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Please read the text, A Spacious Path to Freedom: Practical Instructions on the Union of Mahamudra and Atiyoga, by the great 17th-century master Karma Chagmé (from the chapter “The Stage of Generation” up through “Mahamudra”). The book can be purchased from SBI here .

Participants in this retreat should have a sound understanding of the Sutrayana teachings of Mahayana Buddhism, and have experience in the practices of shamatha, the four applications of mindfulness, and the four immeasurables.

Welcome to podcast listeners joining the eight-week retreat. Alan explains the lineage of these teachings and the text, A Spacious Path to Freedom by Karma Chagme, which all retreaters are encouraged to obtain and consult. The function of any preliminary practice is to purify the mind and gather merit, and the fluctuations of the breath can be used to begin a progression of practices for training awareness to remain still in the middle of any activity. Meditation starts at 46:00 ___…

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Recalling that our lives could end any moment and the importance of ensuring the continuity of our practice into the next lifetime, take refuge and generate bodhicitta. The meditation explores the four questions of your heart’s desire, outer support, inner transformation, and your contribution to the world. If bodhicitta becomes a current underlying all desires, our practice between sessions on the cushion can help overcome our habitual reification of the world. Meditation starts at 4:59…

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Alan starts with a question - is the traffic noise a fortunate or unfortunate circumstance? Ultimately for the Vidyadhara, whatever appearances arise are displays of pristine awareness. Meditation is on awareness resting in its own place with 20% peripheral awareness of breathing. After meditation, Alan talks about how to get from here to enlightenment. Resting in the awareness of being cognizant, is marking the spot. Awareness is a glowing ember that melts right down to the substrate c…

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Alan begins by quoting Shantideva (Chapter 8 on meditation): “Those whose minds are distracted live within the fangs of mental afflictions.” He further comments that if we are ever to overcome the three mental afflictions of ignorance-delusion, craving-attachment, hatred-hostility, we need persistence during our entire lifetime, and if we have enthusiasm, the better. On the importance of silence, he adds that yogis have known for a long time that unnecessary speaking is detrimental to meditatio…

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Alan starts by commenting on Asanga’s teachings on Mindfulness of Breathing, comparing them with the Theravada approach. He adds that a major theme throughout all the Buddhist teachings is relaxation. In fact he points out that the Buddha has perfected relaxation: at that level, all activity is effortless. A tiny facsimile of this can be seen on the path to shamatha. In the first phase of shamatha, we need to relax without losing clarity. This first point is especially important for people livi…

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While maintaining relaxation with clarity in our practice of mindfulness of breathing, Alan encouraged us to cultivate a further emphasis of enhancing stability without losing one’s sense of ease. To achieve this, one of Vashubandu’s recommendations on technique in his six phases of mindfulness of breathing is to continually repeat counting from 1 to 10, with the count occurring on each inhalation. Do no more, nor less, and if one messes up, start again at one. However be playful with this tec…

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Alan began by reminding us that during the practice of Mindfulness of Breathing to just note sensations arising by surrendering all identification with them rather than identifying or claiming them. Shantideva was emphatic about developing an “I-it” relationship with all 84,000 catalogued mental afflictions. Alan quoted from one of his favourite Shantideva verses (Ch 3, v 11) "As a result of surrendering everything there is nirvana, and my mind seeks nirvana surrendering everything all at once.…

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A classic approach to mindfulness of breathing. Alan expands on the frequency of breathing when the body settles into the second phase… Attending to the breath I breathe in and out short. He discusses the frequency of the cycles of breathing and the volume in this phase and the scientifically demonstrated benefits to health and longevity. He also explains the visualisation for the devotional practice at the beginning. The meditation practice is mindfulness of the sensation of t…

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The five obscurations (like fixation on hedonic pleasure etc.) obscure what? Substrate Consciousness. A single pointed mind is a natural remedy for all of the obscurations. Just breathing in an out doesn’t trigger craving or aversion. If you can get over the hump of boredom, there’s a sequence leading to well being, then clarity and stability until the experience becomes blissful. That’s what gets you down the home stretch. That is the beauty of this method. The third and final point of…

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Alan begins with the concept of intuition, a type of knowing which is difficult to define. It is unlike empirical knowledge with is based on observations and inferences from these observations. Alan discusses intuition as it relates to rigpa. Shamatha can train intuition by quietening and clearing the mind allowing intuition to come through. The meditation is silent on the Mindfulness of Breathing. Following the meditation Alan elaborates on the cultivation of compassion. An important…

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Before the meditation Alan provides guidance on the mindfulness of breathing based on its natural rhythm. The central purpose of many of the advanced tantric practices is to bring the subtle energies into the central channel, to get our prana system into shape and achieve the mind of clear light. This is difficult within modernity due to our addiction to stimulation. The effortless route to untie the knots of the chakras is through mindfulness of breathing. The key to unblocking is to focus on…

