Fall 2014 Shamatha, Vipashyana, Dream Yoga

19 The Relative Nature of Awareness

Padmasambhava’s first vipashyana meditation is found on page 115 of Natural Liberation. Alan invites those listening to hear these words as the actual speech of Padmasamb

18 From shamatha to vipashana

aka: An insiders approach to understanding reality Alan continues teaching from the text, beginning with the preface before heading into the meditation and the gentle tr

17 Merging mind with space

This session begins with the 7 line prayer of Padmasmbhava and on into the meditation. Alan clarifies the two excerpts he discussed yesterday from ‘The Vajra Essence’,

16 Culmination of Shamatha without a Sign. Releasing mind into space.

In this session we are finishing off the instructions of Padmasambhava. Alan goes right into meditation and the central theme is releasing the mind into space. After the

15 Luminosity of awareness

Alan gives advice on the practice of meditation regarding what to do when the mind feels so cluttered and agitated and how to overcome negativity. He emphasizes the impor

14 Awareness of Awareness or Warming Up for the Marathon

In this meditation we send the awareness out into space, starting with the space above, then to the right, to the left and downwards. This method of shamatha without a s

13 Continuing Probing into the Agent or the Art of Bending a Rainbow

We continue with yesterdays practice of Awareness of Awareness enriched with the probing into the agent of that which is inverting and releasing the awareness. The theme

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

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 could

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

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 meditatio

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, psycho

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 fait

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 i

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 Praye

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 pra

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 pa

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”. A

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 follo

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 Liberati