Student of Buddhism

Session 68: The Build-up to Mindfulness of Breathing (Apertures of the Nostrils)

Session 66: Refining Mindfulness of Breathing with Stability

Session 65: Freshening Up Our Loving Kindness Practice

Session 64: Back to the Infirmary and the Pure Land of Tushita

Session 63: (Discussion Only) Spiritual Friends, Setting a Sleep Schedule, the Suffering of Bodhisattvas, etc.

Session 62: (Discussion Only) What it Means to Have a GREAT Meditation

Session 61: (Discussion Only) Encouragement for Practice, Expanding Awareness, Controversial Lamas, etc.

Session 60: Tonglen Suffused with Equanimity

Session 59: Having Appropriate Expectations in our Awareness of Awareness Practice

Session 58: Equanimity, Karma, Free Will and Penetrating Past Appearances

Session 57: Awareness of Awareness and More on Catatonia-Inducing Materialism

Session 56: Taking Delight with Empathetic Joy

Session 55: Awareness of Awareness and Cutting Firewood

Session 54: Empathetic joy and Achieving Greater Balance by Attending to the Good in the World

Session 53: Keeping it Simple in our Awareness of Awareness Practice

Session 52: Compassion For Those Who Are Grasping

Session 51: Settling the Mind in its Natural State and the Ever-Present Substrate

Session 50: Compassion Practice for the Suffering of Change and the Dissatisfying Nature of Hedonic Pleasure

Session 49: A Discussion of the Elements and Settling the Mind Without Conceptual Designation

Session 48: Two Approaches to the Four Immeasurables and a Practice in Compassion

Session 47: Settling the Mind and Avoiding Reification of Appearances and Emotions

Session 46: Extending the Field of Loving Kindness

Session 45: Mindfulness of Breathing (Apertures of the Nostrils) and Fighting the Good Fight

Session 44: Loving Kindness and Attending to Others with the Correct Magnification

Session 43: Synergy and Balance - Mindfulness of Breathing with Stability

Session 42: Loving Kindness and Going Against the Grain

Session 41: Addiction/Withdrawal, A Review of the Practices, and a Trip Back to the Infirmary

Session 40: Equanimity, a Balanced Foundation for Practice

Session 39: Awareness of Awareness, Stretching our Awareness of the Space of the Mind

Session 38: Tending to Special Relationships in the Cultivation of Equanimity

Session 37: Awareness of Awareness and Alan’s Wrath toward the Neurocentric View

Session 36: Entering the Path, A Wisdom Perspective on Empathetic Joy

Session 35: Awareness of Awareness and Responding to Fear of Annihilation

Session 34: Empathetic Joy (Mudita) and Attending to Virtue

Session 33: Awareness of Awareness, Buddhist Cosmogony, Non-Dharma and Renunciation

Session 32: Compassion, the Path that Addresses All Levels of Our Suffering

Session 31: Settling the Mind in the Space of the Mind

Session 30: Compassion in Response to the Suffering of Change, “Dukkha”

Session 29: Settling the Mind and Pushing Past the Ceiling on our Shamatha Practice

Session 28: Returning to Compassion, the Best Response to Suffering

Session 27: Settling the Mind, A Thought-Provoking Practice

Session 26: Loving Kindness and Being of Greatest Benefit to Others

Session 25: The Healing Power of Mindfulness of Breathing, Apertures of the Nostrils

Session 24: Attending to Others with Loving-Kindness

Session 23: Mindfulness of Breathing (Abdominal), Cultivating Stability and the Five Powers