Alan Wallace Live from Phuket! – Details, episodes & analysis

http://podcasts.sbinstitute.com/Spring2010/Phuket_Spring_2010_Archive/Media/Ep-197.m4aThis afternoon may be the last podcast episode of Alan's lectures for this retreat. He started by returning to the hypothesis of saying that if we align ourselves with reality, reality will rise up to meet us. That is, if we devote ourselves with our heart and might to the path of Dharma (the word Dharma means reality, by the way), with a clear and strong motivation, all that we truly need rises up to meet us in a friendly way. He also talks about really understanding Dharma, and about transmuting everything that comes up in life into part of the path. Alan uses an analogy back from Dharamsala in '72, with the Dalai Lama's physician, to support the point that everything can be transformed into medicine with enough wisdom. He then talks about his personal experience with this radical hypothesis and way of viewing the world, showing that it has held true for him. It is important to note that you need to have the wisdom to see this, and it does not mean that your life will become nice and fluffy.

Before going into the practice, he explains how we can integrate Equanimity and Loving Kindness into a non dual meditation, and explains a beautiful method which we then practice.

After the meditation, Alan goes back briefly to the subject of Karma and its intricate mysteries. He relates this to the case of the Chinese invasion of Tibet, and then goes to explain in what way "blessings" can enter our stream of conciousness and transmute karma. All of this is from the Buddhist point of view. We also get the remainder of Milarepa's story from yesterday, which shows a clear example of transforming Karma. To further illustrate this point we go into a story of one of Atisha's top diciples.

Before ending, we have a question from Ricardo et al., simply stating "Has Anyone from the Shamatha Projects Achieved Shamatha?" Alan talks about his students, their status, the problems they have encountered, and like a master weaver manages to integrate this with the topic of Karma and clearing obscurations. All in all a very motivating answer if you were having these doubts.

Well, I guess this may be it! I may upload one more episode from the retreat, but if not I will send some other things in a few weeks. I have some audio from Klaus, but I am simply out of time right now and the next weeks will be crazy. In any case, thank you for joining us so far. It has been a pleasure providing these podcasts for you, and my heart's motivation is that you will benefit from them and therefore benefit others around you.
May all sentient beings flourish!

http://podcasts.sbinstitute.com/Spring2010/Phuket_Spring_2010_Archive/Media/Ep-103.m4aI know, I am quite the dramatic with my titles :)
With a bittersweet feeling we have come to the last group practice of Shamatha for this retreat. To end majestically, we practiced the fourth method of Shamatha without a sign as taught by Padmasambhava. Preceding the practice, Alan shared some tips of what we can do to practice and ground ourselves in the midst of a flurry of activity around us. He first returned to his analogy of Schooner (Boat)/ Submarine/Jet Plane in relationship with the Shamatha practices, and then he shared one more drop of wisdom in the form of a brand new practice for us, combining Breath Awareness with Awareness of Awareness to create a deeply soothing yet vivid and engaged practice.

After the meditation, Alan suggests keeping the attention engaged with something real in between thoughts and everyday, and finished by sharing a brilliant Tibetan aphorism to keep us out of trouble:
"When you are alone, watch your mind. When you are with others, watch your mouth."

This beautiful starry picture is a still from David.

http://podcasts.sbinstitute.com/Spring2010/Phuket_Spring_2010_Archive/Media/Ep-94.m4aYes, this is an ambitious title but as always the podcast episode does not fail to deliver the goods. However, I really won't even try to summarize all of Buddhist Philosophy in two paragraphs. I know I always say that but really, this time there is just no point and not enough space for me to do that. However, I will give you a few things :)

The lecture started with what to do when we encounter strong negative emotions, attitudes, and mental states after the retreat, and this was weaved with a question about the relationship of Chitamattra and Dzogchen. Instead of giving a brief conceptual comparison, Alan rolls back and looks at a sequence of ways of viewing reality, fully engaged with a way of practice. He works with Sanskrit-language based schools: Vaibhashika, Sautrantika, Chittamatra, and Madhyamaka, and ends with a brief overview of The Great Perfection (Dzogchen).

Alan makes this very relevant regardless of personal interest in Buddhism, and clearly explains the ways of viewing the physical, appearances, systems of measurement, qualia, references, perception, the mind, awareness, "what do you really know," and just all of reality from evolving points of view. Somewhere in the middle, there is a brief detour into the "lack of competition" that resulted in materialism taking over the mind sciences. I will honestly say that I do not consider myself well-versed in Buddhist philosophy, and this episode was extremely enlightening and helped me clearly understand the different views of the Indian Buddhist schools, culminating in the beauty of the Dzogchen view.

So that's all you'll get from me! I very highly recommend this episode.

http://podcasts.sbinstitute.com/Spring2010/Phuket_Spring_2010_Archive/Media/Ep-7.m4aThis afternoon we went straight into a practice of empathetic joy, followed by a reflection on guilt, remorse, and how empathetic joy (mudita) can affect our deeds. Afterwards there is just a short Q&A section because a large part of it was extracted for the next episode of the podcast.