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Prior to meditation Alan continued on the topic of Guru Yoga and addressed the question ‘Why regard the person who is the Guru as a Buddha?’ The purpose of this is to help us realise that we are also Buddhas. Our view of ourselves is based on our personal history which we reify. This is a deluded view of who/what we are, hiding our true nature. This reification of our ordinary selves makes it also difficult to view ourselves as a Buddha; the same perspective applied to a Guru will also make…

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Alan starts by addressing belief. It seems we might need a lot of belief before we can practise. He explains there are two approaches: 1. by way of the view 2. by way of mediation. We can therefore go into shamatha, vipashyana and Mahamudra using a secular approach with open-mindedness, investigating over time. From the experience of meditation one can then develop confidence and faith. He explains that when one develops genuine faith in a Guru it is transformative, intimate, personal and t…

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Discussion of the two aspects of visualization; the way it appears and the way it is apprehended. The appearance relates to how good your visualization is. It is apprehended by the sense of the actual presence of Guru Padmasambhava or the deity. Of the two, the sense of presence and purity are the most important. The prayers we do in the morning are the launching of the day. The day is then held and imbued with refuge and bodhicitta. Alan talks about the connection between low self est…

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The session starts with guided meditation on breathing. Begin with full body awareness, then awareness of the rise and fall of the breath at the abdomen and then move to the sensations at the nostrils. After the meditation, Alan discusses the advantages of each and when to choose which method. Alan reads from the Spacious Path of Freedom starting at chapter 2 - The Stage of Generation. From the causal vehicle, you are practicing as a human being and you are seeking the causes to take you t…

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Alan begins by commenting on the common theme of all sentient beings in Buddhism. In Buddhism, we hear about all sentient beings, not only the humankind. The concept is so vast, that it may become vague. So Alan once asked about this issue more than 40 years ago to his abbot back then, Gen Losang Gyatso, who replied that practically speaking, all sentient beings mean everyone you encounter in your mind and through your senses. Then Alan mentions that when it comes to cultivating compassion, our…

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Alan begins by commenting that Sunday is a time for our personal solitary retreat within the context of this community. He encourages us to strike a balance between structure and flexibility for the retreat schedule. The meditation for this session is silent. After the silent meditation, Alan gives some final comments on Mindfulness of Breathing, and he also mentions that when a practitioner achieves the fourth jhana, the breath stops completely, and one can remain there for hours or da…

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Alan wants our meditation practice this week to move on to settling the mind in its natural state. Alan cleverly quotes a famous intellectual (not revealed in these notes and hence no need for a spoiler alert! - listen to the podcast) to comment that shamatha practice is often viewed as an escape from reality or a withdrawal from dealing with suffering and its causes in the world. However one’s shamatha meditation practice doesn’t make a dent in our Kleshas. Dudjom Lingpaís text last week stres…

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For this silent meditation session, Alan asks us to initially practice mindfulness of breathing that cultivates ease and stillness, and then shift to settling the mind in its natural state and observe the “wind of thoughts” that come into the field of consciousness. He suggests we occasionally check the temporal and qualitative vividness of the mental events with a view to sharpening and enhancing vividness by detecting even more subtler events. Before the practice he asks us to experiment with…

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Alan explains the purpose of cultivating divine pride and merging our awareness with the mind of the guru. Divine pride is a fabrication, but a better one than we currently have. Low self esteem or high self esteem are both constructions. In this practice we “un-construct” the fabrication by melting it into emptiness, then we imagine our mind stream indivisible with the Buddha. This is the swift path but it’s slender and very subtle. We seek to dissolve not only the reified notion of self but…

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Alan started with some comments about sadhana practice and how NOT to see the deity. He then invited everyone to let go of their preconceptions and approach it as play, and see what happens. He explained that there are various doors to dharma and while some people gravitate to devotional practice, others revel in the intellectual power of dharma, or love Shamata and still others just want to be of service. The meditation is on Avalokitesvara, taken directly from the text on p.52. Foll…

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Alan introduces the meditation with a reminder of the benefits of the preliminary practices, namely building a sense of trust, the development of bodhicitta and enabling us to draw closer to the Dharmakaya to supplant our samsaric selves with something better, purer and non-reified. The meditation is on observing the appearances in the space of the mind. After the meditation, Alan expands further on Buddhist epistemology and in particular the dhatus of the six consciousnesses. Of the s…

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The session begins with the meditation on the Avalokitesvara sadhana, taken from pp.52-53 of the text. Alan starts on the theme that visualisation meditation is mostly a right brain practice but to engage in stage of generation practice we also need wisdom. We begin with the emptiness of self and extend to an understanding that the universe itself lacks inherent existence. The practice is counter to the scientific worldview which ignores the role of consciousness. Alan explains the Buddhist…

