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

Teaching: Awareness of awareness is the most subtle and profound of all the shamatha practices. From the dzogchen perspective, we suffer because 1) we grasp onto that which is not I and mine as being I and mine and 2) we fail to recognize who we are. Normally, we grasp at gross manifestations of body and mind as being I and mine. Shamatha takes us past all that down to the substrate. From there, there are two paths: 1) break through the substrate to rigpa or 2) realize the empty nature of the substrate. 
In short, we probe the nature of everything we thought we were and were ours in order to totally release grasping. Just as we must first know the conventional nature of mind in order to realize the ultimate nature of mind, we must first find the substrate in order to break through to rigpa. This is the direct path. Meditation: awareness of awareness. Let eyes be open, and rest gaze evenly. For a while, just be present, without doing anything or focusing on any object. Be aware of what’s left over,