Alan Wallace Fall 2012 Retreat Podcast: Vipashyana, Four Applications Of Mindfulness

Alan comments that mindfulness of breathing and settling the mind are highly complementary. Mindfulness of breathing allows the prana system to settle and converge at the heart chakra which in turn allows the mind to settle. Settling the mind allows breath and prana to settle. In mindfulness of breathing, the breath can serve as the baseline. In settling the mind, the space of the mind can serve as the baseline.
In order for a shamatha retreat to bear fruit, it is also important to have as few activities as possible—i.e., dealing with people who are engaged with samsara. They will pull us out of shamatha, and we will be subject to the same samsaric oscillations. We need to be protected like a little baby in an incubator. Meditation: settling the mind. Let eyes be open, gaze vacant. Direct mindfulness to the space of the mind and whatever arises therein. If needed, maintain peripheral awareness of the breath. Relax deeply and fully, breathing effortlessly. Take special interest in the intervals b

In these practices focusing on the mind, it is useful to stabilise them with a reference point: 1) awareness resting in its own place as a subjective reference point or 2) space of the mind as an objective reference point. These practices counter the common belief that we think thoughts rather than thoughts just happen. Meditation: mindfulness of the mind. Release into the body, and release the body. Release into the breath, and release the breath. Release into the mind, and release the mind. As Shantideva said, “Release everything in an instant. That is nirvana.” 1) Release appearances, and let your awareness fold back onto itself, hold its own ground, rest in its own space. 2) With your eyes open, let the light of awareness illuminate the space of the mind. 3) Illuminate the entire system of your awareness and the space of the mind. Know when and where javana emerge, remain, and dissolve. Q1. In settling the mind, when I realise that I’m viewing the referent rather than the thought, I interv

Alan reminds us that closely holding the mind causes suffering. There are two methods which free us from this suffering 1) relative bodhicitta where we identify with all sentient beings and 2) absolute bodhicitta where we completely retract all the tentacles by withdrawing into the substrate and then rigpa. In this practice, we train in viewing mental events from the non-grasping, non-reactive perspective of substrate consciousness. Meditation: settling the mind with full body awareness as a prelude. Enter this and all meditation sessions in the spirit of loving-kindness for yourself and others.
1) full body awareness. With your eyes closed, contain awareness within the space of the body, observing sensations without distraction or grasping.
2) settling the mind. Let eyes be open, gaze vacant. Direct attention to the space of the mind and its contents. Rest awareness in stillness while observing movements of the mind.
In between sessions, allow thoughts to arise but maintain lucidity throughout the da

Teaching: Alan discusses causality and the relationship between cause and effect within the context of mindfulness of the mind. According to the Sautantrika, both cause and effect are considered real. According to William James, the relationship (relata) is also considered real. In order to perceive any causal relationship, you need to observe phenomena with a wide angle over time and connect the dots. 
When experiencing pleasure, enquire whether it is stimulus driven or not. Genuine happiness (sukkha) arises from the substrate when unimpeded. There are five obscurations which obscure the natural qualities of the substrate: 1) sensual craving, 2) ill will, 3) laxity/dullness, excitation/anxiety, 5) debilitating doubt. 
Unlike the 5 senses, there is no physical faculty corresponding to mental consciousness. In other words, mental consciousness arises from mental consciousness. All appearances arise from and manifest within the space of the mind (alaya). Meditation: mindfulness of the mind. Direc

For those having difficulties settling the mind, Alan proposes mindfulness of breathing as a useful prelude. Use each breath—and in particular, the out breath, especially the end of the out breath—to release any residual tension and relax the body totally. Make use of every out breath to relax more deeply and release any rumination. Core relaxation is a prerequisite to settling the mind. When practicing settling the mind, maintain peripheral awareness of the breath. Meditation: settling the mind with mindfulness of breathing as a prelude. 
1) mindfulness of breathing. Practice the mindfulness of breathing technique of your choice. If you detect any rumination, relax, release, and return.
2) settling the mind. Let eyes be open, gaze vacant. Direct attention to the space of the mind and its contents. Maintain peripheral awareness of the breath. Apply introspection to the quality of mindfulness and apply remedies as needed.
 Meditation starts at 3:03