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The practices so far may seem separate but they are all inter-related. When settling the mind in its natural state we observe the space of the mind and what comes up within it in real time, trying not to get abducted by the content. We then move on to something more challenging, the mental afflictions, of which Alan focuses on Craving, hostility, ignorance/delusion. We become ensnared with our mental afflictions when they appear because we see them from an ordinary perspective; that is, we have…

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Before finishing the chapter Alan discusses the importance of building a sacred place of refuge which is not part of the external world. We take for real what we are attending to which, therefore, becomes empowered. Materialism is pressing in from all sides (entertainment, politics, etc.) and mental afflictions are not always regarded as so. By attending to this kind of external world we therefore empower it. If we keep reifying the outside world our practice will be difficult, so we need to do…

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We have been focusing on the mental events that arise in the mind, now is the time to focus on the space of the mind. Take a special interest in the space between mental events. Alan discusses the difference between an affirming negation and a non-affirming negation. He asks us to look at the space of the mind and determine which it is. During the meditation, Alan asks a number of questions about the space of the mind, color, shape, size etc. He asks us not to think about it intellectually…

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We take a brief break from shamatha with two vipashyana practices taught by Padmasambhava via Dudjom Lingpa in the Sharp Vajra of Consciousness Awareness. Probe into the body, speech and mind and determine which is primary. Alan discusses the 35 year period between 1875 and 1910 in which introspection was used to examine the phenomenon of the mind. This ended because many times the results were as hypothesized and there appeared to be a factor of “leading the witness”. The current scientific vi…

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Alan begins by addressing the differences between a complex negation and a simple negation. He also makes further comments on the qualities of the space of the mind, inviting us to look into our own experiences to see whether the qualities he proposes for investigation are true or not. The space of the mind is three-dimensional, transparent, devoid of shape. He also comments that we can see what appears in between, i.e. space. The intervening space between subjects and objects, and also between…

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Alan starts with a brief recap of the Buddha’s meditation advice for Bahiya. Alan invites us to come out of our imaginary realm that we call reality and to come to our senses in order to see what is manifestly appearing to our senses. Appearances do not exist in physical space, they do not exist in neurons (the brain is only chemicals and electricity). Awareness is the most indubitable reality we know. Alan says that there is no evidence he can present to persuade us that we are not conscious.…

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Alan begins with a brief summary to round off the last two weeks, highlighting the two pithy instructions in Dudjom Lingpa’s “The Sharp Vajra of Conscious Awareness Tantra” (excerpt in the Retreat Notes). These instructions are to examine the primary nature of mind being the “all-creating sovereign” and to examine its apparent properties being “objectless openness”. Alan then discusses the three ways for individuals of differing capacities to enter the path as given by Dudjom Lingpa’s clear…

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Before the meditation, Alan comments that shamatha practice includes going into “unexplored territory” resulting in eruptions in one’s environment, body and mind. To manage this, both Karma Chagme and Dudjom Lingpa in their own ways advise on the need to create sacred space by orienting one’s view with the preliminary practices discussed over the last two weeks including the Avalokiteshvara practice. The core armour against these eruptions is to be lucid in recognising the lack of inherent natu…

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Alan stresses how pure motivation is particularly important, as developing attention skills in itself is not Dharma. Motivation will determine whether the practice will lead to liberation. He quotes the 16th century philosopher of science, Francis Bacon, who urged his contemporaries to consider the “true ends of knowledge” and added two quotes from the founder of quantum mechanics, Max Planck, who said he regarded consciousness as fundamental and matter as derivative and that faith is a qua…

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Alan draws an intriguing parallel between the timing of the treasure trove of Buddhist teachings becoming available outside of Tibet in the latter part of the 20th century and the receptivity of a Eurocentric audience. Taking Finkelstein’s panoramic view of the history of science from Aristotle to quantum cosmology, he finds a profound resonance. He then compares that sequence to the tradition of monastic study in Tibet. The monks start their study of logic with the Sautantrika view, correspo…

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Meditation is on loving-kindness. After the meditation, Alan reminds us of the importance of viewing the preliminary practices as foundational to all our practice. They are not finished when the meditation ends but rather they should embue all that we do in daily life. Alan then provides advice on making the most out of our retreat experience. In particular we should see this as “prime time” for the creation of new habits and the reconstruction of our sense of self. He presents two modali…

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Before the meditation, Alan explains that the reason for teaching many different meditation techniques is to cater for individual preferences. The key test is whether the method results in ease, stability and clarity of awareness. The magic word is enjoyment not progress! The meditation is in two parts - to balance “earth and wind”. First is settling the mind in its natural state and then giving full attention to the space of the mind from this grounded state. After the meditation, Alan r…

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Alan begins the day relating something on BBC news which amused him and everyone else when he recalled it. The meditation was again on loving kindness. Alan explained that we use our imagination to increase vividness. By way of imagination we visualise ourselves as luminous, transparent. Loving kindness meditation begins with ourselves, then spreads to the people right next to us, then gradually increases further and further until all sentient beings are included. The spreading of loving kin…

