Alan Wallace Shamatha Teachings Fall 2010

This evening Alan leads us into the practice of compassion by attending to the 3rd and deepest dimension of suffering and its causes, completing the process of merging wisdom and compassion. After the meditation session, Alan answers 3 very important and very practical questions: one dealing with the ‘vase breathing,’ which can be applied in the practice of “settling the mind in its natural state” and in “awareness of awareness;” the second dealing with how to distinguish between observing the space of the mind when nothing arises in it, and awareness of awareness itself; and the third dealing with how to progress most efficiently while practicing mindfulness of breathing.

In this session Alan gives a short explanation on the modern neurocentric view which sustains that mental events are either equal to the brain, emergent properties of the brain or mere functions of it. He encourages us to observe mental events with an empiric–centric view, a spirit of inquiry and first person experience. We then meditated on settling the mind in its natural state with a special emphasis on observing carefully the space from which mental events arise, take place and dissolve back.

Session 10: Compassion and the Five Obscurations

Session 09: Deepening the Practice of Settling the Mind

Session 08: Intro to Compassion

Session 07: Intro to Settling the Mind in its Natural State

Session 06: Dreaming Big in our Loving Kindness Practice

Session 05: Mindfulness of Breathing, Apertures of the Nostrils

Session 04: Expanding the Circle of Loving Kindness

Session 03: Mindfulness of Breathing, Abdomen

Session 02: Intro to Loving Kindness