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
12 Awareness of Awareness: The Practice of Not-Doing
After the meditation Alan elaborates on the practice of awareness of awareness, which is unique in the sense that the first phase does not require any effort - quite the contrary! Instead of trying t…
Thu 28 Aug 2014
11 Awareness of Awareness
After The Seven Line Prayer of Padmasambhava we jump right into meditation. We continue practicing awareness of awareness.
Due to technical problems, however, Alan couldn’t give his talk after the m…
Thu 28 Aug 2014
10 Introduction to Shamatha Without a Sign
Alan encourages those following the retreat through the podcasts to obtain a copy of his translation of Natural Liberation, our text for the remainder of the retreat. The meditation that Alan guided …
Wed 27 Aug 2014
09 Transferring Consciousness to a Buddhafield
We conclude the teachings on the transitional phase of living from the Vajra Essence with a meditation found in the text and a commentary on it. We practice the meditation as an exercise of prospecti…
Wed 27 Aug 2014
08 Nyam, nyam, nyam
The Tibeten term ‘nyam’ has no similar term in English. It is a class of experience that is part of the journey. Alan described a nyam as “an anomalous, transient, psychosomatic experience that is c…
Tue 26 Aug 2014
07 Faith and taboo
As an introduction to approaching devotional practice and practicing with meaning, Alan talks of how faith in Buddhism differs from both western/Christian faith, and faith in science. He gives examp…
Tue 26 Aug 2014
06 Mindfulness of Breathing
Alan starts off talking about shamatha as a contemplative technology. It is about making the mind serviceable and refining our mental awareness. Shamatha is healing and it becomes a path to exception…
Mon 25 Aug 2014
05 Mindfulness of Breathing
Due to technical problems we apologize for the sound quality in the first eight minutes.
Alan invites us to start each morning with the recitation of The Seven Line Prayer of Padmasambhava as a preli…
Mon 25 Aug 2014
04 The Culmination of Mindfulness of Breathing
It is crucial for our progress to be able to distinguish the qualitative difference between the clarity of substrate consciousness and the lucidity of rigpa.
In the practice of Mindfulness of Breat…
Sat 23 Aug 2014
03 Continuing Mindfulness of Breathing
This morning Alan:
- asked for volunteers in an experiment over the retreat period
- gave the oral transmission of the 7 line prayer of Padmasambhava (that will become part of the practice from tomor…
Sat 23 Aug 2014
02 Mindfulness of Breathing
The meditation was Mindfulness of Breathing with a literal interpretation on the theme from the Pali canon “When breathing in long one knows that one breathes in long”.
Alan starts by reading from Du…
Fri 22 Aug 2014
01 Settling the Body, Speech and Mind in its Natural State
Alan starts off by giving a meditation on settling the body, speech and mind in its natural state. He then elaborates on practices of mindfulness of breathing which follows three steps in the Therava…
Fri 22 Aug 2014
00 Welcome and Introduction to the retreat
Welcome to Thanyapura Fall 2014 retreat.
This session outlined what will be covered in the retreat. The teachings are based on two texts: Padmasambhavas Natural Liberation, and excerpts from Dudjom…
Thu 21 Aug 2014
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