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Alan begins the session with a guided meditation on Awareness of Awareness. Following this he comments further on the passage by Tsuglak Trengwa on p.67. It is possible to gain sufficient single pointed attention while in the desire realm to shatter the underlying assumptions of classical physics, so that the world becomes fundamentally different to how it is normally viewed. Tsuglak Trengwa states that it is possible to gain this and paranormal abilities, by getting close to achieving Sham…

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Skillful means divorced from wisdom is bondage and wisdom divorced from skillful means is bondage. Skillful means is the cultivation of relative Bodhicitta. For Bodhicitta to be meaningful it must be rooted in the four greats - loving kindness, compassion, empathetic joy and equanimity. The four greats are rooted in the four immeasurables but surpass them as they contain an intention which is more than an aspiration. To cultivate loving kindness, contemplate: Why couldn’t all sentient being…

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The symptom of an unbalanced mind is to feel ill at ease - dissatisfaction when there is no outside stimulus. Shamatha helps you balance the mind so that when you are sitting quietly your mind is ok. The meditation is on breathing with the vajra recitation - breathe in and think OM, at the pause think AH and when you exhale, think HUNG. After the meditation, Alan reads from the text - under the heading “The Cultivation of Attention”. He covers a variety of methods from staring at a flowe…

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Alan begins by commenting that in Buddhism there is no phrase for self-compassion. In our modern world, where low self-esteem is rampant, cultivating compassion starting with oneself is crucial. Alan also elaborates on the differences between compassion, pity and self-pity. Compassion is not an emotion, it is an aspiration, and for this aspiration to have power, it must be possible. Paraphrasing Shantideva, if we don’t know the benefits of bodhicitta for ourselves, how can we wish bodhicitta to…

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Alan starts by emphasising that in the stage of generation, knowing the emptiness of self and of phenomena is indispensable, and yet there have been many stories where simple tibetans, with hardly any understanding of madhyamaka but having deep faith, have visions of Tara, Chenrezig, etc., and get blessings from them. Alan continues by discussing an essay he is translating on madhyamaka, dzogchen and mahamudra. He then emphasises that how we are conceptually designating right now is up to us. W…

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Alan discusses the approach in the meditation chapter of Santideva’s A Guide to The Bodhisattva Way of Life which develops shamatha by boddhicitta. Meditating on the equality of self with others develops equal worthiness of all to be free from suffering, both self-directed and then extending outwards by opening the heart in all directions. Alan indicates that approaching shamata practice via this technique is another ingredient in the Dharma soup of our practice. In our Vajrayana practice invo…

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Alan humorously begins by suggesting that for the contemplative observatory we should develop a Star Trek style virtual reality game of combatting alien abductors and test it scientifically as a metaphor for the practice of shamatha in combatting thoughts. He refers to Mahasidda Maitripa’s instructions (text page 80) on shamatha without a sign by maintaining an absence of thought with a flow of cognizance. However for most of the time our practice is like the analogy of the duel between the swo…

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Cultivating compassion through meditation is not the only way. Alan introduces a way to remove the obstacles and simply unveil the well spring of compassion within, allowing it to manifest. He points to two expressions common in English which do not translate into Tibetan: guilt and forgiveness of oneself or others. Although these have meaning in English, he explains how they are rooted in the delusion of fusing the mental affliction, the action that comes from it and the person ensnared by t…

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Alan begins with a guided meditation which is a variation of Awareness of Awareness beginning with a visualization of Amitabha. Alan started reading from page 82 of the text elaborating on ‘ideation’, pointing out that through rumination, you lose your energy. Shamata by contrast is an ‘energy conservation project’. He briefly talked about the various traditions of Samadhi speculating that the lineage in Greece from Pythagoras, had possibly come via Egypt from an Indian sadhu. In the cont…

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Alan begins by explaining that great compassion is a unique feature of the Mahayana path. Great compassion is cultivated by transforming the aspiration for bodhicitta, through the four immeasurables, to the intention of bodhicitta. Great compassion takes the perspective of calling on our own buddha nature. Drawing on the well known prayer “Calling the Guru from Afar”, Alan suggests that the guru could also be seen as our pristine awareness or buddha nature and as we progress on the path the…

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In introducing vipashyana, Alan speaks about the importance of overcoming reification to gain insight into reality. The key point is that reification of self, others and objects is not homogenous but rather comes in waves. The meditation aimed at recognising the types of insight that we experience including when reification arises and when we get glimpses of reality such as emptiness. Alan informs us that settling the mind is a good launching pad for tipping over into Vipashyana practice as it…

