Fall 2014 Shamatha, Vipashyana, Dream Yoga
This eight-week retreat will focus on three of the six transitional processes, namely:
- the Transitional Process of Living, with teachings on śamatha and vipaśyanā,
- the Transitional Process of Dreaming, with teachings on dream yoga, and
- the Transitional Process of Meditation with teachings on Dzogchen meditation.
All these teachings will be based on the text The Profound Dharma of The Natural Emergence of the Peaceful and Wrathful from Enlightened Awareness Stage of Completion Instructions on the Six Transitional Processes, an “earth terma” of teachings by Padmasambhava, revealed by Karma Lingpa in the fourteen century.
The English translation of this text has been published under the title Natural Liberation: Padmasambhava’s Teachings on the Six Bardos, with commentary by Gyatrul Rinpoche and translated by B. Alan Wallace.
- Update frequency
- every day
- Episodes
- 93
- Years Active
- 2014
94 On The Journey to Sukhavati
As a bonus, at the end of our retreat Alan presented to us the teachings on Sukhavati from Karma Chagme. If you missed your chance for the three modes of achieving enlightenment, then it is definitel…
Wed 15 Oct 2014
93 Becoming A Child Of The Buddhas
What better way to end a retreat than with Shantideva’s beautiful verses about embracing bodhicitta! The verses cited today are often used for the liturgy when taking the bodhisattva precepts. Shanti…
Wed 15 Oct 2014
92 Achieving Buddhahood By Doing Nothing…ha ha
In the silent meditation we are once again asked to balance earth and sky and to proceed at our own pace.
After the meditation we finish the transitional process of meditation. The text shows how to …
Tue 14 Oct 2014
91 Four Rivers Flowing Into One Resolve
On the penultimate stage to the cultivation of bodhicitta we return to the great resolve: I shall free all sentient beings. Alan points how that the deeper this promise sinks into you, the clearer it…
Tue 14 Oct 2014
90 An Approximation of Pure Land in Sight?
At the beginning Alan shares extremely uplifting news as what concerns “Project Contemplative Observatory”. After having failed to build one in India and in Santa Barbara it finally looks as if a pro…
Mon 13 Oct 2014
89 Great Equanimity, and the Importance of Views
Alan starts by talking about his last dharma talk and once more making clear that his anger was not directed towards any person, but simply towards a certain view. This is important to stress because…
Mon 13 Oct 2014
88 Turning Up the Heat on Learned Ignorance
The session begins with a guided meditation on variations of taking the mind as the path, beginning with maintaining peripheral awareness of fluctuations of the breath before single-pointedly focusin…
Sat 11 Oct 2014
87 Great Mudita
“Why couldn’t all beings never be parted from sublime happiness free from suffering?” This question beginning the meditation on Great Mudita, Alan says, is a synthesis of great loving kindness and gr…
Sat 11 Oct 2014
86 Ripened and Liberated
Before the meditation, Alan elaborates on the importance of preliminary practices and the accumulation of merit in order to prepare the mind. However, that is not enough since merit can be lost, espe…
Fri 10 Oct 2014
85 Bringing wisdom to the cultivation of great loving-kindness
Alan highlights the practice of balancing earth and sky. The core of the practice is to develop a deepening sense of ease, relaxation and groundedness, while at the same time maintaining and accentua…
Fri 10 Oct 2014
84 How To Acquire The Stars Of Merit For Your Practice
In today’s session Alan talks about the importance of purification and accruing merit in order to proceed quickly along the path. The Sanskrit term for merit is punya, and it literally means power. I…
Thu 09 Oct 2014
83 Great Compassion - Unveiling All Layers Of Suffering
Whereas the Four Immeasurables are the best friends of Vipashyana in weakening the mental afflictions before wisdom finally gives them the rest, the Four Greats go much deeper, lifting the last veils…
Thu 09 Oct 2014
82 Scientific Materialism on its Deathbed, or the Scent of a Revolution
Alan reminds us that the text by Padmasambhava strikes one as religious and mystical if viewed from a eurocentric perspective. However, it is utterly important to acknowledge that while eurocentric c…
Wed 08 Oct 2014
81 Equanimity, or This Little Light of Mine
Once again we come back to the culmination of the 4 immeasurables: the cultivation of equanimity. By way of referring to the Dalai Lama as well as a Tibetan aphorism Alan emphasizes the importance of…
Wed 08 Oct 2014
80 Nothing on Which to Meditate
In his brief instructions before the silent meditation, Alan reminds us of the importance, before all else, of releasing control of the breath.
After the silent meditation session, Alan returns to h…
Tue 07 Oct 2014
79 Aspects of the Guru
Alan begins by emphasizing once again the importance in Dzogchen of the relationship between the student and the guru.
In Sravakayana practice the guru is regarded as an emissary of the Buddha. In M…
Tue 07 Oct 2014
78 External and Internal Space
Alan reminds us that the advanced practices of “not meditating on anything” (page 176, Natural Liberation) are intended for those who have already achieved Shamatha and the insights of Vipashyana, an…
Mon 06 Oct 2014
77 Compassion from the View of Pristine Awareness
Alan prefaces the meditation with his reflections on compassion being a hard sell to avowed materialists. If not sick or dying, cultivating your own hedonic pleasure seems a good bet. But materialist…
Mon 06 Oct 2014
76 The Transitional Process of Meditation
Alan starts the session commenting on the importance of the sense of community and supporting each other. Emphasizing this, he explains a story of Ananda to illustrate that having spiritual friends i…
Sat 04 Oct 2014
75 Meditation on compassion and the three types of suffering
This short podcast includes a meditation on compassion focusing on the three types of suffering: suffering of suffering, suffering of change and pervasive compounding suffering.
Meditation starts at…
Sat 04 Oct 2014
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