Spring 2011 Shamatha Retreat

In this session, Alan Wallace guides a meditation on mudita, or empathetic joy. He first speaks for some time about the opportunity of a precious human birth, and the power contemplating this opportunity has to shift the mind towards gratitude and delight. The guided meditation begins at 21:55 in the recording. Alan then answers these questions from the group: 1. When we are practicing settling the mind in its natural state, thoughts always come. Do them come from the substrate consciousness or the space of the mind? and In awareness of awareness, is this awareness from rigpa or substrate? 2. Is awareness of awareness equivalent to the skandha of consciousness? Is it essentially rigpa? If so, do other phenomena manifest rigpa differently? Is that which concentrates equivalent to or associated with volition? 3. In awareness of awareness, I find it difficult to divorce the physical from what I'm doing. When releasing, I feel my body relaxing, and then when withdrawing, I feel my body tensing up. I do

We again begin to explore the practice of awareness of awareness in this teaching and guided meditation with Alan Wallace. He speaks for a short while before the guided meditation about the significance of this practice. The guided meditation begins at 13:50 in the recording.

In this teaching, Alan Wallace guides a meditation on compassion for the deepest kind of suffering: the suffering of conditioned existence. He informs us that the cultivation of wisdom from insight is a prerequisite for this compassion; the sense that it is possible to wake up, to realize true freedom. The guided meditation begins 29:08 at in the recording. Editor's Note: The first three minutes of this session may be difficult for some to hear due to a recording error. Alan then answers these questions: 1. When in awareness of awareness, we withdraw from all appearances and objectifications of our mind dissolve into the substrate consciousness. But only achieving shamatha, at the end of the shamatha trek, our mind has dissolved into a more essential and less configured consciousness. Can you please be more specific about the different "stages of dissolution" along this trek to destination? 2. In this morning's meditation, we were instructed to observe the space of the mind and the objects that arise in

We continue to practice setting the mind in its natural state, today focusing on observing the space of the mind without alteration. The guided meditation begins at 9:20 in the recording.

Today's session begins with an inspiring and lucid twenty-minute dharma talk about the four noble truths, particularly the first three noble truths. This is followed by a guided meditation on the immeasurable of compassion, focusing on the suffering of change because of attachment to the way things are or are not. The guided meditation begins at 21:45 in the recording. Alan then answers these questions from the group: 1. In "The Attention Revolution" in chapter 7, you talk about, when settling the mind, looking at craving, hostility and delusion, and being able to see the bliss, luminosity, and non-conceptuality underlying those things. I don't know how to do that. 2. How should I use a dream journal when I'm waking up throughout the night and remembering dreams - as well as in the morning when I am supposed to keep still and relax back into the dream? 3. In your teachings, you often cite your source for a particular idea or practice. In the book "Destructive Emotions" by Daniel Goleman, Goleman says in

Alan Wallace guides a 24-minute guided meditation on settling the mind in its natural state. He first introduces the practice of applying this quality of awareness to our experiences engaging with others. The guided meditation begins at 14:17 in the recording.

Alan Wallace begins today's teaching with a 40-minute dharma talk that could be titled, "Retreat and Expedition Approaches to Freedom from Blatant Suffering." In this engaging talk, Alan surveys the history of these approaches and explores the mechanisms and effects of shamatha and vipassana. He then guides a meditation on compassion, first wishing ourselves freedom from blatant suffering, then on to others, working both spatially and allowing others to simply appear, "invite themselves in," to our meditation. The guided meditation begins at 41:00 in the recording. He answers two questions from the group, the first of which refers to the notes available on the Santa Barbara Institute's website at http://sbinstitute.com/PodcastNotes/PodcastNotes.html and is titled "Three New Methods." 1. Could you explain the following excerpt from Buddhaghosa's commentary on Sati, especially the underlined parts. "Its characteristic is not floating; its property is not losing; its manifestation is guarding or the state

We return to the practice of settling the mind in its natural state. In the guided meditation, we bring the quality of quiet, bare attention to the visual, auditory, tactile, and then the mental field. In each domain, we allow there to be the simplicity of "in the heard, let there be just the heard" and so on. The guided meditation begins at 7:45 in the recording. After the guided meditation, Alan speaks freely for a while, encouraging us not to grasp onto anything which is not in our control. He also speaks about the process of gaining mastery over one's own rigpa.

This simple approach to loving-kindness was taught by the Buddha himself. We will be extending the awareness out spatially in all directions -- without bounds -- but first requesting that we be free of animosity (the distant enemy of loving-kindness). Alan tells us about how Matthieu Ricard once said, in the context of compassion practice (but the statement is analogous to loving-kindness practice) that one way you know the practice is working, that it's been more than an intellectual exercise, is that if you find, as a result of your meditation, when your meditation comes to a close and you venture out, engaging with other sentient beings, you're actually poised to serve the needs of others, to alleviate someone's distress, if that's a possibility. The guided meditation begins at 13:34 in the recording. Alan then answers these questions from the group: 1. What is the acquired sign? 2. Why, when you're meditating so quietly, does the breath become so subtle? 3. I'm eating less to lose weight, but I feel

Alan Wallace guides in the third phase of mindfulness of breathing, which focuses on enhancing vividness without sacrificing stability. During this meditation, we place our awareness on the sensation of breath at the aperture of the nostrils. Alan reminds us that relaxation remains essential and to maintain a relaxed body, especially the facial muscles, during this practice. The guided meditation begins at 5:08 in the recording.