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Alan introduces the third of the three immeasurables, great empathetic joy. This is essentially gladness or delight. Empathetic joy is something that is cultivated, the aim of which is to bring about an inversion or shift in attitude. It is revolutionary and Alan exemplifies by citing revolutions that have occurred in the scientific world, such as the theory of evolution or quantum mechanics, where, as a result, there was a complete shift in everything. Ordinary gladness is embedded in ‘I’ and…

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Alan begins by referring again to the two methods of Shamatha meditation whereby the attention can focus on an external object or inwardly on the mind. He explains a method used in the Theravada tradition where outward meditation leads to inward meditation and ultimately Shamatha. The same methods can be used in Vipashyana. When cultivating insight into the emptiness of the self one can focus on the tactile sensations that arise within the body and investigate thoroughly their origin. One can t…

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Alan starts the session with humorous comments regarding the emptiness of the names for groups of kangaroos. The meditation is on cultivating empathetic joy and gratitude by remembering the kindness others have given you across your life. How can we repay this kindness? After the meditation, Alan quotes Shantideva. Whoever Shantideva encountered, strangers, enemies, non-human sentient beings; he thought, it is in dependence upon you that I am able to practice dharma. In order to become a…

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Shamatha is enormously important yet profoundly inadequate. You must cross the continental divide from shamatha to vipashyana to enter a path, with shamatha alone you will eventually fall back. The meditation is Vipashyana. What do you see when you think “I”? After the meditation, Alan talks about the focus in the Pali Cannon of personal identitylessness without analysis of the world outside yourself. For Mahamudra, the big question to ask is that world really out there? Science assu…

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Alan begins by giving an explanation of the Refuge and Bodhicitta practices that we do in the morning sessions. The classic visualisation for taking refuge involves imagining Buddha Shakyamuni in front of you, with all the female sentient beings on your left and all the male sentient beings on your right. Alan also mentioned a story in which Kublai Khan asked one of his spiritual advisor, a Sakya lama, whether it would be good to make all his subjects in his empire Buddhists. The Sakya Lama rep…

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Alan starts by commenting that wherever the Buddhadharma has flourished (e.g. China, Japan, South-Est Asia, etc.), it has always been contemporary, in dialogue with what people believe to be true. Now we go back to the fundamental teachings. We all care about suffering. Anything out there can trigger suffering. Why do we suffer? These skandhas influenced by karmic kleshas are closely held. We identify with the body and mind as being either I or mine. So we have two strategies here: (1) we retre…

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Alan stresses that cultivating or unveiling the immeasurable of Equanimity is indispensable from the beginning for our shamatha practice. The development of meditative equipoise is applied to practicing Equanimity in attending to people and all other sentient beings whilst maintaining recognition of their differences. This allows a cutting through of the veil of appearances to the view of the equal worthiness of all to have happiness and its causes and be free of suffering and its causes. The p…

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Alan comments that as we now enter vipashyana practice, we are in new territory. Vipashyana in the context of Mahamudra is oriented towards liberation. This is the irreversible result of one’s path of expedition, with one of three destinations of becoming an arhat (a foe destroyer), a jina (a solitary victor) or a Buddha (a victor). The path selected for this retreat is that of all the jinas. But what is the strategy to be selected for how to get to the destination? Alan says the choice of stra…

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Alan returned to the cultivation and discovery of equanimity, as a practice that can be launched from settling the mind in its natural state. Appearances of people arise in our minds. Everything we know of someone else is in the space of our own awareness. So what’s the difference between those appearances and looking directly at someone in the room? And if that someone is ‘looking back’, who is that? The exchanges with two students that followed had everyone laughing. Alan then circled back…

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Alan referred back to the two routes to enlightenment outlined by Kagyu master Dakpo Tashi Namgyal, who recommended meditation first, then the view for those with dull minds. For those with sharp faculties, studying the views of the various schools, in particular the pinnacle view of the Prasangika school works well. Just by presenting consequences, the Prasangikas allow the opponent’s views to self destruct. Nothing withstands Nagarjuna’s analysis. The only thing left standing is the middle…

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Alan introduces the meditation with a quote from “Self and Non Self in Early Buddhism” by Pérez-Remón. This highlights Buddha’s teaching on becoming and non-becoming which are seen as the extremes of attachment and annihilation. By letting go of both we see the Real. In the bodhisattva path, the extremes of samsara and nirvana are abandoned and the result is non-abiding nirvana. Alan then discussed the Dzogchen perspective, where from the view of rigpa, there is equal purity in seeing samsara…

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The meditation is an investigation into the nature of the mind which Alan introduces as the prime strategy for fathoming the depths of our mind. To be effective this precise investigation should be preceded by settling the mind in its natural state and the realisation that by resting in non-conceptuality there emerges a certainty that nothing can harm the mind. However, the main side effects of this shamatha practice are the upheavals that occur as part of the process. These upheavals need to…