This week, Alan embarks on the 3rd application of mindfulness to the mind. As a prerequisite for this practice, you must be able to distinguish between stillness and motion and maintain single-pointed mindfulness as cultivated in the shamatha practice of settling the mind. As a vipasyana practice, we observe from luminosity and cognizance origination and dissolution of a whole range of emotions and states of consciousness. An emotion like anger exists at the conscious, unconscious, and seed state. Meditation: mindfulness of the mind. Let you eyes be at least partially open, gaze vacant. Direct your attention to the domain not covered by the 5 senses. Ensure core sense of relaxation in both body and awareness. Distinguish stillness in awareness. Ask and observe closely 1) is there anything static or unchanging?, 2) how do mental events arise, how are they present, and how do they vanish? Apply introspection to the quality of mindfulness and apply remedies as needed. Q1. In my practice, I’ve experien

Some take to settling the mind easily, and others have a harder time. For the latter, start by focusing on mental images (without the soundtrack) which everyone can do, then the soundtrack alone, and mental images with the soundtrack. Among the 4 types of mindfulness, the first is called single-pointed mindfulness which means being simultaneously aware of the stillness of your own awareness and the movement of thoughts. Such mindfulness is accessed through deep relaxation.
In post-meditation, maintain a peripheral awareness of the breath or the space of the mind in order to cast a shield against rumination. Meditation: The Buddha’s instructions to Bahiya, including the mentally perceived. 
1) “In the seen, let there be just the seen.” Let your eyes be open. Direct mindfulness to the visual field without any add-ons.
2) “In the heard, let there be just the heard.” Close your eyes. Direct mindfulness to the auditory field.
3) “In the felt, let there be just the felt.” Keeping your eyes closed, direct

As the 4 applications of mindfulness bring us knowledge of our experience, the 4 immeasurables bring balance in our emotions. If feeling down, practice loving-kindness and not its near enemy attachment. If feeling disengaged, practice compassion which is an antidote to the near enemy cold indifference. Worldly life is characterized by restlessness and anxiety, and for genuine happiness and the achievement of shamatha, we need to gradually wean ourselves from the props of hedonic pleasures. Meditation: silent meditation of your choice. Q1. Could you please explain the terms substrate and substrate consciousness? Is the substrate consciousness something we can tap into now? Are their equivalent terms in the Gelug and Kagyu traditions?
Q2. Do we also experience the substrate if we fall asleep lucidly?
Q3. Does the tactile consciousness illuminate the body or does the mental consciousness? How does consciousness illuminate?
Q4. What is the object of substrate consciousness? Most of the description

Alan presents tips on dealing with subtlety in the shamatha practices.
1) mindfulness of breathing. The breath becomes increasingly subtle, and treat this an invitation to increase calm and clarity. Do not change the place you are attending to the breath. Rather, choose a baseline such as the nerve endings at the nostrils, and continue attending to the baseline and any fluctuations throughout the whole body of the breath.
2) settling the mind. When the space of the mind appears quiet, something is still there. It is just more subtle than your awareness. Again, choose a baseline such as the space of the mind, and attend to both the baseline and any fluctuations from there. The second of the 4 immeasurables, compassion is also an aspiration, not an emotion. Meditation: compassion. Visualize a white incandescent orb of light at your heart chakra filling the body with light. With each in breath, arouse the aspiration, “May I be free of all hedonic suffering—i.e., unpleasant.” Visualize all suffering as

Shamatha should serve as a baseline or a base camp. However, people have different affinities for the various shamatha practices. Focus on the space of the mind as backdrop and note the thoughts, images, and feelings which flare up. What are the feelings triggered by? Paul Ekman speaks of emotions, moods, and temperaments. Alan asks us to explore grasping as a possible cause for moods. Meditation: choice of mindfulness of breathing or settling the mind. If your mind wanders, stabilize by counting breaths. Apply mindfulness to feelings that arise. Q1. Introspective silence has led to social anxiety and awkwardness when dealing with others.
Q2. Settling the mind is easy to practice during sessions, but how to embody the practice—e.g., in social interactions with others?
Q3. The Prasangika Madhyamaka rejects the alaya vijnana as posited in the Cittamatra. Is this the alaya vijnana you’ve been talking about?
Q4. In settling the mind, I notice many thoughts driven by grasping. Why can I do about them