In this guided meditation, we follow in the footsteps of Buddhaghosa, expressing loving-kindness sequentially, from ourselves, to a very dear loved one, a more casual loved one, and then out and out until all barriers are broken down and our wish for others' well being is equally distributed. Alan also reminds us that the use of visualization during this meditation is not fundamentally required. The guided meditation begins at 12:05 in the recording. Alan then speaks freely for a short time about the skill of lucid dreaming, following up on his brief introduction on lucid dreaming that was given at the very end of yesterday evening's teaching (#42). Alan then answers these questions from the group: 1. You spoke of the "eyes of wisdom" during this guided meditation. I find that I'm not sure I'm using the eyes of wisdom when examining others - especially neutral people - because I find it is easier to see some endearing qualities than others, and I imagine the eyes of wisdom are equanimous. Can you elaborat

In this session, Alan Wallace guides us through the second method of mindfulness of breathing, which focuses on grounding one's attention in the sensations of breath in the abdomen. He reminds us that doing this practice alone can take us through stage four in the stages of shamatha (detailed in his book, "The Attention Revolution"). The guided meditation begins at 9:20 in the recording.

Alan Wallace guides us through the immeasurable of loving-kindness, leading us to imagine our own happiness both on a hedonic and a deeper level. The guided meditation begins at 9:50 in the recording. He then answers the following questions from the group: 1. Can you elaborate on the use of imagery to stabilize meditation? 2. Almost every evening you say "Let your awareness descend into the body as your first act of loving-kindness." My question is, where is the awareness, and is it a cultural dysfunction that it isn't with us? 3. When doing the stretching exercise in awareness of awareness, we go in many directions (left, right, up, down) but not forwards and backwards. Why? 4. In the same practice, why, when we come back after stretching in one direction, does our awareness "release" instead of returning the way it came? 5. I'm always flummoxed when we do a loving-kindness meditation like today, and you ask us to ask for what we want and need. I feel I have everything I want and need, and I see how o

We return again to the beginning of the 10-session cycle of guided meditations on shamatha with settling the body, speech and mind in their natural state. Guided meditation begins at 10:50 in the recording.

During the first part of this podcast, Alan Wallace guides us through a meditation on equanimity, blending the other immeasurable of loving-kindness and compassion to create a beautiful trio. The guided meditation begins at 9:48 in the recording. Following the meditation, Alan speaks freely for a short while and then answers these questions from the group: 1. Can you please comment on forgiveness and the role for apology in the Buddhist view? 2. I'm seeing that I need much more sleep at night here than I do in the outside world, and I'm also napping during the day. Should I go with the flow or try to cut back? 3. Can hypnogogic imagery be useful on the path? 4. What is the Buddhist point of view on out of body experiences?

This morning, Alan Wallace guides a meditation on the awareness of awareness, teaching us to expand and stretch this awareness spatially, literally increasing the space of the mind. The guided meditation begins at 6:50 in the recording.

In the initial guided meditation on equanimity, Alan Wallace encourages us to use wisdom to discern the difference between behavior and the person expressing that behavior. The guided meditation begins at 12:50 in the recording. During the following Q&A, Alan answers these questions from the group: 1. I've been wondering about Buddha Maitreya. You said he would be the 5th Buddha in this cycle of Buddhas, and you also mentioned 13 other Buddhas the other day. Why don't they count? 2. Can you clarify the experience of resting in the space of the mind versus resting in awareness? In my own experience, they are very similar. 3. Buddha Shakyamuni was a very educated person, yet he did not write any books or other writings. Why? 4. In "The Attention Revolution", you lay out a suggestion for using the three methods in terms of progressing through the different stages. Would it be fair to call that a theory, and how have people in retreat used that method? 5. What does "o lasso" mean?

During this morning session with Alan Wallace, we are led in a guided meditation on awareness of awareness. Within this context, we probe deeply into our experience of being the observer, and ask the question, "Who is observing?" Guided meditation begins at 8:20 in the recording.

This afternoon's guided meditation on the immeasurable of empathetic joy focuses on cultivating the underlying causes of genuine happiness and flourishing. Alan Wallace reminds us that Tsongkhapa said that the easiest and most effective way to empower and energize one's practice is to take delight and satisfaction in it. The guided meditation begins at 12:30 in the recording. After the guided meditation, Alan answers these questions from the group: 1. Can you expand on the concept of collective karma that you mentioned recently? 2. Does Buddhism have a concept of free will, and how does this relate to non-self? 3. When I'm dwelling in the space of the mind, suddenly I remember that I am supposed to exhale and release, and I lose the concept of dwelling in the space of the mind. Then I'll just forget about exhaling anything, and breath and maintain awareness in this space... 4. In the practice of awareness of awareness, is there a difference in the way you release thoughts as compared to the practice of

Alan Wallace guides a 24-minute meditation on awareness of awareness, teaching us to invert the awareness deeply, attending closely to the evidence of someone - an agent - in one's mind that stands apart from and somehow controls the body and mind. Guided meditation begins at 5:20 in the recording. Editor's Note: Due to a recording error, this session may be difficult to for some to hear clearly. Our sincere apologies.