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Prior to meditation Alan reviews the progression of the teachings. We begin by opening the door to Dharma by creating authentic motivation, which, he points out, is not necessarily Buddhist. We move from this spirit of emergence to cultivating the four immeasurables through meditation, beginning with loving-kindness. This begins with ourselves, gradually ‘spreading the net’ wider to those around us and beyond. Subsequently we progress to the remaining three. We then develop the ‘Greats’, for ex…

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At the beginning of this session Alan returns to reviewing the progression of the meditations so far. Starting with Shamatha and the space of the mind, the meditations have been gradually built up, firstly by attending to the appearances in the space of the mind, then the emotions, then intervals between these and finally awareness itself. The practice is really being carried out when these are brought together as a whole, leading to the substrate if done long enough. Once the substrate is reve…

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Now that we have made a pledge, a promise to sentient beings to lead them to enlightenment, we need to come up with a plan for how to do so. It really is not practical until you are a Buddha. You must achieve enlightenment to carry through with this promise. If you wake up every morning with that resolve to achieve Buddhahood for the sake of all beings, that intention sets you on a trajectory so that each lifetime moves closer to fulfilling that intention. The most important thing is continu…

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For Mahamudra and Dzogchen, the one important thing is to understand the nature of your mind. We have been following the yogic approach to understanding your mind. To be fully qualified, to gain benefit from the Vipashyana questions we have been asking you must have achieved shamatha. When resting in the substrate consciousness, these questions can be used to break right through to rigpa. You are asking questions from the eight extremes of conceptualization to break through to pristine awaren…

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Alan begins by mentioning that the teachings offered here are given within the context of Vajrayana, and specifically of Mahamudra and Dzogchen. To get the greatest possible benefit from them, it is most valuable to dissolve all ordinary appearances (of oneself, the teacher, everything) into emptiness and out of emptiness create a sacred space, arise with divine pride, with pure vision of the teacher, etc. Alan also makes some comments on the practices of refuge, bodhicitta and the Seven-line p…

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Alan begins by commenting that we may need an exorcist to protect us, since our mind is a bad neighbourhood. He then quoted a citation from a text by Dudjom Rinpoche: “For other dharmas, the main practice is considered to be profound, but here we consider the preliminary practices to be profound.” He then discusses the four yogas of Mahamudra, the five paths according to sutrayana, and then he explains how Vajrayana is the swift path, thanks to the practices of guru yoga, divine pride, pure vis…

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Alan says for this morning’s meditation practice we will return to the cultivation or unveiling of the immeasurable of Loving Kindness. He indicates that Loving Kindness derives from the more basic drive or impulse of caring. We can’t stop caring, with the variation experienced in caring being a matter of the way we care and its extent. Alan then describes “small mindedness” where the space of the mind collapses down into a small volume when we are caught in a thought or fixated on a person or…

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Alan says this evening we will continue this morning’s meditation practice on caring in Loving Kindness by going further than the connate and affective biological constraints to now cognitively and attentionally expand the field of awareness. He notes that the Buddhist worldview is that consciousness is coextensive with caring. Alan conveys the oral transmission in Padmasambhava’s “The Natural Liberation of Conscious Awareness” regarding the meditation method of shamatha without a sign by alter…

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Alan returned to the meditation on loving kindness with a second question: what would we like to have in the best of all possible worlds? He painted a picture of a place where everyone is young and beautiful and sweet and virtuous, in a lovely environment - a deva realm, pointing out it would also mean total stagnation and you may as well be dead! He then recapped the explanation from yesterday of how samsara arises for a sentient being, a process culminating in designating and reifying the r…

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Having crossed from Shamatha to Vipashyana, Alan takes us out of the gravitational field to the non-meditation of Dzogchen - which entails not doing anything at all! As long as we activate the mind of a sentient being we are not a Buddha. There are four requirements: don’t do anything, don’t strive, don’t desire and don’t fix anything. Alan describes two approaches to identifying the mind. We can receive pointing out instructions from a qualified master, or we can just do the practice. He…

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Alan introduces the meditation on compassion by describing how the close application of mindfulness of our body and mind gives rise to a natural sense of caring and empathy. Through our imagination we can extend this to an understanding about the experiences of others. Alan talks about the power of our imagination and quotes from The Flight of the Garuda by Shabkar Tsokdruk Rangdrol who describes how samsara and nirvana are created in the second moment of consciousness through imaginative ignor…

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Alan provides a transmission of Padmasambhava’s pointing out instruction on the nature of the mind which is the meditation for this session. After the meditation, Alan highlights two ways of cutting through the structure of the mind. The first is like a bolt of lightning that can occur as a result of pointing out instructions from an accomplished master. The second is by returning again and again in meditation until it becomes clearer. This can also happen by reading a text or listening to a…

