78 Equanimity, part 1

10/11/11 • 35 min

Fall 2011 Shamatha Retreat

We come back to equanimity and Alan talks about it from 3 different levels:
Coarse mind - Shantideva: "If there is something you can do about it don't worry. If there's nothing you can do about it, don't worry"
Subtle mind - Everything arises as a manifestation of our own karma. "I will paint from my own mind. All I'm seeing/experiencing are appearances from my coarse mind" Consider what you've contributed but don't respond with craving or hostility.
Rigpa - Everything is an expression of the Buddha Mind. An all-pervasive display of compassion
Meditation starts at 10:47

Previous Episode

77 Shamatha without a sign, part 2

Deep...During this extremely inspiring afternoon, Alan started by explaining how to recognize the object of attention of the practice of awareness of awareness for those that find this practice elusive. Also he explained, with the parallel of mosquitoes flying around a fan, how the oscillation works against thoughts. At the end, this practice leads to resting the mind into luminosity and emptiness.
After this clarification, he went on to present his opinion of some aspects of how is being presented the dharma related to these degenerated times. We should try to avoid to be playing the last piece of music with the orchestra of the sinking Titanic by relying on the notion of the path that starts with afflictions and finishes free from them. He mentioned again the lack of emphasis put into shamatha nowadays.
Moving on, Alan kindly shared with us another sublime passage from Dudjom Lingpa’s Vajra Essence that distinguishes the ground of the coarse mind from rigpa, giving detailed and extremely inspiring descriptions, and clarifying the notion of the path.
Then it followed the practice of awareness of awareness (55:02), probing into the agent to ascertain its nature, essential.
Finally, we got a very rich question (79:44) about the differences between the Mahamudra terminology and its path and those of Dzogchen. Alan made again a gift to us of it...
Please settle your body, speech and mind to listen to these teachings. Enjoy

Next Episode

79 Shamatha without a sign, part 3

Dharma talk and meditation on Awareness of Awareness with the focus on the observer: Is there someone in there?
The Bahiya (of the Garment) Sutra. Bahiya received a short discourse from the Buddha and immediately became an arhat. Bahiya was a merchant who had sailed the seas. On his eighth voyage, he was shipwrecked and washed ashore naked. He used the flotsam on the beach to cover himself and the local villagers saw him and thought he was a holy man. He became well-regarded as an arhat from whom the villagers often asked spiritual and mundane advice. Eventually Bahiya began to wonder if he was, indeed, an arhat. However a feminine diva appeared to him and said that he was not, but that he should go to the Buddha who could give him instructions. Bahiya walks a long way across India to find the Buddha and asks on three different occasions for instruction. The third time, the Buddha consents and gives the short discourse on selflessness. Bahiya becomes immediately liberated as an arhat. Three days later, he is gored by a cow and dies.

There is no self/observer/agent inside, outside or in between. There is no correlate to a self in the brain.
After the horrible period between about 1400 and 1750 which saw the bubonic plague and witch hunts, there was a rise in science and a mechanistic view of the world. This continues today despite enormous evidence to the contrary. 96% of the universe is metaphysical (i.e. it can’t be measured; physicists call it “black matter” and “black energy”).
Everything we experience is appearances – non-physical (although there is a physical existence). What we see is the space of the mind.
Being awake is dreaming with physical constraints. Dreaming is waking experience without physical constraints.
The universe is enchanted with consciousness.

Meditation starts at 57:44

No Question and Answer session this time.