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

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