Alan Wallace Fall 2012 Retreat Podcast: Vipashyana, Four Applications Of Mindfulness

Alan comments that mindfulness of breathing and settling the mind are highly complementary. Mindfulness of breathing allows the prana system to settle and converge at the heart chakra which in turn allows the mind to settle. Settling the mind allows breath and prana to settle. In mindfulness of breathing, the breath can serve as the baseline. In settling the mind, the space of the mind can serve as the baseline.
In order for a shamatha retreat to bear fruit, it is also important to have as few activities as possible—i.e., dealing with people who are engaged with samsara. They will pull us out of shamatha, and we will be subject to the same samsaric oscillations. We need to be protected like a little baby in an incubator. Meditation: settling the mind. Let eyes be open, gaze vacant. Direct mindfulness to the space of the mind and whatever arises therein. If needed, maintain peripheral awareness of the breath. Relax deeply and fully, breathing effortlessly. Take special interest in the intervals b