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This morning Alan provides the context of the empowerment due to be given on Sunday. He emphasises the importance of unveiling compassion, which is the root of all dharma and refers to the current situation in the Middle East. He points out that blatant suffering is reported in the news but the deeper suffering of change is not addressed. He discusses the delusion, and ensuing suffering, that occurs when holding on to a view that one considers supreme. However, by way of an explanation as to wh…

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Alan first continues with the text (p.111-115). The practice is not easy but its not complicated. The text repeatedly emphasises that rigpa transcends the intellect. It is ‘thatness’, not labelled and is inarticulate. Any of the verses referred to in the text can be considered as pointing out instructions, but Alan particularly focuses on those of Mahasiddha Maitripa who doesn’t mince words from the start. Alan explains that these verses are perfect and suggests, that, if we so wish, we could r…

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That which has ceased, exists as a causally effective entity; the past continues to produce effects. Likewise the future is also causally effective; possibilities can affect the present. We can change our past by making a different measurement, by selectively attending to aspects of our past. In Vajrayana, we take the fruition as the path and change our perspective. From Rigpa, past, present and future all exist at the same time yet this does not imply predetermination. Let your past influenc…

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Alan starts with a discussion of the present moment. The word present means nothing without something before and after. As you are descending into the substrate you are in the present moment. Invert your awareness in upon itself and may realize the emptiness of the present moment and cut through to viewing reality from Rigpa and the fourth time. The meditation starts with awareness of awareness, looks at the observer and then just rest without doing anything. After the meditation, Alan start…

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We now return to the fourth immeasurable, equanimity. This is the grand finale of the first three. It subsumes all of them, bringing them to the full flowering. The whole Dharma practice is to restore symmetry. Asymmetries involve having attachment towards “my side, my view, me, mine” vs. aversion towards the “other side, the other view, the other.” Here we cultivate even-heartedness, but differences are acknowledged, we are not blind to them. And then we go deep down till the level of Buddha N…

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Here we are running a fast-food café, and today we have a fresh dish: Balancing Earth & Space. When Padmasambhava says to observe your mind, you are doing something. The other approach is not doing anything at all. The meditation is on balancing Earth & Space. Start with Mindfulness of Breathing, with an emphasis of deepening relaxation while not losing the clarity with which you began, for the first half, and for the second half on space (non meditation). After meditation, Alan conclude…

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Alan returns to the theme of equanimity indicating that we do experience equanimity everyday but that it is contingent, short-lived and can develop complacency. Development of Shamatha practice is a form of equanimity but more stable. Think of anything that makes you happy in this life in the desire realm and imagine if you had that constantly – would you be satisfied? One soon discovers the source of genuine happiness is not to be found in the desire realm. Even the attainment of Shamatha, no…

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Alan says the text’s next chapter 6 “Practice” may be over our heads as it assumes we have broken through to Rigpa. Our practices to date should have ‘softened up’ our experience of mind and the previous chapter on “Identification”, or pointing-out instructions, should make it easier to cut through. Alan describes the view from the awareness of a lucid dream state as a parallel to the view from Rigpa of the mind. However, we can generate a facsimile of viewing this conventional reality from Rig…

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Alan starts by describing a vision he had from what he calls his ‘fantasy channel’ of the tar pit in Los Angeles where thousands of animals have died over millennia. He compares it to the black hole where the materialists are stuck, decaying, like Daniel Dennett, poster child of the neuroscientist community, who says qualia don’t exist. There are no appearances. Others claim there is no consciousness. Their black hole sucks in all meaning and joy of life and gives you nothing. That’s why we…

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After a brief musical interlude, Alan comes back to the Pali tradition, introducing us to Ajahn Po, an 82 year old Thai forest monk whose detailed explanation of the view naturally arising from his own experience corresponds to Mahamudra and Dzogchen. And all this from following the breath. So there’s a wide openness and a convergence from wherever you come with pure motivation. The great perfection is there. Meditation is on mindfulness of breathing and non-meditation – ground and space A…

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Before introducing the meditation, Alan highlights two important points for us to note regarding the previous day’s teachings. The first point is that a degree of discretion is required when disclosing Vajrayana and Dzogchen practices as they can be misinterpreted by those who are not “ripe” and don’t have a degree of purity. The second related point is that our perceptions are limited by the expectations we hold. When we see or hear an anomaly, we try to fit it into our expectations which can…

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Alan begins by saying that this will be a mellow session! Before the meditation on balancing wind and space, he extends briefly on the morning’s theme on how our conceptual frameworks determine what we observe and see. He quotes from Einstein and Niels Bohr. He explains further that once we label a phenomenon or idea, that “thing” becomes simultaneously illuminated and darkened. Alan then talks about our eternal longing for transcendence. Meditation practices such as vispashyana are designed…

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Alan begins this morning’s session by referring to self-emergent beings who experience spontaneous realisations due to having been highly realised in previous lives. Dudjom Lingpa, to whom he has made many references during this retreat, had no human teacher but received teachings directly from Padmasambhava. Within the Spacious Path to Freedom lineage, Karma Chagme had a mutual guru-disciple relationship with Min-gyur Rinpoche, whom he recognised as a reincarnation of Padmasambhava. Alan reca…