Just as in physics where matter in the universe may be considered crystallization of the energy in space, tactile sensations may be the congealing of energies in the space of the body and mental events may be crystallizations of energies in the space of the mind. It’s important to know stillness and movement in field of perception as well as stillness and movement of your own awareness. Examine whether feelings of pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral are absolutely or relatively so. Meditation: transition from full body awareness to settling the mind. 
1) full body awareness. Focus on the tactile sensations arising in the body. Identify your affective baseline (neutral) and note any fluctuations of pleasant or unpleasant. Simply observe both tactile sensations and feelings moment by moment without distraction or grasping. 
2) settling the mind. Let your eyes be open, with gaze resting vacantly. Turn the full force of your mindfulness to the space of the mind (thoughts and images) and the subjective exp

Alan elaborates on settling the mind in its natural state. While developing the 3 qualities of shamatha, we are observing external appearances and the (relative) dharmadhatu dissolve into the substrate and our mind (subjective mental events) dissolve into substrate consciousness from the perspective of the substrate or our best approximation thereof. The substrate is the repository of our karma and travels from lifetime to lifetime. Shamatha is sufficient to give us access to the substrate. Meditation: mindfulness of feelings. Let your eyes be open, and rest your gaze vacantly in the space before you. Single-pointedly direct your mindfulness to the space of the mind, resting awareness without distraction and without grasping. If necessary, identify the space of the mind by giving yourself a target—e.g., a discursive thought or a mental image. Introspection checks for rumination, but rather than banishing thoughts, release grasping at the referent. Also, be aware of feelings, including neutral (e.g.

Settling the mind in its natural state is the shamatha practice corresponding the applications of mindfulness on feelings and the mind. This practice itself lies on the cusp between shamatha and vipasyana, but it’s presented within the mahamudra and dzogchen traditions as a shamatha practice for dissolving the coarse mind into the substrate. Awareness of thoughts and emotions frees us from being trapped by our minds and facilitates wiser choices in our behavior. A Tibetan saying goes like this, “When you’re with others, watch your mouth. When you’re alone, watch your mind.” Meditation: settling the mind. Eyes at least partially open, with gaze resting vacantly. Turn the full force of your interest and mindfulness to the mental domain and the thoughts, images, and emotions arising therein. If you’re new to this practice or when you’re feeling spaced out or disoriented, give yourself a distinct mental target such as the sentence, “This is the mind,” focus single-pointedly on that thought, allow the thou

Teaching: This practice shines a bright light on feelings by attending to feelings internally (our own), externally (someone else’s), and both internally and externally (in ourself and others in interaction). Alan introduces an alternative translation for a key line in the Sattipathana sutta. Instead of the common translation “One views the body in the body,” Alan proposes the following based on the Tibetan “One views the body as the body. One views feelings as feelings. One views the mind as the mind.” 
Mental consciousness is unique because in addition to its own domain, it can also piggyback on each of the 5 sense consciousnesses. We must learn that mental feelings are not enslaved by physical sensations. During the practice, we should know that we know feelings as feelings until the insight shifts our view of reality. Meditation: mindfulness of feelings. Let the light of awareness permeate the body. Keeping in touch with the breath as baseline, closely apply mindfulness to the feelings associ

Meditation: transition from mindfulness of breathing with full body awareness to settling the mind. 
1) mindfulness of breathing with full body awareness: Feel the beginning of the in breath at the lower abdomen and let it flow from the bottom up. Let awareness illuminate the space of the whole body. Maintain non-conceptual flow of mindfulness of non-conceptual sensations associated with the in and out breaths, monitoring that mindfulness with introspection.
2) settling the mind: Eyes at least partially open, with absent gaze. As an anchor, maintain a general awareness of the breath. As the main practice, direct interest and awareness to the space of the mind and the thoughts and images arising therein. Simply observe the nature of thoughts and not their content. Don’t modify or grasp. Your awareness should be still while thoughts are in motion. 
There should be a deep sense of relaxation in both the body and awareness. Breathe through either the nostrils or the mouth as desired. Meditation star