The picture is of yesterday's beautiful sunset right outside the teaching hall!

http://podcasts.sbinstitute.com/Spring2010/Phuket_Spring_2010_Archive/Media/Ep-4.m4aA brief preface to the practice of Shamatha Without a Sign as taught by Padmasambhava, followed by a 24 minute practice and some commentary on the practice as well as some tips as to how to maintain mindfulness throughout the day. As a bonus, we get the first taste of Alan’s fluent Tibetan with the addition of our newest Sangha member: Mugi from Mongolia!

Please enjoy this sublime practice as we did!

This sky photo was also provided by Malcolm, and I think it fits this practice very well!

http://podcasts.sbinstitute.com/Spring2010/Phuket_Spring_2010_Archive/Media/Ep-3.m4aThis afternoon lecture was about one very important but often overlooked aspect of the four immeasurables: Empathetic Joy. It starts with a very precise, relevant, and bright introduction about the guilt, self-loathing, and low self esteem that plagues modernity and the west. Afterwards there is a 24 minute meditation on equanimity, focused mainly on the Phuket retreatants but relevant anywhere in the world. To finish, there is a long Q&A session with many practical questions that have come up during the personal meditations.

This full moon picture was also provided by Malcolm!

http://podcasts.sbinstitute.com/Spring2010/Phuket_Spring_2010_Archive/Media/Ep-2.m4aIn this Morning Session, we practice Settling the Mind in its Natural State with an emphasis on observing the spaces in between thoughts and the "background" of the mind rather than the foreground and the thoughts.
Alan starts with a brief introduction, followed by the practice, and an outro regarding sensory distractions such as noises.

Another artistic shot by Malcolm.

Enjoy!

http://podcasts.sbinstitute.com/Spring2010/Phuket_Spring_2010_Archive/Media/Ep-1.m4aIn this afternoon session, Alan Wallace gives a brief introduction to the wisdom aspect of compassion, followed by the practice, some reflexions, and a Q&A session mostly focused on attachment.

This great photo was provided by Malcolm!

Please enjoy as we did!

http://podcasts.sbinstitute.com/Spring2010/Phuket_Spring_2010_Archive/Media/Ep-93.m4aFor this short bonus episode, I extracted a question that Elizabeth said was maybe unanswerable, about the very beginning of ignorance and delusion (and samsara for that matter). But we all know by now that Alan always has something up his sleeve.

He starts by talking about the problems that can arise when we misniterpret the Buddhist view that "samsara is beginningless". Infinite past lifes would mean infinite chances to achieve Bodhicitta, to go into meditation retreat for 60 years, to achieve enlightenment, etc, which would mean that we probably failed an infinite number of times. Not very motivating! So Alan gives a very sharp and amazing answer to this "unanswerable" question, which is both completely aligned with the Buddhist notion of a beginningless samsara and extremely logical, drawing from everyday examples such as thinking and dreaming. To illustrate his explanation, Alan draws on a short parable from the book "Naked Awareness" by Karma Chagme (although in the recording you will hear him say it was from "A Spacious Path to Freedom," which is actually the prequel... He made the correction later in the day).

In the last 5 minutes, we go into the question of the "end of samsara," where Alan quotes H.H. Dalai Lama and then he ends by sharing a laughter-filled question he made back in Dharamsala about how the last sentient being can achieve enlightenment. I just laughed out loud again listening to it to write the desription.

This much more flattering picture of last week's rainbow was provided by Rosa - thank you!

http://podcasts.sbinstitute.com/Spring2010/Phuket_Spring_2010_Archive/Media/Ep-92.m4aIn this afternoon practice, we focused not so much on the blatant form of suffering as we did yesterday, but on the underlying causes. In the introduction, Alan reflects on how little we really know about suffering in modernity, and how we build our hapiness on very weak foundations of delusion, attachment, and craving. Even if we have good luck and we are hedonically happy, the foundation of that happiness is just a time bomb, and sooner or later it will go off and we will suffer.

In this meditation, we experiment with cultivating compassion first for ourselves, freeing ourselves of attachment and craving. These afflictions are terribly deceiving, because they seem pleasant, get us hooked, and never fail to dissapoint. As always, we then expand this yearning to include all beings, and keep breaking down the barriers for our Four Immesaurables.

After the meditation Alan pulled one of his amazing acts and and brilliantly summarized pretty much all of Buddhist philosophy in 45 minutes. I took this out and it will be the seasoning for tomorrow's sunday Bonus.

This still was given to me by David Cherniack (expect more great stills from him in this last week), and it sort of looks like the mirages that appear on pavement sometimes. They look like water, but when you get closer they never fail to dissapear. (Yes I know that the still is actually real water from our monsoon here, just trying to be imaginative!)