Spring 2011 Shamatha Retreat

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