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Alan returns to the topic of rangjung, or self-emerging realisation. This seems to be a universal phenomenon, with no ownership of a particular religion. Alan points out that Wolff had no context within which to understand his experiences until he came across Dzogchen. He cites also the experiences of Jakob Böhme who was a Lutheran living in 16th and 17th centuries. Böhme continued to maintain his religion following his experiences and framed his understanding of them in the context of this. Al…

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Alan starts by talking about renunciation. Without the experience of suffering and mental afflictions, we wouldn’t develop renunciation or Bodhicitta. Stemming from the four greats, Bodhicitta is the intention to lead all sentient beings to liberation. This is the Buddhist higher calling and only makes sense when it comes from your own Buddha nature. Alan talks about tonglen and how even now that practice can have a very real effect on others. Each of us is unique. Each Buddha has the same…

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We start immediately with meditation. The meditation is mindfulness of breathing while viewing the body as a field of energy and breathing as fluctuations in the field. It ends with a brief period of non-meditation. After meditation, Alan returns to the text (pg. 144 or 1838 on the Kindle). The text offers many ways of saying, stop doing anything. There is a play between observing your own mind and returning to not doing anything. If anger or any mental affliction comes up, don’t go to th…

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Alan begins by making some comments on divine pride. Dissolve all ordinary appearances (of one’s own ordinary sense of self, and of everything) into emptiness and out of emptiness arise with pure vision and divine pride. It’s utter sublime surrender. Then Alan recalls the story of Milarepa, in which he offered everything to his guru, Marpa, even a lame goat. This is total relinquishment, and then a gift is received. Then Alan quotes Shantideva: “Surrendering everything is nirvana, and my mind s…

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We go directly into the meditation: Balancing Earth & Wind, culminating in non-meditation. Afterwards, Alan resumes the oral transmission and commentary of the Mahamudra chapter from p.156. In the commentary, Alan recalls a few stories about people dwelling in deep samadhi and he also makes more comments on shamatha practice and its early signs of progress along the nine stages. Alan points out that this great scholar, teacher and practitioner, Karma Chagme, after the chapters on stage of gene…

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Alan begins this morning’s meditation by asking us to initially imbue our practice with taking refuge, of Bodhichitta and our guru devotion, and permeate it with pristine awareness. Then release all appearances and simply rest in non-meditation. Following meditation practice, Alan comments we are choosing when taking refuge involving, among other matters, deciding which community, path, practice or method. However, if you can’t take refuge in yourself then how do you expect to find it in you…

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We go directly into the meditation on resting awareness with single pointed attention on the space of the mind. Alan resumes the oral transmission and commentary of the Mahamudra chapter from pages 161 to 165. He emphasises that Karma Chagme makes it clear he is focussed on Shamatha with its 9 stages mapped onto initial, intermediate and culmination metaphors of moving water. The first 3 stages are like a cascading waterfall. Then stage 4 Shamatha is the initial metaphor of a stream in a narro…

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Alan starts with a metaphor from the Pali Canon describing how, in the last month of the hot season when the dust is swirling, a great rain cloud comes and settles the dust just as the peaceful and sublime state of Samadhi disperses and quells unwholesome states of mind. He reminds us that it’s easy to think that when we venture into Vajrayana that we’re at a higher elevation than the teachings in the Pali canon, like the most common teaching on mindfulness of the breath. Dudjom Lingpa in…

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The meditation is a combination of earth, wind and space. Meditation starts straight away. After the meditation, Alan explains that when we see this chapter is called Mahamudra, we may think there will be something very special, but the author goes back to the preliminaries and spends most of the rest of the chapter reviewing Shamatha. His strong sense is that this is to prevent the practitioner from grasping onto non- meditation. This is a wake up call and that’s why he’s going back. He…

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The focus of the meditation is the dedication of our merits. This is relevant as we return to “ordinary” life at the conclusion of this retreat. Alan explains that from the Mahamudra and Dzogchen perspective, we seek to realise Dharmakaya from the ordinary consciousness of the present moment. Pristine awareness is to be found right in the present moment when there is no grasping; no hopes and fears. When we leave the retreat, how ordinary our lives become is dependent on our motivation and vie…

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Prior to the meditation, Alan’s final teaching on the text is commentary on pages 198 to 202 of the Dedication chapter. This includes the promise of Buddha Amitabha to take us to the pure realm of Sukhavati when we pray to take rebirth there. We can accept this as a true gift, otherwise we can simply pray for a precious human rebirth. After the meditation, Alan establishes a karmic connection with next year’s 8 week retreat by reading from Naked Awareness by Karma Chagme which will be the tex…

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End of retreat celebration :)

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