Fall 2013 Shamatha And The Bodhisattva Way Of Life

Today is the last day of the cycle of the Shamatha without a sign. Before the morning meditation, Alan reads instructions from Penchen Rinpoche, where he explains that whenever thoughts arise, when their nature is observed, they naturally disappear and a clear vacuity arises. So the technique to disperse the thoughts is to simply observe their nature (meaning: mental phenomena occurring in the space of the mind) when they arise. The goal is to view the mind as mind and to not mistake the appearances of mental phenomena for anything else; view thoughts as thoughts, mental events as mental events. By doing so, we disempower them and stop being victims of our thoughts (and other mental events). We need to become scientists of our minds: observe them, examine them, understand them. By doing so, we can realize both the empty nature of the mind and its luminosity. Both is stability and movement. Both the awareness and the space of the mind. Meditation stars at: 24:10