Teaching: This practice of mindfulness on feelings using the space of the body is a nice prelude the settling the mind where we attend to the space of the mind. As in the latter, we need to distinguish between stillness and movement—i.e., the stillness of awareness and the movement of sensations or thoughts. Loose, present, and luminous, awareness can remain still if there is no grasping or preference. If we can release desire and aversion, appearances are just appearances. Meditation: mindfulness of feelings. Let awareness clearly illuminate the space of the body, in particular the tactile sensations associated with the 4 elements. Closely apply mindfulness to the affective ways you experience those tactile sensations—i.e., 1) pleasant, 2) unpleasant, or 3) neutral. Examine whether pleasant/unpleasant is intrinsic to the experience or whether it is our mode of experiencing. Is feeling static and unchanging? Is the magnitude of feeling instrinsic to the feeling itself? Exercise: Visualize the pa

Alan uses rats as an analogy for thoughts. When a cat (mindfulness) is present, rats (thoughts) stay away. During the bubonic plague, rats (thoughts) carried fleas (disturbing emotions) which carried the bacterial infection (e.g., depression or anxiety). Therefore, we need to treat rumination as public enemy #1. According to Tsongkhapa, we must complete eliminate rumination in order to achieve shamatha. Meditation: mindfulness of breathing method of your choice. For each breath cycle, arouse attention at in breath to counter laxity, and relax at out breath to counter excitation. In this way, refine your attention and dispel rumination. Breathe effortlesly as in deep sleep. Meditation starts: 9:27

Teaching pt1: Alan introduces the new cycle with the 2nd application of mindfulness on feelings. Feelings (Skt. vedana) refer to 1) like/pleasant, 2) dislike/unpleasant, or 3) neutral. Although feelings could be considered part of the mind, feelings get their own application and their own skandha due to their primacy. Feelings arise in reaction to 1) too much, 2) too little, or 3) wrong kind of the 4 elements. 
The hedonic response to feelings is to want pleasant feelings to stay and unpleasant feelings to go away. In this practice, we are learning to look at pleasure and pain with interest and recognition—i.e., without moving towards or backing away. Feeling arise in space, and awareness is like space. Meditation: mindfulness of feelings. Let awareness permeate the field of the body and maintain an ongoing flow of mindfulness of sensations associated with the breath. Take special interest in feelings associated with those tactile sensations of the 4 elements. Examine whether pleasant/unpleasant is

Teaching: A new cycle begins this week on mindfulness of feelings. When feelings arise, there is a strong tendency for us to grasp onto them as I or mine. Therefore, we need to learn how to release grasping and identification with feelings and remain simply present with them. As for release, Alan emphasizes the importance of learning how to breathe properly. Without proper breathing, it’s difficult for our meditation to progress, since the prana system is central to body/mind. Proper breathing is a skill we need to learn and master. Alan suggests that we first master breathing in the supine position before moving to the sitting position. Meditation: mindfulness of breathing method of your choice. Balance vigilance with relaxation. Let the body breathe naturally. Don’t manipulate the breath by expelling out or pulling in. Get out of the way by releasing all control of and any preferences with regard to the breath. With every out breath, release (bodily tension and rumination) more deeply. The out

Alan gives a brief introduction to the 4 immeasurables. Whereas shamatha and vipassana attend to reality that is already manifest, the 4 immeasurables concern the realm of possibility and aspiration. Meditation: loving-kindness. Begin with the aspiration for yourself by asking, “What would make you truly happy?” Visualize your own awareness as a white orb at your heart chakra, and with every out breath, light fills your entire with the aspiration “May I find happiness and the causes of happiness.” Light flows outwards and repeat visualization, attending to 1) a loved one, 2) another person, and 3) all sentient beings. Meditation starts at 4:02