Spring 2011 Shamatha Retreat

Alan Wallace guides a 24-minute meditation on loving-kindness, first for oneself, and then ultimately in all directions without barriers. He discusses the catalyst for the aspiration of loving-kindness and the importance of living a life of virtue.

He then answers the following questions from the group:

1. While doing awareness of awareness practice, I don't see a difference between awareness and mind. What is the relationship between awareness and mind?

2. Is it possible to achieve shamatha with the four immeasurable practices?

3. In Dudjom Lingpa's "Vajra Essence", there is a shamatha practice in which you visualize a bindu at the heart center. Can you talk about that?

This 24-minute guided meditation on mindfulness of breathing focuses on the tactile sensation of the breath in the abdomen, balancing stability and relaxation.

The immeasurable of loving-kindness is guided through a 24-minute meditation which focuses on envisioning the causes and conditions for one's own happiness, achieving this happiness, and then sharing this happiness with others.

Alan then answers the following questions:

1. How do we decide what length breaks to take between sessions? Also, I am getting sleepy after a few sessions - am I doing it wrong?

2. How do you say awareness in Tibetan?

3. When settling the mind in its natural state, where is awareness when I am thinking?

4. Is it possible to think without awareness?

5. A comment on diet and vegetarianism.

6. I noticed that when practicing the stretching exercise during awareness of awareness, I sensed my whole energetic body was stretching out. What was that?

7. What are your reasons for not using a Buddha image [a visualization practice] as a focus for meditation?

8. Please point out if and how agitation [excitation] and dullness [laxity] differ for the three shamatha practices.

9. In so far as overcoming excitation and laxity indicates achieving different stages of shamatha, must one do so in every type of shamatha to achieve that level?

We return to the beginning of our 10-day cycle, starting again with mindfulness of breathing. Going to what Alan Wallace refers to as 'the infirmary,' this 24-minute guided meditation on the breath encourages deep relaxation and a gentle but attentive letting go.

In this afternoon session, Alan Wallace guides a 24-minute meditation on equanimity, focusing on the expression of equanimity for oneself and other sentient beings, including a dear friend, neutral person, and enemy.

During the following question and answer period, Alan answers these questions:

1. What is the thing shooting out of the head of the Buddhas here?

2. When doing shamatha without a sign I tend to tense up and close my eyes. How can I release this tension?

3. Regarding the four applications of mindfulness, how do they vary among the different schools of Buddhism?

4. On what basis should I choose my main practice for the retreat?

5. Should loving-kindness practice lead us to be vegetarians?

6. What is happening with the energies in the body during shamatha, and what types of natural healing take place?

7. During the meditation of settling the mind, we are supposed to meditate without distraction and attachment -- but why not without aversion?

8. In awareness of awareness practice, is the point of the practice to hold the inquiry of who is being aware, without releasing awareness back into itself?

9. While practicing bodhicitta, I understand that it is important to think that all sentient beings have been my mother. This is difficult for me.

In this morning session, Alan Wallace guides us in a 24-mintute meditation on shamatha without a sign, or awareness of awareness, focusing on stretching this awareness in different directions: left, right, up, down, and to the heart center.

Alan Wallace teaches on the immeasurable of equanimity, or uppekha, focusing on a Theravaden perspective. This can be described as even-mindedness or emotional equilibrium.

During the following question and answer period, Alan answers these questions:

1. When and how should I begin to lengthen my meditation sessions?

2. Sometimes I seem to make progress in my practice, but almost inevitably what follows this is a fresh wave of distractions. Is this something in the early stages of shamatha practice? Why does this happen?

3. I am having trouble sleeping through the night while on retreat - how to deal with this challenge?

4. During awareness of awareness practice, I find that while inverting awareness I create a subtle tension in my mind. How can I release this tension?

5. Must I first achieve shamatha before moving on to vipassana or other practices?

6. When I'm practicing awareness of awareness, my awareness is going out to some space in front of me...

7. Can you speak about the differences and similarities between practice during a meditation session and practice between meditation sessions?

In this morning session, Alan Wallace guides a 24-minute session of shamatha without a sign, or the awareness of awareness. During the introduction, he speaks about the clear light of death, the bardos, and the clear light of conception.

In this afternoon session, Alan Wallace guides us in a 24-minute meditation on mudita, or empathetic joy, from the perspective of mudita as an aspiration that all sentient beings never be parted from happiness free of suffering.

During the following question and answer, Alan addresses these questions:

1. I wonder why the monks at the dharma center where I teach a version of shamatha do not come to my teachings.

2. How has the Shamatha Project study been received by the scientific community?

3. Where to from here, now that the Shamatha Project is over?

4. What is the definition of sentient beings?

In this morning session, Alan Wallace guides a 24-minute meditation on shamatha without a sign, focusing on probing into the nature of the mind and looking for the referent of the mind.